Theresa Maples - How to Self-Care without Planners, Task Managers, and To Do Lists

Theresa Maples

[00:00:00] Wendy Manganaro: Hi everyone. My name's Wendy Manganaro and I am the Host of the Wellness and Wealth podcast. I'm so happy to have you find us. And if you could take a moment and hit that subscribe button, I'd really appreciate it. This is the podcast where we believe when you show up better for yourself as a woman business owner, you show up better for your business. 

So sit back, relax. And learn from the practical to the woo-woo, how to best take care of you. 

[00:00:31] Wendy: We are here with guest, Theresa Maples. She'll talk about it more during the show, but she has these amazing, cards she does. And it's a little different than a lot of what I've seen out there. We'll talk about how she came about making these cards, why it happened, but I just love the idea because, she is completely into self-care.

As a business owner, sometimes the first thing that we forget is to take care of ourselves. So this is why we have this show. As the reminder that self-care, when you show up for yourself, you show up for your business so much better.

So here's there bio, she's a creative self-care routine card. She's a marketing professional who's also self-professed, self-care junkie always on the lookout for healthy habits and ways to become the best possible version of herself. She had a difficult time managing all of the products and the self-care tasks throughout her day.

Planners. And habit trackers didn't work. So she developed a way to manage all products, devices, and habits in the form of a customizable edible download to be printed, laminated, and on display at stations strategically placed throughout the home. It's a completely new way to get control over your self care and wellbeing.

Thank you Theresa. Welcome today.

[00:01:49] Theresa Maples: Thank you. 

[00:01:50] Wendy: I'm really excited because we chatted and you professed to me that you were a self-care junkie. You've been very honest about this from the beginning. So I'd love for you to take a moment and explain , so why is self-care so important to you?

[00:02:03] Theresa Maples: Because I think that in order to just get through your day, you've gotta be able to take care of yourself. And so many people lose that ability once they start having a family and working full time and, it's the kind of the thing where it's kind of cliche, but if you're on a plane and the oxygen comes down, they say to put the oxygen on you first, before you can take care of anybody else, you've gotta take care of yourself first, before you can take care of others.

So, that, and part of it's just vanity too. I'm gonna be 60 next year. I'll be 59 in, November. So vanity has something to do with it. I'm trying to stay a little bit youthful looking, so vanity had said some part of it, but it was more health too. 

Making sure that I follow the self care things like meditating and yoga , and I find I had a hard time working it all in. And so I think self-care is just super important. For men and women, but specifically for women, because we've got a lot on our plates.

[00:03:04] Wendy Manganaro: Okay. First of all, I would've never guessed your age. Either I'm bad at it but you look fabulous, so, something is working there for you. 

[00:03:11] Theresa Maples: Thank you. I'm a grandma.

[00:03:14] Wendy: Would never have guessed. So that is awesome. But, I wanna go back to what you were saying though, and not that men aren't, I concur, but for women in particularly we have a lot on our plate. You said something key that when we add in family and other obligations, we are the first one to let go of ourselves.

[00:03:35] Theresa Maples: You do you. You start to prioritize usually family comes first, oftentimes, especially if you're an entrepreneur, so you've got family and then you've got your business, which is like another family.

And then you're always gonna be put number three. And in order to show up for your family and your business, you also have to take care of yourself. And I think so many women put that last and I think it's important to put it not necessarily first, but it needs to be important to you.

[00:04:04] Wendy Manganaro: And so I have a curious question because we're talking about this, cuz yes, we do that and then we feel guilty if we do put ourselves higher. We feel like we're somehow letting somebody down somewhere. I'm curious if you've ever felt that way and what you did to rebalance because I'm sure we will have moms on here and entrepreneurs on here who are feeling little guilty if they're not there for everyone.

[00:04:31] Theresa Maples: It's hard to be there for everybody and yourself. You just have to make the time and I did struggle with that because I've got a lot of things in my skincare routine and, workouts and different things.

I use a lot of devices and gadgets and everything, and, I had a hard time figuring out where to put everything. And that's one of the reasons why I created the cards is because they're like a training wheels is for your habits. So you can stack them how they best fit your life.

And you can move them around with a habit tracker or a planner. You do the same thing, but with the cards, if I wanna do a kettlebell workout tomorrow, I'll put the kettlebell workout in my stack of workout cards. It helps you not have to think about what do I have to do next?

What do I have to do next? Because it's right there. It's right there for you to say, you don't have to think about it. So actually you can get a lot more done because it helps guide you. 

[00:05:19] Wendy: You're right, because you look at a lot of things seeking what works for me. Some people are the 5:00 AM get up, get going and it works for them. And then some women like, if doing everything late at night.

And I think that finding out what's out there and then finding what really works for you and being okay. 

[00:05:37] Theresa Maples: And sticking with it. 

[00:05:38] Wendy: Right, exactly. 

[00:05:40] Theresa Maples: Sticking with it. And that's the thing, I would see something in a video and I'd be like, Ooh, I wanna try that.

That sounds like it could be good for me. So for instance, dry brushing. Dry brushing is really good for your skin and your lymphatic system. And I had a dry brush. In my bathroom that I keep on my bathroom door and I'd walk in and I'd see the dry brush and I would just did not use it. I just, don't just, I look at it and I wouldn't use it, but I have a card for it.

That's the first thing I see when I come in the morning is my dry brush. I'm like, oh, I got a dry brush. And as soon as I dry brush, the next thing comes up, so it keeps me flowing through the day. And that's, what I like about it is that if you wanna put new stuff into your day and your routine, you just add another card. And if it doesn't fit there, if you wanna do it, if you wanna do face exercises, face yoga, it doesn't work in your morning routine.

Okay, I wanna put it at night in my nighttime routine. I'll do some face yoga at night. And so you just move the cards around where they best fit your life. 

[00:06:39] Wendy Manganaro: There's something to that because I think that a lot of us here are like, we're supposed to get up early. And, it's like that funny little thing that you hear that you'll get more done when the kids sleep. I love the woman who thought that cuz by the time they go to sleep, you wanna take a nap yourself.

 Let me ask you the reverse of that though, and I'm sure this is why it's good for you to be able to move things around when you don't get it all done, because a lot of us also put more on our plate.

Even with that, how do you let go of the guilt?

[00:07:07] Theresa Maples: The reason I like the cards as opposed to a planner or a list. When you look at habit tracker, an app, or a daily planner, it's a list. And some people like being able to check them off to me, I find it a little daunting to look at all those things that I have to do.

And I'm like, oh God, I didn't do that one. I didn't check that one off. And so the reason I like the cards better. Is if I'm doing something and I'm like, oh, I didn't have time for that. Okay. I'll do it tomorrow. And I, then I flip it to the back and then tomorrow it comes up again.

And if you get to where you've gone two weeks and you're not doing it, that card's not probably meant for you take it out of the deck. And if you've got a printed habit list with check marks or a lot of planners that you have to write them in every day, here's what I have to do every day.

But with the cards you print it one time, laminate it, and change out the card. And, if you find you don't use the radio frequency for your face, okay. I'm not using that. I'll put that away. Maybe I'll come back to it another time. And so that's the beautiful part about the system is that it's fluid.

[00:08:13] Wendy: I like that you say that because I'm guilty of it. I am a brainstormer at night, which for new things is great, but there are things that I'm supposed to do every day. And it would take 10 Minutes to write out my daily to-do list.

[00:08:24] Theresa Maples: And daily planners are good if you've got some meetings that you need to get to, but if you're doing something every single day, I don't see the reason to have to write it out every single day when it's already written on a card and you don't have to check it off to me doing it and putting it at the back of the deck, knowing I did it.

That's good enough for me. I'm not looking at a list thinking, oh look, how many things I have to do today? You take 'em one at a time. And I like that. 

[00:08:50] Wendy: I wanna dive a little bit into your story because if I remember correctly, you started this company while you were working full-time.

[00:08:57] Theresa Maples: I do proposals. I just got a promotion. I was a senior marketing coordinator, for an engineering firm and now I am marketing manager, but , I worked eight hours a day. I fortunately I'm able to work at home. So, I get up at five and do my daily routine stuff, the workout stuff, spend a little time, checking emails and Twitter or whatever, but then I get into the things that I needed to do then I'm at work by 8. And, I'm at my desk from eight to five. Usually I, I stop for food, but then I come back and so I'm working eight hours a day, but I knew I wanted to start this business.

And the only time that I could do it is that time in the morning when I would normally do my self care that had to slide into the back burner. I'm afraid. I did pick it up as soon as I got the card, the website finish, but then at night I'd leave at five, then I'd start dinner, eat dinner, and then I'd start working again on the cards.

And I would do it until 11, 12 at night, so I did that for four months.

[00:10:02] Wendy Manganaro: I'm impressed with that because we have times in our life that we sprint. That's a perfect example of what I call a time in our life where something's really super important to us that we wanna be able to get done.

[00:10:13] Wendy: And learning there is no limit because I'm a big believer that we all have the same amount of time in the day. Some of us take advantage of how to utilize better than others. I think that sometimes a learned practice, but either way, I think there's some truth to that.

And so I love that you did this sprint so that you could get something that was important to you done. But then you also went, okay. And now I go back to my routine. . I think many of us stay in sprint status way too long. 

[00:10:42] Theresa Maples: You run out of gas. I couldn't have done it for much longer every waking moment, I was either at my job or I was working on the business. All weekend long there was no break. 

[00:10:54] Wendy Manganaro: And a lot of us do that when we work on projects in our own business anyway, we're excited and we wanna spend all this time and energy into it, which is fantastic. But how did you then ease yourself back into routine? Cuz my mindset is whenever I'm in a sprint, I know that there's a finished date. How do you handle that? 

[00:11:13] Theresa Maples: Oddly enough, because of the cards, I let everything slide but once I had my own cards, once, they were uploaded to the website and they, and I had printed my own cards.

 It was so much easier to go back into a flow. It was easier than it was even before, because I did have the cards to guide me. I didn't have it before, and that's why I wanted them. Cuz I knew I needed something to help guide me. I've never been diagnosed with ADHD or anything, but I do have a lot of products.

I have a lot of skincare products and devices and it was just really hard to figure out where they go in my day. And once I had my own cards printed and put in little stations, cause I keep one next to my bed. Those are my morning cards. 

The first card I see is gratitude. And so it makes me okay. I've gotta, I've gotta be grateful today. I've gotta be grateful at this time. And once I've done that, then I've got cards like meditation. I have a wellness room where I'd go in. I light my incense and it actually makes me do the next thing.

And, and if I don't have time for it, if I'm rushing around, for whatever reason, if I slept late, okay, meditation's gonna have to slide today. It's the back of the cart, but the cards allowed me to slip back into a normal. 

[00:12:29] Wendy: Let me ask you about this too, because I think one of the first episodes we actually had was on pay equity, and if you haven't listened to that, go back and listen.

But I want to share that with you is her practical tip for, how she started to get paid what she wanted to get paid. She had written it down on her computer and stuck it there so if anybody asks, it was this is the amount. And If it's under this amount, I'm not saying yes to it.

 So it was some sort of practicality cuz I like this idea that it's not a to-do list that if you don't have your phone with you suddenly it's I missed that appointment. I didn't mean to it just but there's been a couple times I've put my phone down, which is healthy.

But I didn't check the calendar on phone. So, I'm supposed to be sitting in a computer in five minutes, starting a meeting that I forgot.

To have the ability to have these in your home, instead of you dragging around something constantly with you.

[00:13:17] Theresa Maples: That's the thing with a habit tracker on your phone or a daily planner. Your routine is either buried in a phone or buried in a book.

 But when you walk in a bathroom, you're like, oh, I gotta do that. You see the card and if you've already done it, then it's at the back of the deck. And so, a new card comes up. So you're like I have to do that. Or let's say, you still wanna do it and you don't have time for it.

You pull the card out the deck, you lay it to the side, and that a reminder to do that. So that's that's why I like them because I'm a visual person. I like to have my eyes on something because if I have to rely on a phone app, I'll get sidetracked.

I'll go look on Twitter or I'm gonna go shopping. I'm gonna go on Amazon. So I won't sit there and look at a habit tracker all day, but I will see those card. And they will be a reminder to me. 

[00:14:07] Wendy: And in all honesty you work in marketing and I work in marketing, so it's not like there's a big secret here is that when you work in marketing, you are on your phone way too much as it is.

So I like the fact that you can take a break especially when you're talking about things like meditation and gratitude, It's like, I'm grateful. And what just beeped, so this actually is great because you're not starting your morning with a phone.

A lot of people are like, oh yeah I use the meditation app it hooks you constantly back. 

[00:14:36] Theresa Maples: That's a really good point.

And. Like for my night time routine, there's certain little things, there's those patches that you can put for your wrinkle, chest wrinkles, you know, make sure that that's on. And, there's a thing called slugging where that you put like a Vaseline type thing, on your face.

And then I have things like, read a book, charge your devices because I always forget to charge things. So I do have a lot of devices and I have gotta charge it for the next day. You know, the read a book thing. And so pillow spray, I have a hard time falling asleep.

So the pillow, the lavender pillow spray is supposed to help. So when all those things are in the order that you want them to be in, it's just easier. It's just so easy to, they just flow. I'm like, okay, I did that. Oh, I did that. And now I'm ready for bad. And I can sit and read. That's one of the last things I have on my, cards for the evening is read a book.

And so then I can put my phone away and read a book and it's just a reminder. 

[00:15:30] Wendy Manganaro: All right. Besides all the cards and everything, I just wanna say that your self-care is top notch as I hear talking. And I will say it over and over again.

[00:15:38] Wendy: As you show up in this way for yourself, then you can show up better for your business. Instead what happens is I'll do this later. I'll do this later. I'll do this later. And suddenly you don't like your children or your house.

Then we're not like happy in the business that we've created because., it is never enough, but it's because we're not, as you said at the beginning filling our cup. We're not putting the oxygen mask on our first. And then 

we start resenting the business we wanted for the lifestyle we wanted and we didn't take care of ourselves so that we could continue to have the lifestyle we wanted. 

[00:16:15] Theresa Maples: I so agree with you. 

[00:16:17] Wendy Manganaro: You've mentioned a lot of stuff, so actually I'm gonna change this question a little bit.

What is your one top self care thing that you think every woman should do above everything else? 

[00:16:29] Theresa Maples: One of the, one of my 

favorite things is the meditation one.

I have a little table in my wellness room where I have, incense and candles. I turn on a Pandora station with meditation and it's quiet time and you don't even have to do it for 30 minutes. Do it for two minutes.

It's two minutes of quiet time and reflection. And that is when you can. And if you, you can actually do three things at once. If you're in that space, there's meditation where it's just quiet and then there's gratitude.

And then there's visualization where you can, visualize the life that you want to live and work towards. All three of those things can be done at one time and you, it doesn't take 30 minutes. You can take five minutes, but once you've done it; it helps to sync you for the day. And so I think that's probably one of the most important parts and some people don't wanna do it in the morning.

Some people wanna do it right before bed, you move that card to the back to your nighttime routine. So that was probably the one I would recommend for everybody is that one. 

[00:17:37] Wendy Manganaro: I love that. I was asked, recently about my morning routine because my husband might have said that I don't speak to anybody until it's done.

[00:17:44] Wendy: And it's true. And it's not even about the time that I wake up, but it's more about I need that 30 minutes. I do some readings and stuff with the meditation, but I just need 30 minutes to reset myself and set myself up for the day. The difference of the days that I rush into it and I don't do it and where I'm focused and, how I'm reacting to other people is different as opposed to the days that I get up and meditate. 

[00:18:10] Theresa Maples: And it's the opposite of, when you're having a really bad day and it just goes downhill, everything that can be happened, wrong happens wrong. It's the opposite of that. Once you start and you started your day with something positive it's an upward motion, if you're going upward.

So it's, I think it's really helpful. 

[00:18:28] Wendy Manganaro: Yeah, that is wonderful. Well, I, this has been a pleasure of speaking to you. You are full of tips. I'm sure people will be reaching out to you. So that's why I'm gonna ask you now how people can find you. And I hear you have a small gift, for our audience. I'd love for you to tell them about it.

[00:18:44] Theresa Maples: Yeah, I have the website is self care routine cards.com or self with a dash. Self care, routine cards, dot com and it, and I have about maybe 30 different cards. There's different categories like, floral and animals and places. There's cards and there's fonts, 10 fonts that you can pick. The cards are none $9.95. and I have a gift for your viewers. It's 25% off. So one, the, package comes with, 60 cards that you could print out on card stock. if you wanted a hundred, if you have 120 things you wanna do in a day, you would save two copies, then you'd have 120 cards that you would print.

And laminate, I prefer them laminated, but, you don't really have to do that if you don't want to, keeps makeup from getting on them and that kind of thing. But yeah, how, and then there's a, a couple videos that show you how the cards work and, how I use my cards. So it's selfcare routine cards.com.

[00:19:36] Wendy Manganaro: Thank you so much. And, I'm gonna admit that Theresa sent me some, cause they are pretty floral ones. I love anything floral. So I'm really excited about that. so thank you. 

[00:19:48] Theresa Maples: You're welcome.

[00:19:48] Wendy: I knew we connected as soon as we were talking and it's been great.

[00:19:52] Theresa Maples: Thank you for having me. 

[00:19:53] Wendy: I hope my listeners end up going on to your website, cuz this is the perfect setup for people who are like, I'm not the regular routine type of person it's not working. I keep trying, I keep trying.

It's not working.

[00:20:05] Theresa Maples: So that was me. That was me.

[00:20:07] Wendy: Right. This helps you set the routine that works for you. . 

Thank you, Theresa. 

[00:20:11] Theresa Maples: Thank you. Bye-bye.