Blair Nelson of Fertility Rally on how adversity brings opportunity, and her best work/life balance tips

Describe your business in a few words?

Fertility Rally is a membership community & event production company geared to support, inspire and educate anyone experiencing infertility while building their family.

Fab Fertility is a podcast, blog and social account meant to educate, inspire and unite anyone going through infertility by bringing a voice to topics too often to ignore. I always tell my followers and listeners, just because fertility is hard, doesn't mean it can't be fabulous.

Fab Motherhood is currently in its infancy as a social account. When I became pregnant, I needed a space to continue to be my authentic, raw and real self while not triggering or being insensitive to those followers I had worked so hard to earn the trust of over at Fab Fertility.

What made you take the leap to start your own business?

I myself have benefited so much from the love and support of the online infertility community. I have leaned on my cyber sisters in my darkest of days and my passion has become returning the favor by creating a safe space where people can come to feel community and learn how to best advocate for themselves to achieve the best possible outcome on the fertility journey, whatever that looks like.

What was your background prior to starting your own business?

I have been working in the corporate world as a commercial real estate broker specializing in office landlord representation since 2009. It wasn't until I embarked on my own infertility journey in 2018 that this passion was ignited.

Did you always know you wanted to be an entrepreneur?

Yes. My entire life I have always been trying to work some passion project on the side. I have always had the burning desire inside of me to make my own rules and leave a legacy that I created!

Take us back to when you first launched your business, what was your marketing strategy to get the word out and did it go as planned?

When we launched Fertility Rally, we really leaned on the following and relationships we had already made through podcasting and being immersed in the infertility community to help us spread the word. The infertility community is an incredibly tight knit group and we have been ecstatic at the response we have received and help we have gotten.

We always learn the most from our mistakes, share a time with us that you made a mistake or had a challenging time in business and what you learned from it?

We make mistakes ALL the time. Our motto is launch now, adjust later. There are endless examples of how what we launched initially didn't totally pan out but we learned and did and that is what matters. One example would be having our membership open for joining 24/7, 365. WE COULD NOT KEEP UP! We quickly learned being open the first week of the month was the most effective and efficient for us so we could remain organized and sane.

What is the accomplishment you are the most proud of to date?

The community Ali and I have built at Fertility Rally and the community I have built with Fab Fertility and Fab Motherhood (lots of overlap between the three). Seeing our community organically grow and our members making lifelong friendships through introduction on our platform brings me to tears on a weekly basis.

When hiring for your team, what is your go-to interview question? Please share any hiring tips you can share from your experience?

Do you connect with our mission? It is very important for us to work with men and women who get what it is like to experience infertility. When you have gone through it, there is no way you cannot work with passion and your heart.

How has your business or industry been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic?

We have COVID to thank! We saw a need for people to gather virtually for support while going through infertility. COVID made seeking treatment harder and took away peoples' support systems. We were able to weave a solution to those pain points by providing tools to get treatments back on track (to an extent) and the community everyone was missing.

What's next for your business? What can we expect to see over the next few years?

OMG! So much. We have recently started offering support to the pregnancy after infertility community in addition to general infertility. We are thinking about moving into the motherhood after infertility space as well. We also plan to launch a course in early 2022! We also can't wait to bring our virtual events to life by offering them in person.

What is the biggest lesson you have learned in 2020?

That adversity brings opportunity and anything is possible. COVID sucks but if it weren't for the pandemic, our business wouldn't be what it is. Ali and I still haven't met because of COVID but we are running a very successful startup. It is fun and exciting and we can't wait to see what happens next.

What do you know now that you wish you knew when you were first starting your business?

That starting a business is like a slip and slide - you will bust ass - but it makes getting up that much more fun! Failure = strength because it means you tried something!

How have you managed to stay grounded this year?

Grounded?! What's that?! *wink*

Keeping our WHY top of mind always. There are a lot of hardships that come along with starting a business while you're working a full time job. Late nights, burnout, learning curves, out of pocket investments. When I get overwhelmed with all of those things, all I have to do is read ONE member testimonial about how our community has changed their life for the better to bring me back to our WHY.

Do you believe in work/life balance? What are some of your best tips?

100000% I am not always great at it, but I do try. My tip is to set boundaries. If you don't want to work on the weekends, set the boundary and stick to it. I also don't like to look at my phone in the morning until I have gotten up, written in my gratitude journal, talked to my husband, taken care of my dogs and gotten a drink. The blue light can wait!

What's something our audience would be surprised to learn about you?

I have 12 animals - furry and feathery! 4 dogs, 1 cat and 7 chickens. 

I live in Paris for a summer in college to study abroad.

I have 6 tattoos.

What are your top 3 tips to stay productive each day?

Always make time to eat. I cannot be productive with brain fog from low energy. My faves are avocado toast, yogurt, granola, fruit and tacos!

Prioritize properly. Focus on the tasks that are either urgent or will result in the highest return on time investment. Going through a to do list in chronological order of how you wrote down tasks is a waste of time.

Take time to reset every day. Whether that be a ride on your Peloton, a walk outside, a trip to Home Goods or Target (my fave), listening to a true crime podcast, or something else you enjoy, hit reset every day.

What does being an Entreprenista mean to you?

Being an Entreprenista means working hard to achieve what you want and making no apologies along the way. It means having the guts to take a risk by turning your passion into something living and breathing.