Speaker 1: Hi, and welcome back to Bounce Forward with me, Tip Paul.
Speaker 1: I'd like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land
Speaker 1: of which I'm recording this podcast. There were wondering people
Speaker 1: of the Cooler Nation. I pay my respects to elders
Speaker 1: past and present. Welcome back to part two of my
Speaker 1: chat with Genevieve Day. I want to know what were
Speaker 1: your career goals before having Henry, Like, what were your
Speaker 1: big goals?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think I've always had big ambitions
Speaker 2: for the agency, and I, you know, want to work
Speaker 2: with the biggest and the best talent, but also grow
Speaker 2: the careers of the incredible talent we represent as well.
Speaker 2: And we've been really conscious about scaling that, like not
Speaker 2: just signing people for the sake of it, making sure
Speaker 2: people that we really align with. So we're definitely like
Speaker 2: on track to hitting those goals, and you know, we're
Speaker 2: achieving all these massive milestones of working with the brands
Speaker 2: I've always dreamed of and getting campaigns that were on
Speaker 2: TV and billboards and book deals and everything. So those
Speaker 2: are kind of the career goals, but I felt that
Speaker 2: I was fulfilling as well and getting to kind of
Speaker 2: step into that, which is really exciting.
Speaker 3: And the fear was almost not that I wasn't going
Speaker 3: to make them happen.
Speaker 2: It was like it's all going to be taken away
Speaker 2: if I'm not there with my foot on the pedal.
Speaker 2: And I think that was kind of where the pregnancy
Speaker 2: felt like it was almost getting in the way of
Speaker 2: those goals a little bit.
Speaker 4: Yeah, right, that's so interesting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I guess the irony is almost that if
Speaker 2: I could tell myself before and you know, time travel
Speaker 2: back to gen pre kids, I think we've actually had.
Speaker 3: Bigger months in the business.
Speaker 2: We've signed bigger names and done more amazing things after
Speaker 2: I've had kids.
Speaker 1: Yes, And that was the same with me because I
Speaker 1: thought I put on a lot of weight in my pregnancy,
Speaker 1: like thirty forty kilos, and I thought, oh, I've put
Speaker 1: on weight.
Speaker 4: I don't look like a trainer.
Speaker 1: I'm going to ruin my business because the bodies are
Speaker 1: meant to be a billboard for my health and fitness business. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but what it did is I had I became more relatable,
Speaker 1: and then all the.
Speaker 4: Moms joined my program and they went on.
Speaker 1: The journey with me to get fit again, and it
Speaker 1: made my business boom after I had kids, whereas I
Speaker 1: held on so long to not having children and had
Speaker 1: them later than what I wanted. I've been with my
Speaker 1: husband for ten years, Like, you know, its just I
Speaker 1: held off thinking it would ruin everything.
Speaker 4: Yeah, isn't that crazy?
Speaker 3: And we never say that out loud either, do We
Speaker 3: never because it seems like a dirty.
Speaker 2: Word, being like, I have all these ambitions and I
Speaker 2: still want to be a mother and it's just as
Speaker 2: important to me, if not more so, to have children.
Speaker 3: Of course, who want to do that. But it's like,
Speaker 3: I don't have an issue.
Speaker 2: Saying that out loud now that I was worried it
Speaker 2: was going to get in the way, but actually it
Speaker 2: became a superpower.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's that's gorgeous. I love that. So how have
Speaker 4: your goals now changed since you've been a mum?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think they've changed a lot, and I do
Speaker 2: feel like becoming a mom, it's almost like my edges
Speaker 2: have softened, and even I think you'd be quite similar.
Speaker 2: Like we've been taught to work like men, right, and
Speaker 2: you know we girl boss too hard. When millennials it
Speaker 2: was like you just keep pushing, you go for it,
Speaker 2: And I think that I've learned the beauty in softness
Speaker 2: and vulnerability, and I've become a more empathetic leader to
Speaker 2: my team, and then my goals have often I guess
Speaker 2: softened a little bit as well. It's less like all
Speaker 2: or nothing, and you kind of get to see the
Speaker 2: shades of gray a little bit more in that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we're all guilty of the all or nothing
Speaker 1: attitude in everything, like everything we do.
Speaker 4: That's really beautiful.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, if you were to do it
Speaker 1: all again, and I don't know if you want to
Speaker 1: have more children or you know there might come a time,
Speaker 1: what would you change?
Speaker 2: I think, yeah, that baby bubble. I'd be a lot
Speaker 2: stricter on that, because even though we had this intention
Speaker 2: of it being this like beautiful sacred space, I broke
Speaker 2: my own rules a thousand times, and I'd be calling
Speaker 2: the team and I'd be telling my husband what happened
Speaker 2: at the office today, and so I kind of, yeah,
Speaker 2: I definitely needed to be stricter on that for myself
Speaker 2: often then for other people as well, just saying like
Speaker 2: this is my time because you don't get that time again.
Speaker 2: And I think as well, like trusting my team, who
Speaker 2: absolutely proved themselves. They did an incredible job when I
Speaker 2: wasn't there in the office every single day. So I
Speaker 2: think having the confidence to step away would definitely be
Speaker 2: something I do differently, and then just being kind to
Speaker 2: myself in that new mum bubble, like I had no
Speaker 2: idea what I was doing, and the second that Henry
Speaker 2: would like open his eyes, I would get a developmental
Speaker 2: book and be like black and white learning.
Speaker 3: Yes, and he's like four days old. Yeah, and so
Speaker 3: it's kind of like that pressure. I was like, I'm
Speaker 3: responsible for building his brain.
Speaker 2: I have to do the best job at this whether
Speaker 2: Like really, I could have relaxed a lot more.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I found that I was super freaked out
Speaker 1: with Arnold, and then with Vader, I relaxed a whole
Speaker 1: lot more.
Speaker 4: I was like, Ah, she'll eat when she's hungry, like you.
Speaker 1: Know when they don't eat and they're throwing their food
Speaker 1: on the floor. And I used to get proper anxiety
Speaker 1: over her not eating, and now I'm just like, she'll
Speaker 1: eat when she's hungry. Like feeding toddlers is a full
Speaker 1: time job. It is just so difficult. Yeah, podcasts, So
Speaker 1: what does a day look like in your life? Like,
Speaker 1: you know, juggling, Henry juggling work, like, and I'd love
Speaker 1: to know what you do for your own mental health
Speaker 1: and your own physical health, Like what do you do?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean our day's start probably like six or
Speaker 2: six thirty in the morning when Henry wakes us up.
Speaker 3: He's a little human alarm clock.
Speaker 2: And if it's too early, we try and bring him
Speaker 2: in the bed with us, being like, please a little
Speaker 2: bit more time, but he's at a demanding stage. He's like, no,
Speaker 2: we have to get up. We have to listen to
Speaker 2: the Wiggles straight away.
Speaker 4: Oh I love the Wiggles.
Speaker 3: Yeah, on repeat, on loop constantly.
Speaker 2: So we start a day with him, and we try
Speaker 2: and spend that beautiful like morning as a family, So
Speaker 2: doing like breakfast together and being all together. A couple
Speaker 2: of times a week, I'll like go for a morning
Speaker 2: walk with a girlfriend or a try and go or
Speaker 2: Floody his class.
Speaker 3: I've been very sluck.
Speaker 2: Recently, but I find mornings is the best time for
Speaker 2: movement because it's kind of like nothing else can get
Speaker 2: them the way in whether as soon as your day
Speaker 2: starts and the phone starts ringing, everything's out the window.
Speaker 4: Yeah, sets that healthy intention for the day. It's good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I used to get into the office so
Speaker 2: early and like smash things out, but now our childcare,
Speaker 2: I of it is like our parents arriving. They don't
Speaker 2: come until like nine o'clock, so we kind of get
Speaker 2: to the office just before ten and we just know
Speaker 2: for meetings they start like from ten onwards, which again
Speaker 2: is such a luxury to have that flexibility. We go
Speaker 2: into the office three days a week, which is great.
Speaker 2: I personally love having that like separation from home as
Speaker 2: well to kind of like feel like myself again. And
Speaker 2: then occasionally I'll have like a work event or has
Speaker 2: to travel to Sydney to do meetings and everything, but
Speaker 2: I'm pretty fortunate that most evenings get to spend as
Speaker 2: a family, and yeah, try and have that feeding a toddel,
Speaker 2: like you said, which is crazy, so lots of thrown
Speaker 2: food and rejected food, a few screaming bath times, but yeah,
Speaker 2: we just try and do like bed, bath and book together.
Speaker 3: And then he's down at seven.
Speaker 2: So then after that I can jump back online if
Speaker 2: I have to do any more work, yeah, move my body.
Speaker 3: Then if I can do like an online class, and
Speaker 3: that's kind of it.
Speaker 2: It's definitely took a bit of acceptance becoming a first
Speaker 2: time mum that my life isn't like as exciting as
Speaker 2: it used to be. And that sounds so silly because
Speaker 2: it's like, what a beautiful, balanced life that is. But
Speaker 2: you know, it used to be filled with like sparkly,
Speaker 2: premier work events and going out with my.
Speaker 3: Friends all the time.
Speaker 2: But I think, to me, this is kind of like
Speaker 2: the era that I'm in, and that's kind of my juggle.
Speaker 1: So what advice would you give to women who are
Speaker 1: thinking of having kids.
Speaker 4: But I just really worried about their careers?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think obviously by the book, which is the
Speaker 2: biggest takeaway.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I joke, but I tell us and tell us
Speaker 1: about the book as well, like, yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, I think that question is the perfect framing for it,
Speaker 2: because that's kind of where I was sitting when I
Speaker 2: first thought of the concept of it. Is because I
Speaker 2: was pregnant running this business, and I was having all
Speaker 2: these catchups with women around me in my kind of
Speaker 2: corporate circle, and I would see their lives on Instagram
Speaker 2: and I'd read about them in the paper and I'd
Speaker 2: be like, how the hell are.
Speaker 3: You doing this?
Speaker 2: And again to if you sit in this camp too,
Speaker 2: where like you have this beautiful family in this empire,
Speaker 2: and everyone's like, how are you doing this? And so
Speaker 2: I was just very fortunate that the people I was
Speaker 2: able to speak to in my circle happened to like
Speaker 2: step West Smith from Kick or like you know, Jess
Speaker 2: Hatters of Frank Body and Phoebe.
Speaker 3: From the Memo.
Speaker 2: And so these women, firstly, all of them makes it
Speaker 2: said to me, oh my gosh, Jen, I cry all
Speaker 2: the time, or like I do not feel like I'm
Speaker 2: nailing it, And I think I needed to hear that
Speaker 2: to take the pressure off myself as well. And then
Speaker 2: they were all kind of sharing their regrets and what
Speaker 2: they would do differently, and the fact that they are
Speaker 2: less stressed the other side of it now that they've
Speaker 2: been for that experience. And that's kind of when I
Speaker 2: saw this recurring theme in this universal thread that.
Speaker 3: Had to be shared with people.
Speaker 2: So I kind of like, if these women who have,
Speaker 2: you know, one hundred million dollar businesses had the same
Speaker 2: thoughts and concerns and fears as I do, like that
Speaker 2: just makes me feel so much less alone. So I
Speaker 2: think all of them kind of felt the fear into
Speaker 2: it anyway, and I know, it's just I think it's
Speaker 2: just crazy to really I sat in the mother's group
Speaker 2: and I went through that as well, and I didn't
Speaker 2: really feel represented in that scenario.
Speaker 1: Interesting, Yeah, I didn't even do mother's group. I was like,
Speaker 1: with Arnold, I was so busy with the business, I
Speaker 1: just ditched it completely.
Speaker 4: And I regret that.
Speaker 1: With Vader, I was like, you've got to do it
Speaker 1: more like, but I still didn't. With Vader, I was
Speaker 1: one thing on my list. I just said I don't
Speaker 1: have time for. But I did make an effort with
Speaker 1: my friends that had kids, but.
Speaker 4: I just didn't even do mother group. Like, I mean,
Speaker 4: it's terrible.
Speaker 1: And so you say you didn't feel represented, you didn't
Speaker 1: yea all.
Speaker 4: With the working moms, They're like they were all kind.
Speaker 2: Of had the twelve months off or were deciding to
Speaker 2: be stay at home parents at that time, which again
Speaker 2: is it's a completely valid choice, and I think women
Speaker 2: that choose that are incredible because it's such a huge undertaking.
Speaker 2: But I kind of sat in that room and was like, well,
Speaker 2: no one here seems to be in the position that
Speaker 2: I'm in. But then I went back to the stories
Speaker 2: in the book and I was like, these women have
Speaker 2: the same ambitions that I do. With these women are
Speaker 2: the ones in the same you know, stressful situations that
Speaker 2: I have. And it's not just about running your own business,
Speaker 2: but anyone in the career who you know wants a
Speaker 2: return to work or has to have a necessity as well.
Speaker 2: It's yeah, I think it's just nice to have those
Speaker 2: stories and have a place for them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's beautiful. Oh, it's an awesome book. Now, can
Speaker 1: you tell me who are your role models?
Speaker 4: Like?
Speaker 1: Like, my mum was a working mum, right and she
Speaker 1: had my sister and I very close together. Then when
Speaker 1: I was sixteen, she felt pregnant accidentally with my brother
Speaker 1: and we had a newborn in the house when I
Speaker 1: was doing my BCE, and so she was then had
Speaker 1: a baby on a hip while she was running a
Speaker 1: big business. So she's always my role model for juggling.
Speaker 1: Who are your role models for juggling?
Speaker 2: Oh, that's such a good question because I think we
Speaker 2: kind of came up in this Yeah millennial like girl
Speaker 2: Boss era, who've had people, you know, held up on
Speaker 2: these pedestals and yeah, hustling, which is awesome, and I
Speaker 2: think there's so many of them I do really look
Speaker 2: up to Jess and Brie or Frank Body as you
Speaker 2: know examples of that, and they you know, have two
Speaker 2: kis each, and even you know, Chelsea Marley's also in
Speaker 2: the book that runs the agency Tiny Disco, has two kids,
Speaker 2: this incredible career, and you know Rachel Corbett who single
Speaker 2: on my choice Friend of the Pod. I think they're
Speaker 2: all kind of role models to me and just people
Speaker 2: who managed to seem to kick these huge goals in life,
Speaker 2: but it hasn't stopped them from having a family or
Speaker 2: having a personal life at the same time.
Speaker 3: And I think as well, like my mom kind of.
Speaker 2: Wore both hats, which I loved growing up because she
Speaker 2: was a stay at home mom for the first ten
Speaker 2: years of my life, and then she returns to her
Speaker 2: career and got to kind of climb that corporate ladder
Speaker 2: in her.
Speaker 3: Field a bit later in life.
Speaker 2: So I got to kind of see that you can
Speaker 2: also do both in that capacity too. But I think
Speaker 2: everyone is doubling it and for a long time, no
Speaker 2: one would really say how hard it is or that
Speaker 2: they have help. And that's also a big chapter in
Speaker 2: the book. Aron Daring is another example where you know
Speaker 2: she had Triangle Swimwear and has just launcher and fashion
Speaker 2: label Deering, And she says, yeah, I've got three nannies.
Speaker 3: Like if people ask me how I'm doing it all,
Speaker 3: I don't.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's amazing, And like, I think we have to
Speaker 1: take the shame away from having.
Speaker 4: Support and help.
Speaker 1: And you know, I chose not to do childcare because
Speaker 1: my thinking was they will get sick. I can't afford
Speaker 1: to have a sick child at home. I can't take
Speaker 1: days off. So I have a nanny, you know, And
Speaker 1: you know that was my choice, and she's my Nanny's
Speaker 1: been with me for nearly eight years now, and she's
Speaker 1: always helping me to do everything. And you know, I
Speaker 1: couldn't do it alone. It does take village. It absolutely
Speaker 1: takes a village. And I didn't have my parents are
Speaker 1: still running their big business, so I didn't have a
Speaker 1: lot of grandparents' support. So it's it's amazing once you
Speaker 1: dig deep into those stories and actually see the villages
Speaker 1: that you know are supporting these amazing careers.
Speaker 3: One hundred percent.
Speaker 2: And also because imagine if someone's comparing you know, their
Speaker 2: life to these other women doing incredible things and thinking, oh,
Speaker 2: I'm not good enough because I can't do that. It's like, yeah,
Speaker 2: but you may not have the same level of supporter,
Speaker 2: You may not have that village that this other person has,
Speaker 2: and I think it just Yeah, by shining light on it,
Speaker 2: it makes everyone kind of more of an even playing field,
Speaker 2: and yeah, debunks any shame that's there because also it
Speaker 2: shouldn't be shameful to have help if you choose to
Speaker 2: have it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you for shining a light on the juggle, Jen.
Speaker 1: I loved what you said about becoming a mum is
Speaker 1: your superpower in business and I'm going to take that
Speaker 1: with me today.
Speaker 4: So thank you so much for joining me on the podcast.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: I think it's so beautiful having this community of mother
Speaker 2: and we all look out for each other. It's like,
Speaker 2: you know, a secret language we all speak now together.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it is, it is.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Jen. Thanks so much for listening to Bounce Forward.
Speaker 1: I love having your company. So please d m me
Speaker 1: on Instagram at tip haul Underscore XO and let me
Speaker 1: know what topics you'd love me to cover. Don't forget
Speaker 1: to rate and review me on the podcast. Out Speak soon.
Speaker 1: Happy Days,