{"id":525,"date":"2012-03-09T07:00:41","date_gmt":"2012-03-09T12:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.meghirshberg.com\/blog\/?p=525"},"modified":"2012-02-26T07:13:35","modified_gmt":"2012-02-26T12:13:35","slug":"interview-with-nicole-dawes-ceo-of-late-july-organic-snacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.meghirshberg.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/interview-with-nicole-dawes-ceo-of-late-july-organic-snacks\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Nicole Dawes, CEO of Late July Organic Snacks"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Nicole<\/a>

Nicole Dawes is the Co-founder and CEO of Late July Organic Snacks, located in Barnstable, Massachusetts. Late July makes certified organic cookies, crackers, and chips. Nicole and her husband Peter (who is the company\u2019s Co-president and COO) have two children, Stephen and Benji, who are 9 and 5, respectively. Nicole\u2019s father, Stephen Bernard, founded Cape Cod Potato Chips, and co-founded Late July with Nicole.<\/p><\/div>\n

Nicole Dawes on working with her husband; and on why: kids should be raised at the office, anxiety is an indulgent emotion, and work\/life balance is a sham.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0 Your life is a crazy Venn diagram of overlapping work and life spheres:\u00a0 Your father was an entrepreneur, you work with your husband, and you are raising two children.\u00a0 Which aspect of this overlap is toughest to manage?<\/p>\n

A:\u00a0 Leaving the kids just doesn\u2019t get easier.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been traveling a lot.\u00a0 It\u2019s heartbreaking every time.\u00a0 I keep waiting for that to end.\u00a0 Skype helps.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0 When do you feel most stretched?<\/p>\n

A:\u00a0 When we have more than one problem\u2014which is very often. From the outside, we look like a well-oiled machine of magic work-life balance.\u00a0 We can handle one setback pretty well.\u00a0 But if someone gets sick, and a new product launch gets pushed up or pushed back, and I suddenly find I have to leave town on business\u2014that\u2019s when we run into difficulty.\u00a0 Oddly, though, when Peter and I are in those situations, we\u2019re not that tense.\u00a0 We just do it.\u00a0 We triage.\u00a0 Tension and anxiety are indulgent emotions.\u00a0 We can\u2019t afford them.\u00a0 We get externally focused on how to solve our problems.\u00a0 We don\u2019t stop and wonder, How is this affecting us?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0 What\u2019s it like working with your husband?<\/p>\n

A:\u00a0 A lot of people are scared to work with their spouse.\u00a0 They hear the horror stories.\u00a0 But for us, sharing in the whole experience together is what makes it work.\u00a0\u00a0So much happens in a small business on a daily basis.\u00a0 If Peter had a different experience all day, we wouldn\u2019t have the deep understanding that we share. <\/strong><\/p>\n

There are practical benefits, too.\u00a0 I just found out I have a last minute trip.\u00a0 Because Peter and I are partners in work and in life, he can accommodate my trip and work from home.\u00a0 There are certainly days we could kill each other.\u00a0 We are passionate about our opinions, and sometimes we don\u2019t agree.\u00a0 We know we shouldn\u2019t hold back on things simply because we\u2019re married. But just because we don\u2019t agree on a work issue doesn\u2019t mean we don\u2019t love each other.\u00a0 The fact is, I can\u2019t imagine doing my life\u2019s work with another person.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0 You once said that \u201cIt takes an office to raise a child.\u201d\u00a0 How so?<\/p>\n

A:\u00a0 Being an entrepreneur is all-encompassing.\u00a0 Excluding my children from it was not an option.\u00a0 I want them to understand the business, to be part of it, and proud of it. I grew up in an office.\u00a0 My dad taught me about gross margins when I was twelve.\u00a0 I was fascinated.\u00a0 Kids raised in an office learn what their parents do.\u00a0 They develop a vested interest in it.\u00a0 They become able to<\/strong> picture themselves working in a business someday.\u00a0 When Stephen<\/strong> was entering kindergarten, he asked me why he was the only worker who had to go to school. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Raising kids in the office is not for everyone.\u00a0 You have to be a person who can work with distractions.\u00a0 If you\u2019re going to have kids in the workplace, they really need to start coming in as newborns.\u00a0 You can\u2019t introduce a 3-year-old into an office setting for the first time\u2014that\u2019s a recipe for disaster.\u00a0 If they\u2019ve been there from the beginning, they get it that they can\u2019t disturb you when you\u2019re on the phone. They learn to do their own thing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0 Are there ways you alter your work patterns to accommodate your kids?<\/p>\n

A:\u00a0 I get in to the office early so I can leave early to pick the kids up at 5 pm.\u00a0 When we get home, I help my older son with his homework, while my youngest helps me make dinner.\u00a0 He loves to cook.\u00a0 We eat together as a family every night.\u00a0 When I was a kid, we did that too.\u00a0 Sometimes we\u2019d go to the factory to have dinner with my dad.\u00a0 After my kids are asleep I go back on the laptop to answer the emails that I missed.\u00a0 People at work know not to call me during that dinner hour unless it\u2019s critical.\u00a0 Our family gets a lot of together-time on our annual road trips, too.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0 You believe that the concept of work-life balance is a sham.\u00a0 What do you mean by that?<\/p>\n

A:\u00a0 Peter and I have no separation between our work and our life.\u00a0 Every facet of our lives is wrapped up with all the others.\u00a0 We don\u2019t try to compartmentalize.\u00a0 We discuss work at home with our kids.\u00a0 When I ask my oldest what he did at school today, he\u2019s more interested in hearing an explanation of why Late July can\u2019t spend more on advertising.<\/strong><\/p>\n

You have to figure out what is essential for each part of your life\u2014what is \u201cmission critical\u201d in all areas.\u00a0 If the kids need me during work hours, I tend to them.\u00a0 If the business needs me when I\u2019m at home, I tend to it.\u00a0 I put a lot of unnecessary pressure on myself to be the working mom who does everything perfectly.\u00a0 But it\u2019s just not realistic.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Being an entrepreneur is all-encompassing, and you have to acknowledge that.\u00a0 There is no balance because there is no true separation. I love my children with all my heart and I love my company with all my heart.\u00a0 The notion of \u201cwork-life balance\u201d doesn\u2019t accurately represent that.\u00a0 It\u2019s just one big life.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nicole Dawes on working with her husband; and on why: kids should be raised at the office, anxiety is an indulgent emotion, and work\/life balance is a sham.\u00a0 Q:\u00a0 Your life is a crazy Venn diagram of overlapping work and life spheres:\u00a0 Your father was an entrepreneur, you work with your husband, and you are raising two children.\u00a0 Which aspect of this overlap is toughest to manage? A:\u00a0 Leaving the kids just doesn\u2019t get easier.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been traveling a lot.\u00a0 It\u2019s heartbreaking every time.\u00a0 I keep waiting for that to end.\u00a0 Skype helps. Q:\u00a0 When do you feel most stretched? A:\u00a0 When we have more than one problem\u2014which is very often. From the outside, we look like a well-oiled machine of magic work-life balance.\u00a0 We can handle one setback pretty well.\u00a0 But if someone gets sick, and a new product launch gets pushed up or pushed back, and I suddenly find I have to leave town on business\u2014that\u2019s when we run into difficulty.\u00a0 Oddly, though, when Peter and I are in those situations, we\u2019re not that tense.\u00a0 We just do it.\u00a0 We triage.\u00a0 Tension and anxiety are indulgent emotions.\u00a0 We can\u2019t afford them.\u00a0 We get externally focused on how to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,20,10,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-children-and-business","category-creating-work-life-boundaries","category-interviews","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.meghirshberg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.meghirshberg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.meghirshberg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.meghirshberg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.meghirshberg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/www.meghirshberg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":557,"href":"http:\/\/www.meghirshberg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525\/revisions\/557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.meghirshberg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.meghirshberg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.meghirshberg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}