‘I don’t quit’: Erin Molan on her next big adventure

As she prepares to kick off a new chapter in her career, Erin Molan reveals the one big lesson motherhood has taught her.

It was a simple conversation with daughter Eliza in the bath three months ago that had a big impact on Erin Molan’s parenting. Among all the toddler babble, the two-year-old pointed at the sports presenter’s stomach asking what it was.

“I looked down and I went to say, ‘Yucky Mummy!’. My first thing was to be self-deprecating but I stopped myself and I said, ‘Beautiful Mummy. This is Mummy’s tummy’. Molan recounts.

“I thought this is when [Eliza] is forming ideas about herself and it’s my job to make sure she absolutely loves herself. I just take that part of my job as a mother really seriously.”

And just like that seemingly simple conversation changed the way Molan would parent, a simple conversation about baby singlets would change her career.

Erin Molan has created her own baby singlet line, By Erin.

As well as her network and radio roles, and her anti-online bullying campaigns, Molan has also started her own business selling baby singlets that don’t have to be put on over a new bub’s head. It was an idea that came to her after trying to dress Eliza as a newborn.

“I wasn’t sitting around thinking, ‘I want a side hustle, what can I do?’. I just wanted a solution for our baby. And it changed our life, which sounds ridiculous, but in terms of not having an unsettled bub when you’re already juggling a million things, it just made it so much easier.”

Since launching By Erin in July, the singlets are now being stocked in hospitals and retailers across the country (also available at babidream.com.au or follow on Instagram at @babysingletsbyerin) and have been praised for how helpful they are for premature babies as they work around hospital tubes. “That’s my favourite part,” she says. “That even though they are just baby singlets, they are helping parents, in just a tiny way, who are already going through so much.”

Molan, who is engaged to policeman Sean Ogilvy, is extremely hands-on in the business and already has global patents for the design. While she has no formal business training, she believes her work in the media has prepared her well.

“My journey in television was filled with rejection and not getting roles I would have loved. There are lot of similarities in trying to succeed in business and trying to succeed in media. But I’ve had to develop a level of resilience and I’ve learnt to not let rejection be fatal.”

She’s also built up a level of resilience when it comes to the trolling and bullying she’s received online. She recently detailed on 60 Minutes how she had a man charged after horrendous online abuse.

Erin Molan will kick off a new chapter in January when she joins comedians Dave Hughes and Ed Kavalee for 2DayFM’s new breakfast show in Sydney.

Molan now admits there have been moments where she’s wanted to quit the spotlight.

“I have definitely had moments in my career where I’ve gone, ‘Yep, that will do me’. Where I looked at the coverage and things around me and gone, ‘I’ve just got to walk away, it’s just not worth it’. But I come from a family of people who don’t give up because giving up means others win. And I don’t quit,” the 37-year-old says. “Yes, it would be easier for me not to speak up against online bullies. It would be way easier. But I owe it to the thousands of people who have sent me messages about their own stories. And no one is held to account. People say to me, ‘don’t give up, you are our voice’. And I won’t give up. It doesn’t hurt me any more like it used to. It would take a lot now to hurt me. I’m a very different person and that’s why I feel like I can fight.”

The radio star is looking forward to spending more time at home.

On January 18, Molan will kick off a new chapter in her career when she joins comedians Dave Hughes and Ed Kavalee for 2DayFM’s new breakfast show in Sydney.

“It is going to be a massive year but it was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down,” she says of the high-profile, high-stakes gig. “I look at the breakfast landscape at the moment and particularly breakfast radio, and when it works, it is long-term and it is incredible.

“The thought of missing out on this would have been far worse than how tough next year will be. I have a very supportive partner, he is a homicide detective so he has got the real job. He will be doing extra. It will be tough but really rewarding.”

She says the early start will suit her young family perfectly, a key factor in making the big decision.

“I will be home around 9.30am so I will get to be a mum basically full-time Monday through to Thursday and that is the most important job in the world,” she says. “I wouldn’t have taken on something that would have taken me away from my daughter so I am really pumped.”

The quote Molan lives by is from legendary basketball player Michael Jordan: “I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

She used this when decided to set up her business, By Erin.

“Fear of failure stops so many people doing so many things but everyone has failures,” Molan says. “Of course I was worried starting a business. When you’re in the public eye, anything that is perceived as a failure is forever in the media. But the way I look at it is I would rather try a million different things and fail every time than not try at all.

“Failure shouldn’t be looked at as this negative thing. If you’re failing, it means you’re trying and you learn valuable lessons from failure. Everyone should embrace trying and lose the fear of failure. It’s not fatal.”

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