Quote · Parenting Hell with Rob Beckett and Josh Widdicombe
S12 EP52: I am spent
Where this was said
Small Business Shout-Outs: The Fernery and Surrey Garden Coach
At 51:35 · chapter starts 47:46
The small business segment delivers two warmly received shout-outs. The first is The Fernery, run by Lisa in East Sussex — a handmade embroidery business whose standout product is the book band, an elasticated embroidered strap that wraps around a book to hold the page. Rob and Josh are immediately converted: why do bookmarks still exist? The second shout-out comes with a more emotional backstory: a listener who started listening during lockdown while pregnant with her second child, in a PR job she knew she hated but was afraid to leave because it had defined her pre-parenthood identity. Five years later she's set up the Surrey Garden Coach, helping clients from rose pruning to full garden design, having spotted the gap when friends kept WhatsApping her photos of dying plants. Rob uses her story to launch into a considered reflection on the four possible combinations of loving or hating a job and earning well or not — concluding that a beloved job on lower pay beats a despised job on higher pay as his clear second-best option.
Lisa's Fernery creates handmade items including book bands — an embroidered elastic band that wraps around your book — which are described as strictly superior to bookmarks. Also keyrings, badges, and Christmas decorations. Website: thefernerie.co.uk.
After five years, a listener quit a PR job she hated to become a garden coach — teaching everything from pruning roses to full garden design, aimed at people who want a beautiful garden without scary commitment. She spotted the gap when friends kept sending her photos of dying plants over WhatsApp.
