In this episode of This Daring Adventure podcast, I interview fellow Canadian Rebecca Higgs, also known as DIY Mom.

Rebecca shares her incredible story of transitioning from a successful career in the Canadian music industry to becoming a renowned home designer, contractor, and social media influencer.

After facing personal and professional challenges, Rebecca reinvented herself by creating the DIY Mom brand.

Through determination and creativity, she transformed her passion for home renovation into a successful TV show and influencer career.

Learn about her journey, her upcoming projects including a new house build and philanthropic efforts in South Africa, and get inspired by her message of resilience and taking risks. Let's make it happen!

Here's where you can learn more about Rebekah:

instagram.com/diymom.ca

youtube.com/c/heymomhey

pinterest.com/rebekahhiggs

facebook.com/diymom.ca

Trybinge.tv

Key Moments:

00:33 Meet Rebecca Higgs: The DIY Mom

01:28 Rebecca's Journey in the Music Industry

02:16 Challenges and New Beginnings

04:19 The Birth of DIY Mom

06:29 Building a Brand and TV Show

11:16 Balancing Entrepreneurship and Motherhood

21:05 Future Plans and Philanthropy

23:27 Parting Advice and Closing Remarks

Resources & Next Steps:

• Join my coaching program Unstuck - book your discovery call and let's talk.
• Connect with me on Instagram for daily mindset shifts
• Get my free mini-course on Overcoming Limiting Beliefs

If you loved this episode, please leave a review and share it with a friend who needs to hear it!

Welcome to This Daring Adventure podcast,

where we work on bridging the gap between

2

where we are and where we want to be in

order to live a bigger and bolder life.

3

In this podcast, we will provide

inspiration, tips, and skills

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you need to make your life the

adventure you want it to be.

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Here's your host, mindset mentor

and life coach, Trista Guertin.

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Welcome back everybody to

This Daring Adventure I have

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a very special guest today.

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I have Rebecca Higgs, a fellow

Canadian based out in Halifax.

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You might know her as DIY Mom.

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She is a self taught home designer,

contractor, renovator, with a

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background in theater and music.

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And her designs have been

featured in several magazines,

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including Forbes, McLean's.

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HGTV and Chatelaine.

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Welcome, Rebecca.

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I'm so excited to have you here.

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It's great to be with you, Trista.

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Thanks for having me.

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My pleasure.

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My pleasure.

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It's always, I'm enjoying,

getting back into the swing of

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things with interviewing people.

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There, so many amazing women that

I want to share their stories and

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I think your story will be really

interesting for everybody listening here.

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So welcome.

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And why don't you tell us a

little bit about yourself?

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You have such an interesting story.

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Okay, sure.

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I'm 42 years old now,

and I live in Halifax.

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I grew up in Halifax.

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but I took a little detour

when I was in my twenties.

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I, ended up In the music industry

here in Canada, and I toured

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around the country with my band.

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I was in two bands.

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I had Ruby Jean and the Thoughtful Bees.

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It was the first live electronic

dance band East of Montreal.

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And then my own solo

project, Rebecca Higgs.

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and I released an album

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And then my second album came out on

Hidden Pony, which was a subdivision

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of EMI, and in my twenties, I had a

management team and I was signed to,

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a touring agency and I was playing

all kinds of festivals and it was a

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really interesting time of my life.

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eventually I moved to Toronto to be more

central in Canada for my music career.

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but things kind of went

downhill at that point.

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I was kind of in the the slag of

making enough money to pay rent and

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waitressing and the boyfriend that I

had moved to Toronto with and I split

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up over, he, his father became very ill.

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He had to move back to Nova Scotia.

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So I was very heartbroken and in

that dark time of my life where I was

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feeling a little bit lost, my career

was sort of on the fringes and I was

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on my own in a city without my family.

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I just.

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Started making bad decisions, and I

ended up getting pregnant very quickly

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into a new relationship with a guy

who Ended up being quite toxic for me.

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So after my daughter was born I ended

up just knowing that I couldn't stay

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in that relationship any longer and

started to make plans of how I could

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get out of the situation I was in.

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So I ended up taking my daughter and

moving into a one bedroom apartment

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that a friend of mine had in Toronto.

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He had moved to New York as

an artist, let me stay there.

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And within that time, my

grandmother passed away.

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And I came back to Halifax for

three weeks with my daughter.

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And upon my return to Toronto, I had

gone to legal aid and gotten a lawyer

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and started making plans to see if

I could move back to Nova Scotia.

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If you've ever been in a relationship

where you've had a child out of a,

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in a different province and you want

to move back to a different province,

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it can be quite difficult to do so.

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And it's not, the opportunity is not

always, available to you, in that period

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that I went away, went to Halifax.

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And then when I came home, my

daughter's father said to me upon my

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return, you can move back to Halifax.

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I think it'd be better for you.

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So that was a blessing in, that

was a huge blessing in a way.

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He signed the papers.

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He allowed us to move back.

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And by the time my daughter was

one, I'd come back to Nova Scotia.

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So I needed to pivot.

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Create a new career for myself.

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And I just didn't feel like

music was viable anymore.

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The culture around music was changing.

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This was when.

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Apple music, every,

everything was streaming.

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just the labels were dropping artists

or not giving, the same kind of advances

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that you once got as a musician.

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it would, I would have to get back

into the sort of like the grant

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writing and all these other things,

which were available to me in Nova

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Scotia, but I just didn't feel like

I wanted to continue down that path.

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So I was like, okay,

I have to start fresh.

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And I had a friend that was in the

film industry here in Nova Scotia.

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And he said that I could come in

as an assistant, for casting for a

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commercial for down at Egg Films.

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So I came in that one day, he

offered me a hundred bucks,

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come in, help me with casting.

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By the end of the day, he said,

I'll give you 150 dollars.

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You were the best casting

assistant I've ever had.

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And then by the next day, the owners

at Egg were asking me, who am I?

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What do I do?

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They found out I could speak French.

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I said I wanted to maybe be a Producer

in film and television, and I just

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kept showing up at egg every day until

they basically Gave me a full time job

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So I kind of inserted myself into the

film industry here in Nova Scotia and

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I did that for a brief period of time.

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And during my experience of

working in film and television,

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I was just very curious.

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I would talk to everybody on set.

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I was talking to the actors.

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I was talking to the creative agency.

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I was talking to the clients.

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I was talking to the producers and I was

getting this whole sense of basically

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how the whole commercial industry worked.

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and through my research in marketing and

film and television, there was this Trend

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that was starting to happen where people

were saying that the next big trend in

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marketing was going to be branded content.

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And this is before we knew anything about

influencer marketing, or that was really

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a big thing, in Instagram was kind of

just starting early days of Instagram.

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So I started thinking like, what would

my brand be if I could have my own brand?

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And As an indie musician,

we often use the word DIY.

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That was like a big term that we used.

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Do it yourself.

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We were silk screening our album covers.

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We were making posters.

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We were writing our own grants.

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So everything we did was very DIY.

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This is sort of a hipster

term that we used.

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And I was a new single mom,

and I've always had a knack

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for design and decorating.

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I've followed in my parents

footsteps in terms of that's what

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they did when we were growing up.

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They were always fixing up the houses

we were in and then selling them and

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we were moving and that's kind of how

my parents built their own equity and

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built their way up in life as well.

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So I thought about putting

all those things together and

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what would that look like?

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And that's when I came up

with the idea of DIY mom.

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And I drew myself a logo and

I built myself a website.

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And then I took the idea of

DIY mom to the women in film

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and television pitch festival.

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And so I had this idea of a TV show that

would be an HDTV show mixed with YouTube.

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So I would have the great before

and afters, but instead of the drama

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inserted into those HGTV shows, I

would put the tutorials in there and

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I would show people how to do things.

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And so, and I would talk

directly to the camera.

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And so I kind of came up with this concept

that would be an amalgamation of, of that

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HGTV style of show mixed with YouTube.

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So I went to the pitch and I had

my little toddler on my hip and I

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pitched this show about DIY mom.

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And.

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I didn't win the contest,

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but years later, the woman who trains,

you know, people for these, to go into

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these pitches and she's been and sat

through thousands of pitches in her life.

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She said to me years later when she

encountered me, I've seen thousands

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of pitches and I still remember yours.

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Wow.

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And so that was, that was really sweet

little nugget of encouragement there.

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But of course, when I took out my

plan for DIY mom to other, television,

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production companies, they kind of

responded with, well, I don't know.

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It's not really that

interesting of an idea.

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It's not really that fresh.

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There's lots of DIY moms out there.

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What makes you special?

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And I was kind of like, well,

I thought that was the point.

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If there's lots of DIY moms out

there, doesn't that mean that.

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There would be lots of people

interested in watching this.

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So I kept getting no's when

I would go to other people to

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ask them about making my show.

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And so thought, well, how can

I make this show on my own?

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In Canada, we have this Canadian

content, stream, where every network

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has to put so much money back

into creating Canadian content.

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And through Bell 5 TV 1, they, you can

pitch a show and it's basically access TV.

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So it's very low budget, and it's, it's

meant to develop talent within Canada.

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So Bell came to me, asked me about

doing DIY mom as my own show, and

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I took them up on that opportunity.

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And at the same time I was looking

for a real estate investment in

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Halifax and I found a house that

had been sitting on the market for.

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over a year.

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I put an offer in for 100, 000

under asking and I got the property

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and it needed a major renovation.

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So I used that house and, the financing

I was able to get, and the renovation

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financing that I was able to get.

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And the budget from Bell and I put all

of that money back into making that the

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house and the TV show and through the TV

show, that's when I started to work with

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brands and bring brands on board So I was

not only getting products for free But I

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was getting materials and I was getting

some financial support And so all three

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of these sort of aspects put together.

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I was able to renovate my first Home that

I ended up selling three years later.

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and that's when I made the money

for the first time off of the house.

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But, basically, that was the

story of how DIY Mom started.

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And then I was able to do five

seasons of DIY Mom through Bell

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TV, which brought me to the pink

dream home that I'm living in today.

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Very cute house.

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You have to go to Instagram to take

a look because I just, I fell in

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love with it as soon as I saw it.

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Yeah, so that's kind of the story of

how DIY mom came to be and basically

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how I switched careers from being

a musician to being a producer

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and an influencer on social media

and home renovator and designer.

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And I've just learned over the

years through determination and

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curiosity and drive just to make

it happen and to keep going.

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And as doors opened, I walked

through them and these opportunities,

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led me to where I am today.

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Well, I like that story.

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I think it's really interesting

because it seems now you tell me if

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I'm wrong you talk about curiosity

and I just be interested to learn

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like what you're thinking throughout

these different transitions,

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because it seems very organic.

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And it seems very seamless, but, did

you have to do a lot of work, mentally,

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emotionally, when you found yourself

in a place like you're moving back to

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Halifax, you're a single mom, you're, you.

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You know that, the music is in the answer.

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what are you thinking to keep yourself

moving and to make those transitions?

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Well, I think because I had

parents that were great examples of

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entrepreneurship and risk taking, I've

always had a good appetite for risk.

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So I think there is this, there, a little

bit of the element of my personality,

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that goal driven personality, and also

the willingness to take some big risks

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in life and put myself out there was kind

of like the trifecta of what made for,

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for all of this to come together and part

of the charm and what I And one of the

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things that I tell people about DIY Mom

is that I'm not afraid to fail on camera

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and for other people to watch my mistakes.

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And because I was learning as

I was going and filming it all,

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the whole process was really DIY

because I was learning how to film.

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I was learning how to edit.

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I was learning how to do projects

and renovate things on my own.

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I was watching the carpenters.

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I was picking up terms.

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You know, I remember walking into the

construction site one day and hearing

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And all the guys complaining about,

she's causing us all these problems,

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she's really hard to work with.

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I was thinking they were talking about me.

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Well, no.

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They all refer to things on the job

site as she, so if they're trying to

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get a beam into the ceiling, it's she.

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And just like in general, working

with plumbers and electricians, it's

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just years of hearing terminologies

and gathering this knowledge.

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And it's really life changing.

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life experience, you know, there's

this, there's this intelligence that

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we have when we're younger, where

we're really able to, remember names,

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remember things, regurgitate information.

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And, and that's a different type

of intelligence than what we have

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later in life, which is more of a

life experience knowledge, right?

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And being able to advise and mentor

and direct people in a different way.

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Even like, when I was in theater

school and wanted to be an actress,

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even then, it was really the

only road for me to go down to do

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something like that would be to write.

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and direct and produce something on my own

because in general I wasn't that castable.

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Like my theater teachers would say

to me, Oh, you're, you're not skinny

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enough to be a leading lady and you're

not unattractive or, you know, heavy

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enough to be like a character actor.

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So you don't really fit in anywhere.

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And it was heartbreaking to

me leaving theater school.

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I felt very discouraged.

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And I think that's why I went into music

and writing my own music and creating

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my own path, but everything in life

that I have done, self directed and

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also just following my gut instinct

and doing it for myself has typically.

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just moved me a little bit further

along the line, and I've had better

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success than working for somebody else.

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I also think it was like that undiagnosed

ADHD that I had for many years where

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I just was not a good employee.

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I wasn't good at working

for somebody else.

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And so working for myself ended up

being the best way for me to be the

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most motivated and to be the most

passionate about what I was doing.

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Yeah.

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Cause I was going to ask you, did you ever

consider, Or think, you know what, maybe

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I should just get that normal sort of

Monday to Friday nine to five job because

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I mean, obviously that's the conventional

route and that's, what we sort of deem

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like the safest and easiest, right?

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Well, you know, like there's oftentimes

where I think you know what, I'd

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be great at a marketing agency.

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I should just go work

at a marketing agency.

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That seems so much fun.

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But then people that are working in

those industries are so burnt out.

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It isn't like it, you are working all

hours a day and it's super cutthroat.

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And I just think as a mom and trying to

create balance and to be independent and

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to still be involved in my daughter's

life, the entrepreneur road really

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fit with my personality really well.

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You know, I feel I'm often

going on the school class trips.

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I'm painting the sets for the musical.

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I'm coaching the basketball team.

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The only reason I could do all

these things is because I'm

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employed and I make my own hours.

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No, but like when I did work at

Ag Films, when I was an associate

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producer there, I did love that.

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I loved working in an office.

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I loved working in that fast

paced commercial industry

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with the changing of like.

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you know, the chain, like with the

fast changing of things, like it was

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one commercial and then that was over

and then he moved to the next thing.

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It was so fun.

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but I, again, like I just, I, I couldn't

keep a job working for somebody else in

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the same way that I could, I was able to

be successful on my own and I could see

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if I had got been, I mean, I ended up.

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Folding and closing, but if I had been

there long term, I definitely wouldn't

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have the relationship I have today with my

daughter because it would have been a drop

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her off for daycare, get to work after

school care, home for dinner, bedtime.

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And I just think about so many single

moms that is the reality that they have

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even taking the bus to drop her kids off

to daycare or, and then having to take

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the bus to school, to, to school or to

work, it's just, you're so much of your

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day is in that commute and you really

don't the time with your children and.

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I just, I feel for those women so much.

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Yeah, and that's actually, I released

a podcast episode earlier this

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week with Kelly Sinclair, who is a

branding and marketing expert and

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coach, and she has her own business.

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And she was, in communications as well,

and mentioned the exact same thing before

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she went into business for herself,

that she was commuting into Calgary,

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dropping her daughter off daycare at 6 a.

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m.

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and then, tucking her into

bed at night and that was it.

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and that's, you know, sort of part

why she, she made the shift as well.

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And I think, entrepreneurship does allow

you that flexibility, as you've mentioned.

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For me, it was always something that

I never really seriously considered it

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until I started coaching and I was telling

myself, I don't have that bone in my body.

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Like, I just don't, like I was just

born without whatever it is you

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need to be, to be an entrepreneur.

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And it wasn't until, I started

working with a coach and she said,

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no, like it's, you have to learn it.

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You have to learn it.

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And I think we get to a place in our

lives where we have that push, we

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have that nudge to make that change.

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We know, like I always say, if

you feel like you're meant for

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more, it's because you are, right?

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We have that instinct within us as human

beings to grow and to learn, to evolve.

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but it was a very steep learning curve.

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I had nobody in my family, nobody

around me that had any background.

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Anything, any experience as

an entrepreneur, it was just

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completely foreign to me.

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really it's modeled to you, Through

your parents or if you have a mentor

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or something, but I think just

because my parents were that way.

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They were big risk takers and they

instilled that idea in us as well It was

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more second nature to me and I think just

my personality and my disposition like my

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dad said that he watched me At the church

nursery when I was a baby Crawl over every

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other baby in the room to get to a cheerio

that was in the corner Yeah, and just said

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oh I don't have to worry about her She's

gonna make her way through Just fine.

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and when my dad would drop us off at

school as kids every, in the morning, he

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would always say to us, make it happen.

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And that was our family

mantra, make it happen.

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And then as artists wanting to be

an artist, I always knew that nobody

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was going to make my career for me.

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Nobody cared about my career.

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Like I cared about it.

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Nobody cared about my success.

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If I wanted those things in

life, I had to go after it myself

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and make it happen for myself.

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And I would.

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I would share that message with

other women who were artists that

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were, feeling defeated or feeling

discouraged or feeling like their career

344

wasn't where they wanted it to be.

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I was like, you can't rely on somebody

else to make your career for you.

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You have to go and make

it happen for yourself.

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And so that make it happen mantra.

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that was taught to me as a

child, it's really carried it

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through, carried me through life.

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And anytime anything happens that I

have to learn something new or I have

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to develop a new skill, it's just a, all

right, I'm going to make this happen.

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I'm going to learn it.

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I'm going to figure it out.

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I'm going to fake it till I make it.

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And, there's certain things and

little tricks that I've picked up

356

along the way to be more believable

when you're faking it, you know?

357

So you have been doing DIY

Mom for how many years now?

358

10 years, I guess, because my daughter's

11 now and I really, I really started

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it when she was about a year and a half.

360

Okay.

361

It's going to be 12 soon,

but yeah, so 10 years.

362

okay.

363

And what plans, what are you

thinking for the rest of this

364

year and into the next few years?

365

what are your goals for the year?

366

So I am, I just bought another

property and I tore the house down.

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So this is a brand new skill

for me learning how to build

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from scratch this time.

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I'm building a brand new house.

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That's just not very far

from where I am currently.

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And, I'm also doing client work now.

372

So a couple, probably about, Five years

ago, just before COVID, I started to

373

take on client projects and started to do

other people's renovations and designs.

374

so I've been doing that.

375

And then I also, will be working on

this new project that I'm building.

376

so the, so those are like the two major,

home design to core things that I'm

377

doing, but I'm also, going to South Africa

in March to work with hope of Africa.

378

And I will be, there for 17 days.

379

And I'm also doing work with ads and

for women and children to continue

380

my, My philanthropy helping other

single moms and women fleeing domestic

381

violence and intimate partner abuse.

382

Very nice.

383

Okay.

384

Nice.

385

Have you been to South Africa before?

386

No, this is my first time going.

387

My parents, got involved

with Hope of Africa.

388

It's a leadership school for kids and

they are we and then actually they my

389

parents ended up when they went there

last year helping hope of Africa purchase

390

a farm that they will be using to teach

agriculture to the kids because there

391

was a whole generation that died from HIV

and the children didn't get passed down

392

the The, how to take care of the land,

how to be a farmer from their parents.

393

So it was sort of this, a lot of these

sort of skills that were handed down

394

from one generation to expert lost.

395

So the farm, will be used for, teaching

agricultural skills and developing

396

the skills of, in the community.

397

And I'm going actually to film content for

them and to interview people and to create

398

marketing material for Hope of Africa so

that they can share what they're doing

399

and raise more funds and, and support for

the farm to keep it, to keep it running.

400

Okay.

401

Very nice.

402

That sounds like a great trip.

403

Yeah.

404

I'm excited.

405

Yeah.

406

Yeah.

407

Good.

408

Okay.

409

Well, do you have any parting

advice, anything you want to share

410

with the audience before we close?

411

Yeah.

412

I think that just if you have an idea

and you think it's a good idea and you

413

feel passionate about it, don't let

people discourage you from doing it.

414

and make it happen.

415

Just set your intentions, write

down your goals, and if you do

416

one thing every day toward that

goal, it's going to happen for you.

417

And so I just would encourage people

to, and women, whatever place they

418

are in life, and if they're looking

to make a transition or a change,

419

that yes, it will be difficult, but It

can also be very fulfilling and fun.

420

And as we get older, it's

great to learn new skills.

421

Keep your mind sharp.

422

Keep life exciting.

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And keep that adventure rolling.

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Exactly.

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Yes.

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I couldn't have said it better myself.

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Well, thank you.

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Thank you so much, Rebecca.

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I really appreciated this.

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And it's been really Interesting

to speak with you and I love your

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story and your work is beautiful.

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So thank you for sharing that today.

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Thank you so much.

434

And if people want to check out, the TV

show, they can watch it on binge dot TV.

435

There's five seasons of DIY mom.

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and yeah, looking forward to connecting

with people from your audience.

437

Yeah, for sure.

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We'll make sure they have all the

links and everything in the show

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notes and we'll know how to find you.

440

Thank you so much.

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Thanks, Trista.

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Thank you for listening to

this daring adventure podcast

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with your host Trista Guertin.

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We hope you enjoyed the tips

and conversations on how to

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get excited about life again.

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As always, you can head

to tristaguertin.com

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for additional resources and to

book a one on one coaching session.

448

You can also follow Trista on

Instagram at tristavguertin.

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Don't forget to subscribe, rate,

and review us on Apple Podcasts.

450

Thanks again for tuning in

and we'll see you next time.