The Playful Mompreneur

You may have heard the business advice, “Scratch your own itch.” As in: solve a problem that you’re having and then market the solution to other people. This is the route that Rowena Mabbott took — but then realised a few years into starting her business that she had taken “the hard way”.

Rowena is my guest on The Playful Mompreneur Podcast today and she’s going to tell us why she pivoted the focus of her business from grief coaching to career and life confidence coaching — and really how all her training and life experience had been leading up to this point.

Rowena also tells us about how becoming more playful and experimental in her business now has helped her to realise some great successes — the simple way, this time! — like booking out her Accountability Group, which involved minimal marketing and launching efforts.

Get Rowena's self-led workshop, Design Your Season here.

Connect with Rowena at rowenamabbott.com and @rowenamabbott on Instagram.

Join the Playful Mompreneur Club and get free resources and updates at playfulmompreneur.com.

Are you a member of the Playful Mompreneur Club? Go to playfulmompreneur.com and pop your email address in there to sign up. I'll let you know when a new episode drops and share some bonus content with you too — like excerpts from my upcoming book!

In Episode 2, I interviewed Wendy Ng, a Dance and Movement Coach, Mama of three, and part-time Occupational Therapist. This mompreneur has a lot on her plate, but you know what’s cool? She’s CREATED it that way! And that makes all the difference between a frenetic, busy existence and a conscious and joyful life.

Wendy had so many beautiful insights to share and so in this episode, I’m highlighting a few of my favourite takeaways (and adding my 2 cents-worth, of course!). Here are some of them:

• 2:38 It was so much fun and we laughed a lot! I want to do more of that in my business!
• 5:30 Find something to do JUST. FOR. YOU.
• 11:23 CREATING space for the things that light you up — for Wendy, this initially meant negotiating a job-share that gave her one day off a week for some “me time” and “adult admin time”. Later, she was able to use this time for building her own coaching business.
• 16:36 Embrace your own unique pacing on your business journey.
• 19:27 Seek out mentorship and a community of other entrepreneurs

Connect with Wendy on Instagram @simplynaturallywendy and give yourself the gift of her 5-Minute Morning Movement Routine at thewendyng.com — your body and mind will thank you AND your family will be grateful too!

Wendy Ng is a Dance and Movement Coach for Moms, guiding them to become (or rediscover) a more joyful version of themselves. In addition to her coaching business and parenting her 3 kids, Wendy continues to practice as an Occupational Therapist for 4 days a week — so if you're looking to start a business alongside your current 9-5, then this one is definitely for you.

Connect with Wendy on Instagram @simplynaturallywendy and give yourself the gift of her 5-Minute Morning Movement Routine at thewendyng.com — your body and mind will thank you AND your family will be grateful too!

Also, are you a member of the Playful Mompreneur Club? Go to playfulmompreneur.com and pop your email address in there to sign up. I'll let you know when a new episode drops and share some bonus content with you too — like excerpts from my upcoming book...

In this episode, Wendy shares:
3:12 How she came up with the idea to start a business as a Dance and Movement Coach
5:35 About her family and current childcare and education arrangements — and how her kids inspire her in her business
8:29 Her business journey and how she balances motherhood, a traditional job, and her coaching business
14:44 Wendy's Zone of Genius (and how that helped get the creative juices flowing — and kept my jetlag at bay — during a retreat we were both on in 2019)
18:19 Wendy's typical schedule a.k.a. exactly how she manages her time
23:50 Productivity strategies that are working for her right now
26:24 How she embraces playfulness in her business
28:17 The "rules" she's broken in building her business and why she refuses to sacrifice sleep for so-called success!
31:28 Advice for new mompreneurs and the importance of mentorship and community

Things get playful right off the bat in this debut episode of The Playful Mompreneur, as the host of the show, Shelley Tonkin Smith is interviewed by her inner critic/alter ego, Cruelette de Smithers.
Shelley talks about how she came to embrace more playfulness in her business, after taking the decision to homeschool her two boys exactly three weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic became a global reality. 
Shelley is on a mission to equip new mompreneurs to take the bold step of starting their own businesses alongside motherhood. She's also inviting established mama business owners into the playful mompreneur game. Because business is way more fun when mompreneurs, mumpreneurs, mamapreneurs, and mother-of-all-businesswomen play together.

In this episode, you can look forward to:

• What's in store for you as a listener of The Playful Mompreneur Podcast.
• A guest appearance by Cruelette de Smithers, Shelley's inner critic. ;)
• Shelley's copywriting + website design business.
• How Shelley has set up support systems that help her to homeschool her kids and be a mompreneur.
• Why figuring out your Zone of Genius is so important — and how you can do that.
• How Shelley has embraced playfulness in both homeschooling and her business journey.
• How she has set up her typical week + her mompreneur productivity tips.
• Examples of how she incorporates play into her business.
• Business "rules" Shelley has broken to good effect — and why you should also be a rule breaker.
• Shelley's best advice to new mompreneurs.