Episode 1: Olga and Tara talk starting a business with a family

Olga and I first met in the MentorHer program our fabulous sponsor.
So it only seems fitting that she would be my first guest.
She has also been a huge reason this podcast finally became actualized.
In this episode we talk about self-care for moms and what it's like to start a business with a full-time job and kids.
Check out her free guide if you are interested in getting started:
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Transcript

Project 27

Summary

 Focus on top three things to achieve the most impact and use consistency and simplicity to achieve sustainable results.-Olga moved to Ireland from Dublin at the age of 19 and started working in the hospitality industry before switching to studying business and marketing. She has been in Milan for the past few months and is excited to experience the city culture. In this episode, we discuss the importance of a two minute skincare routine, the importance of embodying the characteristics of a leader, and the power of reinforcing someone's strengths. Connect with Leaders Raising Leaders Website: leadersraisingleaders.com Twitter: @LRLleaders Facebook: Leaders Raising Leaders: I studied hospitality in university and found my first office job there. I continued my education and worked in marketing and then management roles with Facebook, McKinney, and Accenture. I started a business producing organic skincare products and gave these away to friends and customers. With the help of business, my education, and my two amazing babies, I'm now running my own business and commuting between Milan and London.

Transcription

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 Hello and welcome to Leaders Resonators. My name is Tara. I'm your guide. Through the exhilarating world of leadership and parenthood as a coach and mentor, I have spent years supporting parents just like you. In this podcast, we are diving headfirst into understanding where leadership meets parenthood. It's where we shattered stereotypes, challenge norms, and redefine what it means to be a parent. Expect thought provoking discussions with inspiring guests from various industries, all sharing their unique journeys and wisdom. We're here to uncover the unexpected, the controversial and the downright hilarious aspects of leading while raising leaders. While there's more, make sure to check out our free guides in the show notes packed with valuable insights to help you on your own parenting and leadership journey. So join us. Hit that download button and let's Bend the Wheels of Leadership Parenthood Edition. Buckle up. It's going to be a wild ride. 3s Welcome to this week's episode of Leaders Rising Leaders. I am absolutely amazed to say that my first guest is Olga, and we originally recorded this back in February of 2023. A lot has changed in the seven months since I had decided to start this podcast and put it on hold, including Olga starting solid Ecom, she has graciously added her guide into the show notes for us, so please don't download it, especially if you're interested in starting a product based company in the next few months. Olga has been such an amazing inspiration to me since I met her in the mid to her program, and I'm delighted that we are able to have her here as my first guest since I went to her is also sponsoring this season. Thank you so much to to my friends and family who have helped me to get this set up and running, especially my husband, who has always shown me just such unwavering support for all my business endeavors, my wonderful family, especially my parents, who have always supported and helped me out. I really would not be able to do this without the village of support I have around me, all of my community members, my extended members and so forth. I cannot name you all here, but you all know who you are. And I'm so, so very grateful to have you in my corner. Please listen to this episode and give some love for Olga, the Leaders Raising Leaders Podcast. I am delighted to be joined today by Olga from Nothing. I'm okay. How are you today? I'm great. I'm great. I'm so excited to be on this podcast and I can't wait to listen to it. 1s Oh, I'm so thrilled to have you here. I'm we've had an absolutely amazing journey just getting to know each other over the past few months as well. I'm But now you're in Milan. Yes. I was living in Dublin for 17 years now. I had a major life change switch from kind of like a colder climate to a really warm climate. So that's going to be really interesting how I'm going to survive the summer because the summers can be very hot here, like 40 degrees or something or 35. So it's going to be like a big adjustment. But the food is amazing, the people are amazing. You know, everything else is just such a rich culture here. So. And passion, passion. 1s That's one of the things. The Milanese are famous for their passion. So everywhere you go, you see people dressed up from top to bottom, like completely, you know, amazing. So something to learn for sure for me as well. 2s When you're a mom like me who likes the t shirts and kind of just the gene run for for the school pickups. Exactly. Exactly. And the shops, you know, you pass the shops. The the displays are just so amazing that you just need to keep your wallet closed, like, you know, 1s to shop and fab. And I suppose, you know, I've kind of got two questions really like what kept you in Ireland for 17 years and what kept what took you away from Ireland? Yeah, well, Ireland, actually, I moved to Ireland when I was 19 years of age, so I finished just the secondary school and I had a friend in Dublin who invited me over and just for the trip. So I visited her for a trip and I was kind of looking for what to do with my life. I wasn't sure if I want to start college. I was always working. I started working at 16 quite early, doing waitressing jobs, like a little bit of restaurants, reception, hotels and all the hospitality. Actually, I feel like these jobs have really taught me the people skills, the valuable people, skills that are really important in life and functionality and organisation and everything. So I was working in the hospitality jobs and I came over and I was so amazed by the amount of job opportunities in Ireland. I was literally walking in her town and there was like just like ads on the windows, you know, everywhere else, the restaurants. I was like, Wow, I probably will try to work here and just see what will happen. And then I started working and that's it. You know, I started working. And then, of course, my mistake was that I was not studying before. So I was working and I was studying part time, a business degree and marketing as well, you know. So that was quite intense in Ireland. You were you were you doing the degree in Ireland as well? Right. Okay. Yeah, yeah. The working and doing the degrees instead of my my parents paying me for the college, I was like, I'm doing everything myself, you know, from the beginning. Massively independent. Yeah. Yeah. It sounds like you definitely. 2s Yeah. Okay. So I'm so. Okay. So like, that was basically the biggest draw though. Obviously opportunities over here. I'm sure the college course was definitely a massive draw as well. And so then you stayed for 17 years. I'm sure you kind of set up roots here and did you were you always in Dublin? I was in Dublin area. Yes, always in Dublin. Yeah. Like from I moved actually from north to the centre a bit on the side, south side, but I was always around around Dublin. 2s I'm so funny. The closest I've ever actually gotten to living in Dublin was Newbridge, and that was close enough for me. I you know, I love the city life, but I also think there's just a part of me that just needs to be come back, come back from the noise or something. Yeah. 1s So tell me a bit more than about your career. So you started in hospitality. I'm guessing you had to continue that throughout your studies, you know, What was the process there? Yeah. So the biggest, like, the biggest takeaway from my studies that I wanted to move 1s with my career, move forward with my career and start an office work, especially like in business or marketing, there was an accounting element and then but I always enjoyed the marketing as a part, so I wanted to find something that is going to be, you know, working in the marketing or like social media or something like that. So then I started to going to the interviews and of course the interviews initially when you don't go to the interviews and then you have out of a sudden out of the one interview, you have 3 or 4. Yeah, there must be some preparation and, you know, trial and error, of course. Of course. I was, you know, not successful most of the times. But then I kept going, I kept going. And then I found my first 1s office job, which was really, really nice. I was an Accenture like really great experience with working in different teams and different multiple projects, and I have many friends from there still. Let me keep. Excellent. Oh, that's brilliant, isn't it? Accenture is a very good company. I worked in marketing McKinney for years, so yeah, I'd be familiar with them. And so you worked with Accenture. What kind of vice was where did that take you? Yeah. So then we were working, as I mentioned before, on multiple different projects with multiple different clients. First it was Google, then we worked with Facebook and this is when I really fell in love with the company culture and the office and the people we were working from the Facebook meta office, which was amazing. You know, at that time it was Wow. And I mean, it's still at this time it feels like, wow, when you enter the office, there is, you know, the kitchen, you know, 1s the kitchen, everything, lunch, breakfast, dinner. It was amazing. But also the people like the the smart people that are working there, that was, you know, my I was looking at them like there were my heroes, you know, and they still are. And I was like, I want to get there. You know, I want to. 1s I can do it. And I knew that it's 7 or 8 interviews. I remember it was like eight interviews. I think, Wow, let's get there. And I applied also a few times, of course, you know, kept going 2s until I got the job. And I was it's also good because I was working in multiple teams in Accenture and I got a good recommendation recommendation from already existing leads and managers. So that was really the key for me to, you know, build the relationship with the teams and everything and then try and put going for the interviews, you know, applying for the interest so that it got me to Facebook in quality and training roles, in quality and training team. And then from then on, I started to get the management like move into the management role. So now I'm actually not doing quality anymore. I'm working as a training and content development manager, so I'm working on all the onboarding. Wow. Of course, join the Facebook. The experience that you have, you know? Yeah, as a new hire and all the training on products like different type of products as well, which is very, very exciting. Amazing. And it really does go to show like I mean, there's so many careers that are just they're not linear, you know, and they can just so be very, very rich in their experience and links still like mean it's not that they're not linked but you know just amazing to see that journey. Yeah so. 2s And on top of all of this, you then also had a business baby and actual baby. 2s Yes, that's that's about it. Yeah. 2s Accurately summarizing what's happened. Exactly. 2s So. So you weren't busy enough, you decided. So what came first actually? Was it the business or were were the babies first? Well, the business came first. No, the cat. The cat came first. The cat. Okay, perfect Cat. Forget the cash. Definitely can't forget the cat is the cat. Milan as well. She's our baby. She's here in Milan. Because it was so stressful, you know, the whole journey. We were worrying about her like. Like our baby, you know? But yeah, she. She got her say so that's. That's the most important thing. But yeah, the, the business started first and it started first as a simple kind of idea to reduce the plastic waste in my home. So I started to research kind of different ways on how I can make shampoo, bars, you know, plastic free the soaps and, and the conditioners. So I started making them at home and giving them to the friends. Friends provided amazing feedback. They were like, You should be on Etsy, you should be on Etsy. Okay, So I didn't have a website or anything at that time, so I went to an Etsy. And got great customers there as well, recurrent customers that had really incredible feedback. And that's what kept me kind of motivated and moving forward with my studies on organic skincare formulation like herbal skincare formulation and updating my ranges always. So then from from soaps, I moved more into the skincare side of things. And after I had a baby, of course, then after the baby. 1s So I was kind of always doing everything, everything by myself, because I think it's incredible. Business teaches us 1s so many things, like from from marketing side to people skills to communication, to problem solving. All of these like, transferable skills that you need in your life, like business, just as everything. And I thought it was so, so exciting for me because I was reading on different strategies on how to, you know, move my business forward. Then I was working on my own website as well, like building the website from scratch when I've never done this before. 1s Email marketing. All of this side of things were so new to me. Yeah. And after I saw them working, I was like, Wow, this really work. And that's what keeps you motivated moving forward in the business. So yeah, that's kind of a story, you know, It's like a long journey, I would say. But when I had my first child, you know, I abandoned my kind of self-care wellness skincare routine, and before that I was only focusing on soaps and conditioners and shampoos. But then after I had my first baby, I basically I need to do something. I need to do something for women who need to look after themselves. When you just like this two minutes a day and the consistent, you know, skincare routine, that is simple. That doesn't require like 5 or 6 products because we just don't have the time. You know, we don't even have the time for like a face mask, you know? This is it. That's it. Yeah. Yeah. So something really, really simple, but something natural and something sustainable as well, which is like plastic free. And that's such an important part of it as well, Like, and, and I absolutely love that because, you know, I mean, for like, I'm constantly trying to reduce like the waste in our house as well and. Like, particularly when it comes to skincare, my product, my products in particular. If I use anything that has high chemicals, my skin just doesn't react well to it anyway. But it's so true. Like moms don't have time for 6 or 7 steps. Like we could potentially only have that two minutes in the like. It lifts you up. You go out of the house with like, glowing skin and it like, you know, makes you feel better. So I think it's very important. And I think in everything, consistency is the key. So that's why I stand by it when I look at my pictures when I was 24, doing like two jobs, sitting and studying, my skin was looking worse than it is now. And I'm like, wow, that means that it's really is working. The consistency is, is paying off these two minutes a day is paying off, which is I think it's incredible. And so, like for you, even now that you have two children and you know, you've just moved to Milan like you, you've had a lot of change recently, Like you still make time for that two minutes every morning. Yes, absolutely. And two minutes every evening, if I can. Yes. Nice. Excellent. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, think it's just kind of like a thank you to yourself as well, though, isn't it? Like, I'm like, I'm grateful for. For you. Like you're you. You've homed like my children. Like you. You know, you're the reason I can do this business. You're the reason I can do everything else as well. It's like that two minutes. It sounds like it's not a lot, but when you have so much going on, it is so easy to see why it's the bottom of the list so often. 1s Exactly. And as I mentioned, it just makes you feel better that, you know, you're not only just the mother that is running the house, you know, putting the tracksuit buttons like getting the boogie and out the door. It's like, yeah, a mom with a glowing skin. That's that's bad. That sounds bad. That does sound better. I love that. And so, you know, I'm really curious, like how like so we've got the two minutes. We know that that's one of the priorities of the day. What else? I mean, like, does your day to day really change? Like, how do you know what to prioritize with so much, so many balls in the air? 1s Yeah, well, I think the key is just to select the most impactful things. That's what I've learned over over the years. And even by working at Meta Facebook, they say move fast and kind of just just move and just do something. Yeah. So that's I think that's the key for anything. If you want to achieve anything, we just. Should stop. Kind of perfectionism. Stop. Stop thinking that it should be perfect. It should look that way. We all have. You know, like when I was planning my wedding, I was, like, thinking about the details on the menu. Like, which color and text We, you know, people were like, not even noticing this. No. To say, yeah, yeah, yeah. And with us, like with women and business as well, we tend to overthink so much. And, and also there are so, so many strategies available out there. So I'm getting bombarded every day by new marketing strategies through Facebook ads or something. And we register, you watch this webinar and then you're like, Oh yes, I need to do this and I need to do that. I have this idea and I think the key is to focus on top three things. So this is what this is what I need to get done and always keep focus on that top three. I would say goals for like, say next six months. Yeah. Um, because, cause once we get off track, we really, really get off track. And it's so easy to get off track. Yeah. Especially with all the information overload and with everything that's that we have going on in life for sure. And like, I can find that sometimes with clients, you know, they'll come to me and they'll say, like, I want to, you know, I want a strategy. Like, let's work on the strategy session. And then they're like, okay, I know we're talking about this, but like, can we just focus on this for a second? And I'm like, No, no, no, stop getting distracted with what's over here. I know this looks like a new shiny object that you can you can pay attention to. You can get back to that later. Let's let's focus on what you came here for, you know, because they feel like, you know, if they're coming to me that they they want to get us more the most out of it. I'm like, actually, by focusing on this, you're getting the most out of me. You know, if we're focusing on everything, we're coming out with nothing at the end, you know, and think that's why even, you know, I purposely didn't want to ask the question like, how do you handle it all? Because I know you that you're okay with putting something down in order to focus on what actually needs to be done. Yeah, but it's not. It's very challenging, especially with these kids. Young kids. Two young kids now. Two boys that are just one is crawling around the house. One is running around the house of everything. I'm like, Oh my God, the house is a chaos. What kind of work can you do, you know, in this? Yeah, 3s but once. 3s This is what I need to focus on. And I think another thing, important thing is alignment. Always checking in like. Is what I'm working on is true to myself, asking this question constantly because, you know, our life changes, like I've mentioned before. Even my skincare brand is changed over over the years as I became. So instead of focusing like solely on sustainability, I started focusing on self-care and this wellness aspect for for moms the same as the business it might not be. We might have this one year goal that we set up, but then in reality, your life have changed in one year and it's completely not in alignment with you anymore. So checking in? Yeah, if it's in alignment, I think it's important as well. That's a very good point. I really like that. And so I suppose what what is next for an incom? 1s Yeah, well, 2s I would love to start kind of breaking into Italian markets a little bit. So I started already posting my bilingual content to the best of my ability, 2s learning Italian. And I think the key I think I've done like everything I could do. Of course there is much more that I could do, but nothing has been in existence from 2018. So it's quite how many years? So five. Almost five years. Wow. Five. Five? Yeah. And over these years, you know, I worked on my branding. I worked on my marketing, I worked on some automation systems. I did everything by myself without even hiring like a team member. So it's like a solopreneur kind of company that feel that I can teach others and help other moms as well to to do the same, especially when they feel overwhelmed, but they don't know what they need to start on when they're juggling many things. So my focus is to add now some services to my already existing wellness branch, and I've recently completed the coaching course as well, so I'm doing some coaching. Um, for moms as well, coaching, mentoring and kind of business consulting. So that's kind of my biggest priority right now. And of course, Italy and the coaching side of things to help more moms. Amazing. I love I'm all about helping the moms. So. 2s Yeah. Okay. I think all we need is like just a little bit of empowerment, right? That we can do it, that we are not alone and that we need to stop focusing on too many things and just. Yeah, 1s definitely. Just do it. 1s The three things. Yeah. If if there was ever a takeaway from this podcast that that would be it. It's, you know, focus on your three things for the day. And if one of those things is your two minute skincare routine, well done. You like it doesn't have to be big things. It doesn't have to be spring cleaning the entire house. It's just getting that thing off of your to do list and think, yeah, it's sometimes we feel as moms in particular, that always has to be this big picture thing when really it's it's the nitty gritty. And actually even just to kind of talk about what you said earlier about like how much like running a business can teach us like life skills. I think being a mom can teach us so much about running a business and, you know, just getting it done as well, you know, because there's so much, you know, where you learn, where you have to prioritize things and where you can't it can't be perfect. It's just it's put away like this. My drawer that hasn't been finished up above, above here yet, but it's like it's slotted in, it's clean, it's off the floor. It's fine. 1s Not exactly how I'd like it all the time, but it's done because we always can perfect the next version after that. Um, I think the key is just to move forward for sure. Exactly. I mean, there's going to be enough time even when the kids get older. But, you know, all of this mess isn't going to be here. So at the moment, then imagine what we will do with all this time. I'm going to we're going to rule the world. We're honestly going to rule the world. Oh, God. This is. Can you imagine doing what we do with our brain fog? 1s I have no idea. The world is just not ready for us yet. 3s So with all of that in mind, what is your definition of a leader? 2s The definition of a leader. I think that's a person who understands people, 1s understands the surrounding reads. Reads people well and know what to say when you say. But also lead by example. Have some have a be an inspiration for others. Be an inspiration for others. Because sometimes we as moms, we think, oh my gosh, how can somebody be inspired by us? You know, even moms in business like, oh, how can somebody be inspired for us? But I had many like women that came towards me and they said, wow, how could how do you do that? So be this inspiring person for others, lead by example and of course always be 1s respecting other people. I think that's the key. That's the key. Yeah. And give them the opportunity to to to shine because every person has their own strengths and don't put your own strength on this person and yeah, give them opportunity to develop and show their strengths 1s because then they will be rewarded. They can solve the problems, they can move forward much faster. You just have to show them their strengths and say, This is your strength. That's what you need to focus on. I like that. I love that a lot actually, about kind of just basically being able to be that mirror for them and just say, you know, here is actually your strength. That's beautiful. Thank you so much. Okay. And you really, really are an inspiration. And I'm really delighted to have you as the first guest of leaders raising leaders. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Leaders Raising Leaders. We hope you found today's discussion as eye-opening and thought provoking as we did. If you enjoyed this episode and believe in the power of redefining parenthood, there is one thing you can do to help us spread the word. Share this episode on your social media platforms and don't forget to tag us. Your support means the world to us. And hey, if you haven't subscribed to leaders and leaders yet, now is the perfect time. Hit that subscribe button so you never miss an inspiring conversation about leadership and parenthood. Until next time, keep reading, keep parenting, and keep redefining what it means to be a leader. Raising a leader.