Business Systems for Work-Life Harmony with Amy Pierre-Russo

Can you close your laptop at the end of the day without worrying about what’s left undone? Nika joins work-life harmony strategist Amy Pierre-Russo to explore how women business owners can create more freedom through intentional systems, routines, and support.

Learn how to identify recurring sources of stress, build business systems before you desperately need them, and move from reacting to requests to planning clear next steps. Amy also shares why reconnecting with your goals and building supportive relationships can create space for your business and the people you love.

If you’re juggling clients, motherhood, and an endless to-do list, this conversation offers practical ways to ease the pressure, navigate guilt, and build a business that supports your life as it changes.

Connect with Amy: https://www.coachingwamy.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coachingw_amy/

Amy's free guide, “5 Ways to Create More Harmony in Business”: https://6186-hello.systeme.io/2a856334

Transcript

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Nika Lawrie (00:00.96)
Amy Pierre Russo, welcome to the show. I'm so grateful to have you here today.

Amy Pierre-Russo (00:05.175)
Nika, I'm so excited to be on and really looking forward to the conversation.

Nika Lawrie (00:09.458)
Absolutely. Me too. I am really excited to get into a lot of the stuff we talked about because I think we have kind of a similar focus that like work-life balance and really thinking about you know, how to take care of ourselves while doing you know, all of our business pieces too. Before we get into that, so I know you work as a work-life harmony strategist. Can you tell me for somebody who's brand new, what does that work actually include and why do you focus on harmony instead of balance?

Amy Pierre-Russo (00:39.213)
Yeah, absolutely. I think for everyone, people are like, What is that exactly? It's not something yeah, it's not something that really existed before. But I have a background in HR and then I went into life and leadership coaching where I was working mostly with small business owners. So because everything was so much of a focus on work, business at the epicenter of everything.

Nika Lawrie (00:44.99)
Yeah.

Amy Pierre-Russo (01:05.035)
I noticed over time that what was going on in people's real lives outside of their work, outside of their business, had so much impact on how they could show up, be present, engage in their work. And so work-life harmony is really my expression of being able to embrace your actual lifestyle that you're creating. especially if you're a mom, you're, you know, have aging parents, like you have different responsibilities.

relying on you. I never call it work-life balance because even just that visual of like the scale being off balance, I think is stressful. So I noticed for my clients it was making them like feel like they were doing something wrong. If everything wasn't perfectly balanced. Harmony on the other

Nika Lawrie (01:44.205)
Yes.

Amy Pierre-Russo (01:57.331)
on the other hand, allowed them to just plan for those times in life that are gonna come up where things are ebbing and flowing.

Nika Lawrie (02:05.92)
Mm-hmm. I love that. I think, you know, so often you think about some seasons of your life, your family or your person life's gonna need a little bit more time and focus. And then other times you have more to invest into your business, your career, and really understanding that it kind of ebbs and flows is so key to just feeling good overall.

Amy Pierre-Russo (02:27.373)
Yeah. And I think it helps to plan like be proactive with a plan because you're thinking about it on the front end and like thinking, Okay, like a day is gonna come up where my kid is sick and just like, you know, creating a strategy that works for that.

Nika Lawrie (02:43.854)
I love that you said that because that was actually gonna be my next question. Is how do we start to think about, especially for like female entrepreneurs who are maybe managing it all, right? How do we start to build strategies in that help us find that harmony? especially for those who are more, you know, just fly by the seat of their pants, just trying to get everything done. How do we start building in some strategies to help kind of manage things a little better?

Amy Pierre-Russo (02:51.085)
Mm.

Amy Pierre-Russo (03:10.403)
Yeah, such a good question that I could completely, you know, geek out on.

Nika Lawrie (03:14.69)
Go for it. It's your interview, so

Amy Pierre-Russo (03:18.797)
Absolutely. So I think that the starting point it really does start with getting clarity on your goals, your intention, why you're doing what you're doing, like all of those traditional I think a lot of coaches would like say that's the starting point. But the thing is to really make sure that it's n it it's not an afterthought. I think that a lot of times we can just kind of get into these modes of like putting our heads down.

feeling like we are doing what we have to do or what we should do. So really like replacing some of that early on with no, wait a minute, like what am I building? why am I building it? What do my clients want? Like, you know, being so in tune with your strengths and the delivery side, like what your clients what problem are you really solving? I think sometimes the longer you're in business, the more disconnected you can get from that. And

Nika Lawrie (04:14.903)
Absolutely.

Amy Pierre-Russo (04:16.204)
Yeah. And so just really being able to look at those things first and then put in pieces. Like what are the systems, what are the structures that you have in place to make sure that you're not just doing things one time, but to actually make sure that they're consistent. So w look at those things like that stress you out at night, that you're thinking about even when you're supposed to be present for family time. Is it a follow up note that you are supposed to send? Is it you know,

a proposal that you're supposed to to email, like whatever it is, like where can automation better support you? Where can you pull in, you know, creating systems and structures to alleviate some of those things one like pattern at a time?

Nika Lawrie (05:01.614)
Mm-hmm. What are some of the signs that you see in somebody who's maybe not running their business in harmony? Right. Like what are they maybe have you know, they're scattered, they feel stressed. Like what are the things that you tend to see in your clients when they come to you first before building out those systems?

Amy Pierre-Russo (05:20.022)
Yeah. If I were to put it in a nutshell, I would say it's being reactive. At the end of the day, it's like, you know, you're doing when people are asking you for something, when people are like reaching out to you, when somebody sends you a referral, like you are always reacting and carrying out, you know, the ask or the next steps.

Nika Lawrie (05:25.431)
Mm-hmm.

Amy Pierre-Russo (05:42.649)
But you're not proactively taking charge and guiding people on this is how you work with me, this is what I do, like really mapping out, like this is the next step. and so I think that this comes up so often, especially for people who like a common thing is someone will redo their website, and they've put so much time and energy and and emphasis on that project that they didn't fully think.

Brew, what happens now? You're attracting all of these new people, a audience that's really connecting to your work you're doing now. And what are the next steps to engaging with them? How will like do is it clear to them what the next steps are? and so I think just like more thought and intentionality on in moving in a more proactive direction.

Nika Lawrie (06:34.702)
Absolutely. So thinking about that, it made it made me think of a thing that I struggled with. I used to work as a development director and doing a lot of events for a large nonprofit. And I remember being at a conference once and they were giving us all these ideas and telling us to build out these strategies and all these things. And I kept just feeling like, when am I supposed to find the time to do all of this when I'm just treading water? I'm just trying to keep my head above the water.

Amy Pierre-Russo (06:46.306)
Mm.

Amy Pierre-Russo (06:59.18)
Yeah.

Nika Lawrie (07:03.192)
So for somebody who feels like they want to build the better systems, they know they need to, but they just don't even know how to find the time to do it or where to start. What recommendations do you have for them? How can they slow down to figure out how to build the systems?

Amy Pierre-Russo (07:19.35)
Yeah, I think it's such a good point because the way I describe a lot of the work I do with clients is it is really taking a kind of like a step back in a way in order to take a step forward, and setting yourself up for future success. So I think for a lot of people, like you're right, they're coming to me, they're already overwhelmed, they're already in these like burnout patterns. And so needing to like actively disrupt that can mean

Nika Lawrie (07:31.374)
Mm-hmm.

Nika Lawrie (07:43.106)
Yeah.

Amy Pierre-Russo (07:49.867)
So many different things depending on your personality type. For a lot of people, it's not always leveraging what you're already doing or leveraging the potential people around you the support in order to be more effective. And so that can look like I I think we tend to silo the different parts of our lives. And so, for example, a lot of business coaches, it's like you're focused on your business, you're only talking about that.

The reason it's so important to me to incorporate those other parts of your life is realistically for a lot of us, you may need to, if you're working on a big work project, have people at home take on more. If if you don't have a partner, it might be establishing a carpool with some other parents, it might be getting the the groceries delivered through a certain season, like finding these like tiny ways.

to pull time from one sector of your life and bring it into your business when you need. And like we talked about that ebb and flow, like and vice versa. You might need to like dial down in your business when home requires it. And so just thinking about that way, an example that comes up, I worked with a mom who

was kind of having these like dead zones of time where she would drop her kid off at karate practice and it was like not enough time to go home and come back, not like it didn't make sense. And it was like this ambiguous amount of time. So we created like a really clear plan, a follow-up plan, outreach, proactively reaching out to your past clients, engaging them, checking in like what this is what you're doing with that hour. And it was really well spent.

So by the time she got home after practice, she was actually able to sh close out her computer, like be present, enjoy the rest of the evening, knowing that some of those loose items that she would typically go home and tend to were taken care of. So sometimes just the intentionality with even smaller pockets of time can make a really big difference.

Nika Lawrie (09:52.939)
Absolutely. I I know that was a big shift for me was figuring out how to use those same kind of things, you know, waiting in the car line, the car pickup line to get my daughter, those kind of things, and starting to figure out how I can like deliberately schedule projects, like mini projects into those time periods to knock them out and to reduce that stress. I I think that was a huge lesson for me. I love I'm I'm relating a lot to what you're saying because I think

Amy Pierre-Russo (10:01.121)
Mm-hmm.

Nika Lawrie (10:21.066)
One of the things that I'm really trying to teach is healthy entrepreneurship and helping the women build the business from the inside out, right? So we look at our health and our our physical health, our mental health, our our the load we're carrying, all those pieces and really learning to bring, you know, both your business and your health and your life together, right? It's it's one unit opposed to having all these separate pack like pockets of stuff that you work through each day.

Amy Pierre-Russo (10:24.908)
Mm.

Amy Pierre-Russo (10:49.803)
Yeah. And it's so funny that this is now being something like we talk about more because I think of these different parts as the foundation for every like you can't run an effective business if you're falling apart. And so I love the way you describe that.

Nika Lawrie (10:57.461)
Yeah.

Nika Lawrie (11:01.364)
Exactly. Yeah, a hundred percent agree. And I think one of the reasons why I wanted to start building this piece was because I saw that gap. I saw, you know, the coaching industry see so many just focus on the business side and nobody was focusing on the pieces we're talking about, right? It's like the woman needs

Amy Pierre-Russo (11:16.396)
Mm-hmm.

Nika Lawrie (11:22.37)
you know, the good energy and the fo the clarity and not having the anxiety and fear that's holding them back from doing something scary that will move their business forward, right? You really have to have all those pieces together in order to be successful. So I love what you're doing. I fully relate to it. Yeah. thank you. Yeah. When you think about the mental load that business owners are managing, can you

Amy Pierre-Russo (11:39.117)
Thank you so much. Same to you, absolutely.

Amy Pierre-Russo (11:51.287)
Mm.

Nika Lawrie (11:51.747)
give a couple like quick resources or ideas on how to reduce that mental load so that then they can start go focus on building the systems or, you know, organize their their tasks, those kind of things.

Amy Pierre-Russo (12:02.658)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. When I sit down and especially those early conversations with a founder, it's usually looking for what comes naturally to you. and it it sounds so simple, but I think a lot of times we hear business advice, we hear business strategies that worked for someone and we try to copy paste them into our own lives and when their life, their responsibilities look completely different from ours.

it can just feel at odds. There's you're building off of a foundation of so much unnecessary tension and stress. So for example, if someone is really relational and they like love going out to events and like meeting people and things like that, those can sometimes be the people where maybe the follow through isn't systematized yet. But we still have a lot to play with and to work off of maybe you can create your own event and like

That is the proactive element of like, okay, once a month you're gonna do this, you're gonna host this, and be guiding people on, okay, like this is the next step. That way, as you're out meeting people at different events, you have this, and on the 15th of every month, you know, this is what I do, you know, come come meet with me there. So just kind of like playing into your strengths and what comes naturally to you.

as opposed to trying to like fit into some mold that you think needs to work for for you. I I try to work in a space of as as little friction as possible.

Nika Lawrie (13:36.162)
Mm-hmm.

Nika Lawrie (13:41.87)
What does it look like when a client comes in, you know, y you can give like a hypothetical story, but kind of start to finish, what does that transformation look like?

Amy Pierre-Russo (13:51.626)
Yeah. So I try to make sure that things feel as bite-sized as possible. We're not coming in like tackling everything all at once, but really having a a baseline understanding what's working, what's not, what's feeling like it's it's more tension than it really needs to be. so just like that like clarity of where you are, where you want to go, what the goal is.

are the initial conversation is the initial conversation. And then from there, there's a corresponding guidebook that goes along with our strategic coaching and with any like systems that we design or build out because I want people to have reflective space and guiding prompts to be able to think deeply about all of the elements of their like full life, what they're what they're working towards in different areas of their life.

and so the guidebook kind of helps so that they're never like on their own and just like wondering what the next step is, but like moving them through to that ideal version so that we're really clear on what we're building. and so that way we are able to think about their ideal version, the ideal for their clients, and really moves in in synergy to create that through the systems, bite-sized pieces at a time. So usually starting with like a clean CRM.

Email nurture sequences that align with how you're meeting people, start there and then we can start talking about things like building out a community, having testimonials like systematize how they're coming through case studies, all all sorts of exciting things like that that leverage what you're already doing.

Nika Lawrie (15:36.117)
somebody I I was thinking about our la our conversation just a moment ago about you know feeling comfortable as a mother to take the space to do everything right and then have the space to actually care for yourself too and and my point of this is moms so often feel guilt to take space to care for themselves right or to have the time to just

Amy Pierre-Russo (15:48.108)
Mm.

Nika Lawrie (16:04.92)
Have the mental clarity to do everything. And a lot of times they struggle to hire somebody that would help them a coach, right? That would help them fix all these things that they're struggling with. How would you share with a mother or woman who might be struggling with this feeling of guilt, of wanting to take the time to care for themselves or wanting to invest in themselves by hiring somebody like you? How do they overcome that feeling of guilt?

Amy Pierre-Russo (16:06.956)
Mm.

Amy Pierre-Russo (16:10.452)
Mm.

Amy Pierre-Russo (16:22.964)
Mm.

Amy Pierre-Russo (16:35.233)
Yeah. The weight of that question and just like when you think about all the guilt. No, I I it it's good because I think we all feel it and we all deal with that. And so when you're confronted with that, one thing I love to ask people is how do you feel when you continue operating the way you are? Unsupported, potentially like isolated, trying to figure it out on your own, multitasking a lot.

Nika Lawrie (16:38.604)
Sorry.

Nika Lawrie (16:43.49)
Mm-hmm.

Amy Pierre-Russo (17:02.828)
And just feeling like you have to figure it all out on your own. I it always makes me think of when I think of like mom guilt especially, it always makes me think of the study that was done, the Good Samaritan study that was done y like in the 70s and and they worked with a group of people who were in a theology program, but they sent

different groups out and they were just seeing like if someone who's really distressed come like is in need of help and you are in a rush, you need to get across campus, like really quick, like you're in a rush, what does that look like? And they had these different groups where basically like it dwindles how many people stop, but for the for the sample group of people who are in the biggest rush the least amount of time, they're back to back to back.

Only ten percent of those people stop and this is in the seventies before it was like we have the cell phones, we have the notifications, we're on a call, we're like we're even more distracted. And so when I think of that study and I think of mom guilt, it always makes me think like how do you actually show up in the world? Who is around you that you're not noticing, who has a need? It can be your clients, it can be like your you know, colleagues,

Nika Lawrie (18:22.711)
Mm.

Amy Pierre-Russo (18:28.224)
professional, but it can also be like your kids in the doorway seeming like they need to talk and like and the thing is for the percentage to be so low. I think there's a percentage we like didn't even notice this person. You're so in your own and that's what stands out to me is like sometimes we're so inter like we're just our heads are down. We're hustling through we gotta get to this next thing. And so to remind yourself to create expansiveness

of who you are but also of your time to create freedom and reminding moms that it only helps you show up as a better version of yourself.

Nika Lawrie (19:07.636)
Absolutely. I know. I mean, I can attest to that. I know I had building built a different business for years and I was go, go, go, hustle, hustle, hustle, while still being a mother to a young child. And, you know, my husband's in the Air Force, so he works all the time. So it was, you know, primarily on me to be the parent. And I burnt out. And my my, you know, I was still there for my daughter, but I wasn't the parent that I wanted to be for my daughter.

Amy Pierre-Russo (19:17.877)
Mm-hmm.

Amy Pierre-Russo (19:21.377)
Mm.

Amy Pierre-Russo (19:30.54)
Mm.

Nika Lawrie (19:37.475)
Was still building the business, but it wasn't clear and focused and moving forward, right? And it wasn't until I decided to just take care of myself for a while that everything else started to get better. And I think it's almost if we could shift that for women, where you feel the guilt about not taking care of yourself because you show up so much better for.

Amy Pierre-Russo (19:47.094)
Mm.

Amy Pierre-Russo (19:55.051)
Mm-hmm.

Nika Lawrie (20:01.514)
everything and everyone when you feel good and when you're taken care of and when your mental space is in a good place. So I I love I remember that study. I think, you know, it was so key to people who felt good about themselves and were in a good space did so much more to be kind to other people. Yeah.

Amy Pierre-Russo (20:20.118)
Yeah. Yeah. I love that you share that, especially about your own burnout experience, because I think even burnout can be so overused these days. But when people realize the the true impact, it can take step re the research says even takes months to years to recover from burnout. So it's not just like this quick thing that we gloss over. It like we really need to think about the impact that it has to let ourselves get to that point.

Nika Lawrie (20:30.754)
Yeah.

Nika Lawrie (20:39.74)
yeah.

Nika Lawrie (20:50.06)
Yeah, it it took me years to recover from all of the the lack of energy and the emotions and all of those pieces. And so yeah, I I've never

Amy Pierre-Russo (20:52.533)
Yeah.

Nika Lawrie (21:04.728)
Going through it, you don't want to talk about it. But once you go to the other side, you understand how important it is to talk about it so that other women, you know, coming into it or going through it understand that they're not alone and that there is light on the other side and that they can get that support to help, you know, start to feel better. I know we're kind of getting to the dark side of things, but I think it's it's you know, it's so important to share that, especially in the work that we're doing to really try to help these

Amy Pierre-Russo (21:07.467)
Yeah.

Amy Pierre-Russo (21:12.235)
Yeah.

Amy Pierre-Russo (21:32.396)
Mm-hmm.

Nika Lawrie (21:33.686)
individuals, you know, grow these amazing businesses or have a really great career and then also have the life that they love and cherish too. Yeah.

Amy Pierre-Russo (21:43.466)
Yeah. And I think it does take the spotlight of the like what's not working, like what's wrong with the path that you might be on. Because ultimately, like so many business owners say they start their business for more freedom, for more flexibility. And so we do have to think about like how do we disrupt this cycle that we like find ourselves in if that's not what we intended to build through our businesses in the first place.

Nika Lawrie (21:58.7)
Exactly.

Nika Lawrie (22:09.964)
Yeah, and feeling okay that you can walk away from things if it ends up not being the right fit and start somewhere else too. I think that's a big piece too, is that, you know, the making shifts or you know, letting go. Maybe you start one piece of your business and that's the piece that's burning you out. It's okay to let that piece go to then focus on everything else that's bringing you that joy and that freedom and that you know, that's not burning you out, if that makes sense. Yeah.

Amy Pierre-Russo (22:14.303)
Mm-hmm.

Amy Pierre-Russo (22:19.083)
Mm.

Amy Pierre-Russo (22:22.827)
Mm.

Amy Pierre-Russo (22:30.687)
Mm.

Amy Pierre-Russo (22:38.601)
Yeah. Yeah.

Nika Lawrie (22:40.664)
Yeah. Tell me part of this too, I think, when it think when we think about harmony is utilizing the people in our lives. So utilizing friends and family or a support system to help us you know, manage the maybe the hard piece pieces of our business or have somebody to turn to. How do you utilize that when you work with your clients to think about building this harmony in their life?

Amy Pierre-Russo (22:49.087)
Mm.

Amy Pierre-Russo (23:07.795)
Yeah. just to comment on the last part of what you said too, because I I think it's so important, like the time for reflection is what I'm hearing. Because I think some people, yeah, we get into this busyness, like, okay, next quarter, next like next season, we're always looking to what's next without creating enough time and prioritizing reflecting what we just went through, reflecting, rewarding ourselves for what we've just accomplished.

Nika Lawrie (23:18.029)
Yes.

Amy Pierre-Russo (23:35.613)
So that we can revise where needed and like iterate on things and maybe let go of what's not serving us anymore. but to get to your question about like the community elements and like building up those supports, honestly, I think like everything is centered around the relationships, around building strong relationships, quality relationships.

And for me it's just like really core to the philosophy of how I think about not just navigating business, but honestly navigating life. And so, when they did that like eighty three year Harvard study, like following people and figuring out what what ultimately leads to quality life. it really is those

relationships that was the number one thing, and so you know, higher than anything, it truly matters, and I think we lose sight of that, especially these days where you can be online, you can be working from home, and it can be easier to be isolated if you allow it that if you allow that to be the case. For a lot of the people I work with, I find that

the alignment is such an important thing. If you keep showing up in spaces that are kind of default, like you're hanging out with your kids' parents because they're there, or your partner's coworkers, or do like out of proximity, just like the neighbors, and you keep falling into these convenience routines.

You can feel really like, I can't share what I'm working on, I can't share my business, nobody else is a business, or like all of these different things and and end up feeling more and more isolated, even though you're in in front of people technically. So I think that's so important. We're we're paying attention to like

Nika Lawrie (25:22.814)
Absolutely.

Nika Lawrie (25:26.722)
Yeah.

Amy Pierre-Russo (25:31.229)
What are the relationships you need? Do you have other business owner friends, other business owners who are also moms or also like dealing going through divorce, like whatever the stage of life you find yourself in? Do you have those relationships to carry you through? And part of the reason I think that's so important is because then you're able to share your goals, your visions, and like

truly be supported like then people can say my gosh like I know someone with that podcast like you should be on this you should connect with that person and it's like the true support that I feel like is really what's lacking when you have these like convenience relationships that there can sometimes lack depth.

Nika Lawrie (26:15.016)
I man, I hundred percent agree with I'll I'll say two things too is when I I used to live in New York City and Los Angeles and you know, two of the largest cities in the world, right? And I felt so isolated there. I felt so lonely, so separated from everybody. And you're just watching these big lives go by, right? And you're just like trying to figure it out. But when I've lived in smaller cities, like I live in New Mexico now, which is

Amy Pierre-Russo (26:27.7)
Mm.

Nika Lawrie (26:42.754)
You know, we have a couple big cities, but it's fairly rural. But I feel I have so many friends and connections and they're deep and like mutual relationships. And I think when you understand the community aspect of things and you start connecting with people on that deeper level, it really changes things for sure. And then I lost my train of thought. There was something else at the end I wanted to share with you that you had said, but I can't remember. Sorry.

Yeah, it will. Anyways, I'll ask you a question since I can't remember. when people approach you to start working with you, what usually are like the the deciding factors for you to decide if this is the right fit, if it makes sense for them? what do you look for in that client?

Amy Pierre-Russo (27:12.967)
It'll come back. I hope it comes back.

Amy Pierre-Russo (27:36.329)
Yeah. So usually when someone's deciding to work with me, i I look for making sure that their offer is validated or they've been in business long enough that I I don't want it to feel like an investment that someone's not ready for. Because yeah, the last thing I want to do is work with someone too early on.

Nika Lawrie (27:52.225)
Mm-hmm.

Amy Pierre-Russo (27:57.717)
Where they're still iterating and like experimenting in their business. They might have a lot of like changes early on. And so I want to make sure that what we're building together is truly supportive for something that's, you know, validated. It's we're building something that you can grow with, and that you really have enough information to to know those pieces. I think that that's a really big one, and then also just

li like w willing to commit, willing to like really be in the work and even though it it it can take some time to like unravel the lifestyle that you want and think about all of these different parts of your life, like be willing to go there and then confront that so that we can design something that's truly supportive.

Nika Lawrie (28:47.234)
I I love that. I think it's really key to I think so often people start building something and then I was talking to somebody else on a different podcast about finding the shiny thing and then they go this direction and then that direction. And I know I've been guilty of that definitely. So it's like figuring out that person that's really ready to take that next step so that you're not rebuilding over and over and over again. I think that's so important. Yeah.

Amy Pierre-Russo (28:58.985)
Mm-hmm.

Amy Pierre-Russo (29:09.556)
Yeah.

Amy Pierre-Russo (29:14.12)
Yeah. And I think it helps you show up better for your people in turn as well. So thinking about your audience, like once you really have that clarity, you know what you're inviting people into, you know what the next steps are. It kind of creates just that like lightness where you always have like again, like that proactive, like, okay, like and this is, you know, an option. This might be supportive, like you you know your audience so well.

And going back to those strong relationships, I think these days, especially like with AI, with you know, mm increased mistrust, it becomes so important that we have these real relationships, real ways of connecting, community spaces, like all sorts of elements where you get to show who you are and really build genuine connection.

Nika Lawrie (30:07.278)
Absolutely. Amy, I've loved our conversation today. I want to ask you before we end, what is the biggest takeaway you would like our listener to have from this conversation? Like if there's one thing you want them to remember and maybe implement in their own lives, what would that be?

Amy Pierre-Russo (30:26.954)
Yeah. The biggest takeaway I would say is I hope that as we talked through examples, using that hour in the car intentionally, building relationships based on the ways that are natural to you, that you you feel most connected to, like kind of like folding in systems gradually, things like that. I hope that people really do understand that you

This isn't about you doing more. I've been in coaching programs where it felt like a lot was being thrown at me, like do this, do this, this is the next like checklist and all of this like added thing added work to my plate. And the reality is, or at least with my approach, it's not about you doing a bunch more. It's about you leveraging what you're already doing.

Nika Lawrie (31:20.438)
Absolutely. And just calming yourself down enough to be able to do it, right? Yeah.

Amy Pierre-Russo (31:26.428)
Yeah. Absolutely. Having like that the the thought partnership, the like that like so you're not doing it alone.

Nika Lawrie (31:33.396)
Absolutely. So before we end, I know you have a free guide. Can you tell us a little bit about the free guide? And I'll include the link in the show notes, but I want to make sure people know all the goodies that are in it.

Amy Pierre-Russo (31:45.982)
Yeah, absolutely. So I did want to leave the audience with five ways to create more harmony in your business. I just think, you know, based on this conversation and everything we're talking about, it's reflective prompts, it's things that you consider, moving you towards just like small gradual changes that you can be making to just invite more work-life harmony into your life and approach things in a more simple and aligned way.

so I do hope that that resource is helpful and maybe something to hold on to as well, so that if you're doing those like quarterly reflections or things like that, you use that as one of the the reference points.

Nika Lawrie (32:28.18)
Absolutely. Again, I'll make sure it's in the show notes so everybody can access it. And then where can people find you online, learn from you, connect with you, all that good stuff?

Amy Pierre-Russo (32:37.576)
Yeah, absolutely. So on LinkedIn we're most active, it's Amy Pierre Russo. and on Instagram it's coaching W underscore Amy. Coaching W underscore Amy. and I do have a YouTube channel as well, and that's just Hustle to Harmony.

Nika Lawrie (32:56.078)
Perfect. I'll put those in the show notes too, just to make it easy. Awesome. Well, Amy, I am super grateful for you coming on, sharing your advice with me and with the listeners. I I appreciate you and I want to commend you for the work you're doing. I think it's really, really important. I think so many of us, you know, struggle kind of silently to ourselves, right? And we don't need to. And there's support out there and there's people helping you, you know, do the work. And so I I really hope the listeners will.

Amy Pierre-Russo (33:00.02)
Thank you.

Nika Lawrie (33:24.96)
check you out and reach out to you because I don't want them to struggle through this alone. And again, I commend you for the work you're doing. It's so important.

Amy Pierre-Russo (33:32.73)
thank you. It's been honestly like such a pleasure, such an honor to be here on your show. Thank you for having me. I I love the work you're doing and I'm excited to be here.

Nika Lawrie (33:42.272)
Awesome. Well, thank you so much.

Amy Pierre-Russo (33:45.387)
Take care.