Meet Kerrine Bryan, co-founder of Butterfly Books

I’m Kerrine Bryan a chartered electrical engineer and co-founder of Butterfly Books. I’ve worked in the oil and gas industry for 12 years in London, after which I took a 2-year career break to have my daughter before embarking on a new role, new company and new country. I’m now a lead electrical engineer for WSP, a global engineering and professional services consultancy. Based in New York, my role is a mixture of technical, project management and business development work. I’m currently working on some exciting power generation projects including cogeneration, energy saving studies and renewable power.

I love my job, but engineering definitely wasn’t something I dreamt about doing as a small child. I never really knew such a job existed or was available to someone like me, even as I grew older and was choosing my A Levels. Because I loved maths, I thought that accountancy would be the best professional fit for me. Only, at aged 17, when a teacher suggested I attend a programme at a university introducing students to different types of engineering did I really become interested in this. It was a seminal moment, as I then went on to change my course of study from accounting to finally work as an engineer. 

I’m also co-founder of Butterfly Books – an independent children’s book publisher that produces books targeting kids aged 4 to 7 years that intends to address the diversity and gender skills gap in particular industries. This is a side hustle that I work on with my brother and co-founder, Jason Bryan.

What inspired you to launch your business and what is the end goal? 

I am passionate about my job and am keen for children, especially girls, to understand what engineering entails. For me, I think it blends creativity and problem solving perfectly.

Having volunteered at schools to talk about my role and experiences as an engineer as a STEM ambassador, I realised how biases and misconceptions around engineering were formed at a young age, and this led me to start Butterfly Books with the help of my younger brother, Jason Bryan. He’s the lyricist and poet.

The view that engineering is a hands-on, manually difficult and dirty job for older white men is far too common place, and it’s this kind of harmful misconception that is contributing to the engineering sector’s diversity issue. I know that if young children and young adults don’t see people who look like them doing a particular job, then they are less likely to pursue this.

In a sense, I felt that there was something creative we could produce that would capture children’s imaginations and normalise women doing typically ‘male’ jobs and vice versa. We believe that this could be achieved with children’s picture books and rhyming verses.

How do you set yourself apart from other businesses in your industry? 

We’ve seen a new spate of empowering children’s books that address misconceptions around conventionally male and female-led roles, and at the same time celebrated remarkable historical figures that have innovated or changed the course of history. From Emily Pankhurst to Joan of Arc, Mother Theresa to Florence Nightingale. These kinds of books have formed part of a wider movement, which we are part of, within children’s literature that is changing the bedtime ritual for the better. We are seeing better role models for children that break the mould and celebrate difference, diversity and bravery, and we want to be a part of this force for positive change.

Keeping an eye on the numbers in any business is important. How do you ensure that you’re always up to date?

We utilise online software (Sage) for accounting and also ensure that we sign up for automated prompts and reminders regarding tax returns and any legal requirements. However, Excellent project management is key to any business in ensuring schedules and budgets are met.

What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learnt so far as an entrepreneur?

I’ve learnt that although no one will be quite as passionate, dedicated and committed as you are about your idea or aligned to your vision for your business, trust and delegation to other supporting and trusted parties is really important – not least because, as the business grows, you’ll get busier and you won’t be able to do everything yourself. Delegating can be hard, especially when you’re used to being hands-on, particularly in the earlier stages of the business. Yet trusting someone else to support you on operations frees up opportunities to look at elements of the business, or get a macro view of the business, from different angles in order to improve practices and processes. If you’re too in the weeds, it can be difficult to have that kind of perspective.

With all the success stories around entrepreneurship and how innovative people have been to take the leap, how do you think you’ve innovated your sector and why?

As a qualified engineer I totally understand the importance of innovation. Engineering is all about coming up with new solutions and innovations to everyday and complex problems, especially those that are caused by the ever-changing world in which we live.

In terms of the children’s books we produce, we aim to remain innovative by collaborating with professionals across many industries and fields of work where skill gaps are an issue. So far, as well as engineering and the sciences, we have produced books about women who are farmers, soldiers, plumbers and firefighters, and men who are nurses (our range of stories encompassing men working in female-dominated sectors will also increase in the future). Working with a diverse range of professionals to help shape our stories enables them to tell us, from the frontline, what the current issues are that need to be addressed within their industry.

We have a social mission to raise awareness among children about the career options available to them, with the aim of improving diversity and reducing national skills gaps in some of the most important sectors around. At the moment, we’re early in our mission, and we are but a small independent publisher. We want to tackle diversity issues by tackling the misconceptions that emerge from the grassroots – when girls are told that being a plumber is a man’s job, or boys are told that nursing is a woman’s job. It’s astounding how quickly misconceptions become set in young minds, and how difficult it can be to subvert these when older. It will be difficult to gauge but, absolutely, I’d love to think that it will just take one child to read one of our books to feel inspired about taking up a job in engineering or the sciences, and that gender is not an obstacle to achieving that dream. If we are able to seed this at the earlier stages of their lives, and then they achieve a childhood vision in adulthood after hard work and determination, then that definitely makes our social venture worth pursuing. 

What are your thoughts on failure?

No one wants to fail, but I think the biggest lessons are learnt through mistakes. What might seem like failure is just a learning opportunity. I think real failure is not learning from previous mistakes, or becoming so destroyed, consumed or fearful of it that it debilitates you from experimenting, taking risk and growing from it.

Do you have a morning routine or ritual to get your day started on the right foot? 

I get up at 6am. I like to do some short stretches to get the blood flowing and get my mind ready for the day. Although I’m currently on maternity leave, ordinarily – when I’m back at work - my husband and I alternate days to get our daughter ready for day care. We all head out of the house by 7am and my husband usually drops Skye off at nursery. During the daily commute to my day job as an electrical engineer for the energy sector, I respond to emails relating to the social enterprise I run with my brother in my spare time, which is based in the UK. Living in New York, I find that this is the best way to manage running a business from a different time zone. I get the train and subway to the office and usually arrive at the office by 8.30am.

If you could be in a room with 4 entrepreneurs, who would they be and why?

Bill Gates – who wouldn’t want a chat with one of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs? He also does a lot of work for the health and well-being of the world's poorest people; his philanthropic pursuits are much to be admired.

Ade Hassan MBE, founder of Nubian Skin – Just 5% of the UK's small businesses are founded or led by those from a BAME background. Personally, it would be great to speak with someone like Ade Hassan to understand the challenges they faced in launching, running and scaling a business, and how these obstacles were overcome. 

Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE, founder of Stemettes – It would be wonderful to pick the brains of someone like Anne-Marie, a founder of a great social enterprise that promotes women in STEM careers; a mission that is very close to my heart. 

Richard Branson – Again one of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs.  Although there’s controversy right now – particularly in how his Virgin enterprise has treated its staff during this current global crisis. Yet, he’s worked with many small businesses, set up many initiatives to help startups get recognition and grow, and he seems to understand the importance of diversity in helping these develop into major organisations.

How did you conquer those moments of doubt that so often affect entrepreneurs or stop many with great ideas – what pushes you through?

Seeing the impact our mission and venture can have on children when I visit schools is very rewarding. The whole idea behind the books was based on my experiences of becoming an engineer and I am motivated to work to ensure children do not miss out on rewarding careers in the future just because they don’t know what the job involves or that it’s a job for them.

What are your top tips for entrepreneurs wanting to get their business out there?

Don’t be afraid to talk about your idea with people who might be able to help. When people start out with an innovative idea there is always a fear that someone else might do the same thing. Although that’s true, you will need support to help get you started and, in any case, it’s unlikely that someone will know exactly what your idea is.

What plans do you have for ‘your business’ over the next two years? 

We’d like the books to be teaching aids at school; it will stoke some interesting classroom discussions with the children and will hopefully inspire them to find out more about the diversity of people working in amazing jobs. And of course, it would be great to get the book distributed globally. In terms of range of our books– as mentioned before, we definitely want to expand our series of My Daddy Is A … titles. Collaborating with Nursing Now England to produce and launch My Daddy Is A Nurse and the London Fire Brigade for My Mummy Is A Firefighter this year has been really great. Last year, we collaborated with the British Army with to launch My Mummy Is A Soldier – showcasing the diversity of careers women undertake within the organisation - everything from medic to dog handler, lawyer to pilot, which was a great success. We want to broaden our work with further sectors and professionals to produce similar picture and story books for children that shine a spot light on particular jobs that have a gender or social bias.

How important is company culture and what is your top tip to get it right?

Culture is incredibly important within a company. My top tip is to maintain quality communication with the team. Ensuring everyone is on the same page and has a common goal whilst respecting diverse opinions that can improve the bottom line. I do also believe that great company culture comes easier to teams that are diverse and inclusive. The more homogenous the environment, the more closed off the culture. So I would also say that recruitment policies must facilitate this process. We need a diverse representation of people in male dominated industries, but also in female dominated sectors too. This requires a complete cultural shift, a complete mindset change.

This won’t happen overnight, and it may not happen in our lifetime. But it requires that all companies and organisations think about how they present themselves to the public, especially via advertising; because this can be used as an agent for change to redress the diversity imbalance, rather than peddle the usual stereotypes that keeps inequality in place. We also need to see more influential men become advocates of women in businesses; they can act as real enablers, smashing away glass ceilings so that more women can finally have a seat at the boardroom table. But it takes a persistent combination of education and experience to bring down barriers and dismantle antiquated systems of working that causes such inequality and bias.

Any moments where you thought you’ve bitten off more than you can chew?

Yes, and I had to simply learn to say ‘no’.  There have been times where I had agreed to doing a lots of events, e.g. speaker events, panels etc. I felt like I would miss out on an opportunity for the books, but the whole process can get really overwhelming, especially when I also have a young family to manage. Sometimes, you just have to say ‘no’. 

In terms of running the business, yes – there have been times where I have felt that I have bitten off more than I can chew, but “fake it til you make it” is pretty sage advice. What might seem very uncomfortable soon quickly becomes the norm, and that’s how you grow and develop your skills – outside of the comfort zone.