Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / Doone & Jane Lu in Conversation: Getting the Money to Start Your Small Business on The Lazy CEO podcast

Transcript

Doone & Jane Lu in Conversation: Getting the Money to Start Your Small Business on The Lazy CEO podcast · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:09
  Okay, welcome, Dune. Hiya. I'm so excited to get you on the podcast, How the Tables Have Turned, because I was on Dune. You guys can go check it out. Love that for us. And I've known you for a long time and been seeing you through, you know, your journey, which is really exciting. When did we meet?
• 0:28
  When I was at the Iconic, surely. Yeah, 8-12. 2012. Yeah. More than a decade. Wow. Whoa. That's weird. Yeah. I still feel like a decade is like when I finish school. And then I'm like, nope, that's 20 years ago. Oh, my God, no. Caitlin realized we should realize we're both like, because it's just been Chinese New Year. And then she's like, oh, I'm the Year of the Tiger. I'm like, so am I. Oh, my God, we're 12 years apart. Sorry, this is my assistant is 12 years younger than me. And she's like, yeah, you were like...
• 0:57
  Going to high school when I was born. Like, thanks for that. I feel like when people say like, oh, how long ago was 2004? You're like, oh, yeah, like not that long ago, whatever. And then you're like, no, it's 20 years ago. Yeah. Well, let's go back to like memory laying down your journey. Like, when did you get the entrepreneurial bug?
• 1:16
  When did I get the entrepreneurial bug? I mean, when I was growing up, I'd never even heard that word. I didn't know what a startup was or entrepreneurship or anything like that. But when I started working at The Iconic in 2011 or 2012, that was, I guess, my first experience in a full-on early stage funded startup that was like scrappy, but...
• 1:40
  doing crazy stuff. And so I think for me, that's when I started being like, oh, this is really cool. Like maybe, maybe I could do something for myself. You know, I wasn't looking at the people around me thinking like I wanted that job. I was looking at the guys at the top being like, that's pretty cool. So I think that's kind of when I started or the seed, I guess, was planted to be like, what could I do? But I had no idea what I wanted to do or like what that even looked like. It wasn't a fully formed thought at that point. It was kind of a seed that I think was planted when I look back.
• 2:09
  And then so how did that evolve into the jewellery brand? I guess it's like a long kind of journey, but the short version is I worked at the Iconic for a few years, moved to London, moved to the UK, and then I was working in a corporate job. That's right. I was working in a corporate job and it wasn't for me. I really was just like, I hate this. Nine to five. It sucks. Like very. What was your role again? Yeah.
• 2:34
  stuffy. I don't want to say the company. Yeah, but what was the position? The position there was a global head of social. Right. Oh, that sounds fun. Yeah, it sounds fun. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, so I was there. I didn't, it wasn't for me. I realized really quickly I was much more kind of used to the fast pace of a startup and having like much more freedom to do whatever you wanted and just, well, not whatever you wanted, but to make the
• 3:03
  At that time, I met who is now my husband and he was like, cool, come and work for me. I'm building a tech startup and we will get you to build the content arm of the business as an agency and that's going to fund the development of the tech. So I was doing that with him for a couple of years and loved it. But I was still like, I want to do something for myself. And I was really inspired by what he was doing. You know, he was really building this business that he was, you know, so passionate about and he's still got it today. And what's the business? Yeah.
• 3:32
  Well, it was a different iteration back then, but now it's flozy.com. It's a software for digital agency owners and coaches and basically people who work online and have clients. Like a sales CRM kind of thing for... Yeah, it's like a tool that does everything from invoicing to kind of landing pages and websites to managing your client experience when you kind of like onboard your clients to a portal, things like that. Like...
• 3:58
  Everything, basically, is what it does for agency owners and digital coaches and things like that. And then this whole like him hiring, like, how did you wait? I'm just going to like, I love this. I'm just going to go on a tangent. He was like, how did you meet?
• 4:14
  So we met because I met this guy. Like, was he afraid to ask you out on the date? And he's like, oh, why don't you come and do this, like, social brand for us? How did it happen? So I met this guy on Bumble. We hooked up and we were basically like, yeah, this isn't a vibe. We're friends. And over the course of, like, the next maybe six months to a year, we stayed friends. And I was just helping him with, like...
• 4:40
  Social stuff, website stuff, copy related things. And I didn't know that he was basically passing this back being like to someone else. Oh, Dune's helping with this. Dune's helping with this. But PA, Pierre Antoine, my husband, he was being like, Dune, like, is that a guy? Is that a girl? Like, who is that? I don't know who that is. And then one day we were at the pub catching up and...
• 5:01
  He texts PA being like, oh, you should come and meet Dune. Like we're just around the corner. And that's how we met. And then we kind of got to chatting about business like really straight away. But I just felt like we had a vibe from day one. And then I think...
• 5:16
  It all happened really quickly, actually, before I even started working with him because I had a three-month notice period. Before I started working with him, we were already living together. And like, it was like zero to 100 from the very beginning. We're already there, yeah. So spent some time working with him and helping him kind of on the agency side build relationships.
• 5:36
  you know, the content side of it for the development of the tech. But it was really just like, okay, but what do I want to do? Like, what do I want my life to look like? And I would say tech probably wasn't my strong point. I had this moment where I was sitting on a panel at Tech Week and I was talking about like the tax benefits of moving a business from Australia to the UK. And I was like, oh, I don't know if this is like my vibe around like the tech scene for that specific kind of industry. And
• 6:04
  Yeah, the jewelry brand kind of happened like most things that happened for me. It happened by accident on the bedroom floor. I just kind of like started building a store, decided on jewelry, started sourcing products from like a...
• 6:17
  I guess, a middleman that was buying from China. And yeah, just started really organically, took some photos on the bedroom floor. There's photos of me and PA like setting it all up, you know, just so scrappy. And that was the beginning of Kinks. Yeah. And at the time I was thinking, you know, I'd had like a decade at that point of experience in e-commerce and organic social media. And that was kind of like me thinking, yeah,
• 6:41
  What are the things that I enjoy? How can I build something that's fun? I want to have fun every day. And like, I want this, like, I'm a very sparkly person. Not right now, but I'm a very sparkly person. No, I was like looking at like your necklace. Oh, thanks. Very sparkly person. And I was like, I want to have like a business that is like sparkly and fun and brings me joy every day. And that's how I landed on jewelry.
• 7:03
  And so, and you built quite a bit of momentum before deciding to pivot, exit out of it. Like how was that decision? Yeah. So we built a business for a couple of years, built it to six figures, nothing crazy. But I was kind of thinking to myself, I love building the business. I love the marketing side, but I felt like I'd chosen the wrong product for me. So it was a great kind of learning testing ground for being...
• 7:31
  in the space online and being in e-commerce, but I felt like it wasn't what I wanted to do long term or I wasn't sure at that point if I wanted to do it long term. So I was kind of going through this phase of asking other people like, you know, what did you do at this point in your business? So like, what are the advice kind of pointers that you have for me? What are the learnings that you have for me? Because I'm a bit lost and I don't know which way to turn. And especially when you're at that stage of being a solo entrepreneur. And so you can get into that
• 7:58
  spiral looping in your head. And you just need to get out there and ask people for feedback and see what other people think kind of thing. So I was kind of asking around my network, asking...
• 8:09
  Different women in different industries, so whether it was in tech or coaching or e-commerce or whatever, what their opinion was around the business and, you know, who were they hiring? How were they getting to the next level? How did they know if they wanted to keep doing it? And at the same time, and this kind of blends into the beginning of where the pivot comes into it, but at the same time, I was reading this book called Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss.
• 8:30
  And if you haven't read it, it's like this huge book. And it's amazing. It profiles high performers and billionaires and athletes and all this kind of thing. And it's a very kind of direct, no bullshit approach to business and insights and learnings. And I loved it. But I was also like, I can't see myself in this guy that's a billionaire. Like, not once has that entered my psyche that I could be a billionaire. I can't relate to him.
• 8:54
  where are the women in this book? Like, I don't understand. And I think in the book, there's like 10 women that are featured and it's huge or 10% or something like that. And I was like, damn, I really want to hear the same kind of in-depth stories
• 9:09
  no bullshit approach to business. And kind of that moment is sort of happening at the same time as I'm having these conversations and thinking to myself, I don't know if this is what I want to do. And, you know, the jewelry brand at that point was doing six figures. It was so much fun. Like we had been in all the press. Six figures are seriously like, that's huge. Yeah, it was good. It was good. And I was really hustling for that, for those sales. I was really going hard on, you know, sales and marketing every day. But...
• 9:39
  I don't know, like it was, it was doing really well. If you were looking from the outside in, when you think about like influencers wearing it and kind of the momentum it was having, but I was just thinking to myself, like, I'm not sure if this is for me. And I'm not really tied to something in that way that it's like, oh, this is my baby. I'm connected to it long term. I'm still pretty practical that I can like, like, like, okay, sunk cost also, like, do I want to commit further just because I've already committed? Yeah. And I think like,
• 10:04
  I don't know. I'm a bit more like, okay, not loving it, change directions. And that's how I've been my whole life. If I'm not loving something, I don't really stay in that same thing and keep the state of inertia going. I'm like, cool, let's take a corner here and
• 10:16
  choose a new direction. So that was kind of happening. And that ended up being around the end of 2019. And at that time, we were traveling a lot. I'd spent six months living in Bali. We'd traveled for a year and a half after that. And we were meant to be in the UK for like two weeks. I think I was in Australia. I was going to the UK. I was going to the US. And then I was moving back to Australia. And so I was like, thinking about what I could do content wise with people in person. And
• 10:45
  Oh, I skipped a step. But basically at that point, I was asking my network for advice around the jewelry brand. And we were doing these like five, 10 minute videos on Instagram. And I did one with Jen George. I did one with Lauren from Glamazon and like a couple of women that I was like, oh, yeah, this is fun. I'll just do them when I see people around the world and then we'll post them to social media. But at the time it was IGTV. That was the feature that was being used. Which never like took off.
• 11:09
  Yeah, because it had no discoverability. It was really, it didn't work. For the amount of effort compared to like, yeah. Literally. But I guess that was the beginning of, you know, really this kind of wave of short form video content that was like version one, 1.0. And at that time, my husband was like, it has no discoverability and the insights and the conversations that you're having are really amazing. Why don't you put it onto a podcast? And I was like, oh my God, like,
• 11:37
  Absolutely not. I'm terrified of public speaking. I'm terrified of being on camera. Five minutes is like really stretching my physical and mental kind of like stress levels. I was so shy. I mean, I am a shy person, but I was so shy. I never thought you were shy just until I think you were nervous to speak at BitchCon. Yeah, I'm always nervous to speak. I'm nervous now. I'm always nervous. I never thought that you were shy. I present as an extrovert and I'm...
• 12:06
  I think my coping mechanism is to talk a lot and ask a lot of questions so that I deflect away from, I don't know, my shyness or my nerves. But I was like, no. But then as I was saying no, I was like, oh, but I wish I could do that. I wish I had that skill and I wish I had that confidence and I wanted to do it. And so I was like, maybe I should start a podcast. And I'd been on some weird, I mean, I don't know about you, but I buy so many GoDaddy URLs.
• 12:35
  And I actually turned off auto renew for like 30 of them last night. And it felt like such a freeing experience. But I had all these like URLs that I bought over the years. And one of them just happened to be Female Startup Club. So I was like, cool, I'm not going to think about it. I'll just do it. And you can go back to the podcast and see those five minute episodes, like 10 minute episodes from the beginning. They're so bad.
• 12:57
  But that was kind of the beginning of the podcast. And then when I decided to close the business, the kind of part of that story is we arrived in the UK for two weeks for my best friend's wedding. I was going to do some content there. And then the pandemic hit and my husband's from Switzerland, so he couldn't get back into the country. And we were like, hmm, this is weird. We've kind of given up our apartment. We've given up our visas for the UK because we were living there before Indonesia. Yeah.
• 13:25
  we've sent like our stuff back, like, what do we do now kind of thing. And it was around that time that I was like, I'm going to close down the jewellery business. I don't think this is what I want to do. And now with the circumstances of COVID and the pandemic and what that meant, I was just like, this feels like a good turning point for me. And yeah, that was the end of Kinks. Wow. I mean, did you at the time think the podcast would be the next focus? How did you know it wasn't going to be like just a hobby?
• 13:54
  So I didn't know any of that. Again, it started on the bedroom floor of my friend's bedroom. I was just kind of like recording these episodes. And I was more using it as, again, like a tool to further understand like my next steps. And I was using it as a tool or a vehicle to think about what my next e-com brand would be. So I was thinking about...
• 14:12
  you know, taking all these amazing lessons and learnings that I was getting from really smart women that knew 10 times as much as I did and were so much further along in the journey to kind of guide me in a way to think about what I was going to do. Yeah, because I honestly still right now have no strategy for the podcast and no like...
• 14:31
  no reason why I'm doing it, but I'm just like really enjoying the conversation. Exactly. It's fun. It's either like catch up with an old friend or meet new people that like I want to, but like, you know, you probably wouldn't otherwise. So it's...
• 14:46
  It makes a lot of sense. I mean, you get an hour of someone's undivided attention, not on a phone. You can ask all the questions you want. You can ask all the questions you want. I think it's such a great tool for networking, especially. And yeah, I didn't really have any grand plans. I knew nothing about podcasting. I knew nothing about speaking online. And you can tell I was so, so shy and so nervous in the beginning of the show for probably about the first 70 years.
• 15:09
  Oh, really? Were you like, I am a robot? Yeah, like really nervous. Like you can see the shift in my like tone and confidence and everything at around episode 70. And so I had no plans, but I was like, cool. Well, you know, let's just see what happens with this. And then I like setting a big goal.
• 15:29
  every year that's like a practical goal that I can like definitely achieve by taking steps to get there. So if it's in your control, you know, you know, you can get there. And I was like, okay, well, what if I just do 100 episodes for the year? And I think we're in about May at this point. What if I do 100 episodes in a year? And that leads me to like three per week, and I won't look at the numbers, and I'll just see what happens. And then I'll decide what this is. But for now, I'm just enjoying it and having fun. And I'll figure out what I want to do along the
• 15:57
  I like that. It's like, instead of having a goal being like, I want to be this on the charts or like this many downloads, which like, yes, that's what you secretly want. But like, you might, it might be demotivating if you don't have the progress, but if you give yourself like an output goal, then you know you can do it. And then I think sometimes it's the commitment and it will just follow. A hundred percent. Podcasting is about like consistency. I think the start is like most people give up after seven episodes.
• 16:25
  Yeah, I heard that. Just keep going and you think about it as it's definitely not this thing that's like a viral overnight sensation, like a TikTok account that can blow up. It's like a long term play of like what you're building over a 10 year period or a five year period. So it's about being realistic, I think, with yourself and what you can commit to. And then just being like, I am relentless at this goal and I'm showing up consistently.
• 16:50
  So I kind of had that goal in the back of my head. But then I was like, hey, well, if I want to do 100 episodes, my husband and I are not going to survive this doing it ourselves. You know, he was like editing my episodes and everything. And it was just a disaster. And love him though. And I was like, I need to get a sponsor in that case because I need to hire an editor. So at the time, the advice was like,
• 17:12
  you know, wait until you have 100,000 downloads and then try and get a sponsor. And I was like, well, if I want to get an editor, I'm not gonna. And I was at the beginning. I think I had like 2,000 downloads or 4,000 downloads or something. And I was like, I'm gonna have to just try now. So I just kind of like made a list, started reaching out. And then I got like my kind of dream first sponsor and it was a deal for 25K. And I remember thinking to myself like, huh, 25K, like
• 17:40
  That's pretty good. 25k US is like... That's huge. Huge. That's like... I don't know what that is in Australia. Maybe like 35? 35? It was good. And I was like to myself, like, maybe this could be a business. I hadn't actually thought of it as a business at that point because I didn't even know how you could... That's one of my first few years of salary working corporate. Yeah.
• 17:57
  That's good. Wow. Jesus. And then I was thinking to myself, like, well, if I've got one, I could get another. And then that was kind of the beginning of me being like, yep, let's take the podcast seriously and just see what we can do because I'm having a lot of fun. I've moved away from the jewelry brand. I don't know what I'm going to do next in terms of the e-com space, like for a brand, but...
• 18:17
  Let's just see what happens. So, okay. So like you, so at 4,000 downloads, you put together a pitch for like, how do you, I don't know, for our listeners, like what are the things that you did that was a bit of fake until you make it? Is it like focusing on the growth? Like how did you paint this picture of like sponsor me?
• 18:38
  So I think there's like a few different trains of thought here. One is like, don't always follow the advice you read online because like the advice is so blanket advice and not taking in your own kind of like personal context and personal nuance and things like that. So I kind of tend to like read advice and research how to do things, but then also just be like, okay, but what makes sense for me? And like, how would I approach this?
• 19:01
  And I was also pretty naive, I guess, doing it. I would probably do it a little bit differently now. And like, I think that there's a different, I think it was also right place, right time, that kind of thing. You know, it was the start of the pandemic where people were really doubling down on audio and brands and businesses were really looking for those different opportunities to sponsor.
• 19:18
  content creators and get a different kind of reach. And so at the time, I literally just like made a list of like, okay, this is who I want my audience to be. This is who I'm going to focus my marketing towards, i.e. small business owners who are in the e-commerce space because I'm
• 19:35
  and kind of made a list of sponsors that would be like ideal. And I just worked my way through the sponsors and sent like a quick email about like the vision. But I wasn't trying to do a pitch in an email. I think like you need to keep it short and sweet. And the goal of the email is to get on a call. It's not to sell someone. It doesn't need all the specifics about what deal you have in mind and things like that. It's about getting to a conversation where you can understand...
• 19:58
  a brand or a business's perspective on what their KPIs are, especially because when you're working with someone who might be like the head of marketing or head of performance or a brand marketing member, their KPIs and their goals are also very different to a company's KPIs and a company's goals. So you need to understand like who is the person that's the right partnership person for you to speak to? What's their goals for the year, for the quarter?
• 20:20
  kind of have a conversation to see if it's even a right fit and then lead into what a partnership could look like. And so I was kind of taking that approach of just getting on a call and understanding more from these kind of sponsors that I wanted to look at. And the one that it was Klaviyo, actually, they're a B2B software company for email marketing. They were my number one. She was the first person that I emailed. I actually sent this on a contact form, like on the
• 20:50
  The next morning, I had an email from her. And I really think it was just right place, right time, because she was like, yeah, let's get on a call. And she was also within her role in the company, she was really looking to find new opportunities to promote to small business owners and e-commerce founders, because that's what they do. And they already have their marketing stacked when it comes to ads and organic content and SEO and things like that. So they were
• 21:17
  And that conversation then led into the partnership, which is what ended up being the $25,000 deal. And we worked together for multiple years. And yeah, it was just, I think, when you come from a place of doesn't need to be so strategic and so structured and so...
• 21:34
  well thought out. I just kind of had a thought, took action. And even if that hadn't worked, my process in general with those kinds of things is like, it's all in the follow-ups. Like maybe no one replied. Okay, great. In a couple of weeks, send them an update. Let them know how you're going. Try again. Try again. Try again. Try again. Until you find an outcome. Like what's the worst that can happen? Yeah. What's the worst that can happen? And no is a no.
• 21:56
  now, but maybe it's not a no forever. And also, I think there's a lot of information you can get from a no, because it might be a no, but it could have nothing to do with you or your business. It could have everything to do with budget, company goals, company KPIs, whatever it might be.
• 22:10
  And so just to circle back to that decision to stop doing the jewelry brand, I think for anyone who's listening who might be at that juncture of their journey, who are thinking, do I keep going with this? Because there's that whole... Because sometimes we're like, all you got to do is persevere. And it's not not persevering because you're pivoting into something else.
• 22:34
  Like we say, oh, keep going, keep going. It's all about like, whatever you do, you know, I'll be on the other podcast and I'll be like, just keep going. But I think about my first business, like I'm so glad my business partner shut it down because I'm glad I didn't keep going with that and I pivoted into show pro. So it's like, what do you think people should be asking themselves? Like with your, given that you've made that decision and it's like serves you well, how, what are the questions to ask yourself to help make that decision?
• 23:02
  I think there's like, part of it is asking yourself, is that actually what I want? Like, do I even want to be, you know, you're in state A and you want to be in desired state B. Do I actually want to be state B? I didn't want to be a jewelry designer, founder, brand owner. I didn't want to be in that space. So I could have persevered, fine. But I'm someone that really follows the things that like bring me energy, not take me energy. And so...
• 23:28
  I don't want to do something that I don't want to do. And that was pretty, it's pretty easy for me to like make those decisions. So you might be in a business and maybe it's not going well, but you really love it and you're so passionate about it. And that's when you should persevere because you're like, okay, I'm going to make it work no matter what I'm going to make it work. If anything, it gives you that more kind of like coming from a place of adversity where you're like, okay.
• 23:48
  I've got this, I'm going to do whatever it takes. Whereas if you just can, like for me, I could identify that that's not what I wanted future me to be anyway. So it was pretty straightforward to be like, you know what? I need to like pivot out of this and find my way to what I do want to do. And I think in life as well,
• 24:06
  Yes, there's like that notion of like, yeah, keep going, keep hustling, persevere, blah, blah, blah. But then there's also the notion of like, you've got to do things that you don't like to figure out what you do like. And that means trying an assortment of things, an assortment of businesses. You need to find a business model that suits you and a product that suits you and the thing that you're really ready to like go all in on. And for me, I just wasn't there. So it wasn't a really tough decision. I wasn't thinking about that for, you know, the next year, the next 10 years. And they say in business...
• 24:34
  you've got to see yourself doing this for 10 years because it's a minimum 10-year journey kind of thing. And of course, you can get lucky. It can be earlier if you exit early, whatever. But you've got to think about the long-term picture because it's never an overnight success, as we all know. And I think it's so great that you went and just like asked people about it because I definitely have friends who are like, you know, have businesses. And I'm like, you are really smart. You've got the hustle. You're such a gun. And I just don't think they're in the right business.
• 25:03
  I could be wrong, but I'm like, I feel like if that person was doing another business, they would be like fucking selling. You know, I've seen that a few times before. It's like, I think, you know, it takes a big person to then just actually for you to ask people like, or like...
• 25:19
  you know, have those conversations and try and seek help. Yeah, it's definitely important to self-reflect, be self-aware about what you want your dream life to look like. Like, you know, you can die tomorrow, so you may as well take action towards getting to the state that you want to be in or the place you want to be in. Okay, so on the podcast, you've like interviewed like a lot of successful entrepreneurs and what do you think are some of the common traits that you see in everyone? Yeah.
• 25:48
  Oh my gosh, so many common traits. I mean, definitely perseverance, resilience. Everyone just has this kind of like relentless drive to just make it work and figure it out. And that might still include a pivot along the way and like changing kind of directions and iterating the business model. But like just that ongoing kind of like, I'm going to figure out the way basically. I think also...
• 26:11
  You know, everyone starts from the same place. Like you're a first time founder, you're starting with an idea and you're just figuring it out. And it's putting one step in front of the other and taking an action, you know, forward motion orientated approach to building a business. And I think that that's just the same for everyone that you speak to. No, absolutely. And then so you've then grown an online community of like startup founders. What do you think some of the most common problems that startups face?
• 26:38
  So, okay, common problems, I guess there's a few. If you're a solo founder or a solo entrepreneur and you're in the early stages of building your business, loneliness is a really big problem that a lot of people kind of have to deal with and kind of just the mental side of it. So you, I mean, I'm sure you've experienced it, but everyone experiences that kind of like...
• 26:58
  negative inner dialogue or, you know, loop spiraling downwards, telling yourself, you know, just things that aren't true. You know, I'm not good enough. Why am I the person to do this? You know, who's going to buy from me? Like all those kind of self-limiting beliefs. But
• 27:13
  So a lot of solo entrepreneurs struggle from that side of things. Yeah, I agree. I always like to have people to bounce off. Like I think to get me, even when I think about the business that I've started, I've started with someone because I needed someone to like, someone to like,
• 27:29
  help you back yourself. Yeah. Because also, and just to get excited, because sometimes you might be just, it's fun to do it with someone and have someone else who believes in it. And even like, I just think when you start, you also, because you have those like self-limiting beliefs, because you're looking at other people who are already established. Oh my God. You know, you're constantly like... You're comparing yourself to someone who's 10 years in the journey and you're like trying to compare, but it's not a comparable. Yeah.
• 27:55
  bad yeah thief of joy and but even like I think even when I was starting the podcast when I was like running business course I was like looking at the and then I'm like okay I've already got a personal brand and you know and I'm fighting it hard I'm like god that yeah I can really understand how hard it is to not just look at what's already out there and then I think it's just yeah focusing on what's what's like makes you unique you know
• 28:20
  Absolutely. Everyone has their own magic and you have to kind of like turn off the peripheral vision and just like focus on what you're doing and just keep chipping away consistently. So I think the number one problem if you're an early stage founder is loneliness, but then also the overwhelm. Overwhelm and knowing where to focus your time and knowing where to prioritize your to-do list so that you're not doing like work that keeps you busy, busy work.
• 28:45
  for the sake of busy work, but work that shifts you forward and moves the needle. And especially when you're a solo founder, you know, you need to get good at being like, no, no, no to this. Even if it was like, I would love to be able to do this, but it's just not the right time and I shouldn't prioritize it because it's not going to shift the needle forward and generate more revenue or whatever the goal is.
• 29:02
  loneliness, overwhelm. And then I think the third, no matter where you are in business, the challenge that comes up all the time is money, funding, and revenue, basically. Yes. Well, this is a good segue because you spoke at BitchCon and with a focus on how all the ways to raise capital and or just like not even just raise capital, just to get money for the business.
• 29:25
  And you are now branching out into angel investing. So first of all, like, how do you know whether you should raise capital? Because not everyone should raise capital. Like, I think sometimes people actually just try and stay in their jobs, make the money, and then use that money to fund the business. Because raising capital is not easy. And people are in your business. Yes, 100%.
• 29:47
  Well, okay. There's a few different things. I think that part of the story is that the media really glorifies the fundraise. So we can get swept up in this narrative that, you know, oh, Glossier has raised $180 million. Like that's kind of what I want to do. I'm splashed all over covers of magazines and I'm doing a really great job. But like the step behind that is to really think about what you want out of your business.
• 30:07
  what do you want your life to look like? What is your personal kind of context around, you know, the goals that you have in the business? Or what's your personality type? Like, are you wanting to have more of a lifestyle business? Or are you wanting to more like really go hard, go fast, and then exit? And so you've got to really map out what you want for yourself, which...
• 30:27
  what you want for your life. If you have investors, you have people to answer to on an ongoing basis, you don't own your company 100% anymore, and you're going to have to sell that business, and you're going to have to generate a return for investors. And so if people are giving you money to generate a return, there's a certain level of pressure that comes with that. There's obviously a lot of...
• 30:45
  accountability that comes with that. There's a lot of decisions that aren't just yours to make anymore. So you've got to kind of go down a pathway of truly reflecting and understanding what you want for yourself and what you want for your business. Because if you take the pathway of bootstrapping, you own 100% of your business, you can do whatever you want, you can shut it down if you want, you can exit if you want, you know, you've got a totally different pathway. And so when you kind of
• 31:09
  explore both of those options to get to an understanding of what you want to do. It's a pretty easy decision as well, I would say. But then also it's the kind of business that you're building. You know, if you're building something that doesn't require a lot of working capital to get started or, you know, you can start on a bootstrap level, go to a certain point and then find potentially working capital in other ways outside of investors. Whereas if you and an example of that, for example...
• 31:34
  Could be, you know, if you're starting a beauty brand and you're formulating in your kitchen and you start really small, you're really scrappy, you grow it, you bootstrap the brand.
• 31:44
  really organically. And then you get to a point where you're like, yeah, okay, I actually need a lot of working capital to invest in inventory for purchase orders for nationwide retailers, for example. Or I need a lot of inventory because I am launching into a nationwide retailer and I need to support it with marketing. So in those cases, maybe you don't need to raise money. Maybe you could get an inventory kind of... Like a bank...
• 32:07
  Yeah, like a loan from a bank to fund those POs. Or you could get rev share based capital from Shopify Capital or Clearco or Wayflyer, for example. Whereas if you're required... Or if it's a repeat order, the manufacturer might be able to like, you can negotiate your terms. Flexible terms, absolutely. And so you might not even need to raise. You might be able to do this in a way that you retain 100% of your business and 100% of the decision making.
• 32:32
  Whereas maybe you're starting something that is in the tech industry and it requires a million dollars in capital to, you know, develop and innovate on this new technology that you're bringing to the market and the software that you're building X, Y and Z, plus go to market strategy, etc. And you need a lot of upfront capital, even though in today's world, I'm like...
• 32:52
  depending on what it is. Of course, if it's med tech, maybe you need a lot of capital. But if it's an app that you can build on no code, great, you could do it on no code and not raise a lot of capital. So it's just understanding yourself, your personality, what the business model is, and going down a journey of really educating yourself on what it means to take on investment from investors and how else you can get money into your business if you need capital.
• 33:17
  And so this is an area that you also know about. It's not just raising capital from investors. Like, what are all the ways you can just get extra cash? Yes. Okay, let me think back. Because, sorry, I was running... I remember, like, listening to part of your... When you were on stage, I was also running around, like...
• 33:34
  With Caitlin, my assistant, just trying to put out fire. So I'm now getting like, I'm glad I'm getting like a repeat. The masterclass. Yeah, the masterclass. Yeah. So there are seven core ways that you can kind of access capital for your business. The first is self-funding. And that's really self-explanatory. You're taking your savings. You know, an example from someone on the show who...
• 33:56
  did the self-funding approach was Priscilla. She invested from Bang & Body. She invested 100K from her house deposit to the business. But at the same time, she still kept her 9 to 5 job and used her 9 to 5 job as her investment into the business as well. And so she did that for three years before she'd really proven out the concept, built the business, found product market fit, and was 100% sure it was like on the right track and then switched over to full-time working on the business.
• 34:22
  That's right. It's about the house on the business. Yeah. So self-funding, you can use your nine to five as an investment into your business. And I highly recommend that. You're basically investing your own money into your business and kind of taking it slow and steady in the beginning. You can use your savings. You can liquidate any assets that you have. So for example, if you have, you know, stocks or a house or a car or something,
• 34:46
  you know, your wardrobe, if you have lots of bags and shoes and things like that. Like Lauren from Glamazon sold all of her bags and kind of designer clothing that she had. And I think she ended up making like $10,000 or $15,000. And that's what she used to start building Glamazon at the time. Or for example, I've had so many women on the show who were like, yeah, I just sold my car, got $3,000 or $15,000 or whatever it was worth and used that as my startup capital and my investment into the business.
• 35:11
  And then also when you have this kind of like sum of cash where you're like, this is all I have and this is all I've got to make it work. You're able to be, I think when you have less money, you're able to be more scrappy and more creative and think outside the box. Exactly. Yes. So that's number one. Okay. What are the seven? Oh my gosh. This is good. Just use your money. The end. That's it, guys. Bye. Use your money and done.
• 35:36
  So second, and I feel like people don't talk about this a lot, but grants are such a useful way to access capital no matter where you are on the journey. You might be just in the ideas phase. You might be pre-rev, pre-development, pre-everything. You can access grants. Or you might be, you know, years into the business and still accessing grants. So in Australia, I mean, I think it's paused at the moment, but the EMDG grant is an export grant that you... We've done the EMDG grant years into the business. Yeah.
• 36:05
  Yeah. I mean, I think you can do it for eight years. I did it for the first time last year and it's paused for this year. I don't know what's happening for next year, which is so annoying. But anyway, it's the export grant. So if you sell digital products or physical products or any of your services internationally overseas, you are probably likely to meet the criteria because I think you're considered a small business if you're doing under...
• 36:27
  like 20 million in rev or something like that annually. And so the criteria is basically like you sell overseas, you're considered a small business, and there's a third one. Maybe you're Australian. I don't know. But anyway, and it's pretty straightforward. You can work with like a grant specialist to help you access those grants. There's also the R&D tax benefits program.
• 36:49
  Grants, if you're developing or innovating on something new that doesn't really exist at the moment, you can get like a 50% rebate at the end of your tax year into what you've spent. So that can be anything from your own salary. If you're the one kind of developing and like creating the innovation, it can be the salary of developers or people working, you know, in the factory, whatever. Like there's a lot of different avenues to take. I don't know the ins and outs of it. So don't quote me on that.
• 37:13
  But yes, there's that. And then also when it comes to grants, there are so many different avenues, depending on where you are in Australia or the US. Australia is focused more on government-backed grants. So you can go to your kind of state government website, like we're in New South Wales. So nsw.gov.au or whatever it is and search grants. And there are literally hundreds and hundreds of grants that come up all the time. And they're very niche. They're very specific. They're not kind of...
• 37:41
  broad grants, I would say. They're more random, like in the... I gave an example of one I was looking at at BeachCon and it was something super random in the fishing industry or something like that. But anyway, maritime fishing, blah. So they're more specific, but then it doesn't happen as much here in Australia, but in America, there are a lot of websites like iFundWomen and Hello Alice that kind of partner with companies like Visa or MasterCard and they do small business grants for, you know...
• 38:11
  women in e-commerce or women of color or kind of like broader categories. But then you don't have to be at a certain stage. And it's more like here's $10,000 cash. And it's obviously equity free. And you're able to kind of take that and use it in the business however you want.
• 38:25
  Another thing with grants you can do is look up your local universities or the universities in your city. So universities will have grants. They also sometimes have programs that you can enter with like award competitions and pitch nights and things like that where you can get equity free capital. Also the same for philanthropist based grants and donations. They're often run through universities as well.
• 38:45
  And what else? I think that's it from the grant perspective. We actually have a great resource that I can send you to link in the show notes. It's like a grant tracker. So we track all the grants that are relevant to female founders around the world. Yeah, it's amazing. And we update it every week. Just check it out because it's like free money. Literally. Yeah, literally. And then some of the more...
• 39:07
  bigger ones. Yeah, like you said, you can pay for a consultant. But they also will tell you if you're likely to get it before, you know, it's kind of like... Exactly. You're just paying for someone's time to do it. The way the grants industry works is actually a lot of the consultants only work on like a performance-based incentive. So you don't pay them up front. You pay them a percentage of the grant if you get it. And usually they have 100% success rate. So they'll only take you on... Because they're like aligned. Yeah, yeah, exactly. They review everything before they even consider whether they're going to work with you so that they know whether you're going to get it or not.
• 39:37
  So you can do that, but also you can, I think you can hire like grant writers and things like that, but usually, you know, you can go through the process yourself.
• 39:46
  One of the women that we've had on the show before, Hasaya, she has won, I think it's like $200,000 in equity-free grant money. And so she's just really active about, and she's based in America, but she's really active about searching for opportunities that have these pitch competitions, grants available, things like that. And she's just really diligent about applying. And she knows that she has a unique story, a unique business, and she's just an absolute weapon. So she's kind of got this formula that works in her favor where she can really
• 40:16
  get out there and use that to her advantage through grants. So depending on the business that you have and kind of how interesting or different or unique it is, you can also really leverage grants because of that. So her product that she invented is called the Wig Fix and her company is called the Renatural, but it's the Wig Fix and it's for...
• 40:36
  kind of like holding on your wig and it's this patented kind of silicon shaped thing, but it basically doesn't, it's like more protective for your hair because if you wear a wig, especially like long-term, you can damage the kind of hairline and things like that. And since then, she's actually invented this machinery that is
• 40:52
  totally revolutionizing the wig industry. And it creates these incredible wigs, like the kind of quality that the Kardashians wear or, you know, celebrities wear. And instead of it taking six weeks to make and they're all made by hand and it's a really archaic, fragmented industry, it's done on this machine in like 45 minutes. And so she's gone and developed this
• 41:12
  incredible machinery and company. And it's just incredible. And she's actually the first person that I made my first angel check into her business. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. And that's how I got into more of the kind of started leaning into the
• 41:28
  investing side of things. Okay, I do want to ask more about that. Let's get back to number three and I'm keen to talk more about the angel investing. Yep. Number three, crowdfunding. Another good one. Get money into the business through websites like Indiegogo and Kickstarter. So, yeah,
• 41:47
  You go on, again, if you have a unique product or a unique message, you can go on kind of like almost, I guess, pitch your concept on those platforms. And then if you're able to hit a certain threshold or hit a certain goal and get people to essentially put money in to buy a product when it's released, then you go ahead with it and you take that capital and use it to kind of invest in the R&D and the development and things like that.
• 42:11
  You can also, I mean, even just pre-sales on your website, that's also like kind of getting capital in before you have, like maybe you haven't even placed the order for inventory. You know that...
• 42:22
  you've got like a minimum order quantity of X or you need X amount of dollars and you do a pre-sale, confirm it all, and then go ahead and place the order once you've hit that threshold. But it's pre-sale, like you kind of need the marketing more than Kickstarter because like crowdsourcing because people are there for it. Or do you need to market for crowdsourcing? You need to market for it. And you like when I've had people on the show who have done successful Kickstarter campaigns, it's still you're spending about 30K
• 42:50
  or more because you need to develop assets, you need to develop a video, it needs to be approved by Kickstarter, you work with the team to make sure that the listing is like built out properly. And so yes, you get access to their community of people who are on Kickstarter looking for new products and innovation and things like that. But you need to still bring community and you need to bring the people around you. So it is still a lot of work. It's not like an overnight kind of solution. Yeah.
• 43:13
  And then there's equity crowdfunding. So a good example of another brand that I invested in is Pleasant State, which is a Sunny Coast based brand with Amy and Sean. And they were having a shit time raising capital through investors, which is, you know, a common problem that women face.
• 43:31
  And they went down the pathway of equity crowdfunding through a platform called Virtual. So there's Virtual and Equities in Australia. And what that means is raising money from a larger group of people. Usually it is investors that are on the platform, but also your community. And you're raising mostly smaller amounts of capital. So you can invest anything from...
• 43:53
  you know, you set your own parameters, but it could be $200 or $1,000 as the minimum check. But you also bring in bigger investors, maybe like angel investors, if you have those connections and things like that. So I think they raised around 1.1. And that platform handles everything. It's just a really, you know, slow.
• 44:11
  super, super useful software, especially if you're not wanting to go down the pathway of kind of raising through traditional investors and VCs or private equity, and you're going more the direction of community driven.
• 44:25
  And yeah, that's crowdfunding. Okay, next one is borrowing and debt. And you kind of touched on this before when you were mentioning about like flexible terms with a manufacturer. You can also go to, if you have people in your network, maybe friends or maybe family that you can ask for a loan of some kind where you can get more flexible terms. It's obviously less expensive capital than going to something like a bank or using a business bank loan or a credit card loan, borrowing through friends and family. Usually you have better terms in that deal. Yeah.
• 44:54
  You can obviously go through a credit card. You can obviously go through a bank. I know that in Australia, Westpac is actually focused on business loans for female founders, kind of small business loans at the moment. And that's something that they're pushing because it is a hurdle that women face to kind of get...
• 45:11
  a loan for their business. What else? There's credit card debt and then there's rev share based debt. So again, what I was saying earlier about websites like Shopify Capital, Wayflyer, Clearco, the way these companies work is when you're more kind of set up in your business and you're already doing sales, you plug in all your data. So you plug in Google Analytics. I mean, I'm sure I'm telling you everything you already know.
• 45:33
  You plug in your Google Analytics, your Shopify and whatever else. And then they basically give you a number and tell you how much percentage they're going to take back daily on your revenue based on kind of predictions of if you're going to invest this much money into ads or this much money into...
• 45:48
  your purchase order, they're going to take the percentage plus interest out of your rev every day until it's paid back. And then you can do that on repeat. So I know a few brands in Australia who have kind of gotten upwards of a million dollars in Shopify capital loans. I think PayPal does it to actually to fuel their paid marketing efforts.
• 46:09
  And then the last one when it comes to kind of borrowing and debt is using a broker. So you can contact brokers who will go out and find you loans and different kind of opportunities and with different terms.
• 46:21
  Six. We're on six. Okay, next one is raising capital and investment. So if you decide that all of those, maybe you've exhausted those, you don't want to pursue those, you need a lot of capital upfront, and you want to go down that pathway, and you've identified that that's for you, you can start the process of raising capital. And that can be through angels. So people like yourself, people like me, who are kind of actively looking to invest in the certain things that they're interested in.
• 46:49
  You can go to venture capital funds and get institutional capital, which is kind of a different blueprint again, but it's probably more sophisticated. Private equity funds. And you can also go to, especially in Australia, there's a lot here. I mean, there would be a lot too in America, but...
• 47:06
  Here, there's a lot of syndicates. So you can go to, you know, one's called Aussie Angels, for example, and I do have a list of them that we can share. But there are lots of syndicates where they basically group together investors and those investors will kind of group invest into companies. So it's kind of like angels, but you're doing it through a different vehicle than one-to-one.
• 47:28
  And then our final one. Oh, my God. What is our final one? Let's see. And then the last things, which I kind of already blended one, was rev-based financing, which I just spoke about as borrowing debt, but it's kind of its own category, or I did have it as its own category in BitchCon. And then the last one, which I've included it.
• 47:47
  even though it's not technically the same as kind of grants or awards money, but incubators and accelerators. So if you go through these programs, oftentimes you will get capital. Well, not oftentimes, but some of them offer capital when you kind of complete the program. A good example is Startmate in Australia. It's a company owned by Blackbird, which is the number one VC fund in Australia. And Startmate does
• 48:13
  Two accelerators a year. And I think the general terms are if you get accepted into the accelerator, it's a 12 week program, you get $120,000 at a valuation of 1.5 if you haven't raised. And then if you have raised, the terms change, but they still give...
• 48:31
  It's 120K for 10% at a valuation of 1.5 if you haven't raised. And then I forget what it is if you have raised. And they take people at different stages and different levels. But Startmate's probably the most known accelerator here alongside Techstars, which launched into Australia about a year ago. And I don't know the terms that...
• 48:50
  or what Techstars offers in terms of the capital piece. And then in America, there's also Techstars, Y Combinator is a really big one. But then that's kind of like accelerators that are more geared towards tech and deep tech. Whereas when you're thinking about consumer brands and consumer kind of focused founders, there are accelerators like the Sephora program or the Target program. They both run out of America, but...
• 49:14
  I know that there's a founder in Australia who got into the Sephora Accelerate a couple of years ago, and it's open to everyone. I think they run it maybe twice a year. I think even Glossier also has one now. Glossier? Glossier? I never know what to say. And yeah, you can look up those kind of accelerators and incubators. And we also have that as part of one of our kind of documents that we have going around. So if anyone wants the list, slide into my DMs.
• 49:40
  Yeah, I mean, that's awesome. I think the whole thing is just like there is actually so many ways to get money. There is so many ways to get money. Focus on having a great product that people want, making something sticky that people will inherently buy a second time, a third time and tell their girlfriends or guy friends about. Something that you can like story tell and talk about and like you're excited to talk about.
• 50:02
  Something that solves a problem and that people want and that people will pay money for. Because it's one thing to have an idea, but it still needs to be something that people need enough to pay for it and want to buy it again and again and again and again.
• 50:17
  Exactly. Okay. And then onto your angel investing, like when you look at these businesses, how do you know what's a good investment? What are the things you look for? I mean, these are all those questions that I was getting asked in the Shark Tank media, like on the media cycle, but like, but actually, seriously, what are the things that you look for?
• 50:39
  So for me, I'm really focused on the founder. If you're raising an angel round, you're kind of like probably early on in the journey. Yeah, I'm looking at what the founder's like. What, you know, what have they kind of achieved already with the brand?
• 50:52
  And I guess I'm lucky in the same way that you speak to people for an hour on the podcast. I meet these incredible women, speak to them for an hour. And then I'm like, holy shit, like when you raise, come to me because I'd love to know. And it's my ideal flow. Right, so that's how you're finding these people. That's amazing. I think now it's changed a little bit where because I am getting a bit more known, I'll have people also just dropping their pitch decks into my DMs and things like that. But...
• 51:19
  I use the podcast as deal flow if I really vibe with someone and I just love what they're doing. I love things that are like different. I can see the point of difference. I can see that the founder is a weapon operator and I'm really just excited. I go based on like my gut feeling and what I can see that's happened. I love a bootstrapped story. I love bootstrapped founders that are able to
• 51:41
  take progress, take action and just figure shit out way before kind of like even needing to have capital from the get go. But usually if you're raising angel rounds, it is earlier on in the journey. But still, there's always progress and traction that you can show even if it's not revenue based. It can be how much customer feedback did you do? How did you develop your prototype? Like all those kind of little things is all traction and all progress. And so I really love the kind of like...
• 52:09
  scrappy, lean person who actually doesn't need a lot of capital in the beginning and then is looking for it a little further down the track. That's just like my kind of vibe, though. It's really different for everyone. When you do invest in businesses, how hands-on are you with them?
• 52:26
  I'm not hands-on at all. I would say like I look forward to the investor update every month. And if there's any asks, usually the way that it works is if you've raised capital and you have investors, you'll send a monthly or sometimes quarterly update with your kind of like numbers, what's happening, what's good, what's bad, and any asks at the bottom. And so at the bottom, when there are asks, I always try to help connect dots where possible.
• 52:49
  I always use the show and my kind of audience as another tool to help continually amplify the brand. But in terms of all the other stuff, I'm not hands on at all. So what's next for you then? You're investing and you've got the pod. Yeah.
• 53:08
  What's going on? What's going on? Yeah. So many things are going on. I'm really focused on, you know, we're releasing a suite of products that are specifically around investment from both the perspective of an investor, an angel investor and the founder. Anything I can use? What is it? Well, it's like an educational resources. So yes, you could definitely use it.
• 53:26
  covering all the basics, especially like if there is a bit of an education gap where you don't really know the blueprint for raising capital for yourself or the flip side of what investors are looking for and that kind of thing. On both sides, resources that really paint the full picture, because it can be a little bit...
• 53:40
  you know, there's like a, not murky, but like there's a bit of a gray area where founders don't really know the side of the investors and investors don't know 100% the side of the founders. And so things can get a bit lost, especially because from the perspective of, you know, founders are needing to raise capital. So they're at the point where they need more insight into the other side of...
• 53:58
  the coin, I guess. So we're releasing a suite of products for that. I started doing one-to-one coaching last year and it has just been so much fun. I love working with founders and kind of helping them just, you know, be their hype girl, basically help them in the journey, help connect dots, help them kind of wherever they are.
• 54:18
  That's been really fun. And yeah, wanting to invest more in different brands that I kind of come across and fall in love with. For keeping yourself busy. Love it. I love how you, you know, and that's the thing. It's like, you don't know where your journey is going to take you
• 54:33
  this isn't where you set off to be when you started. But like, that's fucking cool to be like angel investing and like helping all these businesses one-on-one. And, you know, and you're doing it at different levels because you've got the, at the very top, the ones that you're investing in and you're, you know, you've committed money to. And then your one-on-ones at the second tier that you're helping on a daily basis. And then you're reaching people amassed through the podcast, which is just amazing.
• 55:00
  Incredible. Yeah, honestly, I love what I do. I get a lot of joy from it. It's a lot of fun. I built my, like, dream business. Yeah. I've made this sound like a pyramid scheme. Sorry. I don't mean to. It's not a pyramid. It's a, you know. It's a triangle. It's a triangle. It's a nice little triangle. So, okay, and what does home life look like for you? Home life, what do you mean? How do you, like, balance things? And, like, your husband being business-minded, like, do you guys, how do you guys switch off? Do you guys...
• 55:28
  Talk a lot about business. Yeah. I mean, I find it hard to switch off. People talk a lot about balance, but balance is hard when you're really in the phase of just like, I just want to do all the things and get it to where, you know, that desired state be kind of thing. So I find it hard to balance because you're just, your mind is always racing. I have a busy brain. So I feel like the two of us together, we're always just like...
• 55:52
  So you want to talk about this in the business kind of thing? Like, is it too late? But we live by the beach. So I spend a lot of time, you know, going to the beach every day and kind of switching off with nature. And that kind of, I guess, is a level of balance. And yeah, it's really cool. We're going to travel a lot this year. We're used to traveling a fair bit pre-COVID. So yeah, I mean, if you live out of London...
• 56:16
  Yeah, lived out of London. It must be like an hour from here and I'm still in South Wales. Yeah, exactly. I want to spend more time in Asia though this year. I'm more excited for Asia. I'm going to go to Indonesia next week. I'm going to go to Thailand the week after that. And then just don't around. I really want to go to Japan in a couple months.
• 56:33
  That's incredible. Take advantage of having a digital business. Yeah. So my husband and I, we really focused on and we made a decision to do this early on in our relationship and kind of work towards having both totally remote teams and businesses that are online and we're not kind of location locked anywhere. It's a little bit harder now because we have a dog, but she's so small. When we were in Europe, she would travel with us everywhere. But here it's obviously more difficult. But...
• 57:01
  We really made a focus on lifestyle design and how we wanted our day-to-day to look. And that meant like kind of having our work situation working really well for us at home and then traveling kind of as much as we can and working from wherever we want to. Love that. Yeah. Good. Well, my, and you know, my husband, but like we both wanted to live in London one day, but...
• 57:24
  Oh, well. I've trapped us here with show-po. I mean, there's plenty of time. Plenty of time. No rush. No, and you can always travel, so. But, okay. So, do you have your two truth and one lie? Yes. Bring it. Two truths and a lie. Okay. Oh, my gosh. First one. I try to think of really good ones, but I don't know how good these are. I haven't listened to anyone else's examples, so, like...
• 57:44
  I don't know if these are all shit. They're all shit. Do whatever you want. I'm joking. Okay. So number one, when I was working in my corporate job, I accidentally sent a nude to my boss and he saw it. So that wasn't good. Number two was when my now husband and I first started dating like early days, I drunk dialed him like 57 times.
• 58:09
  we have a screenshot of it oh my god I think he eventually turned off his phone oh and number three what was number three oh my god yeah once I um I went for non-business by the way I don't know if that was the vibe once I mean I really like this I really like the random antics just to take it away to a different level but you know
• 58:29
  And the third one, once I slept walked out of my apartment and I woke up as the door slammed and I was wearing nothing but a G-string and the hallway was like bright lights and someone walked in and I was like...
• 58:45
  This is the worst. This is the worst. Oh, my God. Okay. These are all so great. I have a whole list. My husband was being like, no, that's too gross. Don't say that. No, not that one. I love... I'm just loving the fact that even if two of them are real or one of them is real, like, that's already awesome. Okay, I'm going to go with, like, the drunk darling is true. I'm not going to answer until the end. So you go. And then I think...
• 59:15
  Sleepwalking seems like harder, but the first one seems almost worse to send a nude. So I'm going to go with the lie is the sending a nude to your boss. Correct. Oh! Yes. That would have been so hilarious. That would have been like, oh my God. Dead. Death. I mean, my husband was my boss at one point, so it also could have made sense. Okay, that could have been the loophole. I should have led with that, but anyway. Oh my God. I remember when... What are yours?
• 59:45
  Oh, I don't... This is actually... Caitlin and I, we were recording like an end of year special and we actually were like, why don't we do two shoes online? And then we got... Because we hadn't prepared, because we were like, just, you know, at the end of the year, you're just trying to get everything done so you can like...
• 1:00:02
  make it through to Christmas. We're like, we haven't prepared. I feel like I'm done. And we're like, this is so hard. I can't believe we make everyone do this. Yeah, I know. Like on the spot. I'm also just not a great on the spot person with those kind of things because I really overthink it. And then I'm like, again, you can't do it with yourself. You need to ask someone else because I was trying to figure it out myself and I was like,
• 1:00:21
  Don't know. Like, literally don't know. A funny one that it's just, it's not a true truth. It's just a truth that your story reminds me of. I remember we were doing this, like, campaign or something with, like, I don't know what brand it was. It was, like...
• 1:00:36
  like a bank, maybe like a... I don't even know. Anyway, they had this creative team come in and we took this content and they were filming us like Chopra behind the scenes doing stuff and then their phone didn't work so then they used Kelly McCarron, who you met...
• 1:00:53
  Love Kelly. Shout out to Kelly. She was like our social media manager at the time. And then she plugged in her phone. Everyone's crowded around her phone. Everyone, including like dudes as well from that creative team. And then it went out and opened up to the first photos in her phone. And they were like all nudes. And we're all like, and she's got like...
• 1:01:14
  Great boobs. Yeah. I'm like, so it definitely feels more naked than if you saw me naked, I feel like. So anyway. Oh my God, what did she do? What happened? She was just, she was mortified, but she's also like, I mean. They look great. Yeah. It is what it is. You're welcome. You're welcome. So anyway, shout out to Kelly. So on that note, as a winding down, I mean, you've had an amazing journey. What advice do you have for our listeners who want to follow a similar journey to yours?
• 1:01:45
  What advice do I have? Be action orientated. Take steps every single day that shift the needle forward. Don't spend too much time getting lost in like the thinking and the, you know, pondering. That's all really important, but you've already probably been doing it for three or five years or whatever. So just get started and identify what the things are to get started. So if you're
• 1:02:10
  development. You need to find a chemist. You need to find a manufacturer. Then you need to start a Shopify site. Then you need to start your wait list. Then you need to start your social channels. Like kind of like break it down into like these lists, then figure out like the tiny steps that are involved in what does it actually mean to find a chemist? How are you going to do that? You're going to ask around. You're going to Google. You're going to whatever it might be. So be action orientated and things that shift the needle forward. And yeah, I guess just like
• 1:02:37
  Don't stop. Don't stop. I think oftentimes like we can do something, then be kind of like not happy with the results. A good example is if you start a podcast and you stop after seven episodes. It's like sometimes you need to give yourself a proper runway to let things flourish and see how it goes because things don't happen overnight.
• 1:02:54
  The saying is like, it takes 10 years to reach overnight success. And again, what you were saying, we spend a lot of time comparing ourselves to someone who's just not at the same point in the journey as us. And you forget that that founder has also gone through markets and crappy times and working out of their kitchen to then get to this huge eight-figure business.
• 1:03:13
  crazy brand that's stocked nationwide around America. There's such a journey there. And so I think you need to kind of like turn off those blinkers, ignore all of that and just like start and commit to it and just keep going. And I think as well, like we can get so caught up in like, I need to do so many things every day. But the reality is sometimes you don't have time. Sometimes you feel like shit. You don't want to. Sometimes you're not motivated. You're sad, whatever. You're having self-limiting beliefs, whatever it might be.
• 1:03:41
  Even just focus on the 1%. Just focus on one thing that moves you forward. So for example, it might just be like, you know, for me, if I'm having a bad day and I'm like, I'm not feeling it, I have my period, whatever.
• 1:03:54
  what could be the thing that would be like a good needle mover forward? And so for me, I'm like, okay, well, maybe I need to do an invoice and like send this email with this invoice that I've been like delaying on or something because it's like admin focused and I haven't been kind of like putting it as a priority. But actually, I should be because that's Rev coming in. And so I should send that invoice, you know, and those tiny little steps, even if it's just the 1% and then you just switch off for the rest of the day, do the 1%. And then over the course of a year, that 1% and those tiny steps of action compound into this
• 1:04:24
  big snowball that you've pushed up a mountain and is about to start spiraling kind of down and gaining huge momentum. And you've just got to like keep putting one foot in front of the other. Absolutely. Because then sometimes you look at the people that like, say even like on social media, you look at people...
• 1:04:40
  And, you know, you remember them from like where they were two or three years ago and you're like, okay, well, actually this whole time I've done nothing and look what they've done. You know, like you will just be, you either do it or you don't, you either stay where you are. But like, you know that if you keep going one step forward, there's going to be lulls where you don't feel like you're going fast enough.
• 1:04:59
  But either way, when it compounds over time, like you'll still be so far from, and the light's gone and this is the end. The light has gone off telling us we should go. So I don't know what I'm rambling about, but one step at a time. One step at a time. One step at a time. Tiny action. Oh, thank you so much, June. Amazing. Love this. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Thanks.
• 1:05:24
  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.
• 1:05:49
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• 1:06:11
  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.