I agreed to write this article and then I realised that I didn’t even have time to cook dinner – let alone sit down at my laptop.
But, here I am – pulling this article together through a dictation app while I cook some dinner for the two of us – it’s half past nine right now. For me, this has just become a normal way of living. I love my family and I love my business – and I have had to find time to give enough energy to both without feeling stretched in two separate directions.
I left my 9-5 role four years ago on, what some would suggest was, a slight whim. I sat in a board meeting and found myself daydreaming about a different way of living and doing something I loved every day – so I handed my notice in there and then and then had four weeks to set up something new. That ‘something’ slowly took form as Sophie Attwood Consultancy and I’m now lucky enough to work with some of the leading cosmetic surgeons, dermatologists and beauty brands within the medical aesthetics industry and see my work featured regularly within the national media.
I’m so lucky to be able to write about subjects that I find interesting – and for me that is beauty, health and wellness. Not only am I interested in the latest trends within the medical aesthetics industry (we all want to look younger for longer, right?) but I think that it’s really important to write educational content too to help people. Writing about how to correctly treat acne at home rather than promoting a fad treatment could have a significant impact on a reader’s self-esteem in the future. And educating readers on safety when it comes to injectable treatments like lip fillers can potentially save patients from some of the awful complications that I’ve seen first hand such as skin necrosis and even permanent blindness.
My PR work takes up a significant amount of my time but, during lockdown, my partner and I decided to launch a new home interiors brand, Husoe Home. It was a project born completely out of passion and we worked late hours every evening once our daughter had gone to bed. Some evenings I couldn’t even see straight because I was so tired – but we were determined to make it work.
I think that the only time you will ever make anything work is if it’s driven by passion. I’ve always been driven to succeed but I don’t think that that is the only trait needed to be able to push something to that stage where everything comes together. I don’t have a boss, I don’t have anyone telling me to get up in the morning and yet every day, I get up and I work harder. The only reason I do that is because I love what I do and I love seeing it come to fruition.
When I had my daughter – who is one year old – my life just changed and everything else just slotted into place. Now I don’t understand how I was ever busy!
Any mum will understand that having a child changes everything. Every little thing I do is for her. I don’t work to simply afford the material things for her but I work to leave a legacy and to pave a path for her to be able to carve her own – doing whatever she wants to do – when she is older.
I remember when Isla was two months old I was nominated for an award. I drove down to London to get there for 8pm, attended the awards ceremony and of course wanted to celebrate my win with her so drove the four hour journey home to be in time for her 3am feed.
But how do we do it? I just seem to work so well at life with Daniel. It’s never really been a case of juggling things, it’s never felt like that anyway. It’s just been a case of us both taking life at the same speed, both never taking each other’s time for granted and communicating. We both work four days a week so that we have a full day each with Isla and then Isla goes to nursery for three days a week at the moment. Life is all about balance and so we’ll work late one evening but then the next evening we’ll make sure that we have a night away from our screens and spend quality time together.
The biggest challenge I have found is that everyone wants every little piece of you; your work, your relationship and of course your child. There’s an analogy about a mum being a little like butter trying to spread herself across an entire piece of bread and in the end ripping the bread because she’s spread herself so thinly. I think the biggest thing that you can remember is that you can’t do everything – and that’s ok. It’s great to be busy and it’s great to take on projects that challenge you but you should never, ever, feel as if you can’t give enough to your family because of work.
I think that women are now lucky enough to have it all if they want it all so you can have a business and a baby. However, I think that there’s also a lot of pressure on mums to work like they don’t have children and act like a mum who doesn’t work. In this filtered digital age there’s also a lot of unrealistic expectations that we often feel we need to adhere to when, in reality, that’s not a true depiction of how life should be.
Be flexible, lower your expectations, laugh at yourself, be present and enjoy every single little precious moment.
About the author
Sophie Attwood represents some of the trailblazers within medical aesthetics; from leading cosmetic surgeons to award-winning skincare brands and body sculpting treatments. Her unique perspectives on successful brand launch, growth and development – coupled with an impressive client success track record and strong network of national journalists – make Sophie one of the most highly sought-after consultants in the industry. Having worked her way to the top in-house for a ceramics company, Sophie took a leap of faith into the world of PR at the age of 24. Now 29, she has looked after brands such as Tesco and Schwartz before moving into the medical aesthetics industry and making her name there. Sophie also owns successful home interiors brand, Husoe Home (www.husoehome.com) alongside her partner, Daniel which they work on together.
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