#awinewith Emma Morris
MEET Emma, Founder of Maia Mothers Collective.
You can find them here:
Transcript
Danielle Lewis (00:07):
Emma, welcome to Spark tv.
Emma Morris (00:10):
Thank you. I'm so excited to be here.
Danielle Lewis (00:12):
I am so excited to have you here. So thank you for taking the time. Let's start out by telling everyone who you are and what you do.
Emma Morris (00:22):
So my name's Emma. I on a personal level, I'm a wife. I'm a mom of two beautiful girls. I'm also a clinical nutritionist and I own the business called May and Mother's Collective, which is a women's focused clinic and we are in Brisbane and we focus on supporting the mother through fertility, pregnancy, and postpartum. So we are here to hold the mother. Wow. Business.
Danielle Lewis (00:50):
I love it. So how did you get into this business?
Emma Morris (00:55):
Well, I've done a bit of everything. So I guess personally I did psychology straight out of school. So I did a degree in psychology, thought I was going to be a psychologist, decided I love it, but I was just like, I need a break. So then worked in psych for a little bit, then did PT of all things because I've always been very health conscious. So then I was a PT for five years and then studied nutrition whilst doing that, but a real holistic version of nutrition. And then I decided, I worked private practice in nutrition, clinical nutrition. So seeing people one-on-one helping them with all the things. So it's so much more than just writing meal plans. It's like focusing on what are their hormones doing, what's their mental health, doing all of the things, how food is impacting that, how nutrients are impacting that, all of that.
(01:50):
A lot of gut stuff, a lot of supporting women in general. And then I had my first baby and the way in which I view the world completely turned upside down. I wanted nothing more than to support other mothers in the postpartum season because I just realized, wow, there is nothing here that really Australian culture is so far behind. We basically were supporting women in pregnancy and then you give birth to this baby, you go off on your merry way and you might have a six week check in after that. And apart from that, see you not a lot of support at all. So I was going through this myself and thinking, wow, there is a huge gap here. So I decided to open up my very own clinic and so we bring together a lot of modalities to support that mother. So we've got nutrition, obviously that's what I do.
(02:46):
We've got naturopathy, we use a lot of herbal medicine, we've got acupuncture, we've got massage, we've got lactation support. So we have an I-B-C-L-C. We also have psychologists, we have a myo therapist and we've just got a midwife as well. And so we do a lot of education, a lot of birth education obviously. And we also run mothers groups as well because a big part of this to me was that connection in motherhood so important and a lot of moms are feeling really isolated and really alone in their mothering. And the thing is that we're all going through the same thing but behind closed doors. So I wanted to kind of bring that out, really help moms connect, educate them a little bit around that postnatal journey as well. And I just absolutely love it. So that's me. I just had my second baby four months ago. I've just felt so held by my own community and my own team and it's just been, it's been pretty special. So that's a really fast version.
Danielle Lewis (03:51):
No, but I love it, I love it, I love it. And so impressive. So I'm really interested. So I'm not a mother, but we have so many moms in our Spark community and so I'm really interested on two levels. So firstly being someone who doesn't know what they dunno, but also I guess one of the things you said really just stood out to me and that was everyone's going through the same thing but behind closed doors and everyone's going through the same thing but doesn't know what support is available or isn't offered support. So what is a mom going through in that before, during, and after phase? What is going on in their lives that then we can get support for them on?
Emma Morris (04:39):
Yeah, so I think your view of this is really similar to moms. Exactly right. You dunno what you don't dunno. And when you go through it, I always describe it when you give birth, you're pregnant and pregnancy can be wild. For some women it can be like, what has just gone on? Why am I feeling sick all the time? What is my body doing? There's a human inside. And so it's a big journey physically and emotionally as well. You're kind of concocting in your brain like, oh my God, I'm going to be a mom. What's that going to be like? What's my baby going to look like? What temperament are they going to have? Are they going to be my features, my partner's features? Like what's going to happen? Then when I describe this to my clients and my community all the time, you literally, it's like when you give birth, no matter how you give birth, you enter in this portal and you're like, oh, I'm a mom now everything is just turned upside down.
(05:30):
You just think what has gone on? I'm now responsible for a human being and this human being doesn't come with a manual. Obviously everyone's different and some moms will take to it really naturally and feel beautiful and supported and instinctual and all of that. Other moms are just like, I have no idea what I'm doing here. So with that too, I like to bring the science into, because it's so important, and this is a topic that I love to talk about and will forever talk about, but it's this thing called trence. So it's this, essentially it's the becoming of a mother on all aspects. So there's a physical obviously, but then there's a brain thing that happens. So our brains literally decrease in size. The gray matter decreases whilst we are pregnant and in the postpartum season. And then everything gets rewired. So rejigged and then it goes back to its size, its normal size post-birth at around six months.
(06:32):
So during that time, biologically our bodies and our brains as women and our nervous systems and everything about us changes. Holy shit, I did not know this. This is what we don't understand as a community or a culture even. It's like just our whole Australian culture is like, oh yeah, you have a baby, you spit that baby out and then you just go in the merry way and everything's fine. It's like, hang on a second. No, women are completely transformed and for a lot of women, they will never be the same again. In a good way. They're not going back to their selves, they, they're going forward, they're going to the new version of themselves. And there's a lot of self-identity stuff that comes up around that. Who am I, especially with working women. So many of us now work and we really build careers.
(07:23):
The average age of a first time mom now is I think 30.8 years. So nearly 31, very different to the generation before us. So we have established careers now we have all the things, we've got the house, we've got all the things happening. So therefore we become a mom. We have to slow right down. We have to learn about breastfeeding, we have to learn about our baby. What does our babies' cues mean? Why are they crying? Why are they colicky? All these things and bonding to our babies. And that is a different pace to our fast-paced world as women in business and women with careers and jobs that a lot of that we would've resonated with before. So when we look at moms, the biggest thing I believe is just that emotional change. It's called trece. It is like adolescence. However, it is the becoming of a mother, and that is what a lot of people don't understand.
(08:19):
So in terms of support, we come from all angles, but it's psychological support, it's community, it's sharing stories, it's going, oh, actually that happened to me too. Oh, actually I've only had three hours sleep too. Hey, it's as a nutritionist, we focus on, okay, what nutrients do you need? What are you completely depleted in now? What's going to affect your mood and your energy and your mental health? What's your thyroid doing? What's your levels of zinc? Doing all of that affects your mood. Then we look at other things. We look at body work, we look at all of those things. And so that is how we support the mother by coming together. And every mother will need something different. So it's like, do you need nutritional help? Do you need some herbs to help your nervous system? Do you need talk therapy? Do you need some really good body work, some massage and some myotherapy done? Do you need lactation support? We've got an online membership as well. Do you need some support from afar where you can ask health practitioners these questions as they come up? All of that. So that's what we're trying to create here. We're trying to create this hub, this support for women. And in our physical clinic we've created it so that when you walk in, it's like we've got aromatherapy, we've got beautiful music, we've got the energy of it is very deliberate. So it's like that mother can come in and be like, oh, I can take,
Danielle Lewis (09:45):
I'm like, I want to go there and I don't have it. He gets, can I just come and hang out in your room?
Emma Morris (09:52):
Actually, we see women in general, we see women across the last stand button. So that's the purpose, that's our purpose to these mothers as they go through trence and to build awareness. What is mires essence? It's huge and it happens every time you have a baby.
Danielle Lewis (10:09):
It's just blowing my mind like, when did this come up in science or sex ed? Never.
Emma Morris (10:16):
It doesn't, right? This is huge. It, I liken it to also, I see a lot of fertility clients. We work with a lot of fertility and IVF and all of that, and a lot of women don't even know how, what their cycle's doing. When do I have sex to become pregnant? When am I ovulating? And it's just stuff that we weren't taught in school, and I'm teaching women in their thirties, this is when you're ovulating, this is when you need to do the deed. This is what this means when your body's doing this. So I really think it knocks on from that, right? We weren't taught this stuff. Yeah, it's really important. The education piece is huge, and I truly believe that knowledge is power. So it's that empowerment piece of educating and that's why we weave that in through everything we do. We weave it in through the mothers groups, weave it in through all of our online stuff that we do and everything. So it's important.
Danielle Lewis (11:12):
Oh my god, it's so important. And I love what you said as well about your identity and how that changes going into motherhood. I'm super interested because I know I've worked with a lot of business owners who've had identity crisis with their businesses once they've become a mother, and there's been some people who have gone through the guilt of wanting to go back to their business, going through the guilt of, I don't want to be a business owner anymore, or I'm totally uninterested in this topic for some reason all of a sudden. I'm super keen to understand what your experience was like having the business and becoming a mom and whether you've seen it in other people as well.
Emma Morris (11:53):
Yes. So I'll answer that backwards. So yes, I see it in other people all the time, and it's actually an area this year that I'm going to be delving into a lot more with moms, working super holistically with them on mindset, helping them find their purpose a bit more, and then looking at that physical side too. Okay, what is feeding in here from a physical aspect? Are your hormones all over the place? Do we need to look at your nutrients, how you're eating and all of that kind of thing. But really, I see it all the time. I see it with our mothers groups. We've run, I think we're up to our 13th mothers group and we have on 15 women per group, so I can't do the maths, but that's a lot of women, a lot of moms, and so
Danielle Lewis (12:33):
I can't do it either.
Emma Morris (12:35):
Like focus groups, we see women are telling their stories every day, and the theme is, oh my God, I was this person and now I dunno who I am. I'm not interested. I want to be on mat leave forever. I just am so in love with my baby, or sometimes the opposite. This is so unfamiliar to me, I don't want to go back to work. So it's very, very, you probably hear my toddler screaming in the background. But yeah, so it, it's a lot. And personally I guess I went from being, I guess working in a clinic and working in a team. I had my baby, and back then my life was a lot more simple, but I just had this inner knowing coming out of the birth of my firstborn, I was like, no, I need to be in this space. Oh my god, so sorry. I need to be in this space and I need to be helping other women. I just had this pull. So for me, it's been an interesting time. It's been full on,
Danielle Lewis (13:37):
I can imagine,
Emma Morris (13:39):
And it has been, but at the same time I'm so passionate about it. So it's like it is not a juggling act or it is in a way, but it's just like I bring the two together, I bring business and motherhood together, and it's like I really kind of feel in, I try and have a rule of when I'm mothering, I'm mothering. When I'm doing business, I'm doing business. And that's not always really straightforward, but it is a rule of thumb that I try and live by, because otherwise it's really, really hard to spread yourself so thin. Yeah,
Danielle Lewis (14:13):
Yeah. And I feel like one common theme I see with moms in business is needing to be flexible. I think that, I mean, I say this even as a non mother coming into business from corporate, I was always like, I just had this weird thing that during the hours of nine to five, I must be sitting at a desk. And then I've slowly, it's taken me a decade now. I just worked 24 hours, but I've learned to be more flexible around, I want to go to the gym at this time, or I want to hang out with my husband at this time, or I want to do whatever. And that flexibility is something that I actually see mothers embrace a lot more, but probably because they have to.
Emma Morris (14:59):
Oh, absolutely. And so it's not, absolutely not like, right, I'm going to work from nine till five today, and that's it. It's like you find the pockets and when you are, as you know, and a lot of people listening to this podcast know, running your own business, there really is, well, I was going to say, there's no off time. I mean, you have to put boundaries in place. So it's learning boundaries and it's learning that I think as a mother as well, for me, boundaries are so important and making sure that I honor those boundaries because I've learned in the past when I haven't done that, I burn out. I'm not a great mom, I'm not a great wife, I'm not a great just person in general, when you get super exhausted. So for self-preservation reasons, you've got to put those boundaries but also lean into your flow as well, which I think everyone's got a bit of a different flow.
(15:53):
So I just keep diving deep into my own self-development and being like, well, what do I feel lit up doing? And when am I most comfortable working? And so for example, some days if I need to, I'll be working at night, but I don't like doing that because I'm usually pretty tired and I'm not, unless I'm working to a deadline or I'm preparing a presentation or something, it's the next day I won't do that because I know personally that doesn't work for me. So it's finding the pockets of time. I think support is so, so important. I couldn't do this without a good support system. So I think relying and actually being open to receiving I think is really important. Actually being like, yes, I can do with some help. I'm lucky in a sense that my husband also owns his own business. He is a gym owner, so I guess we are both flexible in terms of we set our own rules and our own hours and all of that kind of thing. And we really take care of the children a lot more evenly split probably compared to a lot of other households. So he has days where it's his day with the girls and I have my work day, and then we'll swap. And also we have got daycare and all that kind of thing, but you just make it work. And yeah, just have a good think about your boundaries and what lights you up and how you work, and then I think you figure out your way of doing things that's the best for you.
Danielle Lewis (17:24):
No, I love that. That's really, yeah, it's so important. And so I'm going around in my head too, around even the identity of oneself. I just see so many similarities with motherhood and business ownership and how you can get so consumed and lost and overwhelmed. What you said about not accepting support or not asking for support, all of those, it's like motherhood plus business ownership. It's like, holy shit, you've just doubled, doubled everything that's so full on. Do you find space for you in all of that? Is there ever a time where you feel like business needs to be on hold? Mom needs to be on hold? I actually just need to be me for a second.
Emma Morris (18:11):
Yeah, definitely. I think I go through seasons of it as well. For me personally, being pregnant and then birthing has both times opened up this portal of creativity. So I just find it this feminine, beautiful, flowy creativity. And as someone who spends a lot of time in her masculine energy of like do run the business, do the thing, I get a lot of ideas dropping in. And so I am using that to my advantage. I'm four months postpartum at the moment, as I mentioned, and the ideas are flowing, and I also feel really in alignment. So when I feel super in alignment with my energy, I find that my work lights me up. And whilst, and there's a lot of people that would probably resonate with this, if it's something like if you're living out your purpose in whatever way that is, I truly think that it's a lot easier and doors open and it flows really, really, really well.
(19:12):
When you are misaligned and you are not living your purpose and everything's really hard and you're feeling resentful and disappointed and you just feel like you're stuck in mud. And don't get me wrong, business has been up and down. There's the good times and the bad times, but I just think at the moment I'm really feeling beautifully aligned and that really lights up and gives me the energy. So at the moment, I do still, I have my time for me, I've got a clinic full of beautiful women and I go to acupuncture and I have my massage and that kind of thing. But I find the little moments really important, and this is what I talk to moms about all the time as well. It's not about putting everything on hold because realistically, you can't be like, I'm just not a mom today and I'm just not a business owner today.
(20:05):
You are always going to be that person. So what can you do in the little pockets of time in the season that you're in? So for busy moms, it's like, and I do this. It's like what really gets you out of your head into your body and allows that energy to really, really shake up If you're feeling a bit down or a bit tired or whatever, it's like get out in the sun, go and put your feet on the grass that the kids run around, have your coffee outside, take some deep breaths, listen to your favorite music, actually get moving, go for a walk. Or I've been, again, I've been prioritizing moving my body really, really important. Nothing crazy, but just getting to the gym or just getting out and just moving with no intention of aesthetically changing much. It's more about my mental health and my energy.
(20:51):
And I find those things, again, everyone's going to have their own things, but it's finding the pockets of time that are really important that fill your cup up. For me, obviously I'm a nutritionist, so really important for me to be eating really well balanced meals, for example, that I know just give my blood sugar this beautiful flow across the day. And so I'm not up and down, up and down. I'm not surviving off coffee all day. Of course I have coffee, but I'm beautifully balancing my meals with protein and enough carbs and fats and all that kind of thing. I'm supplementing with the things. I know what my bloods are doing. I'm making sure I've got those nutrients coming in still. So yeah, it's a bit of everything, but I guess I know some of the things that I need to set myself up and yeah, it's been working really well so far.
Danielle Lewis (21:37):
I mean, I love it. I'm looking at you going, can I please bottle up some of your energy?
Emma Morris (21:43):
I get that all the time. How do you do it? How do you have so much energy? And I truly feel it's really, obviously I do the things right, but I think it's an energetic alignment. I am living at my purpose and I truly believe that. And yeah, it's just the best thing ever. I love, love it.
Danielle Lewis (22:05):
When you discovered your purpose, I feel like it sounds like you had this moment of clarity after the birth of your first child, obviously you were in clinic and then you moved to, you had this moment of clarity and then started the business. What was that process like? Were you just like, no, I've got it, this is amazing, or was it scary because you Oh my God, yeah. Tell me, don't we,
Emma Morris (22:32):
A bit of a story with this, but as I said, with the birthing, there's a lot of creativity and I find I'm really just like there's these ideas and I call them downloads, but they literally just come and I'm just like, whoa. And so I just feel super intuitive at that time, and I still do. So I was just, just going about my postpartum around that four or five month mark with my firstborn, and I'm thinking, I don't know what I'm going to do with going back to work in my clinical practice. I don't know when that will be. And I said to my boss at the time, I don't know when that's going to be. Could be six months, could be 12 months, could be three months. I don't know. I'm just going to be really open. I know motherhood will probably change me.
(23:13):
And then I had this idea and I was like, as soon as I had the idea, I was like, I have to do it. I just couldn't. I could not stop thinking about it. And it just kept coming up and I slept on it for weeks, and I was like, Emma, think about this. This is huge. You're so early postpartum still. Do you really want to open a business? Yes, it was full on at the time I had the idea. I started with, I had the name, I had everything. And then a friend also jumped in at the opportunity as well. Her name was Monique and who is Monique. And she then jumped in as well. She was going through motherhood too. So we banded together, we opened the clinic and we were both really passionate. Mom's actually stepped back and she's in motherhood at the moment as well.
(23:57):
She's just had her second baby. And she's just decided, actually, this season right now, I need to be with my babies. Whereas, and that's more aligned to her energy at the moment, and that's only happened in the last few months. And I've gone, oh my God, I want to step up and do this. This is honestly, nothing more has lightened me up at the moment. So yeah, it was big. It was scary. I think when you open a business, you take a risk and you have to have that leap of faith because you can't see the future unless you're incredibly psychic and you don't know what's going to happen. And we put a lot of our life savings into both our businesses because we backed ourselves and thought, well, no, this is how we're going to go. I also have come from that background of the years before I did this.
(24:49):
I've been a sole trader for a long time, so I guess I've run my own business in that way. I've always been reliant on my own self to be financially stable. I've had salary jobs and I've been paid obviously, but for me and my personality and how I want to do life, I don't fit that mold. And so a lot of women who open businesses are like that. It's like you either do or you don't. And so for me, I couldn't think of anything worse, to be honest, which is why I'm my own boss and I've got that freedom and that creative freedom as well. But yeah, it was scary. It was big. There's been lots of beautiful big moments, and there's been some really hard low moments, especially when I was pregnant with Ruby, who is my four month old going through that pregnancy, I was really sick with hg.
(25:37):
I was vomiting all the time. It was a lot. And so navigating all of that, it's been wild, but it's just like I've landed here and I'm like, oh my God, if I can get through that, I can get through anything. If I can get through that and go through all the things. And we're only two and a half years old as a business, so we're still very young, but I'm just like, our purpose and what drives me and the fact that I've found this, it just keeps me going. And there's a greater good, there's a greater, there's a reason why I'm doing this and because I really do feel like there needs to be a shift. We need to be shifting this paradigm around mothers and we need to be supporting and holding mothers, and it starts with us. So yeah, that's what I'm here to do.
Danielle Lewis (26:29):
I love it. And it's really interesting. One thing that came to mind when you were just talking was around, I believe mothers make the best business owners. It's just, oh my God, it just blows my mind. But I love that you just said we need that paradigm shift as well, because I know not every mother's destined to be a business owner. Obviously we often have that lens here at Spark, but we do. We absolutely do because whatever their choices are, whether it be whether to be a mother, whether it be a mother and a corporate career, a mother and a business, whatever their choices are, they're doing something incredible. And oftentimes, to your point at the start, without the knowledge and support that they actually need, and they're literally carrying the planet forward, and we are not supporting them enough.
Emma Morris (27:18):
And also mothers make good business owners and just workers in general because they value of time and they're like, if I've got three hours to get this shit done, I'm going to get it done. It's like you just are just so intentional with your time. And I think that's the other thing that's changed when people go, how do you do it? Blah, blah, blah. I'm like, I've just got my systems and my processes that I know work for my brain and my time. Like I was telling you before we got on, I put everything down and I'm a big list maker and all that kind of thing. So things don't escape me. And obviously I'm supported by a really beautiful team as well who keep me grounded. And my receptionist is beautiful as well, and she's constantly reminding me of things and scheduling me. So it is a bit of everything. But yeah, a mother is a badass with her time and she will get that shit done.
Danielle Lewis (28:11):
Oh my God. Incredible. Okay, we could talk all day, but let's leave our Spark community with one last piece of wisdom. So reflecting on your time in business over the last two and a half years, what would be one piece of advice that you'd give to another woman in business, whether a mom or not, to help her on her journey?
Emma Morris (28:34):
I would just say the first thing that came to mind when I read this question is back yourself.
(28:42):
But if you truly believe in what you are doing in terms of whatever it is, however you are making a difference in this world, whatever lights you up back yourself, because too many women don't believe in their power. And I think we are such powerful beings. We are so powerful as women, and we need to realize that, and we need to truly back ourselves. So if there is one piece of advice, it is go and do the thing. Believe in yourself. Because if you do that, then the thing is you're going to put that energy out there to the world and then it'll come right back to you. So truly believe it. If you are feeling in your gut that you need to change something or you need to go and open that business, or you need to do X, Y, Z, do it because there are too many women who are misaligned and they're not doing what they want to do. And so go and do the thing back yourself. And yeah, it'll be an up and down journey, but that's part of the process and that is the beauty of the journey.
Danielle Lewis (29:49):
Emma, you are absolutely amazing. Thank you so much for sharing your time and your energy with the Spark community. I could feel it through the laptop and I'm so grateful, so I appreciate you.
Emma Morris (30:02):
No worries. Thank you so much for having me.
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