Matty and Sarah Fahd of TMRW Kids on building a brand with purpose
You might recognise Matty, Sarah and adorable little Malik Fahd as regulars in your living room, and theirs, on Gogglebox… However, it’s their latest venture that they’re truly passionate about.
The couple launched their eco-conscious online marketplace, TMRW Kids (‘Today Must Right our Wrongs’) in 2020 stocking boutique kids’ fashion and accessories. With carefully curated brands that not only fit their style but also share their passion for the environment and building a better tomorrow for the next generation.
Here Matty and Sarah chat to us about TMRW kids, building a business with a conscience and managing your relationship when you live and work together.
Can you tell us a little bit about yourselves and your family?
We are Sarah, Matty & our two-year-old son Malik, we are born and bred in Sydney, Australia, founders of TMRW Kids and part-time social commentators on Gogglebox Australia.
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Tell us more about TMRW Kids; the what, the how and the why?
TMRW Kids (pronounced tomorrow) is an online marketplace for eco-conscious kids clothing and accessories. We wanted to bring all the amazing and predominantly Aussie kids labels under one roof, so it made shopping eco-consciously as easy & fast as shopping with major department stores.
TMRW stands for “Today Must Right our Wrongs” and we believe that our kids will right the wrongs of previous generations and give us hope for a better outlook for our planet. We wanted to create something our son will be proud of when he grows up.
What is the biggest lesson you’ve learnt along the way?
That having an eco-conscious mindset in business can be complex and no business is perfect, which can often lead brands to not try at all. We are really about doing things step by step and continually improving and optimising how we do things and continually pushing our label partners to not be afraid to make small changes also.
This planet doesn’t need a small percentage of businesses being perfect, it needs the majority of businesses making small step by step changes to reduce their negative impact on the world. We learnt to dive in and start!
Between running a business and a family, what does your morning routine like?
At the moment, with Covid around and our son not in daycare, he & I wake up get him on his pram/bike with our dog and go to our local cafe for a takeaway coffee/babycino while Sarah makes breakfast. We have a quick brekky together and begin our day!
Do you have any productivity hacks or tips you swear by?
Plan, plan, plan! You cannot run a business productively without structure. For Sarah and I, everything needs to be in the calendar or it doesn’t get done, that includes 1 hour locked away for exercise to break up the day and is so important to overall productivity.
We also have a shared to-do list so we know what needs to be done each day. Being able to physically tick off to-do list items is a celebration moment and gives us momentum.
Are you all about ‘the hustle’ or how would you describe your work ethos?
We balance out each other a lot, which is important to not only our business but our marriage ha! Sarah is the chilled out one, she works slow and steady, is always calm, great with customers and label partners, she is also the primary carer of Malik throughout the day while he is out of daycare so she will work at odd hours.
I’m the hustle, 100km’s an hour, looking at marketing strategy and finances, trying to work to a schedule and ensure I have time to switch off at night to reset and go again. I tell Sarah to do things quicker, she tells me to slow down, it’s a good balance.
How do you manage working together and being in a relationship? What’s your best advice?
It’s not easy, I think it’s particularly hard for us as we both work several jobs and don’t have much time to actually stop and talk about non-work related things. The biggest rule in our marriage and business is never going to bed angry, we can fight and fighting is healthy, but neither of us holds a grudge, we will always get over it an hour later and we will make sure to kiss, hug and say I love you.
Our biggest advice is to compartmentalise business and relationship stress as “positive stress” whilst stress is proven to cause a lot of health issues, that’s only if you think of stress as a negative thing. For us having a relationship and a business to stress about is a fortunate situation to be in and that positive stress moves us forward. As long as you have your health, you can tackle everything else, be kind to yourself.
What does success look like to you?
To have a level of financial freedom that allows us to live comfortably, whilst also having balance to ensure we have time together as a family and our health. We don’t want to be rich and unhappy.
What makes you tick outside of your work?
For me, I love sport, both watching and playing, and staying active. I love bushwalks, canyoning and the outdoors, I was an adrenaline junkie but have relaxed on it since becoming a dad. For Sarah, it’s creating fun activities for her and Malik and learning something new together e.g. making bread from scratch or painting together.
Are there any tech tools or apps that you love for work or general productivity?
Shared notes on OneNote which is free and perfect for what we are doing at the moment and we use an app called ‘unfold’ to create IG stories. Planoly is an app to help plan and post our social media and ‘lifelapse’ app to create stop-motion video which is really easy to use for someone with no video production experience like us.
What books and podcasts are you reading/listening to right now?
Book: ‘Profit First’ by Mike Michalowicz, and Podcast: ‘Tools of Titans’.
Where do you see your business in 5 years?
As the most trusted online kids brand in Australia!
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Jessica Bosco Follow +
Jessica is a writer, editor and professional wrangler of two boys. Working in women's lifestyle publishing for over 15 years she has written about everything from fashion and beauty to royal weddings and true crime. These days she loves helping parents navigate pregnancy and the early years of raising little ones...
