I was asked to speak at a Girls Who Walk Dubai meet-up and I'd like to share with you the same message that I shared with them.
Firstly, if you do not know about Girls Who Walk then I would recommend checking them out on instagram, it is run by the very lovely and inspiring Farah, who I was thrilled to have as a guest on the podcast during Season 1, you can listen to the episode here.
Farah organises weekly meet-ups for the women of Dubai to come together, get inspired by talks from various women leaders and then network with the other attendees as they walk. If you are new to Dubai and wondering how do I make friends in Dubai? Then this is a fabulous opportunity to meet some great women, whilst getting your steps in.
During my talk I wanted to address the comments that I have been receiving lately, a lot of which are from Mums who love to follow my journey of starting my own business, but say that they couldn't do this... spoiler alert, you absolutely can!
I am Mum to a 1-year-old girl named Bonnie and becoming a Mum was the biggest influencing factor in me becoming an entrepreneur. I founded Next of Kin, comprising the podcast and the baby clothing brand, here in Dubai within the first year as a Mum.
Before this I had worked my way up the ranks to gain a role as a Luxury Fashion Buyer. Back in the UK, you really have to work your way up as an Assistant to an Assistants-Assistant. So it always amused me when I interviewed Interns in Dubai who would tell me they would be Head of Buying by the time they were 25.
A few months into gaining this dream job, that I had worked my whole career towards, I found out that I was unexpectedly pregnant. I'd always wanted to be a Mum, so I was thrilled.
What I hadn't ever considered before was that these 2 roles (Buyer and Mum) which I had always been working towards, did not compliment one another.
I tried to go back to work when my daughter was 4-5 months old, I'd really maxxed out all of the kinds of 'leaves' I could take by that point and was summoned back. However, within weeks I found myself sat across from a disgruntled HR asking me why I was refusing to travel to Milan next week for the buying. My daughter wouldn't take a bottle and refused to sleep without me at night, so there was no chance I would be leaving her. As sympathetic as they tried to appear, they made it very clear that if I didn't get on that flight (and the many others which I should have been on) then my role at the company would be over.
In that moment I had to look at my life from a different perspective. I had a lot of pressure from the influences in my life to make my job work. But if one day I am lucky enough to be old and grey looking back on my life would I regret not working for that company for months or years longer, or would I regret missing out on my daughters first years and not being the Mother that she needed?
So that day I pivotted. I started a podcast, something I'd always been interested in but certainly didn't think was for people like me. I started working on the baby clothing which I had noticed was missing from the market.
Now to address the comments I get regularly from ladies who are scared to put themselves out there. Scared to put their face on social media, or start a podcast. Scared of judgement. Not confident enough. Do you know what I say... SAME. But I do it anyway. I am totally normal and unremarkable, I have plenty of self doubt and used to think that way too. The difference from then to now is the motivation of my daughter. I am doing this so that I can work for myself to be there for her and also show her a Mum doing her thing!
So if there is something you'd love to do but a lack of confidence or fear of judgement is holding you back then I would like to give you a big SHAKE, because I wish that I could go back and have this mindset shift long ago.
If you are looking for a Mums in business podcast, make sure to subscribe for season 2, because I have a lot more of this coming your way!
