Episode 22: Being A Multi-Passionate Mum In Business With Jennifer Wood

Hello and welcome to the Mum Means Business podcast, where we shine a light on inspiring women who have one thing in common. When they’re not managing tantrums, homework, P.E. kits and play dates, they are busting their gut to create something from nothing, to turn their passion into a thriving business and build a better life for themselves and their families. We dig into what motivates devoted mothers to pursue entrepreneurship and how they integrate their work and family life.

I’m Victoria Phipps, your host, and if you’re an ambitious mum in need of some solidarity whilst navigating the messy middle of making your big dream a reality, then stick around. This is for you.

NOTE: This is the transcript from the original recording, rather than the edited episode so timings may vary.

Victoria (00:01)
My guest today is an expert in digital marketing, communications and social media management with over 15 years experience leading campaigns across multiple industries. No stranger to a side hustle, she also shares healthy recipes designed to inspire and help busy moms with simple kid approved recipes, alternatives to ultra processed food. Earlier this year, Jennifer Wood launched the digital marketing mom.

drawing on her corporate experience to help small businesses grow. She believes in the power of great storytelling made visible by smart data and analytics. So with this ethos in mind, she now offers freelance marketing consultancy and hands-on support to businesses across the UK. Jen is mum to one little girl and one cat, wife to a tech sales bike enthusiast, and a multi-passionate woman.

She’s currently spending what little spare time she has left writing her first recipe book. So Jen, congratulations on the launch of your marketing business. I can’t wait for you to share your story in your own words. Welcome to the Mom Means Business podcast.

Jennifer Wood (01:12)
Thank very much, thank you, I’m glad to be here. Thank you for that lovely introduction. I was kind of bursting with pride then when you were saying that. It’s funny, it is. I think when someone suddenly sums it up, you’re like, ⁓ wow, I have done a lot, so thank you. Yeah, sounds quite good.

Victoria (01:18)
Good, that’s the idea.

Sound quite good? ⁓

I’m pleased. Well, you have done a lot and you are doing a lot. So it just sets the tone. So let’s go back to your decision to start your current business because I know that you had begun businesses before. What made you start the digital marketing?

Jennifer Wood (01:55)
So I was in a marketing role, I worked in the corporate environment, I worked within the tech industry and I really really enjoyed my job. You I’d been there for coming up to five years. That was my piecing me back together after parenthood role that kind of I’m very very grateful for and it gave me that identity back that I’m not just a mum. But it got to the point where it no longer served me. Things had changed with it.

that particular organisation and they just didn’t align with me anymore ⁓ and I just thought I’m going to move now. Some people would say why didn’t you just go to a different job?

I kind of got to the point of going, I’ve done this for such a long time, like I’ve been in marketing in the corporate world for nearly 16 years now, and it’s just, I’m good at what I do, and I actually really like helping small businesses, so was like, I’m just gonna go and do it myself. So I handed my resignation in, I ran through that door, it was at the end of last year, so was coming up for 12 months ago that I did that, and… ⁓

Then I toyed with the idea of what am I going to call myself? I want to help small businesses with their marketing and their socials. What shall I call myself? I’m going to go with the digital marketing mum. And it was born.

It has been a hard year, it’s been tough grind but I am grateful for every day, I am grateful for all of the people that I’ve met, I’m grateful for all the businesses that trust me and work with me and I help them ⁓ and I’ve proved my husband wrong in terms of the fact that he didn’t want me to call it the Digital Marketing Mum, he wanted me to pick a different name and I was like, I don’t want you to change the name, like the name says what I do and what I offer and I think if someone doesn’t want to work with me

Victoria (03:30)
Ha ha ha!

Jennifer Wood (03:42)
because I have mum in the title of my business and they’re probably not the right client for me anyway, yes.

Victoria (03:49)
I think we can dig deeper into that because your business before also had the word mum in it. Am I right?

Jennifer Wood (03:59)
Yes, the Clean Life Mum, it still exists, it is still there. That is what I’m writing my recipe book under the title of, and it’s also where I host my Women’s Wellness events. They sit underneath the Clean Life Mum as well.

Victoria (04:11)
Okay, so you have so many different things going on and all of them proudly wear the title mum. And I love this because I’ve had conversations obviously with other mothers as I’ve been building this podcast. And there is a perception sometimes that if you add the word mum in any context to your business that there are people in the world for whom that would diminish its value.

And obviously your husband felt this a little bit and he was worried about you, guess, worried that that might put people off, which is absolutely insane because there is, you know, obviously nothing wrong with being a mum. And also it’s my belief that being a mum gives you so many transferable skills that you can use in your business. And it also makes you

Jennifer Wood (05:09)
Yes.

Victoria (05:10)
hyper efficient. So talk me through. Yeah, so talk me through like what made you stick to these guns and also what, how do you feel about that? know, what transferable skills do you think that being a mum adds into your business?

Jennifer Wood (05:13)
my goodness, yes. Yeah, 100%.

my goodness, the list of transferable skills I think when you become a parent is endless. It’s funny actually because it takes me back to the company I worked for. We used to talk about the importance of transferable skills and I think so many women when we go on maternity leave and then either we have that break and either we go back to our original job or we decide to pivot and we go, but I’ve just been off.

Like we haven’t been on a jolly, you we haven’t been on holiday. We’ve been like raising a little tiny person. ⁓ But all of those skills that you learn, maybe lesser when you’ve got a teeny tiny baby because they are teeny and don’t do anything. But I think when they go into those toddler years or, you know, Hallie is now eight and comes with bags of sass, negotiation skills that I’m pretty sure I could work for the UN with, ⁓ organisational skills, do you make planning, time management, like all of those things that actually you just kind of scoff at.

Victoria (05:56)
Yeah.

You

hahahaha

Jennifer Wood (06:21)
they are so relevant in being a parent and making sure everybody gets out of the house fully dressed and teeth brushed, bags, packs, out of the door on time. And then you are back at your desk or wherever you go to work on time. But also then everything else that goes with it, you think of all the things that they need like doctor’s appointments, sports days, parents’ evenings. We’re coming into city season, know, nativities, tombolas, school raffles, all of the things that you have to remember. Add that on top of your load, like, yeah, 100%, all of those

Victoria (06:28)
Yeah.

Jennifer Wood (06:51)
available skills you can take with you. ⁓ What was the other question you asked me? What do I think I’ve taken with me?

Victoria (06:57)
Well, I think you’ve

kind of answered it in that, what made you stick to those guns? Because you must have considered it. Your husband’s there like, I think you’re mad. Why don’t you just digital marketing anything but mum? And you were determined. So what made you feel so confident about it? Because you must have been thinking about your target audience at the time, I suppose, and who you wanted to work with. So go on.

Jennifer Wood (07:21)
Yeah, 100%.

I think I was really clear when going in that I wanted it to be small businesses. Now I appreciate that that is quite a big ⁓ sector. know, it can be from a one-man band to kind of up to what, children, 50 employees or whatever it is. I think it’s, I get that, but mine was that I want those small independent people. They may have a small team, but it might just be like you or I of that one person running a business and…

Part of my identity is I am a mum. know, first and foremost, if I get a phone call from school now, I’m putting the phone down on this podcast and I’m gonna go and pick up a small child. It doesn’t matter what you’re doing, like they are your everything, they are your why. And if I have that in the title and someone does a lot to work with me because I’m a parent, they’re not the right person for me, they’re not my right client and target audience. I think it also shows that level of commitment and dedication, I think you mentioned it before,

used to work, you know, before having kids, as we probably all did, 60 hour weeks, 70 hour weeks, sometimes I’d work 80 hour weeks without even a, know, shadow of a doubt if I’ve got an event or whatever, you just do it. I now have this window of time from like, you know, nine quarter past nine maybe to 2.45 on the days that I have to do a normal pick up. If it’s after school club, I have the looks of getting a little bit longer, but I have got that window of time and I have a list of jobs to do and I have to get them done.

it’s I am so much more strategic and more driven and you know I work now harder not longer you know I work smarter not longer whereas before I think it’d be like oh I’ll go for a coffee and I’ll go and chat with Brenda in a couch and I’ll go and stand in the kitchen and you just you know you do your work but there is a little bit it’s a bit more fluid it doesn’t really matter you know if I leave the office half an hour late I can’t do that now you know I have a child standing at a school gate waiting for me and a client who’s giving me something

Victoria (08:58)
You

Jennifer Wood (09:11)
to do and it has to be done. There’s equally that element of flexibility of if I haven’t finished it I will do it when I get back or when I’ve put Hallie to bed later and I will hop back on and I will continue my work for you and get it done. ⁓ But yeah it definitely makes you more focused I think in what you’re doing and you see in the press don’t you about people talking about flexibility. ⁓

And I think there was something recently about, you know, moms or dads, know, if they are the main caregiver as well as the, you know, the people who are employed, they work really hard. Like we have got an amazing skill set. And just because you suddenly become a parent or a carer doesn’t mean that you suddenly lose that. I think you’ve just added more skills to your toolkit and it shouldn’t really be discounted.

Victoria (09:58)
Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. There’s a lot about the kind of motherhood penalty that’s come out recently and having the hard data to back up what I think a lot of parents have been, well, mothers, especially in this case, have been feeling. You you’ve got a sense that something feels unfair, that there’s some sort of underlying discrimination at play in the system that you’ve…

worked within for however many years suddenly doesn’t seem to be on your side. And I think having those statistics, know, the office of national statistics says that actually you’re onto something. It’s so validating because that is, you know, serious discrimination that women are within the first five years after having their first baby, they’re losing, you know, and it’s tens and tens of thousands of pounds, you know, it’s…

Jennifer Wood (10:36)
Yeah

Victoria (10:54)
It’s a lot of money, it’s a life-changing amount of money. And actually, it’s interesting that we haven’t really complained because this kind of patriarchal expectation and that the workplaces have been so geared up to work for independent men without any caregiving responsibilities and it just doesn’t quite fit us. And I’m really hoping that, know, obviously that’s something that…

COVID certainly helped because all of those middle-class white men, all those men had those fathers had to go home and work from home. And yeah, their kids are screaming in the background because that is the reality. And I think we’re moving away from having to hide the fact that we are parents, but there’s still a really long way to go. And this is why I think it’s so, I don’t know. And I nearly said the word brave, but that’s.

also complete nonsense because it’s not brave. It’s just so good of you to own it and put it in your business title. And it makes a difference. It makes a difference. And how do you think that’s impacted the sort of clients that you have attracted in your business in this first year? Because if it’s small businesses, a lot of them, they might be family owned businesses.

Jennifer Wood (12:00)
Thank you.

Victoria (12:17)
What difference do you see that it’s made? Have people commented on it?

Jennifer Wood (12:21)
Yes, and you know what? There hasn’t been a single negative person. Like no one has said, that’s a funny name. Some have said like it’s long, but they were like, but it’s memorable. Like I remember, I don’t remember your name is Jen. I remember that you’re the digital marketing mom.

Victoria (12:25)
That’s so good to hear.

Yeah.

Jennifer Wood (12:35)
I’ve met other marketeers who are freelance and they’re I really like it, I like that you’ve gone with putting mum in it and just kind of like you say, own it because that’s who you are first and foremost and that’s what I do and that’s why I do it. In of the clients that I seem to be attracting…

Victoria (12:42)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it probably does a lot of the work. Go on. No, it’s all right. You go.

Jennifer Wood (13:01)
I mean, there’s a mix across the board, but they tend to be within the health, the wellness, coaching and education sectors, which sits within kind of what I love anyway, but I haven’t pushed it that direction. They’re just the people that I’ve attracted. All about energy, all about energy.

Victoria (13:20)
Yes, exactly. Okay. So let’s talk about that then because the business that you had prior was and is very much kind of in that space. And I’m guessing because it’s focused on creating healthy alternatives for children. And I was shocked when I first weaned my daughter just how much ultra processed food.

is sort of shoved in your direction. You know, you’ve only got to go down the baby aisle at Boots and it’s all very easy and like, know, stuff they can hold and crunchy and different textures or whatever it might be, but actually it’s all ultra processed. And this is probably what led you, go on.

Jennifer Wood (14:03)
Yeah it is and you can’t

get away from it can you? And I think this is in no means a my goodness you’re all bad, you’re all failing, what are you feeding your children? I’m gonna bash you for it, my goodness no. I have been down those aisles, I have bought those chunky crispy things and handed them to Hallie and she’s sat in a pushchair chewing away or she’s got a rice cake in one hand and something on the other, pouches of food again.

you just can’t get away from it and sometimes they are the quickest and the easiest thing to do. But you know, I’m an eighties child. We’ve lived on processed food and know, chicken nuggets and McDonald’s and like Sunny Delight and all of those things. It was like, oh, but it’s got vitamin C in it here, have it. Do you know what I mean? Like you can’t get away from it. And I think that…

Victoria (14:38)
gosh, yeah.

Yeah, sunny delight. Yeah.

Jennifer Wood (14:50)
I’m in no way a, you shouldn’t eat that, that’s bad for you because we had chicken nuggets last night because it was just easy and quick and it had been parents’ evening. It’s about… ⁓

It really came about, I think probably the recipes, is I’ve always been really interested in clean eating and healthy eating, but Hallie is lactose intolerant and she also is very, very sensitive to sugar. mean, you give her a piece of chocolate and she goes nuts from like nought to 60 in like three seconds. And then she just crashes and falls off the other end of it. And I was like, there’s got to be another way, because I want you to have cakes and biscuits and sweet treats. I want you to be able to enjoy those things. So I kind of did some digging and I was just like, actually, I like trying

to prove that I can make something but with different ingredients. You know, I don’t have to use butter or I don’t have to use eggs or I don’t have to use flour. I can use porridge instead and I can grind it down to flour. Or I discovered coconut sugar a couple of years ago again and it doesn’t have the same effect on her. She can have that in a biscuit or a cookie or a cake or whatever it might be and it doesn’t have a massive surge.

it doesn’t have the same effect on her glucose levels, is amazing. ⁓ I don’t know if you’ve seen or heard of the glucose goddess, I am little bit obsessed with her, and she talks about putting clothes on your calves and the way you should eat food. And if you had say like a big bowl of pasta, you obviously get a massive glucose spike. Whereas if you have a salad or a vegetable starter first and then you were to eat it, it almost lines your tummy, so it doesn’t have as much of an effect. So you don’t have that massive spike, but then you also don’t drop off the other side.

Victoria (16:05)
No.

Jennifer Wood (16:25)
a hungry day to want a or whatever it might be and we’ve tried to introduce that sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t but it’s all about making those changes that you can do that work. ⁓

And I think, yeah, the recipes I tried to do again, they’re all kid approved. you know, Halle helps make them, Halle eats them. There are some things that she doesn’t like, you know, maybe if it’s got too many vegetables in it, I will get feedback. But, you know, but again, we’ve tried to make it bit of fun. You know, if I make something and I put it on her plate, like, what can you taste? Like, for example, like a bolognese. Everyone likes bolognese, right? Whether it vegetarian or it be meat. But I pack in loads of different vegetables and loads of different herbs and spices, and I just try to get her to go through it, and I don’t blitz them. I know some people have to.

that’s the only way their kids will eat food but I don’t I leave it in chunks and I get her to identify it like what is it this is butternut squash or this is this and can I taste garlic and can I taste this mommy I’m like I want you to have that good palette of food and know that this is all goodness and as opposed to as opposed to not and I’m just eating the processed foods which again sometimes we don’t have a choice when we

Victoria (17:22)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, no, absolutely. it is, you know, there are convenience factors in parenthood always, you know, you go out and you just find yourself stuck and you can’t get back in time to give them that lunch that you prepped or whatever it is you’ve got at home. So you do grab a pouch and it just, and it keeps them quiet and they’re happy and they don’t have a meltdown. And there are times when, you know, there’s certainly a place for all of that, but on the whole.

You know, it’s obviously something that you felt really passionate about when you became a mom. And obviously if she’s having dietary challenges with the lactose and my eldest was exactly the same, she’s kind of come out a bit a little bit now, but her response to sugar was insane. And I felt like my whole life was just dedicated to keeping her on an even keel at one stage because it was just the slightest thing.

Jennifer Wood (18:23)
It’s hard.

Victoria (18:25)
and she’d go bonkers and then the crash and then she’d fall asleep at strange times because she’s just coming down from a kind of a massive carb spike. And I totally relate to all of that. So you talk all of that and you did all your investigation and then you decided to make a business out of it. So, and this is the really wonderful thing I think about this day and age is that it is quite easy to kind of just explore that.

And you only have to kind of set up some stuff on social media, build yourself a website, which now is so accessible. And you can kind of test whether it’s like your doorbell. Do you need to get it?

Jennifer Wood (19:06)
It is, my husband’s here, it’s fine, he’ll go and get it. He’s prepped.

Victoria (19:08)
Okay. Okay, I’m

going to do a clap. Okay, good. I’m just going to do a big clap so that he knows to look at this bit. Okay.

So you can kind of test, know, is there a business in this? Because you’ve learned all of this stuff. You’re developing all of these recipes. It’s something you’re really interested in. So how old was Hallie and at what stage did you manage, did you decide to test that out and see whether there was the makings of a business in everything that you’d learned? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jennifer Wood (19:42)
In terms of the Clean Life Mum, the Clean

Life Mum didn’t start off as a recipe book, it started off as subscription boxes for busy mums. it was a, I tried to go shopping with a tiny person and obviously they just have a massive meltdown because they’re bored being in a changing room. She used to hate going into boot, I don’t know if it’s like the smells or the perfume, she’d be perfectly fine and she’d just go nuts the moment we walked in and I’d walk back out and she would stop. It was bizarre. And I was like, there’s got to be a better way for mums to…

Victoria (19:52)
Okay.

you

Hahaha

Jennifer Wood (20:11)
have like moments of self-care so I set up like a subscription-based box. designed my own clothes, I worked with small independent suppliers and it was a box once a quarter that was delivered direct to your door and had all these lovely things in it including some recipe pop cards that I created. Covid happened, Brexit happened, prices went up, the price point didn’t really work anymore but I wanted to still keep the brand name because I’d started doing the recipes and it’s something that I’d already done you know I like to bake as I’ve already mentioned and I was like I’m gonna keep that.

and actually a couple of people said to me, should write a recipe book Jen, like you create all these lovely things and you share them, why don’t you write a book? And it’s been in my vision board, which is here beside of me, like year on year for the past few years. And I’m like, I’m going to do it. I’m just going to do it. And I’m still working on it and it’s still in the pipeline, but that’s kind of why I kept the name. And I think having Hallie, she wasn’t lactose intolerant to begin with, it’s something that kind of came. And then obviously the sugar thing, we noticed it more when she got a little bit older, like kind of toddler years. I’ve just been like,

Victoria (21:06)
Okay.

Jennifer Wood (21:11)
actually there’s got to be alternatives because there’s so many people out there. Now I’ve got friends who are egg intolerant, so therefore they can’t have loads of egg-based things or cakes. I’m like, well, there’s gotta be a better way to make cakes without eggs. I’m on it. Or, I don’t know, they wanted a pavlova. Well, now you can use the juice that comes from chickpeas, the aquafaba, you can use that to make your meringue. It’s already there. So I think it’s like, yeah, just trying to be a little bit clever.

Victoria (21:26)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Jennifer Wood (21:42)
Yeah.

Victoria (21:42)
Well, it’s curiosity.

It’s curiosity as well. It’s seeing a problem and thinking, okay, I’m gonna solve this. I’m gonna find out. Yes, exactly. So that’s what I’m getting at. It’s kind of, it’s that entrepreneurial curiosity and that capacity to identify a problem or identify a need and then decide that why not you? Why can’t you go?

Jennifer Wood (21:51)
It’s the same with the marketing, right? It’s the same with the marketing.

Victoria (22:11)
and fix it and it’s very proactive. It’s like you either have to learn or educate yourself like you were doing and testing like you were doing with the recipes. And now when you come to the digital marketing mom, it’s the same principle. You’ve gathered all of this knowledge and experience in your corporate career and it’s like, why not me? And you just go and do it.

Jennifer Wood (22:32)
100 %

100 % there were so many and it’s interesting in talking to businesses there were so many small business that I’ve met have gone well I spoke to a marketing company and they said yes they can do it and then I worked with them for a few months and they didn’t do anything and it’s like I had this conversation today and I’m not bashing anybody like I get it but

We can’t promise the earth because we can’t physically do it. If somebody says, yes, I can guarantee you’re gonna have 10,000 followers by tomorrow.

I mean, they might be able to, depends on what they’re selling and depends on how work with you, but the chance is probably not a reality. It’s probably going to take a little bit longer. And I think it’s trying to work with those small businesses to make them understand this is kind of a long game. You’ve got to the point of going, I’ve done this for so long now and I want to spend my time going, I’m going to give this to somebody who is an expert in what they do so I can spend my time doing what I’m good at. And it frees up that time to then do more of it and giving it to somebody who can do it.

Victoria (23:06)
You ⁓

Jennifer Wood (23:33)
do it well ⁓ and not promise the earth and deliver and not charge them the earth for it. It’s something I’m working on, I love it and I’m really proud of and all the people I’ve worked with so far, they’re coming back, they’re repeat customers. I think that speaks volumes as well.

Victoria (23:53)
Yeah, definitely. And do you find that that’s sort of an education point that you have to cover with your clients in that there is an expectation now, you know, everyone is familiar with social media and what it can do, but it seems to have in some ways kind of warped our expectations that it’s possible to make progress very, very, very quickly because there are a handful of cases where that does happen.

Jennifer Wood (24:20)
Yes,

yes, but it doesn’t do, it’s not like this. Nothing is instant. I’ve said this to bosses in the corporate world and small business owners. Nothing is instant. Like, can I go and buy lists? You can go buy lists, but then you’re buying.

you’re buying a quantity, you’re not buying quality. You know, you could buy lists of thousands of thousands of people, it’s probably rubbish, it probably costs you a fortune and doesn’t do anything. But stuff actually marketing and having a strategy and a social media strategy and it matching up with your goals and what you want to do and where you want to go as a business, it takes time and it takes consistency and it takes showing up on those days that you don’t want to do and just keep going. And I think it’s not something that just tomorrow morning I’m going to wake up and I’m suddenly going to have all

these leads and I’m suddenly going to have all these customers and they’re all going to be buying from me. If you’re new and they don’t know you, you’re building a brand, you’re building a voice, you’re building trust, you’re building an audience, you’re showcasing your talent, your education, your services, you’re speaking to them with their pain points and then offering them a solution and you have to do all of that before someone’s going to trust you. If you’re a small business, you’re not Nike, you’re not Adidas, you’re not, you know…

calls or you know these huge corporates who have got multi-million sometimes multi-billion time budget and teams of people and they’ve been doing it like relentlessly day in day out for years and years they are going to see results quicker because they have the machine that does it smaller businesses that showing up like I said day in day out being consistent and

making sure that you’re speaking to that particular audience and that’s a particular person so that they go, yes, like she gets me or he gets me or they get it. That’s the whole point of it. And it’s also the community building, isn’t it? It’s building those people around you that can help you and support you in whatever it is you’re doing as a small business owner.

Victoria (26:22)
Yeah, definitely. And the know, like and trust factor, once you kind of get your head around it, it all makes complete sense. And I think especially in the kind of digital age that we’re in and with all the kind of AI infiltration that we’re now seeing, at the end of the day, human beings want to connect with human beings. And I suppose this is where the story element comes in. So tell me how you…

to your clients to, I mean, I would say tell their story, but I feel like when you’re inside your business, you kind of sometimes can’t even see your story. And I guess then that’s exactly, that’s then for you to kind of help them tease that out. So what does that process look like on your part?

Jennifer Wood (27:04)
Cutting the wood for the trees, no.

it’s talking to them. It’s sitting and saying like this, talk to me, tell me about your story, tell me about your business, tell me about your audience, what is it you’re trying to do and achieve, no. What is it that you offer that nobody else does? And it might be that you sell a pen, right? Okay, well there’s lots of other companies that sell pens, but why is your story or why is your business what a really bad example to picture? But you know what mean? like, I don’t really know how to sell this pen, I have to think about it. But.

Victoria (27:40)
It’s marketing, it’s not sales, it’s alright.

Jennifer Wood (27:40)
It’s like, it’s, yeah, yeah,

I married a sales director. Like, do you what mean? He’s the other end of the spectrum. I’m the warm, fluffy front end that gets you involved to begin with. But it’s like, what makes you different? Why should people pick you? And…

Victoria (27:46)
Yeah, he can sell the pen.

you

Jennifer Wood (27:59)
I think I’m really good at getting this out of other people and getting it out of businesses. I’m then really bad at telling it myself. I’m like, Jen, you just have to do exactly the same as what you tell people about why you, why choose you. And it’s not that I’m better than anybody else or cheaper than anyone else. That’s irrelevant. It’s the people who are going to resonate with you are like you, or they see the future version of themselves in you and they want that. And whatever that might be, it might be their face cream and their skin is glowing and you want yourself.

Victoria (28:11)
Mm.

Jennifer Wood (28:29)
skin to be like that. It could be that they have a big fancy new car. It could be that they just simply want to earn more money or they want to be able to pay for their kids to go to school, whatever it might be. But it’s taking those customer profiles, finding those pain points and the solutions and making sure you can weave and tell your story through that. I’ve definitely changed the way I’ve described myself as I’m a storyteller and that is what I’m doing for clients. It’s like, tell me what you do and let’s weave it through everything you do and everything you talk about week on week from your stories to your real

to your videos, showing up at events, to your networking, to the flyers that you make. Everything needs to be on brand, everything needs to sing from the same hymn sheet, and everything needs to make sure that you are talking to the relevant audience that you want to reach to tell them that story. Like you say, you’re bringing them with you. I think the storytelling element has definitely changed with social media and the fact that we share a lot.

Victoria (29:15)
Yeah.

Jennifer Wood (29:28)
You used to take a picture of your coffee or your water or the fact that you were in a coffee shop but now my husband jokes that you can’t eat a meal without it being photographed and shared and yes, it’s an element of truth. ⁓ But people want to see that, they don’t just want to see this is the brand, they also want to see the person behind that brand. You know, the reality of it, the messiness of it, the, you know, I was sat in my dining room the other day and I did a story and I was like, look where are my desk spaces, it’s all lovely but back behind me there’s a full game of Monopoly going on

I’m not allowed to touch and it has to stay there because it is in progress. But we don’t show that, right? But it’s important to show that and show what’s behind you and what your reasons why, because that is part of the storytelling as well. And big brands don’t have that. Well, they might’ve done to begin with when they started off and they were small, but as they’ve grown, become conglomerates, like they lose that. Whereas the smaller ones, you’ve got that.

Victoria (29:59)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Jennifer Wood (30:26)
You’ve still got your touch on reality, right? You can still be like, you know, my name’s Bob and I set this business up because I wanted to do X, Y and Z and it’s to support my kids. Oh, well, I’d much rather give Bob the money than give, you know, Amazon.

Victoria (30:40)
Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely. Absolutely. And I think it’s interesting your game of Monopoly, you know, again, this, it all reinforces, mean, Monopoly goes on for years. We have to, yeah, we’ve definitely had Monopoly balls that need to just be left untouched until the next time we can get around to them. It’s the longest game in the world, but it reinforces. ⁓ did you? Well done. Only took you three months. Yeah. well done. congratulations. Yeah, that’s ace. ⁓

Jennifer Wood (30:46)
Ha

it is. I won by the way, I’m very proud of that, for the first time in my entire history.

Victoria (31:10)
Yeah, what I was going to say is it reinforces your digital marketing mum. And this is the thing, you know, I suppose it’s kind of deciphering and kind of teasing out what are the things you’re doing every day that do kind of lend themselves to the way that you’re presenting in your business. You know, it’s not like you need to show every coffee that you have, but like at what point is there a moment that you can just share?

how do you kind of help small business owners kind of get into that? Because I always think it’s quite an ask. know, as you said before, we were brought up in the eighties, nineties, and you know, the TV is where those people lived. None of us were ever asked to share anything about our own lives. And it’s almost like now.

we have to kind of have ⁓ a mini production company that is our business brand and everything that we’re kind of putting out into the world to kind of keep that presence and let, as you say, keep showing up. How do you kind of help people with that? Because it can feel quite uncomfortable when you first start, can’t it?

Jennifer Wood (32:29)
Yeah,

it can do. I think I am very much happy to share being in front of the camera so I don’t find it difficult but for those that do, it’s…

You kind of have to, it’s your business and you have to show up. And you can be a completely faceless brand, you know, you don’t have to have your face on it. There are other ways to do it. But in most of the clients I work with, they are the face of their brand. Their name is the brand name. Like it’s quite important that they are visible and they give those little glimpses into reality versus actually the business side of things. And I can do it in two ways. It’s either I can support you by like writing your plan for you and your strategy and you do it.

Or I do it for you. There’s a middle ground in there as well, but it’s one of the two options. Some people are really, really uncomfortable with doing it or just don’t have the time or the ability. Well, I suppose the creative juice to go, I just want to focus on my actual business, the fluff that goes with it. Can you just do it because you see it and understand it? Whereas some people are like, actually, I still want to be very much involved with that. I want to be doing the stories and I want to be doing the videos. I still want to be talking. I just need to steer on what

to say and how to say it and make it in a cohesive way as opposed to I’m just standing here talking or I’m just selling. There’s got to be a link between the two and that’s again that’s storytelling element.

Victoria (33:56)
Yeah, so with the storytelling, what I think a lot of small business owners, and especially I think women, because we’ve not been conditioned to share as much of ourselves. And a lot of us, when we were younger, you know, we might’ve been kind of prodded in the back and told to stop showing off and told to stop, you know, just pipe down a little bit. You know, that was the kind of era in which we grew up. And so there is a lot of conditioning to unpack.

And it can feel like we are telling the same story again and again and again. And there’s this kind of response that kicks in, like that you’re boring people and no one wants to know. And you’re you’re kind of, I know you’re taking up space where no one’s interested. Why would anyone be interested in hearing this? I, go on.

Jennifer Wood (34:52)
my goodness, take stop there,

take up space, my goodness, take up space. Take up all the space you need, like dream big, think about what it is, but don’t shy, don’t sit in the corner and be quiet, unless that’s the type of person that you want to be and that’s what you need to be, but if you’ve got something to say and you’ve got value to add, which I think all of us do in whatever capacity that would be, take up space, don’t be afraid to take it up.

Victoria (34:57)
you

Jennifer Wood (35:20)
It’s easy for someone who’s an extrovert because that is the type of person I am. You know, if I walk into a room, I have no problem speaking to every single person if I don’t know them, but that’s fine. But I appreciate that so many people would sit in the corner of that room and they would dread talking to people that they don’t know them. I get that. I understand that it’s a hard thing to overcome, but just having that one conversation or just speaking to that one person or making eye contact with that one person or sharing your story with that one person, that can be all it makes to make a difference. So, yeah, don’t think that you don’t have anything

Victoria (35:23)
You

Jennifer Wood (35:50)
I think

to say you don’t add value because that’s definitely not true. I like by the way there’s a window cleaner in the background of your camera. is mum life at its best, the window cleaner’s in the background.

Victoria (35:56)
Yeah, there is. It is.

Yeah, he’s doing a great job. And he’s trying not to make eye contact with me because I’m not sure he knows what I’m doing. But yeah, no, it’s, it’s, it’s really good advice to take up space. And it’s, it’s obviously going to be harder for some than for others because we are all so different. ⁓ I’m similar to you.

Jennifer Wood (36:10)
Hahaha

Victoria (36:26)
I think naturally I am an extrovert and I kind of don’t mind. I don’t care what people know about me. I don’t care about putting my face out there. I don’t really care whether I’ve got makeup on or not. just don’t really care if it’s serving the greater objective, which is to kind of get people, I mean, in this case, it’s get people to know about the podcast, but whether it’s for my business, whatever it is, I suppose it’s keeping hold of that why.

Jennifer Wood (36:48)
Yeah.

Victoria (36:53)
and sort of not making it about you because whatever it is that you’re putting out into the world, whatever it is, a service or a product, you’re doing it because you believe it can help somebody or improve their life or whatever. And so if you can kind of make it about your customer rather than about you, and I know again, that is a big ask, but I find that’s really helpful on those days that I just do not want to get in front of the camera and I do not want to show up. It’s like, okay, but.

Jennifer Wood (37:22)
Yeah, we all have them,

right?

Victoria (37:25)
Yeah, yeah, and that’s human.

Jennifer Wood (37:25)
We all have,

but as a mother, you don’t have a choice. As a parent, you don’t have a choice. You have to show up. my goodness, on those days, I’m a migraine sufferer, and on those days when I get them, okay, yes, if Chris isn’t here, there is nothing I can do about it. I’ve gotta get in a car and I have to drive her to school. You know, I don’t have the luxury of that, but we have to show up. If you’re ill, nobody else does anything. If the household is ill, they’re all flat out and you’re of ill and maid and the nurse, but you still have to do it all.

Victoria (37:32)
Yeah.

no, I know.

Jennifer Wood (37:55)
You still have to show up.

Victoria (37:56)
Yeah, and we’re right back

to transferable skills. Aren’t we really? Yeah, nurse, showing up when you don’t feel like it. ⁓ And I suppose it’s a sense of kind of duty and responsibility that you feel towards your children. You can apply it to your business. That it’s what the business demands in terms of marketing. And so we show up. But you know.

Jennifer Wood (38:02)
Ness.

We

do, we do, and it’s hard trying to do that juggle struggle of making sure that you have the time to switch off. That’s the one thing I’ve probably learnt the most this year of I’m so used to going to work and then I close my laptop and then I go into normal life mode, there’s very much of a merging of time and it’s trying to set those boundaries of actually when do I need to switch off and close my laptop, because I could just do a little bit more. Like no Jen, you need to switch off and do something else.

Victoria (38:45)
Yeah.

Yeah, and this is where I was going to take the conversation next because it is a very different way of working. And like you say, boundaries are blurred often, especially in those early stages. You know, you’re coming to the end of year one of your business and you know, the first two or three years, it’s going to be like that because it is predominantly you and it’s your baby, it’s your dream and you’re bringing it into reality and it, you’re…

largely working by yourself to make that happen. So it is a case of attrition and hours put in. But how have you found that in terms of, in terms of boundaries, in terms of your wellbeing, because that is a huge interest of yours, and rightly so, it should be an interest for all of us, but in terms of your previous ventures, that’s the space that you’ve been in. It’s a space where a lot of your clients are sitting.

So how have you managed your rest in this time of kind of business building as a mum as well?

Jennifer Wood (39:55)
Yeah.

Okay.

I think I prioritise exercise and I know somebody’s going to listen to this and they’re going to roll their eyes but I do. I worked out before I had Hallie, it was always something that I, two, three, four days a week would always do. I worked out until I was 39 when it was pregnant, doing Pilates with an amazing Pilates teacher who made it viable.

like you don’t have to stop and it’s something that I’ve always continued to do afterwards. You know, when COVID hit, we obviously couldn’t go to the gym, couldn’t go anywhere. And we bought a whole load of stuff and put it in the garage and we’ve kept it that way. I’m a Peloton lady. If anyone’s asked some Peloton, I’ll happily share my name and you can follow me. But yeah, I love Peloton and it makes life so much easier to do that juggle of I do the school when I come back, I work out in the garage, but I could also put some baked oats in the oven whilst I’m working out or I can put a load of washing on when I’m working out.

Victoria (40:43)
Hehehehehe. Hehehehehe.

Yeah.

Jennifer Wood (40:58)
or my husband works away. If he’s away and I want to work out in the evening, I put Hallie to bed and then I work out either in the garage or I’m in the office. I make it fit, but that is definitely a non-negotiable of the working out. I think that’s really, really important for mindset and wellbeing. I’m very conscious of what I put in my mouth as well, in terms of the supplements I take, the amount of protein that we eat and all things like that and what I eat on a daily basis.

and I think all of those things really really matter and it’s time blocking them. I’m quite good at time blocking for those types of things like you know a Wednesday morning for example.

that chunk of time. It’s my non-negotiable. I won’t book meetings in at that time because I want to work out or know a Monday afternoon or a Saturday, whatever it might be, whichever the days of the week it is. I think those things are really, really important and it doesn’t have to be, you don’t have to have fancy gym equipment, you don’t have to have a gym membership. It could literally be you go for a walk with your headphones in. It could be that you’re doing you know a work call and but it can be a work call that you don’t need to do sat at your desk and you could literally go and get 10 minutes of fresh air. I think it

It’s really difficult in this day and age, particularly when people work from home, like you feel like you have to be sat here on.

Victoria (42:14)
Yeah.

Jennifer Wood (42:18)
other than to go and get some lunch or go to the bathroom or open the door to the Amazon deliveries and all of that that happens. But actually it’s really important to take time for yourself and I think it’s important that Halle sees that we do that as well. Chris is very much into fitness too ⁓ and it’s nice that she pops her head into the garage and we might both be on our bikes at the same time or I might be on the treadmill and she wants to then sit on my bike next to me and wants to do things and I think it’s really important to pass that on to her and so she knows the importance of…

Victoria (42:23)
You

Jennifer Wood (42:47)
looking after yourself and making sure you get enough sleep and thinking about what you eat and thinking about what you consume as well in terms of content and how you speak to yourself. ⁓ I suppose the other thing I do is, and I discovered it, I’m coming to the end of my third year of doing it, is gong meditations. I said that to my colleagues a few years ago and they were like, Jen have you joined a cult?

Victoria (43:05)
Tell me.

Jennifer Wood (43:09)
and I was like, no, I’ve not joined a cult. ⁓ They do it in the village hall near where we live. I go once a month on a Monday evening. is my, if Chris isn’t here, I get a babysitter or my mum comes like, I’m going to go. It is an hour for me to completely switch off and it is wonderful.

Victoria (43:12)
Hahaha!

Jennifer Wood (43:28)
literally I come out of there and I’m just a big pile of mush and I think it’s just if you haven’t done sound baths or gong baths they are wonderful. ⁓ I like the gongs and I like to my feet at the gongs so that the waves go up my body and they come out the top. You can do it the other way around but that’s where I prefer it and it’s just like the way that the waves wash over you and they help to process and move things. Interesting fact before I go woo woo on you, when I was in that time in my previous role and I was

was

trying to decide whether I should leave or should I not or should I stay and things had really changed and it just wasn’t serving me anymore. I’d gone to a few of my gong baths and like I said I had my feet at the gongs and all of the sound waves stopped at my gut. They wouldn’t go past.

And I didn’t think anything of it to begin with and I went a few times and I mentioned to the lady who runs them about it and she went, you’ve got a block and the block is sitting in your gut. There is something that you are not doing, you’re not acknowledging or that you need to process. And it was like, I know exactly what it is. It’s because I don’t know, I don’t know what to do. I’m really, I feel really stuck. And only when I’d made the decision and I decided I was going to leave and I’m handing my resignation in and gradually I started almost like trust myself again because I’d made that big decision. Gradually they started to report.

Victoria (44:29)
That’s so interesting.

Jennifer Wood (44:45)
through and now it’s fine. So it’s really interesting when they say things like you trust your gut because yeah that’s where I was holding it all. All that tension, that pressure and that worry was sat right there and obviously it needs to be moved.

Victoria (44:59)
Yeah, and actually, were you not checking in with your body, whether that be through exercise or a form of meditation, you might not have noticed. And I think so many of us exist like that for years, decades, because we’re not in tune in this whole mind-body connection thing. And actually, that can take, that can have a cumulative toll.

on your wellbeing if you’re not noticing. And especially as moms, because we keep going, don’t we? Like you say, you’ve got to turn up and it doesn’t matter. And we can become so busy and distracted by the demands of that role that we don’t really get into the habit of just sitting with ourselves and checking in and being like, what’s actually going on? And you wouldn’t notice that there was a block that actually you could, when you go to the Gong meditation is a physical

block somehow is manifesting in your gut. But you, think there are a lot of us that go for years and years and it’s actually so sad that we live in a world that is designed to distract us. And then you get, and this is kind of where I’m going off on a tangent, but you know, you can, you can sort of lean into behaviors that really don’t serve you. You know, you’ll make yourself feel a bit better by going, like you say, buying something on Amazon.

Jennifer Wood (46:02)
Mm-hmm.

Victoria (46:26)
or you have an extra glass of wine after dinner, you’ll, you whatever it might be, you’re going to eat a whole bag of family pack of popcorn watching Netflix at 11 p.m. Whatever it might be, but often it’s just escapism, isn’t it? And then if you don’t give yourself a chance to check in, you don’t really know even what you’re escaping from, but it could be a decision like that.

Jennifer Wood (46:42)
Yeah.

Yeah.

100%. And I think that’s probably one of the reasons why myself and my wellness business partner decided to set up our women’s wellness events this year. It’s something that we’ve been running for the last 12 months. We’ve just doing our calendar for 2026. But again, it’s those moments of it’s once a quarter, it’s just busy moms in a room and they get a morning of self care, listen to some talks, but it also includes a 45 minute meditation. Like take that moment to just switch off. You’re in a room with other people. There’s a like-minded community. We all kind

think and feel the same. We might have all different pain points and something that we want to overcome or change or whatever it might be but you’re taking that moment to acknowledge that and just switch off and then you’re almost ready to go back into that busy life because you’ve had that moment of self-care. So yeah it kind of it all all wraps itself up doesn’t it?

Victoria (47:38)
Definitely, yeah, but it’s all aligned with you underneath this umbrella of Jen. And I love that because this is the thing, we are not one dimensional. We can have, and especially in a world where we’re kind of told like niche down, niche down, niche down, find your niche. You know, the riches are in the niches, all of this stuff. Actually, if you are multi-passionate, you can pursue.

Jennifer Wood (47:45)
Yeah.

Victoria (48:07)
all of those things, if they serve you, and it’s this thing you’re coming back to talking about your corporate role that you just had a sense it was no longer serving you. If something brings you joy, then I love that you just give yourself permission to go with it. You know, you have all of these facets of your working life and you have the women’s wellness and you have your recipe book that you’re working on and you have this digital marketing company all under the umbrella of Jen, all under the umbrella of mum.

as well and it all locks together and I mean I feel really excited for you like it just feels really good.

Jennifer Wood (48:46)
I

like might cry, maybe really emotional. Thank you, thank you. yeah, I’ve kind of realised as I’ve got older, and maybe it’s something that happens when you get older, I’m like…

the things that bring you joy, the things that matter. You haven’t got time for, I’m not allowed, I don’t know if I’m allowed to swear, but I’m going to. You’ve got less time for bullshit. You’ve got less time for just crap and crappy relationships. And if somebody or something, someone doesn’t serve you anymore, say thank you and acknowledge it, but they don’t need to come with you or it doesn’t need to come with you into the newer version of yourself. And that could be in friendships, in relationships, in careers, in whatever it might be. And I think it’s only

Victoria (49:09)
Yeah.

Jennifer Wood (49:30)
time that makes you see that. Time is so precious and so valuable that I want to spend it with people that bring me joy in my personal life, but equally with the clients I work with. I want me to bring them joy and they to bring me joy to me and the wellness events. want to bring joy to women and I think it’s that.

I felt really grateful for some of the topics that we’ve covered and the openness that the women have had because they’ve been really vulnerable and they’ve obviously, someone said to me, you’ve obviously held a space where they feel like they can open up and that is something really to be proud of. think, yeah, somehow I found the calling that I get to serve in this, like you say, underneath the umbrella of Jen, but with very much a health and wellness running through it because that’s something that sits very much and is very much

Victoria (50:05)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Jennifer Wood (50:23)
grained in me.

Victoria (50:25)
Yeah, and you get to show your daughter, as you were saying, you know, she’ll see you on the peloton with her daddy, you know, and you’re exercising together, you’re showing her that it’s important to take time and prioritize yourself. And I think hopefully, I mean, I’m, still really struggle with this because I exercise is the first thing to go by the wayside for me.

but I think I’m learning slowly that it’s not just something I have to prioritize for myself, but it is for the girls because they will do what I do. They are not gonna do what I say. I can’t not take care of myself and then expect them to take care of themselves because I actually haven’t shown them how to do it. And I haven’t shown them that I think it’s important. And it goes, was talking to another…

another mom on the podcast and she was saying how important it is to just lie down and have a nap in front of your child. And I never would do this ever because I always think I’ve got 10,000 things to do. But actually just if you’re tired, listen to your body, have a nap. That is how we live. That is how we take care of ourselves. We respond to these physical nudges. You you went to the gong bath and you…

your body sent you a message. And if we feel tired, it’s because our body needs to rest. And so often, you you look back at even like five years ago, you know, the hustle mentality and this alpha kind of corporate world where we just go and we go and we go and we go. And actually it’s kind of on us in this generation to break that cycle for our kids and show them that we are human.

Jennifer Wood (52:16)
100%.

Victoria (52:18)
Like we can’t go and go and go and go. We leave that to AI. Yeah.

Jennifer Wood (52:21)
Now burnout is such a big thing though, isn’t it? You see it

from, we’re seeing kids now, don’t we? Kids having burnout because they just have too much stuff and too many activities all the way up to people who sit on the boards of really big companies. It’s a real thing because I think, like you say, we’re so bad at just, I’m okay, I only had four hour sleeps, like nudge of honour. I’m fine, I’m fine, I’ll just have another cup of coffee. And there was a point when you just go.

Victoria (52:44)
I’m fine. I’m fine. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I love that you have all this knowledge and this awareness and this wisdom that I’m also really enjoying that comes with just being a little bit older. You know, we’re not in our twenties anymore and our time is finite. And I think becoming a mom, your time is even more precious and more valuable because it’s always time that you could be with your child. And so you are more efficient, but you’re starting to learn.

that you really do matter. And that if you want to have the same again, in terms of your longevity, you do have to take care of yourself and we need to show our kids how. And that’s something that you’re obviously bringing with you, even into your marketing business, you you can judge to what extent your clients need help based on their capacity in a really generous and human way.

you can see if they’re trying to do it themselves and actually they’re finding it too much and you can take some of that back from them. So it all kind of plays out through every aspect of what you’re doing. And I love that. I love it. So I have one last question for you before I let you go, Jen. Your daughter’s nine, is that right? Eight? Eight, perfect, okay.

Jennifer Wood (54:00)
Eight. Eight, yes.

Victoria (54:04)
What would you say now if you could have a conversation with eight-year-old Jen?

Jennifer Wood (54:11)
you

funnily enough I’ve actually spoken to 8 year old Jen I’ve done some hypnotherapy in the past again just randomly like it was part of I think I was offered it as a wellness package through work and I met a chap who actually then became a client of mine ⁓ and did some hypnotherapy and actually going back to your inner child on a particular issue or a particular problem and meeting her where she was and giving her what she needed ⁓ and if I think about that because it’s a very specific age for me I think it was a

Victoria (54:15)
Okay, right, go on.

No.

Jennifer Wood (54:42)
She just needed a hug. She just needed a hug and be told that like, you’re enough and I love you. That’s probably, that’s all she needed in that moment. That’s probably all Halle needs to know, right? Like, it’s okay.

Victoria (54:55)
Yeah.

Jennifer Wood (54:56)
It’s okay. Mummy loves you. Daddy loves you. It’s fine if you get things wrong or you maybe didn’t listen in school today or you got told off or whatever it might be or you’re tired or you have a meltdown and you lie on the floor and you scream. It’s okay. Like I love you. We all do it. Mummy wants to do it. But Mummy is just older and more emotionally capable to not do that. But you are and it’s okay. And yeah, that’s probably it. Like I love you. It’s fine.

you will be okay and you will be amazing and you will do wonderful things.

Victoria (55:30)
I love that. And you are enough. I mean, it’s so important. I feel like we should all be told that as soon as we wake up every morning. Give yourself a break. You are enough. It’s lovely. Really beautiful sentiment. So Jen, tell me where everybody can find you. If they would like to track you down online, find out more about any of the things that you do, whether it’s digital marketing or recipes for their kids, where should they look you up?

Jennifer Wood (55:57)
Okie dokie. So Facebook it is me, Jennifer Wood, that is where you would find me. Of LinkedIn again it’s my name, that’s obviously more for the business profile. My website is thedigitalmarketingmom.co.uk and Instagram again my name, thecleanlifemom or thedigitalmarketingmom so you can find me in three of those different channels on Instagram.

Victoria (56:21)
Fantastic, thank you so much, Jen. I’ve loved this conversation. It’s been so lovely talking with you. Thank you for sharing your story. And this is your first podcast, so I’m honored.

Jennifer Wood (56:27)
Thank you. ⁓ thank you. It is,

you’ve popped my podcast, Sherry, thank you.

Victoria (56:38)
Oh, thanks so much, Jen.

Jennifer Wood (56:41)
Bye, thank you. ⁓