Redefining Entrepreneurship for New Mothers with Carly Marie Phillips

Say goodbye to the 9-to-5 grind, and hello to the exhilarating world of self-employment!

Carly Marie Phillips joins us to share her shift from a 9-to-5 to a successful self-employed entrepreneur. 

Discover how becoming a parent unleashed Carly's superpower of intuition and helped her to make bold choices both in her personal and professional life.

Tune in and be inspired to find your path, where personal fulfillment and professional success are intertwined.

Listen to learn:
- The stark realities of maternity challenges
- How to be your authentic self
- How embracing motherhood within professional narratives is reshaping workplace cultures
- How to create a strong work-life balance

You can now nominate for the 2025 Northern Power Women Awards to be in with a chance of celebrating with changemakers, trailblazers and advocates on 6th March 2025! Nominate now at wearepower.net

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:38

The Northern Power Women podcast for your career and your life, no matter what business you're in, hello, hello and welcome to the we Are Power podcast. Every week, I am delighted to be talking to the most wonderful role models, getting some of that advice personal professional stories, life hacks that will bring you some strategies, advice, tips. Whatever that you're doing, whatever, whether it's your career, your life we want to bring those top tips into your world and this week I am absolutely delighted, a force of nature, this amazing woman, carly Marie Phillips. Carly Carly, welcome, welcome to the podcast.

Speaker 2: 1:18

I love that title. I might choose that on my LinkedIn. A force of nature.

Speaker 1: 1:22

Well, tell me just. You know, I think that is one we should all have, and I saw on one of your LinkedIn posts recently. You talked about your biggest superpower and you were asking I think you were posing the question what is the biggest superpower that helps you thrive in business? Tell us what you said.

Speaker 2: 1:41

I went down the road of intuition. Tell us what you said. I went down the road of intuition and it's a superpower that I carry daily in my motherhood life and my work life and I feel like that intuition, really that skill, came to me when I had my little boy. It's always been there. We always have that gut feeling, don't we, in anything we do. And then that really accelerates as soon as you have your child and you have to tune into them and then, yeah, it just sticks with you and it carries with you whatever you do in your day-to-day life, and this is what you want to do, isn't it?

Speaker 1: 2:12

You want to inspire new mums that there's another way to make money, and it all starts with mindset, and you talk about authentic self and how that works in everyone's favour. Tell us about that. That whole kind of transition from full-time employment into self-employment. It's a bit scary. How did you manage to do that, as well as having a wee one on the way?

Speaker 2: 2:33

Yeah well, it was never the plan. My son was my. I don't know who needs a plan. I've learned that very quickly. You don't plan, you have ideas, loose plans. Um, no, it was never my intention to go self-employed.

Speaker 2: 2:49

I got pregnant in 2021 and had my little boy and at the time I was working full-time in a digital marketing role. Um, and yeah, I went on mat leave and I literally said to my colleagues as I was going I'll see, see you in nine months, not a problem. The conversations I had with my partner it's fine, we'll just put him in childcare. You know, I'll go back to work five days a week, not a problem. And it's one of those things that and it sounds like such a such a mum thing to say, doesn't it? You don't know. Until you are in it and until you have that child and you're in the trenches of motherhood, you have no idea what's going to happen. So, on maternity leave, as that was drawing to an end, I was like, oh, I don't think I can go back full time. I we looked into child care. We just could not believe. We had some idea from family and friends, but we could not believe the price of that childcare and it's getting worse and worse. And you know, at one point I said is there any point in me working, because what I'd be bringing in from my full-time, part-time role, it's going straight back out on childcare. I'm working for free, I'm working for somebody else to bring my child up.

Speaker 2: 4:04

I was, I was um growing up. I was brought up solely at home with my mum. My mum left work to bring me up, and that was in the 90s and I think that was more of the norm when I was growing up, whereas nowadays I feel like it's not. And and you know, know, women, we should be able to do both. Of course we should and we can. We're the biggest multitaskers going, especially with little ones.

Speaker 2: 4:35

So, yeah, for me, I think it was a couple of months before going back to work, I was like, no, cannot do this. Spoke to a couple of freelancers and I was my pants. I did not know what to do. I'd never even thought going self-employed and starting a business was an option for me, because it just seemed so far out of reach. You look at the, you look at some business owners and you're like, yeah, you're pretty amazing to be doing that. I could never. And the day I signed up as self-employed, I was shaking. I was like, well, I've not really got a brand. I know a few people that would benefit from my services. I think I had one client and I was like let's go for it. And I just did it and I was shaking. And then, yeah, nearly two years in now and I'm like, wow, why didn't I do it sooner?

Speaker 1: 5:23

and you talk about that high cost. What advice would you give to? Um, you know individuals out there who are thinking, oh my god, that's me, that is exactly me. I don't want to go and work for free. Um, there's been a bit of discrimination along the way. This is not fair and equal. And how? How? That you know? How am I going to do this? What? What's the top tip out there? I?

Speaker 2: 5:44

think. For me it's having those open conversations with other mothers who have gone back to work, whether that's employed, self-employed, change jobs, because I didn't know just how high the maternity statistics, the maternity discrimination statistics, are until I I spoke to the mums who had been through it. It's crazy. I think I was looking upon Pregnant, then Screwed a great charity set up by a group we love.

Speaker 1: 6:14

Jolie. We love Jolie. Brealey Rockstar that woman.

Speaker 2: 6:17

Absolute rockstar, absolute rockstar. And they have so many resources to help employed people, self-employed people, and I was having a quick look last night at some of the stats and I was just nearly 50% of of people in the UK are going into debt because of child care and having to take out loans, borrow family and friends, and I'm like why is this happening? Why is this happening? We do this day in, day out, for free and then we have to pay someone to do our job as a parent, to then work. I could go on, I could go on.

Speaker 2: 6:55

No, I think, really, read up on it. Don't have a plan when you go on maternity leave. Yeah, you might think you're going to go back, but the chances are you're going to change your mind halfway through. For some women they go back sooner, others go back later. Some people take the nine months, some people take the year. You just don't know. And I think one big advice a freelancer gave to me was if you know you have to make it work, you're going to make it work. If you've not got a choice, you're going to make it work. If you've not got a choice, you're gonna make it work and touch all the wood I have so far.

Speaker 1: 7:33

I don't want to jinx that. You talk about kind of not making sort of those decisions and I think that kind of comes along with that, the whole your central theme around being your authentic self. How has that helped you in your career and in your your new sort of what not new two years? You know you're thriving, you're thriving business. Now that, where does that authenticity fit in? I?

Speaker 2: 7:55

think for me, I mean, I was always told growing up never do a job because of my personality traits. My mum always said to me you will be no good sat in an office just doing the same thing day in, day out. You're a sociable person, you're creative and I feel like some of those natural skills that we have as people. Some people are natural born like logical people, others creative. Some people are born leaders, others are quite happy to be behind the scenes in a team.

Speaker 2: 8:25

I think when you lean into those natural strengths, those things that can't really be taught, that you're just born with, that's where you make the most out of your career or your goals or what you actually want to do in life. And for me as a woman as well, I like talking, I like putting myself in the middle of things, I like being outspoken and rather than getting quite nervous about that and be like, oh, I'm a woman, I need to not come across as bossy or a leader, I've learned into it and I'm like this is me, then you're going to have all of that. You're going to have all of those things. And yeah, leaning into those natural strengths is what I believe has really helped me move around.

Speaker 1: 9:09

I think it is that I love that whole leaning into. You know, especially me. We sometimes go. It's just who I am. I'm a bit fan of saying it, but it's especially who I am. You know we talked about the superpowers at the start. So how can we offer some advice out there for anyone who is struggling to think, gosh, I can't be me. I've got to either play it, dress up, or I've got to say the right things, or I've got to be what actually doesn't feel like me. How can we convince small people to really embrace that, that their own personal superpower and authenticity?

Speaker 2: 9:39

I mean, it's a practice, isn't it? You're not just going to wake up and like, right, and I really like myself, we're not. We're always very I mean, at the start of this conversation we're already I'm saying about my brand looking rubbish. We're always very critical of ourselves, aren't we? And it's, I suppose, it's learning to live alongside that self-critic um and being like, okay, you're doing this for a reason, that's okay.

Speaker 2: 10:04

I'm gonna start channeling that more compassionate part of my brain and say you're doing that for a reason, that's okay. I'm gonna start channeling that more compassionate part of my brain and say you're doing that because of x, y and z. What would, what would I say to a friend? What would my compassionate person say to me? And and using your, I did a lot recently around, I did some therapy recently compassionate focus therapy. It's really good for this sort of stuff. It talks about dealing with your inner critic and then channeling that compassionate mind and your compassionate other and it's almost gorgeous. It's how you will treat a friend or a family member if they came to you with a problem, and how you deal with that.

Speaker 2: 10:40

And we don't really do that for ourselves, do we? And it's learning how to do that for ourselves. So I would. I mean, there's so many resources out there Instagram's full of it, facebook's full of it and it's a practice saying nice things to ourselves on a day-to-day basis, even if it feels like, oh, I can't do that. And saving when you get good feedback from work or a client, or you've done something even tiny, like secured a new client or done a really great social media post that's got loads of engagement. Save those things and then you'll remind us that no, I am good at what I do, I can do this. And just bringing you back into the present and saying past me would have loved this opportunity. Why am I feeling so nervous about it? Does that?

Speaker 1: 11:24

make sense? Do you know? It totally does. And I think about the awards that we we held recently and you know we took. You know they were solely created to encourage people to high-five their own achievements, to celebrate others and high-five because sometimes we don't allow ourselves that time. And I think that I love what you talk around the whole power of that mindset in achieving success and you talk about. I like the way you talk about it being a practice. It's not just a one thing like today. I'm going to be authentic. Today I'm going to nail my success mindset. It's small things and I think sometimes that can be. There is a specific mindset shift, isn't there? Especially, you know you're a, you're a mum, you're an entrepreneur, you're you're, you're accomplished in in in the world that you've worked at, in digital and social media, but again, it's it's it's practice. I feel like it's. That goes back to suppose this is the stuff that we should be taught in school, right?

Speaker 2: 12:20

oh my gosh, 100 we should be. It's the map that. You know. We look after every other organ in our body, but with our mind we're just told crack on ignore it.

Speaker 1: 12:32

Practice, practice, yeah, practice what we do. But then it's as a child you don't practice makes perfect and you're like, well, you know what? I was never going to be a piano player. But there is that whole practice, practice, repeat, repeat, repeat isn't there. And you know, have you seen in your, your sort of your, your area of expertise, which is around digital marketing and social media, um sort of any specific changes that you've seen over the last sort of decade or so around this? You talked, you talked earlier about having you know there's a lot of resource on Instagram and in TikTok. It's interesting because before we would have gone to Google or, probably in my day, an encyclopedia on a library, but now there's just different resources in that wider world isn't there of digital and social?

Speaker 2: 13:20

oh my gosh. Yeah, and even like google that's starting to. We're using chat gpt now. Chat gpt is, in my opinion, more reliable than google because you're getting your answers so much quicker. Um ships that.

Speaker 2: 13:33

I've seen the rise of influencers and ugc user generated content creators they were.

Speaker 2: 13:40

When I first started out in social, I was working with a brand who wanted to do the influencer thing because it was new and shiny and the only access you really had to influencers were the likes of the cast of Geordie Shore and those sorts of people, and the way they they sort of worked was I remember it vividly it was 0.001 pence per like, so you wouldn't pay them until that post had gone live, and then the amount of likes that got is what you'd pay them, which is crazy, whereas now anyone can be an influencer.

Speaker 2: 14:15

Really, it's about finding that topic you want to spread, talking about it enough, and then the brands will come. Um and yeah, like short form videos. How, how much more our attention span has just decreased? Getting that content out quickly, snappier, um and even more mundane content. Like you know, some of the best videos online are literally watching paint dry and I say that like literally, if you were to just film paint drying as a time lapse. That would probably get more likes than a super polished promotional sales post, and it's crazy because our minds and brains are drawn to those really simple things go back to the the authenticity of what you post and how you storytell.

Speaker 2: 15:02

100 that's it. We're not think people now they know we all know we're being sold to, don't we like day to day? We all know, we know when something's a paid influencer post, we know when someone is targeting us specifically, um and and that's it. We all just want to see a bit more realness from brands, people, everyone, really. So, yeah it, they used to call it, they used to call it the this morning effect when this like authentic content started coming out, didn't they? And it was doing those things that you think, well, that's a bit risky, that's not super high polish, that's like behind the scenes. Well, no, it's that stuff that drives the brand, it gets people talking, it makes people resonate and feel comfortable. So, yeah, that's what you have to do and that's why, in a lot of my own marketing, I won't shy from talking about motherhood.

Speaker 2: 15:55

At first, I was worried that people would potential clients would see that and be like she's juggling, she's not going to be trustworthy. Well, do you know what? I don't want to work with people like you. I want to work with people who respect that and understand it, and I'm very fortunate that the people I do work with some of them are mothers themselves. I can jump on a Zoom meeting. My little boy, teddy, will be sat on my knee or he's in the background running around and that's okay. That's fine, because other times I've got childcare from family and I can be super focused and deliver. It's just working with each other, isn't it?

Speaker 1: 16:33

I do wonder whether there was elements of the lockdown that changed that, because we only had to look at national news or world news to see you know, a very together man or woman on, you know being interviewed on a very high, you know, high level topic to the next minute. You know had a little toddler sort of swooping in with some kind of, you know, hybrid musical instrument and you know, that's the world right you know, hybrid musical instrument and that's the world right.

Speaker 2: 17:04

That's real life. It's real life and I think you know I say this frequently. You know COVID was absolutely awful. Some absolutely disastrous things happened. On the flip side, some amazing stuff happened. People started respecting people's work-life balance more. You know, families were allowed to be families and that's. You know. That's been carried somewhat. I think some way we've gone the complete other way and people are starting to disconnect again a lot more. But, like my partner, he works from home. My son gets to grow up with his dad around, which is amazing. Some people don't have that. You know he works at home. We work as a team. If I need to jump on something quick, like right now, he can break off and take care of little one, and then other times we have family child care. But that's it, like the way we work and people's expectations and realistic expectations of us have changed.

Speaker 1: 17:59

And what is next for you, looking ahead, as you continue to do this amazing role of obviously not just motherhood which is a whole career there in itself but to compete your passion about empowering and supporting other mothers on their entrepreneurial journeys.

Speaker 2: 18:18

Yeah, oh gosh, I have so many ideas, so short term. I'm working with another. My journey's actually inspired a few people, which is just amazing. I another lady that I know her little one's slightly older than mine, she was working full-time and no part-time, sorry and hated it, and she saw my, my journey and has gone freelance herself and she said I wouldn't have done this if you didn't speak so openly about it or give me the. And she's doing amazing. She's a freelance virtual assistant and me and her have been talking and one thing I'd love to do is set up these networking type events for women who are in the middle of maternity leave and finished maternity leave and are looking.

Speaker 2: 19:06

I don't want to go back to full-time work and I don't want to put my child in the hands of child care and and just holding networking spaces that one feel like work, because that's what we want out of it, but also that that self-care element, because we can't do it all.

Speaker 2: 19:23

I know when I'm working and I have my son, there's something that's going to get done and usually that's my social life. That's time for myself to even have a shower, put a face mask on the very top level, basic self-care stuff. I'm not ashamed to admit that the house goes a mess, but I want to set up a space where people can do both and have that self-care space where they can get out of the house, speak to the people, but it also be inspiring and help them work wise. And then my other big goal which I don't know how far off this is, but I do want to make it happen is creating co-working spaces for mums where there's an on-site crash and I just think having that option for mums where they can go to work and their child is being looked after in proximity. They can break off if they need to. Once they can go in um, but I'm not really sure where to start with that one. Well, that's a bigger ambition.

Speaker 1: 20:17

Well, I would be watching this space. I would be keeping that conversation. I think you need to throw that out to the universe on on your LinkedIn post, because why wouldn't you, why wouldn't you? You, you've started and driven so much, so why don't you start that conversation? Start, start that networking um. Drop in events, start that networking space. I'm sure there'll be people out there.

Speaker 1: 20:37

If you want to get in touch, please follow um carly on all of the socials. I thank you so much for joining me today. No, thank you for having me. It's been lovely. So much inspiration, so much advice and guidance and I feel like I've had my own little masterclass in in in the future trends of digital media as well. Along the way, uh, thank you so much and thank you to all of you for listening. If you want to in touch, if you want to help manifest this idea around networking spaces for mums and mums and dads, to be honest, returning back from childcare and responsibilities and navigating all that, then please do follow on all of our socials. Thank you so much for joining us. We'll be joined next week by another amazing role model. This has been the we Are Power podcast and what goes on media production.