Switching careers, starting a business, or simply developing a creative idea can be very exciting–but also scary and overwhelming when you don’t have guidance. And when you’re a mother and you need to care and provide for your children, making such life-changing career decisions is even more challenging. Many academic mothers in our community can relate with this dilemma, and this is why we hosted this special webinar just before Christmas with the brilliant Dr Sarah Habibi, a successful mom entrepreneur who left her academic career to build her own STEM business–and all while going through pregnancy and caring for her new baby!
About the speaker
Dr Habibi is a star STEM influencer that you might know from her popular page @science.bae on Instagram and TikTok. Dr. Habibi has a PhD in molecular biology and a Bachelor’s in Education (BEd) degree, and she’s also a new mom to her son Noah. She uses the power of social media to do science communication, promote experimentation in STEM and enhance student learning. In her STEM content creation business, she has worked with brands like Google, Olay, Johnson & Johnson, P&G, among many others.
Dr. Habibi’s science communication work has been featured on popular TV broadcasts like Breakfast television and through interviews with news outlets, including The Star and Shondaland. She has also hosted workshops on how to effectively communicate science on social media, including for social media giants like TikTok, and she’s about to publish her first book on science experiments for young children.
From molecular biologist to successful entrepreneur
As Dr Habibi graduated from her doctoral program during the first year of the pandemic, she applied to several jobs in academia following her strong passion for teaching. She remained jobless for more than six months post-graduation because several classes and new positions were removed from many institutions due to the pandemic. After not being offered what she thought was the job of her dreams and almost simultaneously finding out that she was pregnant, she decided to stop applying for academic roles. At this point, Dr Habibi decided to invest more time on her popular social media platforms, where she posted educational videos with science experiments for children. She had initially planned to start job hunting again when her new baby turned one, but her social media Instagram and TikTok pages were increasingly attracting more followers and sponsors. She made a life-changing decision: investing herself full-time on turning her side hustle into a profitable business. Now, Dr Habibi’s STEM content creation business brings her the fulfilment of being a scientist and an educator while allowing her to work from home and enjoying being a mom. She is financially independent (making a lot more money than a postdoc, she says) and she satisfies her passions for science and teaching.
"Never close a door that you haven't tried walking through."
Challenges and inspiration
But making such a decision isn’t easy, especially when you’re a mom. Dr Habibi said that her first challenge was getting her family and close friends to accept her decision to leave academia and set up a business instead of having a “regular job”. Some people felt that it was a weird decision considering her career trajectory. However, her husband was always supportive and confident about her plans, she said, and was a great source of inspiration and encouragement during her career transition. She added that having positive role models goes a long way to help navigate the challenges and stay afloat. For example, she often reached out to other STEM content creators online to ask for guidance and advice, and this was extremely helpful.
When asked if she had experienced any form of discrimination or bias from her clients for being a woman or a mother, she replied she never had any problem, and she even shot some commercials while she was pregnant. BUT… she did face gender bias a few times when she was still in the academic space, for example at conferences and job interviews.
Work-life balance as a mom entrepreneur
While her new job is much less stressful than working in academia, a day doesn't usually feel like enough to get the work done. "Producing a 60-seconds video, for example, takes weeks of researching, sourcing for materials, developing experimental protocols, and carrying out pre-tests before the actual video was filmed," Dr Habibi says. And in addition to producing, filming and editing videos, she has to deal with email correspondence, negotiate contracts and meet with clients, and conduct research for her videos.
She shared a few tips of simple actions that have helped her manage her time efficiently and create a good work-life balance:
Planning well ahead,
Proper time management,
Communicating personal needs and asking for help with childcare,
Creating time for self-care at least an hour weekly to nourish her mental health.
When asked by a participant whether she could financially support her family with her business, Dr Habibi replied that content creation businesses are quite lucrative and that she's in a place where she can comfortably support her family. Working hard and strategically with a growth mindset were critical to get her to this stage. And how about mom guilt?
When discussing this common topic among moms in our community, Dr Habibi mentioned that the first few months postpartum were tough to manage because she had underestimated how much time it takes (and how hard it is) to care for a newborn, as all new moms do. She had already committed to some clients and it seemed she never had enough time for herself and her newborn, which made her feel guilty and extremely tired. "Mom guilt never really goes away, no matter how much time I spend with my family. It's soothing to remember that I do what I do to give Noah a good life," she says.
Future plans and closing advice
The great thing about being an entrepreneur is having creative freedom. Dr Habibi has many ideas and plans to grow her business in the future. She’s about to publish a book with science experiments for children which she wrote during the first three months of Noah's life. She hopes her book will help increase STEM enrollment and interest in the sciences from an early age. She also plans to develop a course on how to become a STEM content creator and science communicator– follow @science.bae on Instagram to keep a close tab on these great opportunities coming up this year!
To end the Q&A, Dr Habibi gave a few tips and advice for starting a STEM content creation business while being a mom:
Start small, film your content with passion and share it with family and friends. Slowly you'll build followers who actually love your content.
Trust yourself and your gut instinct. Don't wait for people to push you, because being an entrepreneur requires being able to self-motivate and keep going.
Don't heed to the naysayers.
Ask for help or support with childcare when you need it.
Remember to promote your well-being.
Finally… "just do it!"
Written by Diane Ugwu
Edited by Isabel Torres
9th March 2023