IAM267- Entrepreneur Aggregates Services to Help Moms Transition into Motherhood

Intro 0:01

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:26

Hello, hello. Hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast, I have a very special guest on the show today have Elisa Chen of motherhood, and Elisa, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Elisa Chen 0:35

Great. Thanks for having me here.

Gresham Harkless 0:36

No problem. Super excited to have you on and I'm super excited to meet you at this conference. So I want to hear just to kind things off. How's the conference going?

Elisa Chen 0:43

Wonderful. It's been an amazing conference where I've been able to meet a diverse group of entrepreneurs, advocates, social media. It's just been an amazing group of people. I've been really excited to be here.

Gresham Harkless 0:55

Yeah, absolutely. You were one of the panellists on the day one, right.

Elisa Chen 0:59

That's right. Yeah. So that was an amazing experience to meet so many entrepreneurs who are a different part of their journey and learning from them.

Gresham Harkless 1:05

Yeah, absolutely. So I wanted to kind of officially kick everything off by hearing what I call your CEO story. What led you to start your business?

Elisa Chen 1:12

Yeah, so motherhood thought design started about two years ago, my co founder, Natalie and I met each other randomly online. But at that point in time, I was pregnant, and I wanted to prepare myself on what motherhood would be like. And I also wanted to practice my design thinking skills. And so Natalie, at that point in time, was doing some research on postpartum depression. And she needed a design thinker to help her and so I decided to join on board and thinking that I prepare myself for motherhood and also practice some professional skills. And during that time, as I interviewed moms as a part of our research, I was shocked at the level of discrepancy between what moms were experiencing postpartum. And what I saw on social media, namely that in social media, you see the pretty beautiful polished up motherhood journey, right? You see that pretty moms, what they call a Yummy Mummy time. And when I talk to these women, I was not prepared to hear or think or know what to do about giving natural birth and bleeding nipples and breastfeeding and what the football hold is. And it was just such a stark and difference between those things. And I realised that transition wasn't going to be easy. And when I gave birth to my daughter, I realised that that really wasn't the case. And I was someone who was fortunate enough to have a partner a second income, a roof over my head, education, etc. And still, that transition was tough for me. So I can't imagine what it'd be like for a mom or a family who didn't have any of those, or just one of those were a few of those things. And so what sparked that journey of motherhood design is really around this notion of how can we help all first time moms or expectant moms transition into motherhood. And so we're focused on developing products or services to do that. So one of our first products is a platform that's focused on aggregating the services that moms would need. So whether that doulas babysitting, food delivery, house cleaning, etc. These services are aggregated to a platform, they type in their zip code. And we provide a curated list of services they can need to help them navigate that transition, because we realise that moms in this day and age are really celebrated through products. So people buy them gifts, baby gifts,baby clothes, whatever that might be, but at the end of the day, moms just need help with the stuff around, the the daily chores, the daily grind. And so that's what we're trying to do is ensure that moms have those services in place.

Gresham Harkless 3:33

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And I love that you didn't just went through entrepreneurial form, you saw that there was something that wasn't being met, he decided to create something rather than just saying, Oh, I wish there was XYZ you decided to create?

Elisa Chen 3:47

Absolutely.During my transition into becoming a mother, I realised those two questions that came on to the top of my head was namely, wow,why aren't we talking about these problems more? Because all I see is the nice stuff. Why can't we talk about the hard stuff? And then be there's got to be an easier way to do a lot of these things, we got the power of technology these days, like, it's got to be easier.

Gresham Harkless 4:07

Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's kind of been one of the beautiful things about technology and social media, especially as you get to see a lot more and everybody has a voice to kind of talk about whatever it is that they need to talk about. So a lot of times some of those stories that you wouldn't ever probably hear about sometimes have the opportunity to come to light sounds like what you guys have been able to do.

Elisa Chen 4:25

Exactly,exactly. And something that's really important to us is ensuring that we're elevating the voices of those women, those mothers who are going through the process and that they're a part of our design journey. So as we develop these products, we're not doing it in a silo by ourselves, but we're designing it with the moms with the families with the doulas, etc, because they're going to know best and also every journey is different for everyone

Gresham Harkless 4:49

It makes perfect sense. And I know you've touched on it a little bit. Do you have any additional kind of services and products that you guys are developing have down the pipeline or things that you have in place to monitor social

Elisa Chen 4:57

So eventually, yes, so with mommy helper, which is the platform I mentioned, is our first concept. And the idea is eventually we'll move on to other concepts, because we know it's a transition. And throughout that transition, there's going to be different types of problems that need to be solved. So, , I envision another big part of the problem is this notion of what is the spouse's role in this? And so we've been talking to a lot of fathers and doing research around that, what are the challenges they face as they navigate that transition? Because it's different from them.

Gresham Harkless 5:26

Yeah. And I love the fact that you're building everything, like you mentioned in alignment, and together with the mothers and the people that you are trying to create things for. So I know sometimes people create stuff, they have no idea who their target market is they're not as dialled into the target market, as you guys are. So you're actually creating something for them?

Elisa Chen 5:43

Absolutely. Yeah. And we're willing ready to pivot as needed. Because we have that instant connection with a community of moms, advocates, families, etc.

Gresham Harkless 5:53

It makes sense. So now I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. So you might have already touched on this, but this could be for yourself or for your organisation. What do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

Elisa Chen 6:02

I think our competitive differentiator is really this notion of co designing. As I mentioned earlier, I think there's a lot of companies out there that say, Yeah, we see a problem. And we're the experts, and we're going to fix that for you. And that might be the case. But I think there's power in perspective. And every different perspective can help provide nuiance, and differentiation and your product or service. And I think when you are trying to create something for someone or your customer, they need to be integral part of that journey, right? And so something that I subscribe to is nothing for us without us. And so you need to bring that perspective, your customers voice in what you develop, and not just in a interview, asking them questions, what do you need, but say, no, come journey with me build this thing with me? Because I need you too.

Gresham Harkless 6:51

Yeah, and I feel like they needed as well, too. Because, like you mentioned, especially for something like motherhood, you've gone through that experience. So you want to make sure that it's better the next time or for somebody else. So you they probably have that community feel as well,

Elisa Chen 7:03

Absolutely. It's something that we recognise as we've done a lot of research in that just transition into motherhood and parenthood is really isolating. And I experienced it myself, some people don't think about that. But once you give birth to a baby, you're kind of at home most of the time because that human being is dependent on you 24/7. Now, that house is going to happy hour, like you weren't at home, and you were on call 24/7. And you're by yourself, right. And so sometimes firms come visit you but it's not all the time, and it's isolating. And so that notion of community, and that notion of What the hell is going on with my life, doing this, right, I don't need that sounding board around you, and that you need that community and you need the opportunity to feel affirmed in that transition. And that's really powerful and necessary.

Gresham Harkless 7:50

Yeah, and definitely having a community be able to lean on and understand, I guess best practices, if that's the right phrase to use, but things that people do that are working, and I use it. So it's great that you guys are building that and creating that community. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And this might be an app or book or a habit that you have, but something that makes you more effective and efficient.

Elisa Chen 8:12

I think for me, it's really been beneficial to be around other entrepreneurs at varying levels of the journey, because not only is motherhood a very isolating entrepreneur, it's very lonely to sometimes again, especially if you're a new CEO, and you entrepreneur, you don't know what you don't know, right? And so you're just kind of navigating in the dark, you're fill in each stone as you go by. And you need that affirmation. Is this the right way? It's it's not the right way. A lot of people get that advice, whether that's reading a book, going online, taking a course etc. It depends on what you need. But something that's been really helpful. Again, it's also the emotional support, because there's going to be days and times when you said, I don't think this is going to work out. I don't know if this is the right way. And you just need to talk to a human being to say, what did you do in those moments? Am I going crazy? Like, I need some help? And I think that affirmation is what helps people either get out of those low times, or help prepare for those low times.

Gresham Harkless 9:10

Yeah, it's great that you mentioned that because I was actually gonna say that a lot of times, I'm glad you brought that up. Like what you were saying, if you're doing something, right, just like you were talking about motherhood. It's like when you're starting a business, sometimes you're starting from scratch, you'll be able to kind of lean on somebody else in much of the same way to say, Hey, am I doing X, Y, Z, right? Or how did you do it? And so you can learn on that?

Elisa Chen 9:30

Absolutely. Yeah. And for me there's obviously a whole host of resources you can use, but again, I would go to another person and whether that's a random LinkedIn connection, or a family friend or just a friend to say you've done something similar to this before, what did you do or say, Do you know someone who's done this before? Could they give me some advice? But again, that notion of human connection, I think is really important.

Gresham Harkless 9:53

Absolutely, absolutely. So now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget and this is a word of wisdom or piece of advice. If you can happen to a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Elisa Chen 10:04

I think I would tell my younger self is to get on the side of doing get on the side of acting. I know I'm a person who likes to analyse a lot. And I will spend countless hours doing market research pulling the numbers doing the data and analyse and I get to this analysis paralysis. And I recognise I will never 100% Analyse myself to a solution or a crystallised picture, there will always be this little nugget of of doubt, or I don't know, you just gotta move in and try it because you don't know what you don't know. And the only way you'll know is by doing it. And the worst that can happen is that it doesn't pan out for you. And so what take that as an opportunity that you learned something that you wouldn't have learned otherwise, yeah, so to do more, and to maybe analyse less?

Gresham Harkless 10:59

Well, that's always a struggle, because it's such a hard balance. But I love the fact that you talk too about kind of knowing yourself, because I feel like there might be somebody that might be listening, that might be on the other side where they're just action oriented, and they never take the time to analyse things. So it's important to kind of understand yourself to understand like how best to get to where you want to be.

Elisa Chen 11:17

And then the second piece of advice, I would also give, I really benefited from a career coach. And that was because I was someone who viewed my career in what he called an outside in model where I looked outside and said, what are the opportunities out there? What type of roles jobs are there? How can I mould myself into one of those roles that I think would fit me? And instead, he helped me get clear on what am I uniquely good at? And flip that into an inside out model where I said, Elisa is good at this, this and this, and this is where she thrives. And then look outside the market and say, Is there a job that fits your strengths? And if not go create that job. And I think that was a really pivotal moment for me is this notion of getting clear about yourself is really important.

Gresham Harkless 12:04

Yeah, absolutely start to see the world in a whole different way. Because you start to see what you can create and where those opportunities aren't like you did with motherhood, that design. Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So now I wanted to ask you my absolute favourite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. So we're hoping to have different, quote unquote, CEOs on the show. So I want to ask you, what does it mean to you?

Elisa Chen 12:23

For me, being a CEO is about courage, really, sometimes people think of a CEO and you're thinking success. They're thinking money. They're thinking, everything that you probably see in social media, and I realised, for me, what I've really admire about the CEOs and the entrepreneurs that I've encountered is the level of courage. So the level of the fact that didn't know everything, they didn't have everything figured out yet, they decided to move forward. And I think that's really powerful and inspiring. And that's part of the reason why I'm where I've been on my journey is because I've talked to other people who said, No, I didn't have it all figured out. But I decided to move forward anyways. Because whether that's the mission because of their passion, a whole host of things, but it's about being courageous and being true to yourself.

Gresham Harkless 12:23

I love that. And I love that perspective. A lot of times, just like you mentioned, with motherhood, that design, a lot of times you see stuff on Instagram or social media, he thinks success is basically a linear path. But in reality, a lot of these CEOs, entrepreneurs and business owners that were and showed that bravery and courage actually had some ups and downs. So sometimes that happens, so awesome. Well, I appreciate your time. And what I want to do is pass you the mic so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional, you can let our readers and our listeners know, and then of course, how they can get ahold of you.

Elisa Chen 13:38

Sure.Well, for those who are thinking about being entrepreneurs, those who are entrepreneurs, again, I would say find your tribe get connected to those who you are inspired by and let them help you lead the way. You don't have to do this alone. And just know that there are people who are ready and willing to help you just need to ask. And I would say if you are interested in learning more about motherhood.design or being a part of our journey, you can reach us at our website www.motherhood.design. And follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Gresham Harkless 14:12

Awesome, awesome. Awesome. We will have those links in the show notes as well but I appreciate you appreciate your time. Hope you have a great rest of the day.

Elisa Chen 14:18

Thank you.

Outro 14:19

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai