Supermum: Johanna Haniel - Micasso Baby Club

Supermum Johanna Haniel

Before we start the interview could you tell us how Maxima enjoys her music classes?

Maxi is loving every second of the class. She is a very active child, bubbling with energy and Micasso Baby Club music classes allow her to experience music and movement at the same time!
I also feel like that she has developed a real ear for music. She even helps me tidy up the playroom once I start singing the “tidy up” song!

Can you tell us a little about yourself, where you’re from and what led you to become and interior designer?

I am German, born and bred but I’ve been living abroad for many years right after graduating from my law degree in Hamburg. After finishing my MBA at IE in Madrid, I spent many years working in the fashion industry in Berlin. This city has inspired me into exploring my creative side and it has triggered me to live “outside the box”.

Coming from a very academic family, any creative profession was never really on my radar of options… However after several detours and lots of soul searching I’ve found my true passion in interior design and I changed my career plan! I worked for several years as an interior designer for Soho House in London and my heart finally led me to live in Spain where I have teamed up with my extremely talented partner Marie Caroline Willms.

Can you tell our amazing community of mothers and fathers what is the project you are the most proud of and tell us a little bit of history behind it?

Marie-Caroline and I transformed the marvellous Marbella Club Hotel into a lush, colourful Andalusian inspired sanctuary. We were extremely fortunate to be working for Jennica, the owner of the hotel. She has incredible taste and she trusted our vision for the space. She was daring enough to turn the whole thing into a completely new look & feel and the results have paid off!

The Marbella Club has been featured all over local and international magazines and it has been an incredible marketing for EMCI. The turn around of the Marbella Club has been one of the most satisfying and fun projects for both of us.

Could you share with us the challenging project you worked on?

Shortly after the Marbella Club Hotel we took on a project in Berlin for a private client. It started in the midst of Covid, while I was 8 months pregnant and Maxima was only 6 months old! It couldn’t have been worse timing! Moreover the distance, lock downs and delivery problems were immense issues. In hindsight I don’t even know how we managed to pull it off and I give great credit to our client. Thanks to her patience and trust we managed to create the perfect family hub, filled with heritage and stories.

This project has shown me once again how you can literally do anything if you put your heart and soul into it. I remember travelling with my baby to icy Berlin in January, breastfeeding her in some corner of the construction site, completely understaffed because of covid but determined to install the project – and so we did!

Could you share with us the challenging project you worked on?

When did you arrive in Madrid and what where the professional challenges you had to face coming here?

I arrived in April 2019. I came from London where everything is very fast paced and extremely efficient so it took me some time to get used to the Spanish way of (work) life.

Being German, it’s in my nature to be punctual and back home, when you set a date and time, you never bother the other person with reminders or check ups to know if they will be there or not… Coming to Spain, and especially the South of Spain, I found myself waiting endless hours and very often, the person I was excepting to meet didn’t show up at all! I quickly realised that there was a real cultural clash and that if I wanted something done, I had to hunt -literally!- people down for it.

What would be your best advice for any entrepreneurs who want to start a family, just the way you did?

It’s not easy having a flourishing business and being a mother at the same time. You will always feel like one or the other falls short and would need more attention.

I feel like my best advice would be to organise yourself well. Make sure you find hours of the day for both and make sure you dedicate your full attention to one and another. If it’s the time to be with your family, be there fully: Play, engage, laugh and enjoy it without checking your phone. When it’s your time to work, make sure your kids are taken care of and that you have space and time to dedicate it your full attention.

It’s easier said than done and sometimes you will find yourself in a work/family mush like I did, when bringing Maxima to work with me many times!

Talking of organisation, what are the difficulties you have encountered balancing your personal and professional life?

My biggest difficulty balancing my personal and my professional life was the distance between the majority of my projects. Most of them were in the South of Spain while my family is based in Madrid. I hate having to leave my kids, even for a few days. So, many times, I took them with me. It however ended up by taking too much time away from my working hours.

I am glad to have an incredible nanny whom I trust blindly but since my son was born, I just had to acknowledge that leaving for days to Marbella was not an option anymore. This is the reason why I am now focusing on local projects in and around Madrid.

What advice you’d like to give our community of Supermums today?

I feel very fortunate to have met many interesting and smart mothers at Micasso Baby Club, so giving any kind of advice to them seems out of place.

Generally speaking, I guess my only advice to any mother would be to make sure not to miss out on her kids. In Spain, many people enjoy the luxury of having help at home and I truly believe having someone at home can help you to be a more relaxed mum. However it can also end-up in delegating all motherly duties to a third person and as a result to miss out on a lot of quality time with them.

After all, it’s all the fantasy stories they share with us at bath time, the many sleepless nights we soothe them, the songs that we sing together and the games we play with them that make them feel wholeheartedly loved, grounded and protected by us.