Startup Story
Yetty Williams is a parenting coach and the founder and CEO of LagosMums in Nigeria. She is a seasoned entrepreneur, award-winning speaker, and highly sought-after thought leader concerning parenting and family, digital citizenship, and work-life balance. Yetty founded LagosMums in 2014 as a young mother herself and wanted to create a community to support other mothers on the journey. She has extensive professional experience across business development, entrepreneurship, and digital media. She is a certified life coach, trained in Neurolinguistic programming practitioner, cognitive behaviour therapy, online safety and child safeguarding and a member of the European Mentoring and Coaching Council.
LoA spoke to Yetty Williams about her entrepreneurial journey, her inspiration, and her ambitions for the future.
What does your company do?
My journey has been one of growth, discovery, and a passion for helping others. It all began 11 years ago when I became a new mother with a toddler and a newborn. I wanted to have it all and achieve work-life balance while being an intentional parent and raising my children in the best way possible. This desire led me to start my first company, a blog called LagosMums.
LagosMums started out as a simple community-based website focused on motherhood, family, and raising children in Lagos, Nigeria. I was frustrated with the lack of relevant information for moms in Nigeria as most of the research I found online was from websites based in the US and the UK. I knew there had to be other mothers who shared my struggles, so I created a platform where we could connect and share resources. Today, LagosMums has grown into a resource for thousands and millions of families globally. We provide relevant and practical information on motherhood, parenting, and family life, not just in Lagos but around the world. Our audience is no longer limited to Nigeria, and I am proud to say that we now reach out to the world from Lagos.
Starting LagosMums led me down a path of self-discovery and growth. I found that I not only loved sharing information and resources but was also interested in how we use our brains and optimize our lives and decisions. This realization inspired me to become a certified trained life coach and neuro-linguistic programming practitioner. I have also undergone extensive training in coaching, therapy, and various psychotherapy interventions and tools.
Today, my focus is on helping women live their most abundant lives and helping parents be intentional in raising their children and families in the digital world. I am passionate about helping people achieve their full potential. It has been an interesting and fulfilling journey so far, and I am excited about what the future holds.
“Every dream is valid, but what can be missed is the roadmap to stay consistent and celebrate your growth. So, women - go for it!”
What inspired you to start your company?
I started my company as a new mum who had a lot of questions about having it all - work and life. I did not feel I needed to choose. I also had some different views on certain things at the beginning as a new mum, and found certain answers on the internet, back then there was almost no information that supported my journey as a new African mum, living in Nigeria so i decided to start an online community for mothers and parents. This led to the first Nigerian parenting blog dedicated to motherhood, parenting, and family.
Why should anyone use your service or product?
We are a community that supports women to be their best selves, I am quite keenly aware that if a mother doesn't feel whole, feels guilt, or feels isolated it is difficult for her to be her best and then give the best of her to her family. So, through our community, we are able to connect with thousands of mums and parents that you can do this! It takes a village to raise a family, and in today's day and age, it takes an e-village - which is what our community at LagosMums offers.
Tell us a little about your team:
I have a small team and a board of advisors; I also have a lot of volunteers who support in various ways.
“Confidence comes from doing and from taking the first step in the direction you want to go.”
Share a little about your entrepreneurial journey. And do you come from an entrepreneurial background?
I would say a seminal point in my career so far was when I founded my first company, LagosMums. Before that, I had worked in a variety of industries as an employee, including in investment banking, real estate, as a consultant, and in oil and gas as a business strategist. Starting LagosMums was a major change for me because I became an entrepreneur and created a platform for mothers to connect and find work-life balance.
After running LagosMums for a year or two, I realized that providing solutions for women was not just a passion but also my purpose. I uncovered what I call my 3 p's - from passion to purpose, to profit, I realized that I wasn't just doing it because I was passionate about mothers living life fully and having work-life harmony but that I really love to provide solutions for myself and for other women. And that was where I went on the journey of learning to become a coach and learning how to create lasting transformation for my clients. This pivot from being a nine-to-five professional to becoming an entrepreneur and coach was a pivotal moment for me because I discovered that passion and profit can coexist. That was the first time I realised that passion and profit can actually, you know, coexist. I used to think they were very separate, but I've realised that what you're passionate about, can also be a source of income can be a source of wealth.
All my previous experiences as an employee have proven valuable. I bring a wealth of skills, such as setting KPIs and conducting 360-degree assessments, to my work as an entrepreneur and coach. I believe that all our experiences come together to make us who we are, to make your unique story even more unique and that's why I value my journey from employee to entrepreneur.
I did not come from an entrepreneurial background but rather from career and employee to become an entrepreneur.
What are your future plans and aspirations for your company?
I started entrepreneurship as a mum with a baby and a two-year-old and I just dabbled in this area of a passion of mine and started a blog called LagosMums. But now I call myself Lagos to the world because so many things have changed from 11 years ago, and I started LagosMums to provide a platform and community for mothers. I have started a new company which is focused specifically on helping families create a family digital well-being plan. As a parenting coach, the majority of my clients are increasingly global clients and a lot of them face their biggest challenges around screen time. I will focus specifically on that and help parents understand that when it comes to digital parenting and digital well-being, it is a process, especially for parents who are analogue-minded. They need to get up to speed, need to unlearn and relearn how to raise their digital natives, who don’t know a life before digital. Through my new company, Digital Savvy Parenting (DSP), my mission is to reduce that tension and bring all my experience to help families thrive in the digital world.
“Create a community that would support your start up and entrepreneurial journey - we need to be comfortable seeking the right environment to support our dreams.”
What gives you the most satisfaction being an entrepreneur?
Being able to offer my clients support to help them thrive and achieve their goals.
What's the biggest piece of advice you can give to other women looking to start-up?
Confidence comes from doing and from taking the first step in the direction you want to go. So, I would offer potential entrepreneurs to ask themselves a few questions "what are you trying to achieve? What do you need to get there? who do you want to serve? what will success look like for you in the short and long term. Then be willing to ask for help and get a mentor or coach. I don't believe I have to figure it all out by myself and I get help and support at every point in my journey. I think it is very important that everybody has their own yardstick for success. Lastly create a community that would support your start up and entrepreneurial journey - we need to be comfortable seeking the right environment to support our dreams. Every dream is valid, but what can be missed is the roadmap to stay consistent and celebrate your growth. So, women - go for it!
Find out more
Email: yetty@LagosMums.com
Website: http://LagosMums.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/LagosMums
Twitter: http://twitter.com/lagosmums
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/lagosmums/
Why LoA loves it….
Focus can be a real differentiator when it comes to achieving business success, and Yetty Williams is testimony to that idea. She is laser-focused on her mission as an entrepreneur, creating a platform for mothers to connect and find work-life balance. By building her business, she has come to realize that providing solutions for women was not just a passion but also her purpose. Yetty is making a real difference to the lives of other women by fulfilling her purpose and building an impact-driven business model that delivers. Inspirational! — Melanie Hawken, founder & ceo, Lionesses of Africa