Episode 138
A Day In Her Life with Layla Shaikley – Efficient, Full, Emotionally Regulated Days as a Founder and Mom of Three
What does it look like to build a venture-backed tech company, raise three young kids, recover from a major injury, and stay emotionally steady through it all?
In this episode of A Day In Her Life, Ellie sits down with Layla Shaikley, co-founder of Wise Systems, writer, and mom of three (ages 3, 5, and 7). Layla shares how predictability, emotional regulation, and ruthless prioritization are what make her high-capacity life sustainable, not hustle or perfection.
This is a powerful, grounding conversation about ambition, motherhood, and learning how to regulate yourself so you don’t burn everything down when things get hard.
In this episode, we cover:
Why emotional regulation is the real foundation of high performance, and how Layla thinks about passing that skill to her kids
The predictable morning routine that allows her to work East Coast hours while parenting on the West Coast
How she structures work around goals, not tasks, and why feeling “behind” is often a sign you’ve lost sight of outcomes
Why proximity determines extracurriculars (and why that’s not “failing your kids”)
What evenings actually look like with three young kids, and how she lets chaos happen without reacting to it
The systems she uses to buy back time, from outsourcing household work to using AI as a thinking assistant
Why this season is about choosing three priorities only, and being okay with everything else waiting
If you’re a working mom trying to hold ambition, caregiving, health, and sanity at the same time, this episode will help you breathe a little deeper and think more clearly about what actually matters.
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