Sophie Attwood, on balancing a career and motherhood

Although Serena Williams’s retirement has sparked conversations about women needing to choose between their careers and starting a family, we wanted to highlight Sophie Attwood, a successful business owner and loving mother who is in fact doing both. We sat down with Sophie to hear more about how she has found motherhood while leading Sophie Attwood Communications. 

1. Hi Sophie, tell us about your business, Sophie Attwood Communications

Sophie Attwood Communications is a global agency representing the trailblazers within the health and wellness, beauty and medical aesthetics industries. We now have clients in the UK, Australia, Dubai and the US. We’ve worked exceptionally hard to curate a portfolio of exceptional brands and we work with them on a monthly basis to develop innovative, creative strategies to enable their clients to take their communication strategy to the next level.

2. What inspired you to launch Sophie Attwood Communications 

I suppose the earliest catalyst for launching Sophie Attwood Communications was a significant passion for writing. I loved seeing the immense power of words – how subtle differences in language choices could make a consumer feel different things entirely. Further on in my career, while working in-house for a global brand, I had this idea that I could replicate this in-house feel within an agency environment. Working alongside agencies in my previous in-house role I was certain that I could merge the two and create something quite unique. And that’s where I think Sophie Attwood sits - we have all of the same tools that you’d find at some of the biggest agencies but we pride ourselves on having the capacity to think as though we’re sitting within your office with our clients, working towards a shared goal and feeling that same desire to achieve success for each brand. 

3. How did you balance being a new mum with launching a business?

As a mum, you’re always going to feel a significant amount of push-pull and it’s been a long journey trying to find a balance – not least by building a phenomenal team that can still survive without me while I take annual leave with the family. From a business perspective, the greatest challenges have come from scaling up and ensuring that you still remain true to those values that you set out with all those years ago. You need to ensure that every single member of your team believes in your brand and channels your values. 

4. What advice would you give to other women considering launching their own company?

Do it your way, even if it’s not the popular way. I never worked in an agency so I’ve never copied what they do and just set out on my own path. 

I think as women we often doubt ourselves. Everything about our makeup tells us that we need to tread cautiously, avoid risk, and doubt that we can achieve those big dreams. Don’t wait for someone to give you permission. Take it and run with it. Believe in yourself - the worst thing that could happen is that you might be wrong, the best thing is that you build a game-changing company with a team of incredible people who believe in you too. 

5. What have your greatest career achievements been?

On a personal level, it was those very moments of firsts - putting that first employee on PAYE, the first promotion that I handed out, the first bricks and mortar office, the first meeting after having my daughter. Recently, it was gaining global recognition and taking on overseas clients; not only seeing household names trust us with their reputation but also taking completely new brands from that initial concept and achieving great success with regards to their press exposure. 

6. What would you say has been the secret to your success?

Tenacity, mainly. When someone tells me no, I hear ‘well how do I go and find a different way?’. I also think that another great drive for success is passion. If you’re chasing the money, you’re going to burn out very quickly. There needs to be something driving you to work late nights in those early days and there needs to be some sort of fire in your belly to enable you to keep pushing on to achieve further growth for your business.