MWH 199 : Learning To Love Your Struggles with Tessa Hartnett

It’s really easy to assume that success in business happens over night, with no struggles whatsoever. In reality, it doesn’t. Building your business and taking the leap into entrepreneurship is not always shiny. Sometimes it’s having to share a single coffee with your hubby because it’s all you can afford and other times it’s having to move to another country because the cost of living is less.

These are things my dear friend, Tessa Hartnett and her husband Nathan, did when they were starting and growing their businesses and working through their struggles.

Tessa is a 7 figure entrepreneur who is e-commerce obsessed with over 12 years of experience in the field. She’s currently running a total of 11 stores with her husband and loves to travel with her family.

Something we really want to touch on during this episode is the less shiny parts of entrepreneurship because there are many challenging times while you’re growing your business from the ground up and, more often than not, those times are not spoken about.

Get ready to learn how Tessa learned to love their struggles!

Key Takeaways:

[0:23] This is episode is coming to you from all the way in Byron Bay, New South Wales. It’s a bit of a different episode because I’m actually recording this while on holiday with my friend Tessa Hartnett.

[1:03] Since Tessa and I had the opportunity to be together IRL we thought it’d be fun to jump on and record a podcast episode that talks all things entrepreneurship, struggles, what it’s like to raise a little one and work with your husband as your business partner because these are all experiences we have in common!

[3:18] Tessa has a zero attachment mindset when it comes to her business because her and Nathan (her husband) are so experimental when it comes to their niches.

[4:30] When Tessa and Nathan were on their first date, he told her how much he wanted to be an entrepreneur and she loved it. Their first business was an eBay store!

[7:49] Tessa and Nathan work extremely well together and they don’t know how to do anything different because they’ve worked together since their first date!

What is it like for Tessa to work with her husband?

They butt heads on certain decisions.
Tessa and Nathan do not fight, but they do have disagreements.
Both of them rely on each person’s strength.
They ask each other, “How important on a scale of 1-10 is this for you?”

[11:08] Sometimes when you’re working with your spouse, it’s easy for your ego to get involved. However, it’s important to not let your ego run the show.

[12:38] There is no middle ground when it comes to your children. They’re either really cute or driving you up a wall.

[13:33] Tessa never new if she would be a mum, but because her and her husband was an entrepreneur they thought it’d be nice to have a baby too.

[14:47] At 9 months old, they put their son into daycare and Tessa felt really guilty. She felt like she was giving her business and her team the short straw.

[16:14] You CAN balance being a mum and an entrepreneur.

[17:08] Your environment really contributes to how you feel about yourself and what you do.

How did Tessa work through the guilt?

Tessa and her family relocated to New Zealand/Thailand and this removed her from the societal pressure.
Get around like minded people because then you’ll feel much better.
Social support is also incredibly uplifting.

[20:00] When Karl and I decided that I would breastfeed the boys beyond a year, it meant looking out for breastfeeding communities online and being around people like that it normalised breastfeeding for myself.

[23:55] If Tessa didn’t have much money, how was she making her decisions? She takes life by design to another level. She designs the life that she wants and then creates a business that helps her have that.

Learning To Love Her Struggles

[26:38] When they first started their entrepreneurial journey, they had a broken car and a dodgy apartment. She embraced all the bad times because she knew it was a small part of the larger picture. Tessa and Nathan used to be able to only afford to share a coffee.

[30:22] Entrepreneurship is not all roses and overnight success. It’s a lot of sacrifice that you can make fun and playful.

[31:18] When we spoke about Karl leaving his six-figure job to go all in with Mums With Hustle, we had to really flesh out whether or not it would be worth it.

Tessa's Latest Business

[32:34] For the first time ever, Tessa and Nathan bought an already established business called Bridesmaids Only. They’re still learning and it’s a bit of a renovation.

[35:04] Tessa was recently a guest lecturer in The Social Method Society all about high-converting e-commerce websites. So, I had to ask Tessa what her one piece of advice is for someone starting a new e-commerce business. Her advice? You need to do the keyword research to see if there is an audience searching for this product.

[36:45] You need to build an audience of buyers. If you don’t have the audience growing your business can very quickly become disheartening.

[38:15] I’d absolutely love to hear from you! Comment on anyone of my recent Instagram posts (@mumswithhustle) or leave me a review me on iTunes because every review means that we get in front of new listeners on iTunes so we can help more and more women know what’s possible for them! Plus, any reviews left between now and the end of October will get some snail mail from me. 😊