When sisters Anna and Fiona welcomed their youngest children just four months apart, they were quickly reminded of how isolating and overwhelming the early stages of motherhood can be. They both found themselves facing the same unmet need: meaningful, flexible support tailored to the realities of modern motherhood. What they encountered instead were fragmented resources – overly rigid schedules, baby-centric advice that left little room for maternal wellbeing, and support systems that often came with a high price tag. It was during one particularly emotional afternoon that the simple yet powerful idea for Mum Coaching emerged. From that moment, they set out to create a solution grounded in lived experience, empathy and a deep understanding of what mothers truly need. The result is a thoughtfully designed, accessible platform that empowers mums to prioritise their own wellbeing while navigating the complexities of parenthood.
The passion: What inspired you to set up your business?
We are sisters who had our youngest babies just four months apart. For Anna, it was her second baby – juggling a toddler and a newborn, and for Fiona, it was her third, with a 13-year age gap between her oldest and youngest. As new mums, we both felt the struggle: the loneliness, the isolation, the loss of purpose, the worry about returning to work and the constant self-doubt about whether we were “good enough” mums.
We tried to access support – joining apps, online forums and social media groups – but just couldn’t seem to find a one-stop-shop resource that gave us what we needed, when we needed it, and worked around the chaos of being a new mum. Everything was either way too regimented and required us to be at a certain place at a certain time, or was so focused on the baby that it just made us feel even worse – more confused and even more unsure of ourselves. To access more flexible and tailored support, we were looking at spending a lot of money on it, which we just couldn’t afford.
One day, we found ourselves sitting on Fiona’s living room floor, both having a little cry over how flipping overwhelming this all felt and complaining about the lack of support. We looked at each other and just said, “Well why don’t we create something ourselves then?”. It was one of those lightbulb moments that changed our lives forever.
We got really excited about how great something like Mum Coaching could be, and over the next few months, we started learning, researching and really thinking about what support we would want in that moment. That is what makes our offering so unique: it was created while we were knee-deep in nappies, sleep deprivation, and overwhelm. We have refined it over time, working with loads of mums to make sure it’s the right balance of practical and inspirational. The result? We have a business we are really proud of and we know will help so many mums out there who are living the struggle of modern day motherhood.
The launch: How did you start out in the beginning?
In the beginning, we started creating content on social media and seeing what was the most helpful to mums. We focused on Instagram first and quickly grew a loyal following. We started thinking about friendship and how hard it was to make mum friends. We designed a course for mums to help them overcome some of the barriers, so they could start building their village of support, but this didn’t feel right so we didn’t launch it.
We were awarded a local and national business start-up award and learned a lot from experts who have launched multiple businesses: how they have focused on giving their customers exactly what they need. This led us to developing a low-cost monthly membership that would make our support super accessible to thousands of mums across the world.
We started to create something where mums could try different approaches to mental, physical and emotional wellbeing at a time and place that suited them. The business really grew from there. Once we had something that felt right, we set about gaining accreditations so we could offer mums the best expert support and creating quality content so our membership had the right balance of fun, information and the tools a mum would need to thrive. From there, the Mum Coach Community was born!
The innovation: What was the biggest breakthrough for you with your business?
Our biggest breakthrough was defining our business principle. It made sure we stayed true to our business and focused on what really mattered. It is so easy when starting a business to try and do everything and end up not getting anything quite right, so we really focused in on who we wanted to help and why.
The guiding principles we have running through our whole business are:
- Everything we create will be available on the go so our mums can access the content they need while walking with a pram, rocking a baby or even driving the car.
- We will design everything for convenience – no waffle or lengthy presentations – everything will be short, to the point and useful, as we know a mum’s time is precious.
- Everything will be specific to mums. Nothing is recycled from elsewhere or generic.
- We will include a mixture of learning, developing a self-care toolkit and wellbeing activities so we are offering a holistic approach and improving their physical, mental and emotional wellbeing.
- Our cost will be low and stay that way. We will never have add-ons that cost extra or do the heavy sell on our mums. Once they are in the community, everything is available to them.
- We will have a community area for mums to share their stories, ask for advice and come together as a sisterhood. This will be closed within the community to keep it a safe and sacred space.
- All our resources will be available to print at home and will be useful and super easy to use. Everything we produce will add something extra and won’t just become another thing to do.
Focusing on these principles has made our business completely different from where we began. We have understood the challenges mums face and made something that really targets those challenges and supports mums as they survive them every day.
