Yin and Yang: How do you balance work and family?
Well we are identical twins and business partners, and we work A LOT. Almost every moment of our spare time. Helen has a full-time job and Clare has an 8-month-old baby while her husband works fifo. One of our ways of balancing is being able to be completely honest with each other, just being able to be blunt, at times brutal, and always honest. We support each other to take time out and check in with each other, putting our own relationship as a focus and the relationships with others.
The drive: What challenges have you overcome?
One of the biggest things is fear of failure, fear that no one will like or want your idea – something you’re truly passionate about. That fear can be paralysing and can drive decision making in a bad way. We had to stop listening to any of those voices and take action, speak confidence as if our business idea was completely awesome and valid – because it is!
For better or worse: What are the pros and cons of running your own business?
It is very challenging having to figure out where the income is coming from, feeling worthy of charging people for a service you have created and are providing. We are both high achievers and big dreamers, and at times we have to really prioritise tasks that we can get done now with the time that we have available in our busy schedules. This means putting on hold really amazing projects that we know will help our community. When COVID-19 started to put the world on hold, we were just launching our business! We could have thrown in the towel then as a financial crisis loomed. We took one look at the community that we had just started to grow and realised that it was the best time to keep going. We wanted to do everything we could to help support small businesses to thrive. We also realised that more people were using the internet than ever before, as well as buying their products online – what an incredible opportunity to provide a platform to do just that but to focus on sustainable and ethical brands.
Hopes and dreams: What next?
Wow, where do we start. Have you ever seen Pinky & the Brain? Haha… take over the world! Take over the world with a new way of thinking: that it is easy to live a sustainable and ethical life. We want to provide an incredible resource on a global scale. We want to build a community of people for a force for good. We want to encourage small and large brands to build values into their product models. We want sustainable packaging to become the norm. We want to support charities and encourage others to do the same. We want to journey alongside the everyday person, like you and like me, to support each other to buy brands that are better for people and the planet.
Start your sustainable and ethical shopping journey now on the Prized Life website. You can also follow their journey on Instagram and Facebook.
