1. First thing in the morning when you wake up, do you look at your phone? If so, what do you search?
I wish I could say the first thing I do is something zen like meditation or yoga before I get my hit of technology…but yes, the first thing I do in the morning is look at my phone! I check emails for both of my businesses Little Wildling Co www.littlewildlingco.com (organic luxe herbal teas) and Fitness In The City www.fitnessinthecity.com.au, to see if anything important has come through overnight and then scan our socials, the days ‘to do list’ before peeping in to see if the bub is asleep still.
2. Are you a coffee or tea drinker and what kind?
Yes a majority of my day (work and consuming!) revolves around herbal teas (I studied Natural Health Science out of high school so the love started young), but having a killer coffee to start my day is essential!! The fam (hubby and 15 month old) all walk down the street to our local to get our fix so it is sort of our early morning ritual. I switch between soy lattes with honey, long blacks with honey and recently welcomed back to the fold – hipster friendly bulletproof coffee, yum!!
I couldn’t tell you which tea is my favourite as that is just too hard and changes daily!! At the moment I’m loving our Little Wildling Co ‘Peppermint, Lemon Myrtle + Lavender’ as a smooth post meal tea, ‘Dirty Dandy Chai’ which is a dandelion based chai with hints of cocoa nibs and powder. Or maybe our new Minty Matcha which is organic ceremony grade Matcha mixed with Peppermint powder which just takes away the bitterness that some people associate with Matcha. Yep, thats the one!
3. You always imagined growing up you’d be?
I grew up in remote country WA on a wheat and sheep farm, lots of animals and space for days, this meant imagination HAD to be strong as there were no kids next door for play dates (maybe 30 minutes away) and our school had a total of 50 kids, 5 of which were in my grade. It was amazing and I really want to be able to move to a small town when my kiddies are in primary school!
I wanted to be a vet, a wood-maker, a farmer (parents wouldn’t let me go to Agriculture School!), then once in high-school a counsellor, actor, journalist, bohemian potion maker… the last which most likely let me to study for over 3 years Natural Health Science. I think I have studied at least 10 other things since then and also numerous industries and jobs in touring, record labels and talent agent…the path did a full circle and somewhere along the way it lead me back to health industry!
4. You run two businesses…how did this come about? And you find the time how?
The first, Fitness In The City (both Personal Training/Bootcamps with a holistic slant, and a website/blog) began while I was working at the worlds largest record label and I just felt the pull to go back to my roots, to help people, to educate and to empower. People may have thought I was crazy as obviously it is a pretty dam cool gig with perks but I needed to balance the ego role with what I loved to do!
Little Wildling Co organic herbal teas was something that was always in the back of my mind but just wasnt sure what form it was going to be, and then almost 2 years ago I knew it had to be herbal teas, in a new style to stand out from the rest and kinda just started immediately without thinking too much about it – luckily as it may have not have happened otherwise!!
How do I find the time? I think there is always time for things you love. Of course you drag your feet and find excuses if it isn’t a passion so I think that is important. Of course I dont have the luxury of working 8 hours a day on either businesses but it works. We are still in the ‘reactive’ phase of the business and very lucky that people are finding us and what to stock our retail pouches or tins in their shops or serve wholesale in their cafes so hopefully that keeps on happening in 2017!! I’m not going to lie and say it is easy working from home with a 15 month old running around (and another on the way…) BUT I do certainly feel blessed to be able to do what I do while still be there for Jet and work around everything.
5. When women are negative it makes you…
Sad for them! There’s obviously something going on in their lives for that to be going on so I always try to keep that in mind if that negativity is directed at me or others.
6. When women support one another you…
Are proud! It’s how it should be, building up one another to be a stronger version of themselves so they can strive for me, rather than feed their seed of doubt. I only surround myself around women like this now, they are the gems you want in your life.
7. One thing you keep close to your chest (until now is)…
I secretly love Nashville series!
8. To all those women who are negative on social media you’d say…
Put your energy into something better than being negative to others, I mean what a waste of time and effort!!
9. If you could express one piece of QueenHood advice to working women you would say…
Give yourself more credit!! One of the things I think many of us do, is underestimate how much you have actually achieved and are doing! Especially as we come into the new year seriously take a moment, pour yourself a cuppa and reflect, write it down and take credit for what you have done. New job? Good on you for getting closer to your dream! Had a baby and working out how life looks now? Seriously, be proud. This was something I did at the end of the year because it is so easy to get stuck in ‘doing’ without giving yourself recognition.
10. The never ending quest for balance between work life and family life you take on by…
I think it is about re-establishing expectations! Thats the key and was somewhat an epiphany and a game changer for me.
Of course ‘balance’ is going to look differently to what you were striving for in your early twenties, and it is going to look very different from one person to another. For me now, my balance seems insane on paper, but at the moment, it works, and again that will change when we welcome our new baby in March.
But it works! It works because I have a seriously awesome husband who supports my craziness, who parents equally, it works because I love everything I do, it works because I know what sort of life I want for my family and have a vision. It works because I choose to nourish my body to reduce unnecessary stress that eating shitty food does on my body, it works because Jet is my everything and I love to be able to spend time with him.
Of course there are things that can help get that balance in order, time out for yourself, maybe a cleaner, food prep or delivered to your door step…anything to help your mental health and create space for more of the good stuff!
11. Your toughest, almost “give up” moment of LITTLE WILDLING Co came…
Not sure if there has been one absolute moment because I have always had a gut feeling that it will work and the feed back from our tea lovers has just been amazing so that gets me through! I think when I really looked at the books and at all the outgoing costs in the first year was a bit of a scary moment!! Having to upscale earlier than anticipated is awesome but it also means more costs, bigger space, paying packers, purchasing everything in bulk -its hard not to run scared!!
12. When you’re in work mode you are best described as…
Passionate! And prone to “shiny thing syndrome” where I want to launch every cool idea I have…
13. The legacy you hope to leave is…
I’d love for Little Wildling Co to become a household Australian name, to grow so it creates jobs and a working environment where everyone wants to work at. For it to be in a position to really give back to the community. To open up the conversation of the healing power of plants. Imagine if more people drank our tea to get ‘a little bit of health in every sip’? To encourage a little time out in every ones hectic lives. That would be pretty special.
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