Tsavo Wellness is the brainchild of Mother-Daughter Duo, Lara Rose & Isabelle Lakin, born out of their personal experiences in the pursuit of holistic health. Frustrated by the lack of evidence-based holistic health advice & the high costs associated with practitioners, they set out to create a sanctuary that offered trusted, high-end equipment & science-backed approaches.
The idea for Tsavo Wellness originated in 2020 & began taking shape in 2021. After extensive renovations & research, the wellness centre opened its doors in February 2022. Situated in the heart of Mosman Junction, Tsavo Wellness was carefully crafted to cater to the health & lifestyle-conscious Australian market, providing a comprehensive range of resources for body & mind care.
We chat to Isabelle Lakin about the Tsavo journey, & what it’s like working as a mother-daughter team.
The question of what it’s like to be in business with Lara (my mum) & vice versa, is probably the question we receive most frequently. To be totally transparent, it is probably one of the hardest yet most rewarding & completely worth it ideas we have ever had.
If you’ve ever seen me (Isabelle/the daughter half) & Lara (the mother half) in our working dynamic, you’ve probably heard someone in the room say how funny they think it is that we take turns being the mature mother role in our dynamic. In the early days, we joked that I was the more serious one, being my first time running & developing a business with much to learn, taking on a lot of new responsibility & wanting to do my absolute best. Then Lara, having already learnt that the fun must not be forgotten even when it comes to a new business, always brings the fun & upbeat energy.
Truth be told, our relationship was tricky to work out in the first few months/year of Tsavo’s opening as we had to introduce a new dynamic into a working relationship as business partners. It was a rebalancing game of our dynamic as we launched into being an adult mother-daughter business partnership & not just a mother-daughter relationship. When we finally developed a balanced flow, it made a huge difference. A big factor was working out the new layers of professional trust & communication as partners with a shared goal, but totally different skill sets. Ironically, this developed our non-work adult mother-daughter relationship for the better as well because we learnt to appreciate each other’s workload & efforts in building the brand as we shared a love for the ‘Why’ behind Tsavo Wellness, & saw each other in a new light of hard work & drive.
I suppose a big perk of not just being partners but also being family, is the level of trust we have for & in each other. This is a foundation that really helps our work relationship flow. It’s created a totally different & greater capacity for appreciating each other’s strengths, work ethics & trusting that each other’s area of work will be done.
Another big element is holding each other accountable for not working 24/7 & taking healthy breaks. In the first year of Tsavo, we struggled with feeling guilty of not always being switched ‘on’ with work mode, as I’m sure many readers can relate to. When it’s your own business or passion project there are no set hours, no lunch breaks & very little time to do other things. This year we have prioritised down time, & spending time together not talking about work.
It may or not seem obvious but it’s certainly no walk in the park & we don’t want to make it seem that way. We have both learnt that the only way forward for Tsavo to continue to succeed in our mission, and for us to maintain a healthy relationship is to communicate openly, remember compromise, & be caring. It can be hard in moments of high stress because as we all know, sometimes we aren’t nice to the people we love the most because deep down, we know they will always forgive & love us anyway. We certainly have our moments, because after all & before all else, we are were just mother and daughter for the first 21 years..!
With all its challenges, ultimately, we wouldn’t have it any other way & Tsavo Wellness wouldn’t be the sanctuary it is if we weren’t both a part of it.
If you want to see more about our story & Tsavo Wellness, our biohacking & lifestyle-health sanctuary, find us on socials at @tsavo.wellness or visit www.tsavowellness.com.au
