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Sara Mayer: [00:00:00] Welcome to the bold goal crusher podcast for anyone looking to stop letting life get in the way and start crushing bold goals. I'm your host, Sara Mayer, and I'm thrilled to navigate this journey with you because it's time to start boldly achieving without working double time. So let's dive in.
Sara Mayer: Hello, bold goal crushers. I'm super excited about this episode today. I think you're really going to enjoy the conversation between me and my guest. So let me introduce you to Heather Black. She is the CEO and founder of super moms. She launched super moms to help Other mothers upscale and launch a flexible, well paid career in the tech sector.
Sara Mayer: And she's supported over 1, [00:01:00] 000 people. Yes, you heard that correctly. 1, 000 people to change their lives and thrive in new careers globally. Heather, I am so excited to have you on the show and. dive into this conversation.
Heather Black: Oh, thank you so much for having me. No, it's really great to be here. And I just love every day, just being able to spread the word, educate people about flexible, well paid career opportunities and where Supermom sits in The offering, of jobs will suit some people, it won't suit others.
Heather Black: But I think the main thing is that we talk about these things and, it might just trigger that light bulb moment for somebody to go, actually, that's perfect for me. And that's what I want to do. And that's always a change that you want to have, isn't it? When you're out there sharing your story with other people.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. And so you've impacted. over a thousand people's lives. That has to be so rewarding.
Heather Black: It is lovely. And just this morning we have a really active alumni group and we [00:02:00] always have a Friday brag where we say to people like, what did we achieve this week? And one of the ladies said, Oh, I've managed to buy my house.
Heather Black: And I'm so delighted because it was due to upskilling with super moms and having a more flexible, paid career that I've managed to buy a house. And you're like, that's why we do what we do. It's those stories that motivate you every day. And, I get the opportunity to speak to our alumni for different reasons.
Heather Black: Like we're interviewing a guy this morning and he was saying how he's loved the shift for himself. And, we just get to hear all these different stories about how it's changed people's lives, the better, and they've moved from a better place, more flexibility, more pay, been able to, Separate from the partner and get their life back and be financially resilient on the road.
Heather Black: There's so many different stories and reasons why people want to make a shift. So it's really rewarding.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. And what a great thing for her to be able to do to buy her house for her family, and leave that, that not only to do that as a, to make sure you're taking care of yourself, but to also [00:03:00] set that example.
Heather Black: Yeah, exactly. And I think, that's why I enjoy working around, that flexibility and I know everybody's got their path and everybody, everybody can absolutely, be on the right path themselves. But I, for myself, when I am a single parent, I work as well as having the kids and I like to make sure that they are aware of what I'm doing, get them involved in it.
Heather Black: They help pack swag boxes to send off to our alumni who've got their certifications, and we pack all the little things in a box and send them off. And, I was discussing sort of marketing ideas with my daughter this week, and she's coming up with some great ideas about how we could send chocolates to People who, and a chocolate brand that had been started by a mum, but to tell the story of Supermums with that.
Heather Black: And I just love getting them involved in what works about and getting them to shape ideas or get involved. But I also equally think, on the premise of flexibility that [00:04:00] to have that option where you can close the door and be with them and to know that you can be with them and to have that quality time with them.
Heather Black: And that's what we're all about at Supermums is making sure that we've got that balance.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. So how did you get into this?
Heather Black: So I had to pivot. I think like many people can find themselves in, at a certain point in their life where they're thinking, Oh my gosh, what am I going to do differently?
Heather Black: I'm going to have to change career. And I was running a business originally that did career coaching and business coaching. So I've always had a passion to help people. and develop their careers and develop their businesses. And that organization specifically was focused on supporting young professionals.
Heather Black: So 18 to 30. So I've just notched up a generation now, but it was focused on that age group. That was the age group I was running, but we focus very much on coaching and I started I was doing that for eight years, but it was largely funded through Public sector funding. So the services were free for our beneficiaries [00:05:00] and in the UK, which is where I'm based the funding stopped and it was very difficult to make the business work anymore through people paying for it because it's harder for that client group to pay for services themselves, et cetera.
Heather Black: So I tried to pivot it, try to. Do some different strategies for a couple of years, but realized that I needed to find another option for myself. I was just about to move out of the city, moved to the seaside, just got married, was wanting to start a family. And I'm thinking what can I do that's going to offer me?
Heather Black: a good pay still, a career and also the flexibility to not have to be in the city and to work flex, to work remotely. And that's when I started considering careers within the Salesforce ecosystem. Now the question might be what Salesforce Salesforce is a client relationship management solution, which is used across the world by many, Companies, including 95% of the SY [00:06:00] 100.
Heather Black: It is the number one CRM solution that is used by businesses and by CRM it is the living, beating heart of an organization. So if you are ringing up your bank provider or your telephone provider, they will have a CRM that manages all your customer data and information. They'll have what products you've bought.
Heather Black: Any times you've called up the customer support line will use it. It will contain all of that information about you. So no. Business can really survive without a client relationship management system. And what I educate a lot of people about and what I found myself was that there are five or six different job roles you can do in this space.
Heather Black: And I researched that because I'd used Salesforce for my own business initially. It really helped me manage my team, understand my data analytics, kept all my data compliant. And it felt like cleaning from a motherly point of view. It felt like keeping [00:07:00] everything clean and tidy, knowing and tracking everything, making sure there's easy automated processes in the organization.
Heather Black: And I really loved that component of it. And I, I. Particularly decided that I wanted to go and help other non profits implement a CRM system to manage their fundraising, their volunteering and their delivery of activities. And I just researched what the different job roles were, which I can certainly talk about a bit more, but it was through that research, through that conversation, I was like, is this something that I can do?
Heather Black: Cause I think that's what people.
Sara Mayer: The light bulb went out.
Heather Black: Yeah, it's what is this? I haven't got a background in tech. Can I do this? What are the different job roles? Will I enjoy it? And then the questions that anybody really has around, what could a future career offer you?
Heather Black: And so I spoke to people, did the research. And, that's what we do at Supermums now. We offer people the opportunity [00:08:00] to learn about what the career opportunities are and educate them as, as much as possible for them to make an informed decision. And so I pivoted. So I became a Salesforce consultant.
Heather Black: I upskilled to be able to do that job, but then I went to be able to earn 450 pounds a day, which is UK sterling. It's the salaries are higher in the USA. So it's a global product, but you can earn more in the USA. So I always think, should I move? But yeah, no, I can't move quite right now, but it's good day rates.
Heather Black: 450 in the UK is good day rates. I was working three days a week. So I UK, working three days a week with a newborn. And after doing that for four years, I was like, actually other mums could do this too. And that's really where the story of Supermums was born. I felt, if I can do this sustainably for four years, working flexibly, working remotely, juggling, I just had my second baby when I launched Supermums.
Heather Black: I was like, actually, yeah, we need to raise awareness of it because there's a shortage of talent. And that's partly why the salaries are [00:09:00] as well. Need more people in the sector.
Sara Mayer: Wow. I love that journey, how it took you a little bit to figure it out. I think with any goal, it's never easy. It just doesn't, like the path doesn't come to you from the beginning. It's something that you figure out along the way and you really figure out what interests you and what you're into.
Sara Mayer: If you were to look back on your journey from where you were to where you are now, what would you say were the biggest lessons?
Heather Black: I think just being open to new ideas of, I can do something else and just understanding what those different job roles are and thinking about how you can translate.
Heather Black: I think we can some, you can find yourself in a bit of a fixed mindset. Oh, I can't get a job. Oh, I'm no good at this, or I can't do that. And I think leaning in and listening and learning. Allowed me to go. Actually, I could do this. There are a lot of transferable skills transferable industry [00:10:00] experience.
Heather Black: I could bring to this and I could do it. And I think that takes a lot of courage and confidence to take that step. But equally, I had to, really have the confidence to just reach out to people and ask them for a conversation and to say, talk me through it and, to invest in the training as well equally, because you do need to upskill to transition, into many different career options.
Heather Black: And I always say to people, and what we provide is a career plan template. So we say here's all the information you need, but then write down what your transferable skills are, what your industry experience is. A bit like you're creating a little business plan for yourself to get it out of your head and to put it down on black and white and go, Actually, what have I got?
Heather Black: It's a career coaching exercise that you need to do because if you're trying to make decisions about things and it's all in your head, you can't objectively look at it in black and white and go, what can I do? So I think it was really doing that [00:11:00] research, writing it down, understanding it.
Heather Black: I'm looking at the return on investment. So I did my courses, we say to people with our courses, they cost two grand, but I'm like if you're going to then maybe you'd start, I was only four 50 day rates, but I had some experience with Salesforce. You might start on day rates of two 50, but if you're working 10 days.
Heather Black: You've already paid that money back.
Heather Black: It's a very quick return on your investment and quite a few of our, supermoms will start on contracts at 250, but after a year you're going to be done increasing your day rates up, in over a couple of years you'll get to 450. So you can quickly make that money back and be earning, if you're working Full time remotely, you could be earning a hundred K on 400 pound day rates.
Heather Black: So I think it's just doing the research, understanding it, talking to people. I think they're all the things that you've got to push yourself to do. Because otherwise you can just sit there and gravitate and think, Oh, there's nothing [00:12:00] out there. Or, I think one of the reasons for launching Supermums is that we can fall into this self talk that.
Heather Black: I have to go and do a lesser skilled job. I have, there's no flexible jobs that are well paid. I have to go, do a less. A job that would be well below perhaps where you could or should be, and that might suit you. There's nothing wrong with that if that's where you want to be, but not if you want more, there is definitely the opportunities there.
Heather Black: So I think you've really got to evaluate and make sure that you're considering all options. They're the lessons I'd be taking away really.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. I really love that idea that. You can achieve more, but you mentioned this, you don't have to. And I think there's this thing out in society, like you have to have it all.
Sara Mayer: You have to have the kids, the house, the career. And sometimes that sets us up for burnout and fatigue and all those other things. And you're really working with people. I know you work with men and women, [00:13:00] right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Program too. Yeah. Yeah. So you're working with men and women who really want to be able to have that family time, have a successful career, but the key component or ingredient is being able to do it in a flexible format that works for them, which is very different than you can have it all, and you have to sacrifice everything to have that.
Heather Black: Yeah, but you know what? It isn't the job. You can have a flexible job, but it's managing your boundaries. And that's a lesson I learned. And I really had to I, I had to reset myself and, be very mindful about actually talking about this to other people on our program, because what can happen when you're going through a retraining or you're working from home or you're working flexibly is that you don't turn off.
Heather Black: And you don't manage your own boundaries and you're not doing all the other stuff that you need to do. And so I've also, we do career [00:14:00] coaching at Supermums. I've been talking quite a lot about the ambitious women mindset. That's what I've called it. And that is about managing your boundaries.
Heather Black: Making sure that you're plugging yourself into the energy socket every day to recharge yourself with something, getting the right support in place and holding your court because there'll be many women who might be listening to this that will, talk a part time job nine till three, but all of a sudden they're working in the evenings or they're doing five days, not the three days.
Heather Black: And that's down to our boundaries and our boundaries to manage things and to push back. And, if an employer is really taking the mickey, then, you obviously, you have the choice. It's all your choice, but it's your choice to then walk away and go find something that's more flexible, or it's your choice to manage those boundaries and to push them to respect that and to listen to you, because maybe they don't know that you're doing that, or maybe they realise there's too much workload for you, or whatever it is.
Heather Black: And I, I've taken more control over that myself. [00:15:00] So I think that's. That can be the biggest thing because we can have these flexible jobs, but not hold our boundaries around it too.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. And what's really interesting when I used to work in corporate America and I managed a large team, I, you mentioned like they may not know, I had employees that were working all the time and some of it was their choice and some of it was the stuff that we as an employer put on their plate.
Sara Mayer: And Yeah. They never said anything. And then when we started to really talk through it, I realized that many of the jobs, the scope had just grown because people. We knew we could count on that person and they got it done. And so they got new projects. And then other times it really was the person was maybe not as efficient at work or didn't know how to work in an efficient way.
Sara Mayer: Like I had one lady telling me that she was taking data from one [00:16:00] spreadsheet and typing it into another spreadsheet. And so there was a training opportunity there. And it's really about those conversations that was able. That we were able to, as a company, decide, is this really feasible for us to put all this on this one position?
Sara Mayer: And we spent some money on tech to build programs to automate some of these things. And it was way more efficient. It was way more cost effective, but it all came from those conversations about what does your job really entail? How do you do your job? And one of the things that we did it and it's building trust to one of the things we did is we just watched people work.
Sara Mayer: And at first people were like, this is really uncomfortable with zoom. It was super easy. We're like, just share your screen and pretend we're not here. And then we just ask questions. Why do you do it this way? Because Bob in accounting gives me the spreadsheet like this and it doesn't work. And we're like let's talk to [00:17:00] Bob.
Sara Mayer: You
Heather Black: know what? This is the perfect conversation because this is what you do as a Salesforce consultant, right? Go in and listen to people's processes and observe them. And then you improve their processes using technology. That was my new career, right? And I love that. I love helping people, that's what I really enjoy about, that's what we train up super moms to do is they go into companies, they look at what people are doing in their job.
Heather Black: They go, okay, let's just strip out all that admin and make it more efficient and introduce technology to send an email automatically or, and do all of these things. And I always used to say to my clients, because I'm working with super moms now. As a trainee, it's all delivering that rather than actually in the consultancy.
Heather Black: But, I used to say to people, as you were talking there, this staff you're talking about, I'm here to make you happier. I'm here to improve your work life balance. And that's what was really rewarding about doing the Salesforce consultancy role. And so all my supermoms that we've trained up, [00:18:00] we're all out there helping make people's lives better through technology.
Heather Black: It goes full circle, right? Yeah.
Sara Mayer: And I just think about some of the people we're able to help, like when they were silently suffering for years, every time they got that spreadsheet and I'm picking on Bob, every time they got that spreadsheet, it was like a dread, like the life sucked out of them.
Sara Mayer: Cause they're like, Oh, I have to do this thing again. And it was. So easy to just take that off their plate.
Heather Black: Yeah, exactly. And so we've got to be really mindful about that in our own lives, but also that's, with a Salesforce career, that's what you can go and do for other people. So it's interesting how that all comes together, isn't it?
Heather Black: In terms of a conversation.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. So I'm curious to know, we talked a lot about balance and flexibility and boundaries. If you had two personal tips of things that you've developed in your personal life and professional life that you might share.
Heather Black: Yeah. Thank you. [00:19:00] When I hit this kind of burnout phase, which I felt a little bit ironic because obviously I'm telling everybody about having a flexible well paid career and I'm working from home and then I'm like going, I'm not happy, like what's going on there.
Heather Black: I was at a point where, I wasn't really, I used to exercise a lot. And then I think having kids and everything else, I ended up paying for a personal trainer to come and almost take me out like a dog, he's yeah, I'm like, take me for a run. I'm like, why can I not do this myself?
Heather Black: And when I had coaching to help figure out, realign myself I've managed now to re pivot my brain, so actually I am motivated and energized to go and exercise four times a week. I might do it more, I might sometimes do it less, but on average, I'm four times a week. I've got a peloton at home, which is great because if the kids are here, they're As a single parent, you can't leave them, right?
Heather Black: When they're younger, they're seven and eleven. I think there's
Sara Mayer: laws against that or something.
Heather Black: Yeah, [00:20:00] exactly. But I, yeah, so I'm like what can I do? So the Peloton is perfect because I can just jump on it for half an hour while they're running around. On their tablet or whatever and it's just a really quick win for me.
Heather Black: The instructors are really motivational, I love the music, and it just ticks all my boxes. And then I'll go for a swim twice a week, and that really helps. But what I also find is that can be actually one of my creative times, that getting away from the computer. It's not that I want to work on in, in that capacity, but sometimes that can be when I can get the great ideas or, just fertilize or just, I say, re energize myself.
Heather Black: I talk about plugging yourself into the energy socket, that's really helped. So that's what been one really good shift is going actually, I'm a better, happier person if I'm motivated to energize, to exercise. And if I do it, then you get the bug and you tend to want to do it. And if you don't do it, then you feel like, ugh, I'm You know, you feel more you don't feel as good.
Heather Black: So it's just working on that routine. So that's been one big shift for me that i'm really proud of because to be fair [00:21:00] it was good Felt like a good 10 years where I got out of That sink of exercising myself. And then the other kind of key shift was being in a group of people that are learning and, sharing things and being around, like minded people is really well for me.
Heather Black: And I think I'd been in a marriage where I wasn't really happy, for me, it was like the values weren't aligning there. I wasn't really hanging out with people that. I was getting energy from. And so investing in groups of training and people where I've got a similar cohort of people like me has been really valuable.
Heather Black: Like I do feel like a lifeline for me and we can celebrate together and share things. And I think that's what, that's why people join Supermums because we take people in as cohorts and we attract those people that want to train with other people that want to create new friendships. They want to be on that journey and they have their own sort of support groups where they chit chat every day and through the week and [00:22:00] we have this big alumni group as well where we're sharing things and they like that and quite a few of them have tried to learn by themselves as I have and I'm just.
Heather Black: I really struggle to motivate myself to do a training course by myself, to be honest I love being around people and bouncing those ideas off it and showing up for something live. I've always invested in training and development, some of it will be more valuable than others, but, that's where I see, again, I've learned that about myself and that's what we've put into super moms and why people join it is because they get that energy from being part of something.
Heather Black: Yeah.
Sara Mayer: I love it. So you brought this up. So I want to ask as listeners are listening, if this is something that they're thinking in their life, they need to make a change and they wanted to work with you or get into your program, how might they reach out to find more information and what might they expect?
Heather Black: Yeah. So we have a website, which is supermums. org is [00:23:00] Supermums with a M U M. But Supermums went global. We have a third of our trainees in the USA that rest across EMEA and wider world. So it's a completely virtual course. We have a page, which we'll be, we'll put in the show notes, which is what is a Salesforce career.
Heather Black: And on that page, we've just really tried to explain, what the career opportunities are. We have a quiz where you can assess which job role might suit you based on your parenting attributes. Because we look at your attributes and your skills and your knowledge that you can transfer. You can download a free career plan which kind of gives you all the information and some exercises to work through.
Heather Black: So that would be your starting place. And I think the biggest thing is be You know, explore it if it's not for you. Great. If it is then brilliant, there's no, no obligation to sign up to anything or be sold anything. If it's not right, the main thing is if you want to help people make an informed decision and we should be one of the options you explore alongside obviously a range of others and we also offer free career [00:24:00] consultations for anybody that wants to talk through that personal situation and whether it's the right fit for them.
Heather Black: So it's all there. Yeah. To be explored.
Sara Mayer: That's really exciting. I love what you have built. I think it's so necessary and I just feel like it's life changing for a lot of people. So thank you for the work that you do. Oh, thank you for having me. It's been lovely to share it with everyone today. Yeah. Thank you for being on the show.
Sara Mayer: All right, bold goal crushers. It's time to crush your goals and everything that gets in the way because you do not need to work double time. So let's get to it.
Sara Mayer: Thank you for tuning into the bold goal crusher podcast where we crush goals and everything that gets in the way. I always love to support my community.
Sara Mayer: I look forward to seeing you crush your goals this [00:25:00] year.
