September 2, 2026 • 24 mins
Founder of Ask Proxy Christine Landis shares how to delegate the little things to spend time on what matters most
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
episode is going to be a slightly longer one part
of the series where I interview fascinating people about how
they take their days from great to awesome and any
(00:23):
advice they have for the rest of us. So today,
I'm delighted to welcome Christine Landas to the show. Christine
is the founder of Peacock Parent and the creator of Proxy,
a service that helps families find time saving strategies. So Christine,
welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Thank you. I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Yeah, well, we're excited to have you on. Why don't
you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself?
Speaker 3 (00:46):
So, I think the first thing to know is I
am just an efficiency lover, you know, I always have been.
I think I'm just obsessed with time and joy and
really finding that balance.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
You know.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
I started Peacock Parent about four years ago, and it
came from this place of acknowledging so many people were,
so many parents especially we're not delegating at home.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
We do this at work, and we're so proud of it.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
And we scale and we know, we can't do it
all ourselves, and yet at home, we put this pressure
on ourselves, like we must be the one that changes
every single diaper, or we must be the one that
you know, fills every single lunch snack kit. And so
it just made me go why, and that really led
me to Peacock Parent. We can talk about that more
(01:33):
in a bit, but it's just this concept of time abundance.
Why are we not change, you know, chasing time, choice, time, freedom,
time abundance, Like that's what really lights me up.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Yeah, and obviously lights us up over here as well.
But I understand that the Peacock Parent and proxy are
a second career for you, right, you had a business
career before that.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Yes, So I was the CEO of a fintech company
called NCC and we assisted mark operations departments for casinos.
So if you want to go get a line of credit,
you would apply. And the difference with like a bank
is that the casino makes it feel like magic and they,
you know, magically give you all this monopoly money to
spend in their casino. And we were behind the scenes
(02:14):
hosting that application and pulling all sorts of different reports
and really aggregating it and shocker, saving time and making
the process more efficient.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
So that was what we did.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
And then you sold that and have moved into the
entrepreneurial space since then.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Yes, so sold that eight years ago now, And it
was one of those where I was not planning on it.
It was a godfather offer and my husband actually was
the one that was like, I'm going to need a
really good reason from you why you're not going to
say yes to this. And then I, you know, I
quote unquote retired for a while. And that's bizarre in
itself because I think that's one of the light bulb
(02:53):
moments about time that got me down this path, was
that I went from time poverty to time abundance quickly overnight.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
And it's the goal.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
It's what we all are trying to work for, right
is this concept of like, oh, I don't have to work,
I don't have to do anything, no one needs anything
from me.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
But yet when it.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Happens to you, it's very jarring, and to be honest,
you start cut. I found at least that I needed
again more of this balance of time and joy, and
again that's what led us down to this path of
what does that look like, how does someone live this
quote unquote good life? And is this you know, money
can buy happiness? Can of not buy happiness? Like what
(03:31):
does that all mean?
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Yeah? Absolutely? And so why don't you talk to us?
That's a little bit about You've been in the news
lately of this concept of CEO parenting. So what would
you describe as CEO parenting?
Speaker 3 (03:44):
So it's this running your home like a business, you know,
applying the time as money principle and saying, you know,
my time matters. Is this worth my time? Could someone
else do it? How do we against scale but for
joy in our household? And so for me it came
down to again delegating and outsourcing these low joy tasks
(04:04):
I call it. I think for work we more say
low value, And for me it was just acknowledging like
I don't want to do that and I don't like
doing it. More importantly, like I dread it or like it.
It really drains my energy. And you know, I know
you talk a lot about opportunity costs. That's also my
love language as far as like what could this free
me up to do? If I don't do this, if
I let someone else do it, even if it's not
(04:26):
the standard, you know, even if society tells us that's
what a mom is supposed to do or that's you know,
that's what the parent's supposed to do. And so that
got me into this exploration of again, like, well, what
if we did have more of a mindset at home
like we do at work, and what if we applied
that CEO mindset about time is money and time being
a currency.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Well, and the thing I like about this is, you know,
many of us who are busy parents, it's not the
parenting part we're outsourcing. And oftentimes when people talk about like, oh,
you're you're outsourcing parenthood, and it's like, well, no, actually,
I am able to spend mo more time with my
kids if I'm not chasing them away because I'm cooking dinner,
or if I'm not you know, I'm able to do
(05:07):
something fun with them instead of bring them on an
errand with me, or because I've gotten my work done
during the day because I have somebody else meeting the
contractor at the house, then I don't have to catch
up with work after five pm and can hang out
with them. I mean, am I on the right mindset here?
Speaker 2 (05:24):
One thousand percent.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
I mean, the definition of peacock parent was really, you know,
to proudly value your time differently at home to be
you know, outsourcing and delegating those low joy tasks so
you can spend more quality time with your with your
kids and be more present. And I think that quality
time versus quantity time is you know, really at the
(05:46):
core messaging of what at least I talk about most
and what CEO parenting really is about. Because you're saying,
I want to show up for what matters, you know,
and to me, that is undivided attention. That is not
more titasking on my phone at the same time trying
to get the school paperwork submitted as I'm trying to
hear about their day, and and so that you know,
(06:08):
that undivided attention, that complete focus, that's how I don't
feel like I'm going to have as much regret looking
back on my time with my kids. I know that
there's just you know, who is it, Ryan Clark, I
think or he was on your show talking about like
these are the good times. I think I am so
acutely aware that these are the good times. And so
that's exactly why to your point, I'm saying, well, I'm
(06:31):
going to let someone else do these things that distract
me from where I want to be spending my time
and focus.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
So let's say somebody like, I don't know about you,
but certainly me. You know, we grew up in a
very kind of middle class existence where this, you know,
was never a thought that you were going to be
hiring people to do various tasks for you. The obvious
when people think about, you know, taking care of your
kids while you're working. But if we move beyond childcare,
what are some of the things that people get the
biggest bang for their buck in terms of getting rid
(06:59):
of some of these low value tasks for freeing up time.
What's some of the biggest payoffs you've seen?
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Oh gosh, so I think you know. A laundry service
is the first one that comes to mind. You can
literally set your laundry in a bag outside your door.
You don't have to be there when they come and
pick it up. You can even specify all of the
things you like or don't like about how it's done.
Someone picks it up for you during a designated time,
They bring it back within twenty four to eight forty
(07:27):
eight hours and it's folded, it's in a bag, it's
sitting on your front door. And again you don't have
to be there to even meet or greet or have
any of that interaction. I think another one for me
is just anything generally that involves drive time. I I'm
a big fan of in home services, and it's because
it's convenient. But it's convenient because when you really break
(07:49):
down all these small steps of like okay, well I
didn't have to prep to walk out the door. I
didn't have to you know, including putting my shoes on
or like maybe changing out on my pajamas. I don't,
you know, have to get in my car obviously an
actually drive or get rushed or feel rushed I should say,
find the parking spot, actually interact with maybe the receptionist.
I mean, just all these little things that can drain you.
(08:10):
And it's not just the physical time. I think it's
that mental stress too that has, you know, a value
that we're kind of forgetting. So in home services, I mean,
you know your your beauty and wellness, like in a
home massage, your facial, your nails. I mean I have
actually my lashes getting done right after this, and also
(08:31):
my eyebrows getting tinted at the same time.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
And so there's just there.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
There is truly at this point that with the gig
economy we're living in, somebody can come and help you
do something here.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
And I think the.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Last thing we'll say is the assumption is that it's
going to be so much more expensive. But that's really
what you know, I'm trying to break down for people
is say, listen, you're paying maybe an extra ten to
fifteen dollars to really say you're delegating that drive time
to somebody. That's an extra fee they're going to charge.
It's the same price otherwise for you know, the dry
cleaning to get dropped off and picked up. You're paying
that regardless of you do the driving. Let's pay the
(09:05):
extra five bucks for them to do the drive for you.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
All right, Well, we're going to take a quick ad
break and then I'll be back with more from Christine Landis. Well,
I am back talking with Christine Landis Is, the founder
of Peacock Parent and the creator of Proxy, a service
that helps families find time saving strategies. There's a lot
(09:29):
of stuff with kids we were just talking about. In
home services, there's stuff with kids that can come to
you as well. I was surprised music lessons, Like I
sort of assumed if I wanted all my kids doing
music lessons, this would just be an incredible amount of
schlapping people around. But it turns out they can come
to you too.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Yeah, swim lessons, you know, obviously that requires a pool.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Chess lessons.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
I have our you know, my son is six and
no he's not, he's seven.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
He just turns seven.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
And he has a you know, we have a chest
instructor calm on Sunday mornings and actually his grandpa comes
and meets him here at our house too, and it's
just a way for them, you know, where my daughter
who's five, like she doesn't have to get packed in
the car and leave and go somewhere and watch. It's
like she can be in the playroom and you know,
having her own time and play and imagination. So yes,
(10:18):
there there is someone that can come to you for everything.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
And with that thing of having another kid who doesn't
have to get dragged along to stuff, this is something
people might consider, even with hiring childcare, that it doesn't
mean you don't have your kids. It might mean you
don't have all your kids. Have you used that strategy
as well?
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Yeah, I mean we, especially with my youngest Vivian, when
she was a baby, I would have essentially our nanny
would stay home with her. Well, I could still take Hunter,
who was you know, too roughly at the time, out
and about and we'd go on adventures, you know, because
he's that was still really enjoyable and he wanted to
get out, and I didn't want to make him feel
like he had to be locked in. And I understand that,
(10:59):
of course, you can bring the baby with you everywhere,
but for me, being an extremely type ased scheduled person,
I really wanted her to have her naps and have
everything on track. And so that was again an investment
into my time and joy to have someone there. I
was still with one of my children. I just wasn't
necessarily there watching the monitor of a baby sleep, you know,
(11:22):
for three four hours in a row exactly.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
I found it's a massive increase in my joy to
have somebody watching like a little one, like a toddler.
So I could watch a big kid's game, for instance,
while not chasing a two year old into the parking lot.
And I missed the soccer goal which is what I
was hoping to be there to watch in the first place.
So if somebody's hearing all this, they're like, well, I'm
interested in this idea. How how does somebody go about
figuring out what would be the smartest things for them
(11:46):
to try to delegate? Is there like an analysis you
could do looking at your time, like rating things on joy? Like,
what would you recommend doing?
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Yeah, I'd say it's more of the rating things on Joy.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
I do have a guide that's completely free on Peacock
parent you.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Of course, I're gonna have to give your email for it.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Sorry, guys, but it's called ninety nine tasks you can
delegate today. But the whole point is that it walks
you through the mindset first and foremost and really empowers
you to say, get honest with yourself. You know, like
no one's judging you. You know, this is the one
life you're living. So what don't you like doing? You know, like,
let's get real, and I have a whole checklist I
(12:23):
spell it out of, you know, again, these ninety nine
different things based on kind of the type of task
or even in the room, and again breaking down some
like smaller stuff. I mean, people really assume it has
to be all or nothing, like I either drive my
kids to school or I never drive my kids to school,
And it's like no, like there is so much gray,
you know, and so it's like that for every little task,
(12:46):
you can think through. So that is my suggestion is
that you go through and think through what don't I
like doing?
Speaker 2 (12:54):
What do I even? I mean I hate to use
word of hate, but you know, like what do I
hate almost doing? What do I dread?
Speaker 3 (13:00):
And then think about where else can you? Who else
can do it? Because of course you can, but so
can someone else. And it doesn't always have to just
be your partner or the grandparent. You know, it's okay
to hire your village like that's allowed.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
And so the one challenge of course with hiring a
village is that you're then managing a village. And I
think for many busy parents there's so much mental load
and it's even it's like the mental load that we'd
like to reduce. Someone, Do you have some practical strategies
for lowering the mental load of parenting?
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Yes, So that's what led me to create PROXY.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
It's a personal AI assistant that is there to protect
your time and joy it's built for capturing all that
all the things you think and notice and remember because
you can't help but do that, you know, but it's
a place to put it, and then it organizes it
in a fashion to bring it up when it makes
sense or sends a message to that person that needs
(14:02):
to take the chicken out of the freezer at five pm.
At five pm, not just in that moment you remembered
it and now it's on the onus of the other
person to have to remember it later. The other thing
it does really well and differently, is it's proactively thinking
ahead for you. It's it's proactively bringing things up that
you don't know about, because to me, that's what I
discovered is that you don't know what you don't know.
(14:23):
So that's a lot of the mental load of Sure,
it's what you're remembering and noticing, but it's also that
like icky feeling of like what am I forgetting?
Speaker 2 (14:30):
What am I not doing?
Speaker 3 (14:31):
And so that we have this, you know, different stages
of life and kind of our own internal data that
we bring up for you once we know more about
you and saying he, oh there's this too, or hey
that packs are going on sale in July, why don't
you go get it, don't wait till August. Here is
you know, Old Navy has a good sale, whatever it
may be. But that to me is one way I've
(14:53):
tried to come up with a way that feels actionable.
And I think at the end of the day, that's
you know, maybe the cognitive behavioral therapy that I've done
in life, but like I want to take thought to action,
you know, and that's the best I can do. And
as far as outside of just talking about ask proxy,
I think that when you do hire a service, you know,
(15:16):
do hire someone in your home, getting that specialist is
really important because they know, you know, you're you're outsourcing
to someone because they can do it better and because
they already have a system. I mean, they could maybe
even teach you. Whereas I see a difference in the
terms delegating and outsourcing, Like delegating is you saying I
know how to do this really well, I'm just choosing
(15:37):
to have you do it for me. So yes, there's
going to be a little bit of an onboarding or
a training or an SOP write out or record something
that's that initial management, but that outsourcing is a little
less it should be at least it's you know, it's
more you saying like, listen, I might not know this
very well. So I'm going to have you wash my
car and come to my house and do a mobile
car wash every single time. But I could keep going,
(16:01):
but lare I'm going to stop talking?
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Yes, No, all sorts of ways we couldn't we do
are just you know, reminding ourselves of things. We figure
out systems that, you know, reduce the mental load. One example,
I always think of, as I have it as a
recurring calendar thing that two of my children have birthdays
right after Christmas, and then the lead up to Christmas,
I kind of forget that. It's like, oh yeah, that
birthday party venue that's in early January does in fact
(16:26):
need to be booked in late November because otherwise, ye,
you will get it even though you're not thinking about it,
because it's an entirely different year. All Right, We're going
to take a quick ad break and then I'll be
back with more from Christine Landis. Well, I am back
talking with Christine Landis was a proponent of CEO parenting.
(16:48):
She is the creator of Proxy, a service that helps
families find time saving strategies. So Christine, I wanted to
pivot a little bit more to your schedule. Do you
have any sort of morning routine.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Yes, so I wake up at five am, and I
do that only during the week days, and to be honest,
it's probably more like Tuesday through Friday. A lot of
times Monday, I let myself sleep till six. Still, so
I wake up at five and it's purely me time.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
You know.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
This is I am not waking up to do laundry.
I'm not waking up to empty the dushwasher. I am
there just to do whatever makes me happy and get
that quiet time and alone time. It's free, and I
think the only exception to that rule is I feed
the dog. That's the one thing I do for somebody else.
But like I will journeral that's when I do some
(17:35):
of my adult coloring. I take my time making my coffee,
take my vitamins. I'll put like my face mask on.
Sometimes I doom scroll, you know. Sometimes it's work. Sometimes
I do work, but like again, it's because I want
to do it. Maybe I'm excited about something. So that's
my five am before anyone else is up. And then
two times a week our kids get up early. They
(17:56):
get up at six. We put them to bed early
as well. But I have in home services come. So
I have a personal trainer come twice a week and
he comes to my home. I've worked with him for
fifteen years. It's the accountability as part of it. But
again it's that drive time and then my kids. I
still get to see them in the morning.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
You know.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
He comes at seven am one day, seven thirty a
different day, so I'm still they're waking my kids up,
helping make breakfast. They come down and say goodbye to me.
We work out outside. There's no special gym or equipment.
It's very basic, but it gets it done. Yoga I
do twice a week at six am. My husband wakes
the kids up in that case, and then they come
(18:36):
down and give me big hugs and kisses during my
yoga session. I know some people might hear that be like,
oh God, I don't want to like that's my time,
but it's like, this is how I get a little
bit of them, a little bit of me, and it works,
you know. So that's my initial kind of morning standard routine,
I'd say, And.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Then how do you structure your work day to be
most productive.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
So I do Tuesday Thursdays are my meeting days. Those
are the only times you can like technically book time
with me. Mondays typically, which we're recording right now, are
my home management day and really my reset day. So
we do on Fridays like a big recap meeting our
team kind of email where everyone has already shared what
(19:21):
they've been working on, what's happening next week, so we
don't have to have that Monday stand up meeting where
we take each other's time. I find my team gets
they're really happy to also have a Monday where there's
less meetings on the books.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Mondays as well.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Another thing I always do is I meet with my
team internally in my house, So our family assistant, our chef,
and my husband and I all meet together and we
meet at twelve o'clock every Monday, and it's a good
forty five minutes to an hour, and we sit and
we're reviewing trello where we've captured things that need to
get done. We're reviewing our schedule that week to make
(19:56):
sure that hey, is there anything that's standing out here
that anyone has questions about? Even though there's a household
calendar that everyone shares.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
What's your household calendar that everyone shares?
Speaker 2 (20:06):
It's just Google.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
Yeah, And I don't want to knock any other calendar
system out there. I think that's great if there's something
that works for somebody. But I have personally found a
lot of this stuff for free is great. You know,
I use Trello, a free account to track my to
do list electronically. Again, everyone can have access to that
Google calendar just for a shared calendar for the household.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
I mean, it works, it's easy, and it works.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
It's easy and it works and for the most part free.
So Christine, I ask all my guests, what is something
you have done recently to take a day from great
to awesome?
Speaker 3 (20:43):
So I really would say, it's adult coloring, and let
me explain if that.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Let's hear about it. Let's hear about it.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
So I'm not clavy that like, if you adult color
for ten minutes, it's going to turn your data awesome guaranteed.
But for me, it is my meditation. And I know
I've heard a lot of people talk about this concept
of meditation. I applaud anyone that can just sit silently
and not have anything else they're focusing on. But for me,
having like mandalas I use and like glitter pens, it
(21:12):
gets me to breathe. It gets me to sit down,
and especially when I'm feeling overwhelmed frustrated, I straight out
tell the kids, you know, I will say openly, this
is how mommy's feeling. I'm feeling a little frustrated. I'm
going to go color for a little bit. I mean
that in itself is a signal to say, ooh, you know,
mommy needs a reset, like I wonder why, and not
(21:34):
just for the kids, but also for my husband, for
myself even if no one's around. But I'd say, what
it really does is it forces my brain to pause,
you know, instead of trying to solve the feeling, I'm
just acknowledging it out loud, and then I'm doing something else.
It makes me still feel productive in this weird way
because I have a mandala that then no one else sees,
(21:57):
but I think it's beautiful and I do it just
it resets me.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
And like almost every time I choose to do that.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
You know, it might for someone else be walking around
the block or cooking or doing something else that resets you,
but for me, like adult coloring. It does it and
I can point to like the curve going up in
my day after I've taken that minute and to get
more like ten minutes.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
And where do you get your patterns that you're doing?
And you just buy them online?
Speaker 3 (22:22):
Or oh yeah through Amazon color it is the is
the company I go through, And yeah's just Amazon. I
think it's like anywhere from eleven to fifteen bucks. And
it's paper. I still love paper. I still have a printer.
I still I think I'm like part boomer inside of me.
But yeah, and these and then I now and that
person that buys pens for myself whenever I go into
(22:44):
a stationary store and I'm like getting really excited about
different like pen tips and colors and yeah, I mean
this is what happens I think when you're almost forty five.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Apparently, well we like to go old school sometimes for sure.
So Christine, where can people find you if they'd like
to connect or learn more?
Speaker 3 (23:02):
So any of those free resources about delegation or on
peacock parent dot com. Askproxy dot com is where you'll
find information about the personal AI assistant that's there to
protect your time and joy and then just me personally
I'm on Instagram at the Christine Landis and yeah, I
think that's everything, and I'd love to hear from anyone directly.
(23:23):
I love these conversations. It's literally what I've chosen to
do with my time, so it delights.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Me absolutely Well, Christine, thank you so much for joining us.
Thank you to everyone for listening. If you have feedback
about this or any other episode, you can always reach
me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. In the meantime,
this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making
the most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.
(23:58):
If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach
me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast
is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,
please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
(24:20):
listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
episode is going to be a slightly longer one part
of the series where I interview fascinating people about how
they take their days from great to awesome and any
(00:23):
advice they have for the rest of us. So today,
I'm delighted to welcome Christine Landas to the show. Christine
is the founder of Peacock Parent and the creator of Proxy,
a service that helps families find time saving strategies. So Christine,
welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Thank you. I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Yeah, well, we're excited to have you on. Why don't
you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself?
Speaker 3 (00:46):
So, I think the first thing to know is I
am just an efficiency lover, you know, I always have been.
I think I'm just obsessed with time and joy and
really finding that balance.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
You know.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
I started Peacock Parent about four years ago, and it
came from this place of acknowledging so many people were,
so many parents especially we're not delegating at home.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
We do this at work, and we're so proud of it.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
And we scale and we know, we can't do it
all ourselves, and yet at home, we put this pressure
on ourselves, like we must be the one that changes
every single diaper, or we must be the one that
you know, fills every single lunch snack kit. And so
it just made me go why, and that really led
me to Peacock Parent. We can talk about that more
(01:33):
in a bit, but it's just this concept of time abundance.
Why are we not change, you know, chasing time, choice, time, freedom,
time abundance, Like that's what really lights me up.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Yeah, and obviously lights us up over here as well.
But I understand that the Peacock Parent and proxy are
a second career for you, right, you had a business
career before that.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Yes, So I was the CEO of a fintech company
called NCC and we assisted mark operations departments for casinos.
So if you want to go get a line of credit,
you would apply. And the difference with like a bank
is that the casino makes it feel like magic and they,
you know, magically give you all this monopoly money to
spend in their casino. And we were behind the scenes
(02:14):
hosting that application and pulling all sorts of different reports
and really aggregating it and shocker, saving time and making
the process more efficient.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
So that was what we did.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
And then you sold that and have moved into the
entrepreneurial space since then.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Yes, so sold that eight years ago now, And it
was one of those where I was not planning on it.
It was a godfather offer and my husband actually was
the one that was like, I'm going to need a
really good reason from you why you're not going to
say yes to this. And then I, you know, I
quote unquote retired for a while. And that's bizarre in
itself because I think that's one of the light bulb
(02:53):
moments about time that got me down this path, was
that I went from time poverty to time abundance quickly overnight.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
And it's the goal.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
It's what we all are trying to work for, right
is this concept of like, oh, I don't have to work,
I don't have to do anything, no one needs anything
from me.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
But yet when it.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Happens to you, it's very jarring, and to be honest,
you start cut. I found at least that I needed
again more of this balance of time and joy, and
again that's what led us down to this path of
what does that look like, how does someone live this
quote unquote good life? And is this you know, money
can buy happiness? Can of not buy happiness? Like what
(03:31):
does that all mean?
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Yeah? Absolutely? And so why don't you talk to us?
That's a little bit about You've been in the news
lately of this concept of CEO parenting. So what would
you describe as CEO parenting?
Speaker 3 (03:44):
So it's this running your home like a business, you know,
applying the time as money principle and saying, you know,
my time matters. Is this worth my time? Could someone
else do it? How do we against scale but for
joy in our household? And so for me it came
down to again delegating and outsourcing these low joy tasks
(04:04):
I call it. I think for work we more say
low value, And for me it was just acknowledging like
I don't want to do that and I don't like
doing it. More importantly, like I dread it or like it.
It really drains my energy. And you know, I know
you talk a lot about opportunity costs. That's also my
love language as far as like what could this free
me up to do? If I don't do this, if
I let someone else do it, even if it's not
(04:26):
the standard, you know, even if society tells us that's
what a mom is supposed to do or that's you know,
that's what the parent's supposed to do. And so that
got me into this exploration of again, like, well, what
if we did have more of a mindset at home
like we do at work, and what if we applied
that CEO mindset about time is money and time being
a currency.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Well, and the thing I like about this is, you know,
many of us who are busy parents, it's not the
parenting part we're outsourcing. And oftentimes when people talk about like, oh,
you're you're outsourcing parenthood, and it's like, well, no, actually,
I am able to spend mo more time with my
kids if I'm not chasing them away because I'm cooking dinner,
or if I'm not you know, I'm able to do
(05:07):
something fun with them instead of bring them on an
errand with me, or because I've gotten my work done
during the day because I have somebody else meeting the
contractor at the house, then I don't have to catch
up with work after five pm and can hang out
with them. I mean, am I on the right mindset here?
Speaker 2 (05:24):
One thousand percent.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
I mean, the definition of peacock parent was really, you know,
to proudly value your time differently at home to be
you know, outsourcing and delegating those low joy tasks so
you can spend more quality time with your with your
kids and be more present. And I think that quality
time versus quantity time is you know, really at the
(05:46):
core messaging of what at least I talk about most
and what CEO parenting really is about. Because you're saying,
I want to show up for what matters, you know,
and to me, that is undivided attention. That is not
more titasking on my phone at the same time trying
to get the school paperwork submitted as I'm trying to
hear about their day, and and so that you know,
(06:08):
that undivided attention, that complete focus, that's how I don't
feel like I'm going to have as much regret looking
back on my time with my kids. I know that
there's just you know, who is it, Ryan Clark, I
think or he was on your show talking about like
these are the good times. I think I am so
acutely aware that these are the good times. And so
that's exactly why to your point, I'm saying, well, I'm
(06:31):
going to let someone else do these things that distract
me from where I want to be spending my time
and focus.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
So let's say somebody like, I don't know about you,
but certainly me. You know, we grew up in a
very kind of middle class existence where this, you know,
was never a thought that you were going to be
hiring people to do various tasks for you. The obvious
when people think about, you know, taking care of your
kids while you're working. But if we move beyond childcare,
what are some of the things that people get the
biggest bang for their buck in terms of getting rid
(06:59):
of some of these low value tasks for freeing up time.
What's some of the biggest payoffs you've seen?
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Oh gosh, so I think you know. A laundry service
is the first one that comes to mind. You can
literally set your laundry in a bag outside your door.
You don't have to be there when they come and
pick it up. You can even specify all of the
things you like or don't like about how it's done.
Someone picks it up for you during a designated time,
They bring it back within twenty four to eight forty
(07:27):
eight hours and it's folded, it's in a bag, it's
sitting on your front door. And again you don't have
to be there to even meet or greet or have
any of that interaction. I think another one for me
is just anything generally that involves drive time. I I'm
a big fan of in home services, and it's because
it's convenient. But it's convenient because when you really break
(07:49):
down all these small steps of like okay, well I
didn't have to prep to walk out the door. I
didn't have to you know, including putting my shoes on
or like maybe changing out on my pajamas. I don't,
you know, have to get in my car obviously an
actually drive or get rushed or feel rushed I should say,
find the parking spot, actually interact with maybe the receptionist.
I mean, just all these little things that can drain you.
(08:10):
And it's not just the physical time. I think it's
that mental stress too that has, you know, a value
that we're kind of forgetting. So in home services, I mean,
you know your your beauty and wellness, like in a
home massage, your facial, your nails. I mean I have
actually my lashes getting done right after this, and also
(08:31):
my eyebrows getting tinted at the same time.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
And so there's just there.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
There is truly at this point that with the gig
economy we're living in, somebody can come and help you
do something here.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
And I think the.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Last thing we'll say is the assumption is that it's
going to be so much more expensive. But that's really
what you know, I'm trying to break down for people
is say, listen, you're paying maybe an extra ten to
fifteen dollars to really say you're delegating that drive time
to somebody. That's an extra fee they're going to charge.
It's the same price otherwise for you know, the dry
cleaning to get dropped off and picked up. You're paying
that regardless of you do the driving. Let's pay the
(09:05):
extra five bucks for them to do the drive for you.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
All right, Well, we're going to take a quick ad
break and then I'll be back with more from Christine Landis. Well,
I am back talking with Christine Landis Is, the founder
of Peacock Parent and the creator of Proxy, a service
that helps families find time saving strategies. There's a lot
(09:29):
of stuff with kids we were just talking about. In
home services, there's stuff with kids that can come to
you as well. I was surprised music lessons, Like I
sort of assumed if I wanted all my kids doing
music lessons, this would just be an incredible amount of
schlapping people around. But it turns out they can come
to you too.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Yeah, swim lessons, you know, obviously that requires a pool.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Chess lessons.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
I have our you know, my son is six and
no he's not, he's seven.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
He just turns seven.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
And he has a you know, we have a chest
instructor calm on Sunday mornings and actually his grandpa comes
and meets him here at our house too, and it's
just a way for them, you know, where my daughter
who's five, like she doesn't have to get packed in
the car and leave and go somewhere and watch. It's
like she can be in the playroom and you know,
having her own time and play and imagination. So yes,
(10:18):
there there is someone that can come to you for everything.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
And with that thing of having another kid who doesn't
have to get dragged along to stuff, this is something
people might consider, even with hiring childcare, that it doesn't
mean you don't have your kids. It might mean you
don't have all your kids. Have you used that strategy
as well?
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Yeah, I mean we, especially with my youngest Vivian, when
she was a baby, I would have essentially our nanny
would stay home with her. Well, I could still take Hunter,
who was you know, too roughly at the time, out
and about and we'd go on adventures, you know, because
he's that was still really enjoyable and he wanted to
get out, and I didn't want to make him feel
like he had to be locked in. And I understand that,
(10:59):
of course, you can bring the baby with you everywhere,
but for me, being an extremely type ased scheduled person,
I really wanted her to have her naps and have
everything on track. And so that was again an investment
into my time and joy to have someone there. I
was still with one of my children. I just wasn't
necessarily there watching the monitor of a baby sleep, you know,
(11:22):
for three four hours in a row exactly.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
I found it's a massive increase in my joy to
have somebody watching like a little one, like a toddler.
So I could watch a big kid's game, for instance,
while not chasing a two year old into the parking lot.
And I missed the soccer goal which is what I
was hoping to be there to watch in the first place.
So if somebody's hearing all this, they're like, well, I'm
interested in this idea. How how does somebody go about
figuring out what would be the smartest things for them
(11:46):
to try to delegate? Is there like an analysis you
could do looking at your time, like rating things on joy? Like,
what would you recommend doing?
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Yeah, I'd say it's more of the rating things on Joy.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
I do have a guide that's completely free on Peacock
parent you.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Of course, I're gonna have to give your email for it.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Sorry, guys, but it's called ninety nine tasks you can
delegate today. But the whole point is that it walks
you through the mindset first and foremost and really empowers
you to say, get honest with yourself. You know, like
no one's judging you. You know, this is the one
life you're living. So what don't you like doing? You know, like,
let's get real, and I have a whole checklist I
(12:23):
spell it out of, you know, again, these ninety nine
different things based on kind of the type of task
or even in the room, and again breaking down some
like smaller stuff. I mean, people really assume it has
to be all or nothing, like I either drive my
kids to school or I never drive my kids to school,
And it's like no, like there is so much gray,
you know, and so it's like that for every little task,
(12:46):
you can think through. So that is my suggestion is
that you go through and think through what don't I
like doing?
Speaker 2 (12:54):
What do I even? I mean I hate to use
word of hate, but you know, like what do I
hate almost doing? What do I dread?
Speaker 3 (13:00):
And then think about where else can you? Who else
can do it? Because of course you can, but so
can someone else. And it doesn't always have to just
be your partner or the grandparent. You know, it's okay
to hire your village like that's allowed.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
And so the one challenge of course with hiring a
village is that you're then managing a village. And I
think for many busy parents there's so much mental load
and it's even it's like the mental load that we'd
like to reduce. Someone, Do you have some practical strategies
for lowering the mental load of parenting?
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Yes, So that's what led me to create PROXY.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
It's a personal AI assistant that is there to protect
your time and joy it's built for capturing all that
all the things you think and notice and remember because
you can't help but do that, you know, but it's
a place to put it, and then it organizes it
in a fashion to bring it up when it makes
sense or sends a message to that person that needs
(14:02):
to take the chicken out of the freezer at five pm.
At five pm, not just in that moment you remembered
it and now it's on the onus of the other
person to have to remember it later. The other thing
it does really well and differently, is it's proactively thinking
ahead for you. It's it's proactively bringing things up that
you don't know about, because to me, that's what I
discovered is that you don't know what you don't know.
(14:23):
So that's a lot of the mental load of Sure,
it's what you're remembering and noticing, but it's also that
like icky feeling of like what am I forgetting?
Speaker 2 (14:30):
What am I not doing?
Speaker 3 (14:31):
And so that we have this, you know, different stages
of life and kind of our own internal data that
we bring up for you once we know more about
you and saying he, oh there's this too, or hey
that packs are going on sale in July, why don't
you go get it, don't wait till August. Here is
you know, Old Navy has a good sale, whatever it
may be. But that to me is one way I've
(14:53):
tried to come up with a way that feels actionable.
And I think at the end of the day, that's
you know, maybe the cognitive behavioral therapy that I've done
in life, but like I want to take thought to action,
you know, and that's the best I can do. And
as far as outside of just talking about ask proxy,
I think that when you do hire a service, you know,
(15:16):
do hire someone in your home, getting that specialist is
really important because they know, you know, you're you're outsourcing
to someone because they can do it better and because
they already have a system. I mean, they could maybe
even teach you. Whereas I see a difference in the
terms delegating and outsourcing, Like delegating is you saying I
know how to do this really well, I'm just choosing
(15:37):
to have you do it for me. So yes, there's
going to be a little bit of an onboarding or
a training or an SOP write out or record something
that's that initial management, but that outsourcing is a little
less it should be at least it's you know, it's
more you saying like, listen, I might not know this
very well. So I'm going to have you wash my
car and come to my house and do a mobile
car wash every single time. But I could keep going,
(16:01):
but lare I'm going to stop talking?
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Yes, No, all sorts of ways we couldn't we do
are just you know, reminding ourselves of things. We figure
out systems that, you know, reduce the mental load. One example,
I always think of, as I have it as a
recurring calendar thing that two of my children have birthdays
right after Christmas, and then the lead up to Christmas,
I kind of forget that. It's like, oh yeah, that
birthday party venue that's in early January does in fact
(16:26):
need to be booked in late November because otherwise, ye,
you will get it even though you're not thinking about it,
because it's an entirely different year. All Right, We're going
to take a quick ad break and then I'll be
back with more from Christine Landis. Well, I am back
talking with Christine Landis was a proponent of CEO parenting.
(16:48):
She is the creator of Proxy, a service that helps
families find time saving strategies. So Christine, I wanted to
pivot a little bit more to your schedule. Do you
have any sort of morning routine.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Yes, so I wake up at five am, and I
do that only during the week days, and to be honest,
it's probably more like Tuesday through Friday. A lot of
times Monday, I let myself sleep till six. Still, so
I wake up at five and it's purely me time.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
You know.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
This is I am not waking up to do laundry.
I'm not waking up to empty the dushwasher. I am
there just to do whatever makes me happy and get
that quiet time and alone time. It's free, and I
think the only exception to that rule is I feed
the dog. That's the one thing I do for somebody else.
But like I will journeral that's when I do some
(17:35):
of my adult coloring. I take my time making my coffee,
take my vitamins. I'll put like my face mask on.
Sometimes I doom scroll, you know. Sometimes it's work. Sometimes
I do work, but like again, it's because I want
to do it. Maybe I'm excited about something. So that's
my five am before anyone else is up. And then
two times a week our kids get up early. They
(17:56):
get up at six. We put them to bed early
as well. But I have in home services come. So
I have a personal trainer come twice a week and
he comes to my home. I've worked with him for
fifteen years. It's the accountability as part of it. But
again it's that drive time and then my kids. I
still get to see them in the morning.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
You know.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
He comes at seven am one day, seven thirty a
different day, so I'm still they're waking my kids up,
helping make breakfast. They come down and say goodbye to me.
We work out outside. There's no special gym or equipment.
It's very basic, but it gets it done. Yoga I
do twice a week at six am. My husband wakes
the kids up in that case, and then they come
(18:36):
down and give me big hugs and kisses during my
yoga session. I know some people might hear that be like,
oh God, I don't want to like that's my time,
but it's like, this is how I get a little
bit of them, a little bit of me, and it works,
you know. So that's my initial kind of morning standard routine,
I'd say, And.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Then how do you structure your work day to be
most productive.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
So I do Tuesday Thursdays are my meeting days. Those
are the only times you can like technically book time
with me. Mondays typically, which we're recording right now, are
my home management day and really my reset day. So
we do on Fridays like a big recap meeting our
team kind of email where everyone has already shared what
(19:21):
they've been working on, what's happening next week, so we
don't have to have that Monday stand up meeting where
we take each other's time. I find my team gets
they're really happy to also have a Monday where there's
less meetings on the books.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Mondays as well.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Another thing I always do is I meet with my
team internally in my house, So our family assistant, our chef,
and my husband and I all meet together and we
meet at twelve o'clock every Monday, and it's a good
forty five minutes to an hour, and we sit and
we're reviewing trello where we've captured things that need to
get done. We're reviewing our schedule that week to make
(19:56):
sure that hey, is there anything that's standing out here
that anyone has questions about? Even though there's a household
calendar that everyone shares.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
What's your household calendar that everyone shares?
Speaker 2 (20:06):
It's just Google.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
Yeah, And I don't want to knock any other calendar
system out there. I think that's great if there's something
that works for somebody. But I have personally found a
lot of this stuff for free is great. You know,
I use Trello, a free account to track my to
do list electronically. Again, everyone can have access to that
Google calendar just for a shared calendar for the household.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
I mean, it works, it's easy, and it works.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
It's easy and it works and for the most part free.
So Christine, I ask all my guests, what is something
you have done recently to take a day from great
to awesome?
Speaker 3 (20:43):
So I really would say, it's adult coloring, and let
me explain if that.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Let's hear about it. Let's hear about it.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
So I'm not clavy that like, if you adult color
for ten minutes, it's going to turn your data awesome guaranteed.
But for me, it is my meditation. And I know
I've heard a lot of people talk about this concept
of meditation. I applaud anyone that can just sit silently
and not have anything else they're focusing on. But for me,
having like mandalas I use and like glitter pens, it
(21:12):
gets me to breathe. It gets me to sit down,
and especially when I'm feeling overwhelmed frustrated, I straight out
tell the kids, you know, I will say openly, this
is how mommy's feeling. I'm feeling a little frustrated. I'm
going to go color for a little bit. I mean
that in itself is a signal to say, ooh, you know,
mommy needs a reset, like I wonder why, and not
(21:34):
just for the kids, but also for my husband, for
myself even if no one's around. But I'd say, what
it really does is it forces my brain to pause,
you know, instead of trying to solve the feeling, I'm
just acknowledging it out loud, and then I'm doing something else.
It makes me still feel productive in this weird way
because I have a mandala that then no one else sees,
(21:57):
but I think it's beautiful and I do it just
it resets me.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
And like almost every time I choose to do that.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
You know, it might for someone else be walking around
the block or cooking or doing something else that resets you,
but for me, like adult coloring. It does it and
I can point to like the curve going up in
my day after I've taken that minute and to get
more like ten minutes.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
And where do you get your patterns that you're doing?
And you just buy them online?
Speaker 3 (22:22):
Or oh yeah through Amazon color it is the is
the company I go through, And yeah's just Amazon. I
think it's like anywhere from eleven to fifteen bucks. And
it's paper. I still love paper. I still have a printer.
I still I think I'm like part boomer inside of me.
But yeah, and these and then I now and that
person that buys pens for myself whenever I go into
(22:44):
a stationary store and I'm like getting really excited about
different like pen tips and colors and yeah, I mean
this is what happens I think when you're almost forty five.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Apparently, well we like to go old school sometimes for sure.
So Christine, where can people find you if they'd like
to connect or learn more?
Speaker 3 (23:02):
So any of those free resources about delegation or on
peacock parent dot com. Askproxy dot com is where you'll
find information about the personal AI assistant that's there to
protect your time and joy and then just me personally
I'm on Instagram at the Christine Landis and yeah, I
think that's everything, and I'd love to hear from anyone directly.
(23:23):
I love these conversations. It's literally what I've chosen to
do with my time, so it delights.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Me absolutely Well, Christine, thank you so much for joining us.
Thank you to everyone for listening. If you have feedback
about this or any other episode, you can always reach
me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. In the meantime,
this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making
the most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.
(23:58):
If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach
me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast
is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,
please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
(24:20):
listen to your favorite shows.
Before Breakfast News
Host
Laura Vanderkam
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