Erin Thomas Wong
You're listening to the life friendly business podcast. I'm your host Erin Thomas Wong, business mentor, author and founder of the cocoon VIP membership empowering women around the world to build businesses on their terms. If you want to grow and scale a business that works in harmony with your family and your life, this podcast is for you.
Hello, and welcome back to the life friendly business podcast. I'm your host, Erin Thomas Wong. I really hope that you are enjoying these episodes and also these interviews where I speak to other women about their experiences of building a life friendly business. If you're enjoying it, please remember to subscribe and you'll be notified automatically when the next episode comes Live.
Today I'm speaking to Maddy Alexander, who is the CEO of multi award winning money saving app my VIP rewards. My VIP rewards are both a b2c and b2b organisation covering the whole of the UK specialising in providing benefits to corporate and SME businesses to help them with their corporate social responsibility and people retention. Maddie is also about to launch business number two, which is a parenthood app, a social media app for parents to help them on their parenting journey. In this interview, Maddy shares openly the challenges that she's faced with growing and scaling her business around recovering from postpartum psychosis, being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and battling to keep her business alive during the pandemic. Thank you for joining me today. Maddy, it's great to have you here.
Maddy Alexander
Oh, it's lovely to be here. Thanks for having me.
Erin Thomas Wong
You're welcome. So let's talk about why you started your own business in the first place.
Maddy Alexander
Okay, so I started my business, I was I found I was getting made redundant actually. So I kind of started thinking about very different ideas of, of how I could make money started off with a really, really terrible crafting business, which was never going to get me anywhere I made, made frames with people, people with little pebbles faces, was never going to go anywhere with that. And I, I actually had a really horrible experience after my son was born, I was diagnosed with a condition called postpartum psychosis, which was a really, really difficult time in my life.
For those those of you who don't know what postpartum psychosis is, it's a mental health condition where you have visions and flashbacks, and essentially don't really know whether or not you're living in the present or living in the past, or really where you are. And I had visions of killing my child, throwing him down the stairs, throwing him in front of cars, I just wasn't coping at all it was it was really difficult. I went to see a really great therapist who helped me to make sense of it all and helped me to understand what was going on. And she recommended that I go to a baby group, I went to this baby group thinking that I was going to be judged and wouldn't be accepted by this lovely group of ladies. And it was totally different. They were absolutely amazing, so supportive.
And I started a parenting forum to help mums moving forward with their mental health, help them to connect with their community help them to find out what was going on locally. And one, one night, in the middle of the night, probably about 4am, I had the idea that as more and more businesses started to contact me about advertising, I thought well, rather than than them pay, you know, paying me to advertise that if they could offer a discount for my my audience, that I could create some form of discount card for them.
So that's where the idea for my VIP card came from. And since then, we've, we've, we've really developed a product we are we now have a consumer side. And we also have a corporate side as well. So the corporate side, we do employee benefits, member benefits, customer reward, which is actually my corporate background before, before I actually became self employed. So we've got the two sides and the had the whole ethos of the business is helping people to reward the people that they work with. It's about rewarding staff, employee in your employees, your customers, your members, rewarding your family, everybody works really hard, but also supporting the community at the same time. So that's where the idea came from.
Erin Thomas Wong
Thank you and I just I just want to recognise what you shared with us just said and how terrifying that experience must have been as a new parents as well. And I remember hearing about or learning About the psychosis during our NCT classes, actually, and so...
Maddy Alexander
No, I didn't do NCT. I didn't have any, a community and I wish I had done actually it was it for me. I found, I felt like parenting was a really, really lonely place. And I had no idea what was going on in my mind. I just thought I was mental. And obviously, I wasn't bonding with my baby. And people don't really tell you that that's the thing.
Erin Thomas Wong
I think we don't talk about it enough. Yeah, you know, we had a bit of a joke in our circles about the NCT that you were effectively paying for friends, because you were able to get this group of women and men who were having a baby at the same time as you. But I think that even with that, I do think that you know, motherhood can be incredibly lonely. And you know, even if you've got people around you, if you don't feel like people understand what you're going through, or you don't understand yourself, what you're going through, it can still be incredibly lonely, even with those people nearby.
Maddy Alexander
Yes, exactly. And this is why I'm actually setting up my second business. So I'm launching at the end of this month, an app called parenthood, your parent neighbourhood. So it's a place where you can make friends, you can join groups of babies that are in the same age group issue, you can join various various different groups for things that you like things that you dislike, and it's really, really going to help to connect parents. So imagine, imagine Facebook, but for parents,
Erin Thomas Wong
That sounds wonderful. And I think, yeah, I think if we can collaborate and get all these people together, who need support at such a crucial time in their lives, and I really, I love the fact as well, that you that you've kind of used your own experience to realise what gaps there are out there. And also to offer something new, like you said, originally about going to that baby group, and then setting up a forum for people to be able to connect even more. And I find often with women who are starting businesses after having children that it is that experience that they've been through, where they become aware of things that they may not have been aware about before. And it's those things that inspire them to go and start a business.
Maddy Alexander
Exactly that. And for me, I think that now I'm probably completely unemployable. I don't think that I could work for somebody else, I felt something which really, both of my businesses work really, really nicely around my kids. And I don't know whether or not that's just because of what I do. You know, one of my favourite parts of my business is taking the kids out on Saturday to soft play, or taking them out for pizza, and saving money on it, and then getting to promote it on social media, my children are actually part of my business, which makes it probably the most life friendly business there is out there. I absolutely love what I do. But one of the things that I love the most is being able to work, my own hours work when I want where I want and not have anyone to answer to.
Erin Thomas Wong
Absolutely, I'm totally with you on that. And that is what having a life friendly business is all about. And we are, you know, so conditioned when we're when we're we're raised that you get a job, and it's a nine to six job and you work every day. And that's the way it is. But we don't have to be doing it that way. And I love the fact that more and more people are doing it on their own terms and setting their own schedule. So what what does that life friendly business mean for you then.
Maddy Alexander
So for me recently, I've been diagnosed with an autoimmune condition called Hashimoto disease. It's been a really, really tough six months, but I think if I was working for somebody else, it would have been even worse. Now, I have to be really, really careful about stress levels, I have to be careful about when I'm sleeping, and when I'm working. So for me, life friendly business just means sitting, working whenever you can, wherever you can, and fitting in everything during the time slots allocated. So I have an afternoon nap every single day without fail. And if I didn't have that, I don't think I'd be able to push my business forward as much as I do. I do work in the evenings. I work for a couple of hours once the kids are asleep. But for me, that works and it also means that you know when I when I pick the kids up from school, we actually get to have some quality time together. I'm not constantly worrying about what the hours that what the hours look like.
Erin Thomas Wong
Yeah, absolutely. And I think that that, you know, especially with, you know, the condition that you've been diagnosed with, but even if you if even if you don't have a special reason, I think that working within your own energy is so important. And that's something that for me over the last couple of years and especially during lockdown, really high highlighted the fact that, you know, it's, it's really is okay to have an afternoon nap or even a morning nap. And it really is okay to slow down and do things at your own pace. Because, you know, instead of feeling like we're on this treadmill that we have to keep going, we're actually going to be so much more productive if we pace ourselves. And if we have those naps, and actually allow our brain time to decompress every day, multiple times a day, that is what our bodies and our minds need.
Maddy Alexander
It is. And I've started to realise that I don't have to be running a million miles an hour to get things done. And actually, when I slow down, sometimes more things happen faster. And so I went to a festival at the weekend, absolutely loved it. And I didn't look at my phone for work purposes once, probably for the first time in a couple of years. And I came back thinking I feel really refreshed. I've started to read books, again, fiction books, which I haven't done for a really long time. For me, anything that I was reading was business related. But you know, you've got to give yourself time to actually be you and have a family, you know, be a family be a person. Because otherwise you do burn out. And it's really important to make sure you don't.
Erin Thomas Wong
Absolutely, and you know, one thing that is really interesting, obviously, you've been very open about the fact that for the last six months, you've been really feeling very poorly, and you've had this diagnosis. And I can tell you from you know, an external viewpoint that on your social media and things like that I never would have known unless you unless you'd said about being unwell. Because you do seem to just have such an amazing presence and so much visibility, and your business growth over the last couple of years has been incredible. So my question for you is have you had to make any difficult decisions in order to keep from overwhelm? And in order to keep your business more life friendly?
Maddy Alexander
Yes, definitely. I mean, I, I have increased my childcare hours, which was a difficult thing to do. But actually, in a way, it's quite nice, because I ended up not being as stressed with the kids spending more quality time with them. And so I know that every single weekend, I've got them, just me and them. And we have an absolutely amazing time. But it has been stressful, there have been there have been things which I've had to say no to just because I've not been well enough. But I think the the main thing with my businesses, I do one thing every single day to push the business forward. And that could be posting on social media, it could be going to a networking meeting, it could be, you know, just just getting out of bed and just doing one phone call or one meeting. But that's my motto, doing one thing every single day to push the business forward. And if I've done that, then I feel like I've I've had my purpose for the day.
Erin Thomas Wong
That is brilliant, actually. And it really, I love this whole one thing. And I remember speaking to people about visibility and saying exactly that just do one thing every day. And there's also the idea that, you know, actually only 5% of the activities that you do in your business will actually be moving the needle. And so often we get caught up in the 95% stuff. And we feel like we're really, really busy. But the business isn't growing, and we're not seeing the results. And it's because we're focusing on the wrong stuff. So, you know, when you look at it like that, when you're trying to run a life friendly business, and you want to work less hours, or you need to work less hours, if we can focus down to that one thing a day, or those 5% activities, we're going to be able to grow the business but without spending hours and hours working everyday. And also it's not just the working is it, it's thinking about work. And it's the when you're really excited about what you do. And you feel really passionate, it's really hard to turn your brain off
Maddy Alexander
It is and but you need to you need to have at least you know, a couple of hours a day where you are just doing things that are you and I record I just chill out and I make sure I find a really good box set. And that's my excuse not to work if I get really engrossed in something I'm currently watching manifest on on Sky and it's amazing. And every single every single night I actually will myself to finish work just so I can go watch this box set.
So just having something to distract yourself, I think really does help with having a life friendly business most definitely. But in terms of visibility, I have to be visible because I would be a bit of a hypocrite if I'm you know, running a business that helps to get people visible and if I wasn't visible myself, so it really it really does help what I do, but one of the things that really does make my business a life friendly business is the fact that I love it. I don't believe in work life balance. I just believe in balance. And I don't think that work and life should have to be separate. They could be one of you know, they could be one of the same thing. But as long as you're happy and you're doing something that you love, you don't feel You're like you're doing work. So that's where the balance comes in.
Erin Thomas Wong
I totally agree. And I think that, you know, we spend so much of our lives working as well, you've got to love what you do. And and I also think that, you know, that's why I take a very holistic approach to business in the cocoon, and with the Evolve mastermind, because the fact is, is that how your health is, you know, how things are at home with the family, how your relationships are, these things do impact your business and how successful you're going to be in business. So there's no point feeling like these are all separate things they do or merge together. And it's really important to kind of have that feeling of balance between all of them. So I totally agree. So how do you measure your success? Do you feel successful? What does success look like for you?
Maddy Alexander
Oh, sure, me, I think success, I measure success on based on sales. And based on the growth that we have, if I'm not making sales, I don't feel successful. When I'm making sales. I feel like I'm on top of the world. And I expect that there are so many other people out there who who base it on the same thing. But, you know, I think you are only as successful as you as you feel. And mindset really, really does come into that, you know, sometimes I have to check back and think, right, I'm not feeling very successful right now, what have I achieved, and then I look back, and I think I've won 15 Awards.
In the last four years, I've been featured in every single national publication going, and I work with two and a half 1000 businesses, we have loads of clients, we have loads of customers. And then I think actually, I've grown from a very, very small, independent discount cards to a UK national money saving app. And I think, yeah, I am actually quite successful. But I still get that imposter syndrome all the time, I still think am I worthy, you know, I've got we're doing the Employee Benefits Expo at the excel in London, and it was 4000 pounds for a stand, which is probably the most I've ever spent on anything in the business. And, you know, I, I sit there and I think, Oh God, I'm going to be there with the likes of perkbox and reward gateway and all of the big employee benefits companies, do I deserve to be there? And I thought about it, I thought, yeah, I bloody do I've worked really hard. And this is our break, this is the moment we've been waiting for, where everything starts to pull together. And it can be hard, it really can, knowing whether or not you're successful, or just measure it on how other people see you as well. Because, you know, as you said, people don't look at me on social media and think, Oh, she's been really poorly for the last six months, because I just don't, I just don't show it. And you know, I'm always, always honest and upfront about my journey, always. And I do have struggles just like the rest of you. But it I just get up and I show up and I never give up. And that's that's the, that's the thing that makes you makes you more successful. I think anyway,
Erin Thomas Wong
I love that. And I do I love the fact that you are very genuine as well, with with what you're doing. But I would really argue as well that, you know, when you're looking at your measures of success, that the finance is only one part of it, because like you say, you know, you listed off all these amazing things that people are probably thinking wow, like 15 awards, 15 awards, and all these national publications and, and actually, you know, the the impact that you are creating the difference that you're making to people and to businesses like that is successful.
Maddy Alexander
It is. And it's crazy. I mean, I there are people who I know from networking. And I think actually sometimes other people see me as be more successful than I see myself, which is a really strange thing. I booked another Expo stand for local business show in Hampshire, and the guy who ran it, he was like you are absolutely smashing out of the park, you're doing so well. And for me, sometimes I just don't see it. And so it's really nice when other people notice that what you're doing is making a difference. And that's the whole reason I set the business up in the first place I wanted to, to help as many people as possible, so that I think I'm doing what I set out to achieve.
Erin Thomas Wong
Absolutely. And I think that, you know, I do think that the mindset work is so important there because it's it's obviously wonderful to get praise from external sources. And we definitely need to be holding on to that and screenshotting lovely comments that people make. And as Laura Robinson from Worditude calls it, your phone folder of awesomeness, where you can collect together all of these wonderful things. But what's really important is to work on the validation from within, like you say, you know, you feel like other people are maybe seeing you as more successful then you feel yourself, but that's something that we can really work on so that you can recognise your own awesomeness as well.
Maddy Alexander
Yes. I mean, I think it's just one of the those things where, you know, you don't see how good you are sometimes, especially as it as a self employed person, because you don't have a boss telling you that you've done an amazing job, you don't have necessarily a team that that got your back saying, no, come on, Maddy, you're doing really, really good job. And so sometimes you have to be that person for yourself. And you have to pat yourself on the back. And you have to kind of give yourself that congratulations.
You know, we this year has been well, the last year and a half has been absolutely insanely tough. For me the impact of COVID I mean, we shouldn't really have had a business anymore, you know, our product was completely null and void during the whole of COVID. All of this all the small businesses that we supported, they all closed down. We didn't have a product I you know, for for money saving app that helps you to support local and helps you to save money when you're shopping for everything and retail and hospitality to be closed, you know, we really did have a hell of a bad time. But I decided that I wasn't going to let some stupid disease. Well, the first one anyway, get get a hold of me. So we just cracked on. And we raised 210,000 pounds in an investment, which was insane through crowdfunding, and then through angel investors, we just networked and just carried on growing.
So it is about pushing yourself forward, and just making sure that you're getting out of bed every single day. And doing that one thing that pushes you forward no matter how you feel. Because there were times during COVID, where all I wanted to do is just lie in bed and cry. And I was homeschooling to children under six. When I say homeschooling, I actually didn't homeschool, I decided that I didn't want to, it was too much pressure. So we home played instead, which was much more easy.
Erin Thomas Wong
That is brilliant. And, yeah, I mean, wow, what a difficult challenging time we've all been through and with your business, I can totally see how, you know, it was completely impacted. But you have turned it around, and you've kept growing and, and I think that's one thing that, you know, I talked a lot about during that first part of the pandemic, it's like don't stop selling, don't stop telling people what you do, because people still need that help. And, and that support that you can offer them. And there's still opportunities there to grow businesses. And you've absolutely proved that. So, you know, amazing.
Maddy Alexander
And we actuallycame out of COVID. And you know, we're keeping an eye on some of our competitors. And one of our competitors went under, so we bought them - crazy, I know to take on a new business during during COVID. But we just felt like we were in the right place. So we we acquired a business I did probably the most grown up thing that I think I've ever done.
Erin Thomas Wong
Congratulations. That's brilliant. So for people listening, you know, you are a really high achiever and you are, you know, you are smashing it, whether you see it or not. What gives you that courage to keep going forward and keep scaling the business? Like do you ever feel like, Oh, my goodness, this is this is getting too big, or am I going to be able to manage it
Maddy Alexander
All the time, all the time. I genuinely I'm a bit. I'm a bit woowoo. And I believe that everything happens for a reason. And I believe that any person or any interaction you have within your business is meant to be there for a certain for a certain time and a certain place. So I just keep pushing, I do something every day that I'm absolutely terrified of, I do things that scare me. And I just don't give up.
For me, the worst thing that could happen in my business as it is it fails now. And you know, spend four years growing it I've invested loads of money, I've got 236 investors now that if I, if anything goes wrong, you know, they lose their money. So I just don't want to be that person that lets everybody down. So I just pushed myself forward. And I pushed myself out of my comfort zone. I do things that scare me. Nobody would ever believe this. But the first time I ever went networking, I sat in the car for about 40 minutes outside, absolutely terrified to go in. And now I network all the time, anywhere in everywhere.
So it's just about developing yourself and never being scared. And pushing yourself learning, developing reading things, learning things, talking to new people, and just just pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. And if you do that every single day, and you'll get somewhere and it's about being genuine, being yourself, you know, don't be fake. Don't be somebody that you know, people. There are lots of people out there that are just hearts and smiles all the time. The world isn't like that. It's full of crap. So embrace everything and if you embrace the good as well as the bad and you know I'm a great believer that what goes around comes around and if you put out good vibes you'll get them back
Erin Thomas Wong
Amazing advice. And thank you for sharing about, you know that first time networking and feeling really nervous. And I think that we do need to talk more about the fact that if you haven't done something before, it's very likely to feel daunting or scary. And the more you do it, the easier it gets. It's the same with doing video or live video, you know, literally, you just have to keep doing it. And then eventually, you'll be able to do it without a second thought. And that's like most things in in life and business. So I think that's fantastic advice to just keep going and keep taking those steps. So what's coming next for you. So you're launching this second business, what else?
Maddy Alexander
So we've got parenthood app launching, hopefully the end of next month, it will definitely be before Christmas. And that is a free to use app that helps parents to connect with each other Connect for their local community learns support each other, essentially, imagine Facebook, but just just for parents, that's kind of what it is. And we're actually about to launch the new brand new my VIP Rewards App, which I'm super, super excited about.
We have got brand new offers on a national basis, we've increased all of our offers. So cost was 8%. It's now 10. We've got things like 12% of Miller and Carter, we've got days out and experiences, we've got things like Deliveroo, UberEATS, Tesco, Sainsbury's, but still having massive patients supporting small independent businesses. So as always, they can still advertise on our website for free. But we are massively launching, and we were also launching properly for the first time our employee benefits side, we've really found our purpose.
So after our crowdfunding campaign, we really did kind of drill down on our, our business plan, and, you know, work out why we were different to other people. And everybody used to say to us, oh, you're an employee benefit. You're like perkbox. And now when people say that, to me, I say no, we're nothing like perkbox. We provide very similar offers, but our morals and our ethos is all about helping people to connect with their local community. And that could be helping them to support a small independent business, it could be helping them to support a supermarket, because actually supermarkets provide local jobs and local opportunities with local charities. So everything that we do is about supporting the community. So I'm really excited about the future. We've got lots of cool things coming. And Christmas is our busiest time because obviously, people want to save money on Christmas presents and parties and food and Christmas, their Christmas shop. So that's when we start to get really busy. So it's my best time of year.
Erin Thomas Wong
Wonderful. And where can people find you
Maddy Alexander
Crime watch? ! You can find me so we are on every single social media platform, don't judge my tic ttcks because they are really rubbish. But we are @myVIPrewards on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, Maddy Alexander Grout on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is one of my favourite places to be. So I love hanging out there. So yeah, we're everywhere. But you can head over to myVIPrewards.co.uk. And we're actually offering a month's free subscription at the moment. So you can try us out for a month. If you use discount code, my VIP one month free. And that will give you a free subscription. So if you want to save on your supermarket shopping or anything over Christmas, do go and give it a check.
Erin Thomas Wong
And just one last question for you. If you could go back to Maddy when she was just starting out with her first business, what advice would you give her?
Maddy Alexander
My advice would be to have a business plan. Have a plan A and a plan B because plan A doesn't always work, you might need to throw it in the bin. But if you have a business plan, it really really helps you to know what direction you're taking the business and have a list of target clients know who your ideal audience are, know where they shop, where they hang out what they dress, like, what their name is even, you know, give them a persona. When you know who you're talking to. Everything else is so much easier. And I would say you know, do something everyday that pushes your business forward and believing yourself because if you believe in yourself, good things happen.
Erin Thomas Wong
Brilliant. Thank you so much Maddy, it's been great to talk to you today. Thank you for sharing so openly with us.
Maddy Alexander
Oh, amazing to be here. Thanks for having me.
Erin Thomas Wong
You've been listening to the life friendly business podcast, which is all about carving your own path and doing it at your own pace. But I know that's not easy to do. So to help you decide what a life friendly business looks like for you and help you to stick to the boundaries and commitments needed to create that I've created the life friendly business prescription. download this free workbook and spend 30 to 60 minutes reflecting on what life friendly means to you. The changes you may need to make in order to achieve the work life balance you desire. Once you've made these decisions, you can add them to your own printable life friendly business prescription that you can put on your wall to remind yourself that you have the power to design your very own life friendly business. Download yours now at lifefriendlybusiness.com/prescription
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
