The Can Do Coffee Chat with Heather Black, CEO of Supermums, Author, Sales Tech Trainer & Speaker.

[00:00:01] Hi, I'm Gail Gibson, accredited Master Performance Coach, International Speaker, Podcast Host and

[00:00:08] Author. Known as The Can Do Coach, I thrive on enabling leaders to step up, shake it off

[00:00:15] and shine. Welcome to my podcast, The Can Do Way. My guests from across the globe have

[00:00:23] can-do stories of growth, resilience and success to share. Tune in and be inspired

[00:00:29] by these individuals who have developed a strong can-do approach. Each one of their

[00:00:35] stories is unique. Each one of their stories has a key message. In this episode

[00:00:43] of The Can Do Way, I'm delighted to be talking to Heather Black, CEO of Supermums,

[00:00:49] Author, Sales Tech Trainer and Speaker. Heather is the founder and CEO of Supermums.

[00:00:56] She's the mum of two little girls and lives by the sea in East Sussex whilst working remotely.

[00:01:04] She helps parents to achieve flexible, well-paid careers after parenthood and has supported

[00:01:10] a thousand trainees globally to successfully relaunch their careers. In 2010 she became

[00:01:17] an accidental salesforce admin for her nonprofit and loved it so much that she decided to

[00:01:23] upskill as a salesforce consultant in 2012, helping other nonprofits to implement a CRM.

[00:01:31] She realised her career path could work for other mothers so she launched Supermums in 2016

[00:01:38] to bring more women into the sector. So we're going to find out a lot more about this journey

[00:01:45] that Heather's been on so welcome to the show, Heather. Well thank you for having me,

[00:01:50] I'm excited to be here. Wonderful. If we can first take a short walk through your life, just to

[00:01:56] give the listeners a glimpse of your background and how you got to where you are today but more

[00:02:02] importantly what is it that drives your passion for the work that you now deliver?

[00:02:07] It's a great question isn't it because when you come out of school you kind of have that big

[00:02:10] question of what am I going to do with my life. I mean it's wondering where you're

[00:02:13] going to come across that thing that gives you that spark and when I went to, I got my

[00:02:20] spot when I was at university and I learnt about the term social entrepreneurship and I realised

[00:02:25] that you could run a business that would have a social mission and passion would help other people

[00:02:30] and for me that really resonated with me because as a child I quite often

[00:02:35] created things and sold things at church fairs and at school fairs to raise my charity.

[00:02:41] So I had that very entrepreneurial part of me that was about giving back

[00:02:45] and so that was a spark that I found that I realised that I needed to run a business that wasn't about

[00:02:52] necessarily profitable gain but was about helping and supporting people that had social

[00:02:58] intentions and that also wanted to help other organisations like that. So that led me really

[00:03:04] on my career from that point that I decided I wanted to get more involved in social

[00:03:11] entrepreneurship and helping people and my first business that I set up which was a social enterprise

[00:03:18] was a coaching company and it was a career and business coaching company that helped 18 to 30

[00:03:24] roles access support to help them develop a business develop a social enterprise themselves

[00:03:30] or secure a job within a business or a social enterprise and over the time we

[00:03:37] grew that organisation to support 10,000 young people or young professionals across the UK

[00:03:44] and we had a lot of government funding there was a lot of funding around at that time under labour

[00:03:50] and it was a great opportunity there was a lot of emphasis on supporting people to start

[00:03:54] you know young professionals start their own businesses and it was actually at that time

[00:03:58] that I came across Salesforce CRM as a solution to manage all the work we did with young

[00:04:04] people because I had I suddenly grew my team from four people to 40 people we work working

[00:04:10] with all these beneficiaries and I needed a system to manage all of that to know who Joe

[00:04:14] blocks was and what we were doing with Joe blocks and to manage our marketing and manage

[00:04:17] our fundraising and so that got me using Salesforce CRM as a product which is obviously

[00:04:24] where it's forged my career today and that helped me really grow that organisation

[00:04:29] we went from 100k to 1.3 million in a year because we'd won lots of funding opportunities and you

[00:04:35] know really been able to expand our work and we had a fantastic growth curve but all of that

[00:04:41] changed when conservative came in all the funding streams changed so we kind of hit a plateau where

[00:04:47] I needed to then rethink what I was going to do work wise because it's actually really hard

[00:04:52] to make business viable and that's when I decided to pivot and launch a Salesforce career and

[00:04:58] actually help other nonprofit organisations implement Salesforce to manage their stakeholders

[00:05:03] which might be for fundraising or volunteering and it was a pitiful point for me because I was

[00:05:09] just moving out of the city about to have a family just got married and I was thinking what am I

[00:05:15] going to do career wise that you know ticks all my boxes really that allows me to have a good

[00:05:21] salary but also help people and I had really enjoyed using Salesforce as a product which

[00:05:26] I can obviously talk a bit more about but I realised that I needed to upskill and I think part of it is

[00:05:31] this upskilling piece I invested in myself upskilled in it and became a Salesforce consultant and

[00:05:37] and that's when I realised other mums could do that job too there was other opportunities for

[00:05:42] mums to work remotely, work well and do the same job that I was doing so that's how I got to

[00:05:49] where I am today. Okay okay that's a wonderful journey to introduce yourself you know and there's

[00:05:57] a lot of pieces in there as you say that we can we can take from that you know if you you cast your

[00:06:03] mind back to the beginning and you had that first taste of what it was to be an entrepreneur and

[00:06:10] you were sparked as you used the word about having social intentions in the work you wanted

[00:06:17] to deliver who was it or how did you come about being inspired for that was it a particular person

[00:06:24] or was it an event or an experience that you went through? Yeah so at the time there was a couple of

[00:06:33] books and leaders in the social entrepreneurship space that we learned about at uni a chat called

[00:06:39] Charles Lebede better he'd set up the school social entrepreneurs and a lady called Adele

[00:06:44] Blapra who'd set up a workspace actually called Canmesne in London which was a workspace for

[00:06:50] social entrepreneurs and so I read the book you know went down to the workspace met people and I

[00:06:57] was just really inspired by meeting with meeting with people that ran businesses that were all about

[00:07:02] the mission and not about profit you know not lining their own pockets with money it was

[00:07:08] about making a difference and I thought this is me this is where I belong this is what I want to

[00:07:13] be part of and it was you know going out and talking to people is just really really important

[00:07:18] you know to open those doors to see what's possible to build that network and I then actually went

[00:07:25] into a research role where I could research social entrepreneurship in more detail and research

[00:07:31] who was doing what and it just took me out to meet all of these people running social enterprises

[00:07:36] and that just sparked the ideas right you know that's where you sort of get inspired

[00:07:41] by seeing and hearing other people's stories and what they're doing and it gives you that creativity

[00:07:44] yourself yeah fantastic fantastic was there anyone in that early stage that you met who became a mentor

[00:07:53] for you and a direct champion who who you reflect on for certain qualities they shared well well

[00:08:02] there was a lady called Alison who actually put me forward nominated me for an award so I was

[00:08:09] I was awarded the social enterprise mentor of the year award for my first business

[00:08:14] back in 2005 and you know when you were only 25 it's really nice to have a senior professional

[00:08:20] recognising you for that and to sort of celebrate you and she helped me get she was a leader of an

[00:08:26] organisation who we then collaborated with and we managed to get contracts together

[00:08:31] so I think you know you kind of when you're in your 20s and you're building these relationships with

[00:08:38] CEOs in their 40s you can sort of look at that and go why would they partner with me you know

[00:08:44] but you've got to believe in yourself and your passion and you know with that people will

[00:08:48] recognise your your passion and what you want to do and help you climb the ladder

[00:08:53] and you know I feel very privileged to have had a lot of trust put in me

[00:08:57] and to have built those credible relationships early on which helped me really grow that organisation

[00:09:02] at such a young age I'm sure that that that belief in trust from somebody else to you about you

[00:09:10] was a huge a huge celebration for you and also would have pushed you further and further into

[00:09:18] being able to make the changes to to generate the business and and also be fully aware of

[00:09:27] the fact that not everything is going to be available the whole time and then when change

[00:09:32] comes that you had more resilience and tenacity to get through that when you when you mentioned

[00:09:40] in your introduction about the government changes and how you had to then take that pivot

[00:09:45] and look at doing something different because of your life situation as well

[00:09:50] what did it take in you to turn that corner were there any challenges that you faced at that stage

[00:09:56] was it a difficult decision or was it something that you felt came to you quite naturally

[00:10:02] um so I think it there's an element of grief right if you you're working somewhere and you've

[00:10:08] worked you know you've worked and you've built up but actually you're faced with then

[00:10:11] challenges in that workplace that are beyond your control um there's an element of grief cycle

[00:10:17] there right and I did mourn you know I mourned that situation um but actually quite a few years

[00:10:23] interestingly enough um but you know and so I really feel and resonate with people who are

[00:10:30] forced out of the situation that they don't necessarily want to be but they can't make it

[00:10:34] work to then find something else I think you know is knowing how to deal with that so

[00:10:40] I think that was one set of emotions I was dealing with but at the same time obviously knew that I

[00:10:44] had to find another career and way forward because you know the other one was no longer

[00:10:49] sustainable and I had tried you know tried to make that work for a couple of years under

[00:10:54] conservative rule but it just for various reasons that the money didn't flow down to the

[00:10:59] smaller organizations um and so I did you know networking with various people research and

[00:11:06] I think that's the biggest thing is going out and talking to people in the possible

[00:11:10] careers you could go into to talk to them about what the jobs are research what qualifications

[00:11:15] you need understand the salaries understand if you can do it or not and so I did quite a bit of

[00:11:20] networking um to understand the opportunities for myself and also tested the water so I started

[00:11:28] training and learning before it obviously completely finished running the business

[00:11:33] and so I tested the water for a couple of years and actually me and my partner at the time we

[00:11:39] went and travelled the world for four months and I worked remotely doing Salesforce whilst we were

[00:11:45] travelling around New Zealand and Australia and everything else and I was testing out about

[00:11:49] you know could I do this remotely and see what it's like and so we probably put it to the test

[00:11:54] but I could earn two and a half grand a month sort of traveling remotely and still doing that

[00:11:58] so I I'd piloted it alongside my existing work and really then enjoyed it so I think it's good

[00:12:05] if you've got that opportunity to test it out to see if you enjoy it before taking leap you know

[00:12:10] that definitely helps um so I upskilled and then I invested more in my training when I was like

[00:12:15] fully convinced that you know I could do this make a career of it I invested in more training

[00:12:20] and then um I don't like to do things by half I don't like to feel that that's the imposter

[00:12:25] syndrome right I don't like him but I like to go in knowing that I'm properly trained I'm confident

[00:12:30] what I'm doing and I'm going to hit the ground with a set of tools and techniques so I invested

[00:12:35] quite a bit in myself to make sure that I could hit the ground running but that allowed me to charge

[00:12:39] 450 pound day rates you know to the the clients um in return for that so it was really good

[00:12:46] really good return investment in terms of what I invested but so those steps led me to there

[00:12:52] and I think you can only get over grief and challenges you know whatever sort of I

[00:12:58] suppose negative challenges you might be feeling if you find the positives you find the hooks that

[00:13:03] pull you forward as opposed to push you if you just pushed into something it doesn't work you've

[00:13:08] got to do enough of the research that pull you through and actually get you excited because

[00:13:12] that allows you to overcome that reef cycle at the end of the day definitely definitely

[00:13:17] I love the way you've termed that finding the hooks because you can the listeners can

[00:13:22] they can see it themselves you can see that extracting can't you when you can you can

[00:13:27] grab onto something and it's that's the lifeline and you can move forward but you need to

[00:13:31] instigate that yourself as you said you went into these situations fully prepared but you

[00:13:39] still go through those emotions and all of the mindset that's attached to that

[00:13:44] but we can come out the other side with resilience and that's that's that whole

[00:13:48] idea of that can do drive that is evidently strong in you in the work that you do and the

[00:13:56] life that you're leading so was there ever a time when you were in the midst of everything

[00:14:03] that you were doing that you were just feeling like this wasn't for you anymore was there ever

[00:14:09] moments you know I've been in business for about 20 years myself and there are times when we lose that

[00:14:17] little bit of mojo even though you are talking about very positive things and we're on a high all

[00:14:23] the time and we we're building we're having fantastic client relationships we're doing

[00:14:28] great business and we're making an impact and we're making that difference there's still

[00:14:34] times when the mojo kind of goes a little bit flat do you have moments like that and if so what

[00:14:40] did you do to lift yourself yeah that's a really great question and I had to really sense check

[00:14:46] because as a woman that inspires other women about flexible well-paid careers you know and

[00:14:53] that will carve out a life that you know you can really enjoy you know on this journey I've

[00:14:59] got that point going I don't feel like I've actually got the flexibility I don't really

[00:15:03] feel like I'm happy and that wasn't just career that was life as well you know that took me on

[00:15:08] a journey of change um but I went back and had career coaching at that point and I've always

[00:15:14] my background is coaching I've always invested in career and business coaching

[00:15:18] and um I had to have somebody help me navigate my way through to kind of unpack you know take

[00:15:24] everything out of the box look at it all and go yeah what's not right here you know review it all

[00:15:30] and scan it and um and figure out where the that the holes are and I think what we can find is that

[00:15:37] we are in control of our life we are being controlled or you know we're just going with the flow

[00:15:44] we're saying yes to everything we're not managing we're not delegating we are you know not holding

[00:15:50] our own thought you know we aren't looking after ourselves and our own um health and well-being

[00:15:57] and you know I was in that space where actually all of that was being taken over by work so with

[00:16:04] the coaching when we unpack everything and then you know started to put it back in the box

[00:16:09] you know I realized that I needed to change the team balance you know I needed more

[00:16:15] senior staff and to delegate more and to kind of give you know making sure I'm focusing on my zone

[00:16:21] of genius focusing on my area are really important that I thrive in I really enjoy

[00:16:26] and delegating those other things to other people um that I do make more time for exercise

[00:16:33] you know and well-being and actually I have more energy and more creativity when I go and

[00:16:39] exercise now so it's almost rather than thinking it's something I have to do

[00:16:43] it it definitely supports my well-being over archingly so now I you know before I didn't

[00:16:49] really exercise a lot I had a personal trainer that was paying to make me do something now I'm

[00:16:55] going to the gym you know swimming four times a week I've got a peloton at home so it's easy

[00:16:59] so I can slot in half an hour but I really love the music as well and like having music

[00:17:04] into my life so um you know making time for exercise music and everything else made a shift

[00:17:10] and you know I did decide on you know getting divorced as well as part of that journey so

[00:17:17] realizing that things weren't aligned there and facing up to it having somebody to talk to

[00:17:22] as well it's really hard to navigate some of that by yourself um have somebody there to talk

[00:17:27] through relationships you know in whatever state because it might not just be you know a

[00:17:32] maritable one or whatever um you know that led me on a path of quite a few changes but what it

[00:17:37] did allow me to get back in in tune with what makes me happy what my values are where I need to

[00:17:43] focus my time and take back control of my life and I think it's really important we own that

[00:17:50] because only only only we can own what we do nobody forces us to do anything

[00:17:57] but actually we can find ourselves in a position where we aren't managing ourselves

[00:18:01] we're just allowing things to be done to us um you know and I don't mean that in a way of a

[00:18:07] passive way but it's kind of like you know we need to take ownership and we might not be able to do

[00:18:11] that by ourselves sometimes we might need somebody's hand to hold us through that process because

[00:18:15] it's scary and it's hard and you don't want to face some of those things you don't want to

[00:18:20] admit some of those things um but I think you know I have been on that journey of unpacking

[00:18:25] the box and repacking it but with having help along the way yeah I think I think that's a

[00:18:30] wonderful example to to be sharing especially linked to the work that you do because you've

[00:18:37] walked the talk and you can empathize with any woman who's coming into your consultancy who are

[00:18:45] juggling parent-hood marriage partnerships whatever they're doing you've got that empathy

[00:18:53] that human touch and that that will make such a difference to the relationships that you build

[00:18:57] and it will build those successful relationships moving forward as well they'll be coming back to

[00:19:03] you time and time again um but making that point that it's okay to it's okay to take that step

[00:19:11] back to have to unpack and also to ask for help uh to navigate the way forward because

[00:19:17] we both as coaches we don't have all the answers and we have other coaches who can be that

[00:19:23] refreshed perspective for us um and so bringing in those elements as you've shared about exercise and

[00:19:30] doing what you can but also making time for it it's it's such a vital message for my listeners as well

[00:19:38] so tell us when you went into the sales force consultants role so that that again was another

[00:19:45] spark in your life that captured you and now you've made it yours and turned it into um

[00:19:52] an opportunity for other moms to come into the sector as well what was it that you felt that

[00:19:59] you were ready to take that next step I think um we've been a sales force consultant it's

[00:20:07] it's a really interesting role because you get the opportunity to go into organizations and help

[00:20:12] tide your best systems and their processes it's quite a maternal thing okay um yeah you kind

[00:20:18] of go in and be like right let's sort out everything you know understand and you solve problems for them

[00:20:23] you implement new technology and you leave them happier like my my end point is always like I'm

[00:20:28] here to make you happier right I'm here to make your life easier make your help you perform better

[00:20:34] improve and reduce administration and make it more efficient um and it's very rewarding roles

[00:20:42] have when you're helping an organization and the teams have a better way of working and improve

[00:20:48] more outcomes and so that's what I really love and you know as I wear different hats and I always

[00:20:56] say to the mums that I talk to there's different roles you can do so if you are going in and

[00:21:03] speaking to the sales team for example and you're talking to them about you know what their

[00:21:08] sales processes are how they work what the current challenges are what they want to be able to do better

[00:21:14] that's called a business analyst role and it's it very much suits somebody who's that empathetic

[00:21:20] listener that likes to listen likes to solve likes to help and so if you're the chatter

[00:21:25] and you you know you take that role in the family or with friends I always say you'd be a great

[00:21:30] business analyst um and then there's the the sales force admin or the person that gets

[00:21:36] technical with the system so if you like just fixing the problems and getting on with it and

[00:21:41] you're the DIY person the first adopter that teaches everybody else how to do something and I always

[00:21:46] say that you should be the one the role where you're building the system um so that you'd call

[00:21:52] that that could be the sales force consultant or it can be a sales force administrator that

[00:21:55] will build out a system then you've got the project manager and the project manager is the

[00:22:00] person that kind of coordinates everybody else and what they're doing and you know if you

[00:22:05] like it to work at home you'd be the budget keeper spreadsheets organizing who's doing what when

[00:22:11] organizing the social events and parties you know that's the natural project manager

[00:22:16] so you've got different hats that you can wear um and a sales force consultant I like wearing

[00:22:23] all of those hats I can do all of those things there is a consultant you can do all of those

[00:22:28] things or you can actually just do one of those jobs you don't have to do all three

[00:22:34] um so it gives a lot of variety to people and it suits different personality profiles

[00:22:39] so there's like six different job roles you can do in the sales force sector

[00:22:43] and I do sort of argue that actually there is one for everybody if you wanted to

[00:22:48] I think the main thing is you've got to like sitting at computers to some degree

[00:22:53] and learning about technology and talking to people about their processes and solving problems

[00:23:00] like there the personality traits that you've got to sort of align to some degree

[00:23:05] and then there's different job roles underneath it so I love the variety I love helping people

[00:23:10] though and it goes back to that social mission right if you feel like you're helping people then

[00:23:14] you know that ticks my box fantastic fantastic so you've brought a lifetime of experience together

[00:23:21] all the challenges all the success points and and rolled it into a marketable product that

[00:23:28] really does tick that box to answer and it is a social intention your social mission

[00:23:37] so if you have three can do tips that you'd like to share with the listeners what would they be

[00:23:43] the things that have really given me support over the years because as you say every day

[00:23:49] is a bit of an up and a down cycle right you're never going to have um you know that perfect day

[00:23:55] but with my it's I talk about energy levels and I um I think it's really important to keep your

[00:24:01] energy levels between a seven and a ten which is where you're plugging yourself in every day

[00:24:06] something that charges you up and gives you energy so whether that's yoga or music or exercise

[00:24:13] I've always made sure that I'm charging myself up every day and spending time on something

[00:24:17] that's going to keep me between that seven and ten energy level because if I don't

[00:24:21] I know that I'm going to fall down the bottom of the well and it's hard to get back up right so when

[00:24:27] somebody makes it happens it's hard to get back on the cycle so keep your energy levels high

[00:24:34] surround yourself with positive affirmations so in my office here I've got things like make it happen

[00:24:40] happiness um happiness lives here you've got this you know positive words because if you see

[00:24:46] and hear those things three or four times every day you believe them yes so it's really important

[00:24:51] to surround yourself with those elements and I think the third thing is get support I've always

[00:24:58] invested in coaching um I've had counselling as well as part of obviously going through um various

[00:25:04] you know divorce and everything else and I think it's very important that we don't you don't have

[00:25:09] to do this alone is get some support um because somebody's got to hold you hand and that's

[00:25:14] not really necessary a friend or a family member I think it's really important to invest in somebody

[00:25:18] that's got the right tools and techniques to help you unpack the box properly and repack it properly

[00:25:23] um you know that can really help you analyze things they would be my three top tips for people

[00:25:30] wonderful wonderful no that's fantastic I'm sure there's there's lots more that you live by

[00:25:36] as well but those are key because if we have um high energy ourselves and we have the right

[00:25:41] we're generating that right momentum in our minds and our positivity as well and what we need it we

[00:25:48] ask for support you know it's I think it's the hardest thing for a lot of people is to ask for

[00:25:53] help um but when we do and it is the outside refreshed perspective that is not a friend

[00:26:00] because they'll tell us what we want to hear um not what we need to hear and it's it's really

[00:26:06] great to go that step further and have that skill of listening to people like yourself and myself

[00:26:12] where we really can navigate that path and support others to get to the next place so thank you for

[00:26:20] those three tips for the listeners so my final question for you today then Heather is how would

[00:26:26] you describe the opportunity of having a can do mindset I think a can do mindset is to

[00:26:33] research your opportunities and make an informed decision about what is the best way forward

[00:26:39] um it is all about that research and feeling confident about the decision because then you

[00:26:44] will do it I suppose and you can do it yeah yeah fantastic fantastic well thank you so much for

[00:26:51] spending time on the show this afternoon and I wish you every success so thanks for being on the

[00:26:57] can do way oh thank you for having me go it's been lovely thank you thank you for listening to my

[00:27:03] podcast the can do way do you live and breathe the can do attitude since 2019 my podcast has gifted

[00:27:13] listeners across the globe access to an incredible selection of guests with stories to refresh your

[00:27:20] perspective bring you joy and inspire can do positivity always curious and with an insatiable

[00:27:28] appetite for a good yarn I invite you to be a guest on my weekly show if you have an inspiring

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