E9: My Passion for Sewing Changed my Life with Debbie Marsden

Debbie dared to dream BIG and couple that with her drive, determination and self belief she turned her new found passion for sewing into not just 1 but 2 thriving businesses.

And with 3 children under 4 years old that is no easy ride!

In this episode we explore her journey from feeling totally exhausted to thriving and striving for more!

Hi, I'm Debbie. I'm an expert seamstress that has been sewing for my own children for the last 10 years! I set up my successful small business 'Lola-Pops' from my kitchen table whilst on maternity leave and have grown the business to what it is today!
I'm so passionate about sewing bright, bold and funky clothing for little ones that you simply can't find on the high street!
I want to share this passion with other mums and teach them how to sew for their little ones too.

And that’s why I created This Mummy Sews!

I help mums go from ‘I Can’t Sew’ to ‘Watch Me Go!”

Sewing has had such a positive impact on my life, especially in those early days of motherhood when you are juggling it all. Sewing gave me an escape, some ‘Me Time’ and massively helped to improve my mummy mental health, as being a mum can be really hard at times can’t it?

Once you know the basics there really is no stopping you! You can create some pretty amazing things you’ll be so proud of.

Through my amazing membership, in-person and online classes and courses I create proud moments for mums all over the UK and beyond one stitch at a time!
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When I’m not sewing, you’ll find me running around after my girls, enjoying a nice glass of the red stuff and let’s be honest… sewing (ha!) as I am kind of addicted!

Debbie's Links:

www.lola-pops.com
https://www.lola-pops.com/members-club

facebook groups:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/thismummysews
https://www.facebook.com/groups/lolapops

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/lola__pops/
https://www.instagram.com/thismummysews/

Want to connect? Find me here:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamemmahine

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/behappybesuccessful

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emma-hine

Website: https://www.emmahine.co.uk

You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/@EmmaHineStrategy

Transcript

Hello and welcome to Dream Business, Dream Life. Helping ambitious people like you to grow a business they love. I'm Emma Hine and I'm on a mission to show you that it is possible to grow a business without sacrificing your life.

Having experienced the roller coaster of making millions of pounds but feeling overwhelmed, anxious and totally unsuccessful, I know first hand the importance of growing a business on your terms. On this podcast I'm going to share with you lots of tips and advice that will enable you to grow a business that gives you the financial freedom to live the life of your dreams, while sharing with you some inspirational growth stories from other fabulous business owners. Ready to live the dream? Then let's get stuck in.

Hello and welcome to today's episode of Dream Business, Dream Life. Today I am super excited to be joined by the amazing Debbie Marsden. Debbie is the founder of Lola Pops and This Mummy Sews, two amazingly thriving businesses that she has created from her passion, which is sewing.

Now when I first met Debbie back in January 2022, she was at that point of giving up. We've all been there right, but I could see something in Debbie that at the time she couldn't yet see, but I knew her time would come and boy has it come. Debbie is an amazing lady and phenomenal business woman and I am so excited to have her with us here today to share her journey.

Hello Debbie, great to have us with you. Hello, thank you so much Emma, it's made me feel a little bit emotional that I had to link that introduction, so thank you so much for that. No problem at all, no problem at all.

So let's get stuck straight in. Take us right back to the start Debbie, why did you launch Lola Pops, which was the first of your two businesses? Well it is a long story but I will condense it into it. I always say in a nutshell, so believe it or not I used to be a secondary PE teacher.

I was a PE teacher for 12 years, absolutely loved my job, loved being a teacher. I know I had a huge impact on all the children that I taught, it was brilliant and then like what happens with so many mums, you know, well basically I did what everybody did, you know, went on maternity leave, come back because I've got a mortgage to pay, bills to pay etc, came back from maternity leave and kind of carried on and then it wasn't long until I found out I was pregnant again when my second daughter, my first daughter's called Lola, my second daughter is called Poppy, so I was like oh my god, like two children went off on maternity leave again and then obviously I had bills to pay, mortgages to pay etc so, you know, I come back from being on maternity leave and honestly I've probably only been back from maternity leave about four or five weeks and I found out I was pregnant again and I was like oh my goodness, like totally unexpected thinking three little ones, like how am I going to cope, I can't believe this, but obviously the little seed was planted, like I started to get really excited about the future and unfortunately that pregnancy ended up being an ectopic pregnancy and it's quite, it was quite a traumatic experience, you know, I was rushed to hospital, I had emergency surgery, I lost my left fallopian tube, I was told, you know, the chance of having any more children was slim and I think because I'd gone through two normal healthy pregnancies at the time, I just totally wasn't prepared for anything like that going wrong, you know, like I was one of them people that people were jealous of, when I was pregnant I was like glowing and, you know, no weight gain, just a little bump, so people like absolutely hated me when I was pregnant, so I was just thinking yeah, it's easy and then when that happened to me, I just, it was just awful, I think initially when I was in hospital, I was in hospital for about a week after it had happened and it didn't truly hit me and I remember my husband saying to me, you're dealing with this really well and I'm like yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm fine and it only truly hit me, I honestly, I'll never forget that feeling when I was walking out of the hospital and then what actually had happened and what I'd been through, like baby loss, emergency surgery, all that sort of stuff, just hit me like a ton of bricks and for the following six months, I can only describe me as walking around with like a cloud of doom above my head, it was absolutely awful, I just felt so unhappy, I was crying all the time, I remember saying to my husband like, I'm never going to be happy again and that was kind of like, obviously, I then had to return back to work and stuff that happened, you know, I don't know whether, there's probably people listening to this who were teachers, the teaching environment that I was at, the school I was at, was a very toxic environment at the time as well, so it wasn't a supportive environment to go back to as well and my mental health was just spiralling, it was, it's the lowest I've ever, ever felt and because I'm quite a happy bubbler, you know, go-getter, it was totally alien to me and I wasn't used to feeling like that but and because of my personality as well, I didn't ask for help, I didn't go to the doctors, I didn't talk to people about it, I just kept it all inside and that, looking back now, was one of the worst things that I could have done really but, you know, I did what I always do and I just got on with stuff, you know what I mean, and it wasn't until randomly and I am a true believer in the power of the universe, I really am, there is something up there that is looking out for me and just, it kind of guides me on everything that I do and one night, I was randomly watching The Great British Sewing Bee, as you do, because I've always been, you know, quite crafty, even though I was a PE teacher and quite sporty, I've always loved, you know, a bit of crafts and, you know, like watching programmes of like, you know, this is the before and this is after, it kind of like, it's just really what makes me tick, so I was watching The Great British Sewing Bee and I just got this overwhelming urge, I was like, I'm going to buy a sewing machine and I did GCSE textiles at school, so I, you know, I made a play mat and I've made a 60 wrap skirt, you know, nothing major but I knew I could remember how to like, thread the machine but I'd not touched a sewing machine since being at school, like 15, 17 years ago, you know what I mean? So, dead impulsive, straight onto eBay I went, I found this second-hand sewing machine, cost me 40 quid and honestly, it's the best 40 pound I've ever spent in my life because that 40 pound second-hand sewing machine has literally changed my life. It arrives a couple of days later, my mum was throwing away a couple of her old dresses and I was like, no mum, don't throw them dresses away, give me that fabric, I'll see if I can make Lola and Poppy any nice dresses and I did, that's what I did, I went onto YouTube, I went onto Pinterest and I basically taught myself how to sew and it wasn't long until people were stopping me with Lola and Poppy in places like Asda and on the play park and that kind of thing going, your little girls' dresses are gorgeous because obviously I had them matching but not matching and everything, it was like the Von Trapps of, you know, the modern day, honestly, I'm just obsessed and people were stopping me, asking me, you know, where's your little girl's dress from etc and being able to utter the words, I made it, honestly, it sounds really sad but and people who are crafty themselves saying those words, I made it, honestly, I can't explain to you that it just made me feel so happy, so proud, like it just, something inside me was just lit up and it sounds a bit corny when I tell people this but I truly believe that I sewed myself happy and things started to change from there, the grey clouds lifted and six months to the day of getting that second hand sewing machine, I found out I was pregnant again with my little rainbow baby Grace who I then went on to, so I've now got three girls, Lola, Poppy and Grace and I formed Lola Pops, it was actually my mum that said to me because I was making all these dead nice dresses for my girls and I just wanted like a bit of a platform just to kind of show people what I was doing, you know, just like a little bit of a like, oh lord I've made type thing, never ever in a million years did I think I was going to make a business out of it, you know, I was a full-time teacher at the time, just thought that even hit into my head and it was my mum who actually came up with the idea of the name Lola Pops after my two, you know, my two daughters Lola and Poppy and I was like, oh it's perfect, so my little logo if you do stumble across my social media etc is actually a little hand-drawn effort because I'm not very techy, so it's hand-drawn, if you look really close you can actually still see the red felt tip marks so I've coloured in the red love heart, which is quite nostalgic to me, I'll never be able to change that logo and initially it just had Lola and Poppy on it and then obviously once Grace came along I added like a little third character so that logo is super special to me, so that's how Lola Pops became about and I think at the time because I was a teacher I was well known in the local community, I don't know, social media at the time I think was a little bit easier to grow on as well, you know, we're talking like 10-15 years ago now, but just the support I got from the local community, people liking and sharing and commenting, people then just saying, oh my god will you make me one, will you make one, so I was like yeah yeah yeah and it was at that point when I said to my husband, again I had that feeling again in my stomach, like I said to him there was an opportunity at the school I was at at the time where I could potentially go part-time and I said to my husband I truly believe that with the right fabrics etc I can make a business out of this, so like with the full support of my husband he was like go on you can, and then after a while I built it to the stage where at the time I was 20 weeks pregnant with Grace and they were making some redundancies at the school I was at and I said to my husband Pete, this is an opportunity Pete and if I don't take this redundancy now I'm going to be stuck being a teacher forever, so again like I just fall back in, I look back and I think like thank god for Pete, but I just walked in, you know took the redundancy and I walked away from teaching 20 weeks pregnant and honestly I've never looked back since.

Wow, what a story, I mean I've heard your story before Debbie, we've connected and you've told me your story before, but it gets me every single time, every single time, the passion, the desire, all of the stuff that comes across when you are sharing your story is unbelievable and I know that that is going to inspire so so many people, because it's not easy is it when you start your own business, it's not a case of you know I've got this thing that I'm really good at, I'm just going to start making some money out of it, it brings you lots of challenges along the way and those challenges aren't one of the things you said is I'm not very good at tech, we all say that, I think every business owner we speak to in this world says I'm not very good at tech or I'm not very good at this or I'm not very good at that, but we have to learn that stuff don't we, because nobody's going to do it for us when we get started. So let's talk through the growth of this business that you started, what would you say were the sort of key challenges for you, the key things that you found the most difficult to overcome to grow the business to you know to where you've grown it to now? I think the main challenge that I face and honestly when I look at those early days, I honestly have no idea how I survived those early days because I don't even know what I was running off because I had a newborn, I had I think Poppy was almost two, Lola was three, I had three of them under four, so that in itself is you know it is a challenge anyway and I set up this business from scratch and I remember having a conversation with like you know right this business because obviously we've still got a mortgage to pay, we've still got bills to pay, we've still got mouths to feed and I remember having quite a frank conversation with the husband and he said right you know you can do this but this is what you're earning as a part-time teacher, you've got your maternity covered to kind of like see us through to this day but by this day you need to be matching what you what you were bringing into this household as a part-time teacher. So I had it was it was literally utter laser focused of right I've got to make that money and literally I think I nearly killed myself in the process, again I did make myself ill in the first you know in the first few years of setting up Lola Pops, it definitely wasn't easy, constantly juggling, I was up looking after the three girls you know all day every day because again and I think this comes back to I have major issues with like mindset, money mindset and stuff like that which I'm constantly working on but I think because I walked away from a very secure income and secure job I was reluctant you know to be at home with my children, I was then reluctant to letting other people look after my children so you know I didn't send Lola to nursery when I could do, I didn't you know I could have you know sent her to nursery two days a week to give me a little bit of time etc but I just wouldn't allow myself to be able to do that because of the choices that I'd made to come out of you know that secure job so again it's all looking back now I think to myself why didn't I do that but it's it's weird what what you kind of put yourself through so I was up you know all day looking after children seeing to them obviously a bad bed bath, Grace was a noob at the time so I'm kind of breastfeeding her at the same time and honestly then very very first few early years I was like the only time I managed to do my sewing was once the children have been in bed and I was you know sewing up until like two three o'clock in the morning still getting up for breastfeeding then getting up at seven o'clock seeing to the girls you know sorting out taking them to play centre and all that sort of stuff and I was surviving off you know I wasn't eating properly, I wasn't sleeping properly and it wasn't long it was probably a good like nine ten months of actually do like surviving on what I was doing before I had and I look back now and it was the very first time I'd experienced like the utter burnout I remember coming up Pete coming home from work and it being about half past five and just I just felt like I couldn't go on I remember getting into bed I remember specifically it was half past five me thinking oh my god I've got all this to do and I remember sleeping for about 13 hours like solid and for me like that just I mean I'd not had proper sleep and you know it's like having like big little ones and newborns and that kind of thing but I slept for a solid 13 hours that night and that was a that summat's gotta change so that was the major struggle really just kind of juggling everything not looking after myself is bad and I know once things start sliding with like you know me skipping breakfast I'll skip dinner etc that's a massive sign for me to say well I'm going back into bad habits again so I'm really really aware of that now but at the time it took me a long time to kind of you know to recognize that but from a business point of view I think it's a it's a very common mistake that a lot of people make when they first start out in business is you know not valuing my time not charging appropriately constantly discounting stuff just to get the sales in and the money in because I was just laser focused of I need to earn that money and I'd earn it no matter you know however which way I could you know and I think looking back in the early days not that I've got mum guilt because I know that I've done absolutely everything I can to provide for my family but looking back you know the worst things that I can sacrifice as like a mum of young young ones to try and build this business to what it is today and I think looking back had I not made them sacrifices you know of you know we've not really been on extravagant holidays for the girls and that kind of thing but it's because you know me and my husband have made those you know made the choices to you know sacrifice the security income so that I could be at home with my girls you know I've managed to take my girls to school every single day pick them up I've been to all the sports days all the players I've never had to ask for time off work and that to me is so much more important than you know yeah yeah absolutely you know what I mean yeah yeah and I think that's why a lot of people start a business isn't it I think that's why a lot of people say I'm going to launch a business because I want that financial freedom to be able to do the things that I want to do they're the things that make us feel successful rather than the you know the 10k months the 5k months the 20k months whatever it is it's not the money it's the lifestyle that we are able to build that makes us feel like we are truly truly successful but at that point Debbie when you were at that point of you know this is too much I'm burnt out I'm exhausted I know I can make a business of this I know you had a real dream at that point in terms of where you wanted to take Lola Pops but very easily you could have given up because when you are in that state of I just can't do this anymore I'm exhausted it's hard to push through but you didn't give up and you went on to not only grow Lola Pops but also launch your second business your more recent business This Mummy Sews so what happened talk us through how you went from feeling like I need to give up to building Lola Pops and launching your second business honestly when I look back to the time that I first met you January 22 I think it was wasn't it and that is the point you know like as a business owner it's a roller coaster of a journey and I think you know I was just utterly fed up of being in the feast and famine cycle you know your orders come in you're dead busy then you finish your orders nothing and then it's just constantly just it's just like a hamster wheel that I just was fed up and I just I couldn't see a way of getting off that hamster wheel it was awful and again we're talking like you know eight years down the line of running this handmade business and and you're right I was exhausted I was lonely I just felt like I had nothing left and and I think I think we're looking back now it kind of comes back to my mindset and again linking to my money mindset as well of I've got this ingrained belief that you have to work hard to earn lots of money and I got to the stage where I just launched my Lola Pops in a box which is my subscription box of handmade children's clothing and again the launch of that was absolutely amazing the support I've had from all my loyal customers you know I can't I'm so grateful um you know that they've helped me to kind of build the business that I've got today and I got it to the stage where you know and never in a million years did I think I'd be able to take my small handmade children's business that I built from a second sewing machine from a kitchen table on maternity leave at that stage in January I just moved my business out of my house and into my first business premises so and again going back to my money mindset I was having issues paying myself because it took me a couple of years to actually start physically paying myself an actual salary you know and not a very decent one to be honest with you but you know I was actually physically paying myself but then I thought to myself I've got to pay myself I've now got this rent to pay like I've got so many subscribers I'm already working at maximum capacity and I think what made me get to that stage of wanting to just quit and throw the towel in was my mindset of how can I possibly work any harder like I can't I can't physically work any harder than I'm possibly working now to earn more money I just can't do it and it was that that was blocking me and I'm so thankful for for meeting yourself Emma because you did really like pull me out of like a dark hole um at the time because I think had I not I've had somebody like you taking me under your wing because I knew just the way you were with me the things you were saying to me you know the opportunities that you presented me it just made me think well Emma obviously sees something in me Emma believes in me Emma thinks I can do it and that I honestly I'm not just saying this because I'm on your podcast it is 100% true that's actually what gave me the motivation to not throw the towel in you know go back working you know going back teaching or whatever because I've always known inside that I'm destined for not it sounds a bit like a big headache but I'm destined for something amazing and I'm even to this point now I'm still not I'm still not there where I know I can be you know what I mean I'm always striving to get to that next level yeah and I know that too Debbie I absolutely know that you you always have had this really really big dream I remember we were walking around London weren't we because we've been to an event that we were both at and we were walking around London you were sharing your dream with me and I could just see it happening I could absolutely see it happening and a lot of that has happened hasn't it a lot of that stuff has come you know this mummy so was a part of that dream but I know this isn't it you know you've just said that yourself I know this isn't it so what does the future bring what's coming next for Debbie well I mean obviously I've got my lollipops in a box excuse me which is my subscription box for so I make clothing for mums and their little ones and honestly the stuff that I make you need to have a look because I'm just obsessed and then obviously from moving the business out of my house and into my own premises that kind of I can't even tell you how much brain space that freed up for me not being at my house not being constantly under my feet my house not being a mess etc I was able to kind of cut off like work and home which is the first time of every experience that in the whole time of running a small business and that's where my new business idea came from because and it's off the back of discovering recurring revenue like I've always had this sort of like there's got to be a better way and constantly thinking of different things and kind of do this kind of that and then through the power of online networking and what you know rubbing shoulders with other business owners like yourselves I was introduced to the world of recurring revenue and I'll be honest I didn't even know it existed you know me I just saw you know you brought up your work nine to five you get your money that's it and then this magical thing called recurring revenue um so obviously I did a little bit of training online which I know a lot of listeners would have done the same course that I've done um and that's where Lollapops in a Box came from and I saw it straight away you know you do the job once you know you you work hard you get the audience in you launch this product or course or whatever it is and then the money comes in every month and that has been the biggest change for me and I think having the space yeah I call it Lollapops HQ and this one was sort of HQ depending on which audience I'm talking to but again that feeling again came back I just knew that I had the skills and the knowledge and the passion especially with the teaching background as well I just knew that I could teach what I had in my brain and the passion and everything I knew that I could teach mums how to sew for their baby as well and I know looking back at my own story how much of a positive positive impact sewing has had on my life especially the mum on maternity leave I wanted to pass that on to as many mums as possible so that's where this mummy sews came from um so I started I mean I've spent the last like 12 to 18 months like I mean like grafting like I don't know what else because I've been running Lollapops full-time anyway but on the side I've been like working as hard as I possibly can building a brand new audience of mums on maternity leave who want to learn how to sew and I've been running in-person classes I've been popping it up at local play centres I've been honestly if you've not seen me I don't know what where you've been hiding because basically I've run myself ragged ragged as I usually do um and again it was like through speaking through you've been a big inspiration with your membership that you launched you know a few months ago and I thought you know what if Emma can launch this membership I can launch a membership too and again it's always been like a bit of a dream of mine and I had this vision again it comes back to the vision and the universe and all that sort of stuff but I had this vision of uh you know mums on maternity leave we've not got time we don't do stuff for ourselves I had an image in my head of me making a little sewing kit for all the mums cutting it all out for them because no one's got time for cutting fabric let's face it sending a sewing kit through the door dropping on the door set mum's being dead excited opening this box even though it's for the little one it's really for them you know what I mean and then having I just had this vision in my head of me being on zoom as the host and seeing a screen of you know hundreds of mums on zoom all meeting up to sew this specific item that I prepared for them and honestly in April 24 I launched this and we saw and that vision that absolute vision that I had you know 18 months ago became a reality on launch day I had in my head I thought if I can launch and set the membership up to 30 members I'll be absolutely amazing secretly I really wanted 50 members but I didn't speak out 50 because I know I'm like if I didn't get 50 on that launch day I would have been really really annoyed with myself and I don't know why because it's just I just put myself under so much pressure but launching that membership I got to 80 I mean I'm at 84 members now and that's another recurring revenue stream that has just completely changed my life and it's just giving me now the time to step back and so you know looking at your podcast dream business dream life it's giving me that time to step back and actually question myself what do I want to do what do I not like doing and it's like actually tomorrow I'm speaking to my Lollipop's audience and actually telling them that there's certain things that I'm not going to be doing anymore and recurring revenue has given me the option to say no to not do things that are not making me happy anymore and that is so powerful.

It really is and I think that's the key isn't it here it isn't just about growing any business it isn't just about you know thinking that every day is like nice and easy because there is tough times in business and when we're going through a period of growth we do have to work that little bit harder don't we and you've absolutely had to do that this year but it's the moments like going on to that zoom call and seeing all of those people there and realizing that that is your job you have created the thing that that was your dream that is now your job and all of those people there have their trust confidence and belief in you to enable them to start doing their dream start living their dream a little bit and that just it fills my heart it absolutely fills my heart to see people who who do this they actually do do this and it needs to be said here that this isn't because I know Debbie talks about the universe and I absolutely agree with all of that but this is down to Debbie this is all down to Debbie has put the work in when she has something that she needs to do she makes it happen she's an action taker yes she has dreams but actually she does something about it so don't ever ever forget that Debbie you have worked super hard for this and and I am amazed to see to see everything you do how well it does so just before we come to the end I want you to share with our listeners obviously you've given us lots of tips along the way but what would you say would be your one top tip for any of our listeners who are thinking do you know what I think I'd quite like to get going with my business well literally you took the words out of my mouth because I've just written down on my on my piece of paper like the word action taker and I would say that if you've got a business idea or you've got an existing business that you want to change something etc is just be an action taker just actually do it and like there's a few people that have said to me now like oh like you're so brave you just do stuff and I'll be honest with you like I have these crazy ideas and I honestly don't know whether they're going to work and don't get me wrong I am freaking out inside thinking if I do this I don't know whether it's going to go right but you know what I've always had this like belief in myself and and I just know that I know the ideas that I have are the good a good new domain and and every single idea that I had and I've had that feeling I've been like no I'm doing this and and I just think if it goes wrong then it goes wrong and I've just taken the action I've not figured it all out it's never been perfect I've always took the action and just worried about figuring it all out afterwards because for me accountability is the is the number one thing when and and you're very similar Emma actually you'll say it you'll announce it right this is happening and then you think oh my god I'm gonna have to do it now because I've said it you know what I mean but and that's exactly how I roll with absolutely everything I do so yeah don't be don't be hanging off you know trying to get everything to be perfect it really doesn't need to be perfect just do do it you know you've got the idea put the action into place and everything else will miraculously always happens it just will fall into place it really really will fantastic done is better than perfect absolutely agree with that so finally Debbie if our listeners want to come and learn more about you and your amazing businesses where is the best place for them to come and find you so obviously I'm that crazy I have two businesses so with Lollipop's handmade children's clothing and the future is I'm going to be hopefully to you know growing the number of subscribers for Lollipop's in a box and you can find me on Instagram and Facebook and Lollipop's and I also have an amazing free Facebook group called Lollipop's extra that's where I hang out I do a live in there every week I'm always in there waving my jazz hands and doing crazy stuff and sharing all my crazy ideas so I'd love you to join that group if you are interested in me sewing some amazing clothing for your little ones and for This Mummy Sews again the future for This Mummy Sews is you know obviously growing the membership I've got so many different course ideas like you don't even want to know what's going on inside my brain at the minute but yeah you can find me again on Instagram and Facebook at This Mummy Sews and I've also got another amazing free community group called This Mummy Sews community group on Facebook again.