WMW issue #13: Tania Dsouza, founder, creator, brand strategist, marketer and mum to a toddler
"The creator economy pushed me outside my comfort zone. It’s also made me more self-aware."
It’s been such a great week for me. I have connected with so many of you and had some great chats about how we can do better in our careers and as mums.
The creator economy continues to inspire me. I hope some of that inspiration gets transmitted to you via this newsletter.
Before I get into today’s interview, there is some stuff I want to share, and rather than send multiple emails - I thought I’d do a quick round up here.
(You can skip straight to interview if you want! :)
A few tools that I have been loving lately
Notion.so: It’s like this mother of ALL workspaces where you can create, save, write, build, store, plan literally anything you want in any format you want, in one beautifully customizable dashboard.
I have put everything on there – schedules, podcasts, this newsletter, resources, links, recipes, to-do lists, calendars, ideas, notes, list of books, EVERYTHING. I’m actually bit worried now how dependent I am on it!
Visme.co: This is an all-in one online tool where you can create dynamic visuals to use on any platform, internally or externally.
In case you know Canva and Mojo, this is them put together + a lot more. I am creating presentations, documents and animated videos on it. Loving the range they have an how easy it is to use.
(NB: This is an affiliate link; I only recommend products I love)
Hypefury: Finally planning and scheduling tweets for myself! If I want to keep up the pace on Working Mums Club, alongside my full-time job and well, life – I need some level of automation. This is my first step!
Communities I have joined that I am excited about:
Small Bets by Daniel Vassallo: He talks about how you should work on many things at the same time so you can see what works – placing multiple ‘Small Bets’. Everything he says on Twitter resonates with me, so joining his community was a no-brainer. We just had our onboarding call after which I was amazed to see that there are 700 people in his community and it is super active.
What I have put out there:
e-Intro to the creator economy for working mums – a path to time autonomy and financial freedom: I truly believe the creator economy can give us time and financial freedom, while working on something we love. So I put together a short intro on it for any mums who might be interested.
Incase you haven’t seen it already, you can get it here below. It includes a 30 second quiz at the end with which you can determine if the creator economy is something for you.
Parent advice that has stuck with me:
Quality time vs garbage time with your kids: As I try to do so many things, I often think about how I spend so much time with my kids but I never feel like it’s enough ‘quality time’. This article from Ryan Holiday put this thought to bay by saying, it’s all quality time, even the garbage time! Read the article here.
That’s all of the “stuff” today from me. Now on to today’s interview!
Meet Tania Dsouza, founder, creator, brand strategist, marketer and mum to a toddler
I met Tania on Twitter and we connected instantly. I thought what she is building is so interesting and I am delighted that she agreed to do this interview.
Q. Tell us a little bit about yourself
Hola from Madrid! I am Tania. I feel like a child of this world as I’ve lived all over (India, Singapore, UK, France, US, Ireland, Portugal) and now Spain. I still don’t know what is home.
We moved to Madrid in April 2022 with my husband’s job. A new country, with a new-ish baby (my son Noah had just turned 1), where I don’t speak the language, and during a pandemic! Not sure if this will be the biggest adventure or regret of my life (haha)
But I hope to call Madrid home. Let’s see.
About my work: I’ve been a 2 x co-founder, worked as a brand/product strategist for startups in retail, real-estate, tech, luxury fashion, events and emotional wellness. I recently stumbled into the creator economy. More about this later.
My hobbies: I do a session of yoga every morning. I like reading stuff that merges science and experience. I’m always exploring new cultures through travel, food, boutiques, cafes and people. I’m a sea person, so swimming and snorkelling are on my activity list.
Q. Why did you choose to enter the creator economy? How long have you been in it?
I stumbled into it. My ex co-founder (Social scientist, Dr Katerina Bohle Carbonell) and I decided to pause what we were building due to personal circumstances. We created behavioural-science based micro-learning systems for people to live and lead better. My son Noah was about 9 months then and we were getting ready to move to Spain. I knew I wouldn’t be able take up a job full-time or start another business.
Knowing my personality I needed to create something to stimulate my brain alongside learning a new skill i.e. parenting. That’s how I started Built with Emotion in January 2022 where I deep dive into customer emotions via a newsletter and I take on selected consulting projects.
Q. Where are you on your creator journey at the moment?
If you asked me yesterday, I’d say I was struggling to call myself a creator. I’ve always seen myself as an entrepreneur or consultant, building product, working with a team and growing businesses.
Today, I’d say I’m on a journey of experimentation. I don’t want labels to restrict what I do or what I will do in the future.
If that makes me a creator, fine. If that makes me a solopreneur, fine. If that makes me a indie-maker, fine. The lines are blurring.
Q. How did the idea for Built with Emotion come about? What is your personal goal with building it? How is it going?
I’m a generalist. I don’t see it as a weakness. It’s helped me see connections, correlations and join the dots.
In saying that, I also felt I needed a space I could own. It took me some time to figure out what that space was.
I looked at the subject areas that peaked my curiosity when I was doing my MSc and MBA. Then I looked at my body of work over the past 15 years and saw an overlap. That’s when I decided I want to deep dive into emotion science with a focus on customer emotions.
My personal goal with Built with Emotion is to provide emotion literacy to 1000 founders/creators in the next 12 months. Empower them to build products that are more emotional, less transactional. My journey into emotion science started when I was doing my MSc at the University of Manchester. I was meant to continue my research with a PhD. But life never goes as you plan!
This is my second chance to explore emotion science minus the limitations of academia. This time I can bring science and industry together while making it accessible and practical.
Moral of the story: Sometimes it’s good that life doesn’t go the way we plan hahah
Q. What are the challenges you face being a creator?
I’d say, imposter syndrome. But I have also realised it’s a good thing. We work 10 times harder to overcome it. This has a positive result on the quality of work we put out.
The other big challenge is distraction. There are so many new ideas floating, trending, sprouting. It’s easy to get caught in all the noise. Twitter doesn’t help either.
Q. As a mum and creator, how do you manage your time?
I don’t manage it. It’s a mess. It’s exhausting. It’s chaotic. I just try to have more good days than bad days haha
Creating a weekday/weekend schedule and time blocking has helped me. I don’t always manage to achieve it. But if I achieve 4 days out of 7, I am happy.
Q. How has being in the creator economy changed your life?
It’s pushed me out of my comfort zone. It’s also made me more self-aware.
These restrictions and projections we put on ourselves like ‘I am not a writer’, ‘I can never be as good as x person’, ‘what will people think of it’, they’re just an internal narrative. No one really cares or has the time for it.
I have a simple philosophy —
If they like my work. They’ll amplify it.
If they don’t like my work. They’ll ignore it.
If they like my work and don’t amplify it, then I just have to find people who will amplify it.
We really have nothing to lose.
Q. Working online in the creator space, what are your thoughts on the future potential of this space?
I am not sure to be honest. I haven’t followed the industry closely. But from what I sense, I think there’s huge potential. But it’s also super tough. With low barriers to entry (so many platforms and mediums), anyone can become a creator.
To create wealth from this or even make a full-time living, there are so many pieces that need to work together. It starts with demand for what you create.
Q. What is your ultimate goal as a working mum?
To see that my different identities (mother, wife, entrepreneur, friend.. ) are not fighting with each other every other day.
My identity as a mum and my identity as a working woman usually have the most nasty fights hahaha. But I am really working hard to create a way where they complement each other than compete with each other.
Q. Where do you get your inspiration?
People. I love people.
I love being around people. Understanding their problems, their desires, their needs, their aspirations and their emotions.
My friends call me their free therapist haha
Q. What is your best productivity hack?
Temptation bundling.
For example: I am allowed to listen to my favourite podcast only if I wake up at 5 am to do my yoga. This way I am excited to wake up early, do a workout and listen to a podcast.
Q. What do you do in your 'me-time' and how does it help you?
I love going to a cafe alone, talking to strangers and observing the world go by. I don’t have any goals with it so I can’t specifically tell you how it helps me. But I generally feel energised or calmer when I am back.
Also, a good massage and some retail therapy never hurts either haha!
Q. What is your advice to mums looking to get into the creator economy?
I am not sure if I am equipped to give advice. All I can say is try and enjoy the process. If you focus too much on the outcome, it wrecks your head. It’s wrecked my head.
I approach it like a scientist running experiments. If something doesn’t work, it doesn’t mean you’ve failed. You’ve proven your hypotheses was wrong. Now try a different hypotheses.
There are endless courses and advice online on how to create. It’s good to spend some time on them. Identify what’s common. Have them as guides.
But as cliche as it may sound, it’s all about experimentation. You have to find what works for you. Then double down.
Q. Favourite tool that makes your life / business easier?
My son. Not kidding.
He has actually made me stay focussed, prioritise, say no (a really important skill that I’ve struggled with), taught me time management, keeps me away from emotional vampires and forces me to be disciplined.
But if you want a tech tool, it would be Twitter. It’s my space to run experiments with an interested audience.
Q. Best thing you have read or watched lately
Lately it’s been a lot of Spanish since I need to learn the language haha. But I really like everything Yuval Noah Harari writes.
Q. Favourite quote
There are just way too many. But let me go with one that could be appropriate for creators. I can’t remember the exact words but it goes something like this—
Comparing yourself too much with others means you might just absorb their goals - Steph Smith, creator and author of Doing Content Right
I find this very true. We all have different goals as individuals. My life goals are very different from the life goals of a 20 something creator. But if I compare myself to a successful 20 something creator I’ll land up wanting what they want rather than what I want.
If you made it to here, thank you for reading!
Today’s email was a bit longer than usual; I hope you still found it worth your time. If you have any questions for Tania, leave a comment here or hit reply, I will make sure she gets them.
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