My biggest mistake: Steph Claire Smith and Laura Henshaw, co-founders of Keep It Cleaner

When Keep It Cleaner began in its first iteration, it was an eBook launched by two young women: Steph Claire Smith and Laura Henshaw, aged 21 and 22 years old, respectively.

These days, the business encompasses an app, a podcast, and a fast moving consumer goods arm, which helps the brand showcase to its loyal customer base why health and fitness should be viewed as a “holistic” experience.

We’re now seven years on from eBook days, and the co-founders — now 28 and 29 — sat down with SmartCompany Plus to reflect on the biggest mistake they’ve made as young, female entrepreneurs.

The mistake

The two co-founders say their biggest mistake hasn’t been one specific moment, but rather an ongoing, general gaffe: underestimating themselves.

But they both acknowledge this isn’t an experience unique to themselves.

“I think as women in business — especially young women in business with little to no experience — you automatically go to that point,” they explain.

“We feel like we really have to prove ourselves — and I feel that a lot of our male counterparts don’t feel they need to,” Henshaw says.

“They don’t feel like they need to have done X, Y and Z to get into the room or to get to a certain part of their career.

“For women, it feels like A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H and all the way to the end of the alphabet before you feel like you’re able to do something.”

The impact

By not believing in themselves, it was easy for the co-founders to see every little mishap or roadblock as a problem far bigger than it truly was.

Henshaw admits that during the pandemic, she lost a lot of her confidence, both in herself and in her ability to be a business leader.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Laura Henshaw (@laura.henshaw)

“I didn’t trust myself for most of 2020,” she says.

Smith reflects on a low period as well, saying she feels they both went through a period where they weren’t “lost” so-to-speak, but just “really needed to bounce off someone else about where we were both mentally and emotionally, as well as where we wanted the business to be”.

At the time, this ‘someone else’ for both co-founders was the other.

But with big goals of where they wanted the business to be without perhaps the consideration for their own wellbeing, it emanated into seeing the team try to do too many things at once, despite “not having the hands or the hours to get it all done”.

The fix

Nowadays, the duo have a board of advisors that they meet with monthly to seek guidance from, especially for “some bigger business decisions”.

Having this advisory board in their corner, has helped her and Henshaw feel more empowered to “hone into what we think is the right decision” even if that decision is different to what the advisors might be suggesting, says Smith.

The pair now have a clear vision of their business goals, adds Henshaw, and also their own roles within Keep It Cleaner, which has helped to “mitigate a lot of the risk of getting lost happening again”.

At the start, the advisory board involved just one woman — Gabriele Famous — who they met with for a friendly conversation to get some guidance.

“We want support. We need support. Let’s just put ourselves out there,” Henshaw reflects on why they approached Famous in the first place.

With a background in global tech companies, it was clear Famous had a “passion for helping the business grow and also helping us grow individually”, Smith adds.

“I think she helped us find our confidence again to be the leaders that we want to be.”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Stephanie Miller (@stephclairesmith)

The lesson

Neither Smith nor Henshaw can give an unequivocal “yes” to whether they wished they’d had the advisors on board from the very start.

That’s because, they say, “sometimes if you have those resources to start with, you don’t really appreciate them as much”.

Going through the tough times also taught the two founders a lot, including the importance of being honest with those around them.

“I think as leaders in business, it’s very easy to want to put on this perception that you know what you’re doing and you’ve got everything under control,” Henshaw said.

“But the reality is most people do not have everything under control. They’re learning; we all are.”

Now, Henshaw says the pair make sure to remind themselves of how far they’ve come and what they’ve achieved, rather than waiting on other people to tell them, like they did in the past.

“The other thing is we know that we’re not curing cancer,” Henshaw said.

“So it’s really important to pull ourselves back and be like: ‘yes, maybe this month wasn’t as good as we wanted it to be’.

“But even so, everyone’s alive. We’re happy. We’re doing what we love, and we’re making a positive impact on people’s lives.”