November 27, 2024 • 45 mins
Never mind the highlights. It’s the hurdles we’ve overcome that tell the most honest- and interesting- story.
Courage and Chaos is back for a new season- and I’m starting this one out by sharing the real, raw, honest truths about my own business journey as a female entrepreneur.
With a focus on five major obstacles and the ways I overcame them, I’ll walk you through my seven years of full time self employment (and the many years of side hustling before that) to get to where I am today: with two thriving business, co founding a community of female entrepreneurs in Scotland and raising two small humans.
Covering a move overseas and setting up a business in a new country, matresence and motherhood, disability parenting, a worldwide pandemic and a host of other things that tested my determination (and stubbornness) this episode is all about learning things the hard way, adapting, and celebrating growth and perseverence- even when it looks different than you thought it would.
Thanks for joining the conversation! Don't forget to like/follow the podcast to stay up to date on new episodes, and if you like what you hear please give us a share!
Connect with me:
Rhiannon Louden Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rhiannonlouden.co.uk & https://www.instagram.com/rhiannoneale
Website: https://www.rhiannonlouden.co.uk
Substack: https://theraremumchronicles.substack.com/
Intro/Outro music credit: https://www.purple-planet.com
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/courage-chaos--4358445/support.
Courage and Chaos is back for a new season- and I’m starting this one out by sharing the real, raw, honest truths about my own business journey as a female entrepreneur.
With a focus on five major obstacles and the ways I overcame them, I’ll walk you through my seven years of full time self employment (and the many years of side hustling before that) to get to where I am today: with two thriving business, co founding a community of female entrepreneurs in Scotland and raising two small humans.
Covering a move overseas and setting up a business in a new country, matresence and motherhood, disability parenting, a worldwide pandemic and a host of other things that tested my determination (and stubbornness) this episode is all about learning things the hard way, adapting, and celebrating growth and perseverence- even when it looks different than you thought it would.
Thanks for joining the conversation! Don't forget to like/follow the podcast to stay up to date on new episodes, and if you like what you hear please give us a share!
Connect with me:
Rhiannon Louden Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rhiannonlouden.co.uk & https://www.instagram.com/rhiannoneale
Website: https://www.rhiannonlouden.co.uk
Substack: https://theraremumchronicles.substack.com/
Intro/Outro music credit: https://www.purple-planet.com
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/courage-chaos--4358445/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hey there, this is Courage and Chaos. The podcast for plate-juggling women who are both ambitious
(00:09):
entrepreneurs and busy mums and carers. This space is all about embracing the mess and
sharing the raw truths and unspoken realities of having it all. I'm your host, Rhiannon Louden,
proud female founder of two small businesses, proud co-founder of an inclusive community
of women entrepreneurs here in Scotland and proud mom to two amazing girls, the youngest of
(00:34):
whom has a rare genetic condition and multiple disabilities. I'm navigating my way through all
of these different worlds from disability parenting to business growth and everything in between
and the women I interview on the show can relate to some, if not all of those very challenging
roles. We are here to share, to support and to inspire. Thank you for joining us in a safe,
(00:56):
judgment-free space. We're so glad that you're here. Hello and welcome to a brand new season of
Courage and Chaos. This podcast is undergone a pretty big rebrand in line with my small business
rebrand as well. You may be used to listening to this as the self-employed mom podcast and I've given
(01:19):
things a little mix up. Couple of reasons behind that. In number one being, it is not only other
moms who listen to my podcast and well, a lot of the content that we talk about here is around
juggling all the plates. There are other plates to juggle that are not just motherhood. Lots of people
play the role of care for somebody else that they care about in their life, whether that be a partner
(01:42):
or a parent or a sibling. Other people have their own healthcare needs. They have to take care of
themselves in a very big way and really we all have more than just that one role of being an entrepreneur.
So I didn't want to exclude anyone and as much as we will still be talking a lot about motherhood
(02:03):
in particular and caring roles in particular on here, I thought Courage and Chaos was actually a
much better name that represents this year. Chaos of trying to keep all of these plates spinning
at the same time of wearing all the hats of being a person who wants to prioritize both their
(02:26):
business and their role as a parent, a career, a friend, a partner and just a general human being.
So I hope that you like the new rebrand. I have to give a shout out to the wonderful Emmelie
Coulson design who is my small biz bestie and I'm so excited about the incredible work that she's
(02:48):
done for me both for the Courage and Chaos podcast and my own business which has rebranded from Small
Fish Brand Co to RhiannonLouden.co.uk. So if you don't follow me already, I hope that you will go
find me on socials, same name at RhiannonLouden.co.uk. and check out my website which is going through a
(03:13):
rebrand as well. So on that note of my small business, I thought I would do the first episode of the
the season as a little bit of a share about my journey so far but with a focus on the hurdles of my journey.
It's very easy to just share the highlight reel to talk only about business growth and
(03:36):
accomplishments and all of the things that went well and there's far too much of that online. Of course,
we are allowed to celebrate the wins. Of course, we should all pat each other on the back and give
each other a high five and celebrate the big accomplishments but I think it's a real disservice
when all we share are the highlights and we don't talk about the challenges and the hurdles that we
(03:59):
have to overcome along the way to get to where we are today. So I thought I would walk you through
my journey and share my five big business hurdles that I have found along the way. Okay, so business
hurdle number one was essentially the time when I decided to pick up my life in Canada and move
(04:22):
from Winnipeg which is right in the middle of the country all the way over to a new continent and
start a life in Scotland. Now this wasn't entirely on my own. I moved with my then fiance, now husband,
Paul, who is Scottish and was over living and working in Canada when we met. So it wasn't as though
(04:44):
I moved to a brand new place all on my own and didn't know anybody but I certainly did not have any
kind of a support network here. I didn't have any friends other than my sort of friends that I made
through my husband. My family were all back home, all of my professional experience was back in Canada
as somebody who mostly worked with non-profit organizations and small arts organizations. It's not
(05:08):
as though I worked for big global companies that anyone had heard of before and at that time in my life
I was running my business more as a hobby to be honest. It was something that I love to do. It was
some extra money. I was doing a mix of different types of photography, some brand and headshot
stuff, some wedding stuff and a little bit of family stuff but it was very much a side hustle for me
(05:31):
and not something that I saw as a viable business although the more I did it, the more I loved it.
Many of you know if you've kind of followed my journey or if you know me well that my background is
in communication- my formal degree is rhetoric and communications with a major in journalism
and I worked in that space for almost a decade before I finally went full-time self-employed.
(05:55):
So picture this, I move over to Scotland, get married, do not have a job lined up, nobody's
heard of any of my relevant communications experience before I don't have any network here
and I have to figure out what I'm going to do with myself and luckily I have an extremely
supportive partner who pointed out how much I was loving the photography side of things and why
(06:22):
this would be the perfect opportunity to give it a go. I didn't have a job lined up anyways, I might
as well give it a try and so I did a little bit of part-time work while I tried to establish myself as a photographer
over here. I've done some writing and probably a podcast episode on this, I'll have to go back and have a look
in the archives to find it- it's about what I did to get myself established over here- but today I really
(06:46):
want to focus on the hurdles. So what I will say is when you do not have a support network it is very
hard to get yourself established somewhere new. Back in Canada I had all of my colleagues and fellow
students that I had graduated with I had teachers who could provide recommendations and opportunities.
I had a sort of local knowledge of the industry of the organizations around and that is invaluable.
(07:15):
I think you don't realize how much opportunity that network awards you until it's gone and so I think
moving over here it all felt really daunting- and don't forget I hadn't run my business, you know,
I hadn't run it like a business back home it was very much just a side thing for me and I had no
(07:36):
idea what I was doing. I didn't know how to run a business, I didn't know anyone who had their own
business growing up I didn't see anybody around me you know, amongst my parents friends or in
the neighborhood I lived in there was nobody that I knew that was running a small business that
wasn't a franchise or something. And particularly in creative spaces I honestly did not see it
(07:57):
as a viable option. It felt really overwhelming to be on a new continent totally new place you know
I was anything but comfortable trying to figure out my bearings here and also trying to establish
myself in quite a saturated market. I don't really know how to explain how I overcame that hurdle
(08:18):
I think the honest answer is baby steps- I reached out to some other photographers I joined a
couple of sort of local photography groups and a couple of people were kind enough
to meet me for a coffee and chat me through it. Then I was asked to participate in a styled photo shoot
with a bunch of other suppliers so I met some people there and slowly but surely I started to build
(08:43):
up a little bit of a support network and gain a little bit of traction with getting some local work
in my portfolio. I think part of it was stubborn determination- I am a very stubborn person and if I
say I'm going to do something I usually make sure I do it so I think that was a big part of it too.
And I think that as much as it felt like I was doing something totally different than what I studied
(09:10):
I think of my experience in that sort of communications and marketing sector in working for non-profit
organizations where you wear a million hats because there's never enough money to hire enough staff so
as much as you know I might have been a communication and events coordinator I was also doing
marketing I was also doing fundraising I was doing a lot of client relations and admin and writing
(09:33):
and all of these things that are a part of running your small business. So I think overcoming that
hurdle was really a combination of applying what turned out to be relevant experience being a
little bit stubborn and determined to make it work and reaching out to others in the industry who were
warm and friendly and welcoming enough to chat with me and talk with me and give me that little kind
(09:58):
of boost and little bit of encouragement I needed to properly give it a go. Moving on to
hurdle number two let's fast forward about 18 months. So it was about 18 months of me sort of
putting myself out there here in Scotland having been settled in here and deciding to give
(10:18):
self-employment a go full time. Up until that point I had had two different part-time jobs
and not really related to what I wanted to do and I was able to build my business up to a
point where I was making as much money as I had been making doing that part-time work and so I handed in my
notice and my focus was 100% on my business. But at the same time I was growing a tiny human- I was
(10:44):
pregnant with my first daughter Charlotte and I knew that being self-employed would allow me some
flexibility and to do motherhood the way that I wanted to do motherhood and to have a little bit more-
I don't want to say balance because I think what I'm learning the more time that goes on I don't
think I believe in a work-life balance to be honest. That's a topic for another episode. But I knew
(11:08):
that I wanted the flexibility I wanted to be my own boss and set my own schedule and take holidays
when I wanted to take holidays and all of those sort of wonderful pros about being self-employed so
I was really determined to make it work. I was full-time self-employed for three months before she
was born so it wasn't very much time to get things into place but it also wasn't overly difficult to
(11:32):
take a maternity leave at that time because my business was still a very part-time, so with my
keeping in touch days I was able to do enough to stay on top of social media and marketing and
emails and things like that so that there was some work waiting for me when I finished maternity leave.
And really over the next couple of years I just grew things really slowly- as much as that kind of foray
(11:58):
into matrescence and motherhood was a hurdle, to wrap my head around to figure out how I was going to
make this work, how is I going to schedule my time, how I was going to manage to go out and shoot a 12-hour
wedding after I'd been up with a baby all night. All of these things you have
to navigate as a new parent and going back to work that was certainly a big challenge for me and
(12:24):
childcare costs and accessibility obviously being a big part of that. When it started out I think
my daughter was in nursery for two half days and I would cram as much work as I could in-
more along the lines of marketing and working on my website and building up my social media and
all of that sort of behind the scenes stuff and then using weekend time when my partner is off work
(12:49):
and could take over the parenting side of things and I would do my shoots at the weekends. And because
I was really only at a sort of part-time level with my business at that point it did feel quite
manageable and I think at that point to the growth was quite organic and so everything kind of went
slowly. As my businesses needs grew my daughter got older and I started to experiment with putting
(13:12):
her in nursery more up until the point that we kind of got into four days a week and I had a lot
more time to work and offer sessions and things throughout the weekdays as well so that was hurdle
number two overcome. And then we moved into the world of COVID and a worldwide pandemic. I'm not
(13:35):
going to dwell on the specifics of COVID. We all know what it was like as an entrepreneur during COVID
but I guess the sort of specific hurdles for me in my business is everything I had done up until
that point was in person (13:47):
as a photographer most of your work is going to be in person and I had to
figure out a way not only to navigate keeping my daughter happy and healthy at home because obviously
the nurseries were shut but also trying to earn a little bit of money and surviving through that period.
I had the privilege of having a partner who had a job that was still able to
(14:12):
happen during COVID, he was working from home, but we did still have one income coming in. But
it was a pretty scary thing to all the sudden have all of your bookings cancelled because you weren't
allowed to photograph anybody in person and I really used that time- that's actually when
this podcast started. At the time it was called Small Fish Big Pod and the reason behind it just
(14:35):
trying to connect people experiencing you know a similar thing as small businesses at that time,
building a little bit of community, connecting people who were feeling even more isolated than usual
and honestly it was a passion project at the start. That was just me feeling a bit lonely and
disconnected speaking to other people who were feeling the same way and trying to solve that problem
(15:01):
and I absolutely loved it I wasn't sure if I would like podcasting- I still cringe a bit at hearing
my own voice if I'm being honest- but I really did use that time to try and think a little bit
differently about what I wanted my business to be about and what I wanted my priorities to be.
If you've followed my work you will know that I run two small businesses (15:17):
Rhiannon Neale Photography
is my wedding and family photography, I do a lot of proposal work with that as well and that is
alternative documentary style- very much geared towards people who don't love being in front of
the camera and very much in this storytelling space rather than directing style of photography. So
(15:42):
that was fairly established at that point and Small Fish Brand Co at that time was basically
brand photography and a little bit of the strategy behind branding as well but essentially you know
both businesses were offering a similar service in that it was in person photography meetings to
(16:04):
plan those photography sessions and talk through branding and nothing done online. So I did
experiment a little bit with some zoom photo shoots- digital photo sessions over zoom,
meetings over zoom, building up the podcast and moving more into the realm of the strategic work
because I kind of found something that set me apart from other brand photographers. There are lots of
(16:28):
brilliant brand photographers but how many of them have experience on the strategic side of things?
My background and education in communications really gave me something different from what others
around me were offering, so I started to build up those services and realized how much I enjoyed
helping other small business owners with that. I saw how much there was a need for it because most
(16:50):
small business owners, particularly those in creative spaces, are absolutely brilliant at what they do
but a lot of them would put their hands up and say they don't know much about running a business-
it's not something that they've done before it’s, that side of things is a little bit foreign to
them and I think being able to come in and ask the tough questions and get that strategy in writing
(17:16):
for them was a much needed service that not many brand photographers were able to provide.
Of course there are big branding studios that do offer these services but they're not
necessarily geared towards startups or small businesses they're more looking at sort of medium to
to growing enterprises. And so I guess tackling Covid by trying different things and
(17:40):
experimenting a bit helped me find a niche and helped me sort of restructure the way that my business
looked- at least this branding side of my business- and it really helped me find a bit of a community
as well. I won't go into the financial difficulties or you know the fact that there was that long
period of time with not a lot of new work to add to a portfolio and things like that as I'm sure
(18:04):
that's all fairly obvious, but I think those are really the key things for me is thinking
outside the box and being flexible which is a lesson that I am still trying to employ
as things in my life change and I have to reshape my business around them. Which brings me to
hurdle number four (18:24):
Maternity leave number two. So I found out that I was pregnant with my second
daughter in January of 2021 and at that time Covid was still very much in full swing however
we were allowed out again. I was back to working again and things were very busy- so you know
(18:46):
a lot of photographers and people in this industry would tell you like 2021-2022 were
very busy years because you had all of the rescheduled weddings all of the rescheduled
brand shoots all of the things that had been put on hold for most of 2020, people were right back to
it. So it is a very very busy time and I saw a lot of business growth (19:03):
I think part of that was
just situational because of you know people playing catch up and so many new enquiries and everybody
trying to get married and get their brand photos out and getting their businesses launched at once
there was a lot of work going around um I think part of that if I can give myself a little bit of credit
(19:26):
was also the building blocks I put in place and building a community and creating resources like
the podcast and blogging and working on my website I think that really paid off when people started
looking again. Whereas if I would have kind of just left everything and not done any work at all
during that time um I don't think that I would have had the same sort of influx of work at that
(19:48):
point. All positive but it did leave me with a bit of a problem because just as my business was taking off and
requiring sort of full-time effort out of me and full-time hours out of me I knew that I had to
prepare for a second maternity leave. If you are self-employed and trying to prepare for
maternity leave obviously everybody's circumstances and business models are different but if you are
(20:10):
a service provider taking nine months completely off from your business is very difficult to do
if you're not going to do anything for that time. Obviously you get your 10 keeping in touch days but if you can't
answer any emails do any of your admin put any marketing out there if all of that gets left for
nine months, when you come back at the end of nine months, it's probably going to take you another nine
(20:32):
months to build up some work again. It is very very difficult to take a proper break especially
such a long break now (when I say break obviously being on maternity leave is not a picnic) to
takethat time away from your work to focus on your family it's very hard to do if you
want work there waiting for you when you come back. I knew that and I knew with the sort of
(20:56):
level of busy that I was at, with how many emails I was responding to in a week and all of that I
knew that there's no way my 10 keeping in touch days would cover it and I also knew that I wanted to
be able to enjoy at least the first six months just adjusting to life as a family of four and enjoying
my new baby and spending time with my girls and my husband. So cue the lovely Emmelie who I mentioned
(21:19):
earlier in the podcast. At that time she still had a part time job and she was doing a lot of sort
of like admin work for a business and she wasn't enjoying it and she wanted to be full-time
self-employed. She was doing her graphic design and illustration work on the side but it wasn't enough
and so we had a chat one day over coffee, we were only just getting to know each other,
and she had said 'well I could help you with your admin’. So long story short (21:43):
Emmelie got
hired on retainer as my admin/ virtual assistant I suppose you would call her and for the first six
months she covered everything (21:57):
all of the admin for me, she would do any invoicing, she would take
new bookings, she would respond to emails- she took care of that side of it and she would schedule social
media posts for me as well. I did a fair bit of work before I went on mat leave to sort of give her the resources
that she needed and to work with her for some time so that it was a little bit more familiar
(22:19):
by the time I was ready to go off on my maternity leave but she was my saving grace. I mean there's
no way that I would have come back to a thriving business if I did not have her there. So I
think my lesson learned from hurdle number four, going on a second mat leave at a time when my business
was growing, is that outsourcing is key. Yes it is an expense and yes it takes some time to get it set up
(22:45):
so that it's running smoothly. Obviously you're letting somebody else into your business and you
have to give them some time to understand how it works and sort of what what your priorities are
and what you need from them but oh the difference it made, it meant I could actually take a break and
I was not stressing about whether or not I would have work to go back to or whether or not
Anyone was staying on top of things. I knew that Emmelie was taking brilliant care of my business
(23:10):
and I kept her on after the six months. I only came back after six months using my
keeping in touch days. So she covered until the end of my mat leave and she had
done such a good job and I recognized the value in her so strongly, along with my need to come back
at reduced hours- and keeping her on was a no-brainer. She still does my virtual assistant stuff today,
(23:37):
although her main focus of her business now is very much the design and illustration. She's
very kindly stayed on for me and taken that side of things out of my hands. My business has
continued to grow since Poppy was born at quite a fast rate so from let me see if I can get my numbers
right so 21 to 22 I had 50% business growth in terms of what I brought in. For the next business year
(24:04):
I had another 50% growth again and going into this year it's looking like it's going to be even more
than that, um, which I'm honestly kind of amazed at. But when I look back at how hard I've worked
how I've outsourced more and more as the businesses grown and the sort of time and energy
(24:24):
that I've put into the business it does make sense. It certainly hasn't happened without lots and
lots of effort-you'll often find me working at my desk until midnight which I am not glamourizing it
is not ideal um but sometimes it is choosing, you know to have that time with my girls after school
and nursery up until bedtime and then using those later hours to work. It is very much a choice that I am
(24:48):
making, a conscious choice, but yeahmoving into that growth stage I think the only way to
meet that hurdle and overcome that obstacle of growing when you have a young family is outsourcing.
That has been the number one thing that has helped me. Apart from outsourcing my admin I
(25:14):
have also outsourced some sort of content planning. I still write my content and have a sort of
structure for what I want to go out but letting somebody else format it and then schedule it in for me
has been a huge time saver for me. I now have an accountant who takes care of all of the number
side of things which I really don't enjoy and is keeping me right with tax returns and those sorts
(25:36):
of things. I have some associate photographers doing some of the shoots for me not with my brand
workbut over with the proposals and elopement side of things-knowing that I cannot always
be traveling out to Edinburgh two or three days a week or -you know there are times where I have
other things going on -and it has really helped to allow me to still do the -planning
(26:03):
and coordination and the editing and gallery delivery but to have somebody else doing the physical
work. Which obviously took some rejigging of my marketing and how I present myself in that
sense. I have not done any associate shooting for my family work that just feels that bit more
personal but it has worked really well for proposals, for couples who you spend a short
(26:27):
amount of time with and are mostly traveling from elsewhere it just makes sense to have
somebody else cover some of those shootsso that I am not running about every single day, seven
days a week. It's really exciting that my business has grown to the point that I'm able to do
that and to give opportunities to other photographers who have a similar level of experience
(26:52):
but just haven't built their business up to that point yet so that's felt really good:
for a couple of reasons personally yes but also in sort of supporting those who aren't quite
in this position yet which I know all too well. I've also been doing a little bit of playing
about with outsourcing editing (27:12):
for any other photographers listening you will know how
editing can become very tedious thing. Editing a sneak peek or a sort of preview selection of images is
really creative and cool. Culling your images to choose the best ones from a photo shoot again it feels
like a very personal creative decision. When it comes to editing a full gallery however, a lot of
(27:37):
the sort of creative input is gone. You've essentially made the creative decisions already and you're
just trying to get everything streamlined so I have worked with a couple of editors to get me
through some busy periods which has been extremely helpful. So there are so many different areas
and things that you can outsource and I think getting your head around the expense and the initial
(28:00):
time setting it up is a big thing but honestly it's been a total game changer for me and I cannot
recommend it highly enough. Okay that brings us to my last hurdle, business hurdle number five:
disability parenting. When you are thrown into the deep end of something that you never imagined,
that you are in a position you never imagined that you would be in. Many of you will know that my
(28:25):
youngest daughter, Poppy, was diagnosed with a very rare genetic condition in May. We found out that
she has Rett Syndrome which is a neurodevelopmental condition and it affects virtually every area of
her life. She has several disabilities (28:41):
she is nonverbal and unable to verbally communicate at all, she
has very limited use of her hands- fine motor skills are very tricky for her-
and she has limited mobility as well when it comes to gross motor skills (28:54):
walking, balance, all of that.
It was a real shock- we knew something was wrong for a while but we didn't expect anything
along that level of severity and honestly it has been the hardest year of my life.
(29:14):
There's been a lot of grieving, there's been a lot of fighting for answers, for care, for
anybody to listen and take us seriously and provide her with the same opportunities that
typically developing children get with no questions asked. It’s been a massive learning curve and it's
(29:36):
really made it clear how privileged we were before, to not have any additional needs
with our first daughter. It's a totally different ball game and if any of you are in a similar boat
with a child with disabilities or even additional support needs you will know what it is like.
(29:56):
Everything is a fight, everything is a wait, there's a post-code lottery element to it in terms of
what your wait time is and what services are offered. And you're navigating a system
that you have no information about that you have to sort of figure out on your own and thankfully
with the help of some really wonderful third sector organizations and groups of parents who
(30:20):
have been through it before. I don't know what else to say on that other than being honest that it has been
such a hard year and it has come at a time where my business has really taken off. I started
full-time self-employment in 2017, after I moved over to Scotland at the end of 2015, so this is
(30:42):
you know really year seven of running my business as a full-time career and it's really
taken up until this point- probably partly because of COVID and partly from maternity leaves and
and all of that- but it's really taken up until this year for this to bea growing thriving
business where I am outsourcing several things, where I am providing you know paid opportunities to
(31:06):
other people, where I've sort of hit a level of income and salary that I'm really proud of.
But that all hit at the same time- the hardest of personal stuff that I've ever
encountered in my life came up just then, and obviously there are varying degrees of this.
People go through different things but the grief of learning that your child will likely never
(31:33):
be independent, that everything in their life will be a fight for care and for treatment, that they
will need loads of extra support just to get through their day-to-day life- it's a huge
overwhelming grief and experiencing that at the same time as feeling very ambitious and excited
(31:57):
about the business that you've built is... you feel like you're being pulled in a million different
directions. And I mean that's the emotional side of it but there’s also the physical
side of it, to give you an idea last week I had four different medical appointments for
Poppy. She has physiotherapy occupational therapy and speech and language therapy. Hydrotherapy
(32:20):
and we're going to a second type of physiotherapy called DMI therapy. She has neurology appointments,
she has multidisciplinary care team appointments. Some weeks I am running to appointments four or
five days a week- there are also tests and assessments, we have eye assessments hearing assessments-
everything you could imagine. So trying to fit all of these appointments in around an already
(32:45):
full work schedule, and around looking after my older daughter as well in her needs and her classes
and all of that? It's honestly like another full-time job dealing with all of the admin of those
appointments as well as all the applications you have to fill out, requests for funding if you're
trying to get any equipment or get her into any sort of therapies
(33:10):
that aren't your standard ones covered by the NHS. I mean if I added up the hours
I'm willing to bet it would be like having another full-time job. So essentially lately it has
felt like I have three full-time jobs (33:21):
I have my business, I have motherhood, and I have the caring role
and then I have this sort of advocacy and health admin role that I never expected to be in.
It's been a massive hurdle and in terms of how I've overcome it I wouldn't necessarily say that
we are through through the woods with that yet. I'm still very much in the stage of sort of figuring
(33:44):
it out, but again looking at adding additional outsourcing in outsourcing some personal tasks so for
example I found a laundromat that will pick up a bags of laundry for £13 which is really not that
much money when you think about how much it's taken off my plate there- I've only used that twice,
it's not something I use all the time, but whenever the laundry basket is properly overflowing and I know
(34:06):
I'm not going to catch up I've got something like that in place to help. We have tried the
meal prep services so that we've got some healthy and fairly easy dinner stuff in the house
so that we're not tempted to order too many takeaways or things like that. And so looking at things
that you can outsource in your personal life. We have yet to find a cleaner but I think that's
(34:30):
something that we're going to look at in the new year because I have such limited time now. My time felt
limited already but with all of this health stuff it's more limited than ever and it's thinking about
what I want to make a priority. I've been working with a wonderful mindfulness coach called
Nicole HR who has really been helping me to work on planning my time around my priorities and
(34:54):
working through some mental blocks that have come up around all of this stuff. I have also worked with a
fabulous time management coach, Sarah Stewart, who has been incredibly helpful to me in looking at
how much time these tasks actually take up and how I could better plan my time out. I’m probably
missing someone here, those are just a few of the people who have been just absolute game
changers for me. And writing (35:20):
getting back into things that are just for me, although you know I
have now had some columns published in a disability magazine called Enable. I have actually had
quite a bit of writing published this year, I've done quite a few writing workshops and retreats and
I have really prioritized my time at the gym too. With strength training (35:41):
that's a major source of
De-stressing for me and I actually just ran a 10k in October for the very first time- running has never
come easily to me but I found that I wanted to raise some money for the organization that's been so
(36:04):
helpful through all of this to us, called Rett UK. I wanted to raise some money for them and raise
some awareness for Rett Syndrome and for Poppy and other kids like Poppy and I knew that if I could
get in the habit of running it would really help with the stress of everything too. So prioritizing a
bit of self care and what I need to make sure that I'm not pouring from an empty cup has been
(36:30):
huge in… I won't call it overcoming because it's going to be an ongoing challenge but in
managing, I guess, the additional hurdle of disability parenting along with everything else. I was hoping
to keep this episode to about half an hour and I have now gone over by five minutes so I am going to try
and wrap this up but I did want to share my current hurdle with you. I have in no way overcome this
(36:54):
one and it honestly crept on up on me a little bit- I didn't expect to hit this point
now, especially not after this last year but I have pretty much hit the VAT threshold for this
year which is huge for me. It's huge for my business and honestly it's not a position that I thought I
(37:15):
would be in possibly ever. I didn't expect this level of growth and I'm so so excited about
it and what it means for the future. And for you know the additional financial constraints that
come with having a child with multiple disabilities and trying to look after her. And yet
(37:35):
at the same time it is a big stress because it's a whole new thing to navigate- it's a very different
business than I thought I'd have if I'm being honest. Because up until now you know up until
recently I didn't have anybody doing associate jobs, I wasn't outsourcing
much up until the last couple of years and I sort of thought my business was always just going
(37:59):
to be me. And so running a business now where I have several freelancers that I'm outsourcing to, some
of them on retainer, where I have other associate photographers doing stuff for me, where I am looking
at running more group workshops a group mentoring program- all of these things. It's a totally different
business model than I imagined for myself and it is navigating all of that and what that means
(38:26):
and you know do I want to stay at this level of busy? How can I be there for my families needs
and the needs of my girls and for prioritizing all of the things that are important to me while still
being ambitious and not putting limitations on myself with my business? This is a new one for me
so I'll have to come back to it in a few months as to how I'm tackling it or how hopefully I can
(38:50):
overcome it. But initially I am looking at other things that I can outsource
both in my personal life and my business. I’m very cautious about what I'm outsourcing
as it is such a personal business- my business is me, hence the rebrand to my own name,
Rhiannon Louden. So much of what I do now is going to be around advocacy not specifically just in
(39:15):
the disability parenting space but advocacy around women juggling multiple roles in their life and
redefining success really and one of my main goals for the new year is going to be
speaking at more events being on more podcasts getting more work- writing, podcasts, anything- out there
(39:36):
on this topic so that more women feel seen and heard and understood and also encouraged to keep
going. Because honestly if I can see this level of business growth after the year that I've had
I kind of feel like I can do anything I set my mind to. I'm feeling really positive about it
and I want other people to see that and feel positive too I think sometimes when this big stuff happens
(40:01):
in your life you think "my life is over”. So much in the sort of disability parenting sector and
dealing with the early stage of diagnosis and acceptance is around this concept of
'our child's life is over’ and 'our lives are over’ and 'we'll never be able to have a career or do
any of the things that we wanted to do' and I think I want my work to revolve around challenging
(40:22):
that. Just because you have a child with disabilities and high health care needs does not mean that you
cannot run a successful growing business. Just because you are planning for your third maternity
leave does not mean that you need to let your business go. It's about redefining professionalism and
(40:42):
redefining what your work structure is and challenging all of these very antiquated patriarchal
rules to build a life that works around you and your family's needs and your needs and the things
that you want to prioritize. That is how I'm feeling today- that's a rather positive ending for me!
I tend to err on the side of um being a little bit cynical and a little bit of a realist but
(41:08):
I am feeling very positive when I reflect back on the year, and even acknowledging those
hurdles and things that have been really difficult and even some things that you know you could probably
look at as failures. Opportunities that I had to turn down- one in particular being um photographing
a yoga retreat in India that I was so excited about. I had never been to India it was a totally
(41:34):
adventurous work trip um and I was absolutely thrilled um to be asked to go along. I got the plans in
place coordinated extra childcare, booked flights the whole shebang and then we had some neurology
appointments come through for my daughter and I realized there's no way I can not be there to help
(41:55):
through this stage so I had to turn an amazing opportunity down. There’s been lots of
other things this year, goals that I set in terms of putting myself out there, getting more writing
published, speaking at events that just didn't happen. Things that I wanted to sort of prioritize
(42:16):
my time around, big picture things, that I didn't get to. I wanted to launch my group mentoring program
this year, that I got a lot of the framework done for but never got around to the launch.
I'll have to do a post aboutall of the year's “failures" but I think that
(42:36):
I'm not going to look at them as failures. I'm going to look at them as things that did not happen in 2024
that I can add back onto the list for 2025- if they are still in line with my priorities for next year.
I think the biggest maybe lesson to learn in terms of hurdles and overcoming this stuff is that
(42:58):
if you are flexible and you kind of go with the flow a bit and address things head on as they come-
you do figure it out. And it might mean that your business doesn't look the way that you thought it
would look it might mean that you need to adapt your goals it might mean that you need to totally change
the structure of things but we're really all just figuring out and if anybody says that they
(43:22):
have it all figured out I'm willing to bet that they're lying. I am going to leave it there for today-
that is my five (plus current) business hurdles that I have been dealing with over my last seven
years of being full-time self-employed. I hope that that was helpful, I hope that that is relatable
(43:45):
and I hope that if you are struggling with any one of those hurdles it gives you a little bit of
hope or inspiration or maybe even an idea of how to work through it. The next episode of Courage
and Chaos will be back into the usual format of interviewing a guest, I have not yet announced
who the first guest of the new season will be but if you keep an eye on socials at @courageandchaospod
(44:11):
you will find out all of the details there and if you don't already follow the podcast I would
love it if you would! It's a big help in getting it out there- I don't have any paid advertisements
on the podcast at this time and I do want to spread the word as it does take a fair bit of time
And energy to produce these and I want as many people as possible to be able to access them.
(44:37):
If you could share this episode in your stories, let me know if you listen to it, let me know if you
liked it, send it to a friend who you know is struggling with some of this stuff and needs to hear
from somebody who has been through lots of big hurdles and has come up the other side still
feeling mostly optimistic. Thank you so much for tuning in and we will see you next time!
(44:59):
Hey there, this is Courage and Chaos. The podcast for plate-juggling women who are both ambitious
(00:09):
entrepreneurs and busy mums and carers. This space is all about embracing the mess and
sharing the raw truths and unspoken realities of having it all. I'm your host, Rhiannon Louden,
proud female founder of two small businesses, proud co-founder of an inclusive community
of women entrepreneurs here in Scotland and proud mom to two amazing girls, the youngest of
(00:34):
whom has a rare genetic condition and multiple disabilities. I'm navigating my way through all
of these different worlds from disability parenting to business growth and everything in between
and the women I interview on the show can relate to some, if not all of those very challenging
roles. We are here to share, to support and to inspire. Thank you for joining us in a safe,
(00:56):
judgment-free space. We're so glad that you're here. Hello and welcome to a brand new season of
Courage and Chaos. This podcast is undergone a pretty big rebrand in line with my small business
rebrand as well. You may be used to listening to this as the self-employed mom podcast and I've given
(01:19):
things a little mix up. Couple of reasons behind that. In number one being, it is not only other
moms who listen to my podcast and well, a lot of the content that we talk about here is around
juggling all the plates. There are other plates to juggle that are not just motherhood. Lots of people
play the role of care for somebody else that they care about in their life, whether that be a partner
(01:42):
or a parent or a sibling. Other people have their own healthcare needs. They have to take care of
themselves in a very big way and really we all have more than just that one role of being an entrepreneur.
So I didn't want to exclude anyone and as much as we will still be talking a lot about motherhood
(02:03):
in particular and caring roles in particular on here, I thought Courage and Chaos was actually a
much better name that represents this year. Chaos of trying to keep all of these plates spinning
at the same time of wearing all the hats of being a person who wants to prioritize both their
(02:26):
business and their role as a parent, a career, a friend, a partner and just a general human being.
So I hope that you like the new rebrand. I have to give a shout out to the wonderful Emmelie
Coulson design who is my small biz bestie and I'm so excited about the incredible work that she's
(02:48):
done for me both for the Courage and Chaos podcast and my own business which has rebranded from Small
Fish Brand Co to RhiannonLouden.co.uk. So if you don't follow me already, I hope that you will go
find me on socials, same name at RhiannonLouden.co.uk. and check out my website which is going through a
(03:13):
rebrand as well. So on that note of my small business, I thought I would do the first episode of the
the season as a little bit of a share about my journey so far but with a focus on the hurdles of my journey.
It's very easy to just share the highlight reel to talk only about business growth and
(03:36):
accomplishments and all of the things that went well and there's far too much of that online. Of course,
we are allowed to celebrate the wins. Of course, we should all pat each other on the back and give
each other a high five and celebrate the big accomplishments but I think it's a real disservice
when all we share are the highlights and we don't talk about the challenges and the hurdles that we
(03:59):
have to overcome along the way to get to where we are today. So I thought I would walk you through
my journey and share my five big business hurdles that I have found along the way. Okay, so business
hurdle number one was essentially the time when I decided to pick up my life in Canada and move
(04:22):
from Winnipeg which is right in the middle of the country all the way over to a new continent and
start a life in Scotland. Now this wasn't entirely on my own. I moved with my then fiance, now husband,
Paul, who is Scottish and was over living and working in Canada when we met. So it wasn't as though
(04:44):
I moved to a brand new place all on my own and didn't know anybody but I certainly did not have any
kind of a support network here. I didn't have any friends other than my sort of friends that I made
through my husband. My family were all back home, all of my professional experience was back in Canada
as somebody who mostly worked with non-profit organizations and small arts organizations. It's not
(05:08):
as though I worked for big global companies that anyone had heard of before and at that time in my life
I was running my business more as a hobby to be honest. It was something that I love to do. It was
some extra money. I was doing a mix of different types of photography, some brand and headshot
stuff, some wedding stuff and a little bit of family stuff but it was very much a side hustle for me
(05:31):
and not something that I saw as a viable business although the more I did it, the more I loved it.
Many of you know if you've kind of followed my journey or if you know me well that my background is
in communication- my formal degree is rhetoric and communications with a major in journalism
and I worked in that space for almost a decade before I finally went full-time self-employed.
(05:55):
So picture this, I move over to Scotland, get married, do not have a job lined up, nobody's
heard of any of my relevant communications experience before I don't have any network here
and I have to figure out what I'm going to do with myself and luckily I have an extremely
supportive partner who pointed out how much I was loving the photography side of things and why
(06:22):
this would be the perfect opportunity to give it a go. I didn't have a job lined up anyways, I might
as well give it a try and so I did a little bit of part-time work while I tried to establish myself as a photographer
over here. I've done some writing and probably a podcast episode on this, I'll have to go back and have a look
in the archives to find it- it's about what I did to get myself established over here- but today I really
(06:46):
want to focus on the hurdles. So what I will say is when you do not have a support network it is very
hard to get yourself established somewhere new. Back in Canada I had all of my colleagues and fellow
students that I had graduated with I had teachers who could provide recommendations and opportunities.
I had a sort of local knowledge of the industry of the organizations around and that is invaluable.
(07:15):
I think you don't realize how much opportunity that network awards you until it's gone and so I think
moving over here it all felt really daunting- and don't forget I hadn't run my business, you know,
I hadn't run it like a business back home it was very much just a side thing for me and I had no
(07:36):
idea what I was doing. I didn't know how to run a business, I didn't know anyone who had their own
business growing up I didn't see anybody around me you know, amongst my parents friends or in
the neighborhood I lived in there was nobody that I knew that was running a small business that
wasn't a franchise or something. And particularly in creative spaces I honestly did not see it
(07:57):
as a viable option. It felt really overwhelming to be on a new continent totally new place you know
I was anything but comfortable trying to figure out my bearings here and also trying to establish
myself in quite a saturated market. I don't really know how to explain how I overcame that hurdle
(08:18):
I think the honest answer is baby steps- I reached out to some other photographers I joined a
couple of sort of local photography groups and a couple of people were kind enough
to meet me for a coffee and chat me through it. Then I was asked to participate in a styled photo shoot
with a bunch of other suppliers so I met some people there and slowly but surely I started to build
(08:43):
up a little bit of a support network and gain a little bit of traction with getting some local work
in my portfolio. I think part of it was stubborn determination- I am a very stubborn person and if I
say I'm going to do something I usually make sure I do it so I think that was a big part of it too.
And I think that as much as it felt like I was doing something totally different than what I studied
(09:10):
I think of my experience in that sort of communications and marketing sector in working for non-profit
organizations where you wear a million hats because there's never enough money to hire enough staff so
as much as you know I might have been a communication and events coordinator I was also doing
marketing I was also doing fundraising I was doing a lot of client relations and admin and writing
(09:33):
and all of these things that are a part of running your small business. So I think overcoming that
hurdle was really a combination of applying what turned out to be relevant experience being a
little bit stubborn and determined to make it work and reaching out to others in the industry who were
warm and friendly and welcoming enough to chat with me and talk with me and give me that little kind
(09:58):
of boost and little bit of encouragement I needed to properly give it a go. Moving on to
hurdle number two let's fast forward about 18 months. So it was about 18 months of me sort of
putting myself out there here in Scotland having been settled in here and deciding to give
(10:18):
self-employment a go full time. Up until that point I had had two different part-time jobs
and not really related to what I wanted to do and I was able to build my business up to a
point where I was making as much money as I had been making doing that part-time work and so I handed in my
notice and my focus was 100% on my business. But at the same time I was growing a tiny human- I was
(10:44):
pregnant with my first daughter Charlotte and I knew that being self-employed would allow me some
flexibility and to do motherhood the way that I wanted to do motherhood and to have a little bit more-
I don't want to say balance because I think what I'm learning the more time that goes on I don't
think I believe in a work-life balance to be honest. That's a topic for another episode. But I knew
(11:08):
that I wanted the flexibility I wanted to be my own boss and set my own schedule and take holidays
when I wanted to take holidays and all of those sort of wonderful pros about being self-employed so
I was really determined to make it work. I was full-time self-employed for three months before she
was born so it wasn't very much time to get things into place but it also wasn't overly difficult to
(11:32):
take a maternity leave at that time because my business was still a very part-time, so with my
keeping in touch days I was able to do enough to stay on top of social media and marketing and
emails and things like that so that there was some work waiting for me when I finished maternity leave.
And really over the next couple of years I just grew things really slowly- as much as that kind of foray
(11:58):
into matrescence and motherhood was a hurdle, to wrap my head around to figure out how I was going to
make this work, how is I going to schedule my time, how I was going to manage to go out and shoot a 12-hour
wedding after I'd been up with a baby all night. All of these things you have
to navigate as a new parent and going back to work that was certainly a big challenge for me and
(12:24):
childcare costs and accessibility obviously being a big part of that. When it started out I think
my daughter was in nursery for two half days and I would cram as much work as I could in-
more along the lines of marketing and working on my website and building up my social media and
all of that sort of behind the scenes stuff and then using weekend time when my partner is off work
(12:49):
and could take over the parenting side of things and I would do my shoots at the weekends. And because
I was really only at a sort of part-time level with my business at that point it did feel quite
manageable and I think at that point to the growth was quite organic and so everything kind of went
slowly. As my businesses needs grew my daughter got older and I started to experiment with putting
(13:12):
her in nursery more up until the point that we kind of got into four days a week and I had a lot
more time to work and offer sessions and things throughout the weekdays as well so that was hurdle
number two overcome. And then we moved into the world of COVID and a worldwide pandemic. I'm not
(13:35):
going to dwell on the specifics of COVID. We all know what it was like as an entrepreneur during COVID
but I guess the sort of specific hurdles for me in my business is everything I had done up until
that point was in person (13:47):
as a photographer most of your work is going to be in person and I had to
figure out a way not only to navigate keeping my daughter happy and healthy at home because obviously
the nurseries were shut but also trying to earn a little bit of money and surviving through that period.
I had the privilege of having a partner who had a job that was still able to
(14:12):
happen during COVID, he was working from home, but we did still have one income coming in. But
it was a pretty scary thing to all the sudden have all of your bookings cancelled because you weren't
allowed to photograph anybody in person and I really used that time- that's actually when
this podcast started. At the time it was called Small Fish Big Pod and the reason behind it just
(14:35):
trying to connect people experiencing you know a similar thing as small businesses at that time,
building a little bit of community, connecting people who were feeling even more isolated than usual
and honestly it was a passion project at the start. That was just me feeling a bit lonely and
disconnected speaking to other people who were feeling the same way and trying to solve that problem
(15:01):
and I absolutely loved it I wasn't sure if I would like podcasting- I still cringe a bit at hearing
my own voice if I'm being honest- but I really did use that time to try and think a little bit
differently about what I wanted my business to be about and what I wanted my priorities to be.
If you've followed my work you will know that I run two small businesses (15:17):
Rhiannon Neale Photography
is my wedding and family photography, I do a lot of proposal work with that as well and that is
alternative documentary style- very much geared towards people who don't love being in front of
the camera and very much in this storytelling space rather than directing style of photography. So
(15:42):
that was fairly established at that point and Small Fish Brand Co at that time was basically
brand photography and a little bit of the strategy behind branding as well but essentially you know
both businesses were offering a similar service in that it was in person photography meetings to
(16:04):
plan those photography sessions and talk through branding and nothing done online. So I did
experiment a little bit with some zoom photo shoots- digital photo sessions over zoom,
meetings over zoom, building up the podcast and moving more into the realm of the strategic work
because I kind of found something that set me apart from other brand photographers. There are lots of
(16:28):
brilliant brand photographers but how many of them have experience on the strategic side of things?
My background and education in communications really gave me something different from what others
around me were offering, so I started to build up those services and realized how much I enjoyed
helping other small business owners with that. I saw how much there was a need for it because most
(16:50):
small business owners, particularly those in creative spaces, are absolutely brilliant at what they do
but a lot of them would put their hands up and say they don't know much about running a business-
it's not something that they've done before it’s, that side of things is a little bit foreign to
them and I think being able to come in and ask the tough questions and get that strategy in writing
(17:16):
for them was a much needed service that not many brand photographers were able to provide.
Of course there are big branding studios that do offer these services but they're not
necessarily geared towards startups or small businesses they're more looking at sort of medium to
to growing enterprises. And so I guess tackling Covid by trying different things and
(17:40):
experimenting a bit helped me find a niche and helped me sort of restructure the way that my business
looked- at least this branding side of my business- and it really helped me find a bit of a community
as well. I won't go into the financial difficulties or you know the fact that there was that long
period of time with not a lot of new work to add to a portfolio and things like that as I'm sure
(18:04):
that's all fairly obvious, but I think those are really the key things for me is thinking
outside the box and being flexible which is a lesson that I am still trying to employ
as things in my life change and I have to reshape my business around them. Which brings me to
hurdle number four (18:24):
Maternity leave number two. So I found out that I was pregnant with my second
daughter in January of 2021 and at that time Covid was still very much in full swing however
we were allowed out again. I was back to working again and things were very busy- so you know
(18:46):
a lot of photographers and people in this industry would tell you like 2021-2022 were
very busy years because you had all of the rescheduled weddings all of the rescheduled
brand shoots all of the things that had been put on hold for most of 2020, people were right back to
it. So it is a very very busy time and I saw a lot of business growth (19:03):
I think part of that was
just situational because of you know people playing catch up and so many new enquiries and everybody
trying to get married and get their brand photos out and getting their businesses launched at once
there was a lot of work going around um I think part of that if I can give myself a little bit of credit
(19:26):
was also the building blocks I put in place and building a community and creating resources like
the podcast and blogging and working on my website I think that really paid off when people started
looking again. Whereas if I would have kind of just left everything and not done any work at all
during that time um I don't think that I would have had the same sort of influx of work at that
(19:48):
point. All positive but it did leave me with a bit of a problem because just as my business was taking off and
requiring sort of full-time effort out of me and full-time hours out of me I knew that I had to
prepare for a second maternity leave. If you are self-employed and trying to prepare for
maternity leave obviously everybody's circumstances and business models are different but if you are
(20:10):
a service provider taking nine months completely off from your business is very difficult to do
if you're not going to do anything for that time. Obviously you get your 10 keeping in touch days but if you can't
answer any emails do any of your admin put any marketing out there if all of that gets left for
nine months, when you come back at the end of nine months, it's probably going to take you another nine
(20:32):
months to build up some work again. It is very very difficult to take a proper break especially
such a long break now (when I say break obviously being on maternity leave is not a picnic) to
takethat time away from your work to focus on your family it's very hard to do if you
want work there waiting for you when you come back. I knew that and I knew with the sort of
(20:56):
level of busy that I was at, with how many emails I was responding to in a week and all of that I
knew that there's no way my 10 keeping in touch days would cover it and I also knew that I wanted to
be able to enjoy at least the first six months just adjusting to life as a family of four and enjoying
my new baby and spending time with my girls and my husband. So cue the lovely Emmelie who I mentioned
(21:19):
earlier in the podcast. At that time she still had a part time job and she was doing a lot of sort
of like admin work for a business and she wasn't enjoying it and she wanted to be full-time
self-employed. She was doing her graphic design and illustration work on the side but it wasn't enough
and so we had a chat one day over coffee, we were only just getting to know each other,
and she had said 'well I could help you with your admin’. So long story short (21:43):
Emmelie got
hired on retainer as my admin/ virtual assistant I suppose you would call her and for the first six
months she covered everything (21:57):
all of the admin for me, she would do any invoicing, she would take
new bookings, she would respond to emails- she took care of that side of it and she would schedule social
media posts for me as well. I did a fair bit of work before I went on mat leave to sort of give her the resources
that she needed and to work with her for some time so that it was a little bit more familiar
(22:19):
by the time I was ready to go off on my maternity leave but she was my saving grace. I mean there's
no way that I would have come back to a thriving business if I did not have her there. So I
think my lesson learned from hurdle number four, going on a second mat leave at a time when my business
was growing, is that outsourcing is key. Yes it is an expense and yes it takes some time to get it set up
(22:45):
so that it's running smoothly. Obviously you're letting somebody else into your business and you
have to give them some time to understand how it works and sort of what what your priorities are
and what you need from them but oh the difference it made, it meant I could actually take a break and
I was not stressing about whether or not I would have work to go back to or whether or not
Anyone was staying on top of things. I knew that Emmelie was taking brilliant care of my business
(23:10):
and I kept her on after the six months. I only came back after six months using my
keeping in touch days. So she covered until the end of my mat leave and she had
done such a good job and I recognized the value in her so strongly, along with my need to come back
at reduced hours- and keeping her on was a no-brainer. She still does my virtual assistant stuff today,
(23:37):
although her main focus of her business now is very much the design and illustration. She's
very kindly stayed on for me and taken that side of things out of my hands. My business has
continued to grow since Poppy was born at quite a fast rate so from let me see if I can get my numbers
right so 21 to 22 I had 50% business growth in terms of what I brought in. For the next business year
(24:04):
I had another 50% growth again and going into this year it's looking like it's going to be even more
than that, um, which I'm honestly kind of amazed at. But when I look back at how hard I've worked
how I've outsourced more and more as the businesses grown and the sort of time and energy
(24:24):
that I've put into the business it does make sense. It certainly hasn't happened without lots and
lots of effort-you'll often find me working at my desk until midnight which I am not glamourizing it
is not ideal um but sometimes it is choosing, you know to have that time with my girls after school
and nursery up until bedtime and then using those later hours to work. It is very much a choice that I am
(24:48):
making, a conscious choice, but yeahmoving into that growth stage I think the only way to
meet that hurdle and overcome that obstacle of growing when you have a young family is outsourcing.
That has been the number one thing that has helped me. Apart from outsourcing my admin I
(25:14):
have also outsourced some sort of content planning. I still write my content and have a sort of
structure for what I want to go out but letting somebody else format it and then schedule it in for me
has been a huge time saver for me. I now have an accountant who takes care of all of the number
side of things which I really don't enjoy and is keeping me right with tax returns and those sorts
(25:36):
of things. I have some associate photographers doing some of the shoots for me not with my brand
workbut over with the proposals and elopement side of things-knowing that I cannot always
be traveling out to Edinburgh two or three days a week or -you know there are times where I have
other things going on -and it has really helped to allow me to still do the -planning
(26:03):
and coordination and the editing and gallery delivery but to have somebody else doing the physical
work. Which obviously took some rejigging of my marketing and how I present myself in that
sense. I have not done any associate shooting for my family work that just feels that bit more
personal but it has worked really well for proposals, for couples who you spend a short
(26:27):
amount of time with and are mostly traveling from elsewhere it just makes sense to have
somebody else cover some of those shootsso that I am not running about every single day, seven
days a week. It's really exciting that my business has grown to the point that I'm able to do
that and to give opportunities to other photographers who have a similar level of experience
(26:52):
but just haven't built their business up to that point yet so that's felt really good:
for a couple of reasons personally yes but also in sort of supporting those who aren't quite
in this position yet which I know all too well. I've also been doing a little bit of playing
about with outsourcing editing (27:12):
for any other photographers listening you will know how
editing can become very tedious thing. Editing a sneak peek or a sort of preview selection of images is
really creative and cool. Culling your images to choose the best ones from a photo shoot again it feels
like a very personal creative decision. When it comes to editing a full gallery however, a lot of
(27:37):
the sort of creative input is gone. You've essentially made the creative decisions already and you're
just trying to get everything streamlined so I have worked with a couple of editors to get me
through some busy periods which has been extremely helpful. So there are so many different areas
and things that you can outsource and I think getting your head around the expense and the initial
(28:00):
time setting it up is a big thing but honestly it's been a total game changer for me and I cannot
recommend it highly enough. Okay that brings us to my last hurdle, business hurdle number five:
disability parenting. When you are thrown into the deep end of something that you never imagined,
that you are in a position you never imagined that you would be in. Many of you will know that my
(28:25):
youngest daughter, Poppy, was diagnosed with a very rare genetic condition in May. We found out that
she has Rett Syndrome which is a neurodevelopmental condition and it affects virtually every area of
her life. She has several disabilities (28:41):
she is nonverbal and unable to verbally communicate at all, she
has very limited use of her hands- fine motor skills are very tricky for her-
and she has limited mobility as well when it comes to gross motor skills (28:54):
walking, balance, all of that.
It was a real shock- we knew something was wrong for a while but we didn't expect anything
along that level of severity and honestly it has been the hardest year of my life.
(29:14):
There's been a lot of grieving, there's been a lot of fighting for answers, for care, for
anybody to listen and take us seriously and provide her with the same opportunities that
typically developing children get with no questions asked. It’s been a massive learning curve and it's
(29:36):
really made it clear how privileged we were before, to not have any additional needs
with our first daughter. It's a totally different ball game and if any of you are in a similar boat
with a child with disabilities or even additional support needs you will know what it is like.
(29:56):
Everything is a fight, everything is a wait, there's a post-code lottery element to it in terms of
what your wait time is and what services are offered. And you're navigating a system
that you have no information about that you have to sort of figure out on your own and thankfully
with the help of some really wonderful third sector organizations and groups of parents who
(30:20):
have been through it before. I don't know what else to say on that other than being honest that it has been
such a hard year and it has come at a time where my business has really taken off. I started
full-time self-employment in 2017, after I moved over to Scotland at the end of 2015, so this is
(30:42):
you know really year seven of running my business as a full-time career and it's really
taken up until this point- probably partly because of COVID and partly from maternity leaves and
and all of that- but it's really taken up until this year for this to bea growing thriving
business where I am outsourcing several things, where I am providing you know paid opportunities to
(31:06):
other people, where I've sort of hit a level of income and salary that I'm really proud of.
But that all hit at the same time- the hardest of personal stuff that I've ever
encountered in my life came up just then, and obviously there are varying degrees of this.
People go through different things but the grief of learning that your child will likely never
(31:33):
be independent, that everything in their life will be a fight for care and for treatment, that they
will need loads of extra support just to get through their day-to-day life- it's a huge
overwhelming grief and experiencing that at the same time as feeling very ambitious and excited
(31:57):
about the business that you've built is... you feel like you're being pulled in a million different
directions. And I mean that's the emotional side of it but there’s also the physical
side of it, to give you an idea last week I had four different medical appointments for
Poppy. She has physiotherapy occupational therapy and speech and language therapy. Hydrotherapy
(32:20):
and we're going to a second type of physiotherapy called DMI therapy. She has neurology appointments,
she has multidisciplinary care team appointments. Some weeks I am running to appointments four or
five days a week- there are also tests and assessments, we have eye assessments hearing assessments-
everything you could imagine. So trying to fit all of these appointments in around an already
(32:45):
full work schedule, and around looking after my older daughter as well in her needs and her classes
and all of that? It's honestly like another full-time job dealing with all of the admin of those
appointments as well as all the applications you have to fill out, requests for funding if you're
trying to get any equipment or get her into any sort of therapies
(33:10):
that aren't your standard ones covered by the NHS. I mean if I added up the hours
I'm willing to bet it would be like having another full-time job. So essentially lately it has
felt like I have three full-time jobs (33:21):
I have my business, I have motherhood, and I have the caring role
and then I have this sort of advocacy and health admin role that I never expected to be in.
It's been a massive hurdle and in terms of how I've overcome it I wouldn't necessarily say that
we are through through the woods with that yet. I'm still very much in the stage of sort of figuring
(33:44):
it out, but again looking at adding additional outsourcing in outsourcing some personal tasks so for
example I found a laundromat that will pick up a bags of laundry for £13 which is really not that
much money when you think about how much it's taken off my plate there- I've only used that twice,
it's not something I use all the time, but whenever the laundry basket is properly overflowing and I know
(34:06):
I'm not going to catch up I've got something like that in place to help. We have tried the
meal prep services so that we've got some healthy and fairly easy dinner stuff in the house
so that we're not tempted to order too many takeaways or things like that. And so looking at things
that you can outsource in your personal life. We have yet to find a cleaner but I think that's
(34:30):
something that we're going to look at in the new year because I have such limited time now. My time felt
limited already but with all of this health stuff it's more limited than ever and it's thinking about
what I want to make a priority. I've been working with a wonderful mindfulness coach called
Nicole HR who has really been helping me to work on planning my time around my priorities and
(34:54):
working through some mental blocks that have come up around all of this stuff. I have also worked with a
fabulous time management coach, Sarah Stewart, who has been incredibly helpful to me in looking at
how much time these tasks actually take up and how I could better plan my time out. I’m probably
missing someone here, those are just a few of the people who have been just absolute game
changers for me. And writing (35:20):
getting back into things that are just for me, although you know I
have now had some columns published in a disability magazine called Enable. I have actually had
quite a bit of writing published this year, I've done quite a few writing workshops and retreats and
I have really prioritized my time at the gym too. With strength training (35:41):
that's a major source of
De-stressing for me and I actually just ran a 10k in October for the very first time- running has never
come easily to me but I found that I wanted to raise some money for the organization that's been so
(36:04):
helpful through all of this to us, called Rett UK. I wanted to raise some money for them and raise
some awareness for Rett Syndrome and for Poppy and other kids like Poppy and I knew that if I could
get in the habit of running it would really help with the stress of everything too. So prioritizing a
bit of self care and what I need to make sure that I'm not pouring from an empty cup has been
(36:30):
huge in… I won't call it overcoming because it's going to be an ongoing challenge but in
managing, I guess, the additional hurdle of disability parenting along with everything else. I was hoping
to keep this episode to about half an hour and I have now gone over by five minutes so I am going to try
and wrap this up but I did want to share my current hurdle with you. I have in no way overcome this
(36:54):
one and it honestly crept on up on me a little bit- I didn't expect to hit this point
now, especially not after this last year but I have pretty much hit the VAT threshold for this
year which is huge for me. It's huge for my business and honestly it's not a position that I thought I
(37:15):
would be in possibly ever. I didn't expect this level of growth and I'm so so excited about
it and what it means for the future. And for you know the additional financial constraints that
come with having a child with multiple disabilities and trying to look after her. And yet
(37:35):
at the same time it is a big stress because it's a whole new thing to navigate- it's a very different
business than I thought I'd have if I'm being honest. Because up until now you know up until
recently I didn't have anybody doing associate jobs, I wasn't outsourcing
much up until the last couple of years and I sort of thought my business was always just going
(37:59):
to be me. And so running a business now where I have several freelancers that I'm outsourcing to, some
of them on retainer, where I have other associate photographers doing stuff for me, where I am looking
at running more group workshops a group mentoring program- all of these things. It's a totally different
business model than I imagined for myself and it is navigating all of that and what that means
(38:26):
and you know do I want to stay at this level of busy? How can I be there for my families needs
and the needs of my girls and for prioritizing all of the things that are important to me while still
being ambitious and not putting limitations on myself with my business? This is a new one for me
so I'll have to come back to it in a few months as to how I'm tackling it or how hopefully I can
(38:50):
overcome it. But initially I am looking at other things that I can outsource
both in my personal life and my business. I’m very cautious about what I'm outsourcing
as it is such a personal business- my business is me, hence the rebrand to my own name,
Rhiannon Louden. So much of what I do now is going to be around advocacy not specifically just in
(39:15):
the disability parenting space but advocacy around women juggling multiple roles in their life and
redefining success really and one of my main goals for the new year is going to be
speaking at more events being on more podcasts getting more work- writing, podcasts, anything- out there
(39:36):
on this topic so that more women feel seen and heard and understood and also encouraged to keep
going. Because honestly if I can see this level of business growth after the year that I've had
I kind of feel like I can do anything I set my mind to. I'm feeling really positive about it
and I want other people to see that and feel positive too I think sometimes when this big stuff happens
(40:01):
in your life you think "my life is over”. So much in the sort of disability parenting sector and
dealing with the early stage of diagnosis and acceptance is around this concept of
'our child's life is over’ and 'our lives are over’ and 'we'll never be able to have a career or do
any of the things that we wanted to do' and I think I want my work to revolve around challenging
(40:22):
that. Just because you have a child with disabilities and high health care needs does not mean that you
cannot run a successful growing business. Just because you are planning for your third maternity
leave does not mean that you need to let your business go. It's about redefining professionalism and
(40:42):
redefining what your work structure is and challenging all of these very antiquated patriarchal
rules to build a life that works around you and your family's needs and your needs and the things
that you want to prioritize. That is how I'm feeling today- that's a rather positive ending for me!
I tend to err on the side of um being a little bit cynical and a little bit of a realist but
(41:08):
I am feeling very positive when I reflect back on the year, and even acknowledging those
hurdles and things that have been really difficult and even some things that you know you could probably
look at as failures. Opportunities that I had to turn down- one in particular being um photographing
a yoga retreat in India that I was so excited about. I had never been to India it was a totally
(41:34):
adventurous work trip um and I was absolutely thrilled um to be asked to go along. I got the plans in
place coordinated extra childcare, booked flights the whole shebang and then we had some neurology
appointments come through for my daughter and I realized there's no way I can not be there to help
(41:55):
through this stage so I had to turn an amazing opportunity down. There’s been lots of
other things this year, goals that I set in terms of putting myself out there, getting more writing
published, speaking at events that just didn't happen. Things that I wanted to sort of prioritize
(42:16):
my time around, big picture things, that I didn't get to. I wanted to launch my group mentoring program
this year, that I got a lot of the framework done for but never got around to the launch.
I'll have to do a post aboutall of the year's “failures" but I think that
(42:36):
I'm not going to look at them as failures. I'm going to look at them as things that did not happen in 2024
that I can add back onto the list for 2025- if they are still in line with my priorities for next year.
I think the biggest maybe lesson to learn in terms of hurdles and overcoming this stuff is that
(42:58):
if you are flexible and you kind of go with the flow a bit and address things head on as they come-
you do figure it out. And it might mean that your business doesn't look the way that you thought it
would look it might mean that you need to adapt your goals it might mean that you need to totally change
the structure of things but we're really all just figuring out and if anybody says that they
(43:22):
have it all figured out I'm willing to bet that they're lying. I am going to leave it there for today-
that is my five (plus current) business hurdles that I have been dealing with over my last seven
years of being full-time self-employed. I hope that that was helpful, I hope that that is relatable
(43:45):
and I hope that if you are struggling with any one of those hurdles it gives you a little bit of
hope or inspiration or maybe even an idea of how to work through it. The next episode of Courage
and Chaos will be back into the usual format of interviewing a guest, I have not yet announced
who the first guest of the new season will be but if you keep an eye on socials at @courageandchaospod
(44:11):
you will find out all of the details there and if you don't already follow the podcast I would
love it if you would! It's a big help in getting it out there- I don't have any paid advertisements
on the podcast at this time and I do want to spread the word as it does take a fair bit of time
And energy to produce these and I want as many people as possible to be able to access them.
(44:37):
If you could share this episode in your stories, let me know if you listen to it, let me know if you
liked it, send it to a friend who you know is struggling with some of this stuff and needs to hear
from somebody who has been through lots of big hurdles and has come up the other side still
feeling mostly optimistic. Thank you so much for tuning in and we will see you next time!
(44:59):
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