I'm Shinada Moore, and you're listening to everyone on the podcast, supported by water types who are proven to be fewer than cotton wool and water and now biodegradable.

From fertilises birth pandemic parenting to taking care of ourselves here, we talk to women about their own unique experiences of motherhood, the insane joy and anxious to face the love, the laughs, the tears and the moments that we don't talk enough about.

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What do wives are now 100 percent biodegradable and compostable wipes with the same purity and quality as before. They are ideal for sensitive newborn and even premature skin as the number one wipe in Ireland. Together, we are committed to providing more support for parents with trusted products and this podcast. When they become mothers, we find new strength and new priorities that we never knew we had as a single mom in her 20s came off, Sullivan was the last of crash to pick up her baby and yet not earning nearly enough came had a dream.

She had a talent. And now after the birth of Collum, she had a purpose.

And so she did what many of us are afraid to do. She left her job and embarked on a journey to become the business owner of the award winning the make up academy. And she fell in love and has welcomed two more babies into this world. Alex. And only a few weeks ago, her baby girl, Endi was born.

We talk about how different and experience these birds were. Our family are what give her the drive to pursue her business dreams and how through really believing in yourself, you can create the life that you love.

Kim, thank you so much for joining me on everyone on the podcast this morning. You look, as always, absolutely radiant. I do. You do. You know, I do feel like I'm so happy inside that maybe that is a thank you for saying that. I feel like so happy and content. And, you know, if you go down, I never say that, but I do feel good, I think as well, now that I am that bit older, that I am more confident than myself, that I don't need to wear so much makeup and all that.

But when someone to say look great, it's I've learned to take it as a compliment now and say instead of saying, oh my God, no, I don't. So this is how I try to embrace compliments that follow me. So thank you. But I do feel great.

India is, what, two, three weeks old?

No, she's actually four weeks old, my five. But it feels like she's like five months old or 15 months old. So we're only saying it's a morning. But she still is like a tiny little puppy. She's nearly five weeks I have gone into is your third baby so third time around, how are your grades?

And, you know, I think and we even we were checked before I just before I gave birth to Indy. And I think with each pregnancy I got more nervous and more anxious. And it wasn't just the, you know, the fear of the unknown. You know, when you've had a baby and you go to your you know, your next pregnancy and labour, you know what to expect. So sometimes, well, for me, anyways, it can be that little bit more nerve racking because I know what's ahead for me, know whether it be a painful fever or whatnot.

And so and I was a little scary. So my third were much more nervous and anxious. And I don't know if it was because I was older. And they say sometimes it's more complications, etc., but I definitely was initially. And then I got into the whole kit and everything and, you know, trying to, like you told me, to do Shinada thing just before I had like two to just Tigist to delay or just imagine that, like with every contraction, you know, you're that step closer to reality, your little angel.

So I think because I really embrace this pregnancy, I try to be really positive and, you know, and embrace my pumpkin, embrace what was happening. My body I say my labor was just a million, trillion times better than my previous two. And even my recovery, you know, since I've had it has been so much better than, you know, do my whole thing. It didn't just end when I had the baby. I said just my mind frame was much better.

And I've even enjoyed these first few weeks more because. For me again, anyways, I found with my first two pregnancies and I was just I don't know if I put too much pressure on myself to just be this pretty much like the first two weeks and do everything, whether it be clean the bathrooms and just like do everything all at once. But this time I was so much more relaxed, you know, from the moment I had her as well.

So that really helped me in my recovery, you know. So I definitely feel like I have so much more energy this time to make sense. I felt completely the same on my. So I.

Four months now and it's only four months.

Yeah.

It seems like it seems like so much longer since you've had her because your journey and you know, when you're pregnant you kind of latch onto the children that she had a baby. I said when she when you have your following someone who's had a baby, you know what your seeds have. Would you like you feel every bit of their emotion and you want to know every bit of their journey and that's it.

And I think that's so partly wonderful and so difficult about this year.

You know, I think that there is nothing like the connection between two strangers who are both at the same time, you know, because you did you find this year is just deeply understand what the other is going through.

You have so much empathy for what they're going through. Yeah. You're hoping and wishing and you're excited for them in the same way that you are for yourself. But I wish to God that, you know, women that's that's what those pregnancy groups are about, meeting other women that are pregnant. And when you say, like, you treated yourself better and you embraced it, all I'm trying to figure out in my own mind is that because it was my second child and I had more confidence and, you know, there was less pressure on myself and I kind of went with the flow more, or was it the product actually of a year that forced me to physically slow down?

Yeah, I definitely I can speak for you, but I can imagine it's probably the latter because I find even with my second pregnancy and it was very similar to the first that I was anxious and nervous. And, you know, obviously there's immense excitement when you're having a baby and you're in the weeks and it's getting closer. But I find myself and I'm still nervous and anxious and like, scared. So I definitely think it's like you said, more the laughter, the.

It's how you, you know, embraces like your head, you know, if you make a conscious decision to be more in the moment with your pregnancy and your poor, with what's happening in your body and what's ahead of you, that it is easier. So maybe because, you know, with covid, like you said, it's forced us to be more pleasant, you know, and if it's it's automatically that the hustle and bustle of everyday life and rushing to work for this and Basche that you've been forced to be in your beautiful home, your beautiful family and life's been simplified.

Now, I'm not saying that the stress of working everything is gone, but just the everyday kind of possible soul is is gone, isn't it? With Culvers, I feel anyways that. Everybody's gone back to the basics, the basics, I mean, just be more with your family, the simplification, but also there's been a kind of a shift in priorities. Oh, absolutely. Oh, my goodness. Which is so incredible. But, yeah, I hope you sense I think everybody has felt that in some way have to say re-evaluation.

Once you've been kind of kicked off that hamster wheel, give it a chance to say, well, what is important to me and how do I want to live this life?

Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's so evident in the likes of Instagram. I really notice that and. People have have found that they've gone back to basics with them, with they live their lives, you know, and and ultimately all that matters is family and how you spend your time, how you choose to spend your time and money, you know what you do every day to avoid the stresses of life. And ultimately, that is just, you know, enjoying the simple pleasures in life or the family or your time or just relax.

And I don't think it is hard to to to focus on those positives, though, and especially if you are a business owner. So, I mean, firstly, nobody likes a pandemic pregnancy. You know, there's enough anxiety and worry that comes with pregnancy.

You do not need a pandemic circling the globe to add to your woes and your second little boy, Alex. I mean, he's he's still very little. So there's that juggle of of introducing a new baby into his life and also the energy that you have for him and a pregnancy. But also and then the business worries have had quite a heavy year. But what I'm feeling from you is that you make that conscious choice to seek the positives. Oh, yeah.

Like for me, being positive is it doesn't come easy. Like I always say to my friends who always come out and say, OK, give me a pep talk. I like having a 12 week or two day. How can I be positive? And I always say it's not just like a light switch. It's not something that we can just say, OK, I've had a really crappy day. I need to be positive. It's something that say it's going to change your mind and how you think and how you can see your past.

It's it's something you have to work at every day, you know. So for me, I think that it's like going to the gym every day. I think it's like whether I don't really call it meditation, like for me it's just my my brain training about every morning and every evening, like when I open my eyes and then before I go to sleep, I close my eyes. I spend a good 10 or 15 minutes thinking positive thoughts, even if I'm not in a positive state of mind and I try to stress it rather be with the kids, the business I will force myself to, to take these positive, happy thoughts and just to remind myself, you know, actually what I do have in life and how lucky and blessed I am to have this.

And, you know, it's. You can't not feel more of peace and happy and positive when you think of the things you have in life. So I, I, I have days where I have to forcefully I make myself positive, but it always works out. And even I find if I write down, you know, a few positive things, it just you can't not feel happy and thankful and blessed and like people will say to you came, you're always so positive and happy.

And 90 I'm not, because often times when I sit down, I'm like, there might be tears trickling down to the paper. Or like I had to just take a Panadol or in your bed for a blinding headache from the stresses of everyday life. And I find when I sit down, whether I write them, you know, some positive affirmations or like what I'm thankful for or you don't have to write it to just like, think of them.

Yeah. You just can't put them feel a little bit better.

Was there a time in your life where you couldn't have dreamed for what you have now?

Oh, well, and there's a time in my life when it was really, really tough. And what actually kept me going was the dream of what I have. Like I, I always knew that my little dream come true. Does that make sense? So there was a time in my life when things were really tough and it was just me and and every day was like a day. So like I've gone through each day and I was like, I got to go through about it would be, you know.

You know, psychologically or mentally or financially, and those really tough days, are they tough? It was definitely a tough like two or three years. I had the only thing that kept me going tonight was that. Are going to get better. It's what kept me going even in the growth of your business. I mean, there you were with a young child who relied upon you and for for everything, for your love, for nurturing, for for finances.

And here you were, a young woman with a dream who wanted and a talent who was trying to choose to to embark on this business and fear and the overcoming that that can bring. Because, you know, it's so hard to put yourself out there with that dream and make it happen, make it a reality, especially when you are responsible for a tiny little human on top of that. So it's a remarkable belief in you to to go forth and just make that happen.

Well, it was at that stage when it was just myself and my first born Callum. I had no choice but to brush myself, I was like, OK, I, I, I need to find a way to make more money and I need to find a way to have more time with my Milica. So, you know, that's I had no choice but to go for it. So it was it was very much so I had a dream was like I would love to be my own boss.

And the financially independent disaster, but also I have to do it, I knew that if I stayed in the job I was in, which I loved by the way it was, and serving me financially and I wasn't serving in the US, I, I so I was I worked with just crazy. And I worked every Sunday and I worked every Saturday and late nights. I just felt like I never saw Kallum. I felt like I was just on this, like we were constantly working.

I didn't see Kallum and I wasn't making enough money to survive. So I was coming home from work and I finished a long day. I was working late. I was always the mommy that was lost the crash to pick up the job because I learned from work and I picked them up compress and I had a really long day. No one really torrential rain and. It was maybe a Wednesday or Thursday because I every week, by the way, I see the person, I didn't have the money to get home on the diet, so I worked in town and I lived by Blackwolf.

And so I remember was torrential rain and maybe it was a Thursday. Payday was Friday. And I didn't have the dark money. And it was one of the days of hard work and it was torrential rain. And I was walking home and I could have walked home just like feeling so sorry for myself because I had no money. I was so strong. Thankfully, Palam had been pulled over, so he was dry and it was a long walk with Stephanie while will take about like forty five minutes an hour.

And I remember I was at that stage that back to back home that I was like. That's it from this moment onwards. I am just going to find the find the power, they say the will to make this dream come true, because I can't keep living like this war enough for them. If I didn't have my little baby boy, I probably would still be in that same job, like having Kallum, you know, forced me to pursue my dreams, like I had a dream and, you know.

I often think and I often say to Kallum, Kallum, you're the reason why I really went hell for leather with pursuing my dream and you're the reason why I shoot myself because I have to make I had no reason, like, I just I had to. And it wasn't working. I was struggling, you know, and, um, yeah, I had that dream. I had I had a reason to pursue that dream. So, yeah.

So he's the reason why I have a business. I guess. I know I know countless women who are in that right now. Countless women who find themselves, whether the the the career path and the ladder they were climbing, no longer aligns with their priorities and motherhood. And it's not a lack of ambition and it's not a lack of having a dream and it's not a lack of wanting to pursue their talents. But the system just isn't there to support them.

And this year, I think going back to the positivity and the priorities and being home with our children more and having to find new routines of work and new ways of working, I think will hopefully open up our eyes to there is a way of doing this with balance. Yeah. Yeah, and as much it's been a struggle for many people working from home with kids is like it brings its challenges. Of course, it can be quite stressful because like you said, at the same time, there's there's ways around this, you know, and but, yeah, definitely it's it's forces to change how we live our life and how we navigate our family life, having kids and juggling a career.

But just going back to what you were saying at the start, you know that there's many people in that situation I was in where, you know, your job doesn't serve you anymore. But when when your family when you have a child, but a job that you once loved, just, you know, even if it's really well paid for me, I I didn't have enough money to survive. So that's why I have to move on, because, you know, when you have a child, you find sometimes the job just doesn't align with the life you want to live or just simply being able to see your child.

You know, that's you know, you find that. For me, anyways, is like you don't realize how strong you are. You have no other choice but to be strong. You know that having the child forces you out of your comfort zone. When I say comfort zone, I mean that job that you're contented and it's a secure job. You know, you've got to stay stable, monthly income and you're happy and you're good at your job.

What if it doesn't serve you anymore and, you know, you have to move on for whether it be financial reasons or, you know, that you need that time and that some. Yeah, that extra family time that you have to move on. For me, that was the case that I. I surprised myself at how strong and how brave I was because before I had talent, I just said to me, and you need to leave your job.

You've been in for 40 years and you need to go out on your own and not have any one not have like a stable income where I know that I can be 30 for the first week of every month, I get a paycheck. Like if you said to me, I'll leave that job. I think I was actually in the same job for 15 years and we never got a job so long. You're comfortable and secure. So before I had someone said that to me, you leave your job and, you know, the financial security to go out on your own with no road map, no business plan, I would have said no way, because that terrifies me.

Well, actually, when I had a moment, I had no choice but to do not think jumping off a cliff was for me. It was. And everyone said, you are crazy leaving your job to go to no job. And no, no, I have no business plan. I think I know I'm crazy, but I have no choice. I have to do what? What it's not working for me at the moment for so many reasons.

So I have to. And I did it and it was the scariest thing in the world. But when you have a dream, when you put into a bowl your dream and you know things like this risk essentially, and he makes it all up and you have a passion and a focus and a goal, I think it just has to work out, you know, because you're so driven, you know, and. You know that this can't fail, so I'm going to put every ounce of my energy, every ounce of my being into this goal I have and this dream I have, it has to work in my head.

It has to. And I say, that's funny when it comes to me and says, Kim, you know, I have this dream like I want to pursue this new career or I want to go out on my own. I want to start this new business. But I have two kids and I have a baby or I have a family who depends on me. And I say, just do it. Because if you are so passionate about this, you know it's going to work.

Whether you no business plan or you have a great five year business plan, whatever it may be, once you have that passion and that purpose, it would not work. And for me, I had you know, I knew I had a mouth to feed. So I worked day and night to make the fight, but I didn't stop working. And there were many days that came in to work with me in this little Mexico City car seats. And he'd just sit there while I did my science.

And it was so hard for the first time, actually, it happened. It kind of got busier and progress for me very quickly, which was truly just about for the first few months. Oh my goodness. I would say and nice and Paloma's there are things I couldn't say no to a single client, whether it was a client who wants to make the phone at six in the morning or like ten o'clock at night. I said yes to everybody in town came with me.

Now, I will say people say that this it's much charity worker, but he he was very, very concerned and very nervous and very he was fine. And yeah, it's funny how when you have no choice but to be strong and you have no choice but to do what you know you need to do to put food on the table or otherwise you just do it, don't you? Sometimes I think I think the thing about motherhood, it's so transformative.

Oh, my God, you discover strengths and aspects about yourself that you didn't really bring there.

Oh, my God. It's incredible. From the moment you actually gave birth in that moment to give birth, you do feel like superwoman. You're like, oh, my God. Like I have goose bumps even thinking about it. Like, it's incredible. I think in that moment you give birth to this perfect, incredible human being, that it's that it's that second that you realize, oh, my goodness, we are incredible and we can do anything.

You do feel like I can do anything life throws at me. And you know, that transcends into your journey as being a mother. That's you. You do just fine strengths and that you didn't know you had whether you whether it be, you know, at ten o'clock at night when you're sitting there with a glass of wine after your child had the biggest tantrum that you paint yourself, I thought and it was the most stressful day, but I got through, you know, that it's those little moments that you realize how powerful and strong you are right up to those moments when, like I was telling you that.

You realize you have to change your whole life, your whole career for this a human being, you know, that you can you can provide for them. But again, you find these strengths within you that you didn't even know you had. You know that I felt like I was saying before Palin was born, had you told me first I would leave my job and pursue this goal, this dream I had, I would have said no. But because I had come to look after.

But I find that strength and belief and the power to go first. So absolutely, when you become a mother, you become like superwoman on a daily basis. And just like in a whole new level, it is.

I mean, it's it's the biggest job you'll ever you'll ever take on. And I think and that transition can be very, very challenging to that transformation. Are you challenging? Because I feel like nothing. No. Well, nothing in this world can prepare you for having a child, like having a child. So when Alex was coming along, you were in a very different, different phase of your life, I suppose, and you were in a much more secure phase.

The business was there. It was thriving, and your confidence was there and it was thriving. How did you had not to compare? But I think as mothers, we often do as well. We look at that experience versus this experience. Yeah. How did you go and how did you experience that second time where you were about to become a mother? And it was an entirely different experience for so many reasons. Now it's a very different stage in my life.

You know, when I fell pregnant with Kallum, it wasn't plans. I was in the relationship. I knew I wasn't in a good place and I knew that the relationship wasn't going to last. So for me, it was very scary. Like I was just I was terrified because I didn't want to be single mommy and that this is anything wrong with being a single mom. I think, like, I did it for many years. And at the time I was like, this is what I planned.

I planned to meet this person and get married and live happily ever after. And I was pregnant and felt very alone and very scared, you know. And it was yeah, it was really not I won't say horrible time because, you know, when I'm very concerned, people listen to this and I'm saying it was a horrible time that they're perhaps trying to have a baby. They're probably thinking, well, if you're pregnant, you're going to have a baby.

You're so lucky. I, I, I obviously. I was excited to meet my baby, but I was very scared because I was alone, essentially, you know, I didn't have that dream that, you know, when you're young, we always think when you have a baby with your Prince Charming, it's amazing and so exciting. There was so scared for me when I was five MPs, very, very different and. When I was pregnant and when I say I was scared and I'm like very I won't say depressed, I don't know if I'm surprised, but it's very sad.

I cried a lot. But when he was born. Although I knew I was in with his dad. We broke up while I was pregnant, so I was like his daddy was always in his life. He just wasn't in my life. And he's an amazing father and it just didn't work out with us. We broke up when I was pregnant, but when I had. The tears didn't go away, and I was still very sad because I was alone, because I had Callum.

And he just he got me through that really horrible time. So, yeah, there were two very different pregnancies, very different births, obviously, because the birth with Alex and Simon was there by my side. And it was incredible. And and also as well, I was 10 years older with Alex. So although my pregnancy with Alex, I was in a very different and very beautiful, happy place with the relationship with welcoming this new baby into our family.

And I was older, so I struggled a bit more with it because my body felt so different. Now I feel fairly I don't go to the gym every day, but I stay healthy and like and like I like to go for like five years. But I definitely felt my body. It was almost 10 years old or so. I was more tired and the labor was harder. And they say that you're sick and it's always easier. But bear in mind, it's been 10 years since I had them.

So it was almost like having my first again. And so it was a hard labor, probably because maybe I was a bit older. And so, yeah, there were two entirely different pregnancies for those reasons that I explained or wouldn't change anything for the world because the first one was horrible and alone. I felt it made me the person I am today. My second pregnancy and birthing experience was was exactly how I would have imagined it, because I had this incredible woman by my side every step of the way and who I knew would be there, you know.

To not only be an amazing partner to me, but like the amazing daddy that he is, I know my first Callum his daddy experience, and he's very much we're actually really good friends. And he's he's a big part of Callum's life. Just at the time, it was, you know, when he go through a breakup, your heart broken. You're you're hurt. You're lonely. So Morschel that end with the pregnancy and the hormones and the uncertainty.

And it was yeah, it was just I was so sad all the time. And it's a fun stage that I found, you know, and these books on positive thinking and affirmations. Exactly. Because I was in such a dark side place that I knew I had to do something about this. And the only thing, I guess and I could see going to get me through it was just positive thinking. Even on days when I was so sad.

I'm like my face was sore from crying or my head was so upset by that I'd read these books and positive thinking and just I kind of latched on to that belief that you can think yourself out or you can think yourself happy even when you're really, really sad and lonely and hurt, etc.. And yeah, that's what kept me going.

I always think it's such a shame that we have to go through those low points and those those challenges and that pain to emerge. Different and better and stronger, and you know that I wish that we could just arrive there without having to go through that. But you can't. You can't. It's those moments, the form you. And when you're in them, you can't see how amazing you will be when you come out of us. Oh, absolutely.

As you know, it's the choice between the path of mind frame of I'm going to stay in this darkness or I'm going to try and help myself come out of this. And whether that's, as you said, through through your own discipline of focusing on positive or, you know, talking to a professional, getting counseling, talking to a friend, but not staying locked in us, because what you're feeling right now is not the end of the story.

It is only one chapter.

Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. And for me that I was very conscious, you know, although at that stage I was going through that really kind of sad, lonely face time with the baby. So he probably wouldn't remember if I was still very conscious and aware that I can't be like this for my baby. I can't be sad and crying, and he'll feed off these emotions, find me to be the happiest version of myself possible for this little tiny human that depends on me.

Know what? I kind of feel sorry for myself and and not really work hard at making myself better. It's going to revolve this beautiful little human that is depends entirely on me. So I was very much aware that I needed to kind of snap out of it, not just for me, but for so, you know, I wanted to have a happy, positive mommy. And this to this day has grown up with the mind frame that, you know, you have to you can't wake up and say one to day he does wake up and say, I'm going to have a great day to day mom, and I'm going to and I'm going to find like something really happy at the end of every day.

We always take, like the peak of our day. And he knows that there will be days that, you know, it was a bad day. You know, his friends didn't let him play with their, like, the bowl or something. But, you know, he'll still find the positives and every day and I think that's because he grew up with that, you know, mommy might have a bad day, but you find the positive. So it has rubbed off on.

And I often think, what did I not change that mentality when I was reading and sad? And had I not made the conscious decision to work really hard at being positive, but you would have seen sad, depressed mommy. And how how would that have affected him? You know, so it's amazing how he has flipped on him and he's a very positive kid. What do you think he is? Acrostic is such as he's the most positive. People have crappy day.

He'll snap himself out of it and find something to be grateful for, something to be positive about. And there you find yourself then on pregnancy number three, the twenty twenty that we had. And how much did you have to deep dive back into that mind frame during those phase? And I definitely did with. And I find Siminoff comments, this is kind of hard because I like you want to be so excited, you are so excited. I want to go into your Chekov's.

They're the best days ever and they want to go and see a little chapel. But I miss Havenstein. That's all I wanted to say about with me. And I think for men it's so different because they're obviously not carrying the baby. And some will even say those are the days where he forgot that we having a baby. So I felt like I have to be like going into my little hospital checkups as I go. I have to think, pause and think of the bigger picture.

You know, that's the end of the day. It's just a little sad. But you will get to see your soon. And and in the build up to my life, the actual labor I really struggled with hard to find the satellite into the very, very end, like on my right, on my birth or my labor even. Sorry, with Alex, it was a long road and I couldn't get the picture for medical reasons. I had an epidural on Kallum on that.

Labor was great and easy and straightforward. With that, every time I had a contraction, his heart rate would drop. So for that reason I couldn't get the glory. It's amazing. That's the general and the layperson I think I spoke to before I had seen you. It was just it was long and very painful. And the only thing that got me through it was like squeezing Simon's hand and just having someone there to say, it's OK, you've got to this.

So when I threw through the pregnancy frenzy, that's why I got into the hip first thing, because it's like. With code words, I knew that there's a possibility that Simon could be there to hold my hand, so I needed to find another place to get through this. And I probably have to do this later on my own. And if it's going to be like the Labour had for Alex. Oh, my goodness. I don't know how I can do it on my phone.

So I have to really go into a closet place to bounce and kind of do the the thing. It turns out in the end, Simon was there for the whole thing, so it was fine and I definitely had to. Yeah, I was I had to do something positive thinking with them with regard to the labour and my expectations on the labour and my fear of what if I'm there on my own for the flip side to this, that your partner's probably going to be around more when you get home and you're home from the hospital.

I know for some he's working from home. So, you know, if we didn't have if it was into your hands and he was kind of going about his his normal life and going to work, he wouldn't be in the house during the day. So that's been amazing for me that I've had that other human being interactive. And, you know, when you have a baby in normal circumstances is so AIDS, you know, your party goes off to work in the house on your own.

And that can be hard times when the do baby talk all day and go crazy, because I've seen and I've spoken to someone else. And so it's been great. And my point to do the same, been here, you know, every day to help me. It's been a year. And, you know, as challenging as the year has been from a business point of view and from a money point of view, that you're at home or with your kids, which which is amazing, what can be equally as stressful because, you know, you don't have the childminder or the crash that you once depended on.

So I spent that year working on the business behind the scenes that I normally wouldn't have a chance to because I'm normally in the business. I never really get a chance to work on the business because I'm so busy doing clients. So I've spent this year behind the scenes kind of building the business, which I'm so grateful for because I wouldn't have had the chance to do extra courses and working on a few other little bits, which I'm so excited about against inspirational.

So I spent the year wisely and of course I've had the year, you know, I've had this extra time of Palam. I'm Alex, who spent half of his life in lockdown. And so I've had this extra time with the kids as well, which has been amazing. So I'm very happy with my life. covid obviously has thrown a spanner in the works because I have always been positive and optimistic about, you know, what happens once we come to this.

Your positivity is infectious, as infectious, I think is covered.

And you've genuinely you're you're how you speak is is very influential. It's very motivating.

It's it lifts people out of the moment of of you where you find yourself drifting back into a negative space and just to reframe and to rethink.

And God, I mean, I've had some, you know, days where you just feel like I'm going to implode. You know, I'm I'm not coping. I can't do this. There's no positives left. It's too dark. It's too hard. And I think that a lot of people will have experienced that. And in the way that you described how you experience it when you were pregnant with Callum, there will there will always be times, sadly, that does interrupt a flow in our life.

Oh, absolutely. But out of that can come so much good if we channel that into taking care of ourselves, into taking care of how we think and and focusing on what actually are the priorities in our life and how can we be more positive about building those a hundred percent.

Yeah, to me you are your proof of that. And I hope that by sharing your story today, we can lift anybody else's feeling in a negative space or who has that dream, but is at the moment afraid to take that first step. But I suppose from listening to you, I just I wish everyone can just do us can just take those first steps towards building back. That suits who they want to be as a mother and in their career.

Yeah, and they absolutely can. So sometimes you got to someone watching this. Sometimes it can take a really bad moment in your life to force you to follow your dream, because it doesn't have to you don't have to wait till you're at breaking point like I was just just doing. And and just think of what can be what can come up with. Just think positive. Know don't think what if it doesn't work out or what if it goes wrong or vice versa.

I don't think of the. But what if as a negative think of the what ifs like what if it works and what if these amazing things happen that I want to happen. So for me, I was at breaking point to realize that I need to pursue what I need to follow my dream, which you don't have to be a breaking point. Just do if I do it today, it really can work.

We just all have to have the courage to to take those first steps and to do it. Thank you so much for joining me this morning. I really appreciate your time for having me.

Listen to me. Not at all.

Not at all. I've loved this conversation. I've loved this chat.

I hope it has a positive impact on everyone listening to me. And I let you go back to your tier three brothers. Thank you so much.

Thank you for helping me. I love the.

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If you enjoyed this conversation, subscribe regionally, review, share this episode across social and get in touch with this week's guest, Kim, at the Makeup Academy on Instagram. Talk to you again next week.