Interview with Hannah Chambers

Hannah is a Business Mentor & Success Strategist helping ambitious female founders turn their businesses into scalable assets outside of their busy brains. Her approach focuses on self leadership, success habits & systems to achieve personal and professional growth through any & all seasons of life & business. She is the founder of Bored of Busy.

What inspired you to start your own business, and what challenges did you face in the initial stages of entrepreneurship?

I was so fed up with seeing incredible women flounder under the pressure of trying to ‘do it all’ in the name of success. With no system or way of building a business to actually support her to make it happen without surrendering to constant hustle. ESPECIALLY alongside raising a family.

In trying to navigate my own chaos & mental mess, I unknowingly created a bespoke approach to helping women download their busy brains into a system that makes scaling, leading & living life simple & achievable. So no one's potential goes to waste, regardless of their season of life.

How do you maintain a work-life balance while running a successful business?

The nature of my work is to turn business into assets that live outside of our busy heads. It means everything to do with my business; Clients, plans, assets, ideas are all kept in a system…..a system that I can close the lid on, step away from & fully switch off because I trust everything is safe & can be picked up when I return. 

That’s half the battle, creating balance is hard when you don’t trust yourself to remember it all - which of course, no one can! So you can’t ever fully switch off from one role into another. Exhausting!

But I don’t stop there, I fully integrate my life into the system so it runs parallel to my business, meaning I have time for my fitness, lunch dates, family plans etc…basically not leaving any of my success to chance, because as a mum to 2 small boys, I’m exhausted, so nothing would ever happen.

Can you share a significant milestone or achievement that you are particularly proud of in your entrepreneurial journey?

I use Asana to build out businesses, recently I was offered a spot on their partner program after previously being declined. But only after I emailed them to express the importance of supporting small female owned businesses in the make up of our business eco system. By excluding micro businesses, where women make up a huge percentage, they were excluding the opportunity to partner with & impact huge amounts of women. I would do what I do without an official partnership, but flagging the importance of including women outside of the big corporates & being heard…..that's a win I am taking with me!

Have you experienced any gender-related obstacles or biases since starting your own business?

I think the main thing is how we experience business as the default parent. I started my business to help women, yes, but also to have the flexibility to be there for my kids when they need me. But I really do feel the toll of flexibility on the mental, invisible & emotional load of being the default parent at home kick in hard.

Again, my solution to this is to build my life system into Asana with my business so I could make sense of everything & also show my husband everything I was carrying, which allowed him to support me without being asked - which is half the battle, right?!

How do you empower and support other women in business?

I use my ‘Better Business Framework’ to help women take their business & overwhelm from their head & into a functional system that just makes sense for making sh*t happen & leading with intention.

I just love to see women win.

It is such a privilege to be an unapologetic hype girl to women making shit happen for themselves. SO here for it.

I want to empower women to ditch busy business culture, dial in to becoming an unapologetic ally, intentional with their time & energy & fully step into their CEO era.

What role has mentorship played in your career, and how has it influenced your growth as a business owner?

Mentorship is critical. Having an ear to share your thoughts, ideas & plans with is non negotiable. Also it can be really flipping lonely, regardless of your community, having someone to hold you accountable and cheer for you is key!

I invested in support in my 5th week of business, wayyyy before I logically had the money to, but I made my investment back the next month.

How have you found marketing your business – has it been easy for you, or have you found it quite difficult? 

I love to yap. I do not struggle to talk about what I do & why - trying to be concise & strategic with all those words & passion ... .the tricky bit for me! But I don’t let this stop me, showing up unapologetically & imperfectly is better than not showing up at all in my opinion.

What are your main marketing activities, and what do you find works best for you? 

I started my business on Instagram & have built a daily rhythm around posting & showing up on my stories. Now this is like muscle memory, I have started posting on LinkedIn.

I am always keen to nail one platform/strategy  before I try something new to avoid overwhelming or endless sporadic doing. 

I do love a guest expert session, IG live or podcast ……easier yapping which builds better trust & connection in my experience.

Can you discuss a time when you had to pivot or adapt your business strategy?

I am in constant trial & review - I love this about business. 

I give myself full permission to put something out there, give it the full beans & then pick it apart. Which I am currently doing with my group program. 

I launched it in March as a founders round that I could learn from & as the end of the program nears, I am planning all the changes…….I expected the program to be evergreen, but only in going through the process of hosting it I am realising I want a deeper & more bespoke level of service for the clients that join…..but I wouldn’t have known that pre bringing it to life.

Looking ahead, what are your future goals and aspirations for your business?

Oof, big question.

I LOVE what I do & how my work is impacting women, I want to scale this for sure.

More connecting, more talking, more speaking - endless possibilities. 

I am about to step into a new season of motherhood with both my boys in Mon- Friday schooling which really opens up my potential & capacity…..watch this space.