I interviewed Nia Thomas a couple of months ago, and since then she celebrated the first anniversary of her Crystoil Company Llio.  Featured in Tatler, Stylist magazine and many Vogues across the world, Llio is the result of a work of passion and love. Its founder Nia, has also been the head of her own PR company for over a decade, but as a workaholic, she also studied aroma therapies.  Growing up with a mother who had her own little beauty room, surrounded by candles, and bath salts, Nia always had an interest in self-care.  You’d think that creating a side business while having a busy and sucessfull company already would be overwhelming, but actually, Nia’s advice is to have a steady job while launching a new business.  In this episode Nia talks about what it takes to create a beauty product step by step, the story behind Llio and she shares with us how she used Covid 19’s restrictions in her advantage. FOLLOW NIA: https://www.instagram.com/llio.love/ FOLLOW ME: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/way_of_living_podcast/ Twitter: @WayOfLivingPod1 Music: Fredji - Happy Life

When Katie Cope started her business in April 2019 she didn’t think she was going to celebrate the first year anniversary in lockdown due to Covid 19!  Having to juggle work and her 2 children, she had to rethink her whole organisation and be transparent with her clients about what she could and couldn’t do due to the circumstances. Thankfully, Katie wasn’t the only one in the situation and people were understanding. In this episode Katie talks about how she started Brand By Katie, how she dealt with childcare during lockdown, her burnout and how she got the support she needed.  Contents: 1.26: Introduction 3.30: Background in marketing 7.00: How Katie started the business in 1 week 8.30: pitch yourself 10.13: juggling motherhood and work during lockdown 12.00: Transparency with clients 14.00: Stand out and know your brand 15.40: Avoid a burnout and switch off 18.03: Be part of a community 21.53: Katie’s view on success FOLLOW KATIE: https://www.instagram.com/brandbykatie/ FOLLOW ME: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/way_of_living_podcast/ Twitter: @WayOfLivingPod1 Music: Fredji - Happy Life

Let’s talk art and craft for the last episode of the CORONABUSINESS series. Of course you can go back and check episode 26,27,28,29, and 30 to hear other businesses women dared to create during the crazy 2020 pandemic! During lockdown, some of us started taking new hobbies, learning new skills and had to stay sane while staying home. Throughout the years Claudette Anderson changed careers a few times and at the beginning of 2020, she decided it was time to readjust her career path - again! Unfortunately Covid 19 wasn’t in her plan and she was forced to put those changes on hold. Stuck at home with 2 small children, Claudette, who needs to work at least for her mental health, started a hobby that she used to put at the bottom of her to-do list. Punch needling was not supposed to be a new professional skill, but after offering a few of her embroidery arts and the pictures on her instagram, people wanted to buy them from her. In this episode, Claudette tells us how Drop Down Thread came to life, her lockdown experience and how she created a small business on social media. FOLLOW CLAUDETTE: https://www.instagram.com/dropdownthread/ FOLLOW ME: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/way_of_living_podcast/ Twitter: @WayOfLivingPod1 Music: Fredji - Happy Life

Happy accidents do happen. Selbi Sasioglu started an educative Instagram a couple of years ago where she built a decent community. When she shared her new hobby of creating wooden figurines, her followers started asking if she could sell them. As a teacher, she didn’t have much time to dedicate to this potential business, so when she had to isolate during lockdown, her and her fiancé moved to his grand-father’s and they enjoy this time off to see if their creation would sell. Little did they know, they were going to sell out very fast and that “Growing Through Play” was going to become a business without them expecting it. In this episode, Selbi shares how she already had to deal with copycats, she talks about CE certification, a must have when dealing with children toys, and how the pandemic actually took the pressure off. FOLLOW SELBI: https://www.instagram.com/growingthroughplay/  FOLLOW ME: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/way_of_living_podcast/ Twitter: @WayOfLivingPod1 Music: Fredji - Happy Life

*CORONABUSINESS* Launching a business with 3 children under the age of 5 stuck at home AND during a global pandemic that freaked the whole wide world all at once? It takes a hell of a woman to pull this off and her name is Dominique Woolf. She started The Woolf’s Kitchen, which is the name of the brand for her tasty sauces, back in December 2019 but had her official launch planned in the middle of lockdown. When the country started to re-open slowly back in June, Dominique took the plunge and was open for business. She now sells her sauces in shops all across the UK.  In this new episode Dominique talks about how the pandemic pushed her launched date to 2 months but didn’t stop her, the work behind branding, and the influences around The Woolf’s Kitchen sauces.  FOLLOW DOMINIQUE: https://www.instagram.com/thewoolfskitchen/  FOLLOW ME: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/way_of_living_podcast/ Twitter: @WayOfLivingPod1 Music: Fredji - Happy Life

*CORONABUSINESS* Often, the reason why people decide to change careers is because of drastic event. Julie Creffield was made redundant 4 times in the first decade she worked. She’s had enough after the 4th time especially because she found out she was pregnant with her daughter.  She turned her blog that she already had on side, into a company, she trained as a business mentor and she became her own boss while juggling solo parenting! In this new episode Julie talks about how Covid 19 made her rethink her whole plan for 2020 when she expected it to be her best year yet, she talks about how she got started as a community engagement strategist and business mentor and she finally shares with us how she doubled her income during the pandemic. FOLLOW JULIE: www.juliecreffield.com https://juliecreffield.com/nail-your-niche/ https://www.instagram.com/julie_creffield/  FOLLOW ME: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/way_of_living_podcast/ Twitter: @WayOfLivingPod1 Music: Fredji - Happy Life

*CORONABUSINESS SERIES* Do you think launching a business during the Covid 19’s pandemic is either crazy or impossible or even both? Well, I found a few courageous women who did just that and Carly Latterman is one of them!  After spending 10 years in a company she loved but not using her degree in textiles - Specialised in knitting actually - and being pregnant with her first child, Carly resigned before her maternity leave was even finished.  What she didn’t plan, was that the whole world was going to shut down because of coronavirus!  In this episode we talk about plants! we had to refocus on the subject. We also talk about how she used the lockdown as an advantage  to create and how Knttd is doing after 2 months.  Contents: 1.31: Who is Carly and what is Knttd? 2.32: Launching during the pandemic 2.30: Not coming back from maternity leave 4.30: Searching for flexibly and creativity 6.00: Hearing about cover 19 7.15: Coming up with the business idea 8.36: Is there a market for this? 9.15: opening for business 10.00: Finding the right way for me 11.45: Easy and social media 12.12: Online/Virtual markets 14.12: Biggest difficulties: creating online content 17.09: Carly’s view on success. FOLLOW CARLY: https://www.instagram.com/knttd_london/ https://linktr.ee/Knttd  FOLLOW ME: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/way_of_living_podcast/ Twitter: @WayOfLivingPod1 Music: Fredji - Happy Life

Growing up on a blueberry farm Jessica Hammer was no stranger to what it takes to own a small business. After graduating, she travelled to Paris where she fell in love with wine and cheese…how typical right?  She went back home and started in a job that involved her two new interests but without really knowing what was next for her.  Jessica followed her husband who had an opportunity to work as a dance teacher in Toulouse and it is where she finally found herself and started Taste of Toulouse, a food market guiding experience for English-speaking tourists.  In this episode Jessica talks about her introvert personality and how it works for her as a guide, she shares with us how she saw a gap in the market and created an opportunity to then grab it before it was too late and how, as a foreigner who barely new French, she became a business owner. Content:  1.40 : What is Taste Of Toulouse exactly? 2.18 : Growing up on the family blueberry farm. 2.50 : Moving to the big city working in marketing. 4.06: First travel to France 6.47 : From Chicago to Toulouse. The big move. 8.40 : Figuring out what’s next. 9.48 : Start Taste Of Toulouse. 10.45: Paperworks when you don’t know the local language. 17.37 : Networking 20.07: Talking to strangers on daily basis as an introvert. It works. 23.00: Difficulties 27.57: The impact of Covid 19 33.00: Jessica’s definition of success  FOLLOW JESSICA: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tasteoftoulouse/ Web: https://www.tasteoftoulouse.com FOLLOW ME: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/way_of_living_podcast/ Twitter: @WayOfLivingPod1 Music: Fredji - Happy Life

Do we really need a degree to be successful and build our own business? Even though we hear so many stories that show us that the answer is no, there is still this stigma for people who don’t want to continue studying, and there is still this praise for graduates. Tess Cooper felt out of place in a job where she was surrounded by people who went to Oxford or Cambridge University. Especially when the director at the time kept telling her she wouldn’t go anywhere without a degree. She started doubting herself and it took a lot of work for her to gain the confidence she once had. In this episode she talks about why she created Collaborative Future, her work experiences, and how she built confidence to know her worth. Contents: 1.44 : How Collaborative Future started 5.22 : First job in the family’s printing company 9.54 : technology to HR 12.05 : “You won’t get anywhere without a degree” 14.07 : experience with a coach 19.09 : Starting on my own 23.00 : roles around individuals 31.55: Network. talk to people 32.47 : Tess’ definition of success FOLLOW TESS: https://www.instagram.com/collab_future/ https://www.collaborativefuture.co.uk FOLLOW ME: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/way_of_living_podcast/ Twitter: @WayOfLivingPod1 Music: Fredji - Happy Life