Sophie Catto spent years at Condé Nast Britain, rising from Branded Content Director at Tatler to Associate Publisher of The World of Interiors and House & Garden. By the end of that chapter she was navigating life as a working mother in senior corporate leadership.
In March 2020 she also took the leap into entrepreneurship, co-founding Catto & Co alongside her husband, combining his construction experience with her commercial expertise and aesthetic vision from years in luxury home publishing. Launching a business in early parenthood is a challenge in itself, and doing it at the outbreak of a global pandemic brought a whole new wave of surprises.
In this episode, Sophie shares what it was like to return from maternity leave just as lockdown began, grieving her father-in-law while launching a business, and why having children created an ambition she had never felt before. We talk about the workplaces that still need to change, the questions investors ask female founders and the Motherless Mothers charity she supports as a trustee. Throughout, Sophie keeps coming back to the same message: motherhood adds far more to your CV than it takes away.
💡 "There's so much negativity in the press around the motherhood penalty and everything you lose. What we wanted to do with Motherhood Works is champion all of the incredible skills that you pick up as a mother: the resilience, the negotiation skills, being able to manage your time incredibly effectively." - Sophie Catto
In this conversation, we explore:
✨ Sophie's return from her first maternity leave just before lockdown, and the wobble of leaving her son for full days while needing her work to be purposeful enough to justify it
✨ Founding Catto & Co with her husband the week before lockdown, and the unusual experience of building a family business while holding down a senior corporate role
✨ Moving in with her mother-in-law the day her father-in-law passed in March 2020, and the strange comfort of a multigenerational household passing a one-year-old around between meetings
✨ How having children changed what Sophie wanted from her work, and why spending her days pushing consumerism in publishing no longer felt purposeful once her own priorities had shifted
✨ The decision to leave Condé Nast for AllBright, and what it has meant to help lead a business acquired and combined with everywoman, which champions women in male-dominated industries
✨ The honest admission that she did not love maternity leave, and why it is perfectly okay to say so out loud
✨ What came out of the research behind Motherhood Works, from the nervousness women feel about returning to work through to the very different challenges of mothering teenagers and young adults
✨ Why so many women need to feel they have permission to set their own rules, from leaving the office on time for nursery pick-up to asking line managers for the support they need
✨ The questions investors ask female founders about whether they plan to have children, and what that reveals about the challenges entrepreneurs face outside the protection of corporate HR policy
✨ Why everyone is winging it all the time, and what it has taught Sophie about saying no and prioritising
✨ Her involvement with the Motherless Mothers charity, the community it has built and why she believes so strongly in supporting women who are mothering without their own mum
About the Guest:
Sophie Catto is Joint Managing Director of AllBright everywoman and a Non-Executive Director of Catto & Co - the design, architecture and construction business she co-founded with her husband in 2020. After more than a decade in luxury publishing at Condé Nast Britain, she joined AllBright in 2022, where she now oversees community, events, digital platform and brand partnerships for a network supporting women at every stage of career and life. She is also a trustee of the Motherless Mothers charity and a mum of two sons.
You can connect with Sophie on LinkedIn, find AllBright everywoman at allbrighteverywoman.com, and discover more about Catto & Co's design, architecture and construction work across London and the Home Counties.
About The Host:
I’m Victoria Phipps – a Mum of two, analogue family photographer, personal brand photographer, educator, charity co-founder, marketer and now podcaster! 🎙️
I was raised by a nurturing Mother and an entrepreneurial Father and have inherited traits from both, so the tension between ambition and motherhood is one I grapple with on a daily basis!
I’m fascinated to hear the stories of other women on a similar path, who are striving to build thriving businesses whilst being present for their children. It's a tough juggle, but I hope the conversations shared on this podcast help Mums in business feel less alone and inspired to keep going in pursuit of their dreams.
Head to the Mum Means Business Podcast website for full show notes.
I would love to hear your thoughts on the topics discussed in this conversation, so please do let me know on Instagram where I'm @victoriaphippsmbe or @mummeansbusinesspodcast.
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