In September, I'll be taking to the stage at Ideas Fest to speak about something I know many women are thinking about, living through or quietly questioning:
The honest truth about building a business and raising a family.
Not the Instagram version. Not the polished highlight reel. The real version.
The version where you're answering emails from the side of a swimming pool. Taking calls in the car between school pick up and football practice. Feeling guilty when you're working and guilty when you're not. Wondering if you're doing enough in your business whilst simultaneously wondering if you're doing enough at home.
For years, I believed that success looked a certain way. But becoming a mum changed everything.
Not because my ambition disappeared. If anything, my ambition grew. I wanted to create opportunities. I wanted financial security. I wanted to prove to myself that I could build something meaningful.
But I also wanted to be present. I wanted to do the school run. I wanted to see the nativities.
I wanted to be there for sports days, assemblies and all the little moments that seem insignificant until they're gone.
And that's where the conflict started.
Because society often makes us feel like we have to choose.
Career or family.
Success or flexibility.
Ambition or presence.
Business owner or parent.
But what if that's not true?
What if the real challenge isn't choosing one or the other?
What if it's redefining what success actually means to us?
Over the last twenty years, I've built businesses whilst raising three children. I've experienced growth, setbacks, self-doubt, burnout, excitement and everything in between.
I've had moments where I felt unstoppable. I've had moments where I've questioned every decision I've ever made. I've celebrated milestones whilst worrying about whether I'd remembered packed lunches. I've stood on stages whilst wondering if I'd signed the latest school form.
I've built my businesses around nap times, nursery pick-ups, school holidays and family commitments.
And through it all, I've learned something important.
Most women aren't lacking ambition. They're lacking permission. Permission to do things differently.
Permission to want flexibility. Permission to create a career that works around their life instead of squeezing their life around their career. Permission to admit that the version of success they wanted before children may not be the version they want now.
The women I meet every day don't necessarily want less.
They often want more. More time. More choice.
And yet so many are carrying the weight of trying to be everything to everyone.
The perfect parent. The perfect employee. The perfect business owner. The perfect partner. The perfect friend.
It's exhausting.
There is no perfect balance.
Some days the business wins.
Some days the family wins.
Most days you're simply doing your best with the information, energy and capacity you have at that moment.
And that's enough.
When I take to the stage at Ideas Fest, I won't be sharing a blueprint for having it all, because I don't believe one exists.
What I will be sharing is an honest conversation about what it really looks like to build a business whilst raising a family. The lessons I've learned. The mistakes I've made. The things I wish I'd known sooner. And why I believe women don't have to choose between ambition and motherhood.
Because perhaps success isn't about having it all. Perhaps it's about creating a life that feels right for you.
And if there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's this:
You don't have to follow someone else's path.
You get to create your own.
I'll see you at Ideas Fest.