Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / How I changed my life (My Story)

Transcript

How I changed my life (My Story) · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  Hey guys, a quick message before we jump into today's potty. Full disclaimer, this is something a bit different for me and it takes me a good 10 minutes to warm up to speaking solo, so please bear with me while I'm being a bit orcs in the beginning. I'm sharing a bit about who I am since you're tuning into me chatter a couple of times a week.
• 0:21
  what Female Startup Club is and why it started, and a little bit about what the future looks like for us. So I hope you love it more than I did recording it. This seriously put me out of my comfort zone, and thank you so much for listening. Last thing before we jump in, Hype Club launches on Monday, the 12th of July, which is next week.
• 0:42
  It is finally here. If you're building an e-commerce brand and you want to access the founding member rates, be sure to sign up to femalestartupclub.com forward slash waitlist so you're in the loop when we launch on Monday the 12th of July. It's $39 a month and that will remain the same forever even when we switch to our full members rate. Okay, let's get into this episode. This is Dune for Female Startup Club. Hey,
• 1:10
  It's Dune here, your host and hype girl. As you can probably already tell, this episode is going to be a little bit different today. It's my first solo episode of this show and one of many of solo episodes that are to come. So I really want to talk about...
• 1:32
  my background, where I come from, how I got to where I am today, a little bit about why Female Startup Club exists and, you know, who it exists for and why it's important, but also what the future looks like. And to talk about that kind of thing,
• 1:52
  makes me really nervous, if I'm honest. And you might have heard me say this before, but I'm actually someone that really struggles with public speaking. Like I get really nervous. And so this might be a bit awkward. I don't know how this is going to go. And you'll just have to bear with me. Obviously, practice makes perfect. And I'm all about the challenge. So stick with me.
• 2:24
  To get to where we are today, we need to go back. We need to go way back to my childhood. And I love talking about this kind of stuff, especially because I'm so proud of my childhood and the way that I was brought up, which I wasn't always. I definitely wasn't always able to share this kind of stuff, but now...
• 2:46
  I am. And I love it. So I grew up as, you know, a child being raised by a single mom. We lived in the bush. We didn't have any money. And to paint the picture, like to really paint the picture, which, you know, I love to do. We lived in a town that I think had 90 people, like
• 3:09
  dirt road. We lived in a shed thing on the side of a creek in a mountain. Like we had an outback toilet. We didn't have water from the town. We had rainwater. And I actually even don't even know if we had electricity when we first moved onto the property.
• 3:29
  But anyway, to paint the picture, we lived a very simple life. We lived off the land. We ate our own veggies. We had flower gardens. We killed our own chickens. All that kind of thing. All that vibe. And it was really beautiful. It was idyllic. It was unique. And it was really...
• 3:54
  I look back at that time and I just think it was so magical getting to have this weird upbringing and, you know, this different lifestyle. But...
• 4:05
  In the little area where I went to school, I think there was like 20 kids and I was the only person in my grade for one or two years. So, you know, not sustainable. We needed to move. We moved to a small town, which was, you know, a few hours outside of Brisbane. And I went to school there until I was in grade 10. And that's when my life really changed. So...
• 4:31
  I don't know what I was really like back then. I can't really remember. I don't remember what my ambitions were and what my, like, perception of the world was or what was possible. Yeah.
• 4:43
  But I was so lucky in that my dad's parents, so my paternal grandparents, they changed my life in a really, really big way. And I feel so grateful and so privileged that they were able to do this for me. But they basically sent me to a...
• 5:04
  all girls private boarding school. And it's during this time that really kind of changed my life and opened my eyes up to a totally different world. I met the most amazing girls. I have
• 5:21
  such great girlfriends from that time. You know, if you follow me on Instagram, you will often hear me talk about or see my best friend, Beck, my beautiful godson, Laith. I met them at Somerville, which is where I went to school in Brisbane. And that really changed the course of my life. And that's something that
• 5:42
  you know, is really important for me to acknowledge. And I know that's really privileged that I got this chance, but I lived a very different life before that time. So school finishes, I forget what year this is, but, you know, let's say I think it was 2006. It was either 2004 or 2006, but this is where I started to get like some hustle, right?
• 6:10
  Like, I feel like it's always been in my blood because my mom really hustled to raise me and to support the two of us on not a lot of money. And then my grandparents, who I just mentioned, they also were entrepreneurs. They were.
• 6:30
  I don't know the exact story, but I think they bought their business through an ad in the paper, like someone selling their business. And they did, they bought this business that was like commercial cleaning products or something like that. So they were hustlers and they're incredible, just so amazing. But that's where I guess I get my hustle from. And this is when I started realizing that like,
• 6:54
  I wanted to do stuff. I really wanted to get as much experience as I could so that I could get like a dream job or what I thought was my dream job at the time. And at that time, so I'm living in Brisbane. At that time, my dream job was to work for a magazine. I wanted to work. I remember I had a, it's so funny that now that I actually talk about this, I realized that I was actually, you know, visualizing and like manifesting things.
• 7:23
  at that time that I was in school because this is so funny. Anyway, I wanted to work in a magazine. On my wall, I had these pictures cut out from Harper's Bazaar and I was like, that's where I want to work. That's my dream job.
• 7:35
  So how do I get there? Let's reverse engineer that. I need some experience and I need some experience in a magazine. At that time in Brisbane, there, I don't know if there was too much going on in that, in that scene, but there was a free magazine that went out with the Courier Mail, which was the, like the newspaper in Brisbane at the time or in Queensland, maybe. And I
• 8:00
  They didn't have a job opportunity. They didn't have any internship. But I was like, OK, well, if I'm going to get experience, it needs to be from this place. So what am I going to do about it? So at this point, I'd like finished university. Well, I dropped out of university, but I'd finished like my secondary studies. I did like an advanced diploma over a couple of years, whatever. Not relevant. And...
• 8:22
  I'm like, how am I going to get the attention of this person? How am I going to get this internship? So what I did was I went to the nursery, like the local nursery, and I bought a thyme herb, like a thyme plant. And I potted it up in this pretty little pot, and I put a little business card in there that said, could I have a moment of your time? And I put my URL, which was like my portfolio at the time, I guess.
• 8:53
  And then I was like, I actually want to see what it looks like in this place. And I don't recommend doing this. I don't know if this is allowed or not, but I dressed up as a delivery driver and I bought one of those high-vis oversized shirts, which is kind of what I thought a delivery driver would wear, put on my little Nikes, rocked up at their office and was like, you know, I have this delivery for such and such editorial director. So I go around, I snoop out the place, I deliver the plant.
• 9:22
  And she calls me back. I think I was even just the next day, really quick turnaround. And she's like, we don't have an internship available for you, but long story short, let's make one. So I scored this 12 week internship. And again, it was one of those things where, and I've done this so much in my life and you're definitely going to see this pattern come through in my story, but
• 9:44
  you have to do things to figure out you don't want to do them to figure out what you do want to do. And that's like the case with so much of, of my story, as I said. So I get this internship. I don't love it, but you know, I get some experience. Then I went and I used that to get some other experience with another kind of indie magazine that was in Queensland at the time and
• 10:13
  I just did like lots of internships. I did lots of things like that. Another example of something funny that I did to get a job opportunity was there was this company called Laundry Creative and they were like a design studio and they were in this place in Brisbane.
• 10:32
  where they had this big fancy glass office and it looked out over like a boardwalk and then the river. So I would run past there in the mornings and I would see their big, you know, glass open plan office. So they basically have this application process online for this job. And it was something like, yo, check this shit out at laundrycreative.com, like send your application there.
• 10:55
  And in my head, I was like, well, everyone's going to send their application there. That's what everyone's going to do. So what am I going to do to stand out? How am I actually going to get this opportunity? Like, how am I going to get the interview? So like I said, I'd worked at this other little indie magazine thing and I'd done all the layout. I'd done copy. I'd done some design. Yeah.
• 11:17
  And it was really cool, actually, looking back. So what I did was I pulled it apart. I stuck it up on my wall, kind of like, if you can imagine, I pulled it apart and it essentially looked like a sign on my wall, but in like these long strips, like page by page. And one night I painted on it and I wrote, yo, check this shit out at www.duneroshin.com.
• 11:42
  And I put all these sequins on it. I had a lot of fun with it. And I text my friend. And again, I don't recommend doing this because maybe this could get you in trouble. I don't know if this was legal or not. And I text my friend and I was like, hey, do you want to come with me at 3 a.m. and deface a building?
• 12:00
  And he was like, yes, let's deface the building. So we go at 3 a.m. down to this office that I obviously knew was all glass. And I thought, I'm just going to stick it up, you know, with blue tack on the outside of the window. So when they come in in the morning, everyone is going to see, yo, check this shit out at www.doonarachine.com. And that's going to be my application. I'm not going to send anything to that email account that they, you know, had the application details of online.
• 12:30
  So I do that. I leave a little note for security saying, hey, this is a job application. Please don't pull it down. Please don't get me into any trouble. And walk away. 9am. I get a phone call from the founder. I think his name was Nick. And he was like, this is brilliant. When can we meet? Loved it, basically. Long story short, didn't get the job. But I'm
• 12:57
  You know, I think he posted about it on Facebook and, you know, said all these things that were really, really kind at the time about like, this is how people should apply for creative jobs. This is really cool. And I guess this is all to say, like, this is kind of how I got started in approaching, you know, things I wanted to do and things I wanted to achieve and how to get my goals to actually become the reality. Yeah.
• 13:22
  So I intern a little bit more. I'm at this point, I think I'm interning at a fashion label and the guy, the owner tells me that this company is starting. It's opening in Sydney. It's called The Iconic and it's kind of not really known at that time. E-commerce was not really a thing in Australia at this time. It was like 2012. Yes, we knew of ASOS, but like not really. Yeah.
• 13:48
  And so no one was really shopping online in a big way back then. So I'm like, great, that's cool. They are, for anyone who doesn't know, the Iconic is now the largest and I would say surely is the most successful online retailer in Australia. And they're kind of a mix between like ASOS and Netaporter in which they have so many brands, like hundreds of brands that are premium or fast fashion or whatever.
• 14:16
  So anyway, I'm like, wow, that's amazing. And somewhere along that journey, I'd like had the insight that I wanted to work in fashion. Like that was my new goal. I wanted to work in fashion and that was my dream job. So anyway, I pack up my bags. I move my shit to Sydney in three weeks and I get an intro to the buyer there. And yeah, basically I'm,
• 14:40
  rock up and get an internship. And during this time, I thought to myself, I need to do absolutely everything that I can to get a full-time job here. This is what I want to do. And at that time, I didn't really know things like what a startup was or like what that meant, but it all seemed pretty cool. They were funded, they were backed by like a German company and they were, you know,
• 15:08
  There was lots of really smart people there. And it seemed really fun. So I had like a casual admin job that was kind of like everyday, you know, a computer job. And before work on my lunch break and after work in the evenings, I was doing absolutely everything I could to show how valuable I was.
• 15:31
  be online, action anything, put my hand up for anything. And I think it was like only a few weeks after that, that the managing director of the company at the time came up to me and he said, can you be our social media person? Can you create our social media community? I need you to read everything there is to read on the internet. I need you to just be this person.
• 15:54
  and I'll give you a job. And I was like, that's me. That's a hundred percent me. I'm in. And I took that and I really did everything I could to make the most of that opportunity. And I'm telling you, this was like the best experience in my career in terms of shaping, like what I wanted to do in my life, in terms of meeting the most, um,
• 16:18
  crazy, smart, cool people who I have so many friends from that time still to this day. And I highly recommend anyone who even wants to start their own business to just get experience in a startup to really see what the scrappiness is. It's so different to working in a corporate company.
• 16:37
  Like, for example, the Iconic Now, for anyone who knows what this business is, it's huge. I think I read in 2018 they did like $370 million. They're like in this, you know, huge fancy high rise. They have multiple levels. They have, you know, probably thousands of staff by now, to be honest, inclusive of their warehouse and all that kind of thing. But at that time, when I started working with them,
• 17:01
  I think we were less than 100 people and we were working on picnic tables. And as an Internet business, we didn't have the Internet in the building. We were all using these prepaid dongles. And it was just such a funny contradiction. And it was it was just so great, honestly, so great. And I look back with such fond memories of that time because we had so much fun.
• 17:25
  In Australia, as I said, you know, the market needed educating on e-commerce. So we got to do a lot of really cool campaigns. We got to innovate on these really cool projects like...
• 17:37
  We were the first to introduce three-hour delivery in Metro Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne and all these cool things, initiatives, which seem really normal now and seem like, well, duh, of course that exists. But back then it really didn't. So we got to, like, shape the landscape of e-commerce in Australia and it was awesome. So...
• 17:59
  I'm working at the Iconic. It's a dream job. I highly recommend working in a startup to get the feel of what it's like. But it really gave me that desire of, I want to actually do something for myself now. I want to one day be someone who has my own business. I did not know what that looked like. I didn't know how to get started. I don't even know if I really knew about entrepreneurship. I just knew this is so cool. And we get to do cool things.
• 18:28
  And at some point I was like, cool, so what's next? And the next thing was basically moving to London. And I did a few things, you know, in between that. I worked for companies like IMG and I did some stuff with Snapchat. I had an amazing remote role with Finder, who is another Australian company that is, you know, they're a startup, they're cool, they're doing innovative things. And I had the best experience.
• 18:54
  boss and leadership from this guy named Jeremy. Shout out to Jay. If you ever hear this, you're the best. I always say that when I can. And yeah, I did a lot of things, but then I
• 19:07
  got into this job working for Contiki. Again, if you know any Australian companies or you're from Australia, you probably know what Contiki is. And it was so not my vibe. It was like one of those really old school companies that is just stuck in their old school ways and a really big contradiction to like startup world. And I was not a fan. And I met this guy.
• 19:36
  I met this guy through a mutual friend and this is when everything sort of started to change again. So I feel like I have a few like pivot moments in my life, the first of which being going to boarding school. That changed my life. The second of which getting the internship at the Iconic. That changed my life again. And then the third of which is meeting this guy. So I meet this guy
• 20:02
  I tell him, I don't like working at Contiki. I want to do my own thing, but like, I'm also not ready to do my own thing because I don't know what that looks like. I don't know how much that costs. I have a visa to think about. And he says to me, hey, why don't you come and join what I'm doing? He was basically building a SaaS platform at the time, a marketplace. And he's like, we need to build a creative content agency that will fund the build of the software.
• 20:31
  And I was like, great, sign me up. I will do that. We became business partners. And that guy is now my husband, Pierre Antoine, love of my life, absolute number one cheerleader for everything that I do. And, you know, this was really a key turning point in starting to build things for myself and build things that, you know, were our own businesses. And so,
• 21:01
  Like I said in the beginning, there are things that happen to you where you do something because you think you're going to enjoy it, but then you realize that you don't. And you have to do the things that you don't enjoy to figure out what you do enjoy. And this is, again, one of those moments where I...
• 21:20
  I just have this vivid memory sitting on a panel at Tech Week alongside people like Airtasker and I don't know, some other cool companies. And we're talking about the benefits of moving a HQ from Australia to the UK and what that means for tax and all this kind of stuff. And I remember thinking, this is not playing to my strong suit. This is not my strength.
• 21:47
  And I don't know if I want to build a marketplace. Like, this isn't really my vibe. And I certainly am not into client services and, like, building an agency model. So I was like, what am I good at? And, like, what do I actually want to do knowing all this stuff? Like, when I put the pieces together. Yeah.
• 22:06
  And I was like, well, obviously it needs to be in e-commerce. That's my background. I worked at this online retailer. I've had experience. You know, I love products. I love stuff. I'm like a marketer's dream. I love packaging. I love good design. I love stuff that's tangible. Yeah.
• 22:28
  And so this is really where I started building my first solo venture. I started a small, sparkly jewelry brand called Kinks. And, you know, you can probably still go to the Instagram, I think the website's still up as well. It was this really fun, small brand that
• 22:50
  was just a lot of fun, a lot of joy. It took us all around the world. We went to China, we went to Indonesia, we moved to Bali for six months. We went to Thailand. It took me to Paris Fashion Week. It was worn by influencers all over the world. It was featured in publications like Vogue and Who What Where. It was really, really fun and it was cool. But again, I was like,
• 23:21
  spending a lot of time creating the products, creating newness. I had a manufacturer, but I was also doing my own stuff. And that meant that I was spending a lot of time doing that and not a lot of time building the business side of things. And I quickly realized, well, actually probably not so quickly, but at some point I realized like, I really love e-commerce and I really love
• 23:47
  building this brand that's physical, but I've chosen the wrong product. The product for me isn't jewelry. I'm someone who wants to solve problems. I'm someone who wants to build the business side. And this is very much, it was basically, it was just the wrong product for me. And so this is where female startup club kind of comes into the picture.
• 24:12
  Basically, what happened was I'm starting to get these feelings of like, maybe I've gone on the wrong product. And I was talking to my girlfriends a lot of the time about like what they were doing, how they were building their business, you know, whether they were in e-commerce or whether they were in marketing.
• 24:30
  tech or whatever it was, but I was privy to these conversations that were really cool and like eye opening to me. And there was just so much value being shared. I was like, other people needs to hear these conversations. Other people need to know about this.
• 24:45
  And so at that same time, another moment that was happening for me was I was reading this book called Tools of Titans from Tim Ferriss or by Tim Ferriss rather. And it's amazing. Tim's amazing. If you've heard of it or if you've seen it, you'll know that it's a really big book and it features high performers like athletes and billionaires. And it tells you in a really direct kind of
• 25:15
  like how they operate, tactical strategies, like all this kind of stuff. And it's a really cool book, but reading it, I was like, where are the women in this book? I want to hear from the women in this same way, like this no fluff kind of direct manner. And I'm,
• 25:36
  I actually Googled it recently. I think there's either 10% or 10% of the book is dedicated to women, which, you know, there's more guy billionaires than there is women billionaires. So I guess that makes sense. I'm sure his network is more male-dominated. But it really got me thinking, like, I want to hear from women who are in this, like,
• 26:00
  who are able to share in this way. Because I love this kind of stuff. I love the transparency. I don't want the fluff. I don't want the believe in yourself. I want the like, here's how you actually do something. Like here it is, step by step. This is what you need to do to get to X.
• 26:17
  So I start asking my girlfriends if I can publish these conversations. We start posting them on Instagram. No one wants to watch a 20-minute thing on Instagram. That's a whole nightmare. So someone suggests I start a podcast, which, I don't know, was terrifying because, as I said, I'm not a big fan of public speaking. So it's a bit lulled that I started the podcast. But anyway.
• 26:40
  A few years before that, I had actually bought a bunch of domains, kind of like Brisbane Startup Club, LA Startup Club, Paris Startup Club, San Fran Startup Club, Female Startup Club. And I thought, well, I already own this domain, Female Startup Club. That name sounds kind of cool. That kind of makes sense. It sums up exactly what it is. So I'm just going to start publishing this podcast under that name and under that URL.
• 27:07
  And that brings us up to the beginning of Female Startup Club's, you know, early days, which was the end of 2019. And I was taking it pretty casually. I was kind of still doing kinks, but, you know, looking for what else I was going to do, looking for like what the next thing was. And then 2020 rolls around.
• 27:33
  I think maybe we'd done like, I'm going to say four episodes or six episodes. And my strategy was like, oh, well, I was in Australia at the time. I was coming to the UK. I was going to the US. I was like, I'm just going to do them in person. But like as I'm traveling around the world, like that's what I'll do.
• 27:49
  which is really not like efficient and not possible to do how much content we put out now. But I didn't know that at the time. And I set this silly goal of like, I'm going to get to 100 episodes this year, 2020. And obviously, like, I think it was about April. And I think I had six episodes. And I was like, well, I'm never going to get to 100. Holy heck, that's a lot. Yeah.
• 28:19
  And then the pandemic hits. Oh, I guess the pandemic hit in March. And then this is what made me think, I'm going to have to change and pivot my approach here. And I think before I go on, I think something that's really important is to set goals and to set like one major goal that you want to accomplish in the year based on, you know, the pillars that are important to you. So whether that's like business or relationship or life or like whatever. So when it came to business, I was like,
• 28:45
  I want to do 100 episodes. But like to get to 100 episodes and this is like April, I'm going to have to publish a lot of content to get there because I'm already a few months behind. And so goal setting is really important. But I basically like dove in and was just like, all right.
• 29:04
  How do I get to 100? How many emails do I need to send to get there? And how many do I need to publish per week? So we start publishing 100 per week. And I didn't really have any big grand plans with Female Startup Club, to be honest. To me, it was just like, you know, this podcast, I didn't have the clear vision of what it could become or what it would become. I just committed to
• 29:28
  doing 100 episodes in 2020 to see what could happen. And I didn't worry too much about anything else. And so in that year, we published 100 episodes. I think it was December 29 when I published the 100th episode. And I was like, woohoo, pat on the back, did it. And I think I'd recorded like 110 in total. So I was really proud that I'd achieved my goal for 2020.
• 29:54
  We got our amazing hero sponsor, Klaviyo, on board, who you all must know the name of by now. But I really want to say a special thanks to Klaviyo because they seriously are a dream partner. They care about supporting women and minority-owned businesses of all sizes. And they have just been...
• 30:18
  such superstars. That's all I really need to say because I'm sure you've heard me say good things about them in the past, but I really have loved working with them. And then there's also the community that came out of it. I mean, you guys, the people that I meet on Instagram, DMs every day, just...
• 30:38
  blows my mind. The people who are building these cool businesses who are listening to the show, this just blows my mind. And then there's the women who are actually on the show, this network of people that I've been able to learn directly from. It's just so incredible. And it's been such a wild ride. And I really didn't think that Female Startup Club was going to become what it has become. We're a team now. We have
• 31:09
  you know, Josephine, my wing woman who is just such a superstar. We have Pauline, my personal assistant who just joined us a few weeks ago. We have my VA, Jane. She's the best. We have my podcast editor and his team, Brian, who are, you know, doing all the things in the background. It's just so cool. And yeah, I can't believe that
• 31:34
  believe that we're here. But that brings us up to today. That tells you a little bit about who I am and like where I come from and why Female Startup Club exists and why it needs to exist. But now I want to talk a little bit about the future and what's next for Female Startup Club, because now that things have started to change and now that we're in 2021, there's a lot going on and
• 32:05
  So there's a few things that are coming up for Female Startup Club. I told you about my goal that I set for last year, 100 episodes. My goal for this year was to publish my first book. So I think it's due to come out around October, and I haven't really talked about this publicly, but now's as good a time as ever. Female Startup Club's first book is coming out. I'm very excited. I never thought that this would be possible. I never thought that
• 32:34
  you know, I'd have a book, but that was the goal. And that goal is going to be achieved, which is really cool.
• 32:41
  So, you know, we didn't really know what Female Setup Club was going to become or what it would evolve into. But I started hosting these interviews with a lot of listeners like you. I may have even spoken to you on the phone or on Zoom about what you were missing in your entrepreneurial journey and what you think about Female Setup Club and where you think we could go. And what kept coming up time and time again was this idea of,
• 33:10
  you know, community and connecting with other women who were going through the same journey on this entrepreneurial path and mentorship. And so if we think about also what a lot of the women say on the show, a lot of our brilliant guests, when they talk about where they hang out to get smarter, um,
• 33:34
  They often attribute that to, you know, I'm always asking, looking for like books and what newsletter do you subscribe to? And like, what are you listening to at the moment? But actually what comes back more often than not, nine times out of 10, I would say, is where they hang out to get smarter is around other female founders who are on the same journey and...
• 33:57
  they're learning from them. They're learning from the people in their lives, whether it be other female founders or whether it be their mentors, that's who they're learning from. And so
• 34:10
  Once I started conducting these listener research interviews with you guys and hearing your perspective along with what the women on the show were saying, everything kind of clicked. And I was like, aha, I know what Female Startup Club needs to evolve into. We need to have a place on the internet that is for women who are building e-commerce and CPG brands
• 34:38
  And I love all of the women who are listening to the show who aren't necessarily building those brands who are maybe service providers or whatever. But, you know, our niche is e-commerce and CPG and that's who this community is for. Yeah.
• 34:54
  We need to launch a private network. We need to launch something that we can really grow and evolve together. So probably when this episode comes to your ears or when you're listening to this, it's going to be close to the 12th of July. And the 12th of July is an important date for us because it's when we launch the Hype Club. And it's what Female Startup Club is evolving into. So.
• 35:22
  The Hype Club is this place on the internet that is going to be strictly for e-commerce and CPG entrepreneurs and brand builders. And there's a few different things we're going to be kind of starting with. And I want to talk a little bit about that. So...
• 35:41
  The first thing is what we're, you know, calling our modern mentorship. And if you think about mentorship at the moment, there's two ways that I see mentorship happening. One, which happened to me, and I know other people who have had this happen to them, you, over a long period of time, build a relationship with someone where you're able to ask them if they could be a mentor to you, and if you could have that kind of mentor relationship. And
• 36:11
  I think that's kind of like, I don't know, it's hard to kind of plan for that because it really is just a bit of luck. It's over a long time, you know, whatever.
• 36:24
  Then there's the mentor that's like, actually, that's their job. You know, they are a mentor slash coach and you pay them a lot of money every month or every week or whatever the agreement is and you learn from them. But it's not necessarily who you want to be mentored by. It's not the person that you're looking up to as a role model. It's not the person who's 10 steps ahead of you that knows exactly what you need to do to get to where they are. So,
• 36:53
  We wanted to basically create our take on modern mentorship. And what that means is the women who are guests on our show, these brilliant, smart women who are years into their journey, who have been through the mistakes, who have been through, you know, what to do and what not to do, they're going to be coming into the hype club, our private network, and they're going to be just giving their two cents. And what I mean by that is...
• 37:22
  there's going to be a chance for you to submit your questions. There's going to be a chance for you to hop on live calls and ask your specific questions around challenges that you're having at the moment. And an example of that might be, you know, at the moment during COVID and what's happening in the world, there are a lot of supply chain issues. There are a lot of people who they can't get their raw ingredients. They can't get their packaging. This is like delaying their business. It's a problem.
• 37:50
  And so if we have women on the show who are going through these same things and have been, you know, solving these problems, coming in and just telling you, hey, this is how I did it. And here's a nifty bit of information that...
• 38:03
  you might be able to use in your own business. That's awesome. That's just their two cents. And sometimes that's all you need. So we're doing that modern mentorship with guests from the show coming in where you can have direct, you know, live contact with them. It's not a one-on-one relationship. We won't be offering that.
• 38:26
  But I don't know if you need that. And Female Startup Club is more about like the collective, getting the two cents and just being able to get your immediate questions answered.
• 38:37
  The second thing we'll be offering is experts in the group. So we're going to have a few resident experts who are going to help with things like reviewing your ad account or helping you with the content you need for your Facebook and Instagram ads or someone from Facebook or someone from TikTok telling you specifically how to do X, whatever it might be.
• 39:00
  We're also going to have people in the industry who are useful for CPG brand builders. And what I mean by that is people who are, for example, buyers from Whole Foods or Target or Sephora coming in and actually telling you, hey, this is what we look for in a brand. This is how it actually works. This is what you need to have to be even...
• 39:24
  you know, capable of being stocked in our store. This is the investment that it takes. This is how much we usually order. This is, you know, what we're looking for, what we're not looking for, all that kind of stuff. And then there'll be typically like the business resources, you know, how to build your profit and loss table, how to do X, how to whatever it might be. And it's all kind of going to be based on what the group is asking for, because it's,
• 39:53
  you know, there's something to be said about me thinking, oh, you might need this, but actually I'm going to be really listening to the people in the group who are like, this is actually what I need. And then I'm going to go out and I'm going to find the right expert, the right person, the right guide, and I'm going to put it back into the group. So
• 40:10
  And then, of course, last thing is the community. You're going to be surrounded with like-minded women who are also building e-commerce slash CPG brands that you can surround yourself with. And I think something that I've heard a few times now is you might be building a brand and you might not have a network yet. You might be
• 40:35
  Someone who doesn't have any friends or family who are entrepreneurs and who understand what it's like. And entrepreneurship can be lonely, but it doesn't have to be because this group is very much going to be everyone coming together to support each other, to share and to learn and to get to that next level. Yeah.
• 40:57
  So July 12, that's when we're launching. I am sure you know the date by now. I'm sure you've saved it in your diary if you want to be part of it. We are opening the doors to 50 founding members at a...
• 41:13
  Super discounted rate. I think we've set the price at $39 a month for founding members. It will stay that way forever. Obviously, if you quit and come back, it won't be the same. You'll pay the new rate.
• 41:28
  We're doing it at a heavily discounted rate because you are going to be part of essentially, you know, the beta group. It's going to be very much based on your feedback of what you actually need, what you actually want in the group so that I can shape the group, iron out the kinks and then basically...
• 41:49
  the rate will go up significantly so that we can bring in the right experts and the right mentors and give you the resources you need to build your business to, you know, north of six figures, seven figures, that kind of thing. So that's a little bit about the hype club. That's a little bit about when it launches and kind of like,
• 42:11
  the basic overview of what it will look like. And I am just so excited for this. You know, we've been working on it for a few months now. I don't want to say a long time, but maybe it has been a long time in the making. But anyway.
• 42:28
  The date is set. We're counting down. I'm so excited. But there's one last thing that I want to talk about, and I'm not going to talk too much about it. I've kind of mentioned it briefly in a few of the episodes. So if you've been listening to all the apps, you've probably got a basic idea of what I'm doing, but...
• 42:51
  To be clear, all this time building Female Startup Club, I've been pondering in the back of my head and with my husband, what's going to be the product-based business that I build going forward? What's that going to be? What does it look like? And for me, the way that I view Female Startup Club is like, Female Startup Club is my daily source of joy. I truly think that I could do this forever.
• 43:21
  It would be really cool if I'm still doing this in 10 years. And I actually think that I might be still doing this in 10 years because this is just, I think I have the best job in the world, truly. But I also want to build an e-commerce business. And I want to build a business with the goal to sell that business. Why I say this is that I think that it's something that women aren't told to be so forward about. Right.
• 43:47
  We're told that we should build businesses we're passionate about and we're told to build businesses that essentially become part of our identity. And it's like. Very different when I hear men talking about the way that they're building businesses and why they're building that business, for example, so.
• 44:06
  Why I'm telling you this is I just want to be really transparent and really bold and upfront about wanting to build a business to sell it for life-changing money. And like, I want to like celebrate that. That's really fucking cool. And so I'm telling you this because I'm going to start building that brand in public and
• 44:31
  I'm going to start sharing with you specifically how I'm building that brand. Everything from business partner, equity, money, anything that you actually want to know. I'm going to share it because I don't have a board. I'm not funded at this time. So I can be really open and...
• 44:50
  And you're going to hear a lot more episodes from me on the show talking about that. But in the group, in the hype club, I'm going to be giving all of the resources that I use to build my business and all of the things that I'm doing, like all of the steps really broken down step by step. So
• 45:13
  That's kind of something that I just wanted to end on. This episode's been really long. I'm kind of parched. So I'm not going to talk too much more about what it is until the next episode. And I really hope that you tune in to learn more and to hear more.
• 45:33
  And yeah, I hope you liked this show. This is really hard for me. As I said, it's difficult. I get really nervous talking in public. So to recap, I think, gosh, do things differently. Hustle. Be bold. Entrepreneurship doesn't need to be lonely. Let's do it together. Let's, yeah, let's do really wild stuff.
• 46:01
  As always, I really love it when you shout about the show on social media. I love it when you tell your friends. I love reviews and subscribing to the show because that obviously helps the algorithm and the podcast people, gods to put my show in other places online. So I love it when you do all of that. And I also love when you...
• 46:27
  hop into my DMs. I love when you're sliding in, saying, hey, letting me know who you are and what you're up to. And that brings me so much joy. So please continue to do that. I would love to meet you. I would love to chat. If you hate this episode, let me know. If you love this episode, let me know. You can find me on Instagram at DoonRosheen, which is D-O-O-N-E-R-O-I-S-I-N, or on Twitter. I'm going to try and start being a little bit more active on Twitter. I'm not at
• 46:57
  And I'm also doing some more long form posts on LinkedIn. And obviously in the hype club, I'm going to be in there too.
• 47:06
  If you haven't already, you can join our newsletter that we send out once a week with our key insights from that week's episode on the website, femalestartupclub.com. And if you want to be kind of in the loop for our founding member 50 spots, go to femalestartupclub.com forward slash waitlist and pop your details down. You'll be notified when the doors open. Yeah.
• 47:32
  And yeah, thanks for listening. This was cool.
• 47:55
  Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 48:19
  And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
• 48:42
  As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the show and post your favorite episodes to Instagram stories. I am beyond grateful when you do that.