664. How I Managed Wildfires, Solo Parenting, and a Business Launch (Without Losing My Mind)

Hi, I'm Jacqueline Snyder and this is the Product Boss podcast. I've helped launch and grow thousands of product based businesses, even one of my own. And over the last 20 years, I've seen behind the scenes of businesses just like yours. Whether they are makers, manufacturers, artists, or food and beverage businesses. I have spent so many hours studying it all. I've discovered what makes them successful, what mistakes they could have avoided, how did they turn their ideas into successful business and, and what are the strategies that they have used to make more sales and be discovered by more customers. And this is what this show is all about. Whether you're just starting out or you're looking to become a million dollar product boss, I'm here to give you the permission to chase your dreams, no matter how big or small. All you need is the right mindset, a little courage, strategy and support, and you too can be the next million dollar product boss. Let's do this. Hey, hey, product bosses. And welcome back to the Product Boss podcast. And today's episode's going to be a little bit different. I've been getting a ton of requests from, from so many of you saying that you love the coaching calls and the business, but there's also questions about how I blend it all, how I. And you hear me talk about the blended life, which is me calling BS on balance and thinking about, especially, you know, as women, how many things we have to blend into our lives for responsibility. Let's say, you know, a lot of times we're responsible for the generation that came before us or even two. Right. I, I sometimes feel very responsible for my mom and my grandma and I have two kids and I have a business with employees and there's a lot of different. And I've got a husband we don't talk about enough.

Right.

And, and two dogs and all the things. And I don't talk about. Well, no, no, no, I, I do talk about it, but I have to blend a lot together. And I think as women especially we are fed these lies that we should be able to balance it or if you're not juggling well enough, well, I don't have very good hand eye coordination, so I will drop the balls literally all the time. And if you've ever watched any like tightrope walkers, like that guy who walks over the Grand Canyon, I call BS on balance because guess what? He doesn't have a toddler pulling on his legs and needing to go to the car pickup line and has, you know, grandma with a walker and needs to make lunch and run Their business. Like, no, he gets to just do one thing. Walk across that type rope, holding that bar and trying not to fall off. Okay, so I digress. Oh, and I'm literally getting this as I get a fire update. So it's great timing because if you heard that, and I'm not even gonna cut it outta my app, but if you heard that, if you've been in Los Angeles or anywhere in Southern California, that has been happening for the last few weeks, and I'm recording this in real time. But I will say to you that, and I'm not sure what I'm gonna air this episode because it's going to be a little bit raw because I've realized that I wanna come to you and talk to you about things that are more than just business. Things that as women, we deal with different things to try and blend into our lives. Just so you know, you're not alone.

Right.

I also, on all the people who say everything's perfect and wonderful and look at how great my life is on social media.

Right.

I. You, you know me. And you know that I've always been raw and straightforward and vulnerable because I want you to know that it's not all so easy, but we can do hard things. So with that alert coming through, I had my first panic attack in a while. In a long, long while.

Okay.

And, well, I was right on the cusp of it, actually. I think I was able to hold myself off, but I felt it coming. I felt it coming. And now everything I'm gonna talk about, not medical advice. So please, if. If you deal with anxiety, depression, panic attacks, please make sure that you are getting professional medical advice. But I want to be open and tell you that I do. I battle with anxiety, more anxiety than depression. But anxiety can lead to depression. And I started having my first panic attacks when I worked nine to fives, or in that case, like 9 to 10pm and every weekend. And I was working for kind of a cuckoo crazy person in the fashion industry. She made me feel crazy. I started having panic attacks. And that was really one of the first reasons why I decided to leave working for somebody else, especially that version. And on my way to, I was interviewing for other fashion companies like BCBG and other really, really big brands. And as I was doing that, I really had to consider, do I want to go back and work for someone or do I want to do this myself? Do I want to take my dream? And actually, you know, I had all these ideas. I was working in the industry. I was a really big Designer that was like, I was hired from one company and then hired to another company. Like, I was sought after as a designer. And I had to think, well, do I want to go work at BCBG and only design bathing suits or dresses, you know, or do I want to see if I can make my dreams happen? And so I did. But in all of that time, I realized, obviously changing of the situation helped. And I thought I only had situational anxiety. But cut to some years later, you know, having babies. I definitely went through postpartum. Years later, other things got harder. Like, panic attacks have hit me big in 2020 and more recently in 2025, even though I do take medication. So it was weird. Well, here's what led to that. I live in Los Angeles, and if you've heard anything in the news, Los Angeles was on fire. My brother's house is in the Palisades. Thank God it's okay. But even though it's okay, it's very hard to go back to where they live. My other brother was on an evacuation warning. And eventually we got into evacuation warning, and we're. If you want to look at a map of LA from the Palisades to Calabasas, and that's where three of us were. And it was intense. And these alerts were happening on our phones, and we had our kids home, and it wasn't like a snow day where we could go outside. And it was just intense and it was scary. And everybody here has gone through so much and so many people have lost so much. It was unprecedented. So that's normal, right? That's normal to have overwhelmed during something like that. But here's the deal. My husband had also just left to go film a TV show in Budapest, Hungary. Okay. And landed the day the fire started, which was nuts. Then my kids were home, which was very difficult for the work week I had planned. Cause it was also right after the holidays when I was, like, ready to come back and do all the things. Husband's out of town. We end up in evacuation warning. I end up on the roof, in putting with my brother, putting sprinklers on my roof and covering all the vents with tin foil, packing up two cars. Cause I'm asking my husband, what do you want me to save from this house? Taking one car to my mom's house, packing the other car and then getting my mom, who has some health challenges, me and all of our dogs. So it's four dogs and my two kids driving to Palm Springs to get out of the smoke, to get out of all the things. Okay, so again, you're probably like, I'd go into overwhelm on all that. But at the same time, I also had a huge launch happening, something that we'd been working on for months in the company, something that was very much on me to create, develop, and if I didn't do it, there was no one else that was going to do it. And the results weren't happening the way I wanted them to happen either. And I'm really hard on myself. So I, you know, other people will be like, jacqueline, you're going through so much. Like, of course you're going to feel this way. But I also expect a lot. And, you know, I have scarcity that plays up. And my scarcity was like, oh, my God, like, I need to make this thing happen because of X, Y, Z. But it didn't happen. Did not go the way I had hoped it to go. So after literally two all nighters, I do work well at night. So after two all nighters, not sleeping, having a crazy nervous system, and then things not going well in business for that week, I started feeling a panic attack. Come on. And again, I could like saying it back to you right now. I understand why, but it threw me. But also I was able to actually get out of that spin faster. And I realized, okay, I haven't had one in so long because I've actually learned a lot of tools and a lot of ways to manage my mind that before when it used to just come up and my team and I would always talk about, like, different ways where, like, go out in the snow or put ice on the back of your neck or, you know, all the random things that you would talk about. At this point, I actually was able to manage it much, much quicker without taking medicine, without needing to put snow in the desert on my back.

Right.

Like any of that. So I want to kind of dig into one, telling you that if you feel overwhelmed, if one, it's. And I'm giving myself this advice to give ourself grace, okay? Because in times like these, when we're trying to blend it all and everything, it's like putting on the blender but forgetting to put the top on and literally it going everywhere. That's what my week felt like. But these are the tips that I did that hopefully could help too, when things start to feel like they're too much.

Okay.

So first thing I did was when I felt the panic rising, I actually reached out. So I have a coach, a life coach. She's my person. I've had her for a long time. So I've figured out one is that I need support around me. I need somebody who knows how to listen to me and someone, you know. My husband is okay, but he tries to go into fix it mode a lot of times and you might feel the same way. Cause they don't know what else to do. So I reached out. So if there is somebody that you know is your support system, the person that is would probably be my other, my best friend. If it wasn't my life coach that knows how to talk to you or listen to you, have that be the person in your mind when you feel like you need to reach out. It might not be your spouse.

Okay.

It might not be some of the closest people to you. So you're going to want to make sure that you know who is your support system and who to reach out to. So I literally sent her a message saying, I think I'm about to have a panic attack. Second, your body goes into fight or flight. Fight or sometimes they fix. So fight is you're going to sit there and you're going to fight it. Like imagine the bear. You either fight the bear or you run away from the bear. So when you're starting to feel that panic, that anxiety come up, one of the greatest things that I can do is move my body. Because then my body and my brain are like that. Fight or flight? The flight is that I'm moving. So my body, the reaction that's happening is okay, she is moving away from the danger. So what I did is my life coach was able to jump on a call with me pretty quickly. And I took the call walking and I walked the block like three times. So the movement and the walking were two really big helpful or no, sorry, the movement and the walking and talking were two really big helpful things for my body to start to bring it down. Now just the outreach to someone, even if they can't hop on a phone call with you right away, is your first step in just asking for support. The second thing is, can you move? Can you run in place? Can you take a walk around the block? Can you do some jumping jacks? And again, this is not medical advice, but I'm just giving you some tips of me. What I found helpful is the movement that helped. Sometimes people find breathing right to take some minutes to actually do some breath work. Perhaps you do the box breath, which is in for four, hold for four at the top of your breath, out for four, hold for four at the bottom of your breath. It's called Box breath. In for four, hold for four. Out for four, hold for four.

Okay.

Slowing down your breathing. And then also another tip that I've been given in the past, which is a great grounding exercise, is focusing on what you could see, touch, hear, smell, or taste. So a couple things you could do there are. I do this with my son a lot. What are three things you can see? What are three things you can feel? And what are three things you can hear? And you go, two things you can see, two things you can hear, two things you could feel, and then 1, 1, 1.

Okay.

Just to kind of bring you back in. So I just wanted to give some tools, because I've worked so long on getting these tools of what I needed to do in the moment was I saw it coming instead of letting it go, asking for help, reaching out, and then movement for grounding something to ground already. And then I had my medicine if I needed it.

Okay.

All right.

The other thing is, is that let's. We're going to move past the panic part, and then let's get into the, like, bird's eye view of it all. So one of the things that happens with the anxiety is like, that mismanaged mind. Because what was actually causing my anxiety was not only everything that had happened, but everything I saw down the road of what needed to happen. Right. Everything that needs to be done. And it's overwhelming when I just started listing them off. I need to do this, and I need to do this, and I do this, and I didn't sleep and I needed this, and I needed this, and.

I haven't eaten, right?

Like, of course. So what I needed to look at in that moment was what needs to be done right now? What's the one thing, what actually has to happen? So I did this with my life coach, but she's like, all right. So she's like, let's pause on all the millions of things you're telling me you need to do, which could feel overwhelming. What do you need to get done right now for tomorrow? Because that was my first next thing, right? It was like, tomorrow I needed to do something else. She kept asking me over and over, what do you need to do? What's the next thing you need to do? And my deadline was the next day. Said, okay, I gotta do this and I gotta do that. She's like, that's it. That's all you're gonna focus on right now. You're gonna do this and this. Can you do that? I said, yeah, but I don't know when Above a lot. Okay, so the next thing was when can you do that? What? Let's, let's create a plan. So I was like, well I, you know, I feel bad cause I pulled the all nighter and I didn't hang out with my kids and blah blah, blah, blah, blah. Again, mom guilt comes in. Even though I preached to you about the. Of course it's going to come in. So then the next step was, what time do you want to spend with your kids today? Bedtime. You guys do dinner with them? What do you want to do? And then I said, well, I think it was like three o'. Clock. And I was like, I want to have dinner with them because we were in the desert and with my mom and all the things. I want to have dinner with them and then I'm going to need to put them to sleep and I might have to work later. So.

Great.

So if it's three o', clock, what time is dinner? We could go like 5:30. Okay, you've got the next two and a half hours to get something done. What are you going to get done? Well, I guess I can do this one thing.

Great.

Then you're going to take off that time. You're going to go dinner with your kids, you're going to be present with your kids because that's something that's value aligned with me.

Right?

Family and quality time. You're going to have the dinner, you're going to be present, you're going to come back, you're. They're going to go get ready for bed, you can go back to the work you need to do, you're going to put them asleep and you can finish it for tomorrow. And that's all you're going to do. And that's what I did and that's how I got through my deadline for the next day. Not with all the other things that I need to do. It's that one step at a time. That next thing, check it off your list. That next thing, check that off your list. You know, if you've been listening to that podcast lately, there have been some re airs, partially because there was the fire. Didn't bring my mic. Of all things. I didn't know where my mic was. I brought my computer. There's only a few things and I just lost. I was behind. And so even that, even the narrations that I do and the podcast, even getting this episode recorded, it's been tough when usually I'm really ahead of the game because I wasn't giving myself grace of the fact that I had to pack up my house, prep my house and evacuate during a time that was terrible in Los Angeles still is. So many people, so many people have suffered. So I know how lucky I am too. But just really hard. So I'm giving myself permission that we were going to do some re airs of some of our best episodes. That I might be a little bit late on some other episodes.

Right.

But I just had to let myself do that because what was the next thing that I had to do? We have almost 700 episodes. I can re air some. And that's what I want you to think about for your business as well. What has to happen? What's the next thing that can happen and where can I solve? What can I solve for? What is the thing that has to happen and what can be solved for. For like maybe you don't post on Social May my episodes are re aired.

Right.

Maybe you say no to something. So those are some of the tips for that. And that's really where it comes into giving yourself permission to pause.

Okay.

That's the. That was the hardest thing. Because of my expectation of myself. I had to remind myself that it was okay. It was okay. Even in the middle of everything and everything we're gearing up for, it was okay to pause and do things a little bit differently because the world won't end if you guys don't get a new episode every single week, if terrible things are happening or even if terrible things aren't happening. But I'm overwhelmed because I'm working on something else. I have 700 episodes almost right. Same with you. There are things that you can do that don't have to happen and everything will still go on. So it's giving yourself that permission to just pause and look at it.

Okay.

And that's what led to me being able to simplify and prioritize ruthlessly.

Right.

I had to let go of that perfection and I had to focus on what really mattered, what had to get done and what could wait. And that was that game changer in regaining the sense of control. Because the overwhelm and the panic came from all the things I could tell you, all the things I had to do for the next two months. That's where my. That's literally where my panic attack was coming from. Because that's what was running through my head. And I have this and I have this and I have this and I have this versus what really matters right now. What has to get done today? And the question is, does it even have to get done today. There's some things I had to get to that my deadlines were last week. It's a week later. It's okay.

Okay.

So I want to say that just like what I had to learn from packing, you know, this is a lot of conversation here in Los Angeles about what do you put in your go bag? Like what are you taking? What's most important, important. There's just been a lot of conversation about that here. And when people have lost so much the things that they also wish they had. But no matter what, we know this. Whether you live in a place, wherever the natural disasters are happening, we all need emergency plans. And so I want you to create a plan for yourself, for your business, let's say. Okay, this is why I teach so much. I teach how to build systems and operations, how you can build your business. Like build a sales engine that could run without you so that your business doesn't need you on every second of the day so that it can run on autopilot if you need to step away unexpectedly. And so much. I mean one, I've got a team and I'm very, very, very grateful for my team. But even without that there are things on the back end that are put in the way that sales are made, the way that emails are run, there are things that have automations to it that if I was doing it all myself could keep going. And so I want you to think about your business as well. Could it keep going if you stop? And so we want to make sure that you start to build. I mean this is something I do teach my students especially you know, within the academy and multi stream machine is how do we get a business that works for you and not the other way around. And I want you to also have your go bag for these tools that we're talking about here. Maybe you write them down. Okay, what's the first thing I do? I reach out for help. I take a breath, I try and ground myself. Whether it's movement, whether it's breathing, whether it's that, you know, what do I see, what do I feel, what do I hear? Give yourself that, that, give yourself that, that toolbox of things to go to. And then finally I just want you to practice self compassion. This is so hard for so many of us. It's so weird. We're so compassionate for other people. Even in the fires it was, it was insane because like, I'm not gonna say insane. It was amazing and beautiful. Like we were all packed, my friends and I, I even have friends that Were evacuated people who lost houses. There's product bosses out there. And if you are a product boss that's been affected by the wildfires, please reach out to us. We want to see how we can support you in any way that we can. But what I want to say about that is we were so quick to help everybody else. And reaching out, how can I help? I remember I was gathering stuff to give to people and donate and all the things before we had to evacuate. And then as I'm packing up my house and locking the door and thinking, I don't, we'll see, I'll see. If I come back here, I was like, wow. Like I was trying to help other people, but then all of a sudden I needed the help myself and I needed to help myself. And so I want to remind you, like about self, compassion, the same care, especially as women, what we give to our children, people we love, the people around us, people we work with, our neighbors, our community, can we do the same for ourselves? Can you try and turn that kindness onto yourself? You're human. You're not a machine. I thought I could be a machine. I'm not a machine. I thought I was going to be hard enough to just survive without my husband being in the country before the fire started, right? Two weeks during a really big launch time, all the things I had to do. And then there was that. So I'm saying I'm doing this episode just as much as to remind myself as it is to remind you that our businesses can run like well oiled machines. And our goal for our businesses is so that they can be those sales engines and bring the money in. So that when we do need to be human, when we do need that compassion, if we get sick, right, whether it's the flu or something else happens, that that can keep going. And we have the same compassion that we would have for people close to us or people that we love or our neighbors.

Okay.

And to allow yourself to have that space. So if you've ever felt this way, if you're overwhelmed right now, I want you to know that you're not alone. And that's why I wanted to do this episode. Because life does throw a lot our way. And usually when we're not expecting it, and I know sometimes it can feel like a lot, but you can do hard things, as Jenna Phillips Ballard says. She says you've survived a hundred percent of your worst days and you have the strength to get through it. And remembering you've gone through things like this before and you've made it to the other side, and it just takes one small step at a time. So if you need to. If any of this resonated with you, remember, it's not medical advice. It's just a friend telling you how she was able to deal with things. Reach out to a medical professional, a therapist. Have a friend, a spouse, a partner, even a fellow business owner.

Right.

Because community makes all the difference. I hope that this helped someone out there. Thank you for letting me reflect on it so that I can even come back to this episode. For me as well. And remember, it's okay. Everything's gonna be okay. And it's okay to slow down. It's okay to breathe. And really, the way to try and overcome some of this is that one step at a time, step by step, one step at a time.

All right?

So thank you so much. Let me know on Instagram DM me. Let me know if this episode resonated with you. If you'd like more episodes like this. If you're loving the show, do me a favor. Would you mind leaving a review? I'd love it so much. You've got a positive review to share. Send me a message. Let me know if this resonated at all, just so I know whether I should do more blended episodes. And good luck, my friends. You're doing an amazing job. If no one's told you today, you don't. I don't have to know you to tell you that. I know that you're doing an amazing job and you're doing the best that you can. So until next time, take care of yourself, and I will see you back here.