The Parentpreneur Accelerator Podcast

In this week's episode, I talk to Sue Atkins, an internationally recognised Parenting Expert, Broadcaster, Speaker and Author of the Amazon best-selling books “Parenting Made Easy – How to Raise Happy Children” and “Raising Happy Children for Dummies". She has just launched her new Parenting Club and produces ‘The Sue Atkins Parenting Show’ a free weekly podcast. She regularly appears on the award-winning flagship ITV show This Morning, Sky News, Good Morning Britain and has a weekly ‘Parenting Round Up’ on Eammon Holmes Drive Time Show on TalkRADIO every Tuesday. She also appears on The Jeremy Vine Show on BBC Radio 2 and is the parenting expert for many BBC Radio Stations around the UK. In this episode, we discuss Sue's parenting expertise – from birth to teens and beyond, how to give children the gift of self-esteem and empowerment to become creative, innovative, independent, resourceful, resilient and confident in their own abilities, how Sue supports families through divorce, and how the juggle of work-life balance works in practice.

This week I interview Karolina Barnes, the creative director and editor in chief of ESTILA Studio and Bookazine, with over 150,000 visitors/month. Karolina has been involved in business from her teens when her parents started a family distribution business, building it from zero to 8 million euros per year. After gaining her degree in economics and business studies, she started her own businesses in various industries. In 2013, after closing down her business and going through radiotherapy for treating meningioma (benign brain tumour), she retrained as an interior designer and two years later founded ESTILA with a mission to empower creatives to share their business stories while highlighting British design, craftsmanship and innovation within creative industries. Apart from ESTILA, she also runs a community of creative business founders where she teaches them on how to approach branding, PR and marketing through the power of storytelling and is a speaker and charity ambassador. In this episode, we discuss how Karolina found her purpose, the power of storytelling within a business, he importance of diversification and partnerships / and building businesses with solid foundations for tomorrow, and her work with the Brain Tumour Charity after her own diagnosis and treatment.

Today, I am joined by Siam Kidd, who is a full-time investor and trader, owns many businesses and learned how to trade simply through trial and error. Siam became an RAF Pilot fresh from school and began trading and investing in 2004. Siam is the founder of The Realistic Trader, which is a community of thousands of positive like-minded Crypto investors/traders. Siam has accurately predicted many Crypto currency moves which have made his community profits. The one he is most proud of to date is the 2015 Black Monday crash where he managed to make over £422k in 30 minutes. Siam openly admits he struggled with trading for 6 years, making many losses. It took him a long time to get consistent, but when he did he went from strength to strength with remarkable triumphs. He now uses his knowledge and experience to help others to achieve quicker and not go through the same pains that he did. Witnessing the sea of trading scams online, Siam made it his mission to teach good, proper, responsible and realistic trading, and that’s how The Realistic Trader was born. Siam now aims to demystify the financial markets and show people how trading can be one of the most important life skills that one can develop and that it's not that hard if trained correctly.

In this episode, I speak with Natasha Freidus, Founder and CEO of the Needslist, which connects the needs of refugee aid communities quickly and efficiently with those who want to help. Natasha has fifteen years of experience applying human centered design for social good and a long-standing commitment to refugee and migration related issues. She believes strongly in the potential of technology to solve global challenges, when developed in partnership with affected communities. With experience in the public, non-profit, and private sector, Natasha is comfortable in a wide range of contexts. She is currently spearheading an initiative to leverage technology resources to support people displaced by conflict and climate change. In this episode, we’ll discuss how business can be used as a tool for social change, the expectations for startup founders, and how Natasha has balanced her business alongside her family life.

This week I am interviewing Sarah Haran, who is the Founder of Sarah Haran Luxury Accessories. After 19 years within the Technology Industry, Sarah decided to follow her passion - handbags and accessories. She was inspired to start her own business because she had struggled to find a stylish, high quality functional handbag, so decided to create her own. What started as a hobby became an opportunity to take a total leap of faith as she moved from IT to Fashion, whilst looking after her family. In this episode, we’ll discuss Sarah's giant leap from IT to Fashion, the obstacles faced when making such a change in role, how she managed her family alongside a start-up business, how she marketed her handbags to some of the World’s leading women, and how she was able to feature in such high-profile publications as The Guardian, The Scotsman and Marie Claire.

In this episode, I welcome Richy K. Chandler. Richy is the creative force behind Tempo Lush, which produces comics and illustrations. Richy's comic publisher business has gone on to produce several highly rated comics. Richy is also the author of "When Are You Going to Get a Proper Job?" and the children’s picture book 'You Make Your Parents SUPER HAPPY!' amongst many others. In this episode we talk about creativity, coping when things get tough, and various other issues for creative business owners.

Today I am joined by Mariessa Devlin, Managing Director of Enchanted Forest Nurseries and One Cove Road Coffee House. Enchanted Forest Nurseries employ over 110 people across their 5 sites and promote the very highest quality of care, whilst adding value to the families whose children attend. In this episode, we discuss what it was like to co-found a business with her husband, how she has grown her business to over 100 staff, and how she keeps staff engaged. Show notes: http://www.parentpreneur.com/podcast-054-mariessa-devlin-see-your-business-through-the-eyes-of-a-parent

Today I am joined by Katie Massie-Taylor, one of the two founders of Mush, the Number 1 app designed for mums to connect with one another and become part of their local mum community. Katie previously worked as a derivatives broker in the City of London. Whilst on maternity leave with her second baby, she randomly chatted to another mum in a playground. Their life-changing friendship led them to wonder why there wasn’t a digital platform for mums looking for local friends (particularly considering 80% of new mums admit to feeling lonely), and so Mush was born in April 2016. Sometimes described as 'Tinder for mums', Mush helps local mums connect with each other for friendship. It also includes a messaging feature and advice sections. In the first few weeks of the free app's launch, more than 5,000 London mothers signed up. Mush has had loads of media attention. Katie and her co-founder Sarah, were featured on BBC News talking about their product with The Duchess of Cambridge. Since then, Mush has raised over £3 million in investment, and has hundreds of thousands of users. In this episode we will discuss, the rise of loneliness amongst parents, the importance of a real life social network and maternal mental health. We will also get lots of advice and tips from Katie on how she and her co-founder transformed an amazing idea into a real life working app.

In this episode I’m talking to Pragya Agarwal, a mother of three and owner of two businesses. Before starting her businesses, Pragya worked in academia, completing a PhD and training as an architect while raising her first child as a single parent. She later went on to found her businesses, and now has baby twins too! One business makes wood carvings and prints, which she sells on notonthehighstreet and her own site: hedgeandhogprints.com, and was approached by John Lewis to stock her products too! Her other business, the art tiffin.co.uk is a social enterprise that sends art packs for adults and children to support creativity and mental wellbeing. The business also promotes vegan and cruelty free products. Show notes: https://www.parentpreneur.com/podcast-052-pragya-agarwal-building-a-socially-responsible-business

In this episode I’m talking to Steve Folland, a father, and owner of Creative Video and Content company Foll and Co. Alongside his business, Steve produces and presents Being Freelance, a weekly podcast helping freelancers learn from one another's skills and experience. He also creates weekly vlogs documenting his freelance business and lifestyle on YouTube. Steve resigned from his job (of 12 years) in radio at the end of 2013, to become a self-employed, work-from-home dad. In true Parentpreneur style Steve was able to take care of the kids, one just about to start school at that time and became a freelancer writing scripts, editing and doing voiceovers for video and audio production. Since then, Steve's entrepreneurial spirit unintentionally thrived, as he organically developed his freelance work into a business. He now hires a team of freelance writers, voiceover artists, animators and designers to provide videos for big organisations (including a major food manufacturer and global bank) via a partnership with a learning and development company. In this episode we discuss building business from freelancing to hiring freelancers around the world as a business, the challenges of delegation and the process of delegating tasks, how Steve copes when projects are busy and kids go sick, why Steve takes so much time off during school holidays, and how he grew his business beyond a few freelancing projects through a partnership. Note: Sorry about the noise during the intro, it stops when we get into the episode. We've since changed the way we record to address this.