Nat Stewart - Ikigai: Finding Your Reason For Being As A Mum And In Your Career

MumsDelivery caught up with Nat Stewart, who is has been starting and running businesses for many years. Nat is also a mum of 4 and has had to cope with all the pressures that come with this while being an entrepreneur. Having now found her place of equilibrium – her ikigai – Nat helps other mums create and grow their own online businesses through Business Jump. Listen to the interview with Nat below, read on for more of Nat’s story, or go to the bottom of this post for the podcast transcript:

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Table of Contents

About Nat Stewart

Nat regularly bares all with her tribe of a collective forty thousand mothers and business owners, sharing stories of not just her learnings in business but the real and raw events that shaped who she is today, such as an unlawful firing, postnatal depression, two miscarriages, a twin pregnancy and weaves within it how she mindfully fell down and put herself back together throughout it all. Most recently, with the birth of her twins, Stewart continues to generously document her rich and colourful life for the benefit of her Business Jump and Remarkable Business Mums community.

Stewart has mastered the art of finding flow in the chaos and has begun to welcome life’s curveballs with open arms. Transforming moments of adversity into valuable insight, Stewart encourages mothers and business owners alike to cut their teeth on trying circumstances and mine them for the rich insight they contain. It is these very personal experiences that Stewart believes can pave the way to business ideas.

Nat’s path to million-dollar business revenue wasn’t a linear one. Her need for flexibility as a new mother resulted in a disappointing and unlawful firing shortly after returning to the workforce. Fortunately, she was able to fall back on her first online business as her primary revenue generator and also quickly composed a new business in graphic and web design.

The birth of her second child and the relentless sleep deprivation resulted in a severe bout of postnatal depression. Despite the challenges and heartache of motherhood Stewart built a thriving business promising to herself, she wasn’t going to waste any more time being unhappy.

She now uses the same model and intel to help her clients get started. Outsource the parts where you’re not in ‘flow’ and automate wherever you can. Through this model and her digital community Stewart has helped thousands of women to launch and scale their businesses.

Six years later, as her business cruised into ‘flow’ state, Stewart fell pregnant again. Tragically, the ultrasound at 9 weeks detected the absence of a heart-beat. Stewart was subjected to an emotionally jarring journey of heartbreak that shone a light on shadows of her past that needed examining.

After diligent soul searching, a new journey began, marked by falling pregnant again with no less than triplets which indicated to her that the self-learning journey was entering into a new phase.
To overcome this Stewart had to dig deep, this pregnancy held up a mirror to all her fears and brought them to the surface – raw and weeping. Stewart had to go back before she could move forward and make peace with the mental clutter accumulated over her lifetime that had been preventing her progress.

Despite the pregnancy taking a heavy toll on her body, and losing a triplet at 8 weeks, she was determined to equip herself mentally, physically, and spiritually. Thankfully, the other two souls were destined to make it earth-side. When she gave birth to twins, she was prepared.

The twins birth forced Stewart to hold herself accountable to the ethos of working smarter, not harder. She continues to reject the mistakenly yet commonly extolled 24/7 hustle that precipitates burn-out.

Automating systems and having a reliable team yielded a business that sustained her life, not the other way around. Continuing to work on her business during pregnancy allowed her to rediscover her resilience. Beyond adversity was a new, more robust, version of herself that didn’t abide by the trappings of fear or self-doubt. All of the lessons she needed for business, she found in her life.

Armed with a work smarter not harder philosophy her service offers invaluable support and behind the scenes knowledge and expertise from people who have been there done that and can lead from example to help her clients set themselves apart from the milieu of start-ups and entrepreneurs out there today.

Since launching four years ago, Business Jump has far exceeded expectations and Stewart is shocked with just what she found herself capable of, Stewart scaled to $1 million within the first two years and since then has maintained sustainability and growth in an ever-changing landscape whilst living her life, her way.

Stewart emphasises the importance of personal and professional growth in tandem. Her mindfulness practices are the underpinnings of a powerful business. She knows that time spent filling your own cup allows you to respond with compassion, empathy, and perspective to the difficult situations that arise within your business.

Having a solid personal foundation and each day taking a moment to undo all the identities, fears and judgments she carries and consciously restoring self-worth and confidence allows Stewart to maintain equilibrium, to dream beyond her comfort zone, and she is committed to sharing the joy of this with the WAHM tribe who would like to join her for the ride.

Transcript

Silvia: Good morning, Nat. Thank you so much for joining us today here in the Unperfect Parent Podcast.

Nat: Good morning. Thank you so much for having me.

Mark: So, how on earth are you finding time to go on a podcast when you’ve got 12-week-old twins?

Nat: Oh, I have a secret weapon and he’s called my husband.

Silvia: (laughs) Don’t we all need one after hours?

Nat: Yes, he’s amazing. He’s actually the stay-at-home dad at the moment. So, my business has afforded me to keep on working, which is something that I actually really love and enjoy doing. And I’m probably only doing sort of less than part-time hours at the moment. And I have my husband home, so there’s no selling any lungs on the black market or fancy tricks. It’s just literally a great husband and pretty easy babies that I have…

Mark: The price is better for kidneys these days, so.

(laughter)

Silvia: So, Nat,can I take you right back? Tell us about “young” Nat. What sort of dreams, what sort of ambitions did you have as a young woman?

Nat: Yes, well, the first time that I really recall starting– I mean, I was always quite a fiery kid and teenager, I didn’t really love to be told what to do. And I didn’t really fit into the mold of going to school and being a good student. I always was sort of looking to sort of escape that. I didn’t really ever fit in, to be honest with you. The first time that I can really remember realizing that a job was going to not really get me to where I wanted to go was when I was studying Graphic Design and Visual Communications and I would look at the salaries. Because I lived in Sydney and at that time, I was 19-20. I just looked at the salaries and just… It didn’t inspire me. I realized that…

Silvia: Okay, we can’t be in Sydney with that.

Nat: Well, yes. And I looked at the top salaries that you could earn in that profession. And something just didn’t—I just, I’ve always had that calling for more. So, yes, that was really the first time that I realized a business was going to probably get me to where I wanted to go when I was younger.

Silvia: So, how old were you when you took your first leap into the “business world”, let’s say.

Nat: I was probably around that 21-22 age, and that was partnering with someone else and creating an online classified website. That was probably the first time. But I mean, I was studying graphic design at that stage and I would use to work… I was sort of doing that on the side. I used to walk into shops and ask them if they needed a new website or a logo design or anything like that. So, I’ve always been sort of like quite entrepreneurial minded, but the first sort of official business was, yes, and online classifieds website in my early 20s.

Silvia: So, can you take us back to your mindset when you took that first leap into the business world? Were you prepared for it? Were there things that you were a bit naive about? Were there things that you’ve got right?

Nat: I was so naïve. So…

Silvia: (laughs)As we are at that age.

Nat: Yes,I was young, and you know, sort of carefree. And I didn’t really think about failure at that stage. But it’s funny how the older I have gotten and I guess in my space at the moment, I see a lot of fear and a lot of limiting beliefs. But for me, personally, when I was back at that age, I didn’t have any of that. I was very immune to, you know, what failure was and what it would feel like. So, I just jumped into it headfirst. I didn’t think about the end or what if it didn’t work. It was all just a learning experience for me.

Silvia: And can you tell us what happened to that first business?

Nat: So, we got into some type of moderate success, and then I just realized that it was so… I just burned out from it. I just realized it wasn’t something that I wanted to do so I sold my share back to the partner and moved on, and he just continued on with it. I mean, that was a long time ago. Now, I’m not even sure what’s happened to it.

Silvia: So, you just touched on failure in hindsight, which is a brilliant thing. What did failure teach you?

Nat: Failure taught me that there’s actually no such thing as failure. It’s just a realignment, and it’s just giving me the skills that I need to go on to that next stage. So, it would be very easy for me to look at a few of the businesses that I’ve had and perceive them as failure because I didn’t end up getting what I wanted out of them. However now, in hindsight, I can see that they were all stepping stones to Business Jump. So as a collective, they’re not failure. They were all part of my journey.

Silvia: Oh, that’s lovely. Moving a little bit away from the business part of your life… So, I believe in 2009, you became a mom for the first time and you went on to have another children and now twins. So, you are a mom of four kids. Congratulations (laughs) on that. Can you tell us the impact on your life of having children?

Nat: Yes, I think each child has brought a different stage and a different impact. So, in 2009, when my daughter was born, that was your typical first mom experience for me. I had carried over a little bit of anxiety because when I was around 21, I had a melanoma. So, that triggered a sort of fear in me that… A lot of us believe that it will never happen to us. And to me, I realized, actually cancer and melanoma is very sort of achievable now because it happened to me. So, my first daughter, really, that anxiety really was triggered in me in the fact that now I have this little human to look after and I love her so much. What if… The “what if’s” really got a lot but it was it was reasonably sustainable besides a few ups and downs. I would say, a typical first-time mom that just, you know, sort of worried about everything and over protected. I was just that classic first-time mom. And then my son came along in 2012 and he didn’t sleep. That was two years of severe sleep deprivation, so bent on top of the anxiety, that was what ended up feeding into a PND session for me. But within that, I found – once I started to come out of it – I found a beautiful, sort of new version of me. So, my son, I call him my teacher. And then my twins, I’m that friend of a friend that you hear about that it’s been done and dusted with kids, never thought that… Had a 10-year-old and a six-year-old and then accidentally got pregnant, had a miscarriage, realized I did want a third, talked to my husband into it who said “No, I don’t want to have one” (laughter) and then pregnant with triplets of all things.

Mark: (laughs)

Silvia: Wow.

Nat: Yes. So, one of the triplets stopped growing at eight weeks and then our twins obviously carried on. And my twins really taught me that I’m capable of so much more than I ever could have dreamed. So, my children have all had a profound impact on my life in teaching me things that I guess I’ve just needed to learn along the way.

Silvia: So, did that teaching also involve teaching you things that were useful for your business?

Nat: A hundred percent. I always say that business is just as much a self-development journey as it is a business journey. And for me, the cracks in the foundation of my business is mindset and personal development. And I honestly believe that in order to have a fulfilling and profitable and successful business, personal development and mindset needs to be your foundation. Because there’s just too many stresses and challenges and things that can go wrong and fees and limiting beliefs in business. And if you can’t get on top of them, then your chances of succeeding… slim.

Mark: So, along the way like you know, developing your mindset and having four kids, were you involved in different businesses all through that journey?

Nat: Yes, it’s a really a mixed bag. So, from that first business, I then went on and created… They were more side businesses and then those stages where I would work full-time and then there was stages where I would have my freelance stuff as my full-time job. So, I switched and swapped a lot. And it wasn’t until I was fired from my full-time job when my daughter was one, which would have been probably 2010-2011 that I said, “It’s time now to make this business thing a full-time thing. No more side hustles. No more on the sides. It’s now or never.”

Mark: What was it like when you made that shift? Was it scary? Was it exciting? A bit of a mixture of both? Or…?

Nat: All of the above. I think back then, I was still a little bit naive because I’ve always been that person just to go out and do it. I don’t sit down and write out a full plan. I just do it. So, there was a little bit of fear, there was a little bit of excitement, but mostly I just did it without thinking about it too much. And there was a lot riding on it. I mean, we couldn’t live off my husband’s income. As a single income family, we did need my income. So, if I didn’t make it work, then we were in trouble. We didn’t have like a lot of backup funds, it was a make or break and finally it worked.

Mark: So, what did you do? What were those businesses that you…? When you went full time, did you go straight into Business Jump? Or was this a couple of things along the way?

Nat: No, there was a few things along the way. So, when I was fired… Well, I had a side business at the time, which was an Organic Cotton Baby Clothes business, which was quite successful but it wasn’t really creating an income for me because all of my funds were going into products and business expenses. So, I leveraged off my graphic and web design and started freelancing on the side and doing that type of work. And in maybe just over a year or to 18 months, I managed to replace my full-time salary with my freelance work. And that was really what sustained me and then business jump came a little bit later

Mark: Thatwas cool. So, the Organic… what was it? Organic Cotton Baby Clothes, is that right?

Nat: Yes.

Mark: So that business, was that…? Were you outsourcing the clothes and getting them in? Did you have a room in your house that are just full of organic cotton clothes? Or…?

Nat: Yes.

Mark: Right. (laughs)Must be exciting times?

Nat: It was and that probably backtracks to the question around what my children have brought to my life. Because with my first daughter, talking about that anxiety, I started cleaning and I started becoming really aware of chemicals like BPA in baby bottles and stuff like that. And that was actually what led to wanting to find organic cotton onesies. And I just wanted things that were really simple, really plain, that didn’t cost. And couldn’t really find that much of what I was looking for. So yeah, that was how that business sort of was born.

Mark: I guess that leads us to what you’re currently doing. So, your current business is called Business Jump. So, when did you start that?

Nat: Well, I’ve been running for about three to four years now. So, I got to a point where I realized that my Organic Cotton Baby Clothes business was never going to create the freedom that I wanted in my life. Because you know, I had that room full of products, and I had to be there packing products and all that type of stuff. And I was very burned out from my graphic and web design work as well. I realized that I only have so much time in the day. And eventually, if I can’t make any more time, I can’t make any more money. And along with sort of going through PND and realizing that actually I really value feeling fulfilled and in purpose. So I basically started from scratch, and then started Business Jump through that.

Mark: And what does Business Jump do?

Nat: So, we help other mums set up online businesses. Because obviously, as we’ve just chatted about, over the years, I’ve had different businesses. Have built very different types. So, anyone that wants to start sort of working or not necessarily… Anyone that wants to start an online business, for whatever reason, we help them get started. And that means helping them come up with an idea, helping them monetize it, helping them with their business model, and then creating all of the things that they need to launch like their logo website, social media accounts.

Mark: Okay. So, when you say helping them do things like the logo and all that kind of stuff, do you have people? Do you do that for them? Or do you direct them towards the kind of resources that they’ll need to do those things?

Nat: Yes, I have an incredible team that do it for those. So, we take care of it. No one needs to worry about finding a designer or how to register a domain name. They work one on one with my team. And yes, we create everything for them.

Mark: Oh, that’s cool. How big is this? How many people are you helping with businesses?

Nat: We help quite a few people. I’m busy. I’m really busy. And I have an amazing team so I think it’s a good size.

Mark: You’ve talked about mindfulness a lot. Is that part of what Business Jump does as well?

Nat: Yes, a hundred percent. I would even say it’s the most instrumental part so far. A lot of people will look at our package and they’ll go, “Okay, great, I get a logo and I get a website…” And the tangible things are obviously great and valuable. But it’s the intangible part of what we do, because really at approx. they are pretty much 80% to 90% of people that want to start a business is fear. But sometimes they don’t realize that it’s fear or a limiting belief. And that’s what we help sort of dissect with them, and help them get to the end goal, which is to have an online business.

Mark: It sounds like you help people with any sort of business that they’re interested in setting up. Are there any sort of particular types of businesses or niches that you’ve seen really fit in with moms who have, you know, got hectic, daily lives, not much time in their hands? Is there any particular sort of areas that have been really successful?

Nat: Yes. So, my philosophy is to work smarter, not harder, which I know gets thrown a lot around, but definitely know, there’s a lot of power in that. So, I generally steer away from selling a physical product because when I had my physical product-based business, it didn’t create the things that I wanted in my life, which was more freedom, time with the kids, a proper income. So, it’s not that I would turn away someone that wanted to have that type of business, but I would just debrief with them. Okay, well, what is it that you really want out of a business and then is this still aligned? So, I generally steer away from those type of businesses. We like to work with models that have scalability. And at the moment, what I’m really loving doing is helping people that have some type of skills or knowledge or expertise, whether it’s formal or informal, and convert an online business around that that feels fulfilling, it feels like they’re helping and serving people, and really sharing with them actually my business model. To help them go out and use that expertise and skills to help other people and yes, create a business.

Silvia: So, on that note, do you have any memorable stories to share with us? One of your clients that went on… (you) supported toward the creation of their business and went on to thrive and…?

Nat: Yes, quite a few. I mean, I always say that working with us is more of a learning development journey, rather than coming in and feeling like they’re going to take or something like that. So, I mean, my client’s stories, the ones that mean the most to me, when I see photographs of them at the beach in when they would have otherwise been working… Having that freedom and that flexibility and that fulfillment, that’s really what I achieved. Even if they can look at the situation of working with us and go, “I found value in it, but maybe it was realizing that I had limiting beliefs”. I have clients that have those stories as well. So again, checking back to it’s a personal development journey just as much as it is a business journey.

Silvia: Fantastic. So just to finalize our podcast, can you tell our audience where to go and find out more about Business Jump?

Nat: Sure. Well, my website is businessjump.com.au or I also have a Facebook group, which is called “Remarkable Business Mums” and I’m very active in there. I post a lot of insights and a lot of business advice. So, either of those two, they can find out more.

Silvia: Fantastic.

Mark: Cool. Thanks for joining us today Nat, and good luck with everything in Business Jump.

Nat: Thank you. My pleasure. Thanks for having me.

Silvia: Thank you.