Caroline Marshall on Challenges of Balancing Being a CEO with Family Life 

Before becoming the CEO of Upsource, Caroline Marshall dreamed of a successful singing career. She spent years balancing work as a personal assistant (PA), auditions, and social life. In 2020, she decided to take a risk and start her virtual (personal) assistant business, in lockdown, while pregnant and taking care of a toddler. 

Today, Caroline is a successful entrepreneur who also runs the Bump to Business Owner podcast, dedicated to helping mothers who want to start a business. Her perspective as both a personal assistant and an entrepreneur allows her to understand the experiences of women in different stages of their careers and the challenges they face. She understands what it’s like to be overwhelmed with commitments and looks to help fellow founders lighten their burden. 

This interview with Caroline Marshall is part of the latest CAKE.com campaign aimed at understanding the needs and experiences of women in business. We handpicked successful women CEOs to help us explore the challenges female founders face, and how they balance their work and personal commitments. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• After spending years working as a personal assistant, Caroline started her own VA business during lockdown.
• Marshall dedicates her life to helping fellow female business owners prepare for the challenges of motherhood. 
• For her, leading with empathy is the key to supporting employees in sustaining work-life balance.

On progressing in a traditionally female field

As Caroline Marshall explains, a personal assistant is a traditionally female role. Because of this and her work ethic, she described her beginnings as easy and natural. However, going to board meetings, which is something PAs regularly do, made her feel intimidated. Even though Caroline worked hard and was always reliable, she felt the pressure of proving her worth in such a situation.

Still, the biggest lesson Caroline learned when it came to her career beginnings, was the importance of choosing the right work environment:

“It’s not just learning what kind of career you want, but what work base suits you. That’s because a lot of roles could be a million times better in the right culture and the right workforce for you.”

On the female CEO space: uncertain but hopeful 

Caroline describes the current state of gender (in)equality in the business owners’ space as “scary, but hopeful”. She notes that global fiscal uncertainty affects both female and male CEOs. However, she warns that the dark sides of social media with current trad wife trends — where women are being encouraged not to work — lead to greater financial inequality in society. 

On the upside, she praises the positive sides of social media. For instance, social media made it easier for women to access information and ideas about venture capital (VC) funding: 

“It’s quite an exciting time for female founders, and statistics show that the number of female business owners is increasing, especially when it comes to small businesses.”

However, Caroline believes there’s still more work to be done to improve the position of women business owners: “I think there’s a great opportunity to raise awareness, but we’ve gotta keep going with that.”

The main challenge for female founders: the lack of support

The hardest time for many women CEOs comes when they decide to become mothers. Marshall believes motherhood puts female founders in a more disadvantageous position: 

“We can’t talk about women and not address the motherhood side of things. It’s fathers who suffer as well, but, the numbers show women are in a much more unfavorable position.” 

She clarifies that “equality doesn’t exist at home. Even if you have great partners, our standards are a lot lower for what partners are doing within the home versus what we are doing.”

While companies are making efforts to ensure workplaces are more equal, Caroline says many often overlook maternity: “The maternity penalty, which then also leads to a pension penalty, has so many knock-on effects.”

She also believes that the lack of support female founders receive makes motherhood a much more difficult decision: 

“There’s a lack of support for founders becoming mothers. I’ve spoken to women who want to become mothers and I understand that it’s a huge decision for them. They aren’t sure how to make that decision and how that’s going to affect their career.”

For these reasons, motherhood was both rewarding and challenging for Caroline:

“Motherhood just made me more passionate, better at work, and made me find my path. But, it’s terrifying, and I went through a really hard process to get here. My first few years of motherhood were not easy and a part of the reason for that was my career.”

On why keeping a work-life balance is key

As someone who struggled with having a lot on her plate, Caroline had to learn to balance her personal and professional life to maintain her peace of mind. She makes sure to incorporate her self-care routine such as meditations and breathwork into her calendar. If she has to take a nap, she’ll schedule it into her calendar:

“I can work a nap into my schedule to make sure I’m well-rested for the remainder of my day. I’m not bought into the ‘women don’t rest’ badge of honor because I believe we need and deserve rest.”

According to her, it’s important to understand what kind of routine works for us:

“For instance, I am not someone who can get up really early. So, I never rely on the fact that I can just get up at 5 a.m. for a workout when I have a busy schedule.”

Caroline also makes time for her friends and chooses a book over looking at her phone or watching TV. She believes this sets a great example for her kids as well. 

On supporting employees through leading with empathy 

When asked about what employers can do to support employees who are parents, Marshall highlighted that progress regarding this support relies upon changing outdated rules that don’t serve or support employees. To resolve this, she suggested companies look into alternatives such as job shares, setting core hours, and focusing on outcomes rather than time spent on tasks.

In general, Caroline believes that approaching leadership from a place of empathy is key to supporting not only parents but all employees:

“This wouldn’t be helpful to just employees who are parents, as there’s going to be other people going through things that aren’t parenthood and aren’t particularly female-heavy. Anyone can find themselves in situations where they have to care for a parent or lose a loved one. But I believe that if your workplace supports parents, there’s going to be enough empathy for employees in other situations as well. Having a more flexible system in place and offering support and sympathy goes a long way.”

This interview is part of CAKE.com’s latest Women in Tech campaign. Stay tuned for more female CEO insights. And, on February 11, check out our comprehensive Women in Tech study exploring the challenges and experiences of women in tech.