My own personal experience, and that of so many of my clients, is that starting, building and running a business and navigating motherhood are so intertwined. It's both the reason we want the flexibility and also the biggest challenge to achieving a version of success that makes it all worthwhile.

Suzy Olivier is committed to rewriting the narrative around what it takes to achieve success as a mother, so you can design your life and business to experience genuine success on every level - which meant she was the perfect person to have on the podcast to discuss this topic.

In this episode we cover:

• Breaking the 'I'll take any money' mindset that often comes with starting a business when there's a baby in the house.
• The emotional weight of treating your business like it's another child—and how to mentally separate the two.
• How to roll with life's curveballs—like another little one on the way or a big move—while still keeping your business afloat.
• The non-negotiable role of boundaries and why we both admit to skirting them occasionally. 😅
• Identifying what tasks suck the joy out of you, and outsourcing them—be it in your home or your business.
• Scaling beyond £5k months without hitting burnout. 🚀

Suzy is a certified business coach, serial entrepreneur of over 16 years, military wife, and mother of 3. She combines all that lived in first-hand experience and expertise with her unrelenting optimism and overwhelming passion to help women realise their amazing potential and build the business & life of their dreams and genuinely enjoy the process without sacrificing time with their precious family.

Guest Key Links:

If you want to find out more about Suzy, Instagram is the best place to find her https://www.instagram.com/mothersofenterprise/

If you'd like to book a free call with Suzy: https://academy.mothersofenterprise.com/time-money-call

Website: https://www.mothersofenterprise.com/

If you enjoyed the podcast, here are some ways you can be a part of my world:

Social:

Love Instagram? Click here to watch a video I made on the Warm audience trap (hint, it's something almost every client struggles with!)

More of a LinkedIn fan? I'm there too! Come and follow me here: Sophie Griffiths

Free Resource:

Ready to grow an audience of people who WANT you to sell to them? Radical idea I know, but it shouldn’t be! Click here to get access to my step by step guide to using simple, effective ads to build & nurture a community of superfans,

Work together:

Ready to build an audience of superfans who are excited and ready to buy from you?

Whether you are just starting with Meta (Facebook & Instagram) Ads, you have dabbled but want to build your confidence with your first funnel, or you're already killing it and you're ready for fast growth - I can help! Click here to choose the best option for you

Got questions?

DM me on Insta or LinkedIn

Email me here: hello@sophiegriffiths.co 

hello, and welcome to Lion Hearted Marketing.

This is a podcast for bold businesses who are ready to go from a slightly

scattergun marketing approach to connecting everything they're doing

to create joyful, repeatable customer journeys, that build connection and

consistently convert new clients.

That's called a funnel.

If you fancy.

If you have that nagging feeling, you should have more of a grasp

on your marketing, more of a plan, more of a system to support

your pretty successful business.

You're in the right place.

This isn't about trying lows and new strategies.

It's about taking what you've got and making the most of it.

I'm Sophie your host.

Self-confessed tea superfan marketing strategist and funnels or joyful journeys,

as I like to call them, demystifier.

Join me every Tuesday for my Lion hearted approach to marketing.

To help you navigate those big moves, stay focused on your goals and ultimately

take your business to the next level.

Let's jump in to today's episode.

Hello and welcome to the Lionhearted Marketing Podcast.

So today I'm here with my guest, Susie Olivier.

Susie is a certified business coach, serial entrepreneur of over 16 years,

military wife and mom of three.

She combines all that with lived in firsthand experience and expertise, her

unrelenting optimism and an overwhelming passion to help women realize their

amazing potential and build the life and business of their dreams.

And genuinely enjoying the process without sacrificing time and that is

actually exactly what we're going to be talking about in today's episode.

We're going to be exploring juggling success while you've got a young family.

What that looks like as the children change age, as your business evolves,

as maybe it gets more successful.

You

, what does that, what does that narrative look like around success,

what it takes to achieve it?

And, and, you know, how do you design your life so that your business, um,

and your family work really well?

We're also going to talk to Susie about how she's used ads

to grow her business as well.

. So before we jump in and talk all things motherhood and juggle,

tell us a bit more about yourself.

Yeah.

Ooh.

Yeah.

Taught you resilience.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Round then.

Oh god, don't talk to me about surprise thirds.

I don't know what I would do.

Surprise third.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I did!

I got through it!

I'm there!

Yeah.

Love it.

And how old are your kids now?

Oh, yeah.

Oh my gosh.

Well, I've got a two very almost three year old, um, and a six year old.

So, yeah, we are very much in the early three and ager stage.

And I had forgotten, if I'm honest, just how demanding...

Do you think old twos are hard?

Three...

Is that next level again?

Oh my god.

I thought she had the sass and then I just realized, oh no, that was just nothing.

Like, I think, I feel like I've blocked this out.

Yeah, exactly.

I'm like, I've been through this before.

You should be more prepared for this, Sophie.

But yeah, I'm really not.

No.

Yeah.

I know, I think it's self preservation.

I feel like it, but like, if I remembered it too much.

Yeah, exactly.

Okay, so both of us started businesses when we had really

young, you know, firstborns and kind of working around all of that.

So, um, I thought today what it might be really interesting and helpful is just to

talk about, because I'm sure you have this with your clients as well, because I know

you work with people right from starting a business idea all the way through to,

you know, the like six figure months.

What?

How do we kind of talk about what does success look like at each stage?

Because it's really hard, isn't it?

When you're looking at Instagram and you see these stories around,

you know, success, it seems to be so focused on money and, um, for a lot

of us, money is really important.

I think that's really.

That's really okay to say, like, whether it's to cover the nursery fees, or so you

can go on holiday that year, and I think often, for me anyway, starting out, it was

just literally a case of that extra money.

Um, and then it gets to a point where you're maybe earning those consistent,

you know, 5, 7k months, and you realise that actually this is a thriving business.

But how do I not let...

You know, building an empire, if you like, suddenly it's quite a lot more taxing.

Maybe then there's more money pressure on you to bring in and, and the demands on

your time change, I think quite a lot as well, especially as your kids get older.

So I don't, where should we start?

Why don't we start with where, let's start when our kids, babies were young.

Like what were your kind of, what were your measures of

success when you started out?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We're back in the day.

Yeah.

Oh my God.

Yeah.

I love it.

That's all I want.

Yeah.

I think, and I think that is such a common story, isn't it?

Like it, I think starting your business when you are literally at

home with a child, and I mean, often in a really fortunate position where

you say your husband's making money.

So you're not at that position where it's like, okay, I have

to earn a certain amount.

Yeah.

So I had, I was made redundant from my role.

Um, Like my very well paid corporate job while I was on maternity leave.

Um, but luckily I got quite a big payout, which really allowed me to kind

of then explore what I wanted to do.

Again, it wasn't, it was, she, you know, Eliza, my eldest was a

really, really longed for baby.

It took us really long time to get pregnant and have her, and I really

didn't want to just go back to a job and be away from her for, you know,

five days a week from seven till seven.

And, and actually the redundancy whilst it was quite traumatic at the time in like

the best thing that could have happened.

Um, and I was exactly the same as you initially.

I could not get my head around how other people made money, like money felt like

the hardest thing in the world to like, find something that people would pay

me for, like, I didn't have a product.

I was trying to develop a service.

And I think, interestingly, it took me a long time to get out of that

mindset of saying yes to any money.

And that's something I see quite a lot.

So at first, like you say, you're just scrappy, aren't you?

Just any income, like, yeah, I'll do it.

Yeah, I'll do that for 100.

Yeah, I'll do any money.

It's better than no money.

Like, I will just fill my time if you will just pay me.

Um, and I think that actually that, uh, mentality was something that I

quite struggled with once I reached those kind of Put a limit on my income.

I think up to like the 3 to 5k mark.

Yeah, because you get to sort of a 3 to 5k mark and you are busy as hell.

You are doing all the things for all the people.

It doesn't matter how much they're paying you.

You know, you're exhausted.

You're time poor.

You're trying to spend time with the kids, put boundaries in place, but

you've just got so much work to do because you're still at that point

where you're just like, just give me.

anything that will bring money in.

It's been quite a big journey for me around redefining success as balance

between time and money as well.

I don't know how, if that's come up for you at all.

Yeah, absolutely.

Oh my gosh.

Oh

my god.

I'm the high supply

here.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

Oh, it's John Lewis.

Yeah, hang on a sec.

Yes.

Yeah, funnily enough.

Yeah.

Mmm, yes.

Oh my god, it really is.

Yeah, I tell you, is it new level, new devil?

I feel like it's just endless, isn't it?

And I think that's so interesting, um, what you were saying there about

it, you know, it consuming you.

Because I do remember someone, um, telling me once, like, oh, it's like,

um, my business feels like my baby.

And then I read something about I read that quote, a quote came up again

somewhere and it was something about you can't have your business as your

baby because babies are endlessly demanding, they do nothing for themselves,

it's 24 7, like they're draining.

You want like a business, uh, like late preschooler, we don't want

to hit the hormonal teenage years, like we don't want the tweens, but

you know that lovely like seven to nine where everything is sort of...

Useful and cute and kind of self sufficient and able to do a lot of

things on their own and just need you there for a bit of emotional support

and direction, you know, like that's what we're really aiming for here.

We are not aiming for this to be another child and like, I will fully hold my hands

up and say that at points of like running my business, it has felt like another.

Child in my family where I'm trying to, you know, cook the girl's dinner and I'm

on my, you know, on my phone trying to post on social media and quickly replying

to a client like even now I can slip into that if I'm busy and overwhelmed and

feel like something has got to be done.

You know, I was sitting at the kitchen table trying to quickly reply to a client

or, you know, just they've got the info.

And, um, I've recently put boundaries in place around, uh, the days I work.

So I don't want Fridays and I'm like limiting, um, the

amount of meetings I have.

Um, but sometimes that feels then on the days I am working, there's

even more expectation on me to deliver everything to everyone.

Um, but I think when we're talking about that, you know, needing boundaries.

The next step for me after that initial, like, realization of, okay, this is

growing, but I need some support is outsourcing and actually getting a coach.

Now I am a massive coaching advocate.

I have had many coaches and I think that, yeah, the relationship between.

Coach is one of the first things I did when I got made redundant was get a

coach and ever since then I've pretty much always been working with a coach

in some way, I quite like long term relationships, like, you know, like,

six to six to kind of nine, 12 months, because I feel like you really get to know

that person, but they are an investment.

They're a huge investment often.

And I part of that, I think, is your own mindset.

And that fear about affordability.

And part of that as well is, I saw you wrote a post actually

about this on Instagram and I thought it was so interesting.

Um, like your partner and how they feel about you spending that money.

Because often when they're not in that world, like my husband

is, he's not even on Instagram.

Like he's not in the site of sort of like online entrepreneur

social media world at all.

The amount of money we're talking about is eye watering.

And often he thinks like, Yeah, or we could have that in our bank account.

Like, why, why are you paying her all that money?

Yeah, it's like, you know what we could do with that amount of money.

But, over time, I've been able to show him, you know, the impact, the return

on the investment, like I've made a lot more than that in, you know,

back from it, and I've completely changed my business boundaries.

But I guess, you know, when you're starting to work with people and coaching,

I guess coaching and outsourcing, they are the two big things, aren't they?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No.

I will not be a coach.

Yeah.

Okay.

Fine.

Do you know what?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm.

No.

No.

Yeah.

I know.

Because the relationship is, is really important, isn't it?

Like having that connection with a coach is huge.

Like, and I would really, if anyone is kind of.

If you've not had a coach or is kind of looking at investing in one,

like, don't just go with the first one you have a discovery call with.

I help.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm.

Yeah, I totally agree.

I think the first one for me is the coach and then the second one is this

is the outsourcing and I think part of it for me is, um, A, like we're

gaining some of my time, like I know in a lots of my clients know as well.

The reason they start, you know, using ads to grow their email list is because

they, you know, physically being online all the time, posting endlessly, you

know, you either have to be across multiple social media sites, you

know, and trying to do all the things.

Or you kind of invest in automation, outsourcing, getting support.

So I think, you know, regaining that feeling of success and having that

structure and pace is so important.

But when you have that mindset, like we talked about of like, every penny is mine.

And, you know, in those early days, every penny you earn, other than you're sort

of, you know, even, even initially, you're not even paying tax really, are you?

Like every penny you earn, other than your sort of Canva subscription,

it's pretty much coming back to you.

There's quite a big shift over time, isn't it?

To start investing in, in Facebook ads in, um, you know, VA to do the

admin side or social media manager.

Um, and actually I, what I have found with a lot of clients is that that

kind of 5k point is actually quite sticky because you've kind of can

get to that point mostly on your own.

Maybe with a little bit of help, if you're quite savvy with automations

and, you know, use things like Dubsado and have automated emails,

you can do, you can get there.

On your own, then you get to sort of 5k and you realize, right, if I actually

want to scale and grow this business, I'm going to need to invest in ads.

I'm going to need to set up, you know, get someone to support me.

And actually your monthly income, although you might grow your overall product,

like revenue, your actual monthly income can either stay the same or go down.

And that's quite a, it's quite a challenging place to be, isn't it?

Like, Oh, I found any, I don't know if your clients find that as well.

Oh.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well.

Yeah.

Yeah.

There she is!

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah,

yeah, stay small.

You're okay.

You only have to worry about yourself.

That's something I hear quite a lot.

It's like, I own, if I don't outsource or don't, you know, invest in ads, then

I only have to worry about paying myself.

And then if I don't have, you know, if I can't pay myself, I'll deal with that.

But the idea of committing to sort of paying someone else or, you know,

having Facebook ads running and, you know, I think there's a lot

of mindset stuff around Facebook ads with the, you have to invest

upfront and that can be really scary.

Like you don't know.

Well, and it's very much like investing in a coach, like you're investing up front.

You don't know what results you're going to get from them, but you have to

kind of, to move your business forward.

It's so important, isn't it?

Keep making those decisions.

I think one of the other things I wanted to talk about is how, like what, how

have you defined success for yourself in relation to the family and to work?

Like what, we've talked a lot about money, but what other things are you

kind of prioritizing in your life and how have you kind of put them in place?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mmm.

Oh!

Oh!

Mmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mmm.

Mmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I really love that.

I love the idea of the filter of everything coming in going through these

things of like, how is this going to impact me and my boundaries and my, like

you say, your freedom, your flexibility.

Um, I don't work Fridays and that's actually a really easy boundary

for me to keep because I have my two year old at home with me.

So the idea of actually getting any work done is, is almost impossible.

So exactly.

It's like, there's just no point.

I do wonder when, um, she starts school.

This September, September after, when I have, I intend to keep that Friday off.

Like that, I absolutely intend that.

I mean, that would be the first time I've ever have like a day off a week

without a child at home with me.

But I do think like, I will have to be so strict with that boundary because like.

She forces me to keep it, but I wonder when there's no one there forcing me to

keep it, you know, how easy it would be to sort of let things creep back in or,

you know, not keep those boundaries.

Um, and I think part of that as well, for me at the moment I'm going

through, I've just had a big rebrand.

Um, so I've invested a lot in that.

And I totally know when you were saying about.

Um, feeling like well compensated, the rebrand has allowed me to really step into

that and feel that like the people that I work with, I'm working with less clients

than I've ever worked with before, but I'm earning more than I've ever earned before.

And that's that real feeling of, I like that going much deeper with people

that much more of that one to one that, um, is I've experimented with so

many different models, group programs, courses, management of ads, like, um,

And I'm not saying I'll never go back.

I do still love the idea of the group programs and the courses, but

there is something about developing an in depth relationship with

someone like, yes, it's high value.

And yes, they, um, you know, they pay me more than I've kind of ever been

paid before, but the results they get and the impact it has on their

business is also higher than the impact I've ever been able to have before.

And that is just so fulfilling, I think as well.

Yeah.

Amazing.

So how do you manage to work till 12 every day?

What's your kind of, have you got outsourcing?

Um, we're going to talk a little bit about ads in a minute as well, but

like, how do you kind of manage it?

Mm.

Mm.

Yeah.

Ah, amazing.

Don't mind me.

Mm.

Mm.

Yeah.

Mm.

Mm.

Mm.

Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely.

I think the, the childcare, um, and like the home support as well.

It's really interesting.

Um, I went to a mastermind day a few weeks ago and we were talking about this,

you know, this delegate and you know, what's important, what's urgent and like

really working out what needs to be you versus what needs to be other people.

And one of the, um, a lovely woman that was saying that she has, he has a cleaner,

which actually a lot of us outsource.

Um, She, we all pay for, you know, wraparound care at school

and nursery and something.

Uh, but she also has someone that comes to her house, changes all her

beds and batches her three meals a week, like home cooked family meals.

I was like, now we're talking, this is the next level.

Like, I mean, we do gusto, so.

That definitely takes a weight off my mind in terms of like, I

don't have to meal plan and it all comes, you know, delivered.

And it literally is just a case of, and I can select ones that

are like quicker or whatever.

But the idea of someone like home cooking, like batching us three meals a

week is like, okay, that's my next step.

That's my like next goal is to get to that point where, um, I think sometimes it's

like, you don't know what you don't know.

Like I didn't even, I'd never even considered having that like, um, Yeah.

Yes, please.

Yeah.

Mmm.

Mmm.

Yum.

Mmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Love it.

Yeah.

And I think that's all.

That's it, isn't it?

It's about the things you.

Want to do, want to have input on, love doing, the same in your business as well.

And then the stuff you don't, but really acknowledging that you don't have to

do that, like you choose everything as a choice, like everything is a choice.

Um, amazing.

And then finally, I just want to talk a little bit about, um, Facebook ads.

Like how have you used them in the business?

Like, what do you use them for?

Give us a bit of an overview.

Yeah.

Oh, the glory days.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, don't.

I know.

Pre recorded Facebook ads courses are the bane of my life at the moment.

I keep recording stuff and then my client's like, um,

it looks slightly different.

I'm like, well, yeah, that has changed for you.

It's still not changed for me.

Yeah.

Like, oh my God.

It's a nightmare.

I

know.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, we're not touching that ad.

Exactly.

Okay.

Fine.

Now's the time to change it.

Yeah.

Amazing.

Yeah.

And I think, I know you're like listening to some of your podcasts as well.

You're really passionate about, you know, people using their email

list and making sure that they kind of nurture that and invest in it.

And a lot of what I'm talking about at the moment is absolutely losing lead ads,

but not, um, Not thinking that just by getting someone onto your list that by

default they're going to buy from you like there's such an investment post ads

like you said, like getting that funnel specialist in like really looking at

what that journey is once they join your list, um, engage with your content, you

know, marrying up like I see a lot this whole like, um, Oh, you know, if you're

fed up with organic, then you should do ads or, you know, if you're doing

ads, you're cheating, you know, this like organic versus ads kind of thing.

I just think it's just utter nonsense.

You need both.

You absolutely need both.

And you've grown to really, um, you know, engaged.

Uh, Instagram following as well, and I, you know, you do video and I think if

someone sees your ads, like naturally we want to direct them to your social media

and the more active you are and engaged and clear on your message, the easier

it's going to be to convert those people.

Isn't it like, it's not just a case of getting people on your list.

Like you've got to do something with them.

Yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

Let's start.

Start with one.

Yeah.

Too many.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, I totally, totally agree.

Um, that has been such an amazing conversation.

Thank you so much.

So if you want to find out any more about Susie or follow her,

Instagram is the best place to be and it's mothers of enterprise.

And I will put.

The link in the show notes.

Um, and Susie's also inviting everyone to book a free mini

coaching call, which is amazing.

Um, again, I will put the link for that in the show notes.

So you can go and have a, uh, so you can go and book that.

Thank you so much, Susie.

That was brilliant.

Thank you so much for joining me this week.

Before you go, make sure you subscribe to the podcast so you

can receive new episodes every Tuesday when they're released.

And if you enjoyed this episode, I'd love for you to rate or leave a review

wherever you are listening to it.

It only takes a few seconds, but it really does make a massive

difference to new people finding me.

Thank you again for joining me, Sophie, in this episode of Lionheart Marketing.