My Passion Business
The story – of how I turned my baby feeding brand into a passion business with some lofty future plans…
“Rome wasn’t built in a day” – as they say. It was an evolution over time. They also say “All roads lead to Rome…” and I believe all roads would have lead me to Astrology, Yoga, and wellness after motherhood burnout – and how to use all that as a service to others…
Phew
That’s the gist.
I’m still very much a work in progress, but aren’t we all.
After a wild and independent youth – leaving home early and living, in London, Turkey, Greece and Singapore. I eventually settled in Australia, had my first baby at 27 and wracked my brains for a way to not go back to work.
It was 2009 – a time before Shopify or even Instagram. I felt like one of the first Mumpreneurs (a new word back then).
I had a couple of false starts but thanks to my innovative Aquarius Sun, I discovered a wonderful new niche – Silicone for baby feedingware! I spent a year researching mould manufacturing and working on product design, then bingo – the Freezer Pod was born from scratch.
We were the very first brand in Australia to bring silicone to the baby feeding market!
It was an 'instant success'!
But I was so green. I didn’t protect my product at all – hello rip off Amazon merchants.
I was also ‘flying by the seat of my pants’ with my marketing strategy too, I did a few things but mainly relied on word of mouth.
I made enough to survive. It took me 5 years of nipping down to the post office or being home for the courier collections, before I got my own fulfilment warehouse – that was a big relieve let me tell ya.
And then I realised that I was holding myself back all that time because I couldn’t be more successful than the orders I could physically ship myself (whilst managing 2 young kids… it was a lot – I’m sure you can relate!)
THE WAREHOUSE, instead of giving me extra time for growing the business… it seemed to give me extra time for globe trotting again, and I took my family to Ireland for a year, with some epic'ly long France, Spain and UK holidays thrown in.
Wean Meister evolved through that time… slowly slowly – we now had 4 products.
History repeated itself, I created another product, that I failed to protect.
Before wean meister – there were a few silicone bibs in the world, but they were flat and floppy and useless.
We were the ones that problem solved that, and made the body 3D so that the tray kept it’s shape. Was stung again with production and my own rookie mistakes and now those bibs are literally EVERYWHERE.
It was irritating at first. I had to shift my perspective to one of ABUNDANCE! I was still making money, there is room in the market for all of us.
Long story short – the twins were born – I still feel a flinch of PTSD about this to be honest.
Growing them, birthing them, raising them has battered me sideways.
But wean meister launched it’s 4th website – now with 10 products and continued to grow and support us.
I wasn't feeling very soul inspired though…. Not very excited.
I had to do a HEAP of work on a personal level to try and heal what started as PND (for the second time), and then was just plain ragging anxiety and depression.
And THIS is when it got VERY EXCITING.
I listened to my intuition LOUD and clear. I gave up alcohol for a 12 month experiment and started using the full moon and dark moon as a time to lean in to myself, my inner world.
I started noticing how my energy for work would fluctuate. Sometimes I didn’t work at all. Other times I’d get out of bed to work in the middle of the night.
It was one of those nights that I discovered that anytime Mars transited my second house of values and possessions (and entrepreneurship), I would be blazing with unstoppable energy.
I got into cycle with my energy levels.
I realised why I found my beautiful twins so challenging. Because we have Sun conjunct Saturn in our composite chart – we bring up the worst side of each other – in order to heal. We also have Pluto conjunct Mars – volatile energy. It’s no wonder we struggle on the daily! BUT with it comes a realisation that it is not us – we are all perfect – it’s just challenging energy. The advice of the astrologer was to make sure I keep my own cup full, so I can take on the challenge. Sage advice.
Astrology gave me sooooo much compassion for other family members. Understanding Saturn’s placements is a game changer in understanding yourself and your family. It is karmic, so you do the work and you are rewarded. But if you don’t – well you’re going to suffer. I have really witnessed this to be true.
Anyway – astrology is a lifetimes work.
I realised the majority of the world still believes their ‘Star Sign’ is their astrology. They don’t realise their sun sign (star sign) is just a tiny fraction of what we can know.
At the same time, a lot of the world is waking up, and most of the young ones are at least aware of their Big 3 by now – Sun, Moon & Rising signs. Still only a fraction of the natal chart – but people are discovering, there is more to know!
I was on a woman’s retreat – having a cacao ceremony when I really nutted out the Stardust range concept in my mind.
All the group ended up sharing what came up for them, and I was kind of embarrassed to admit I’d spent the whole time essentially ‘working’ in my meditation!
I shared my idea and it was validated.
And so I set to work.
2 years later, I am ready to launch the Stardust Bibs. It has been a labour of love and WAY harder than I expected. Not helped by the fact that I was so in love with providing the WHOLE WORLD WITH FREE BABY ASTROLOGY INFORMATION, that I decided to launch in the US at the same time!
*hEAD sPINS* ....Anyway, it’s done now, and I very much plan on having a big break, and then properly throwing myself into the marketing for the first time in my 13 years of business, because now I have something that I am 100% truly passionate about, and I can’t wait for the whole world to know about it!
Feels great to have a unique product offering that I am proud to call my own. And it will support my future astrology learning.
Oh yes… the lofty plans!
WELL – I’m all about share the wealth. My passion is yoga, astrology and nature, plus I'm a bit of an expert on motherhood burn out! So I will use wean meister as a vehicle to fund lots of growth and support for others in this area.
I am a woman on a mission… you wait till you see where we’re at after the next 13 years…
Rome wasn’t built in a day you see. But all roads do lead to Rome.
Supporting Mum’s through motherhood burn out and understanding their family’s strengths, weaknesses and directions in life is exactly what I was bought here to do.
North Node in 10th House of Cancer – speaks of a soul purpose to be a public figure in the area of home and nurturing family life… true story.
Sarah x.
