Twins: Launching my BRAND and finding out that I’m pregnaNT

Last November, at the age of 40, I decided to quit my corporate job and follow my heart on a project that had been stirring around in my head for some time. The advice at the time was to keep my job for the stable income and engage in the age-old art of the side hustle until my business was making enough money. The problem was that the cheeky goal that I had for my business could very well be seen as a conflict on interest in my 9 to 5 and I knew that I couldn’t have my cake and eat it.

So I quit- as a mom of a 6 year old and a 4 year old who were already racking up private school bills- I let go of the stability and entered into a wilderness. Believe it or not- that was not the curve ball.

At the end of November- after giving myself permission to switch off a bit and just engage in some light marketing activities for a month or two- I was slightly aghast to find myself reaching for a pregnancy test and thoroughly horrified when I passed the test with flying colours. Intrusive thoughts got the better of me:

I’m too old for this

It’s been years since I’ve had a newborn.

How will this affect my other two kids.

How am I going to afford another private school education.

I was supposed to get wildly intoxicated this December 😊 . 

But the biggest worry of all was: How is my business going to survive this? What am I going to tell my clients? Are my dreams deferred because I got knocked up?

Let’s be honest, a corporate career will fool even the most adept mother into thinking that she can’t have it all. When I was admitted as an attorney (about 15 years ago) I came into the workplace with the firm belief that balance was not possible for women. You either choose a thriving career or you choose a thriving family and that was my attitude for a very long time. Then whilst you are pregnant and working you get micro aggressions thrown at you:“You must be having pregnancy brain. ““You will be on a 3-month paid holiday whilst you are on maternity leave. ““I didn’t include you in the important meeting because I didn’t want to pressurize you. “Every working mother talks at length about the guilt of feeling that you are torn in two and ultimately you are not giving enough somewhere along the line. Let me tell you that this belief is simply not true. Working moms over-compensate. They feel that guilt and end up giving more, overachieving whilst still having to fight the stigma that you are somehow slacking off because you have kids at home.

 So how did I do it? How did I launch a business, attend client meetings and procure business whilst being pregnant for these last 9 months? Well, I just did it. I unlearned every false thing about working moms that has been going on in perpetuity since the beginning of the 40-hour work week.I realized:My talent is not diminished by having kids.I didn’t get dumber the moment I gave birth.Being a mom has enhanced my strategic skills as I am not just building my life, I am orchestrating the future of other little humans, and these skills can be utilized in my career as well. Conversely, the skills I acquired in building my career can also be used to raise my children effectively.Women don’t multi-task. We just manage our time so effectively- it’s hard to figure out how we fit it all into one day. The career that I have built is of paramount importance to me because I have put my blood, sweat and tears into it and it fulfils a part of me that having children cannot. I won’t let anyone tell me that I need to give it up because I have children. It does not have to be one or the other.My children are my motivation for leaving a legacy in this world, to be someone who has broken generational curses so that they do not get put on the same struggle bus that I had to jump off – kicking and screaming.No one is going to save you. No one is coming. Be your own hero.Building a business from scratch is hard enough. Being an employee is hard. Climbing the corporate ladder is hard. Navigating workplace politics is hard. Becoming the leader in your field is hard. Leading people is hard. We don’t have to add these antiquated constructs into the mix to make it twice as hard for women. It’s about time to shake the shackles. Is it possible? Well, I’m sitting here two weeks post-partum at the age of 41 with my own start- up writing this piece of literature that just blew your socks off.