How to overcome founder loneliness, with Emmie Faust, founder of Female Founders Rise

0:00Emmie Faust:I started Female Founders Rise because I had a breakdown and I was quite ill after COVID. One in seven female entrepreneurs said loneliness was their biggest challenge. I'm a Sono founder and that is very purposeful that I'm doing this on my own. Emmie Faust is running her 11th business so she knows quite a thing or two about entrepreneurship. She is the founder of Female Founders Rise and has recently published the Rise Report. I really wanted to chat to Emmy about why it's so important for the UK economy to benefit from female entrepreneurship and why women should start businesses at the same rate as men, or if not more than.

0:37So tune in today's How to Start Up to hear Emmy talk all things entrepreneurship, how it can feel quite lonely, how to overcome that, how to avoid burnout, how to manage having four children, moving house and the rest of it.

0:50Emmie Faust:Hi, Emmy. I'm absolutely thrilled to have you on How to Start Up. I have wanted you to come to the show for over three years because of what you're doing for female entrepreneurship. It is a beacon of light in what can feel like desolate plane sometimes when you're starting a business as a solo entrepreneur. So before we get into everything that you're doing for female entrepreneurship, I'd love it if you could give listeners a bit of a background as to who you are, the businesses that you've started and what it is you're doing today. Yeah, I'll try and keep it very quick because there's a lot.

1:23Emmie Faust:So I'm a mum of four. I'm an exited entrepreneur. I am a micro investor in over 30 women co-founded businesses. I am onto my 11th business. I realized the other day when I did a little count up and 11 is my lucky number. So that obviously is a good sign. And Female Founders Rise is a B Corp, an impact led business that supports female entrepreneurs in the UK. So we've got 11 ,000 members throughout the UK and we do various things to support them on their journey to building long-term profitable, sustainable businesses. Why did you start Female Founders Rise? I started Female Founders Rise because I had a breakdown and I was quite ill after COVID.

2:08Emmie Faust:It was a mixture of long COVID, perimenopause, just everything coming together. My husband had issues with his job. We'd all survived COVID with four kids. I then moved my whole family down to Wales and it didn't work out. I'd also had clients that were struggling through COVID, which I was trying to keep on track. And I found the whole thing just incredibly stressful. And the doctor thinks I had some kind of long COVID as well. And then the perimenopause. So the culmination of all those three things meant that I had to change my life. And I started on meds, I started therapy, and I basically had to stop consulting because that was causing me a lot of stress and basically female founders rise was just a little passion project to keep me ticking over until I was going to be better so I knew I had to have a little something because I just need something in my life something that would be totally stress-free I knew that there was a massive need to support women I'd done a huge amount in the sort of consultancy space and I tried to set up various networks in the past and various communities and I thought I'm just going to do this because I know it's needed and I don't know if you read the book Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert the idea is that there's all these ideas and they're like floating around in the world and they come and tap you on the shoulder if they think you're the right person to bring that idea to life and you'll often be tapped on the shoulder by these ideas and you might not be in the right headspace or it might not be the right point in your life or maybe you're not quite the right person and then that idea goes and finds someone else well this idea of female founders rise had been tapping me on the shoulders for ages and ages but I wasn't in a position to listen to that tap or to take that bring that idea to life because I was doing various other things like covid and running businesses and I was so focused on what I was doing previously that I wasn't going to be able to start this other little idea and then actually it was the breakdown that made me totally restart my whole life.

4:09And in doing so, I could listen to that little idea

4:12Emmie Faust:that was tapping me on the shoulder and that wasn't going to go away because it knew that that was what I was meant to be doing. And so finally, it did come to life and I never set out for it to be a business. It was just something that was there to help me get better and for me to focus on. What is it for listeners? Female Founders Rise is a community and it's more than a community. We do a huge amount of different initiatives for female founders to support them on their entrepreneurial journey. So we have community and connection and collaboration and events that bring people together. We have another pillar, which is all around fundraising.

4:48Emmie Faust:So getting more women funded because the stats around that are really bad. We have another pillar, which is all around mastering the business fundamentals. So helping female founders with everything they know to build that profitable, sustainable business. and then the last pillar the fourth one is all around raising awareness of female entrepreneurship helping women share their stories find their voices and celebrate more women in entrepreneurship so those are our four pillars and we've got different initiatives and different projects under each one you and I both know the answer to this but why is it so important to encourage more women start businesses in 2026 entrepreneurship isn't for everyone it can be very full-on it can also It'd be absolutely amazing to see your idea come to life.

5:30Emmie Faust:There's so many benefits of entrepreneurship and there's so many challenges. So it's definitely not right for everyone, but for those people that are doing something that they love and you're in charge and you've got your own autonomy. And there's so many amazing things. I mean, even just like the journey you go on of learning, it's like an MBA, basically you get in setting up and running a business. So I think even if you try entrepreneurship and it doesn't work for you, you'll have gathered so many skills that you can use in the wider world. And I'd always say, anyway, try entrepreneurship on the side.

6:02Emmie Faust:You don't need to go all in. Why women in particular? Because I know you're really focused on supporting women. I'm really focused on supporting women just because at the moment, entrepreneurship is not equitable. So there's lots of inequalities in entrepreneurship. And also for me personally, I found financial freedom in entrepreneurship, which has meant that I'm financially free, which has meant that I'm able to invest in other founders. And I do feel like that is a great way for women to find financial freedom. That's one of the things that I can do to help women make more money is to help them on their entrepreneurial journey.

6:33Emmie Faust:So yeah, I think at the moment it's not an export playing field. So that's why I in particular focus on supporting women. And also I think when we bring women together, amazing things happen. They're so collaborative, they're so supportive and they can really shine a light and support each other to make all those amazing things happen. Yeah, it was the NatWest review, I think in 2023, that says that is it 250 billion is missing from the UK economy because women are not empowered as much as men. That figure's actually now been adjusted for inflation. The Women and Equalities Committee adjusted that to 310 billion.

7:08Emmie Faust:And that's what we reported in our rise report. So there's a huge opportunity for the UK if we can unlock that value. people don't realize is that everybody in the economy are going to benefit men women everybody exactly so supporting female entrepreneurs is great for them is also great for the economy it's great for the ecosystem they're employing more people they're paying more taxes all of those kind of things there's power and value for the uk economy and for the ecosystem and there's also amazing opportunities for women as well to to gain like skills and financial freedom from entrepreneurship so I think it's just a really important thing that we give women the opportunity to do that and to try that out if they think that's something that could potentially be interesting to them this is so interesting because our guest two weeks ago was Samantha Husic who when she went to get her first lease on her first hair salon he looked her business plan said oh well you're just a silly little girl and you're dreaming far too big and so she's just gone f you and look at me now and she has absolutely smashed it and her podcast the silly little girls club is called that because of that reason.

8:15There's nothing like telling a woman that you can't do something to fuel the fire.

8:19Emmie Faust:So I was talking to Joanna Jensen. She just exited her business to PJ Cousins for millions and millions. And she had people saying similar things to her. I get it all the time. I think what I found really interesting when I was consulting, actually, is that people just assume, oh, well, Emmy's consulting. She's got her kids at home. It's just a little passion project on the side. She won't be charging the same sort of rates as a guy. So talk us through the Rise Report. I'd love to know more of your key findings. I've had a podcast actually on the Rise Report. So all of the information that I'm going to be sharing, I haven't actually shared this publicly, apart from obviously on LinkedIn and a couple of events.

8:55Emmie Faust:But I think what was really interesting is 2 ,225 founders, female and non-binary founders. So that's like probably, I mean, we don't say it's the largest ever because we don't need to claim it's the largest ever, but it would be one of the largest ever surveys of female entrepreneurship in the UK. A huge amount of qualitative data, over 400 ,000 words. The value, the creation, the sort of turnover of those businesses was a billion and they were employing nearly 10 ,000 employees. So like really robust. it was also a representative sample of the 1.6 million UK entrepreneurs so we made sure that we had founders of all ethnicities all locations all ages all abilities I mean literally like the quant data that we collected one of the reasons for collecting so much quant data was to make sure that our sample which was representative of the UK population so first of all it was way larger than it needed to be but because we had founders from Scotland and Northern Ireland and Wales and the UK all kind of bases were covered so I think that was really interesting we used Nottingham Business School and an absolutely incredible company called Wholesome which is a female and male founders they're actually husband and wife he's a doctor in data science and one of the best data sciences globally so the data was really robust and what everyone had been saying was they wanted a very robust and independent of the government report that was done regularly because there's lots of little reports that are coming out but there's nothing that's been done like on a year by year basis or every two years so we're hoping to do something definitely every two years hopefully maybe every year I mean it was a huge amount of work so that's the kind of the background of it all in terms of it being very robust and statistically significant and representative which to me was really important and what I thought was really interesting was of those 2 ,225 responses only two of them had the same quant data which tells us that even though female founders have there's these kind of threads that like tie us together in some of our experiences or challenges we're actually all very unique um the fact that only two of those 2 ,225 had the same quant data tells us we're unique with unique experiences unique businesses unique ideas and something that came from the report which I've really been wanting to shout about is the fact that we don't know those unique stories.

11:16Emmie Faust:80 % of young people can't name a female entrepreneur, according to a study by Santander. And actually, what we need to do is get women sharing their stories, sharing their incredible unique stories. And also, as an ecosystem, we also need to make sure that we're doing that to like, here are these women and raise awareness of female entrepreneurship. So that was one data point I loved. Another thing that came out was the power human connection. So 78 % of those respondents, which obviously represent 78 % of the 1.6 million UK entrepreneurs, cited human connection as critical to their journey. And it kept coming up time and time again.

11:55Emmie Faust:We didn't ask them this question, but it was in the qualitative data of all the other questions that we asked. And people would say the power of networks, the power of community, the importance of my board, the importance of strategic partners. So it just goes to show how important human connection is and how important the networking and the communities and the peer networks and the coming together is for entrepreneurship. And I kind of think that sometimes that's a bit forgotten about. Oh, good, completely. And I think no one tells you this. When you start a business, you are exhausted, probably very isolated.

12:28You're doing something you've never done before. And probably the market hasn't necessarily seen much of before, because that's where you've seen a gap in the market. You're on your own and it can be so lonely and I always made a concerted effort to go to co-working offices and the gym law because I needed to see people I wouldn't even just talk to anyone but just being around other energy and also people say that when you're at work and focused on your bits the people you're next to kind of mirror you so it's that kind of energy around being in an office but people say to me why don't you just work from home every day it's like I should be really bored yeah exactly and so there's

13:02Emmie Faust:that and then the other thing that came up which was really sad so like on the I think like the bit that I love is like just saying to everyone there are things that we can control we do know that there's challenges for female entrepreneurs but there's also a lot in our control and the one thing that is in our control is this power of human connection and connecting with others and supporting each other and coming together and all of those things so that's great and I love that stat but on the other side of the connection you've got one in seven female entrepreneurs said loneliness was their biggest challenge and that didn't differ that much depending on like what stage you're at.

13:35Emmie Faust:So I think it is slightly more for solopreneurs. But even we found that people with big businesses and lots of employees, they were still often lonely because you've got your investors to answer to and you've got your team and all of those things. And you can't always tell them exactly what's going on. There's a lot of pressure. You're stretched both ways. And if you're a solopreneur, you've got a team below you that you need to motivate and keep going and pay. and then you've got your board and investors you've got a lot of stakeholders that are all relying on you to fuel them and I remember I interviewed Joanna who was terrifying slash amazing I also interviewed Catherine Pooley who said nobody asks me how I am or makes me a cup of tea I'm the one that's constantly asking my team how they are and it really resonated because my team know the way to my heart is making me a cup of tea but it's that connection it's you are lonely I've just moved to a new area and I met up someone who does something similar to me and technically we're competitors but we had a good hour and a half chat and just dumped everything on our shoulders to each other and it's like oh problem shared a problem halved and we might not have sold everything but yeah exactly that you're stretching lots of different directions but no one's kind of holding you as it were yeah and I think what's so interesting is that as a founder I think all founders can struggle with loneliness and actually I remember when I sold my business And I set up as a solo consultant telling my husband that I was lonely.

14:59Emmie Faust:And he said, you need to get out and meet people. You need to get out and network. And actually, then I joined the first network ever. I was absolutely petrified going to my first meeting. And I came around. I was buzzing. I loved it. And I think that's what sort of first made me realize the power of networking and bringing people together. And it's not just about getting new business off people. It's much more than that. We're taking a quick 30-second break from this episode to ask, are you thinking of starting your own podcast? if so this is great news because we run a course that will train you how to produce your own podcast yourself this course is for people who do not want to outsource and pay someone else to do it you want to learn how to do it yourself we teach you everything that you need to get up and running with your own podcast show and so much more just dm us at hello at fallowfield mason to book your spot it's about having people who are on that journey that understand what you're going through and who can resonate with you and vice versa because our family and friends who aren't entrepreneurs it's just a totally different breed so I thought that was interesting about the about the loneliness and also when we asked founders what their most valuable support for them was informal or formal the highest by far was community and peer networks which was 39 % which was really high friends and family was something like 13 % I think it huge difference So family and close personal support, 13 % of people said that was most helpful.

16:27Emmie Faust:And peer and founder networks was 39%. Financial support and investment, which whilst it is a massive challenge, only 11 % of people said that was most helpful to them. So what we're seeing there is, even though it's a challenge to get finance and funding, and we know that, when it actually comes to what is most helpful, peer and founder networks is like way above anything else. And then really interestingly, which I thought we're closely followed actually by mentorship and coaching, which is 32%. And I thought that's interesting because you always hear people say female founders don't need any more mentorship.

17:02Emmie Faust:They need money. They do need money, but they also do need mentorship from people who are like shit hot, who know what they're doing, who are going to open doors, who are going to show them the way, who are going to introduce them to that next big client or who are going to stop them from wasting loads of money. we had an amazing mentor and he helped us shortcut loads of things that would have cost us loads of time and money so the female founders themselves have said 32 percent of them have said that mentorship and coaching has been really supportive and it annoys me when people say they just want money because they need money and mentorship they need both yeah and if women had investment at the same rate as men we wouldn't be banging the drum about that but it all needs to level up and i think And interestingly, when you speak to founders and ask them, like, what was that one big thing that moved something forward?

17:52Emmie Faust:It's not always funding. I was talking to a lady the other day in Glasgow. We went up there for a meetup. And she was telling me about her business. And she'd won this massive hotel client. And she'd done 600 rooms for them. She did bespoke joinery. And I said, wow, I mean, that's like a huge contract. You're probably talking like a million pound contract. And I said, how did you win that? And she said, oh, I went to a networking event. And I met a, it was probably an industry one. and she said and I met a guy who then ended up working there he wasn't even a buyer there he was like he worked in engineering or something but then introduced her and I was like there you go that shows it's the power of human connection it's the networking it's just getting to know those people and they could open a door for you that is so big that you don't then need funding or finance we often say this in PR but yes you look at marketing funnels and you look at advertising which is paid, PR, which is earned media.

18:42The best word of mouth is the actual word of mouth, is people putting your name in rooms where you are not. And that is through connection. And for me, I did a lot of work on purpose last year because I thought if I'm going to work this goddamn hard, I need to make sure it's in the right place and I'm doing the right thing with the right people. And I had a kind of feeling I was on the right track, but not quite on the right track. And Hamish Mackay Lewis, he was on the podcast talking about imposter syndrome, that it's an imposter experience. You can't be diagnosed with it. He and I did a lot of work on purpose and it really came down for me.

19:13The magic fairy dust of my day-to-day at work is that dot connecting because I have a problem with, not a problem with the word networking, it has certain connotations, but it's that and that amazing satellite of people. And if people like you and trust you and know you, they will want to help you. And I think that's something that I learned coming out of a brand like Chanel, where you never ask for help for anything, suddenly you're on your own and you have to put your hand up and ask for help and it's actually really liberating and exciting because then you help other people too.

19:43Emmie Faust:Yeah and it's interesting about the word networking so we don't call it networking really I say meetups or celebrations so someone was saying because networking is like a dirty word isn't it and I think people make networking sound like it is an awful thing and it can be an awful thing but actually if you're going to write once it can be amazing I just remember hearing someone saying networking doesn't work and I thought I'm obviously doing the wrong thing because I really enjoy it like and actually like you said you need to know like and trust someone before you buy from them whether it's a personal brand and especially I think for early stage founders or for people who are service-based businesses and things like that you can you can spend loads of time and money doing all these fancy marketing funnels but actually a lot of the time it's just going to be if someone knows you likes you and trusts you then it's kind of an easy sell.

20:32Well for years I was working with a coach and a mentor and all sorts of different people about this saying how my business is being built on referrals which is wonderful but it's not something I can control and I'd like a kind of mathematical tap that I can turn on and off to grow. So we did some paid search work last year which is really interesting learned a lot from that but I was like I think I'm just at peace with the fact that as long as I'm working in the business I have a business and I'm a service-based business it's not going to be scaled and sold. I haven't taken investment. And I've sort of landed on that and been quite peaceful with that.

21:03But other people in other situations, if they're listening, what would you advise them if they're coming into entrepreneurship to do first, especially if they're a female founder?

21:13Emmie Faust:I would say there's a lot of things. But given that we've been talking about networking and building relationships, I mean, that's just like critical. That is the backbone of everything because it will help you find potentially investors, clients, strategic partners and help you from being lonely so that would be a cool one I'd say building in public and allowing yourself to have a curious mindset and not everything having to be perfect because you can learn much quicker make mistakes fail the faster you do that the quicker you learn I've seen a lot of people spend a lot of time trying to create something that's perfect and going round and round in circles and then they launch it and then they realize there's not even a market for it or no one's actually going to buy it.

21:55Emmie Faust:And they've wasted all this time and energy and money. So I would say just get out there, get speaking to people. And there are exceptions to this, but generally learning and building as I do it. So I was sharing this story with people, but at Female Founders and Wives, we set up a content challenge, which was going to be a hundred quid. And it was a four week content challenge because I was like, I really want to help women build their personal brand. And I promoted it. And I think, I can't remember, like 10 people signed up or something like that. and I thought oh god that's a disaster I mean it wasn't a massive launch but it was a bit of a launch I was like that's literally fallen flat on its face and then tweaked it so basically and called it like a personal branding challenge or something like that and did 30 days personal branding challenge it was just that tweak of words and suddenly people were interested in it and now we've had 800 people do our personal branding challenge and we charge the first one we did I I think it was free.

22:48Emmie Faust:And it was like, whatever. Now it's 200 quid, which is still very affordable. But the main thing is all these women have found their voice and they're sharing their stories and stuff like that. And if I'd listened to the feedback from the content challenge where only 10 people signed up and I thought, gosh, that's a disaster. I'm never going to do that again. I wouldn't have got to where I'm at. So I think it's just being curious and being like, oh, okay, that didn't work. Why didn't that work? Was it the messaging? Was it the pricing? Was it something else? Should I tweak it? Should I test it?

23:16Emmie Faust:So I'd say the biggest thing for me is to have the growth mindset. I think when I learn about the growth mindset and being curious as to what is next, that really does allow you to just constantly be testing and tweaking without getting yourself too upset or too wedded. I think a lot of people are very wedded to their particular idea. And as we all know, with entrepreneurship, you're going to pivot many times. And the market changes around you. I mean, look at what's happened in the last six, seven years. and my financial advisor said to me, the fact that you've even kept a business going in the last six years is a minor miracle with the world the way it is.

23:50And also be completely comfortable with failure. Every day you're going to stub your toe on something and be like, okay, learn that. Okay, move on. Yeah, it's a good old rollercoaster as every single guest has mentioned. So something that we do is a question from our previous guest and it was the founder Charles Brun of ZZP, the sunglasses eyewear brand in Paris had a question for you, which is what is the most important, the partner slash team or the business slash product when you're starting a business?

24:18Emmie Faust:Well, I mean, I'm a solo founder and that is very purposeful that I'm doing this on my own because I have seen a huge number of people have issues with their founders. So what I'm going to say is, was the business idea, because if you've got the right idea and the right product, then I bet you are going to attract an amazing team and that won't be hard if you've got an amazing team and a terrible product you just don't even have a business what I would say is that the team is important and that I have seen if you make the wrong hires it can really put your business back considerably it can cost a huge amount of money and it can really create a huge amount of agro for the founder it can be crippling yeah it will crippling I also know a significant number of people I've invested in people I've supported who've fallen out with their co-founder and as a result there's been a huge amount of stress quite often the business goes under my first co-founder was great I tried to set up businesses with other people it hasn't always worked out so what I've actually decided with FFR is just I've got my vision I know where I'm going I know what needs to be done I want to be able to control that myself but I want to be surrounded by amazing people who support me so that's what I've done is like put in experts and advisory board members and things like that who can support me on that journey I love that I'm the same as you and a lot of people like oh surely you want a co-founder I'm like why I can make quicker decisions if it's just me and I'd rather pay people to be brilliant in the team and then if it doesn't work and things change things can change whereas if it's a co-founder and they're embedded in the business and there's a partnership agreement it's a whole scary different thing.

25:58So you're one of the few people I've met that thinks like I do on this. So thank you for that.

26:03Emmie Faust:I've done 11 businesses and I've been done a bit of all of them. I do still think it's incredibly important to have those people alongside you that can support you. But I don't think that has to come from having a co-founder. I think that can come from advisors, from chairs, from non-execs, from paid team members. Exactly. And what would your question be for our next guess anything about entrepreneurship I think my question would be what's the one piece of advice you learned very early on that meant that the rest of your entrepreneurial journey has been a success what was yours if mine was looking after the team actually so I had this amazing woman young woman who was just insane and was making loads of money and I remember she'd bring her little baby into the office and it would sort of sit on the floor and so she was just like mega cool when I was like 21 so this was 20 25 years ago or something but she always paid us so well and she just puts up in amazing hotels and takes out for really nice dinners and also she gave me a huge amount of responsibility at very early age which I really appreciated and I tried to do that with all the people like I always trying to give them the responsibility so that they can grow I think Like it is weird because it's kind of opposite to what I said from the question before.

27:22But the thing is like when you've got the right team, you must do everything to look after them because they're such a critical part of your business.

27:32Emmie Faust:And they're so rare. So when you get the good ones, you look after them. And then they're like so giving as well. I made that woman so much money because she was so good to me. Yeah, it's not rocket science when you say it like that. But finding the good, right people is probably the hardest part I found in business. But that's where community and connection come in, because people can advise and help and pass on names. And it's a steep old learning curve, but a good one. Thank you, Emmy, so much for your time. As always, you're an inspiration, but this is a live inspiration for me. So I'm very grateful.

28:04And thank you for everything you do for female entrepreneurship.