The Invisible Revolution: Join the empowered Mumpreneurs: Inspiration, insights & practical advice to build a business you love

By Nicola Huelin and Dame Mary Perkins, Co-founder of Specsavers, The Original Mumpreneur and the UK’s first self-made female billionaire

Without question, this book is for you if you’re a mum who wants to build a successful business around the family life you love.
Written especially for mums by Nicola Huelin, a mum and award-winning business coach and mentor, The Invisible Revolution is an inspirational and practical handbook bringing you precious insights, inspiration and real-world advice on how to start, grow and sustain a successful business – without compromising your quality of family life, health or sanity.Discover the 14 Pillars of Empowered Success every mum in business needs. Join Nicola and a whole host of incredibly successful Mumpreneurs to discover how the women of the Invisible Revolution are carving out a new blueprint for business, achieving a new definition of success and creating a world-changing legacy for their children.  
Learn what it really takes to turn your dream business into reality.
“Nicola has written the essential handbook that every Mumpreneur should read. Inspiring, insightful and packed full of strategies to help us all achieve our dreams.” Jo Davison, founder of Blue Cow Global
“These real-life stories straight from the heart inspire mums everywhere.” Dame Mary Perkins, Co-founder of Specsavers,
“I believe reading this book will give you the courage to begin… and the courage to succeed.” Lucy Piper, Presenter 
“The Invisible Revolution is a truly inspiring read - full of practical tools, resources, insight and examples to help you on your Mumpreneur journey.” Lucy Griffin-Stiff, founder of Starting Conversations
About the Author Nicola Huelin is a multi-award winning business coach and mentor, founder of Mpower for mums in business, inspirational speaker and author with over 20 years’ experience in combining business success with family life.www.mpower.global

• Language: English
• Publisher: Practical Inspiration Publishing
• Release date: Oct 16, 2017
• ISBN: 9781910056769

Nicola Huelin

Nicola Huelin is a multi-award winning women’s business coach and mentor, inspirational speaker and author with over 20 years in business, combining corporate experience as an executive and senior business consultant within multiple industries (telecommunications, IT, public sector, education, hospitality) and 12 years as an entrepreneur, freelance and small business owner. Nicola holds an Honours degree in business economics with a specialism in marketing from Southampton University and postgraduate qualifications in business, change and project management, and was an approved Marketing Advisor on the government’s Business Growth Voucher programme. A registered AMAC coach (Associate member) with the Association for Coaching, Nicola is a fully qualified Small Business Coach and Personal Transformation Life Coach, and holds a diploma in Small Business Coaching, Group Coaching and Personal Transformation Coaching from the Animas Centre for coaching, London. All coaching training fully accredited and recognised by The International Coach Federation, The Institute of Leadership Management and The Complementary Therapists Association. Trusted for her expertise, caring and down to earth approach and holistic philosophy when defining and achieving success, as well as having combined a successful career and business success with raising a family, Nicola has become a highly sought-after women’s business coach and mentor to other mums in business and is on a personal mission to empower one million mums in business Founder of the UK network of Mpower Mastermind groups and the Mpower online business community, Nicola’s work has been featured on international TV, and has received multiple awards, including: - Mentor of the year – Business Women Excellence Awards - Sussex Edition 2016, Winner - Best Parent in Business (London & South East), Mumandworking awards, 2016 (in last 5, results Oct 2016) - Most Empowering Coach/Mentor, Women are B.E.S.T. awards, Winner 2015 - Best Supporting Business, National MumpreneurUK business awards, Finalist 2015 - Best New Business, Women in Sussex awards, Winner 2014 Nicola is regularly asked to share her business expertise and her inspirational personal story to audiences internationally, for example the Women Empowerment Global Summit at the European Sustainability Academy in Crete, London Summit for changemakers, women’s business networks, European business schools, Mums Enterprise Roadshows around the UK and The Work and Family Show (Excel London). Nicola is currently preparing a TED talk on the growing power of Mumpreneurs within the UK economy.

Book preview

The Inner Revolution

The Collective Revolution

I want to share a secret with you...

What if I revealed there’s a special group of women coming together to change the world?

A group of seemingly ordinary women doing seemingly ordinary things, who are actually creating extraordinary change.

A group of dedicated women who want to make a difference in the world doing something they love, whilst still making a difference at home for the ones they love most.

A group of brave women, ready to take that leap of faith, to find their wings and embark on the adventure of a lifetime. Women who are creating the flexibility and freedom they deserve while turning their purpose and passion into profit.

A group of determined women ready to revolutionise the business landscape and redefine what success and wealth really look like in today’s world.

A group of loving women who want to give their children the gift of their presence and create a new legacy which goes above and beyond money and material possessions.

A group of real women who are no longer prepared to settle. Women who finally dare to go after their dreams. Women who now live the sort of life they always wanted to be living!

So this is our secret…

There is an Invisible Revolution taking place and YOU are already part of it!

How our world changes

Before having my first child, I really didn’t realise how much a baby would change my world.

Of course, there were all the obvious changes - the shape of my body, adapting to new routines, greater responsibilities taking care of this little life which was suddenly mine to care for and protect. But nobody could really prepare me for what was to come...

I learnt that not only does your home life and lifestyle change beyond recognition, but your inner world will never be the same again. The moment my child was born, the very centre and meaning of my world permanently shifted. Now, all that I see, do and breathe is fuelled by an indescribable, unconditional love and sense of responsibility that I know only mothers will be able to comprehend.

Nothing can totally prepare you for how being a mother changes you as a person. We experience a total transformation - our values around what is really important in life, our priorities, how we see the world with this child in it, what we’re prepared to do and give of ourselves to be the best mothers we can be.

Motherhood is not always easy. In fact, it is often far from easy! The sleep deprivation in those early baby days. Those infamous ‘terrible twos’. Their ‘turbulent teens’. And, of course, their progression into adulthood, where we still support them through the joys and challenges of life’s inevitable curveballs as they build their own homes and raise their own families.

Yes, it’s true that most days can leave us feeling exhausted, sometimes overwhelmed by all the things we need to think about, possibly frustrated by the things that make us want to tear our hair out... But at the end of the day, we, as mothers, know that motherhood is one of the most precious gifts in life and we wouldn’t trade any of the crazy juggling, plate spinning or tug of wars for anything.

Who is this book for?

Sometimes, on top of this wonderful journey of motherhood, some of us choose to combine raising a family with the adventure of building a business.

Perhaps you’re a mum currently thinking about starting a business and you want to explore possibilities and understand what it takes...

Perhaps you’re already in start-up mode and want to arm yourself with knowledge, practical insights and advice from those who have ‘been there and done it’ and are still succeeding...

Perhaps you’ve been in business for a while, but you’re still not getting the results you deserve - despite all the time, energy and money you’ve invested - and you’re looking for answers and inspiration to make it happen.

Together, through this book, we will go on an inspirational journey of discovery, to uncover and understand the dynamics of this powerful revolutionary movement of mums in business - who we are, why we’re involved and what we’re doing to achieve success.

By the time you’ve read this book, you’ll understand the three stages of the Invisible Revolution and how this powerful collective force is changing the lives of those involved and transforming our future.

As Mumpreneurs (more about what this means soon!), you need certain ingredients to succeed in achieving your own definition of success with confidence and clarity in a way that’s right for you. Believe it or not, this can be achieved without having to compromise your quality of family life, health or sanity in the process. But to reach this point, you will need to understand and implement the 14 Pillars of empowered success.

The great news is that whatever stage of the journey you’re at, combining motherhood with business, this book is for you!

Welcome to the Invisible Revolution.

Welcome to our world of the empowered Mumpreneur...

My golden ribbon moment

In 2002, at the age of 29, I heard a simple story about a piece of ribbon that would change my life forever.

Before I share this life-changing story, let me take you back, ten years earlier, where, as a university student, I’d already met the first love of my life - business! I was far from a role-model student - too many parties, drinking too much cheap beer, dancing the night away and, as a result, missing lectures. But this said, I knew what I wanted, or rather I knew what I didn’t want.

I didn’t want to get married.

I didn’t want children.

I wanted a career.

‘Children? No! There’s no way I can have the sort of career I want and have children’. I was so convinced, I bet my university girlfriends dinner at the Ritz -the most extravagant thing I could imagine then as a poor student!

When we graduated, all my friends took a year out travelling. But not me - I had a wonderful job all lined up and I dived straight into my career.

A meteoric rise

I started work in marketing, in a high-tech company in the South of France, based in Sophia Antipolis – often referred to as the ‘French Silicon Valley’.

I was very blessed to be in a career that I loved and I was good at. I did postgraduate business studies, I was frequently given more and more responsibility, and soon led teams on high-profile, big-budget projects. By the time I was in my mid-twenties, I was already very successful and had moved into the world of business consulting.

Life was good. Having met my husband quite young, I very quickly lost my university bet - we started a family. I was 24 when I had my first child, my daughter Carlie, which for my generation was young. Ironically, I was the first of my friends to get married and start a family. When my daughter was born, I enjoyed taking six months of maternity leave, but I remember how ‘desperate’ I was to get back to work.

My work wasn’t always easy. Business consulting was a very male-dominated world to work in. I was one of only a handful of women out of 150 consultants, and by my late twenties I was managing men 20 years older than me.

There were moments when this rate of progression and level of success felt overwhelming, but my hard work and love for what I did paid off - literally! I had become the primary breadwinner, reaching a position of financial security where I was able to hire an army of people (a gardener, a cleaner, a nanny, etc.) to take care of things for me. My career was really rewarding, I felt proud of my professional success and my ability to juggle my career alongside my now five-year-old daughter.

The story that changed everything

When I turned 29, the global consulting company I worked for picked a handful of people to take part in a six-month ‘Peak Performance’ programme to fast-track certain people within the organisation to even greater heights. I remember how privileged I felt to be part of that group. As I read the email invitation, something told me deep down this was a huge opportunity that was going to completely change my life. And how right I was!

The first morning of the programme, during the introduction, I remember the trainer pulled out a beautiful, long piece of golden ribbon from his pocket. When he held up one end of the long ribbon, the other end almost touched the floor.

‘Imagine this piece of ribbon represents your life,’ he said, looking around at our group of 12 grey-suited, corporate rising-stars.

‘Does anyone know what the average life expectancy is?’

We all looked at each other, bounced a few numbers around and ultimately agreed that with the advances in medicine, it was probably about 83.

‘Good,’ said the trainer, as he took a large pair of orange-handled scissors from his trouser pocket. ‘Now what’s the average age of everyone in this room today?’ Again, we looked around at each other. I was by far the youngest at 29, but we settled on 40. As we shared our calculations, the trainer immediately opened up the blades of his big steel scissors at the bottom of the ribbon and, with a knowing smile, began to slowly slide the scissors up the length of the ribbon.

‘Tell me when to stop!’

Realising that he wanted us to measure the number of years in the length of ribbon, as the scissors reached just below the middle, we all cried out ‘STOP!’ He slashed the ribbon almost in half and the lower section fell to the floor. He stood there silently holding up the remainder.

I’m not sure which felt more depressing to the group - seeing the half of our lives laying spent on the ground or noticing how much shorter the remaining piece had suddenly become.

The room was so silent you could have heard a pin drop.

‘On average, how much time do we spend sleeping?’ the trainer continued.

It turned out that, from the group, I wasn’t the only one who needs eight hours minimum sleep a night before becoming dysfunctional. The scissors struck again, cutting away another third from the remaining ribbon. It was shocking to see how, with only two simple strikes, the ribbon that had once reached the floor now barely stretched from his wrist to his elbow.

‘Drinking and eating?’ he asked next.

Now it’s important to remind you he wasn’t asking a group of Mediterraneans who were used to spending hours at the dinner table. Our group embodied the ‘city-corporate’, ‘grab-what-you-can-when-you-can’, ‘eat-on-the-go-if-you-have-to’, and ‘consider-yourself-lucky-to-have-eaten-at-all’ kind of culture. Forget pleasure and celebrations - we chopped off another five percent of the ribbon simply for ‘survival eating’!

Next up - ‘Travelling?’ And not holidays, trips or family visits, just necessary, routine travel - getting from A to B. We all commuted to our work five days a week, anything up to 90 minutes each way (three hours a day on average). Another chunk of ribbon dropped to the ground.

‘What about queueing and waiting?’ laughed the trainer. This group did similar train and underground commutes in rush hour as I did. Again, another chunk!

The trainer then paused...

All eyes were focused on the remainder of the ribbon. The trainer held up a startlingly short piece of ribbon – all that was left of the long flowing length he had started with.

There was a stunned, rather awkward silence.

‘This,’ he finally said, ‘is the part of your life you have left to live. The remainder of your life that you have any control over what you do with it.’

Utter disbelief and alarm was written across everyone’s faces.

‘If’, he added, ‘if, and only if,’ he paused again. The suspense was killing me.

‘If, and only if, you’re lucky enough to live the ripe old age of 83!’

BOSH! It hit me like a ton of bricks! The whole group seemed to have been hit. But I took the blow hardest of all.

All that remained was a piece of ribbon which barely stretched from wrist to fingertips, yet he hadn’t cut off the time we spent at work and, believe me, we spent a LOT of time at work! Our office hours were at least eight hours a day, not to mention the work that many of us took home with us. Had he cut off the time we spent at work, that hand-length stub of ribbon would have easily shrunk into the palm of his hand. But it didn’t stop there for me.

The moment it all changed

That day, I was the only female in the room. Nobody had begun to factor in all the other things that snipped away at my ribbon - the washing, cooking, ironing, cleaning, shopping, tidying, after-school activities, helping with homework - all the things we do to make a home and raise a family.

Can you picture my tiny remaining piece of ribbon? I could, I could see it in my mind’s eye, my tiny piece of ribbon, and there was still more bad news to come.

You see, the million-dollar question emblazoned across my mind was - ‘how on earth am I going to find time to raise my daughter!’ That remaining stump of ribbon just didn’t seem enough to even begin enjoying motherhood and being the kind of mum I wanted to be, even if I was fortunate enough to live to the ripe old age of eighty-three! My child would grow up, leave the nest and start living her own life long before I would turn 83. Just how small was that piece of ribbon when it came to the time I realistically had left to fully enjoy my children?

My daughter was five, so I figured I had 13 years of full-time motherhood left before she most likely headed off to higher education when she turned 18.

I knew in that moment that something had to change. I realised that I had already started to feel like I was living for the weekends and I had become increasingly ‘money-rich and time-poor’. I realised then that no salary, company car, bonus or job title was ever going to be big enough. I didn’t want to continue with a life that appeared more successful to others from the outside than it felt to me on the inside.

Your golden ribbon Moment

Perhaps you’ve already had a golden ribbon moment in your life? A moment in your life where something happens (redundancy, a new baby, illness, loss, a new opportunity) or something is said to you (in a book, an expert, a friend, family, colleague, a film, article, news flash or perhaps a whisper from your heart and soul) that makes you realise that life’s simply too short - too short to wait, too short not to change, too short not to be living it the way you really want to.

I knew deep down I couldn’t measure success by what was accumulating on the outside. That true success for me had to bring fulfilment and happiness on the inside first and foremost. After all, we are human-beings, not ‘human-havings’ or ‘human-doings’.

That day, sitting on the train, staring at my remaining piece of ribbon, I made a decision that would change my life forever. That very special day, thanks to my golden ribbon moment, without even knowing it at the time, I decided to join the Invisible Revolution! If you’ve reached your Golden Ribbon moment, it’s time for you to join too...

Why I wrote this book

There are seven reasons I wrote this book. Let’s explore them together...

Reason 1 - The gift of magic

I want to begin by saying a huge thank you for picking up this book and reading this far. I absolutely understand how precious your time is. I know how many people buy an endless, ever-growing list of books and never get around to even starting them, let alone finishing them. I do the same thing! But some books I call my ‘magical books’; those that came into my life at exactly the right time, just when I needed it, bringing the message, story or wisdom I needed.

It may have been recommended by a friend, caught my eye in a book store, or popped up on social media – regardless, somehow that magical book finds me. It comes into my life like a long, cool drink handed to me in the middle of a desert, quenching my thirst for answers, meaning and inspiration.

So, however this book came into your life and however you choose to read it – whether taking sips when you have time or downing the whole thing in one go - my wish is that this book turns out to be one of your ‘magical books’.

My reason for writing this book is YOU! I’m on a mission to empower one million mums in business. I want to give you the inspiration, answers and insights you need for your journey as a successful and empowered Mumpreneur.

Reason 2 - Making the invisible visible

Not many people are aware of the Invisible Revolution. The Invisible Revolution represents what Mumpreneurs are really achieving, both in their own worlds, and as a growing collective force around the globe. I want to help people see the bigger picture and understand the revolutionary journey these pioneering, trail-blazing, change-making women are on. I want these women to realise the huge impact they are having in the world on so many levels, and I want others to see and understand this influence too.

Reason 3 - Shining a light on the real role-models

The world of business is lacking real and relevant role-models for mums in business. There is so much sensationalism and hype about what business success is supposed to look like - all this ‘build your seven-figure global empire overnight’ is typically surrounded by a lot of smoke and mirrors. And, in reality, for the majority of us with families, taking an overnight global empire route is not necessarily our dream.

We see the same version of female entrepreneurs and business owners portrayed by the media – the story on repeat where success is measured by money, size, volume and speed - how much money they made, how big they became and how quickly they did it! These celebrated stories are always along the same lines of millionaire, six- or seven-figure business, global empire, gazillion followers, overnight success…

Many of the so-called success stories and role-models are either