People ask "how do you do it all" like there's a system I could hand over. There isn't. There's no color-coded schedule that makes running two businesses and raising seven kids look effortless, because it isn't effortless — it's just what the days actually are.
Here's the honest answer: I don't do it all. I do it solo, and imperfectly, and mostly by doing the next thing in front of me instead of trying to see the whole week at once.
What Marie Gems actually needs from me
Marie Gems is a DTF transfer and custom product shop, and I run every part of it myself — designing, printing, listing, packing, shipping, all of it, across Shopify, Vinted, Whatnot, and direct sales. There's no team splitting that up. Some days that means hours at the printer and heat press. Other days it's mostly answering messages and getting orders out the door. The work doesn't come in neat, predictable blocks — it comes in whatever shape the day allows.
What Marie Glow Studio actually needs from me
Marie Glow Studio is the other half — web design, Pinterest marketing, and SEO for other small businesses. That work looks completely different day to day. It's strategy, it's client communication, it's building out content and campaigns for someone else's brand instead of my own. Switching between "make the product" mode and "market someone else's business" mode in the same week — sometimes the same day — is its own kind of whiplash, but it's also what makes both businesses work.
Where the kids fit into that
They don't fit around the business. They're not scheduled into gaps between tasks — they're just there, the whole time, the same way the business is just there. Seven kids means the day rarely goes exactly as planned, and running two businesses on top of that means learning to let go of the version of "productive" that assumes uninterrupted time. Most days I don't get that. I get whatever pockets of focus actually show up, and I use them.
Why "no corporate fluff" isn't just a tagline
"Businesses. Babies. No fluff." isn't a cute line I picked because it sounded good — it's what's left after you cut out everything that doesn't actually fit a life like mine. No performative hustle-culture routines, no pretending the juggle looks polished. Just two real businesses, seven real kids, and a lot of figuring it out as I go.
If you want the fuller version of how this all started — Marie Gems, Marie Glow Studio, and the Dual-Threat Business Owner thread running under both — that's what the About page is for.