The Type A+ Podcast Episode 13: BONUS: Balance Bound with Brooke Forry - Links & Show Notes
Episode Description:
To celebrate the *15th* Episode, Beth welcomes fellow Type A+ person Brooke Forry, creator of the Balance Bound Planner, co-host of Good Enough-ish, Co-Founder and Creative Director of Curious & Company Creative, and all-around incredible human. Learn more about the behind-the-scenes story of creating Balance Bound, how Brooke strives every day for balance, AND what she's doing right now too, as they say on her podcast, "do her future self a favor!"
Links mentioned in the episode:
Balance Bound Planner Instagram
Podcast:
The Type A Plus Podcast Instagram
Host:
Beth Lawrence & Company Instagram
Beth will be back each week, delivering bite-sized tips (15 minute episodes or less) on how to optimize your life and work.
Episode Transcript can be found below:
Hi everyone. Welcome back to the Type A+ podcast. I'm very excited today to welcome Brooke Forry. Brooke and I met at Well Struck, same as Amanda, her co-host on The Good Enough Fish Podcast, and she's also the co-founder of Curious and Co. And the creator of the Balance Bound Planner. So today she's gonna tell us a little bit about the Balance Bound Planner, and how she balances her busy, hectic life. So Brooke, welcome to the podcast.
Thank you so much for having me, Beth.
I am so excited. So tell us first, a little bit more about yourself, your companies, and your podcast.
I have been a designer for a little over 20 years now, which feels, just crazy that I've been in this industry for so long. In 2010 I started Curious and Company Creative, which is a boutique branding design firm with some business partners, and I've always been a stationery lover or a paper person.
As a paper planner person, someone who constantly needs a to-do list next to me while I'm working to stay on track, I know you are I just wasn't finding what I needed in the planners that were out there. They were all either very, very simple and too simple for my liking or way too complex another option was bullet journals, and that felt like it was just giving me one more thing to do as I am already overwhelmed.
Type, a busy person. I just needed something laid out in front of me. So I thought, Oh wait, this is something that I can create, slowly over about the course of a year, I, prototyped it and turned it into something that would be functional for me and then realized it might be something.
Other people would make use of it as well, dividing my day into four sections based on the different roles that I play in my life. And in 2019 we launched it as a bonafide product and now we have a line of planners and other stationary products. Under the umbrella of the Balance Bound brand.
My gosh, that's so amazing. And as someone who's, followed you and been close with you over the years, it's so cool to see your brand evolve. And I know all of the different roles that you play, but do you wanna touch on the different roles that you play and what led you to create the planner?
I am obviously an entrepreneur and a designer. I am a mother. I have two kids, they are six and 10 years old right now. And I'm a wife, I'm a homeowner, I'm a daughter. I. Tend to be someone that, I'm a people pleaser. I like to take care of a lot of people and things, but I often found that I was abandoning myself in the process of taking care of my business or my kids, or our house.
And I realized that self-care needed to be a regular part of my every day again, because I was just, totally burnt out, you know, around the time when I came up with the idea, my daughter was two, my son was five and a half or six, and I was just completely, exhausted at the end of every day.
Yeah.
I remember the inkling of an idea first came into my head when I was driving home from a networking event. It might have been a well-struck event. I still, can't quite remember what, but
They always give us great ideas.
I know they do and I was sitting in traffic. Rushing to get to daycare, and pick up on time thinking, Oh my gosh, when I get home I have to feed the kids, I have to do the laundry, I have to do this or that.
And oh my gosh, after they're in bed, I have to do this for work and I have this meeting tomorrow; and I just found myself thinking like, wow, I really just wish there was a way to more clearly divide all this and start taking care of myself.
I had been using a planner that just had a very simple format and they really encouraged, Oh, color code and use different colors for the different parts of your life. Well, that felt overwhelming to me.
Okay.
And I so eventually, It turned into the four sections of the planner. Each day is divided into four sections work, self, others, and home. And it was important for me for others to be a single category because
yes,
Whether you have. A dog or seven children or an Alling family member that you're taking care of, there is only so much of you to go around.
Yeah.
And I found that, when I really sorted things out like that, I realized that I wasn't asking for help. I was not. Delegating or asking my husband for help with the pickups or the activities or the preparation for school events, because I was just simply taking everything on myself because, in my head, there was an endless amount of space for taking care of everywhere.
We are the same. We are a very similar approach. I can't imagine you have children. I don't have children. I can't imagine adding too little being. To this equation.
I was really at the point where I was only taking care of other people and not taking care of myself. So when I sorted it out like this and realized I needed to start asking for help, if I was ever going to fill anything in, in that self section for myself, I really needed to shift my perspective. And see that I have a limited time to take care of others, no matter who it is. So that is really how it all came to fruition. And I will say that since I started using our original prototype in 2018, early 2019, I really started paying attention to every single day what was I doing to take care of myself.
I joke that the name balance bound is almost tongue in cheek because it's really more of a juggle but it's the idea of each day working towards balance.
I love color coding, but I'm an overwhelmed person anyway. I like the color coding because it allows me to categorize, but having that container, If there's one day here, dividing it into those four sections, it's super, it's genius; and I think especially if you're someone who is visual, and I also love that it led you on a journey of starting to evaluate and set boundaries and ask for help because especially as a Type A+ person, that's really, really hard to do.
Yes. It's funny I've had a few customers reach out with ideas or requests and some people have said I need more space in the work section. I'm like, actually you don't because you're trying to take on too much. I mean, there are 1212 spaces for different to-dos in the work section. And again, as a Type A+ person like yourself, I did not have a single boundary in my life until I really started visually evaluating everything I was doing in this way.
It's spectacular. I'm so excited to get mine. And let's touch on your podcast for a little bit.
Yeah.
You guys know I'm a huge fan of yours. So tell the listeners about your podcast and share a little bit about what's going on.
So, the podcast really was born from my work with Balance Bound, creating this planner, and Amanda Jefferson's work in the organizing and Kaari world, we were good friends before we both had these businesses, but we finally thought, "Oh, this would be really fun to sit down and talk about how our businesses overlap and how we can help each other have different perspectives." So we launched the Good Enough-ish podcast in April of this year. We are about 25 episodes in and it's really just time for us to sit down and troubleshoot some of the problems that come up in our lives; talk about the boundaries that we need to set, and in each episode, We talk about one thing that's sparking joy for one of us, and we also lay out the idea that you can be doing your future self a favor.
I've listened since the beginning. You know, I absolutely love your podcast and your banter is, I think it's absolutely perfect because you can tell that you're true friends, that this is fun for you. And so it's fun as a listener. But I love all of your tips on your podcast of how to do a future to or a favor today, so that see, you know, that I'm,
See I mess it up every time. I'd like my future self. Nope. Favor,
and I empathize with you cause I feel like I would as well. But yeah the idea that you're basically planting a seed so that future self can go, Oh man. Thank you so much. I'm so glad I did that.
I'll give you a little insider tip. We're recording this week and one of the favors to my future self that I'm going to share with our audience is now is a great time to do an inventory of all of your winter gear. I know today when you and I are recording this, it's cold, it's rainy, and I hate to say it, but winter is going to be here before we know it.
Yes.
So that first cold snap that, you know, we're actually looking at freezing temperatures. Yeah. I like to dive in, especially with kids, but even if you don't have kids, getting yourself ahead of the game so when that first cold day does arrive, you're not scrambling.
Amidst still busy life and you're busy job too.
Trying to make layers cool.
Exactly. Yeah. Just feeling like on top of those things that creep up on us as busy people.
So how can people get in touch with you?
Yeah, so I'll start with Curious and company, at www.curiousandcompany.com is our website.
If any of your listeners are looking for branding design for their small. Balance Bound on Instagram. We are @Balance Bound Planner and our website is www.balancebound.co. And the good enough-ish podcast is available anywhere people get their podcasts. And you can also find show notes@goodenoughish.com.
There's also a link there to our social media, so I'm kind of sprinkling it all over the place.
You know, I am too. And I think Type A+ people. I think sometimes people. Externally and say, "you've got a lot going on," but it's like, no, we're just really good, as you said at juggling. Yeah. I'm best when I have things to juggle as opposed to just one thing. I'm making the ball-throwing motion for those. I forget that everyone's not gonna,
That's okay. I could, I could feel it through the screen. But especially as a creative person, the more creative energy I can put out there through a variety of products, I feel like the better results I get. So I'm always, always doing new things, but I find it exciting and gratifying.
Amazing. Thank you so much, Brooke, for joining us today. You're someone who is so authentic. You're so good at what you do. You care so much about what you do, and it's been phenomenal talking to you.
Thank you, Beth. The feeling is mutual. Yeah. Let's get together again soon.
Thanks again.