Simple Farmhouse Life, Episode 309

Building a Business Without Sacrificing Family Life | Lara of Joy Food Sunshine
Host: Lisa Bass | Guest: Lara of Joy Food Sunshine
Date: September 30, 2025

Brief Overview

In this episode, Lisa Bass, mother of nine, blogger, and homeschooler, welcomes Lara from Joy Food Sunshine. Together, they explore the nuanced journey of building a successful online business as mothers, homeschoolers, and homemakers. The discussion centers around balancing business growth and income with maintaining family priorities, intentionality, authenticity, realistic expectations, and adapting to life’s ever-changing seasons.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Origins: How Their Businesses Began

• Lara’s Start:
  • Lara began her food blog after her third child while struggling with severe postpartum depression. Inspired by her husband, she sought a creative outlet just for herself.
  • Initially, her husband photographed her food, and they posted the photos online for fun ([04:01]).
  • Her chocolate chip cookie recipe gained traction, ranking #1 on Google since 2017 ([03:21]).
  • “Most people find me through my chocolate chip cookie recipe and then they stay.” – Lara ([03:36])
• Lisa’s Start:
  • Lisa started her blog after her fourth child, intending from the start for it to become a business, inspired by observing other bloggers’ success ([06:09]).
  • Both started around 2016.

2. Balancing Business and Family Priorities

• Intentional Check-ins:
  • Lara and her husband have regular monthly check-ins. The purpose: ensure the business is serving the family, not the other way around.
  • “We really didn’t want to be serving the business...the goal is for it to be fun and enriching our lives, not draining us.” – Lara ([00:00]/[10:32])
• Phases and Adaptation:
  • In the early days, Lara and her husband did everything. Her husband would homeschool on Fridays so she could shoot recipes ([08:23]).
  • As the business grew, hiring help became necessary—especially after a fall while pregnant was a wake-up call to let go and outsource ([11:32]).
  • Both emphasize the necessity of adjusting standards and being willing to delegate, even if it means content isn’t "perfect" at first.

3. Boundaries, Decisions, and Saying “No”

• Both discuss being intentional about opportunities—sometimes turning down lucrative but misaligned projects, like a cookbook.
• “I haven’t written a cookbook...that’s a no that we’ve said that is becoming harder to say no to now that my baby’s 4 years old…” – Lara ([17:29])
• Trade-offs: sometimes they have said yes to things they wish they hadn’t; learning comes from both.

4. Structuring Work Around Family Life

• Workflow:
  • Lara works during nap/rest times and early mornings, testing recipes a year or more in advance for flexibility ([25:21]).
  • Lisa: works 1:00–4:00 pm, Monday–Thursday, during kids’ rest/nap time ([26:14]).
  • Both rely on their husbands’ participation—either tag-teaming homeschooling or managing tasks to keep things manageable.
• Adjusting to Seasons:
  • Family structures constantly shift with kids’ ages, activities, and stages; flexibility and reevaluation are key ([19:51]).
  • Both stopped worrying about perfectionism in home management as families and businesses grew.
  • “The perfectionism, the more time you’ve had a lot of children kind of goes out the window.” – Lisa ([29:37])

5. Delegation and Letting Go

• “A lot of the shift in your business is letting go of control.” – Lara ([10:32])
• Outsourcing photography, video, and cleaning allows them to focus on what truly matters to them in work and home.

6. Authenticity & Sustainability in Content Creation

• Both attribute longevity to creating content that genuinely reflects their real lives as moms and home cooks ([43:42]).
• Lara: “This is just an extension of who I am. I cook for my family, I homeschool my kids. I enjoy creating, you know, and so it is...” ([44:14])
• They highlight ignoring unrealistic comparisons and remind new creators to embrace what works for their unique situations.

7. Handling “How Do You Do It All?”

• Both are frequently asked how they manage it “all”—their answer: they don’t. They cut corners on what matters less, strategically outsource, and maintain realistic priorities.
  • “Obviously I don’t do it all. My house is not perfectly clean…there are things I used to worry about in my home that I don’t worry about now.” – Lisa ([29:11])
  • “You have to figure out your pressure points…when I am a rage monster because I just mopped the floor, my husband’s like, well, maybe you shouldn’t mop the floor.” – Lara ([30:38])

8. Motherhood, Postpartum, and Personal Growth

• Lara shares her journey with postpartum depression, coping by understanding her triggers (often linked with nursing/hormones), and learning to prioritize what felt right for her and her babies ([35:07]).
• Both discuss the evolution of perspective: being more relaxed with later children about things like screen time.
  • “Young moms need…to know they can chill.” – Lara ([45:54])

9. Advice for New Creators & Online Business-Seekers

• Both receive requests for advice about starting blogs/social platforms.
• Lara suggests: Don’t invest until you know you love it—try a "fake blog" or do 25 posts to test enthusiasm and sustainability ([52:59]).
• “If you don’t have, like, a hundred more ideas, then you probably shouldn’t do it.” – Lara ([44:14])
• They agree the space is not too saturated if you bring something authentic and unique.
• Virality is unpredictable and can't be strategized alone into a sustainable business. Success requires consistent work and creating genuine value for the audience ([55:41], [57:12]).
  • “I think about my reader…I’m trying to provide value for them…” – Lara ([56:24])

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Family Business Balance:

  • “How is this business serving our family? Because we really didn’t want to be serving the business.” – Lara ([00:00]/[10:32])

• On Letting Go of Control:

  • “A lot of the shift in your business is letting go of control… I had to be okay with somebody else’s photography skills.” – Lara ([10:32])

• On Sustainability:

  • “The goal is for it to be fun and enriching our lives, not draining us.” – Lara ([00:13])

• On Outsourcing and Home Chores:

  • “I would be sad if you were gone, but I think I’d be more sad if I didn’t have Maria. She’s part of my family… She’s moved with us. Like, we love her.” – Lara ([30:37])

• On Intentional Choices:

  • “We could pursue a whole bunch of things and make a whole bunch more money…but obviously we’re not gonna do that… So it’s a very limited amount of time. I have to be very strategic.” – Lisa ([31:27])

• On Authenticity in Content Creation:

  • “If your business isn’t sustainable, you’re going to be burnt out and you’re going to quit.” – Lisa ([46:22])
  • “That’s what I think about—is this just an extension of who I am?” – Lara ([44:14])

• On Comparing and Outsourcing:

  • “I don’t do it all. You couldn’t…we try to mitigate the mess, but it’s still…a fool’s errand to stress out about it too much.” – Lara ([31:27])

• On Advice to Aspiring Creators:

  • “Make sure you…really want to do this before you invest any money in it. Fake blog first or fake Instagram first…” – Lara ([52:59])
  • “There’s room for everybody to succeed in this business. It’s not saturated if you truly bring something unique.” – Lara ([52:04])

Timeline of Important Segments

• Lara’s blog origin, postpartum journey: [04:01]–[05:14]
• Both discuss starting their blogs: [05:33]–[07:10]
• Early days workflow & learning to hire help: [08:23]–[12:21]
• Letting go of business control: [10:32]–[12:21]
• Turning down opportunities, boundaries: [17:29]–[19:22]
• Adjusting routines as seasons change: [19:51]–[22:25]
• Structuring work week & family logistics: [23:02]–[26:14]
• Handling “doing it all” and lowering perfectionism: [28:23]–[31:27]
• Outsourcing, home help, and home management: [29:37]–[31:27]
• Motherhood, postpartum, adapting business after childbirth: [34:49]–[41:42]
• Authenticity and content creation as extension of self: [43:42]–[46:22]
• Advice on starting a blog/social presence: [50:27]–[52:59], [55:41]
• Sustainability & virality in business: [55:41]–[59:26]
• Lara’s site and recipe focus: [59:57]–[61:03]

Where to Find Lara

• Website: joyfoodsunshine.com
• Social: @joyfoodsunshine on all platforms
• Focuses on easy, family-friendly, scratch-made recipes—pizza dough, homemade sauces, mac and cheese, baking, homemade ice cream, and more ([60:07]–[61:03]).

This episode provides a candid, motivational, and practical look at balancing an online business and motherhood, offering reassurance for moms in similar seasons and actionable advice for aspiring creators.