Episode 5: Melanie Cooke On Community, Financial Freedom And “Getting Your Pink Back”

Melanie Cooke (00:07)
underlying everything that I do is all around

self-education, improving yourself, realising what’s important actually in life goal isn’t that a lot of money, it’s that we’re financially secure and stable enough to live a life that we want to live so we can feel security but underlying happiness that goes with having less pressure.

Victoria (00:29)
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, pee-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, 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.

Victoria (01:07)
My guest today is an NHS videotherapist, content creator, and DIY queen. Over the past six years, she’s successfully built a loyal following online under her brand name, Banish the Beige, by sharing real life renovation projects, clever interior design solutions, and thoughtful makeovers in her family homes.

I say homes because this savvy lady, along with her husband Christian, has renovated not one, but three houses, all at the same time as having not one, but three babies. Melanie Cooke is now sharing the story of her third renovation, a 1970s upside down house in Chester. Blending style with practicality, she inspires other moms with innovative ways to create beautiful functional spaces on a budget, all while juggling busy family life and work.

How she manages to juggle all of this with three kids, I do not know, but I am keen to find out. Melanie, I cannot wait to hear your story. Welcome to the Mom Means Business podcast.

Melanie Cooke (02:02)
Thank you.

Victoria (02:03)
So you had a steady and I imagine a demanding job in the NHS. You and Christian were starting a family and you had a cute terrace house to do up. It would seem to most people that you had your hands full. So what made you decide to start sharing your story online?

Melanie Cooke (02:21)
Well, I just saw lots of people sharing their own stories and where I got most of my inspiration from was from Instagram. So I thought why not share our story? Also because we did things on a budget and I thought some of the skills that we’d learned along the way would help other people in a similar situation.

Victoria (02:39)
Okay, and was it strategical? So did you imagine that you might become a DIY social media influencer or was it just a bit of fun?

Melanie Cooke (02:46)
No, absolutely not. No,

it was really just a hobby, you know, but…

The community back then in sort of 2018-2019 was much different to what it is now. and I didn’t know really any influencers back then, quite naively maybe, but I didn’t have much social media. But yeah, I kind of fell upon it becoming a paid job essentially by posting five times a week for all those years before

finally in 2021 getting my first sort of wage from it.

Victoria (03:19)
Okay, so that’s quite a commitment.

Melanie Cooke (03:20)
Hmm, yeah, well, I felt like I knew that maybe something good was coming, but it was a long time, but also I was on maternity leave and I was a bit bored and it saved me. It saved my mental health.

which is so weird to say in this day and age of social media, ripping people’s mental health from them. But actually, it saved my mental health whilst I was in that first maternity leave. It was meant to do? Yeah.

Victoria (03:47)
I was going to say, so was that your first baby?

How did you find that? much maternity leave did you have with your first? Okay, nice. Okay. No, it’s lovely. I I was lucky as well. I had 12 months too, not everybody does. But that’s also quite a long time. It’s quite a shock to the system when you go from busy physiotherapist.

Melanie Cooke (03:53)
You get 12 months in the NHS, so I’ve had three times 12 months. Very lucky.

Victoria (04:11)
starting your life with your husband, very social, and then suddenly you have a baby and your whole world becomes your house for a while. how did that feel?

Melanie Cooke (04:22)
it was a major shock to the system. It was probably my most mentally unwell time of my So had to seek quite a bit of mental health help midwife health visit at GP and ended up going to like a mental health group. I struggled once it hit sort of six months.

Really, you rather than the first postpartum, post-notal depression, it hit me at six months and I was probably actually at my worst, I would say.

about eight or nine months, then I started my Instagram in the December, it was born in the May and I started in the December. So maybe I was quite poorly then I can’t really remember. you know what, there is a blank segment there for me where I can’t remember exactly starting it. can’t remember why as such. I knew it was about inspiration, and I found this little community, but it really help me through the days, you know, those slow days of waiting for your husband to get back from work.

chat to and something to do and something that I felt that I was contributing again because I always feel like whatever I do I have to be contributing to the community and to society to feel valued so doing the Instagram yeah and then I’ve used utilized it then through my maternity leave with Florence and then my maternity leave with Ted as well but yeah actually it was much much better for me

Victoria (05:39)
Yeah, I can totally see that. think there’s certainly a big identity shift that comes about when you have a baby. And there’s something in there, isn’t there, just feeling valuable? Because you kind of become, I mean, I don’t know, if you breastfeed, you feel like you’re just kind of a milk machine. And babies, yeah, you’re exhausted, you’re not sleeping well, and going through the same rhythm every day.

Melanie Cooke (05:54)
Yeah, yeah, and you’re very tired, aren’t you?

Mm-hmm, yeah.

Victoria (06:04)
did you struggle with that? Because, I mean, obviously as well, Christian’s going off work. Did you feel like you had a support network around you

Melanie Cooke (06:11)
he was born… so I’m from Bury which is North Manchester and I moved over to Chester in 2008 with a boyfriend at the time and then I ended up that…

broke down but I ended up with a job in Rithyn in a mental health rehab unit like an occupational therapist assistant I was for a couple of years and then I went into physio a bit later on

my parents lived in Bury still and Christian’s parents were in Manchester as well at the time.

Whereas my parents now have moved over this way, so they do much more for us, you know, from a childcare and support point of view. But yeah, I didn’t really have that group of friends either because they were all in Manchester as well. So yeah, I was on my own, but I…

I made friends, you know, I got out and I walked the dog around the dog park and I used to go to a couple of clubs or, you know, baby groups and that was okay. I made a couple of lovely friends actually there, but it didn’t feel the whole day. It’s not the same backup as your mum is it, you know.

Victoria (07:06)
No, definitely not. I had my first at the start of the third lockdown, the last one. and my partner actually was sent on an emergency job to Oman when she was seven weeks old. He didn’t come back till she was five and a half and we just moved into this house, which was a doer upper at the time. And so

from like seven weeks to I’d say when it opened up again, there was about two and a half months there where I was quite isolated in this house. And I think you can go kind of stir crazy,

Melanie Cooke (07:35)
When was it? 2020?

Victoria (07:37)
She was born December 20, so this was the third lockdown, so 21. So we started opening up in April and I’d had an NCT group, but it had all been put on so we couldn’t meet until April. And there’d been a bit of WhatsApp chat, but it’s hard when you haven’t met face to face, you’re kind of WhatsApping strangers. But that first

I was so ready for it. I was like, please give me company. Like give me another mom to talk to because I’m going mental. It’s hard.

Melanie Cooke (08:04)
It’s hard, yeah that’s horrendous.

Victoria (08:06)
but much easier than for children since because your mum came closer. So you’ve had a bit of help with childcare there.

Melanie Cooke (08:11)
Yeah, but I can manage them because as soon as you’ve

got one, you’re distracted, aren’t you? You don’t worry then about the next one, you the kind of like, you’re going to get the other one from school and there’s different routine. You’re used to the sleep deprivation, you know, that was obviously the killer in the first one, yeah, by the second one and then the third, was water off a ⁓ back.

Victoria (08:29)
there’s definitely an element of that. I mean, I’ve only got two, the second one already, like, she just slips under the radar. I imagine if you had a third, you’d just be like, are they still alive? Yeah, good, that’ll do. how did your children fit in with these house renovations? ⁓ tell me, was that always a plan that you and Christian had that you were gonna, I mean, it’s not flipping houses, is it? Because these are your homes and you’re living in these houses as you’re doing them up.

Melanie Cooke (08:38)
Yeah, yeah right.

Victoria (08:55)
with babies, which is a lot.

Melanie Cooke (08:57)
It is still classed as floating

though I think still never in it long enough to settle down you know it’s always a profitable situation so as soon as we know we can sell that property and make a profit it’s the right time we strike while the iron’s hot and then we sell it and then we move on to the next thing and it’s that would be a profit.

Victoria (09:19)
So is that something that you guys planned to do in the early stages that you were both kind of up for that and where did that idea come from? What was the go on.

Melanie Cooke (09:28)
My dad’s

a joiner not always moved a lot as a youngster myself, but I always knew there was money to be made in property, of course. to improve your quality of life or to change things for yourselves and change things for your children’s lives, I suppose. So I learned that we had some good skills and that if my dad could help us a bit, that’d us on quite a significant amount of labour, like the first house

only spent 10 grand because we did it on the cheap. My dad did all the labor and we made, I mean, it wasn’t a massive profit, but it was enough to then buy the second one with 10 when we’d only started with 5 % and we were buying a three bed semi next time. then I’d income to renovate the next one. So I didn’t utilize any loans or anything. just…

You know, it was still a small amount of money really in the grand scheme of renovating, but we managed to make quite a lot of money there because again, family helped, Christian and I learned our own DIY skills and we did the majority ourselves. And then utilized increase in property value over lockdown because I think we moved in July 2020 and we sold it.

April, 2023 is when we moved. sold it in the January. But, it was the right time. I know it was only two years, but I just knew, yeah, let’s just get that one done and then get on to the next one. Kind of like have that momentum going where you’re used to renovating. think it’d be hard to settle down, enjoy it for too long, become accustomed to like the extra money for lifestyle. Whereas what we do is we’re ploughing it all into the

and then that fundamentally is your or whatever you want to class it as. That’s our financial freedom or it will be eventually, hopefully that’s the plan.

Victoria (11:01)
So the plan is to keep doing this to yourselves.

Melanie Cooke (11:04)
Kind of, I think, well no, I think this one, so we’ve done it. If we sell it for what I think we can sell it for, which will probably be in three to five years, Christian five, me three, but we’ll maybe meet in the middle, I don’t know. ⁓ We’ll have made enough money to buy the next house just of equity, so we won’t have a mortgage anymore.

I wouldn’t have to work potentially or Christian wouldn’t have to work. I I really enjoy my NHS job, all the pressure would go off me The money could go into savings and we could potentially retire early or we could be living it up, living a completely different lifestyle for NHS workers, you know, because you haven’t got that huge mortgage and overhead.

Victoria (11:40)
I mean, it’s very clever, but it’s also a lot of hard graft. I presume this is like your evenings, your weekends, all your spare time.

Melanie Cooke (11:48)
It is, is.

it doesn’t take up every second of it, but when the projects are on, it is every second. So there’s breaks in it, there are breaks, but you know why there’s breaks? Because the money’s not there to do the work. If the money was there to do the work, there would not be any breaks.

Victoria (11:56)
and how.

Melanie Cooke (12:04)
It would just be like bang, bang, bang and yeah, it’s exhausting but we do enjoy it and you know, we love getting stuck into doing a project and seeing the results at the end and there’s a lot of gratification in the Instagram account because of how much people enjoy doing it with you and then the final result. It’s much more than just your own investment in Thousands of other people are invested in what you’re doing. So that boosts you on even more.

Victoria (12:28)
Yeah, do you feel like you’d feel differently about the process if you didn’t have that community, if you hadn’t built it, if you were just doing it quietly?

Melanie Cooke (12:34)
Yeah, I would think so.

Yeah, yeah, because I’ve got no one to teach. mean, my friends probably get sick of suggesting certain ways to live your life or, you know, someone does say, you’re like a life coach, you know, lots of different ideas for different aspects of your don’t know, it’s kind of researching how do you better yourself, not just financially, mentally, emotionally, physically, everything. It’s kind of…

Victoria (12:43)
Hahaha!

Melanie Cooke (12:57)
That’s the kind of being that I am. I want to give that information to others. I love educating people around how to better themselves.

Victoria (13:06)
I can see just from the way you’re talking about it that it really matters to you. You know, cause I can imagine there are influences that are kind of, you it’s a means to an end, isn’t it? you’re sharing value, you’re sharing your story, but it’s always about like, well, what are you going to get back?

Melanie Cooke (13:10)
Yeah.

Yeah.

And that does flip a switch when you’re getting your accounts quite a bit bigger and the money does start to come in and you think, wow, this is really life changing because it has been. But yeah, underlying everything that I do is all around that kind of…

self-worth, self-education, improving yourself, realising what’s important actually in life because it isn’t, my goal isn’t that a lot of money, it’s that we’re financially secure and stable enough to live a life that we want to live so we can feel security but underlying happiness that goes with having less pressure.

I want to live a simpler life, like the house I’m in now is too big. I always say to Christian, it frustrates me really. I’m cleaning rooms

you know, drive, yeah, no one goes in and cleaning them, but also decorating rooms that no one needs. So I know we’ll downsize a bit

Victoria (14:02)
and then we’ll go to sleep.

Melanie Cooke (14:10)
because I don’t want the space, I don’t need the size of it, you know, I feel like we’ve got more than what we need and it’s unnecessary.

Victoria (14:16)
So this place December 19th.

Melanie Cooke (14:21)
Yeah.

Victoria (14:22)
literally took it back to the ground. Like it was a building project, it wasn’t a renovation. we took the roof off, we took everything down. My dad was a builder, so similar to you. I handy dads, it does kind of have a relentlessly positive impact on your life. Like a dad that can like fix anything you know, almost every wall in this house he built. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Melanie Cooke (14:32)
Yeah, it’s energy.

It gives you some confidence doesn’t it to do it and give it a go so if it goes wrong So mum was at home with us and can fix it.

Victoria (14:46)
Well, your dad was a joiner.

Melanie Cooke (14:45)
So mum was at home with us and

dad worked on the building

Victoria (14:49)
Yeah, that’s so funny because that’s really similar to me. So my dad was builder and my mum looked after us. I think it’s that thing something from nothing, like the reward of that, like you said about renovating a house, you start with nothing and then you build something and you’ve got something and just that simple process in there’s a lot of satisfaction to be gained from that. ⁓ But it’s the same with what you’re doing on social media, same principle, isn’t it? You start with nothing.

Melanie Cooke (14:51)
of it. Yeah.

So simple. Yeah. Yeah.

Victoria (15:13)
There will have been a point when you had like a hundred followers, you know, like this podcast right now. You’ve got to start somewhere.

Melanie Cooke (15:15)
No one. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah.

Victoria (15:21)
think what you’ve done and the kind of, I suppose the objective behind it to have a life where you just take away all of that kind of societal pressure to achieve and to win and to.

Melanie Cooke (15:31)
Yeah.

Victoria (15:34)
buy stuff, you know, to have all the things and you can just strip that right back and be like, well, what’s important?

Melanie Cooke (15:37)
Yeah, I don’t want that.

Yeah, exactly. Like, what was important growing up was that my mum was at home with us, whereas I had literally have to work to pay the mortgage. Yeah, so, you know, there’s no let up there and the NHS, you know,

Victoria (15:48)
Yeah.

Melanie Cooke (15:53)
the money isn’t there in healthcare at all but it’s what we’re trained in and what we you know what we do so there had to be a different way, a different income, a different way to improve our quality of life and lifestyle really.

Victoria (16:05)
Yeah, I think you’re doing it though, aren’t you? You know, it’s… Yeah.

Melanie Cooke (16:08)
Yeah, we’re doing it. Yeah, we’ve nearly done it. nearly done it. The next one will be a Rena,

we might build our own house, I don’t know, but it will be a Rena because we’ll want something decent and we’ll have to put the work in. But at least next

don’t have the same pressure to get it finished and gone, you know, to then make the profit, to then buy the next one, you know, the next time. it will be slower paced because there’s no pressure to do it then because we’ll have done

Victoria (16:30)
That’s something to look forward to, isn’t it? So I mean, you could drop down and you could work part-time or you could just do, I mean, how do you envisage that? Say money’s not a concern. what’s

Melanie Cooke (16:42)
I’ve already dropped.

I worked three days in the NHS but I really do love my job.

we know where we are and what we’re up to, I don’t know what I’ll do. No, no, I enjoy both you see, I really do, but there does feel that underlying pressure to earn, whereas I’d love that not to be there.

Victoria (16:49)
You don’t have to decide now though, do you? You can let it unravel.

Do you feel

like in some ways…

difficult question to ask. Do you feel like any of that pressure comes from you? Because you’ve got this goal that you set yourself, that you’ve got to be mortgage free.

Melanie Cooke (17:09)
Yeah, and I have to talk about,

yeah, we’re trying to work on our relationship because, you know, you have three kids, you’re together for so long, and we’re just starting to like, nuzzle down, and so I’m not having more kids. not breastfeeding anymore. I’m not pregnant anymore. I’m not, you know, all of that that’s come with eight years worth of trying to conceive, being pregnant, breastfeeding, trying to conceive, you know, that rolling…

Victoria (17:22)
Yeah.

Melanie Cooke (17:31)
reproduction, I don’t know what to call it, but yeah, that kind of pressure that comes in that sense, I suppose, and we’re coming through the other side and figuring out what’s going on. That’s my goal, I think. I have like a 20-year life plan, which then I said, oh God, I need to chill out a bit about that, why am I so intent? Like, why has it got to be

you regimented, I suppose, it’s not in some ways, but there’s an overall goal And I like to work back from that goal. I don’t want to work till I’m 67 in the NHS, you know, I’d like to retire 10 years early, be mortgage free 10 years prior to that. So then can save for 10 years, then we can retire 10 years early, But

Victoria (18:01)
Yeah, yeah.

Melanie Cooke (18:10)
Yeah, I do have to kind of remind myself that it might not be Christian’s goal as well, you know.

Victoria (18:14)
It’s I suppose what you’re doing, and which is the case with anyone seeking a kind of financial freedom, you’re front loading your effort. You know, it’s a big effort in your kind of 20s, 30s to do that.

Melanie Cooke (18:23)
Yeah.

a short sharp hit now for reaping rewards but he does say as well but you could die tomorrow. I think God yeah you’re right you’re gonna have goals as well I just I’m a positive person very optimistic and I want to hit goals and targets and I like a bit of pressure.

Victoria (18:45)
I’m the same. And I don’t know, maybe it’s a bit of boy girl in there or maybe it’s just completely individual, but yeah, my partner’s like, we’re living for today. What are we gonna do this weekend? And I’m like, well, I’ve got loads I need to do. And I’m thinking of something I’ve got to achieve. And that if I do this here, then that makes that, and he’s like, but aren’t we gonna just have fun? I wasn’t in my plan. I didn’t plan to have any fun.

So it’s hard to reconcile that.

Melanie Cooke (19:15)
Mm, it is,

yeah, we’re just kind of wiggling through it. hard to even acknowledge the fact that you need to wiggle through it, you know what I mean? It’s hard to step back, have a look, and then start those conversations that are a bit, I’ve got to be honest, awkward, because you’re not allowed to have them, because all you’ve been doing is focusing on kids and survival.

Victoria (19:34)
Exactly,

that’s been in heavy function mode. Like you’re just having your functional conversations. So how old are your children now?

Melanie Cooke (19:42)
So Albin’s 7 flows for Teddy’s 2.

Victoria (19:46)
Okay, so still young. So yeah, I’ve got exactly same as you except without the seven year old, so we’ll take him out. So young, like there’s still a lot and you’re only just coming out of babyhood with the little one. Yeah.

Melanie Cooke (19:48)
Very young, yeah.

Yes.

Yeah, we’re just peeking out of it. He’s still not sleeping.

with it.

Victoria (20:02)
it takes it out of you,

nighttime stuff. feel like in those early years, I threw myself into work and into my own business I was desperate try some progress somewhere and get hold of a little bit of old me.

Melanie Cooke (20:19)
Yeah.

Victoria (20:20)
And it was like this striving and something that I was pursuing for myself. And

Melanie Cooke (20:23)
Yeah.

I always knew I’m in NHS job and that’s a professional qualification and it’s a good one, physio.

So I knew I had like this underlying career that I was going back to, but the Instagram was always a bit of fun, a bit of a hobby, a of a side hustle. Education, lot of my earlier stuff was all around education

even more than DIY I suppose, they used to educate people on my reels or it was IGTV back then about how to do Instagram because people were always like, you know, could you show us, tell us how to grow your Instagram? I probably only had 10,000 followers, but yeah, I used to be really invested in helping other people and that gives me what I need if I know that I’m making a difference to someone else, then I’m always happy.

Victoria (21:04)
Did it surprise you how successful you were on Instagram?

Melanie Cooke (21:08)
honestly now, I tell I know that that is what I deserve in a sense of how much I worked, how much effort goes into it’s hard to say that, I know for most people, but actually I do recognise that I put in 40 or 50 hours a week to progress.

on social media could be more. I don’t like to really think about it in some ways because you think, my god. Yeah, it wasn’t a surprise that it did well because of how much effort I put in.

Victoria (21:34)
Yeah, and continue to put in.

Melanie Cooke (21:35)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Victoria (21:37)
and tell me about the community aspect of what transition do you want to bring about for the people who are following you? And why does that matter to you?

Melanie Cooke (21:45)
because the following or the people who follow me say that they follow me for me rather than what I’m doing in the house that’s an interesting thing as well because I never really thought that people follow me I am as a person I thought they’d follow me for the house really because we’re renovating and that’s interesting isn’t it and that’s what you kind of

gaining followers around I suppose but people are staying because of something else. So they’re following you for one thing but they stay because you offer something else. I mean really it’s all around education for people, around learning new skills in DIY and in general life, around building yourself back up again post having children.

That’s really important to me now to showcase the journey that I’m in then hopefully encourage other people to do the same things for themselves because as mums we all deserve that, you know.

Victoria (22:36)
I think this is one of the posts that I clocked that made me reach out to you about coming on this podcast because, that is something that really struck a chord with me because I feel like I’ve spent like four years in leggings at least.

And especially when you’re doing like house stuff as well, all your spare money is going to the house. And we’re still not finished here. We’ve got rooms that I don’t show anybody. I this looks nice, but you should see around the corner. So it’s an ongoing thing that annoys you because you walk past it every day. I don’t know if you’re the same. I’m like, we need to finish that. This is doing my head in. So I’m not gonna…

Melanie Cooke (22:53)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Victoria (23:11)
go and treat myself to a new top and also your kids need clothes, know, there’s always something else that comes before mum. And what did you call it like getting your pink

Melanie Cooke (23:17)
Yeah.

was that professor, wasn’t it, about female flamingos are the only mammal on earth that physically show how depleted they are in their hormones and energy post-birth because they lose that bright pink and that’s why they’re that pink.

and that’s why it’s called getting your pink back. It’s fantastic isn’t it? Yeah. I thought, yeah if you cut me open I’m like tar in there. No. Very nice tan on the ⁓ though.

Victoria (23:39)
I love it. It’s great. We should all do that. We should all go like gray, just to show everybody. ⁓

But,

yeah, well exactly, but this is the thing, like, we put on a good show, don’t we? You you rally, especially if there’s something social going on, you rally, you get your slap on, but actually, yeah, underneath, you know, you’re shattered.

Melanie Cooke (23:58)
Yeah.

get yourself

I went out on Saturday night with one of my very best friends and my sister and it still hits you in the middle of the day like, oh they’ve not texted yet, they probably haven’t texted, they probably won’t go, what a relief. Whereas that would never have been on my mind at all, I’ve been texting the day before, would have gone out shopping and bought the clothes, you know, whereas my friend, messaged and she said, oh do you want to do porter and drinks?

rather than a night out. So then I was like, yes, thank God. So I just sat down the whole time. now, I think, oh, I wish we would have properly gone out and danced. Like, I shouldn’t have eaten all that food. Instead of eating and sitting there, I wish I would have shown my outfit off and gone and danced and stayed up and like, I kind of regret that we didn’t do that in the end. Whereas at the time though, I felt relief because of the…

Victoria (24:32)
Bed

Melanie Cooke (24:49)
anxiety around going out and, you know, I don’t know, just your mood changes, doesn’t it, as to what’s important, I suppose, to you. And I know it’s not always about drinking, definitely not, but mine would be more like dancing, chatting, wearing the nice outfit and just staying out late and having a good time. And yeah, the opportunity is passed you by.

Victoria (25:07)
But just as,

yeah, well I mean, I’m sure there’ll be more. it’s, I think it’s just like going out into the world as your independent self. like you just have, I suppose you’re filling your cup.

Melanie Cooke (25:11)
Okay.

Victoria (25:19)
and you’ve treated yourself But now it’s like, well, the impact that that has on the next day and can you be bothered? And there’s so much around, isn’t it? Endless stuff on social media, best friends are the ones that cancel. You’re like, this is so sad. This is so It’s awful. So what have you been doing? Tell me about your journey.

Melanie Cooke (25:33)
It’s done. Yeah.

Victoria (25:38)
And is it journey with fitness, a journey with like reclaiming your body, having donated it during your reproduction era? What’s that been like for you?

Melanie Cooke (25:45)
Yeah.

So I started with an online coach about months ago in the January, 2024. I paid to do like a eight week short shot blast kind of thing with her. And then I had a break. Then I actually did the same thing again. I paid again. And then she contacted me.

in the September and said, do I want to be a one-to-one client for exchange of social media posting kind of things? I thought, all right, I’ll give that a

then go into the gym. So she does all your gym programs. So I lift heavy weights. I’ve always done. It’s nothing new to me now. It’s how I’ve always trained.

And alongside that comes, I don’t know, your skin looks a bit better and everything kind of just lifts, your mood lifts because you’re exercising. The endorphins with exercising are massive, aren’t they? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I I’m only doing three times a week.

and I don’t get out really apart from with the kids for walking but that’s what I do and that is what I enjoy and that is really important to me and I make sure that I go and yeah just really enjoy the sessions that my body’s changing and I feel just a lot better when I look in the mirror and then I’ve taken lots of nutrients and stuff like that so my skin’s improving and I’m working on like trying to sort my hair out because it went very very thin after children

Yeah, it’s like an overhaul. Christian doesn’t know what’s hitting. I’m just like, yeah, I’m getting this, I’m getting that. And I’m going to do a tan every week and you’re going have to do my back. So hold that thought and get ready with your sponge.

Victoria (27:05)
But that’s great though, you’re like shouting from the rooftops that you matter and that you’re important and that you’ve donated all this energy to these humans into the world. And now you need to take care of yourself and replenish. It’s really important. It’s really

Melanie Cooke (27:11)
Yeah.

Exactly, that’s what I’m doing.

telling everyone else to do it as well. They might message me and say thank you, you’ve helped me so much to regain my confidence and you’ve been so positive and it’s helping me along my journey in a similar sort of way. And it’s just so, I don’t know, it’s lovely it’s vulnerability isn’t it, sharing your body and putting it online

Victoria (27:21)
And what’s the feedback?

Melanie Cooke (27:36)
sharing anything that makes you a bit vulnerable but people appreciate that, that’s what they connect with isn’t it because you’ve got to be relatable.

Victoria (27:44)
Well, it’s real. I think part of the reason that I wanted to start this podcast is I’m a bit of a podcast addict and I have consumed a lot of business I was kind of just so tired of hearing interviews with people who are having like seven figure months. that’s not relatable to me.

Melanie Cooke (28:02)
⁓ no.

Victoria (28:05)
And it’s not normal. It also, kind of just, come away from it after a while and you just feel like, what, you know, I must be doing something wrong. There’s something wrong with me. And I think there are so many women who striving businesses, striving with projects.

like what you’re doing, know, flipping houses, And I suppose with you, kind of generational wealth. you’re accumulating wealth through this hard graft at this early stage when you’ve got a young family that will see you in Christian, through your retirement, stress-free, hopefully, and also sets you up to be in a good position to help your children later on.

Melanie Cooke (28:28)
Yeah.

Yes.

Yeah. Yeah.

I can

help them out. So things have changed already. We put money into ISIS for them. So I didn’t have that growing up. There was no money left at all for us growing up. You know, we didn’t have abroad holidays, things like that. My kids get to go abroad on holiday. I don’t, I always look for deals. I’ve got to say I’m quite a savvy kind of shopper,

They get to go on holiday abroad at least once a year. We didn’t have that growing up. I didn’t have like back up savings growing up from our parents or money for a house or money for a car. mean, my grandparents saved for us, so I had money for driving lessons. So that was good. Our parents did help with the first house deposit as did Christian’s parents. They both put some money in, But my parents had to remortgage late in life in order to help the three children

you know I just think well if we can get ourselves into a position where…

can help our children a bit, but we can also live a much nicer lifestyle now while they’re young, not just when they’ve left. it with them. So there’s that sense of freedom, isn’t it? Where on a Friday, if we say, we get a takeaway? We can, because we never had that. So it’s that drive, isn’t it, to change your life?

what it was like for you growing up, you know?

Victoria (29:52)
Do you feel like that is what’s motivating you to put in all this work?

Melanie Cooke (29:55)
Kind

yes, yeah. One of the bigger drives is that because our mum didn’t work, she wasn’t valued in the household. So I never ever want a bloke to speak to me like my dad spoke to my mum growing up.

I want to show my dad that women are valuable and that we will earn a lot more than blokes in some circumstances and that is how it is and that’s what I’ve done for us.

However, what she’s taught me is time is worth more than money. That it doesn’t matter if you don’t go abroad on holiday with your kids because they don’t care actually. You know, they just want time with you. That’s the key thing. So my reward as a child was to spend time with my mum, who was absolutely great. We had great adventures with loads of stuff. know, through the summer holidays, you could pick what you wanted to do and go wherever.

take picnics and have an absolutely great time. So I have fantastic childhood memories from her and I try and instil that only do three days so I’m off four days a week and you know do the pickups and the drop-offs

wise, I try and do it first thing post and then I do it once I’ve gone to bed really. I do nip on it in the day, not I wouldn’t impact our day too heavily. I’m mindful of that. But she instilled definitely that giving to community is the main thing. You want to, I’ve felt like you’ve…

improved other people’s lives rather than your own so it’s that you know selflessness isn’t it really and that’s the key I think that’s the reason why we’re here on earth is to

give to your community. I was trying to explain it to Christian, we might be the ones that host most of time, but that’s because of how valuable it is to bring people together and to open up those opportunities for them to spend quality time together. It’s in our home, we’re providing the situation, the food, the drinks, house, but I enjoy that because I want to make sure that people feel great around us, because that’s what my mum has always We always have the parties.

at our house for all the children. It was safe, it was great and the social element was always really there and very, very important to her.

Victoria (31:50)
I love that. I’m the same. you know, you go to endless kids parties soft plays and I can’t bear them. I’m just like, you you can’t really chat with people. And then there’s some like cold chips thrown around and I just, oh, it does my head the kids have a party, we just invite everybody here. I’m like, just come here, tear this house dad built, it’s…

Melanie Cooke (32:08)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, get stuck in, do what you need

to do.

Victoria (32:11)
Exactly, and just run wild and all the parents can talk to each other because the kids are just having a blast and you know it’s a big cleanup operation afterwards build a home you’re not going to invite people to enjoy it with you?

Melanie Cooke (32:25)
Exactly.

Victoria (32:26)
especially the way things are these days, like everyone’s up to their eyeballs in activities and birthday parties and all sorts.

the opportunities to come together are few and far between and then all the mums are like hoping you’re gonna cancel. So to have a party or to just like, know, give people an excuse to get together is so important.

Melanie Cooke (32:38)
you

It is, yeah, and I love it. I just point of hosting overtakes anything it’s probably one of the most important things I think anyone can do for other people in society.

Victoria (32:55)
something very simplistic about it as well. You you’re just kind of breaking bread together, really. ⁓

Melanie Cooke (33:00)
Yeah, yeah, see

people enjoy your food. mean, that gives me feels. That is what I enjoy and Christians appreciate it. likes it because I’ve brought that to the table. And he then says, it always makes for everyone’s gone, he always says, another success. And he hasn’t done any other prayer. But, you know, he’s enjoyed the fact that people have enjoyed what we’ve

Victoria (33:04)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Melanie Cooke (33:23)
got to offer and how we use our home for other people to enjoy.

Victoria (33:27)
But it’s the same as all the other things we talked about. It’s creating something from nothing. You could just stay in that Saturday night and do nothing, watch TV. But have to go to a certain amount of trouble to make stuff happen, don’t You were saying 40, 50 hours a week to start building your Instagram following. you’re going to a lot of trouble to do that. It’s a lot of graph to…

Melanie Cooke (33:34)
Yeah.

Yes.

That’s the reality of it. Yeah, that’s the

Victoria (33:49)
renovate house. But then at the end, you’ve got a beautiful house whenever I’ve done a house, we did this one and I did my first baby house, which I bought in 2011, which again was like a little end terrace. It was very cute. But I feel like I’ve secured that house. and it’s good to go for another century really. And you’re kind of gifting that back.

Melanie Cooke (33:50)
Yeah.

Victoria (34:08)
Even if you sell it, you you’re passing that on and it’s now a beautiful thing, whereas before it was a wreck and ruin. And that’s creating something from nothing in a sense. So it’s the same principle.

Melanie Cooke (34:16)
Yeah,

I know. It’s all things that are important to other people, I think, give you the most value in your life, don’t they?

I don’t know if everyone gets that or wraps their head around that so well. think Krishan and I are quite different in some ways. Like my mum and dad are very different. My dad probably, my dad does like that hosting element. He’s very good at cooking and things and I get a lot of confidence from cooking from him. Our mum of course, from the hosting side of it and cooking as well. But he probably would prefer not to bother so much now, whereas she still would love to be hosting more because she sees the value in how much people enjoy it.

Victoria (34:52)
Yeah, maybe there’s a bit of age in that. don’t know if I’ll be, I mean, my grandmother is amazing. just a hostess by nature and she was hosting way into her nineties but that’s kind of what she is known for, that is her USP. But I’ve got amazing memories of that as well, just kind of the whole big family gathered around at Christmas or whatever it might be.

Melanie Cooke (34:53)
Yeah.

world.

is yeah yeah definitely

Victoria (35:14)
So

tell me about how COVID impacted all these things that you were doing. So how did that fall in terms of where were you up to with the babies? Where were you up to with the houses? you were working in the

Melanie Cooke (35:29)
took everything from us. because we were, so physiotherapists were very much used on the front line.

I might have been on community in Wrexham.

Covid happened in the March, we were called in, you had to go on HDU, you had to get all the training for proning. So you might have had to prone at night, but because we had a little baby, no childcare, no bubble was allowed at the time, it? And we both required and we both still work in the same hospital. Proning was like a shift pattern thing, so we were taught it, but we didn’t do it because we leave the baby at night.

But what we did have to do is they classed us as one member of staff and we had to work 12 hour days, three days a week. So the other person was on their own with an 18 month old baby in a tiny terraced house with no garden, just a yard. While the other one was at work for like, obviously it’s 30 hours then because it was back in two was half an hour.

No matter what had happened in the day, obviously it was traumatic just going into the hospital. You have to strip all your clothes off at the front door, put them in a plastic bag, run past the baby who’s screaming for you, up the stairs, get a shower, then you can go and hug your baby.

That was horrendous and improved. So the first couple of months were awful and then I got moved to D-side. So there was a big leisure centre and I had to train staff with other members of staff to basically become…

technical instructors, assistant physiotherapists, really, Because it was going to be a rehab unit or a rehab ward for COVID. was 400 beds. So Krishna and I were both based there at one point. And on a Sunday then, when it was allowed,

think we’re allowed a bubble. My mum used to have Alby so then we’d work together on a Sunday and I’m we could accrue time in Loo because you got paid time and two-thirds on a Sunday so the two-thirds went to something in the weeks and you didn’t have to go in as often separately so you got more family time together because obviously having one day off a week working 12 hour days each, opposing days because you have no childcare.

Victoria (37:32)
Yeah.

Melanie Cooke (37:32)
Honestly, I went into a hospital the other day and they hadn’t taken down the screens and they still had all the two-meter distance in the corridors and stuff. It’s like quite an old hospital. And I had to go and do a fit mask test. And they put the big mask on your face and you’ve got to breathe and walk around with it and move your head and do all these tests. And my gosh, I that PTSD, was horrific. absolutely horrendous. But we moved house in…

July 2020 so that house then was great because it had a garden so it just changed your life completely

Victoria (38:04)
Yeah.

Melanie Cooke (38:05)
felt like we were together more there because we didn’t have the shift patterns that we had to adopt in the earlier Covid days

Victoria (38:12)
Did you feel anxiety around your baby that you’re gonna bring COVID home in that first lockdown. Did you feel anxious about it or do

Melanie Cooke (38:18)
Yeah, was

Yeah, I think we had to test ourselves each to check we didn’t have it. you’re very mindful that that could come into the house. Yeah, it was horrendous.

Victoria (38:28)
And so then kind of ease back into normal shift where you’ve got two more lockdowns and then another baby must have been on the way.

Melanie Cooke (38:35)
Yeah, so I was pregnant you know, when we could have Christmas were allowed to have five people or six people. And that’s when I found out that it was a girl. So I was 20 weeks pregnant then. I felt pregnant as we moved into that house, but we’ve been trying for a long time.

Victoria (38:41)
Yeah.

Melanie Cooke (38:50)
and I wouldn’t have stopped trying because of COVID. That didn’t enter my head someone said that to me on Instagram. I thought have been trying because of COVID, which I thought was, I don’t know, a weird thing to say, but no, it didn’t enter my head that COVID would have an impact on my having a child because of how long I’ve been trying for a baby for, you know.

Also, I must say, working in the NHS, you were…

out and about in normality in a way because you went to work and saw colleagues and you weren’t on to your own family but you saw colleagues so you had that glimpse of normality which was weirdly great so even though the work you did was awful it was terrifying you’ve actually had this little window of normality which you hadn’t had

Victoria (39:28)
Yeah, yeah.

Melanie Cooke (39:29)
We were of lucky,

you felt a bit lucky in a way. We were allowed to drive around because we worked together. and that felt like a bit of a treat to be out and about, no one else on the roads, going to patient to patient, getting a McDonald’s, just enjoying your life. we made the best of a bad situation.

Victoria (39:44)
But that definitely is valid because I mean it’s anecdotal, but in my experience just with friends and family, the people who isolated were the people that actually became all consumed by it. We were quite lucky here because we could do your 30 minutes exercise. So at the time I was working in the family business and I was on maternity.

Melanie Cooke (39:57)
Yeah, I so.

Yeah.

Victoria (40:07)
and had taken a hiatus from photography and we were building this place, which was interesting because again, like deliveries and all that stuff and you know, it was all a bit mad. our half an hour exercise was to walk up here and we’d just fill skips all day. And then if we had trades people in,

were not very good at socially distancing. It’s like, pass me that hammer and they’re like right across your face and you’re all sharing biscuits. And so actually we had a very normal experience as well. And I think that serves you better from a mental health point of view.

Melanie Cooke (40:26)
Yeah. Yeah.

different experience.

actually the NHS workers had a bit more exposure, knowledge, normality, so you were actually, so yeah.

Victoria (40:46)
Yeah, I mean, it all seems like a dream now, doesn’t it?

we touched on getting your pink back. Tell me what self-care looks like to you as a mum of three with a full-time job and a side hustle in the middle of a house renovation.

Melanie Cooke (41:00)
So, do you want like the daily routine of what I do to look after myself? So, I’ve slept through the night because Christian’s got up, I’ve got up early, I’ve had my two coffees, used like a proper, not a proper coffee machine, I’ve not got one yet, but you know, a cavity air, so I get proper coffee. then I post on my Instagram and do that little bit of work there, but then…

Victoria (41:03)
Hahaha

Melanie Cooke (41:20)
I make sure I have a shower every day, And then I have a lovely skincare routine, and I’ve always had that, and it’s really working well. So I do that, and then I do my makeup, I do my hair, I get dressed, put some half decent on.

photos and that helps with doing bit more fashion stuff on Instagram if you’re ready to have photos taken of your outfit every day or you know whenever you’re off work. first thing that enters my stomach is protein apart from the coffee. And then I have my vitamins.

Melanie Cooke (41:47)
and yeah I have like nice nutritional food you know nutritional stuff for everyone because it matters to me what I cook I’ve always cooked well but yeah much more mindful of what we’re eating then I go to the gym three times a week changed actually I do with my friends so if we meet up we go for a walk and a coffee and a gossip and we do like a two hour hike chatting rather than going sitting in a cafe and everyone’s getting like 10-13k steps in

Victoria (42:07)
Nice.

Melanie Cooke (42:10)
So all’s good. feel like a lot of the mums really appreciate that kind of thing I’m trying to look after my hair, put a hair mask on. I’m starting to wear perfume again and started to invest in jewellery and like different fun jewellery pieces.

Victoria (42:11)
That’s brilliant.

Melanie Cooke (42:23)
just like standard day-to-day so those kind of things which are much more about how I want to be seen it’s important to me and always has been but

There was lots of things I didn’t do because I had young babies, so the perfume and the jewellery for example, or even like a handbag, you know, now making an effort to take a handbag out rather than, I mean, I do have to take a big bag, but just to put a few of your own bits in so all my stuff isn’t lost in a changing bag. It’s small, but it’s effective. I was going to say, do feel like these small…

Victoria (42:52)
I was gonna say, you feel like this small app?

have a big impact on mental health.

Melanie Cooke (42:56)
big impact on mental

health? Huge impact, yeah, yeah, definitely. Without a doubt, I’d advise anyone to do it and that’s what I’m trying to do on my Instagram at the moment is encourage all the girls out there to put yourself first, prioritise yourself and just…

invest that money on the top you don’t buy because you’re buying your kids clothes. No, they’ve got loads of clothes like I’m getting the top and you know even using sites like Vinted because I’m trying to be more mindful and buy slower fashion, better quality, longer lasting,

and I’d shop on Vinted loads because the things that I would like to buy are 100 quid now but actually on Vinted they might be 40 or 50 and I buy like one thing a month and we have spending money that we have solidly every month and it’s the same and you know we’re just working through improving just improving myself overall

Victoria (43:44)
Yeah, I think I really need to take heed on this because I think I saw again, it’s all on Instagram, isn’t it? There was something going around. It was like, your kids don’t need another dress. You need a new bra. And when I saw that, I was like, my God, thinking, I knew exactly what bra I had on. It was white when I bought it, but honestly, that may have been seven years ago. And I’ve had two children since then and it was thoroughly like gray.

And it just, this Instagram post just landed at exactly the right moment. And in my head, I think I thought that like bras were really expensive and they’d had the whole of COVID and I’d had all these babies. I’ve been in a nursing bra for years. And I was like, bras are very expensive. I don’t need one. This works fine. And then actually I just went to like ⁓ &S and got a white bra that was actually white and it only cost me like 25 quid. I’m like, why have I been denying myself this joy of having all, I’m putting on this like manky old bra for such a long time. And I think there is a-

Melanie Cooke (44:33)
Bye.

Yeah, I got that.

Victoria (44:40)
Yeah, but my god, I did and it just makes you feel so much much It is just these tiny acts of self care. I’m not as hot on I need to…

Melanie Cooke (44:44)
Yeah.

It is. I saw one of my favourite Instagrammers,

she wrote on one of her posts one of her holiday must haves, it’s like a ritual, a new bra.

Victoria (44:56)
Yeah, nice.

Melanie Cooke (44:57)
So

you know what, that’s good because you probably go on holiday four times a year if you’re UK staycations included. So yeah, four brows a year. thought we should be getting ourselves guys. should spin the ones that have gone stretchy on the back and that have gone grey. Get your new brows out.

Victoria (45:06)
think so, yeah.

Yeah, definitely. about pride, isn’t it? At the end of the day, like pride can’t just be like you put on a necklace. Pride.

can go right the way down to like, what Nick, is he putting on today? Because that is gonna make a difference to how you show up in the world. Yeah. Yeah.

Melanie Cooke (45:22)
Absolutely. That’s where it starts with, doesn’t it?

Victoria (45:26)
Okay, so last question. With all the experience that you’ve had in the NHS as a mother and as a social media influencer and all these hats that you’re wearing, looking back, what would you tell your eight-year-old self?

Melanie Cooke (45:39)
Don’t listen to your dad. You’re gonna do alright? No, definitely, well, my mum instilled so much confidence as an eight-year-old. I would love to talk to myself as a new mum, where I was absolutely in the depths and dregs of postnatal depression, more than a youngster. My mum balanced out anything really. She made me feel like the best person that I could do anything.

Victoria (46:03)
That’s really

cool. That’s really, really cool, isn’t it?

Melanie Cooke (46:05)
Yeah, my confidence has come

from my mum’s instill in us that we are wonderful beings.

Victoria (46:12)
it’s amazing. It just goes to show like, it’s not about how much stuff you have or how many holidays you’re going on. Like you came out of your childhood feeling fully prepared. Like I am Melanie and I’m great and I’m good to go. You you’re ready to like grab life. Yeah.

Melanie Cooke (46:17)
Now.

Yes, yeah, yeah.

I mean, I think, you you change it when you’re in your teenage years or those early twenties years, but really the lowest point in my life is after I’d had my first child. And I’d love to go back there, give her a hug and say, this is going to be all right. Mum’s going to move closer. Your sister’s going to move closer. You’ll find, you know, a wonderful second career that brings so much joy.

you’ll do well in your physio career, your children are going to grow up fantastic and really well loved and nurtured and you’re going to pull through, you’re going to be successful and thrive in your life and provide for your family what you didn’t have in a sense financially growing up. And I think to know that, I think I would also say get going with your Instagram right now as soon as it’s

But yeah, definitely about survival and you will get through it and you know, it will be alright.

Victoria (47:23)
Do you feel like

you really needed to hear that at that moment?

Melanie Cooke (47:27)
Yeah, that this is only a short period. think my mum used to say, my best friend who’d had a baby as well, always said that, you know, it’s these phases and now I understand that. But at the time you’re in it aren’t you? And it’s difficult to understand, but it all changes and and there’s different parts to enjoy about your child.

through each phase, I suppose.

Victoria (47:47)
Yeah, I think when you have your first baby, it’s such an enormous shock to the system. I think there’s a lot for any new mum to grapple with in that. But yeah, you must be quite proud then to think that that’s kind of the phase where it all started. You know, the second career.

Melanie Cooke (47:53)
Yeah.

Yeah, but the life goals,

like the goals aren’t they? Those life goals and what you want to achieve been achieved already. Like I say, try and say to Christian, know, look at where we are now. This is a young age to be in a house like this, doing what we’re doing. Really, the next part will be to do what your parents do when they retire, which is to downsize and become mortgage free, but at 67.

we’re gonna do it at 40, you know,

Victoria (48:31)
your mum taught you that time’s worth more than money. And in a sense, what you’ve done, you’ve bought yourself kind of 25 years there.

Melanie Cooke (48:40)
Yes, a financial security. think my mum valued time over money and I do definitely, but she maybe would go the other way we didn’t have a lot, but there’s times that I think, God, it would have been nicer to have had more. So making sure that the children don’t feel that we don’t have something. We don’t really either, but.

it’s not the be all and end all, it? Like it’s your health that’s the most important thing and then time because you’re healthy and utilising your time well and the only way you can do that is when you’re healthy so you know it’s maintaining that kind of health and well-being underlying everything else really.

Victoria (49:19)
sounds like got it all figured out Melanie.

Melanie Cooke (49:23)
I know, yeah, and then I think, ⁓ God, bet it’s a nightmare to be married to me. ⁓

Victoria (49:31)
It’s all, I mean, like you say, phases when you’re a parent, it changes all the time. You think you’ve got it figured out and also with your own head, you feel like, oh God, today I just feel like I’m really on it. I feel like I’ll get all figured out. I’m straight. I know where I’m going. And then the next day you just, yeah, you’ve got your makeup on. You know, you’ve got your good knickers on. You’re fine. You’re bras white.

Melanie Cooke (49:42)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Victoria (49:51)
But then the next day, you just see mood is different. And that’s all kind of part of being a woman as well. You know, it’s kind of riding those mood with like a goal in sight.

Melanie Cooke (49:57)
Yeah, exactly.

waves. Yeah.

And it’s essential to have downtime and rest time, I’m always said.

It doesn’t matter if you’re not asleep. You know, like when you had bad nights and then I was struggling to sleep in the day because I’m not really a day sleeper, napper. But she said as long as you close your eyes and have restful time, that’s key as well. Especially when you’re a new mum or a woman and you think you don’t have as much energy in a sense. So yeah, as long as you’re closing your eyes, that’s actually just as valuable.

Victoria (50:30)
feel like your mum and my mum would have a nice chat over a cup of tea. It’s the sort of thing that my mum would say, she’s always talking to me about the importance of rest and I’m not very good at it. And I inherited that off my dad, who she asked live with. So it’s all swings and roundabouts, isn’t

Melanie Cooke (50:37)
yourself.

No.

Victoria (50:48)
But I’ve really enjoyed this conversation Elnie, I really appreciate you taking the time to talk to me. I know you’ve had a busy day and you can clock off now and go and chase those kids around upstairs in your upside down house.

Melanie Cooke (50:50)
That’s been good. Yeah, thank you.

There we are, I’m thinking

they’ve missed their bedtime now and their dad’s not even tried but obviously he’s keeping them out of my way and your way so that’s a good thing. Thank you so much, that was great.

Victoria (51:05)
Well, he’ll appreciate seeing ⁓ face then, won’t he?

Victoria (51:16)
When it comes to achieving our goals, we’re often told that tenacity and determination are the keys to success. And it is obvious that Melanie has both of these traits in buckets. It’s all very well having a goal, but it’s the strategy we put in place and the action we take to achieve it that moves us forwards. And Melanie’s drive to achieve financial freedom and a simpler way of life for her family is impressive.

I love her outlook on life, placing community at the heart of everything she does, whether that’s hosting a dinner party for friends in her gorgeous upside down house, through her work as a physio, or sharing her story on social media to inspire other mums to get their pink back after children. She’s made me realize that one new white bra does not a pink flamingo make, and I’ll certainly be making more effort to follow her example there.

Victoria (52:03)
Thank you so much for being here. I know your time is precious and I appreciate every single one of you for tuning in today. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate and review the podcast because we want as many moms as possible to find us and join in the conversation.

If you have thoughts, questions, love letters, or even hate mail, please send them my way. I read every single message. For more resources and episode show notes, please visit our website at mummeansbusinesspodcast.com and find us on Instagram at mummeansbusinesspodcast for behind the scenes content and updates. Until next time, I’m wishing you only good things in life and business, and I will speak to you soon.