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.
I don't know about you, but I like to be in control. You could call me a bit of a control freak. And when I used to work in TV production, I was able to fulfil that need for being organised and being in control of things because I would be in charge of crews going out to shoot and I was on call if anything went wrong. And I'd create nice schedules that they would hopefully follow. So I remember reading baby books and thinking, Oh, having a baby must be okay, because all I need to do is put them on a schedule. They'll nap when they're supposed to nap and eat when they're supposed to eat. Boy was I in for a shock. When I had my first son back in 2008. The birth did not go to plan. I really wanted to be an Earth Mother. I wanted to have a natural birth and be able to breastfeed. And sadly, I ended up with an emergency caesarean. I was absolutely traumatised and exhausted. And because of that my milk didn't come in, and I wasn't able to breastfeed him. And I became this incredibly anxious woman, someone that I just did not recognise. And I know that I'm not alone in having an experience like this that makes you really question your identity when you become a mum. And it certainly changed my priorities.
After just a few months of having my son, I knew that I needed something for me, I really felt like I was losing my sense of identity. The problem was, is that I'd always wanted to work in the media. From a very young age, I'd done work experience in radio and TV, and I did a degree in media. So suddenly, I was thinking, what on earth could I do? What else could I do if I didn't want to continue in television production. And then I had one of those crazy lightbulb moments, where a friend of mine was telling me that she was going to the baby show at Earls Court purely to get this piece of jewellery made with her child's fingerprint in it.
I remember thinking, Oh, that sounds really interesting. I'll go on the website and see whether they could come and do a session for my NCT group. And when I went on the website, I put in my postcode, and it popped up with a notice saying that there was no representative in my area, and that there was a franchise opportunity available. And it was really one of those moments of thinking, what does that mean? Is that like a business in a box? Like, is that something that I could do? Could I make jewellery? Could I sell jewellery, it seems like a really nice thing to do. And, you know, running my own business is something that I had never considered before. I didn't have any friends or family close to me, who were running their own businesses, everyone I knew had gone into a professional career, and you know, working full time.
So this kind of sat with me for a little bit thinking about what what would this mean, and I basically threw myself into research, I went and found someone else's, the company was called small print, I went and found another franchisee, and ordered some jewellery. And it was really exciting. Like trying to understand how this would all work. I even went to the British Franchise Association and did a day course in understanding what it would mean to be a franchisee this was going to be a big investment. So I wanted to do my due diligence. My friends and family thought I was absolutely mad for doing this. And for leaving TV, and they really couldn't understand it because I am such a sociable person. I love being around people. And they were like, what, why would you want to do that? Why would you want to go and like run your own business and be on your own. And I really can't tell you because I feel like I've changed so much in that short amount of time since having my son and to me this just seemed really exciting. And it felt like something that I needed to do.
So I was really fortunate that I was actually able to get redundancy from my television job. And I actually invested that redundancy money into buying the franchise. This was when my son was about six or seven months old. And this opened up a whole new world to me, and I totally remember that when I worked in TV, I would be walking to the tube in London, and I would see people at eight o'clock in the morning sitting in cafes with their laptop and See how on earth do they get to do that? You know what kind of jobs that they have that they're allowed to do that. And then I realised they're business owners and I can do this now. And this is amazing. So it was so liberating.
Over the years, like, don't get me wrong, this was a massive, massive learning curve. The franchise were helped me to train in making the jewellery but also in how to run a business. And I think within my first year, I met Shelley who was one of my customers, and she was also starting her own business selling ethical toys. We started bumping into each other when we were stallholders at events, and we would often be complaining about how badly organised they were. And they weren't marketed well. And we were like, do what should we do ourselves? So we decided to set up Ealing mums in business. And at that point, we launched some family fairs where you would have a combination of stallholders but also activity providers to entertain the kids. And it was a huge success. And we realised at that point, how many women in West London were we were were leaving professional careers and starting their own businesses in order to get the flexibility that they really wanted. And I really felt like for me, becoming a business owner helps me to regain the control that I really felt like I lost when I had my son. Like I said, I was so used to being a manager, I was used to work into a schedule and a timeline. And very quickly, I realised that having a baby was not the same. And you know, that was a huge knock to me and to who I was, and I had to adapt to that.
But having my own business meant that there was some control that I could still have. And I just want to say as well, at this point, like I was not one of those mothers who was able to walk around with her baby on a hip and still have, you know, a very considered business conversation, like I found it really hard to be that person. So I did work around any ad hoc childcare that I could get to where I could get into the zone of a business owner. And I know there are some people that are able to cross, you know, business owner mum at the same time and combine them all. But I definitely felt like I needed that kind of separation. And which is hard, especially when you're running a business from home. And so what I did is I had nursery like two half days a week and then gradually built up as I could afford more nursery. And as my son got older.
I also had one of those, like very early learning lessons, when I had a customer call up about the jewellery. And my toddler at the time was kind of playing around in the sitting room. And I just thought, yeah, I just answered the phone, and started having a conversation with this guy who wanted jewellery for his wife. And I looked around and my son had got his finger trapped in a drawer, and you know, bright red in the face, this huge screaming like sound came out. And I would love to tell you that I was very calm and said, "Oh, I'm really sorry, I'm going to have to call you back." Of course I didn't. I was like, "I'm gonna have to go." And basically, like, put the phone down on this man. And I was mortified. Luckily for me, he was a dad. And when I called him back later, he completely understood and it didn't lose me the sale. But that was a very early lesson for me. Like, I do not have to answer the phone at any point in the day like if I'm with my child, and I don't think I'm going to be able to have a proper conversation. I will let it go to voicemail and return the call later on.
So by that point, I was running the small print jewellery and also co founding Ealing mums in business with Shelley. And then I got a little bit addicted. And I had an idea for another business called pitter patter, the hub for Bubs. And this was all about the fact that there was quite a lot of different things going on for babies and toddlers in West London. But they were all really fragmented. They were in a church hall somewhere in a community centre. And I thought wouldn't it be great to have one venue where you always knew something was going on. However, I wasn't interested in saddling myself with loads of debt. So I didn't want to have my own venue that just felt like unattainable and not something that I wanted. So I found a really lovely Gastro Pub in the centre of Ealing, Broadway. And I went to speak to the manager and said, you know, how busy are you during the day? And he said, were absolutely dead. And I said, Well, what would you think about me bringing in some yummy mummies, and they'll have cappuccinos and they might stay for lunch. And they'll do classes there. And luckily for me, he was completely on board and pitter patter was a huge success. The launch event, we had hundreds of people coming into this pub, who'd never set foot in there before. And the manager was overjoyed. And it was wonderful. So every day there were different activities. He's going on and I organised the website, I did all the marketing, I got the teachers on board, and it was absolutely wonderful.
So things were going really, really well. In fact, Shelly and I were honoured in the Houses of Parliament for our work supporting small business owners. And then my husband and I started thinking about, you know, I didn't always want to have kids in London, that wasn't really the plan, maybe it's time to move somewhere. And then my husband got a phone, call out the blue, asking him if he would like to go and work in Abu Dhabi in the Middle East. It was a huge shock, of course, and something that, you know, hadn't even occurred to us to go and live abroad. But it was one of those moments where we had to make a decision whether we were going to go for it and take the leap of faith. By that point, I'd had a second son, and we decided that the four of us would move out to the Middle East for his job.
This was a really challenging time for me, I felt incredibly isolated. And I really, really missed the network of women in business that I'd actively created around myself in West London. By that point, I had sold my small print franchise successfully, and surely was looking after Ealing mums in business, and also pitter patter, and I was working on them remotely. But I felt really, really disconnected. And it became very clear to me how lucky we were in London to have access to those networks, and that there are women around the world who don't have those kind of networks to tap into. And that's where the idea from the Mumpreneur Collective came in.
I wanted to create an online business that I could run anywhere in the world. And that was really, really scalable. So I immersed myself in learning more about digital marketing about creating a website about running a community. And honestly, this business became my saviour during quite a dark time while we were over there. I actually also launched a kid's online shop with my mum during that time as well. So I was learning loads about online business. After a year in Abu Dhabi, we came to the difficult decision that we needed to come home, it just wasn't right for us. And the great thing was that I was able to bring my business back with me. We then moved to Bournemouth to live by the sea and have a better work life balance. My husband had corporate burnout, and decided that he was going to start working for himself as well. So he is a dad printer, we will be covering that in a further episode, I'm sure.
So for us, it really is now about building a life friendly business for both of us, one where we can do something we absolutely love and enjoy, but also be flexible around the family. And the great thing about the Mumpreneur Collective is that I've been able to grow and scale it over the last few years.
So I have the cocoon VIP membership element where people get access to all the training they need to grow their business, also experts on hand, and incredible sisterhood to keep you motivated.
I also run an evolve mastermind, which is a small, intimate group of women working together over a six month period. And I do one to one mentoring to help people devise a bespoke strategy. So I've been able to roll in everything that I love from all these different businesses into what I do now. I know what lights me up, I also know what I find hard. And I know what I need to outsource. And I think it's really important that we lean in to our zone of genius, and allow other people to do the things that is their zone of genius. And I will be talking more about outsourcing and about learning to let go because it is a really important thing. When you're a business owner and you feel like you have to do everything yourself.
Last year during lockdown. I also published my book Mumpreneur Evolution - on our terms, which is a collection of inspiring and uplifting interviews with women in my community who are all building their businesses around family life. And I really wanted to do that to make people more aware of the fact that you're not alone in the challenges that you might be facing. And I think it's so important that we talk honestly about them.
So I've had to overcome lots of blocks for myself in terms of my mindset in terms of my money mindset in terms of being scared of public speaking in terms of being scared to get visible, because I realised that if I'm not going to stand up and speak about my business, no one else is going to do it for me. And I absolutely love to be able to help women to get over those blocks to because you will see the difference tenfold in your business if you can do that.
So that's my story. It's been nearly 13 years of small business experience, five different businesses and you you know, I've learned something from every single one of them. But now I've been able to design a business that I love that I jump out of bed for every day where I get to make a positive impact, but I also get to do it on my terms. I'm working around my family, I'm working around my kids, and I'm also working around my own energy.
It is absolutely possible to build a business you love that works around family life, and that is profitable. I really look forward to digging into these topics more with you in the rest of the podcast. And in the next episode, we're gonna be talking about how you are measuring your success. See you then.
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 and 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
