SIA BABY | MAMAS | MUSES | MOGULS

 

 

Meet Mama Muses  - childhood friends Alexandra and Chantelle co founders of Sia Baby. Sia baby are best known for their premium, luxurious carriers that have practicality to match.

We sat down with the girls to chat about all things business, parenting and learn more about Sia Baby and their journey so far.

Photographed at home on a Saturday morning with their girls.... by the very talented Sage Hammond 

We hope you’re as inspired as we are.

Stay Wild xx

 

 

How did Sia Baby come to life - was this something you always wanted to do? 

We are childhood friends, who had always spoken about starting a business together, but it wasn’t until we were both pregnant and then on mat leave together, that we really started exploring the art of the possible!

From the get-go, we both had clear swims lanes on how we could approach a business relationship. With a background in Primary Teaching (Chantelle) and Marketing (Alex), we knew our key differences would in fact be our strengths.

From the moment we both had children, we knew we wanted to create a life for ourselves that was more flexible – allowing us to spend more quality time with our families. And while we both still have day-jobs, our passion to develop Sia baby quickly became all consuming.

As many working mums will agree, you become a professional multi-tasker quickly! So any chance we got (from early morning and late night calls to countless weekends hijacked), we were in the land of Sia baby.

 

When was the moment that you felt like it was something that was all coming together and gave you the confidence to take that leap of faith? 

After having children of our own, and trying various baby carriers, nothing on the market seemed to have what we needed as new parents. It soon became our mission to design a baby carrier that not only looked stylish, but also had a range of unique functions that would make parenting just a little bit easier!

During the product development stage, we allowed ourselves to entertain lots of wild ideas, and go down many rabbit holes. We agreed, we didn’t want to rush the process to get our carriers to market – we wanted to create something that really delivered on what we said it would. We had to create a product that would actually help make life easier for parents.

It was about six prototypes in before we had that goosebump moment! We put the carrier on and didn't have to say anything to each other…the pure joy & satisfaction was written all over our faces.

That is so amazing that you have that memory, what a moment of achievement for you both.

 

 

 

I know personally on my journey with little, there are times where I struggle with “Imposter syndrome”  is this something that you encountered in the early days, or even still deal with now? How do you deal with this when it pops up and what advice can you offer those women who are in the same headspace. 

Alex: Returning to full time work after maternity leave, I had a massive identity crisis. I realised my priorities had shifted and while I had always been driven by success in my career– it no longer defined me. I wanted to spend every waking moment with my little girl! Coming back to a high-pressure role, with lots of responsibility scared me – and I really questioned ‘how on earth am I going to do XYZ and still be a good wife and mother’.

And the answer then lay in the question. Why do women feel they must ‘do it all’?

Mum guilt is such a real thing, and my biggest advice to mamas is to be kind to yourself and give yourself time to adapt to your new normal. I would also say you will surprise yourself – and often working mums are the hardest working, most dedicated people at the table!

 

 

Have there been any major speed bumps or situations you weren’t anticipating?

Yes…lots! The beautiful thing about our journey to launch is we haven’t let any of the speed bumps throw us off our mission. In fact, we’ve been able to laugh the majority of them off and just persevere. The wonderful thing about starting a business with a friend is that you are each other’s cheerleaders, and if we have ever had moments of doubt, the other person has always been there to pick the other up.

Some of the biggest lessons we’ve learnt along the way is to always have contingency plans, have buffers with your budgets & timelines, and be open to exploring everything and anything that comes

your way. It may not be in your original plans - but it may just be the missing piece to the puzzle.

We also discussed early on that if we wanted the business to be successful, we needed to treat it as a business – not a side hustle. We established clear roles and responsibilities, weekly check-ins and developed brand and product guidelines to ensure we focused and consistent with our approach.

Highlight reel - Your biggest Pinch me moment within Sia that you are so proud of? 

We’ve been fortunate enough to have had a couple!

1. Our first marketing shoot was everything we could have hoped for and more. It was important for us to cast a real family that was authentic to the brand and our family values. When we shot Hayley and her family – it was pure magic.
2. We were featured on our favourite podcast ‘We Don’t Have time for this’ -recommended in their ‘’Not sponsored’’ product review section.
3. A major online retailer approached us about joining their platform (**exciting news coming soon**)
4. Validation from our target market…The feedback from fellow parents has been amazing! We have had so many messages from people saying ‘where has this been all my life’ and ‘when can I purchase one’.
5. Our very first sale! A feeling we will never forget.

 

 

Motherhood and Business - what has been the biggest challenge in juggling the two? How have you overcome it.

We are lucky to have very supportive husbands who have really helped us balance the two. We’ve had challenging moments where we have had to juggle work commitments with sick babies and often found ourselves in meetings bouncing an unwell child on our lap. For the most part, people understand and respect that you are doing the best you can do.

Our biggest key to overcoming this has been communication with each other. If someone isn't able to work on the business for a period of time, the other can pick up the slack and keep things moving.

We have both been respectful of each other’s time and making sure family and our day-jobs comes first.

 

 

Making time for yourself, how do you manage this, what is something you think mums should know about making this time for ourselves because let’s be honest mothers guilt is horrible and something we all grapple with in our own ways.

Absolutely! And I think this has been one of the driving factors with launching our business. We want to encourage other mums to take a leap of faith and do something for themselves (that doesn’t default to something for the family).

It is so important to explore new opportunities that are out of your comfort zone and dedicate regular time to a hobby, self-care or a passion project.

We both find we are better mothers and wives once we’ve had a little recharge and time to ourselves. I think this goes for both parents though – everyone deserves some ‘me time’.

 

 

 Best mum hack you have learned along the way.

- Toddler: For a fuss free sticker removal, pull the sticker background off the sticker sheet.

- Ice-block catcher: make a hole in a patty cake or paper cup and pop their ice-block in for a mess free and enjoyable treat (20 mins of uninterrupted work time)

- Best hack of all - Pop bub in the carrier for a sleep or just to keep them close while you get those odd jobs done - handsfree .

 

Something you wish you knew about before becoming a mum.

Alex: When you become a mum, you truly give birth to a new version of yourself. Embrace the change – it is an incredible journey.

Chantelle: You truly will never get this time back, they grow up way too fast. Enjoy your maternity leave, all the waking moments, even those ones in the middle of the night, it’s a moment in time and it won’t last forever.

 

 

Parting words of wisdom for any mama’s reading this! 

Someone very wise once said ‘Tomorrow is a new day’ (Chantelle to Alex during those newborn sleep deprived days and Chantelle’s mum to her when she had her first baby). “A hot shower and a cup of tea can fix everything and when it doesn’t ASK FOR HELP”.