The Her Edit

Building While Becoming: On Motherhood, Faith and Starting Before You’re Ready

A reflective piece for The Her Edit by Sofia

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There’s a version of this story that would be easier to tell.
The one where everything looks neat. Where I talk about ambition, vision boards, and a
perfectly timed pivot. Where everything clicked into place, and I just knew.
That’s not my story.
My story is messier.
It’s building a business after my daughter has gone to sleep, with a cup of tea that’s
gone cold and a to-do list that somehow keeps growing. It’s showing up to a corporate
meeting on a Friday, then spending Saturday drafting pitch decks for something I’m
building from scratch. It’s holding a lot, and choosing to keep going anyway.
That’s the version worth telling.

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I Was Always a Dreamer. Then Life Got Complicated.
Before pregnancy, before any of this, I was someone with big entrepreneurial dreams. I
could see it clearly. Building things. Creating things. Becoming the woman I always
knew I had in me.
Then COVID happened.
And if I’m honest, something shifted.
I found myself in a kind of limbo. Not fully ambitious, not unambitious either. Just
existing. Going with the flow. Living day to day in a season I didn’t quite have the
language for at the time.
Fast forward to 2024, and I became a mother to my beautiful daughter.
She’s two now, and the moment she arrived, something in me woke back up. Properly.
I went from worrying I’d be bored on maternity leave, to fourteen months later not
wanting to return to corporate at all.
I just knew.
Going back felt off. Like I was shrinking into a version of life that no longer fit. I
remember sitting at my desk thinking, my brain is rotting. I had more to give. There was
so much in me that felt unused.
And God doesn’t place something inside of you for it to sit dormant.

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The Moment Everything Changed
Summer 2025. A friend’s wedding.
In the middle of the joy and celebration, a thought came to me so clearly it stopped me
in my tracks:
If God asked you what you did with everything He put inside of you, what would you say?
That was it.
That was the moment everything shifted.
I shared it with my now business partner, and we started building what would become
The S&Co. Collective, our luxury boutique events company.
The truth is, I had been doing this for years. Helping friends bring ideas to life.
Conceptualising. Creating. I loved it. I just hadn’t taken it seriously.
This time, I did.
And interestingly, this all aligned with the rise of AI.
What a tool.
It removed so many of the barriers that would have slowed us down. Admin, systems,
content, structure. Things that used to take weeks were happening in days. It gave us
momentum.
That said, the first 90 days were intense.
We were working constantly. My daughter was still breastfeeding. I was tired in a way I
can’t fully explain. There were moments I was running on fumes.
But this time, I knew I couldn’t quit.

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What Building Has Taught Me About Myself
Building has revealed more about me than anything else.
I’ve learned that I’m more resilient than I gave myself credit for.
And more impatient than I would like to admit.
I’ve learned that I do my best work when I believe deeply in what I’m building. When the
“Why” is clear; I move differently. Faster. Sharper. With more conviction.
And I’ve learned that clarity is a strategy.
Not everything needs my attention.
Not everything is urgent.
Not everything is mine to carry.
I work well in systems. I plan. I structure my time intentionally. If something isn’t a
priority in a given season, it sometimes falls away.
And I’ve stopped apologising for that.
Because this only works when I’m honest about what matters.

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How Motherhood Changed the Way I Move
Motherhood didn’t shrink my ambition. It refined it.
Before Reni, I could afford to be vague. I could drift a little. But when you have a
daughter watching you, comfort starts to feel a lot like settling.
And that didn’t sit right with me.
I don’t want her to grow up thinking playing small is normal. I want her to see what it
looks like to try. To build. To follow what’s been placed inside of you.
Motherhood also made me more practical.
There is no perfect time. There is nap time. There is after bedtime. There are small
pockets of time you learn to use well. You become efficient very quickly.
Reni is one of my biggest sources of inspiration.
Not just because I want to show her what’s possible, but because she reminded me of
who I was before life made me forget.
And if I’m honest, God has been incredibly kind to me through her. Motherhood has
been a joyful experience in ways I didn’t expect, and I don’t take that for granted.

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AI Changed My Life. So I Built Around It.
Let it be on record, I am a fan of AI. A real one.
It has genuinely changed the way I work, build, and think.
So much so that I’ve built another business around it, Spanai Solutions, where I help
founders and small businesses simplify what feels complex.
Because for a lot of people, AI feels intimidating. Too technical. Too far removed from
their world.
But it doesn’t have to be.
For me, it became a tool that removed friction. And now, it’s something I feel called to
share.

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How I Carry It All
God is at the centre of all of this.
I know that’s not the standard answer, but it’s my truth.
Building a business has brought me closer to Him in a way I didn’t expect. There were
moments where I needed clarity, direction, strategy, and I didn’t have it within myself.
So I asked.
And time after time, I’ve seen things align. The right ideas. The right people. The right
next steps.
Going into this year, I felt something clearly:
This is a season of birthing.
No more waiting to feel ready. No more shrinking. Just alignment, obedience, and trust.
That’s how I carry it.
Not perfectly. But intentionally.

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What I Want Other Women to Know
The “right time” is often just a comfortable delay.
You can start before you feel ready. Before you have the full plan. Before everything
makes sense.
You can start in the middle of the chaos.
Motherhood is not a reason to pause your life. For many of us, it becomes the reason we
finally move.
You don’t have to choose between corporate and entrepreneurship. You can build both.
Learn from both. Let one support you while the other fulfils you.
And please, don’t put unnecessary pressure on yourself.
Your life will not look like the next woman’s. Your capacity will not look the same. Your
child will not be the same.
Be inspired, yes. But stay rooted in what God has given you.
Everything works better when you build from that place.
And if I’m being honest, I don’t fully know what the future holds. I hope I don’t burn out,
lol.
But I do know this.
I will be proud that I tried. That I built something. That I didn’t ignore what was placed
inside of me.
Motherhood didn’t stop me.
It fuelled me.
And this season of my life, as full as it is, is my favourite one so far.
I’m only just getting started.

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A gentle reminder:
You don’t have to rush your becoming. The version of you you’re building towards is
already unfolding.

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