#awinewith Rebekah Pozzoli: why your business needs more than a verbal agreement
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Rebekah Pozzoli started Intuitive Mummas after a mothers group outing left her bawling on a beach with a runaway toddler and a premmie baby, vowing no mum should ever feel that alone. Four years on, her 8-week facilitator-led mothers groups help Brisbane mums build real friendships and their own village of local experts. In this episode she shares how the business grew from flyers on IGA noticeboards, the verbal agreement that nearly cost her everything, and why you don't need it all figured out to start.
The mothers group born from a breakdown at the beach
After an amazing mothers group experience in Airlie Beach, Bek moved to Brisbane and found nothing like it. Free Facebook meet-ups meant never seeing the same mum twice, and one outing ended with her trying to breastfeed while her toddler ran off, strangers retrieving him, and Bek in tears. "I was like, this is ridiculous. I never want a mum to feel like this again." That moment became Intuitive Mummas: an 8-week program where mums meet weekly for guided motherhood discussions that go well beyond surface level, because "it's about building friendships and connections through vulnerability".
More than a catch-up: building every mum's village
Each session is half connection, half education, with local guest speakers like chiropractors, physios, baby massage and baby sign language experts. The local part is deliberate. "It's about building their village. When they need something, they know who to call." The proof it works: mums from her groups now celebrate first birthdays together, and past members tell her the program changed their lives. Growth has been beautifully old school too: flyers at childcare centres and IGA noticeboards, word of mouth, and a bit of Meta advertising, all while Bek juggles the business alongside part-time work, a psychology degree and two young boys.
The handshake deal that nearly cost her the business
Bek's biggest challenge came from a verbal agreement made in survival mode, handing half the business to someone she trusted while she built the online side. When it came time to formalise it, everything fell apart, and she temporarily lost her website, her Meta accounts and weeks of her life. Lawyers eventually confirmed she owned all the intellectual property, but the lesson was expensive. "My advice out there is, don't do verbal agreements. Make sure that it's backed up." And the practical one every business owner needs: "Be careful who you give administrative access to your systems, because they're not as simple as getting back sometimes."
Why she kept going when it all fell apart
The fallout hit Bek's mental health hard, and what pulled her through was the mission. "This was my vision, this was mine, and I still have that vision. I care deeply about every single one of those mums." That resilience runs deep: she's written a memoir, she's studying psychology to eventually support mothers through the childhood patterns that motherhood surfaces ("your children are your mirrors"), and her long-term vision is supporting mums from pre-pregnancy all the way to 18. As she puts it: "You have to believe in you, otherwise no one else will."
Bek's one piece of advice for women in business
"Just start. You figure it out on the way. I'm still figuring it out, I don't have it all together. Just start, because if you don't start, you can't build. I'm constantly refining, constantly getting feedback, constantly improving my systems, but you just gotta start. You gotta put yourself out there."
Meet Bek, Founder of Intuitive Mummas
Rebekah (Bek) Pozzoli is the Founder of Intuitive Mummas, an 8-week facilitator-led mothers group program helping mums feel safe, seen and genuinely supported through early motherhood, with in-person groups in the Brisbane region and online groups on the way. A mum of two juggling business, part-time work and a psychology degree, Bek built Intuitive Mummas on a simple belief: every mum deserves a village.
You can find her here:
Full transcript
Danielle: So good! Bek, welcome to Spark TV!
Bek: I love it!
Danielle: Thank you. I'm so excited to have you here. I feel like we've already had a podcast before we even hit record, though. Oh my god, so good. Look, let's start out by telling everyone who you are and what you do, and then we will dive into all the goodies.
Bek: Wonderful. I'm Bek, and I'm the owner of Intuitive Mummas, and we are an 8-week mothers group business that brings in experts, like chiropractors, physios, baby sign language, we do baby massage. Each week is different. We have an 8-week program that the mums come to, and it's to support them on their postpartum journey.
Danielle: Wow, I love this. How did you get into this?
Bek: So it started from a gap in the market, really. So I was up at Airlie Beach. I already had my first son, Harris, and I had a mothers group up there, and it was amazing. Like, absolutely loved it. It was the best community. It just really made motherhood amazing, just knowing that you weren't in the trenches by yourself, that this is normal. And so we ended up moving from Airlie Beach to Brisbane, and because I didn't birth here, and there were no other services around, I was trying to look for a mothers group, and I couldn't. So I joined all the free Facebook groups at the time, like Mums of Brisbane, whatever it was that had events, and I went to a couple. And I found that I never saw the same mum twice. Or there was this really bad experience where I rocked up, I was juggling the two, we were at the park for 5 minutes, and then they decided to go to the beach, and I was trying to breastfeed with my little toddler. He's run off, I'm trying to breastfeed, and I also had a prem, and prems don't go on beaches. So I literally ended up just sitting there and bawling my eyes out, and my toddler's run off, and strangers went and got him. So I was like, this is ridiculous. I never want a mum to feel like this again. I want mums to build those friendships, and that was kind of the whole point of my business, yeah.
Bek: I love this.
Danielle: That makes me so happy.
Bek: It makes me happy, like, seeing mums go and do the first birthdays together, and meet outside the groups, because that's what I made it for. And then when you've got the mums giving you feedback, saying, you know, this really changed my life, it really gives you feel-good feels, and it's exactly why I do it.
Danielle: Oh, this is so good. So, obviously, it's for mums. If I was a mum coming into your program, what exactly does it entail? What would I get out of it?
Bek: Yep, so half of the group is meeting and mingling. It's guided motherhood discussions. I'm actually improving it every time, so I'm in the process of building these motherhood conversation cards, so it's more guided. Really, it goes deep, so it's not surface level, like, oh, I didn't sleep last night. It's like, you know, how are you and your partner going with intercourse and sex? Is it painful for you? Like, actually delve deep into...
Danielle: Actual shit that's going on.
Bek: Actual stuff that's going on, you know? Like, eventually I want to get into your childhood traumas and stuff like that, but you obviously just met these people on week one, so you want to start small, but eventually, yeah, I want to get into the nitty gritty. So that you build friendships and connections through vulnerability, and that's what it's about. It's about being vulnerable, it's about opening yourself up, and letting people get to know you. Oh, sorry, I was gonna say, so half of it is that, they have a morning tea, and then the other half is a guest speaker. So it's all about postpartum care, and they come and speak to the mums, and give them tips and help. And it's also, like, we pick local chiropractors and practitioners that are local to them, because it's about building their village. When they need something, they know who to call. Or if a friend says, I need this, oh, I know exactly the best person, I met them at this mothers group, you know? It's to build their village.
Danielle: Yeah, and it's just so important. I think that, you know, obviously motherhood is huge, but I just feel like, as women, we need to find these people in our lives. Whether it's motherhood, whether it's business, whether it's a career, you need to find these groups of other women that are going through the same thing as you. There is just nothing like people who get it. People who are on the journey with you.
Bek: Definitely, yeah, that's exactly what it is.
Danielle: Oh, I love this so much. So, I'm always fascinated by how people actually grow their businesses. How, to date, have you actually gone out and found mums to come into your mothers group?
Bek: Well, it started very organically at first. You know, dabbling in some Facebook ads. I went out to a lot of businesses and put flyers out, old school.
Danielle: I love old school.
Bek: Yep. The childcare centres, the little noticeboards at IGA, like, go and put the thing up. But yeah, from there, it's obviously word of mouth, but Facebook, Meta has been very big, and using Instagram as our platform. But yeah, it's growing and evolving.
Danielle: Wow, I love this. How long have you been doing it now?
Bek: Since 2022. So my Cove was born in 2021, and then I had launched it in 2022.
Danielle: Wow, this is incredible. So how, then, do you balance being a mum and a business owner?
Bek: I feel like some days, not very well. You're throwing all the balls up, because you are, you're trying to balance everything. And if I'm going to be honest, Intuitive Mummas is not just my only thing. I also have a job, to bring some money in.
Danielle: Are you crazy?
Bek: I'm crazy. And I study psychology, so, yeah.
Danielle: What? I didn't know you... I knew you had another job, but I didn't know you were studying as well. You're mental!
Bek: I am.
Danielle: Do you not sleep?
Bek: Not very well this week, but yeah, some days I do, some days I don't. It's all about prioritising and communication with your husband. So I work part-time, so I've got two days, which I then do Intuitive Mummas on, and then I've got my weekend with my children. But yes, I'm very grateful that I have flexible work that allows me to do school drop-offs and all that as well. It's definitely a juggling act, and sometimes I bite off more than I can chew, and I have, you know, breakdowns. Like, how am I gonna do all this? But eventually it all just comes into place, and yeah, you just make it happen.
Danielle: I always say, if you need something done, give it to a mum, because friggin' hell, like, seriously, mums just blow my mind how they just do figure it out.
Bek: Yep, yep, it's very busy between swimming lessons, soccer, guitar training. So I'm literally at the sports field doing things, and trying to juggle it all.
Danielle: I think you're incredible, because you also show up to Spark calls as well. I'm wildly fascinated by how you're finding time for all of this stuff. I do not have all of these responsibilities, and I still don't find time to do all the things, and I still have mental breakdowns.
Bek: I don't watch TV. Everyone talks about MAFS, and I'm like, let me just watch one episode so I can understand the gist. But no, my husband and I, we don't watch TV. The kids watch it for their TV shows, but yeah, we don't do that. We're too busy.
Danielle: You know what? It is so funny you say that, because I bet if I clocked my TV time, I would be able to have a job. Far out. Oh, that's so funny. I love it. And it's just... I mean, it is interesting, everyone's business is so different, and all of the things that they juggle, and how they make it work. So I love talking about that, because I feel like doing it your way is the most important thing.
Bek: Yes.
Danielle: So good. How do you look after yourself? How do you prioritise yourself when things are getting out of whack?
Bek: So, I must admit, I probably don't do this as well as I'd like. Some days or weeks are better than others. But how do I prioritise? I try and turn my phone off, because my phone is my biggest issue. Yeah, so I would even put it under my bed or in another room at night, to try and debrief. If I am feeling very overwhelmed, I'll go for a book. That tends to clear my head quite a lot. But yeah, I used to go to the gym. It's kind of like, alright, study's on, gym's out. It's about prioritising.
Danielle: Yeah, there's really no balance, is there? Like, the last couple of weeks, my husband's been away, so I've had a big... I'm calling it my Spark sprint time, and I've, like, redesigned the whole website, the whole product. And it's not been short days, it's been literally at the laptop for hours and hours and hours. And then I got up, and I was like, shit, I haven't gone for a walk all week. It's so funny, like, you have, I guess, the vision for how your life looks in terms of health and work and business and relationships, but it's so hard to do everything every day. I just feel like it isn't possible.
Bek: No. So, like, you might do a week or two weeks of good, healthy exercise and eating, and then you've got a launch, or you've got something coming up, and it all just goes out the window, and that's kind of where I'm at at the moment.
Danielle: I feel you, because I'm there too at the moment. Except when I can feel myself, like, totally about to lose it, then I have been taking myself out for, like, just two laps around the park, just to literally stand up and not be glued to the laptop. It's wild, isn't it?
Bek: It is very wild.
Danielle: Oh my god. So, what do you think your biggest challenge has been in business? Four years in. That's a long time.
Bek: Yeah, it is a long time. So my biggest challenge would be a business relationship that was based on a verbal agreement going completely haywire on me at the end of last year. Yep. Yeah, so, you know, my advice out there is, don't do verbal agreements. Make sure that it's backed up. But I will say that at the time that I made those agreements, I was trying to survive. Because it was either let my baby die, my business, not my physical babies, or my financial situation at home, and my husband's stressing. So yeah, I just did what I did to keep the business alive, and I created a verbal agreement with someone I trusted, and I let them have ownership of one half of my business while I built the online side of it when I could. And that's what I was doing. We were in the process of actually doing a business agreement, and it all fell apart, basically.
Danielle: Mmm. And I know we have to be sensitive to what we talk about, but I really appreciate you sharing that, because I do see it happen with women in business quite a lot, where we are potentially a little bit more trusting, and more in need of support. And it doesn't always go to plan, so I do love that you're giving the advice to not rely on verbal agreements. Sometimes it feels like a lot of work to do an agreement, or a little icky to do an agreement, but based on real-life experiences that happen, shit, they're good sometimes to fall back on.
Bek: Yeah, well, for me it was about... my husband's stressing about money. For me to turn around and say, hey, my side hobby, that he thought was a side hobby, to me it was a business, I need to pay for a lawyer to do an agreement... we'd just been through COVID right then, and that's why I didn't. And, you know, I was helping this person, I was their sounding board, we were growing it together, we would meet up, I had a business plan in place. And yeah, it got to the point when we started to actually do an agreement that ownership and control really came into place, and it fell apart. So...
Danielle: Wow.
Bek: Yeah, and in the end, I did get ownership back, because intellectual property is quite an interesting thing. And out of this, I had to engage lawyers, and found out that I owned all intellectual property regarding who was running the actual in-person groups. And everything has come back to me, but it has been at a cost. Like, I've now had to pay for that lawyer.
Danielle: They always get you... lawyers always get you eventually, don't they?
Bek: They do! So, yeah, so now I'm very cautious of who I bring into my business. I hope it hasn't broken my trust, because you do need people in your business to grow. But it's putting those systems and structures in place, making sure you don't give people too much administrative access. Because yeah, I lost control of my website, I lost my Facebook, Facebook Meta, I lost about a week of my life to them. They wouldn't give me back the Facebook page. So yeah, be careful who you give administrative access to your systems, because they're not as simple as getting back sometimes.
Danielle: And over and above the time, the financial cost, the potential business damage, what was that like for you as a founder? Who, seriously, you put your blood, sweat, and tears in, you're running all of these other things, you're trying to keep the family alive, all these things. What was that like for you as a founder, going through that?
Bek: It was very difficult. My mental health took a real big hit, because this other person had started getting the mothers to remove photo consent, so I had multiple mums over the last two years remove their consent, and it started to become a bit of a bullying situation, and that really played on my mental health. And I had to be strong. Again, I had to put some systems in place to stop that. And yeah, it's not an easy situation. You don't sleep. You're literally in crisis mode, trying to keep it all together and trying to figure it out. And I'm someone that... I'm very trusting, I stand by my word, and when that falls apart, it takes a real hit to your identity, and it takes a lot to really get back up, scrape your knees, and keep forging on. It really takes a lot of resilience to just keep going. And yeah, it was hard.
Danielle: Why did you keep going? Because since the first day I met you, I have just been blown away at how resilient you are, and how you're just like, no, this is something I'm passionate about, and this is something I believe in, I'm gonna bloody keep going. What drives you?
Bek: What drives me? I think it's my upbringing, if I'm gonna be honest. I've had a pretty wild upbringing, and that is something that I will eventually share with the world, and where Intuitive Mummas is going. I do see that Intuitive Mummas is more than just the in-person mothers groups. I'm evolving, so my business will evolve, and that's kind of where it was going anyway. I was moving to online and to different offerings. But yeah, why did I keep going? Because I've wanted this so badly, and when it all fell apart, I had to keep it all together. And what keeps me is, I grew this. This was my vision, this was mine, and I still have that vision. I still want the mums to have a place to go, and I care deeply, I really do. I care deeply about every single one of those mums that join. And I owe it to them, I owe it to myself. Because I had to go back to work, and I didn't want to. And this was my chance to get back what I had started.
Danielle: I love that so much. I just think people don't talk enough about how hard business is. Business can be difficult just in the general day-to-day, but when something actually happens that threatens the business, it's just so hard to stick with it, to pick yourself up, to keep going. So I am just, yeah, so impressed by you and what you do. It's incredible.
Bek: Thank you. Thank you so much.
Danielle: Oh my god, you're making me want to cry.
Bek: I know, I'm trying to hold it together. Because I know that I've been in the trenches for the last couple of months, and, you know, I'm still in there, if I'm going to be honest.
Danielle: I don't know if we ever get out of the trenches!
Bek: Oh, I bloody hope so! I do, I do.
Danielle: I think we get out of the trench, and then we get into a new one!
Bek: No, but when you hear the mums say, please keep going, I need this, please keep going, you do. You get back on that horse, you keep going. It's tough, but I believe in me. You have to believe in you, otherwise no one else will. So I will. It will become an amazing thing, because I've got this massive vision.
Danielle: I love it. Where do you see it going? Are you allowed to give us a sneak preview as to things you're working on?
Bek: Well, I have written a book, but I'm not...
Danielle: You've written a book!
Bek: Yeah, yeah. I wrote a book about two Christmases ago. We went up to Airlie Beach to visit the mother-in-law, and I just sat there, and it was just, again, intuitive, like, you need to write a book. So I just started writing, and it's a memoir of my life, because a lot of my childhood is quite impressive and interesting. And yeah, I think I'm gonna start bringing in... that's why I'm studying psychology, actually. To help people with their childhood traumas, because motherhood actually brings it all out. You can't escape it, it comes out. Your children are your mirrors. And you say and do things that you're just like, oh my gosh, there's obviously something here, I'm triggered, what is going on? So yeah, that's kind of where it's going. I will support from pre-pregnancy all the way up to 18, but it's actually supporting the mother. I want to support the mother. So, yeah.
Danielle: Oh my god, I can't believe you've written a book. Of course you've written a book, you bloody have done everything. This is wild. But I love that you're thinking about it so deeply, you know? This isn't surface-level stuff, this is, like, who are you as a mother, but who are you as a human, and how does that impact the whole experience? And I love that it's also not just, I had an idea, now I'm doing a thing. It's almost like you're connecting all of the dots of life: childhood, motherhood, psychology, experiences, how you can support people. I can just see all of these dots of your business coming together, it's just so exciting.
Bek: Yeah, no, I'm excited. I just don't have enough time to do everything I want to do all the time. So, yeah, it's exciting, it's going to be exciting, and I think people will be blown away with what I've started to create. Because, like I said, I've been building this the last two years, and when I finally release it... I'm a bit of a perfectionist, which is probably half my problem as well. I should just start releasing things, but, you know, when you know you're ready, that's when I'll do it.
Danielle: Yeah, absolutely. Well, it comes back to that intuitive, doesn't it?
Bek: Oh my god!
Danielle: Oh, you are so incredible. I could talk to you all night. We should have had a wine for this session. Actually, I would have actually cried if we had a wine, so I'm glad we didn't. But I always love to wrap up these podcasts on one last piece of advice. So, reflecting on your time in business, what would be a piece of advice that you would give to another woman on her business journey?
Bek: Oof! One piece of advice... Just start. You figure it out on the way. I'm still figuring it out. I don't have it all together. Just start, because if you don't start, you can't build. Like, I'm constantly refining, constantly getting feedback, constantly improving your systems, but you just gotta start. You gotta put yourself out there.
Danielle: I just think that that is literally the best advice you can give someone, because I think it also applies the whole way through your business journey. Like, literally, as you just said, still figuring things out. I'm 15 years in, this is my fourth business, I'm still figuring it out! But also, new things happen, new tools come out that we can experiment with, so it's not like you kind of do it and it's done. So I feel like, because of that, you can't just mess it up, because you'll always be building, you'll always be refining, so you've got to start that process to get to the end.
Bek: Definitely. No, it's tough, but it's so rewarding at the same time, and I love it. Like I said, I'm always getting new ideas, and I think entrepreneurship is so amazing.
Danielle: Yeah, absolutely. Oh my god, Bek, you are amazing. Thank you so much for sharing your journey and your wisdom with the Spark community. That was absolutely incredible. Thank you.
Bek: No worries. Thank you.
