Aisling:
Welcome to another episode of Marketing Mindset and Motherhood. Today, I'm your host, Aisling Owens Nash, Mums in Business International Networking Leader for Ireland and Northern Ireland. And I'm delighted to be joined by the fabulous Fiona Harrold. Fiona, how are you today?
Fiona Harrold:
I am great. Thank you, all the better for seeing you. Now, I'm thrilled to be here. I'm thrilled to be here.
Aisling:
I'm excited to have you on our podcast today because, you know, we met a couple of months ago. We've been to some events together. We're going to be working on multiple events together over the coming months as well. And considering the theme of this podcast, which is, you know, motherhood mindset and marketing, you know, you've got experience in all of these areas, which is fantastic. So we might play this a bit by ear and see what we're going to chat about today, but we will try and keep it short and sweet for you guys. And we'll come back with Fiona another day as well to kind of dig deeper into some of the strategies that she uses, which I know will be beneficial to you guys. So I guess let's start off by giving everyone a brief introduction to who Fiona is as a person first and foremost, before we get into the other bits and bobs.
Fiona Harrold:
I suppose most people will know me from my first book, to be honest, actually, and Be Your Own Life Coach. That came out in 2000. My son was obviously much younger then. I was a mother and a single mother. I really never use that term. I don't even like it. The very one, the very same one. Yeah, 2000. Yeah. So I brought my son up on my own. So I know about motherhood and making everything work alongside it and around it. You know, if I'd known now what I knew then I would do something slightly differently. That's for sure. But I guess that's life, isn't it? And I guess the book coming out was really what catapulted my business, my career. I love to speak. I speak about getting speaking and I speak about getting in the press because those are the two things that really catapulted my business. In fact, the book deal came from a feature in a national newspaper, in the Daily Telegraph. So I'm all about visibility. I'm all about getting seen. I'm all about connections. And I know the fastest way to grow your business is to get seen. You got to get seen. And you got to have a good signature talk and be able to get into the press. That's what I think anyway. It's what worked for me.
Aisling:
Yeah, absolutely. And you know, I know that you're going to speak on both those topics at future events as well. So I'm very excited for the ladies to get to come and meet you in person and learn about those. Your real niche expertise as well. So you mentioned that you looking back, you might change some things. Like, what do you think you might change? I'm just curious because I was going to ask you, like, how would you, you know, I guess maybe thinking back actually, you know, striking a balance, striking the balance of running a business and being a mother while also trying to find time for networking, for writing, for getting in the press, you know, obviously at the time that may not have gone exactly the way you wanted it to, was there anything that you learned during that period of time that, you know, like you said, you wish you knew then, things that you know now that you wish you knew then?
Fiona Harrold:
Do you know that really the thing that stands out for me that I would have done differently was to spend, would have been to spend more one-on-one time with my son because somehow I picked up the idea, it must have been around at the time, that just being there was enough. Just being in the background, just being around and truthfully, it's just not true. What really makes the difference is taking some time out to be with them in that focused one-on-one way because that's how they get to see that they're valued. You know, I got the shock once. My son said to me, I'd like to make an, I think he was about 10 at the time, 11 maybe. And he said, I'd like to make an appointment to speak with you. I mean, I was in the kitchen with him. We were talking and I said, okay, I'm happy to talk with you here. No, I would like to make an appointment to speak with you on the phone. And in other words, the way that my clients were getting me. And I said, fine. So he said, I'll, I'll phone you then. What's your office number? Cause I had an office number upstairs. Right. So we ended up having this coaching conversation, like for real. So I said, well, hi, Jamie, it's Fiona here. What would you like to talk about? Actually, I'd like to talk about my mom. Okay. Absolutely go ahead. And he went on to complain about how his mum wanted him to go on a school trip on Wednesday and he did not want to go on that school trip. So we had this whole coat. That was crazy, crazy. But it really showed me that what my son was saying was your clients are more important than me. They get.
Aisling:
Yeah, he wanted that dedicated time from you. Yeah.
Fiona Harrold:
Yeah, they get better quality time. So that was a real wake-up call for me. Honestly, it was shocking. So that's the thing I would change. Yeah. Yeah.
Aisling:
I think that's going to resonate with so many people. And you know, I know Leona, Leona herself speaks about this a lot, like saying, you know, and we all know, if you know, within our team, Saturday is Mummy Day. So, you know, if you've got to figure something out, you've got to figure it out yourself, because Saturday is Mummy Day and nobody's to interrupt Mummy Day, right? So we have, she has like dedicated time that every Saturday is just Mummy time with her, with the kids, you know, she's got six kids. My God, I don't know how she does it. I find it hard enough with three. One was hard enough, never mind when I went to three and she's got six, so it amazes me. But also every day there's time that I know Leona has, she's very into time blocking, where she blocks out time for the schoolwork for each of the kids because they're also homeschooled. I try to do it on certain afternoons, on certain days of the week. So people will ask me for a call on certain days of the week and I go, no, sorry, I don't work that day because that's my day that I got to go and do other stuff. Or certain afternoons like, today actually we've had a cancellation of some lessons. So I'm like, actually what we're going to do instead of me just driving them to something, them spending half an hour at something while I do stuff in the car and coming home, we're going to go and have a little adventure and then we're going to spend time in the garden together because the weather's good. You know, so it doesn't always have to be a strict part of the schedule, but when time becomes available, make the most of that time, make the most of it because they do, they love it. They love, they just love being with you, right?
Fiona Harrold:
Yeah, totally, totally. That's the thing that I learned.
Aisling:
It's all they want. They just want to be seen and heard as well. So, you mentioned that networking and connections are really, really important to you. Do you have any specific strategies or routines that you use to ensure that you're consistently making meaningful connections to expand your network?
Fiona Harrold:
I mean, look, if I'm really honest, I'm lucky in that I speak. And when you speak, you get invited to things. And then, you know, it's easier to have conversations with people because you're elevated. You're, you know, you're seen. So if I hadn't had that, then I definitely would have had to be much more strategic in my networking. I mean, honestly, it's one of the reasons I moved back to London. I'm in London now. So for a couple of years I was in Somerset, which is a beautiful part of England. And then I got to realize, my gosh, I'm completely isolated. There just aren't people that I can connect with. There's not people like me that I can hang out with. So I came back to London specifically for that, to be able to speak more on stages and to be able to connect with more people like me. It's so crucial that you have your people, that you have your tribe, that you have people like you. Otherwise, life is very lonely, especially if you're working on your own. A lot of the time I'm working on my own, I've a team, I've got people, but still I'm working on my own. And it's just so important to have that friendship, you know, where it's not just business, business, business, but it's like friendship, someone to talk to and offload things with. Otherwise, life could get like very hard work.
Aisling:
Yeah, it is. It's those relationships that you build along the way, which, you know, and connection and feeling part of something and connected, not just having connections, but feeling actually connected to a community of
people. And, you know, that's what we're doing here in Northern Ireland and Ireland. And obviously, I'm really excited that you're here to be part of that journey with us. So for everyone listening, Fiona is going to be speaking at our Dublin event, which is coming up in a couple of weeks. And she's also going to be joining us for our leadership retreat in October, which is really, really exciting. So Fiona, if there was one bit of advice that you would give to moms who are currently trying to navigate their way in business, what would that be?
Fiona Harrold:
I would say get speaking, get your voice heard, because we are naturally good at speaking. You know, women are good at speaking. Women are good at talking. And it is the fastest way to get known. You know, you can spend all this time online and sending out newsletters and things like that. And yeah, it will work. But if you really want to accelerate your progress, get speaking, because you will instantly stand out. You will instantly be known. And you will instantly have people gravitating to you because we know that when people see and hear you speak, they either resonate or they don't. And when they do, you know, you can form a relationship with them so much quicker. So if I was really honest, that's what I would say. And my goodness, like find places where you can speak, find places where you can speak and get out there.
Aisling:
I love that. So guys, you heard it here from the horse's mouth. The best thing that you can do is get out there, get seen, get speaking. And again, we've got the perfect opportunity for you guys to come and learn more about how to do that with Fiona at the Dublin event and our leadership retreat in October as well. So Fiona, thank you so much for joining us today. I really appreciate your time and can't wait to see you in person in a couple of weeks.
Fiona Harrold:
Thank you so much. I love it. I look forward to it.
Aisling:
Thank you. Thank you. And we'll be back soon with another podcast guys. Take care. Bye.
