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The road so far

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There’s nothing like an impending little person to light a fire under you. Timelines and goals become very focused as you are working on borrowed time. Second trimester is just a beut for me and always has been. The clock strikes 14 weeks and the energy levels take a serious turn for the better.

It’s not about grabbing those nausea free hours to get ‘needs must’ done. It’s more like a feeling of ‘anything and everything is possible’. Lots of doing, planning and front loading. Finding out I was pregnant this time kicked me into gear to do something I have wanted and needed to do for years. Juspy has made its first hire. That’ means soon I will have help. I cannot tell you how that feels! I have been doing this on own for far too long.

I actually cannot believe I started this business 6 years ago. I was pregnant then too – 6 months in. It’s funny that the idea for Juspy came out of my personal experience after my first pregnancy. The business began on my second and here I am trying to raise investment and scale the business pregnant on my third. Hence the blog name ‘the bumpy road of a female founder.’

Everything with food takes so much time. So much longer than an inpatient person like me can deal with, with her sanity intact. I remember thinking (so naively) that I could create a product, packaging and killer brand in a few months. I learnt quick that that is certainly not the case.

The business of food is so tough. I’ll tell you that right from the horses mouth. Especially because my background is actually art, music, movement and branding not food. I am not an artisan food producer but I have always been into nutrition and what food does for the body’s ability to function and recover.

For those of you who know the story from the beginning, will know that Juspy in its original form was a ready-to-drink beverage. The recipe took 1.5 years of development in Teagasc and we finally launched the drink at Wellfest 2018. My god was that expensive to make. I had it out there for a year at every wellness event you could think of. Its last outing then was at Wellfest 2019. But that product was full of challenges for a one woman show with one car and 24 hours in a day. And because it was all natural it had a really short shelf life. It was so hard to get it out there in front of people not to mention that in 2018 collagen was not a trend the Irish consumer cared much about. My gorgeous drink didn’t stand a chance.

Then in mid 2019 I had to make the difficult decision of giving up on the previous 3 years work. I was completely deflated but something had to change to survive and grow. Thankfully the work I did since I started was not wasted and everything happened the way it was supposed to. That drink gave us the baseline recipe for the amazing collagen protein blend we have today. Powder is where it’s at.

This week I am celebrating 2 full years in ‘that’ business. Living the dream with a clean label product that is made in Ireland having sourced amazing ingredients from around the world. It’s actually the only thing that got me through the first trimester of this pregnancy and continues to give me a boost of energy whenever I need it in trimester 2. I know I am completely biased but this stuff is liquid gold.

Hopefully it will give us the fuel in our fire next week as we represent the Limerick Local Enterprise Office at this years Ploughing Championships. If you are there please come and say hi!

The bumpy road of a female founder

The BUMPY ROAD OF A FEMALE FOUNDER

PART 1- DRIVE ON

‘Surprise, surprise’ as Cilla Black would say. ‘I wasn’t expecting this’ as I said this time 12 weeks ago. I am 42 and pregnant. We have just moved house and I am pregnant. We are living with my parents while we retrofit a house; and I am pregnant. I am trying to grow my business and I am pregnant. What the absolute f*!#@.

While the shock has just about worn off, the nausea has not. But it is easing for sure. So has the panic. I can do this. I have done it twice before. Neither came ideal times but both pregnancies happened when they were supposed to. And each in their own way were a huge influence in where I am in my career today.

The idea for Juspy stemmed from my first baby experience. And then I started the business 6 months pregnant on my second. Now, on my third, I am going to simply drive on and scale this business.

There is never a good time to have a baby isn’t that what they say. Well, I wish ‘they’ never said it. Because it’s an awful saying. It lends itself to the idea that a baby is an interruption to your life. When in fact ‘they are a blessing’ as an older, much wiser generation would remind us. It is a much nicer way to think about things for those of us privileged to be gifted.

The most amazing thing about pregnancy for me is how focused I get. It’s a ‘right so’ attitude. It’s a ‘You’ve got 6 months to front load and get as much sh*t done as possible’ attitude. And that’s exactly where I am at on week 13. I started Juspy 6 years and I am not going to stop what I am doing because I am pregnant. I will make it work for me.

Pregnancy for me is a creative time. Ideas come rampant and unlike any other time, my busy scatty brain makes really interesting connections and sparks fly. It even has the laser light focus to plan properly. ‘The bumpy road of a female founder’ is one such idea. It is a blog series I wanted to write to share my experience of being a 42 year old, self employed female founder.

Each one of my pregnancies has had an interesting steer on my Juspy journey and I want to remember where it all started, continued and is going. I want to unpack it all while I am in that headspace for the next 6 months.

Topics will include things like – how I worked around tiredness in this first trimester, how I have been moving my ever growing ass so that I feel strong inside out and what I am feeding myself and my baby to ensure we stay energised and nourished. I want to look at how I am navigating fund raising and the growth of my business considering society biases about what a woman can achieve while expecting.

My friends might say I thrive in chaos and my life is chaos right now. But it’s all good. We just have to drive on.

Berry Smooth

Just one of many

Our Juspy smoothie bowls are rich in protein, fibre and natural sugars so they enable better digestion, improved satiety and a breakfast bowl full to the brim with good stuff.

Ingredients

40g | Juspy Collagen & Cacao Protein Blend

200ml | Coconut Milk

3 | Majool dates

1 | Frozen banana

1 tablespoon | Chia Seeds

1 handful | Frozen berries

Method

Blitz 40g Juspy, the coconut milk and the rest of the ingredients (except the dates) until smooth. Pour into a bowl and decorate as you wish.

Other Suggestions

Top the bowl with anything you like, nuts, seeds, fruit or dried fruit.

Juspy Cool Beans

Shall we take a pause?

There are moments to where we need to take a pause and put our minds on reset. In this day and age, we worry too much, even about the smallest of things. Worries about health, work, life, etc. can make us feel stuck and cause us to struggle to take steps forward.

Our Juspy Cool Beans is a recipe that creates a delicious coffee mix that will make you feel alive. With the right amount of our protein blend and a taste of expresso that lifts you right up. You will get that feeling like you are committing permissible indulgence and not worry that you are consuming too much for your health. Indulge in this quick recipe below!

Ingredients

40g | Juspy Collagen & Cacao Protein Blend

Double shot espresso | Coffee

300ml | Milk of Choice

Handful | Ice

Method

Blitz 40g Juspy, your milk of choice with a double expresso in a blender and serve over ice. Simple as that.

Other Suggestions

Use your favorite milk be it almond, oat, hemp or coconut. Feel free to change up the amount of ice. The biggest decision you can make here is to serve on ice or blitz it with the ice. It’s a personal choice of course. May we suggest you make it both ways and see which one suits you.