Eno Quagraine on Making History, Leading, and Creating Safe Spaces for Mothers with Talkative Mom
Written by Foyin Ejilola
Eno Quagraine launched Talkative Mom, Ghana’s first parenting app and parent-specific search engine, in February 2021. The day after the app’s launch, it became the second parenting app in the United States and the United Kingdom, ranking right above Pinterest. Chatting with Better to Speak, Eno talks about building the five-year-old Talkative Mom brand itself, attaining historical feats, being a leader, providing a safe space for mothers, and navigating her journey so far.
BTS: Tell us about yourself and Talkative Mom
ENO: I'm Eno Quagraine, the founder and CEO of Talkative Mom, which is Ghana's first and only parenting app and parent-specific search engine, Talkative Mom app.
On this app, we have four features: the Listings feature, which helps parents find essential health service providers like pediatricians, gynecologists amongst others; the parent-specific search engine, which allows parents to ask any question to which answers are provided; the marketplace that parents can shop from, and the blog.
Talkative Mom started as a blog where I was sharing my parenting journey. Then, I also had other mothers share their stories and from there, I built a community. I didn’t want to leave that bit out of the app, hence the blog feature.
So what we do is provide resources for parents to make their journey easier. We also host events (for women) such as entrepreneurship seminars and retreats. Very soon we are opening a physical location where we can help some of these parents with other resources as well. We also have a TV show, The Talkative MomShow, which I host.
BTS: Why the name Talkative Mom?
ENO: (Laughs) Well, the vision wasn't to be what we are today. It was just to start a little blog where I'd share my story. So, I decided to come up with a name that best described me. Anyone who knows me knows that I’m talkative. Then, I had just become a mom, so adding the two words resulted in ‘Talkative Mom’. Then, it was a blog where I was going to be sharing a lot and advocating for other mothers to speak up and share their stories, so the name made sense.
BTS: Talkative Mom is Ghana's fest parenting up which means you've made history in your country, Ghana. How does that make you feel?
ENO: It’s mixed emotions for me because I don't think it's anything to celebrate, given that the app was launched only in 2021. There were lots of popular mom apps but we never had anything that I would say was relevant to our own reality. So I just felt it was way overdue and because I was already in that space, I felt that if no one is going to do it, then why don't I just start and see how it’d go? So, it's exciting I got to be the first, although I think it came a little bit too late, but that’s better than never.
BTS: You mentioned that Talkative Mom started as a blog. What year was that?
ENO: I launched Talkative Mom in March 2018.
BTS: This means last month was Talkative Mom's fifth anniversary. How did that make you feel?
ENO: Honestly, I didn't know it was going to be my fifth anniversary. I miscalculated, thinking we were to be four. I was shocked to discover that we were turning five. I like to plan but I couldn’t plan anything. I didn't even do any posts on it. I shared something in my stories, just looking back at the journey so far and how far I'd come. That was it.
This happened because of all the different transitions the brand has taken. It started as a blog in 2018, I registered it as a business in 2019 because we wanted to add a shop to the blog, then the app idea came in 2020, after which the app was officially launched in February 2021. But it’s exciting that I was able to continue on this journey and then evolve.
BTS: From being a blog, Talkative Mom as a brand has evolved to an app, a TV show, and events like the Elle Retreat, Fit Train, among others. How do you manage all these while still creating a safe space for mothers?
ENO: The brand, Talkative Mom, is focused on parents. And fortunately, I am also a parent, so I try to provide services that I would want as a parent. I also like to come up with new, fresh ideas to keep people more excited and intrigued. The other is that I really do believe that this is my purpose. It has not been easy throughout, but certain things have fallen into place. I’ve also been able to build a close-knit community where everyone believes that I’m their friend. I manage the Talkative Mom page myself and answer all my DMs. There is a page for the app which someone else manages.
Then, I don't condone toxicity and unnecessary drama. Once I start to entertain that, it's downhill from there because nobody feels like it's a safe space anymore. All my events have been so good because people feel safe there. They know they can open up and their secrets are safe within us because I make sure that we all sign a non-disclosure form so things don’t go out there.
When it comes to my team, I'm very strict. I'm nice, but firm because you shouldn’t play with your business. I’m very hands-on and involved in every little bit of it. I've also been intentional about who I have on my team, so they understand the vision and where we are going.
BTS: I understand that leadership can be demanding, so how has it been working with your team?
ENO: When it comes to my team, like the core group of people who help me with everyday running, I have a very small team. I don't want to just hire a bunch of people and then they're all doing nothing. I currently have four people on my team – I started with one and she was my main assistant. I make sure that all these people are able to also do other things. So I'm growing steadily, but not looking to just grow a huge team. And, I'm really able to manage them well. I just make sure that there is a lot of communication.
BTS: Planning an event like the ones Talkative Mom orgainses requires funding which is often an obstacle for small brands. How has funding posed challenges for the Talkative Mom brand?
ENO: Funding is our biggest issue, honestly. We want to add certain features that will enable experts to share videos, and newly pregnant or soon-to-be mothers to sign in to track their pregnancies every day. All these would need funding because we are providing a lot of free resources and the bulk of the revenue doesn't come from the app but from ads and partnerships, amongst other [revenue streams]. We’ve applied for some funding and we’re hoping that they’ll come through.
This is quite disappointing to me because the day after we launched this app in 2021, we got an email that we had become the number two parenting app in the U.K. and the U.S., which was history. We were right above Pinterest. It was the strangest thing. But we were not able to keep up with that momentum because there was no way to keep people on the app. When someone visits the app, once they get the information they need, they are gone. So we want to add these features such as chats that will keep them on the app. People also make suggestions all the time, but it's all money. So, it’s mainly a challenge now.
BTS: What other challenges does Talkative Mom have at the moment?
ENO: Like I said earlier, we are launching a physical location soon. The bigger plan is to try and link that to the app as well. One of the issues that we noticed on the app was that in the marketplace, customers have to order goods from different vendors and pay delivery costs per vendor. So, we want to have a warehouse in this physical location where we will store goods and have customers order at once. This is one of the ways that we want to help some of the businesses on the app.
However, putting everything together has been financially, emotionally, and physically challenging. Besides the warehouse, we plan for this location to be a space where different professionals will be on the ground to help. For instance, we want to be able to have an occupational therapist see a child on the autism spectrum.
BTS: How do you balance everything you do-responding to different messages, being available for physical events, having a partner, and being a parent, among other things? How do you find time to rest and care for yourself? What kind of support do you get as well?
ENO: One of the things that I understood very quickly was that as one person, I cannot do it all. That was how I took the pressure off myself. One thing that I’d say has helped me is that my space or my business is already centered around motherhood. But, I still realised that I cannot do it all. It’s not possible for me to be there for my kids 24/7, so I hired a nanny to assist. This doesn’t mean I’m absent from their lives. It’s the same thing with work which is also like my baby. I decided to hire people to be able to attend to the different areas that I can't. I’ve gone about everything through teamwork and collaboration.
BTS: How were you able to build a support system?
ENO: When I started Talkative Mom, nobody really understood it. The reaction was “Why is this lady sharing so much about motherhood?” Even my mom didn’t really understand at the beginning. The first time she did, a lady had walked up to her at church and asked her to thank me because I’d shared something on the blog that had inspired her and she felt seen. Once my mom started to see the impact, she really became supportive.
My husband has also been really supportive. Then, my true core group of friends whom I’ve known for over 25 years have been a part of my great support system, they’re also like my sisters because I don’t have any.
However, it hasn’t always been perfect. You don’t have everyone supporting you all the time. For me, I block the noise out. For the most part, I would say that I'm grateful for the very core group of people that actually support me.
BTS: Talkative Mom focuses on disabled children. There’s a section for them on the app and also physical events that involve them. Considering that they rarely get the required help and representation in Africa, what motivated this focus?
ENO: Someone once asked me this question because they were surprised that none of my children had disabilities, yet I'm focusing on that. I think the turning point was when I started the show and I had different guests who were sharing their traumatic stories. Then, I realised that I’d been in a bubble for the longest time. I’ve gotten a lot of these experts sharing what to do on the app because if these parents had seen professionals, they could have got help. We also want to make sure the physical location is an inclusive space.
The world we are in is not really black and white. For example, I'm pretty sure my kids have never seen another child in a wheelchair before. Maybe on TV but probably not in real life. The day they see them, they'll probably be pointing at these children and I don't want that. So that is one of the things that I'm really advocating for. I remember that I was announcing that my events would have sensory play areas for kids with disabilities and also, a breastfeeding station, and people were shocked. This was last year (2022). Nobody thinks about these things at events. Even some of these hospitals have their baby changing areas in the toilet. So my mantra is inclusivity. There are more and more children with autism today than before. So the more we address it, the better it is and the more we try to include them in a lot of things we are doing, the better.
BTS: Since Talkative Mom began to include children with disabilities, what positive impacts have you noticed?
ENO: Now, I think more people are opening up more about their lives. In the past, kids who have disabilities were usually hidden. Because of how religious we are as a country, people don’t even want you to pronounce that on your child. Now, people are seeking help early because early detection is key. Parents used to be in denial for so long. People are getting the education they need. So I believe that we're taking steps in the right direction and we're getting there.
BTS: Since its inception to what it has currently evolved into, Talkative Mom deals with giving advice and counsel, sharing tips, and recommending experts. How successful has the brand been in impacting people positively?
ENO: Over a period of time my perception of what success is has just changed. Someone would send me a message about aborting her child because she was scared and I’d be able to convince her that she would be fine because some of them have the fear of death when it comes to giving birth. So, talking them through that, then, having them have their babies and reaching out to say the baby is a particular age makes me feel like a proud auntie. That alone to me is success. So there are all these little things that happen that I don't necessarily announce, but to me they mean.
BTS: How do you manage to walk these eventual mothers through the process? Do you think their fear is valid?
ENO: I don't sugarcoat my experience. The first one was very traumatic – I shared the details during my blogging days. However, I survived. There are lots of people that survived. When I’m done advising, I like to recommend the best doctors and experts whom I think these women would need. So, there are valid reasons for being fearful and it's absolutely okay to feel like that, but that shouldn’t consume you.
BTS: How were you able to connect with these professionals that you often recommend to these mothers?
ENO: Honestly, it was very organic because I didn't know all these people at once. It just happened that when I started writing, I would announce on my first social media page that I had a new blog post up, and then people would go visit my blog, read the stories, and subscribe. These people weren’t only new moms but different kinds of people. So, all these people were reading and following me. So if someone needed help with something, I would put it up and ask a question. Then you find some of these experts in the comments saying, “Oh, let the person come visit me, or let the person try this or that”. That was how I realized that I have this mom in my community who is a medical doctor or this dad who is a psychologist.
The next thing I would say I did that was intentional was putting together a list of the best gynecologists and other experts in Ghana. I was asking about the medical doctors people have ever used and would highly recommend. Some of the names were being repeated, so I collated those ones and published the list on my blog. Then, other medical doctors also began to reach out.
BTS: What’s your vision for this brand and for yourself as the founder? What heights of growth do you hope to achieve as time goes by?
ENO: My vision is to expand across Africa and be the go-to platform for African parents. A platform where they not only feel heard but have all their parenting needs met.
Foyin Ejilola (she/her) is a Nigerian writer and journalist. Her works have been featured in publications like AMAKA Studio, Black Ballad, Ayanfe, and Byrdie.