The Mummies: Nat Taylor and her shiny Sharks, Rudi, 11 & Arlo, 8
These two fintastic awards belong to Nat Taylor, Founder of Poppet. While raising two delightful boys, Nat also managed to raise a business baby of her own.
While she’s lucky to now be her own boss, it hasn’t always been smooth sailing on the ad mum seas — she’d describe her experience as “intense”.
And like many Mums in our industry have said, it’s often work intensities and a lack of support that can make situations for new parents very hard, Nat says, “I was working at a big ad agency when I became pregnant with my first son. I had only been in the role for three months and it was made very clear to me that I would not be entitled to any paid mat leave and the security of my role could not be guaranteed if I needed to opt for part-time. I would either need to return straight into my current full-time role, or find another job. It needs to be standard practice in our industry for Parental Leave details to be front and centre for all employees looking at a new role. Some mat leave would have been nice!”
Beyond the leave and return stresses, she says, “Perhaps my most “intense” experience as a mum in advertising was when my 2 year old managed to coordinate a serious injury involving a concrete step with a hugely important work presentation. As I held my tiny little boy in the hospital room with one arm, singing to him as they stitched up his face (so he didn’t slip into a K-hole); I used my other arm to maniacally submit final revisions for a PPM document that I had to present in 30 minutes.”
The juggle struggle has been real.
She says, “There is no letup in either role. Both are completely demanding and brilliant and exhausting in equal measure. On occasions, it seems utterly impossible to do both well. However with time and bouts of better sleep, I’ve found a way to categorise what is important and what can wait. Each role feeds learnings into the other. It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times.”
Now the Founder & EP of her own production company, Poppet, Nat applies her empathy and understanding to ensure her employees are supported, she says. “I give myself and my team permission to prioritise family when needed, and I also try to give us the space and time to continue to succeed professionally. With greater wfh flexibility, the daily grind of school pick up, sick days, and all the random additional parent tasks have become more achievable. I found support through certain colleagues in the workplace who became long-term friends. Now at Poppet, I make sure the workplace I have created will support people of all backgrounds, including parents.”
And she’s not just stopping there, she’s always trying to find new ways to support parents, “I still see a need for change with how we approach the 14 weeks of school holidays per year. Each time, I feel like I blink after the last lot, and we are heading into the next. The mental load and logistics of organising holiday care and activities (not to mention the insane cost) is very wearing. If I had a spare moment, I’d love to solve that.”
Thank you Nat for being involved, and to Rudi and Arlo for being the last trophy on The Mummies shelf. Rudi seemed pretty stoked about being a Kinsale shark for the day, but we’re not too sure about Arlo…
📸 by Heather Dinas
📝 by Phoebe Sloane
