Finding What It Takes With Raegan Moya-Jones

core connections lifestyle May 07, 2019

Success doesn’t choose who it wants to give itself to. It goes to those who work hard, take risks and believe in what they’re doing. Raegan Moya-Jones, founder of the $100 million international company aden + anais, has been fortunate enough to experience success but also has been fortunate enough to experience "failure". Through her story + new book, What It Takes, she inspires women, entrepreneurs and mothers that they can accomplish anything through sheer will and hard work.

MEET RAEGAN

In 2006, Raegan co-founded aden + anais, the baby lifestyle brand globally recognized for its high-quality design driven muslin swaddles and baby products. After selling the company in 2013 and continuing on as CEO until 2017, Raegan has gone on to co-found Saint Luna, a premium moonshine brand, and author of What It Takes – the story of her entrepreneurial journey from the kitchen table to a 100 million dollar global business.

RAEGAN'S STORY

You know when you’re driving and all of a sudden you look around and you’re like, “How did I end up here?” That feeling relates to Raegan as she looks back on her story. But one thing she knows for sure is that a lot of work went in to get her to where she’s at today.

aden + anais came to be when Raegan saw an opportunity in the market through her own needs as a mother. She has always been driven by the belief in her ideas, products and herself.

Despite all of the things that were thrown her way when creating a business, her passion for what she was doing allowed her to keep putting one foot in front of the other. And that same mindset pushed her to write her book What It Takes.

Getting over the thought in her head telling her that she had no business writing a business book was the hardest part, but what kept her going was her wanting to let people know that if she could create a $100 million international business then anyone can. You just have to believe in your idea, be prepared to work harder than you’ve ever worked before and realize that there's a little luck involved.

BEST BUSINESS ADVICE

When starting a business, you will always be facing an uphill battle. Through the voices in your head or the outside noise, the simple thought of starting a task can seem overwhelming. But what kept Raegan going with the starting of aden + anais was this thought she put in her head,

“If you don’t try as hard as you can to make this successful, and you give up, you’re going to live with that forever.” - Raegan Moya-Jones

Once she made peace with failure, she started to shift her mindset from focusing on how she could fail to how she will succeed and keep moving forward.

RISK-TAKING

Raegan’s advice on risk-taking is to be a calculated risk-taker. A calculated risk-taker is prepared to take a risk without throwing caution to the wind and seeing where things end up. By approaching decisions this way, the fear of risk-taking can go away because you have confidence in the moves that you’re making. To be clear, you won’t always make the right decision, just like Raegan hasn’t always made the right decisions in her career. But, this is the type of failure that you can learn and grow from to make your next risk one worth taking.

MOM GUILT: BALANCE IS A JOKE

It’s an everyday struggle for Raegan to balance life as a woman with kids and a career, but Raegan knows that she’s a better mom to her kids because of her career. What she's made peace with was the fact that she’s one person, there are only 24 hours in the day and she just does the best that she can. This goes for any of us! Somedays, we suck as a mom and others we suck as a working woman, but that’s where this idea of balance is nonexistent because you never know what you’re gonna get.

At the end of the day, we are all different. Our kids are all different. Our spouses are all different. We all have different needs and wants and it’s upsetting to Raegan that women judge other women for the decisions that they make that are right for them and their family.

When Raegan ever feels that guilt of traveling too much or working too long, she's reminded by her husband that she’s being the ultimate role model to her kids by showing them that you can have a family, be a devoted mom and be successful in business.

It’s also okay for your kids to see you struggle because life is tough. They're going to be knocked down from time to time and have moments of doubt, but if they see that happening to you and then watch you get back up and keep moving forward, how could they not benefit from that?

RAEGAN’S WAKEUP CALL

Raegan had a brief scare with melanoma due to the combination of the Australian sun and being fair-skinned. She had surgery to get a pinhead-sized section removed and came out with 38 stitches on her chest… Raegan was not happy. So, being the vocal person that Raegan is, she went to complain to the plastic surgeon. The surgeon responded with a story that someone came in with a very similar situation to Raegan’s, but the difference was that theirs had spread and they only had months to live.

At that moment, Raegan realized that that could’ve easily been her and came out with the understanding that if you don’t have your health, you have nothing. Before her diagnosis of melanoma, she was highly stressed due to lack of sleep, nutrition and the inability to put herself first over baby blankets. So, melanoma was the wakeup call that Raegan needed to learn how to put a little bit of time back into herself and to slow down.

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The material contained within is provided for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. You should seek prompt medical care for any specific health issues and consult your physician before beginning a new regiment or purchasing any product(s).