Our community is filled with hard-working, high achieving entrepreneurs and creatives and so work-life balance is a complicated, but highly relevant topic. We’ve shared some responses from the community about work life balance and how their views have evolved over time below.

Carrie Cocan | Registered Nurse

Work life balance had definitely changed. In a good way of learning how to compartmentalize family, work, and personal life. I used to be on a regular schedule the terms were 12 hour shifts 3 days a week, but I always picked up more hours.
So when The IV Girl started I had to become disciplined in the time I give. It was difficult, but you make it happen. Especially when you’re passionate of the product you deliver. Read more>>

Vicky Nguyen | Entrepreneur and Business Owner

When I first started my business, there was almost no separation between my personal and business life, which led to feeling chained to work despite the freedom from corporate life. My business consumed my thoughts 24/7, and I struggled to enjoy personal time. Read more>>

Sabrina Orro | Actress

Wow. It’s actually really funny that you asked me this question because, at the start of each year, I like to select a word to be my theme for the year; my word for this year is “balance.”

Work/life balance is something I’ve struggled with my entire career. When I first started pursuing professional acting, I thought I had to be all-acting all the time to “make it.”  Read more>>

Genevieve Lerner | Actor, writer

Work/life balance is one of the most difficult things for me because I love my work, and sometimes it doesn’t pay, and I work weird hours, and the boundary isn’t always clear. I also do a lot of work from home, but not all of it…so it gets confusing. As I’ve delved more into finding more and more income sources, this has gotten even more difficult. So I’m constantly reassessing, trying to take steps back and look over my life in general. I think about the balance as being constantly in flux. There’s a season for everything…sometimes I’m focusing more on work, sometimes more on my time with my friends and family. Read more>>

Shu Kinouchi | A dancer and an artist

My work life balance was almost non exist before. I was making so much commitment to dance I didn’t have anything left for a well rounded life- for life or love or friendship or beauty or nature. Since I met my girlfriend I had to question how I positioned my career as a professional dancer within my life. I barely had energy to see her or be present with her and she was able to communicate her needs well. I hadn’t questioned what else I needed or wanted because my whole life was designed around being “the best dancer”. Ballet requires so much from you and mindset is still very old school.  Read more>>

Moxie Zhang | Filmmaker

As a filmmaker, my work-life balance has evolved significantly. While the heavy workload and irregular working hours are challenging, my biggest struggle is carrying the creative mindset into everyday life, leading to overthinking and exhaustion. Balancing creative passion with personal life requires intentional planning and flexibility, ensuring that I stay productive while also maintaining my well-being. When I feel mentally and physically drained, I make it point to step away from films-related topic and people, engaging in simple, mundane activities to regain balance and happiness. Read more>>

Fatspatrol | Artist

It’s funny because I think my work life balance has changed more by making my work more deeply connected to my life. At earlier stages of my career, being an artist was work and my balance was out of whack. I worked excessively, didn’t know how to switch off, was burnt out and really constantly consumed by what needed doing. and how to make the money. Read more>>

Lloyd Campbell Iii | Games Producer

Games are hard to make. Period. I love playing them and love the impact it has to unite communities but I never knew the amount of work that goes into creating such fun experiences. The first game I ever made self-taught, by myself, took three months and all I had to show for it was a five-minute experience. However, I actually enjoyed this challenge and I wanted to create more games. Read more>>

Karla Sandoval | Dancer/performer

As someone who has loved dance her entire life and quickly became my whole world, with time I have learned that having “normal” activities incorporated into my day-to-day and nourishing communities outside of dance helped to the development of my art in such a deep level, by balancing my work with my human activities helped my art grow in directions that I could have never expect, I find it so important having hobbies other than dance and making friends outside the dance community has pushed my art into a new direction. Read more>>

Alexandra Monroe & Jadah Cunningham | Founders of Red Eye Creative Marketing

I think as a duo we hold a lot of grace for the ebs and flows of work life balance. We understand every industry has its seasons and so being strategic with our business plans allows us to have a the space to audit all that’s going on in our lives and making sure we are continuing to take care of our selves as human beings not just business owners. But in that same vein we love hitting new business milestones so we definitely work hard to keep our batteries healthy and keep creating. Read more>>

Elizabeth Blake Thomas | Director, Author, Keynote speaker and Creativity Coach

We have 1440 minutes in a day. We have approximately 80 summers. We have 12 times a year to do something unique.

To me, my work life balance comes from working out how my life plays out in numbers.

I’ve not always been so aware and intentional with how I spend my time, but definitely as I’ve gotten older I’ve recognised how quickly it goes. This has lead me to consider how I spend my time more intentionally. Considering  Read more>>

Annie Potter | Chief Marketing Officer at VersaDesk

I have three young kids, and I had them during a critical growth period for my career– that hasn’t slowed down. Having kids at this exciting time in my professional life was a pivotal moment for reevaluating my approach to work-life balance, and honestly made me push back on the concept of “balance”. Both worlds are never going to be given 50/50. Before kids, I was deeply invested in every aspect of my work, often prioritizing it above all else. However, becoming a parent brought a new perspective.  Read more>>

Makeda Smith | Publicist & Pro-Aging Movement Coach

Being an entrepreneur and running my own PR agency for over 35 years, in addition to promoting my dance movement brands for 13 years – I’ve learned the importance of a work / life balance.

In my younger years (I’m over 60 now ) – work was Everything. I literally worked around the clock, running my PR agency and caring for my girls as a single parent mom. I hit total burnout zone – not realizing that I had no work / life balance. I remember wanting to just walk away from my business – and life! Read more>>

Erin Serfass | Production Accountant and Content Creator

Work life balance can be really hard to navigate, especially as a creative! In this industry, most of us are here because it’s what we love to do. Our passion is our biggest motivation and it fuels us through the long hours and hard work. But this is also what leads to burn out, and eventually resentment of the thing we once loved. I really enjoy working on my creative endeavors, but at the end of the day it’s still a job. Read more>>

Lisa Weckbacher | Children’s Author & Academic

Safe to say, for most people, work-life balance inevitably changes with age. This has certainly been my experience. In the early days of my academic career (post-doctorate), the balance involved raising my son and making time for family. Now that he is older with a life of his own, making time for family is still essential, but finding balance is less trying. Read more>>

Audunn Luthersson | Musician

Making music is such a big part of my life. I am incredibly lucky to be able to work doing my favourite thing. Having said that I try to do off days like once a week where I simply am not allowed to make any music. It’s important to charge your batteries and do laundry. Read more>>

Scott Winn | Filmmaker & Songwriter

My work-life balance has changed drastically over the past few years. In the beginning, it was all work, no time for self or family. The business grew and I became successful with this pattern, but it was not sustainable. One of the hardest things I ever did was press pause on everything so that I could re-evaluate this imbalance. Prior to making the decision to shift things, my mental and physical health were in steep decline. Read more>>

Aryana Shokat

This is a huge area of development for me over the years. Over the years I’ve had to really learn the meaning behind work-life balance, and what both extreme ends of the spectrum can look like. Either being completely burned out by your work or chomping at that bit to get back in the game because it feel like your soul’s purpose isn’t being fulfilled. There is a happy medium that we are all searching for, one that allows us to be dialed into our craft, but also one that gives us that time to be with our family, make memories with our friends and loved ones, truly being present in the little moments of life along the way. It’s a lesson I had to learn the hard way. Read more>>

Avery Mei Skillin

I actually come from a musical background, I played the violin for 15 years since I was 5 years old. It was very rigorous and that pressure teaches you a lot of discipline and self regulation; I would practice for at least an hour a day and even after moving on from audial to visual art, that work ethic has been physically ingrained in me and has stuck to the rest of my art practice. I never saw drawing or painting as a natural ability, I saw it as a skill you constantly have to train and develop the same way you exercise, that should take up your entire life. Read more>>

Nikol Sedef

Balance is something that most of us search for and strive to maintain throughout our lives. In my work, I draw inspiration from chaos and use balance for the final touches, leading to a completed piece. Just as too much chaos in my art can feel overwhelming and lost, I find myself feeling lost when my work routine becomes too chaotic. Read more>>

Rodrigo Ramos

My approach to work life balance has evolved as I’ve focused on managing my mental health and balancing social life with work and studies. Initially, I struggled with anxiety and depression due to overwork, but I’ve since learned the importance of setting boundaries and prioritizing self-care. Read more>>

Karen Kraven

When I was just starting out, I had endless energy and ambition. I was motivated by a belief that hard work and long hours would pay off. It was really a go, go, go pace, with very little rest or time off and it was working, until it wasn’t. After the unexpected passing of my father several years ago, I experienced severe burnout.
To recover, I had to change my relationship to my work. I had to learn how to pause and slow down. I had to listen to my body. I had reconsider my motivations. Read more>>

Hannah Fletcher

My work life balance has definitely been complicated since the pandemic. I am blessed to bed able to do what I love, which is not revolving around a typical 9-5 structure involving clocking in and out. It’s also tricky because I can work from anywhere. I can work at home doing emails, but often times my car rides are taken up by phone calls and coordinating with others-not listening to the latest Sabrina Carpenter hits, unfortunately. Read more>>