Strong Tea

Next up in our Becoming A Parent mini series, we delve into the world of adoption.

In 2022, just under 3000 children were adopted, an increase from the previous year. There are so many reasons that people look to adopt and in today’s episode, Katy Smith shares her own personal experience.

Katy is a wellbeing and self-development coach for parents and is an adoptive parent support specialist. 

She established the incredibly powerful Adoptive parent’s circle after her own experiences and seeing the hit and miss support that was out there. 

Katy provides space and support for adoptive parents to talk about their parenting lives, sharing tips, suggestions, and to know they are not alone.

You can check out Katy’s LinkedIn profile here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katy-smith21/ 

You can find her website here: https://www.katysmithcoaching.com 

Here’s the link for the Adoptive Parents Circle: https://katy-smith-coaching-adoptive-parents-circle.mailerpage.com 

In the next episode of our Becoming a Parent series, we are joined by our very special guest, Kate Draper.

Kate talks to us about her experience in becoming a solo mum by choice. Motherhood is not contingent on a romantic relationship, marriage, or partnership (even though arguably, our culture holds bias against single parenting and encourages the ‘perfect’ family) and Kate helps to demystify assumptions, preconceptions and stereotypes that can come with being a solo mum by choice.

In this episode she shares how she made the decision to become a solo mum and the subsequent rollercoaster of undergoing treatment, heartache, and the eventual arrival of her gorgeous little boy, George.

Kate’s incredible strength, independence, and drive is what makes her story so empowering. We know she will inspire others as well as providing the much needed learning about being a solo mum by choice.

Links:

https://dcnetwork.org/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/473506363502195/?ref=share

Excited to bring you a special midweek podcast this week in honour of International Women’s Day! Today’s episode is a Quick Brew but with a very special guest, Krisi Smith of the awesome Bird & Blend tea!

Bird & Blend was founded in 2014 and has since becoming one of the greatest boutique tea brands in the UK with 14 retail stores and a significant online presence.

Krisi joins us today to talk all about her journey to become co-founder of this incredible brand, she talks about the challenges of being a woman in business, the gender inequality issues and why it’s so important that we raise the next generation to be soaring for success, regardless of gender.

So excited to bring you the first instalment in our Becoming A Parent series.

Today, the incredible Michael Johnson-Ellis from TwoDadsUK® joins us to talk all about his and his husband Wes’ journey to become parents using a surrogate.

Surrogacy is becoming an increasingly popular way in the UK to become a parent for a variety of different people whether there be fertility issues, LGBTQ+ people, single parents or other reasons. To put it in perspective, in 2008 there were just 67 parental order applications, in 2022 that number had jumped up to 300 applications. (A parental order application is a post-birth court order which makes the intended parents the legal parents of the child).

Michael and Wes Johnson-Ellis set up TwoDadsUK® in 2016 as a social media account to discuss their own route to parenthood through surrogacy, this later developed and grew significantly and they launched Fertility Clinic Partnerships in 2018.

Since then, TwoDadsUK® has become more than an Instagram account and is now a recognised brand within the fertility sector and LGBTQ+ parenting space. Mike and Wes are also Founders of The Modern Family Show in March 2019 and My Surrogacy Journey® which launched in February 2021. It also has a Number 1 Podcast too; My Surrogacy Journey – The Podcast.

Michael is corporate speaker for a large number of brands and has also contributed to a Number 1 Best Selling Book, released in in 2021 titled DAD. The Untold Stories.

When they aren’t busy running their empire, they are being incredible parents to their two beautiful children Talulah & Duke.

Social Media. Best thing since sliced bread or a recipe for disaster? We delve into the toxic world of social media.

Deep fakes to fake news - just how toxic is social media for us?

We look at social media and freedom of speech, is everyone entitled to say and post what they think? So many questions, so little time! 

In this hour long episode we discuss statistics, stories, celebrities and topical news stories from the world of social media to highlight just how it can be toxic for our mental health, our relationships and our lives.

An interesting debate for a modern day problem!