"I don’t like failing, so when I fall down, I pick myself up and try something different."
Julie Vigor Tweet
Meet Julie Vigor, founder of the Sensational Girls Network.
SGN empowers the current & future generation of women to “Be Your Own Kind of Beautiful” through connection, & to embrace our fun & feminine side, while learning Tips & Tools from a trusted mentor. SGN provides 3 ways to promote positive mental health through mother-daughter retreats/workshops, Sensational Girl Power workshops, and annual membership for Mums.
SGN’s Mission is to help girls become strong and independent successful women who feel unconditional love & support, resulting in self belief through a deeper connection with their mother, and to empower Mums to be the woman and Mum they want to be, through self care, and tips & tools for peaceful positive parenting.
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Table of Contents
Thank you for joining us, please introduce yourself to our readers.
Julie Vigor: I’m Julie and I’m passionate to empower the current and future generation of women. For women to feel strong, unique, and worthy, as well as having a heart connection to their daughter. I love to be fun and feminine.
I’m a passionate woman with a big heart, who now embraces my uniqueness and my faults, but strives to be a better person every day. I love helping people and bringing out the best in people. After 25 years as a teacher, I decided to build a business, “Sensational Girls Network”. SGN’s Mission is to help girls become strong and independent successful women who feel unconditional love & support, resulting in self-belief through a deeper connection with their mother, and to empower Mums to be the woman and Mum they want to be, through self-care, and tips & tools for peaceful positive parenting.
Can you tell our readers in what ways you are disrupting your industry?
Julie Vigor: SGN provides 3 ways to promote positive mental health through mother-daughter retreats/workshops, Sensational Girl Power workshops, and the Sensational Girls Network annual membership for Mums. Julie facilitates tropical weekend retreats held at a resort on Magnetic Island, Townsville, North Qld. Julie is launching the Sensational Girls Network membership in 2022 as Mums need self-love and self-care, as they are the heart of the family and are often stressed and burnt out juggling careers and their family, as well as needing tips and tools for positive peaceful parenting. SGN is designing an app to reach mothers to give them a Super Mother-Daughter 12-week challenge course of strategies to assist them with their growing daughters, and daily affirmations to build their self-worth.
Did you become a disruptor by choice or by necessity? Tell us more about the journey.
Julie Vigor: Sensational Girls Network was inspired by my 12-year-old daughter and students, after noticing the decline in mental health, and especially anxiety about their appearance and their worth. Julie has studied Health & Wellness, because the suicide and self-harm rates of women are climbing alarmingly. The leading cause of death between the age of 15-49 is suicide. One in ten people aged 12-17 have reported self-harm and one in seven children aged between 4-17 have a reported mental health condition. The government is spending an unprecedented $5.7 billion dollars on mental health, but I believe we need a proactive solution to the mental health crisis we have in society. According to Child psychologists, the biggest protective factor for our daughters to avoid risk-taking behaviour is a connection with a trusted adult and family closeness. Our children are growing up in a world of issues such as social media, bullying, academic pressure, earlier puberty, po**, and negative body image. With two-thirds of women working, the mother-daughter relationship has never been more at risk and vital than it is today.
As my daughter was getting older into the tween age, she was becoming worried about her body image, which really concerned me. I was finding parenting a daughter was way different from parenting my 2 older sons. Way more emotional and dramatic!!! I’ve been very close to my Mum for most of my life and wanted to be as close to my daughter as she got older, but there is so much pressure in society on women and young girls to look a certain way and they don’t feel ENOUGH, so I feel that we need to be proactive about our mental health, and not wait until it’s too late.
Now for the main focus of this interview: Many readers may wonder what are the biggest challenges women entrepreneurs must overcome to be successful?
Julie Vigor: I woke up one day and decided to start a business! And ridiculously about a month later I launched my business onto social media!!!! I didn’t have a clue about starting or running a business and I have been on the most MASSIVE learning curve. The most important thing is to just believe in yourself and take that brave step.
I launched my business in the middle of a global pandemic. The first retreat was held in Oct 2020 with nine pairs of mothers and daughters aged from 7-year-old daughters to mothers over 60 with their adult daughters. It was very special and everyone gave me the best feedback, so it gave me encouragement to keep going. I have just kept growing and evolving and pivoting my business to consumer demand. I have over 1.5K followers on fb and over 1K followers on Insta, because people believe in my concept, but there is still a big difference between growing a following and for customers to commit to purchasing.
Most events have been well attended and customers have been encouraged to share it on social media with friends and family, however, the canceled events due to low numbers are kept low key so the reputation of the business is still strong. Many local businesses and individuals have donated their time and resources to come along to empower the women and girls. One of the other important things I did from the start of launching a business was to spend many hours networking in the community, going to as many events as possible to extend the reach beyond family and friends. I also put in many long hours of late nights, while working in a full-time job, while building a business on the side.
How did you overcome these obstacles? Who helped you during these difficult times and how did they do it?
Julie Vigor: I don’t like failing, so when I fall down, I pick myself up and try something different. I put in 150% effort into everything that I put my mind to. I’ve had to find more grit than I thought possible!!! I keep believing in myself and keep being passionate about what I do. I believe that what I have to offer to the community is worthwhile. My Mum has always been my rock and been incredibly supportive and always listens to me when I need it.
She has taught me to love my own daughter unconditionally and has been the inspiration for my business. I believed in my vision from the moment I had it, and there have been many many stressful days that I wanted to give up because it didn’t feel like it was working out, but I have a great support network who believes in me and supports me. I take my hat off to entrepreneurs as it’s certainly a lot harder than what I thought it would be. I am very grateful for the amazing people I have met in the past year who have helped me learn about business and grow.
How did these lessons shape the way you conduct business today?
Julie Vigor: I have shared my vision with other businesses, community organisations and individuals who are influential or have a talent in their own industry. Collaboration with others has been a vital key to growth. Normally I am very independent and don’t like to rely on others, however, I have had to realise that it’s important to network with others and try to help each other’s businesses.
I have invited individuals to be guest speakers and I have organised a large International Women’s Day event with raffle prizes, entertainment and displays. These businesses then share on their social media because of their involvement in the event. We are raising money for suicide awareness training, so it’s important to also share care and concern for humanity, not just profit. I love how big businesses like Canva operate, and how the founder still has a lot of impact on how the company’s vision is portrayed. Another one of my inspiration’s is Benjamin J. Harvey and Cham Tang who co-own Authentic Education, as they still are a big part of their business that reaches the community.
I now have merchandise like SGN earrings, t-shirts and tote bags that say “Be Your Own Kind of Beautiful” and Affirmation cards for tweens to boost their self-esteem every day. Jayne Arlett’s book “Big Little Business” helps small businesses to think big in their vision. I took the time to do the Startup Onramp Founders Course and won the Best Pitch. Always take every opportunity as you never know where it can lead you.
What advice did you wish you had received when you started, that you’d like to share now with aspiring women entrepreneurs?
Julie Vigor: Do your research to find who gives you the most value to learn important tips for business, especially if money is an issue when first starting a business. There are many business coaches out there who are charging huge amounts of money with no guarantee that any of it will make you successful. The other important thing is to not take things personally if things don’t work out at first. Some people will not be a part of your vision and that’s ok, and to understand that the individuals who you hope to be your customers are all leading very busy stressful lives and that it takes a long time of them hearing about your business until they take the first step to purchase.
Out of all of your proudest moments as an entrepreneur, is there a particular one that stands out the most?
Julie Vigor: Appearing in That’s Life within a year of starting my business was a big achievement. A national magazine on shop shelves telling your story is something that makes you feel that what you are doing is worthy. It was also an amazing moment holding my first mother-daughter retreat and feeling so calm and knowing that this is how I want to help people.
What do you plan on tackling during the year 2022? Share your goals and battles you expect to face.
Julie Vigor: I am now building an app through Passion and hope to scale my business globally through offering the Super Mother Daughter 12 Week Challenge. This course is designed for mothers, especially with tween daughters who are looking to create or maintain a healthy, happy, harmonious relationship with their daughter.
It will give them some tips and tools for their own self-care, as well as strategies for parenting. I hope to see mothers and daughters feeling happy and supported, with a healthy connection. It will also have free daily affirmations for mothers and daughters. Any new part of a business launching is hard. There are doubts and hard days of trying to fit everything into a day and bouncing back when things don’t go to plan. My launch party was disrupted by having to be in isolation because my partner caught Covid, however, I don’t give up. I just keep going.
I’m sure our readers will be very thankful for the insights you have shared. What is the best book you’ve gone through lately and please share some take away lessons from it.
Julie Vigor: The best book I’ve read recently is “Think Like a Monk: Train Your Mind for Peace & Purpose Every Day” by Jay Shetty. It’s so powerful to find peace and when you are building a business, it’s very easy to get burnt out. I then will have more energy for helping others.
Thank you so much for your time but before we finish things off, I do have one more question for you. When was the last time you did something for the first time and what was it?
Julie Vigor: A few years ago I decided to start taking my 3 children on separate holidays to spend quality one on one time with each of them. At the end of 2018, I took my son for his Year 12 graduation to Sydney and we did indoor sky diving, climbed the mast on a Tall Ship in the Sydney Harbour, went to a magic show, Luna Park, and then I created a memorable gift for him with the photos I took on our special holiday. Since then I have done separate trips with my 2 other children. I took my middle son to the theme parks on the Gold Coast, and took my daughter to see Disney on Ice.
These memories are very special to us. It’s important to build those memories. It’s important to do the daily parenting rituals and chores, but it’s also important to find the time and money to do the special events that you both will always cherish and remember. That’s why I created mother-daughter retreats for that special one-on-one quality time to get to know one another better than the normal family holiday which ends up being busy and often stressful.
Mike Weiss, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Julie Vigor for taking the time to do this interview and share her knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Julie Vigor or her company, you can do it through her – Instagram
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