Capacity, Support & Sustainable Growth for Entrepreneurial Moms: Building a Business as a Mom Without Burning Out with Laura Sinclair

If you’ve ever felt like you’re running a business, raising kids, and still somehow expected to keep it all together… you’re not alone.

In this guest episode of The Self-Made Life Podcast, I’m joined by Laura Sinclair—strategic business mentor, podcast host, and the founder of This Mother Means Business—to talk about what it really takes to build a sustainable business in a season where your capacity is not unlimited.

Laura blends strategy, marketing, systems, and leadership with the real day-to-day realities of motherhood. And in this conversation, she says the quiet parts out loud: the guilt, the mental load, the “it has to be me” stories, and the way so much business advice ignores what life looks like when you’re the default parent.

Meet Laura Sinclair

Laura Sinclair is a strategic business mentor and the founder of This Mother Means Business, a community and growth platform supporting entrepreneurial women who want success that doesn’t cost them their sanity.

What started as “just a podcast name” grew into retreats, events, and an online community—and now, Laura is building it into a brand with real momentum, partnerships, and revenue streams.

The “can’t do it all” moment that hit hard

Laura opened up with a moment many of us know too well: she planned a day “perfectly” and still missed a meaningful milestone for her daughter by 25 minutes.

Not because she didn’t care. Not because she didn’t try. Because time is real, schedules shift, and motherhood + business can’t always be tied up with a neat bow.

As our kids get older, the demands don’t disappear—they change. Sometimes the guilt isn’t just internal anymore. It becomes a real conversation you have with your child in the car on the way home.

Redefining what it means to be a “good mom”

One of the biggest turning points Laura shared happened when her first baby was six months old.

She owned a brick-and-mortar gym at the time (truly, a bold move to do that and have a baby right away), and when a major coach quit, she had to make a choice: hire help and return to the business—or watch it crumble.

She hired a nanny… and instead of feeling worse, she felt more like herself.

That one choice shifted everything:

• She could be more present with her baby because she wasn’t constantly split in half
• She stopped measuring motherhood by “being everywhere”
• She started seeing support as a strategy, not a failure

That’s a theme you’ll hear again and again in this episode: support creates capacity, and capacity changes everything.

The forced pivot that became a blank slate

Like many business owners, the pandemic flipped Laura’s work upside down. Her gym was closed. She was pregnant with her second baby. And she was forced into a pause she never would have chosen on her own.

But in that pause, she got something rare: a clean reset.

Instead of reopening and rebuilding the same life, she asked:

• How do I want to work now?
• What do I actually value?
• What kind of business fits this season of motherhood?

That decision is what ultimately led to the work she does today—building community, coaching, and creating spaces where ambitious moms can grow without pretending it’s all easy.

The biggest mindset shift for moms in business: filter your sources

Laura shared something that hit home: not everyone gets this life.

A lot of business advice is created for people with time that moms simply don’t have. And if you try to follow it exactly, it will leave you feeling behind, even when you’re doing an incredible job.

Her advice: filter who you learn from, then adjust the strategy to match your real life.

Just because someone is posting daily, launching constantly, or running at full speed doesn’t mean that pace is required for success. Your job is to build a business that works for you—not copy someone else’s setup and wonder why it feels awful.

Ask for what you need (even if it feels uncomfortable)

One of my favorite parts of the episode was when Laura talked about how often moms don’t name what they actually need.

She shared a real example from a roundtable: a woman listed a mile-long to-do list, feeling overwhelmed and stuck. Laura stopped her and asked:

What do you need to make this doable?

Her answer wasn’t a new strategy. It was: “I need a weekend away to catch up.”

And the next question was simple: Can you ask for that?

This is where so many of us get trapped. Not because we aren’t capable—because we’re trying to do it with no room to breathe.

Capacity conversations at home

We also talked about the reality of partnership and mental load—especially when one parent’s time is structured and protected, and the other parent’s day is a patchwork of childcare, work, house tasks, appointments, and being the default.

Laura shared a line that’s worth borrowing:
“My capacity is at zero. If you can’t take it on either, we need to hire it out.”

That’s not harsh. That’s honest. And it’s often the only way to stop the slow slide into burnout.

What will matter most for business growth in 2026

Laura’s forward-looking take was clear: relationships.

With people being more careful with money and trust being harder to earn, she believes that collaboration, referrals, and real connections will be a major growth driver.

Her challenge to listeners:

• Book calls with people you respect
• Build your network on purpose
• Find referral partners serving the same audience in a different way
• Let people speak your name in rooms you’re not in

It’s old-school in the best way. And it works.

Quick rapid-fire: Laura’s honest mom answers

We ended with a rapid-fire round, and yes—Laura chose solo grocery trip over park afternoons, and honestly? Same.

Listen to the full episode

If you’re in a season where you’re building a business with a baby on your hip (or you’re trying to find your way back to yourself after mat leave), this episode is for you.

Listen to the full conversation on The Self-Made Life Podcast.

And if you want to support your business with a site that looks like you and helps turn clicks into clients, come browse my templates here:
https://themonarchdesign.co/showit-template-shop

Connect with Laura

• Website: https://thismothermeansbusiness.com
• Instagram: @itslauracinclair
• Instagram: @thismothermeansbusiness
• Threads: @itslauracinclair
• Podcast: This Mother Means Business
• This Mother Means Business Live 2026: Get your tickets here (Use code MONARCH40 to save)