Welcome to CafeMom's monthly series, Work It, Mama, where powerful moms detail how they navigate their professions and home life.
We are excited to feature Joy Cho ā graphic designer, author, and founder of the lifestyle brand Oh Joy! ā as our first Mama of the summer! Itās through Joy's company and creative partnerships with brands such as Target and Keds and most recently her collection with Bounty, which launches on July 1 at Samās Club, that she showcases her beautiful and colorful aesthetic.
Joyās recent cover spread in Domino magazine, and her Insta page (where she's followed by 425k diehards), offers a glimpse into her creative studio, which she built next to her home.
Tropical wallpaper paired with hues like turquoise, mustard yellow, peach, lavender, and gold set the tone throughout her studio and in her work. The color palette is both sophisticated and playful, which works well when designing for both adults and kiddos.
As a mompreneur with two little girls who are both younger than 10, Joy knows what itās like to jockey things to create a comfortable work-life balance. Here, she shares how she gets through her to-do list, when she carves out quality time to hang with her girls, and what she does to recharge.
Joy's day begins bright and early.
"On a normal average workday weekday, I get up around 6:15 a.m., 6:20 a.m. The kids now have their own alarm clock, which is a new thing for us in the last couple months, so I don't usually have to go into their room to wake them up anymore, which is amazing," Joy tells CafeMom.
"My husband or I, we let our puppy out to go potty and then I go and make breakfast. I sort of do breakfast duty in the morning and get lunch boxes packed, backpacks packed and all that stuff while everybody's kind of slowly making their way downstairs.
"My husband normally does the morning (school) drop-off and I do the afternoon (pickup). After he takes the kids, I get ready for the day. I typically get into my office, which is next door to my house."
The close quarters of Joy's home and studio have been ideal.
"I get over here roughly 8:30 a.m, 8:45 a.m. I'm pretty much here for most of the day, minus a little lunch break and a little puppy walk break, and then I end my day at least in the office, roughly around 2:30 p.m., 2:45 to go pick up the kids," Joy says.
"It's a much more relaxed pace of a day than what I used to have when I was in a separate office. It's not a full eight-hour day, but one of the things that I learned in the last year was that when I was home with kids ā Zoom school and having to sort of bounce around the house and figure out helping them while trying to get back to my computer ā you figure how to get so much done with very limited resources and time."
Joy shares her new time management tricks.
"Now that I have what feels like unlimited time and with almost full attention and nobody needing my help with anything on Zoom, I can get stuff done really quickly," she details.
"So, I realized I don't have to sit on a computer for eight hours straight a day. I'm really taking it as an opportunity to see how much you can really get done when you have the time. I own my own business so it's not like the day ever ends at set times."
Because she's the boss ...
"After school I can be with (my daughters). Either hang out with them, give them a snack, and then while they're chilling, I can do my last round of emails and work before dinner," she says.
"After that, I try not to work, which is a new thing for me because I used to work every evening after they went to bed. Now I really try to let it wait for the next morning."
And she's even finding solid ways to carve out time for herself and focus on her own mental health.
Like so many of us, Joy had to change a few things when she became a mom.
Recognizing her "ability to ask for help" was a big shift for Joy. "If you're used to being the person who can just get everything done and you're used to go, go, go, once you've become a mom, you realize you can't do it all yourself. It's impossible," she admits.
So she's learned to share the load and encourages other moms to do so as well. "Whether that's leaning more into communication with your partner and making sure that you guys are both understanding what everybody needs ā or also (your) team and staff or childcare. Leaning into that help is so important."
Joy has some words to live by.
"I have this really short thing that I'll say to people or tell, whether it's about business, life, whatever: You be you," she asserts. "I think with the comparisons out there and the ability to compare ourselves to other people, other moms, other business owners, whatever it might be, especially with social media being so easy to access, it's so easy to compare ourselves to what other people are doing and make ourselves feel inferior.
"I just think it's about remembering that what you have to offer, what you are bringing to your family, job, company, friends, or your relationship. It's a constant work in progress, I know, but try to really focus on what you're doing and not worry about other people or their opinions."
Growth, Joy adds, is often about getting to know ourselves better. "Some people see growth as expanding, but growth is also just better understanding what it is you need and being able to assess how to get there in every area of your life."
