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What Happened When I Finally Said YES to a Second Income · Work It Like A Mum

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, I'm Elizabeth Willis, and I'm obsessed with helping as many women as possible achieve their boldest dreams after kids and helping you to navigate this messy and magical season of life.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a working mum with over 17 years of equipment experience, and I'm the founder of the Investing in Women Job Board and Community.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_02: In this show, I'm honoured to be chatting with remarkable women, redefining our working world across all areas of business.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_02: They'll share their secrets on how they've achieved extraordinary success after children, their boundaries of balance, the challenges they face, and how they've overcome them.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: Find their own version of success.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_02: Shy away from the real talk?
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_02: No way! Money, struggles, growth, loss, boundaries of balance.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_02: We cover it all.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_02: Think of this as coffee with your mates, mixed with an inspiring TED talk, sprinkled with the career advice you wish you'd really had at school.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_02: So grab a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, make sure you're cozy, and get ready to get inspired and chase your boldest dreams or just survive Mondays.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_02: This is the Work It Like a Mum podcast.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_02: This episode is brought to you by Investing in Women.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_02: Investing in Women is a job board and recruitment agency helping you find your dream part-time or flexible job with the UK's most family-friendly and forward-thinking employers.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_02: Their site can help you find a professional and rewarding job that works for you.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_02: They're proud to partner with the UK's most family-friendly employers across a range of professional industries.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_02: Ready to find your perfect job?
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_02: Search their website at investinginwomen.co.uk to find your next part-time or flexible job opportunity.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_02: Now back to the show.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_02: Hello, welcome to today's Work It Like a Mum podcast episode.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_02: Today we thought we would flip it up slightly because I've got my lovely um utility warehouse mentor, Sam Earnshaw, who is going to be interviewing me this time about um my experiences of joining the utility warehouse team and becoming a partner with them last year.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, it's the first time I have been interviewed for my podcast.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_02: So when Sam suggested doing that, I was like, oh my god, yeah.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: Because no one's interviewed me before for this.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: I just always like that.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: That doesn't make sense because you're the face of invested in women.
• 2:34
  unknown: I know.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: You're speaking about utility warehouse on your, you know, on your platforms, etc.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: You've interviewed women in the team, you've interviewed me, but but I wanted to do a bit of a deep dive into letting people know why you've joined and you know what made you join and all of that.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it's a real good backstory that becomes more than just a job advert for utility warehouse, yeah, brings it to life.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: So I thought, you know what, we'll grill you for a change.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm happy to be grilled.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_02: I'm an open book, I've not got anything to hide.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so you joined, so I'll introduce myself.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: So my name's Sam.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: I joined UW seven and a half years ago, and I joined when my son was three and a half.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_01: I've always been in network marketing for probably the last 20, 20 odd years at least.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: I love the business model, I love the fact that we've got the flexibility and it can fit around and you know, all of that.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I've also worked in the corporate world, I've always had a job and had that on the side.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: And what I love about UW, it I've been with them seven and a half years, was the it's boring.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I it's it's it's just essential services, it's bills.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: And when I first looked at it, it was like, oh my god, that's so boring.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: But actually, it's so powerful because it's essential services that everyone has.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and how we met was I was following you on LinkedIn, which I'm pretty sure lots and lots of people who are watching this will be following you on LinkedIn.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I niche my business into working with women who want to work flexibly around a job, around a business, or around children.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so when I started following you, I was like, oh my god, this lady, this is she is exactly like me, and she recruits for you know my niche, she would be really good.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I will always remember kind of deep breath thinking she's not gonna reply, and dropping you a message, and you're like, Yeah, let's have a chat.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: And from that, it's just we've just hit the ground running, haven't we?
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: So, do you want to explain like yeah?
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I obviously knew about utility warehouse because we were customers.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_02: My friend was a partner and she'd signed us up um as customers during the energy crisis, and we'd been really, really happy customers.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_02: Like the customer service um had been really good, and uh yeah, she'd managed to save us a lot of money as well when we became customers.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_02: So I didn't really think that much of it at the time when she um when I became a customer, um I was pretty much um early doors when I was doing investing in women, I was the only employee, I did not have capacity to do something else, and actually I'm so pleased I didn't because I could focus um on investing in women and get it off the ground, and there is no way I'd have been able to do this um as well as that.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_02: And I think it's just all down to timing, isn't it?
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_02: As well, we were about to do a house extension, um yeah, but we came customers and um we were happy customers, and yeah, and I remember being really impressed from a customer perspective last year, just before I actually became a partner with you, because it was last February when we'd built up quite a big credit with utility warehouse and on our energy, and then um they without us even asking them to um cancelled our bill, our February bill, and refunded us.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_02: And I was remember being like really chuffed because it was like quite soon after Christmas, and we were like, we needed that money, and that thanks, thanks, utility warehouse, but didn't really think much more of it.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_02: And then obviously you spoke to me about um sharing the opportunity to um to the investing women community, and um at the time, you know, when you first spoke to me about it, I was like, I don't think I've got time.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_02: I told myself the story, I didn't have the time.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: You did, and you said to me, I haven't that sounds really good, but I don't have the time.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, I've got to fathom out a way to show her that we can do this together, yeah, and take the time element out of it because I knew that once you saw the power of what you could actually influence and and all the people you're gonna help.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's like I've got to find a way somehow.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: So we did it at first, didn't we?
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_02: Where you just yeah, you just I advertised, didn't I?
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: I got bored.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_02: And it was really popular, wasn't it?
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was really popular, and you could see all the people that were like yeah, because I get alerts in my inbox and something.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: And every time I was like messaging you saying, just to let you know, and all this lady's joined the team.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: Are you sure you don't want to join?
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: Just to let you know, this lady's become a customer and join the team.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: Are you sure you don't want to join?
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because you could have earned this, yeah, just just saying you could do this, and so to start off with, so then I think your mortgage had gone up, haven't we?
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: My mortgage had gone up in January.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so gone up last January about£800 a month, which is obviously a lot.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, and we were just starting to to be honest, I'll be really honest, we'd done a big house, we'd basically we'd saved up a lot of money and then we'd done a big house extension, um, which was was when we signed up as customers.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_02: So we were pretty skint because we'd spent all our savings on this house extension.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_02: And then my husband had just started a new job, uh, and so we were waiting for that to like he gets kicked up, he gets bonuses and commission and stuff like that as well.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_02: So we were sort of in that when he just started, and we were waiting for that to all kick in.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_02: So as a family, we were it was probably the most skint we'd ever been as well.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_02: And you just it just came at that point when we were like every month felt like there was more month of the money, and we would get to like the 20th of the month, and we would be like feeling skin out what we do now.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_02: We'd be doing three days out.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_02: My mum would be blessed as sending us vouchers that she'd be cutting out of the paper three days out, we'd be going to the science museum, and I'd also fall, and this is the really bad money money mindset that I had, and I think a lot of female founders have it as well, where I was paying myself like the bare minimum from our my main business from investing in women because I I felt a bit guilty paying myself more.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_02: And I know that, and I'm spoken to so many people that I need to get rid of.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_02: I felt guilty for paying myself more because I felt like I should be reinvesting that money in the business to grow it.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I felt really bad taking money out, so I was paying myself pretty much the bare minimum.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_02: Then we'd taken on the staff as well, which is great.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_02: So then there wasn't A, there wasn't as much as maybe as left over as there had been, and then B, I just felt like I shouldn't touch it, I needed to keep it for a rainy day.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_02: And and obviously at that point there was a bit of a rainy day because the um budget had happened um in the previous October where the employers had risen the NI and we did notice a pretty significant drop in employers' advertising roles.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_02: So obviously that did affect your revenue.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I remember talking to you, and it was it wasn't for paying the mortgage as such, it wasn't for paying the bills, because and I get that, you know, you know, your husband's got a you know a good career, my husband has, but as women, we we don't want to go out to work as such.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: We want we want something that works around the kids, yes, that we can do while they're at school, that we can drop off and pick up.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: We want it all, but there's not that many jobs out there that fit that criteria, yeah.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: And um, but we also like when I joined, I didn't have to work, I didn't, you know, my husband could cover everything.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: So for me, as a as a woman, I wanted to have my money to be able to do what I wanted with, and that's what we're noticing within the team because and it's the lifestyle pot that's getting used.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I think then we can turn around and say, you know, because I do this, we can now go on holiday and you know, and and and things, and I think it is that um it is that flexibility, and what shocks me is how many if you're advertising a flexible role within you know school hours or three years, yeah, yeah, like a traditional role, you mean.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, how how many applicants would they like thousands?
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_02: It's really hard to get that job, to be honest, like if it's a real flexible school hours, remote job, part-time job, those are the most popular jobs that are not job boards.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're running a business, so you're you are running your business, you're not really paying yourself a proper income of work that you're putting in, but you're passionate about it, you can see that it's gonna grow.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: The only options really are get a part-time job, put the kids in childcare, yeah, like you're going against your boundaries of wanting to work around you know the kids and all of that.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: There's not many options, is there, to top up your wage.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_02: It felt like a compromise, it felt like I'd either or I have to pay myself more out of the business, which risked in my mind the business or risks growing the business, and yeah, or like you said, getting another job, and which takes me away from the business.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_02: Neither of them felt like good options, really.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so that was why I was like, right, are you sure?
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: And he was like, I've got no time.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, right, I'm gonna show you.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: You need to join and let's just work together.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, that's the thing about this business.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, you've got the flexibility of when you can work, when you don't want to work, you can set your boundaries, but also you've got the support.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I think at first when you joined, it was it was I'm gonna like it was candidates, wasn't it?
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: Candidates were coming in, and you just thought, I'm helping these people to earn money, and they'll get started.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: Happy days, but then I saw a big shift in you where they was there were so like like people joining are so not just candidates, and it was that whole relationship and team, and and you have massively like you've you've got such an incredible team culture and community and all of that, which I guess is different to what you do with the yeah, investing women to assume.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, because investing in I think you're right, because invest in women, I have now um a lovely recruitment manager called Adele, and just because of the volumes, and obviously for a long time I was dealing with the candidates myself, and to be fair, was developing the relationships, but since put Adele on, she's done that.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_02: So I think you're right in that when people when I first started, I probably did view people just as candidates and didn't really get that team thing.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_02: Whereas now I think the shift happened happened, I remember happening like the summer, and I remember exactly what the shift was, right?
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_02: It was basically I was like toying and I was going around in circles.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_02: I felt a lot of conflict last year that I felt like do I do UW?
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_02: Do I do invest in women?
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_02: Can they work uh coincide against um coincide with each other?
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_02: And then I remember in the summer getting paid from UW and I thought this is really good because I can treat my family to something really nice now, and it doesn't it's not replacing investing in women at all.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_02: It's actually just something really nice for me as well.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then yeah, and then obviously working with the people in the team, getting to know them, and it's so nice seeing how it's changing their lives.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_02: So we've got a lady, haven't we?
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_02: We've got a few ladies that have qualified for the holiday, we've got somebody that's just about to qualify for the holiday.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_02: And these are people, a lot of them that can't that don't can't that struggle to work in the traditional employment market as it is, you know, how it's set up.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_02: We've got a lady that's brilliant, that's got um disabilities, that had a really physical job before, and it's just changed her life.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_02: We've got another lady that's juggling, you know, not juggling because um that's wrong with, but she's really retired, isn't she?
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_02: She does this alongside her pension.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_02: We've got another lady that I've got quite a lot of parents, haven't we, as well, that do it alongside kids.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_02: And you just I just love that because I think this is why I just set up invest in women to help uh, you know, women, predominantly women, actually have flexible work that works for them and changes their lives.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_02: And this, to be honest, I just I can see the power of network marketing.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think it's the best business model.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_02: I honestly think it's so good for businesses and for um for individuals as well.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_02: And actually, you can see these people, it's not just a job, it's not just something that they might do for two, three years.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_02: This thing that they've created, they could be doing it for the next 10, 15, 20 years.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_02: It's a legacy you're helping people to build.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_02: And you're changing not just their lives, and it's not just changing my lives, but it's changing like our children's lives as well.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and it's a willable asset, and that was powerful for me because I've worked in corporate and got made redundant, and there was no jobs around, and that was 15 years ago, you know, to try and find something.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: I've had my own business, and I have you either seem to have lots of time and not enough money, yeah, or no time and lots of money.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: And and for me, when I had my own business, I needed something just to top it up.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and with this, it's it's just it's so much more than just earning extra money because you know, you you've you are building that legacy, and why this differs to like investing in women is in order for you to be able to go on holiday, you've got employees, so you've got to actually employ them and go through the you know all of that uh, you know, in a traditional business.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas with our business, you can help lots and lots of people.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: So, whereas you might only be able to put five hours a week or one hour a week into your business, into utility warehouse business, you've now got lots of people in your business that are all doing one hour or three hours or five hours, which means throughout your business, you've got hundreds of hours going into your business every day, the bigger it grows.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: And because we get the residual income, you're just getting paid a very small amount from every single one of those because you're helping the company to grow, to get bigger, and that's our thank you, as well as the upfront income.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: So most joined for the upfront income, but then you've got that, but then you've also got it's that powerful bit, that residual income, that is a will-able asset, you know, so you can leave it to your girls.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: I've got mine, you know, in mine, where that money will just pay them month in, month out to cover, to give them a start, to you know, and that secure it's that security that you're building that no traditional business really can give, yeah, as such.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I like it because it's scalable.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you love you love systems and a list, you are very, very organized.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_02: And this ticks a lot of boxes, and I think you can scale this business, yeah.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_02: And I love that without any personal risk to you.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_02: If I wanted to hire somebody else for investing in a woman, yeah, then that's much more risky for my business.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um so yeah, I love it because it's scalable, no risk to me as a business owner, and the sky is honestly the limit because that to me is quite exciting, and that is something that you don't I don't think you get in a traditional business unless you're like one of those unicorns that's had like a billion pounds of investment.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: So let's talk about the money then.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: So you joined because your mortgage had gone up by 800 pounds, and I remember you saying, if I could earn, you know, just to cover that, that would be great.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: So that's what we did.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_01: And you were really straight away, didn't we?
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: Ridiculously limited for time, and you just fit in as and when.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_01: How much?
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_01: So you joined in April.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: I never count March because that didn't really that didn't really count.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: So April to now is what and we're January, aren't we?
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: We're coding this January.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: You've had nine paydays.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: How many?
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: How much have you earned in nine months?
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_02: So 19, just under 19,000 pounds.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: But averaging double.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and also it's not just that.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_02: I'll gonna you know what I'm gonna talk about.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_02: I know I'm gonna say we're gonna talk about energy and because I'm like, it's not just that, we get such good incentives, we've got free energy.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_02: When I tell people we get free energy, no one can believe it.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, yeah, we do.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um worth£150 a month, which like my husband's a higher rate taxpayer, and so you think if he if he was paying just the energy bill, he'd have to be earning nearly double that.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_02: So I was like, that's such a good tax efficient benefit.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we've also got the holiday.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: What about the holidays?
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's to be honest, why I joined.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_02: You told me on the holiday.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_02: So we're going to Cyprus that way.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_02: Five star only clear for me, my husband, my two daughters, you're coming.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_02: Anybody that has um you know achieved points, we get points as well as commission gets to go.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_02: So we've got lots of people in our team that have achieved the holiday.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: And what's really good is because I know what it's like to work on your own, and okay, you've got, you know, you've got a little team, but it's not the you've come from like fast-moving, like hardcore recruiting sales that's where you're working on.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: And you've got the feel of like everyone's buzzing at the moment because everyone's chewing each other on, and you've got all the incentives.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_01: Since you've joined, what are the incentives?
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: How what have you achieved since, as well as the 20,000?
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I've done all the incentives.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_02: I said this is like my generation game.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it was my favourite year in recruitment.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_02: When I found an investor women, absolutely loved that year, and then also my first year in recruitment because it was before the financial crash.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_02: That was amazing.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_02: And then it went a bit down, but so it sort of like it reminds me of that like absolutely buzzing is flying.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_02: So we've been a weekend away to Nebworth.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_02: That was the first one.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_01: That was where we privately hired Nebworth.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_01: The company privately hired Nebworth put on um put on a festival.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: And that was um.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_02: It was like the second time night away me and my husband had had without the kids.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_02: Loved it.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, we actually had it like a proper day.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: Free bar, free food, free hotel, and and you get to see like it's all it's all part of the thousands of us all together at Nebworth.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_02: Several several£50 Pizza Express vouchers.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_02: So we actually had Pizza Express last night.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um I've got vouchers, clothes vouchers.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_02: So I've got£150 of John Lewis vouchers.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um also got obviously the free energy.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_02: I totaled it up.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's like nearly a thousand pounds so far free energy.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um also we got all the Christmas dinner, which sounds crazy because I was like, what?
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_02: But it was like amazing.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_02: It was like full organic turkey, all the trimmings, pigs and blankets, everything, like 12 people, worth probably worth about 200 quid.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_02: Another£250 worth of shopping vouchers for Christmas presents.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_02: And we've got a weekend away next year to Warwick, um Castle, and we've got an overnight stay, and that's for a family of four, so we'll all go there, and then obviously the holiday next year to Cyprus.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: I think a lot of people, if they're watching this, they'll say, Yeah, but that's because she's good at what she does.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't be able to do that because it's the ones that are flying are the ones that achieve the incentives.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and that's so not true.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_02: Because loads of people in our team have got the incentives.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_02: Loads.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_02: So it's like it's definitely not just me.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_02: Everybody was sending that pictures, weren't they, at their Christmas dinners and and all that.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then loads of people going off to Warwick, or the other option was approus along the Thames.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_02: And then loads of people have got the holiday as well.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_02: So it's always gonna be a fun holiday.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: It is gonna be a fun holiday.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: I've been on seven, this will be the uh, I think we've achieved two, four, six, eight are holidays now.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: We've done a couple's holiday, and then we've always gone for the family ones.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_01: And what I when I've been in other network marketing companies before, it's been the top 20.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, you've got to hit this, but it's just for you, not your other half.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: And if it's not your other half, it's not your kids.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, or you have to pay for your other half to go, you've got to pay for flights to get to the destination, and it's just the hotel.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I was really sceptical about that, and I thought, yeah, whatever, it's just the ones at the top.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I joined in the June, and it it finished in the uh the January, like ours does, and um, and I achieved it, and that was New York and Washington, and it was for me and my husband, and included all the flights and the excursions and the spending money, and then the family holidays are always for four the flights, the five-star, you know, all-inclusive holiday, um, you know, hotel and your excursions.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_01: And it's just what struck us was it's it's not like when you go on holiday as your little family unit.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_01: You sat around the pool with all your friends and the kids.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_01: What you'll see more is the girls will you you don't this sounds really bad, but as parents, we want to go on holiday and just like lion's lounge and read a book.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_01: Do you know what?
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_01: Because there's so many kids and it's so safe in the hotel, they all find the little pockets of friends that they get to meet every year, and you just they they form like really good friendships, and you know, as they get older, they're off.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_01: My son's 10 now.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_01: We haven't seen him on the last two holidays because he's just been off and speaking, you know, and playing with his friends, and it's just brilliant because you've got your friends, they've got theirs.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: But I'll tell you what struck me the most.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_01: When I when I first met Henry, I'm gonna bring Henry into the mix.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, he's the husband.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, when I spoke to Henry, he's not the dog.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the first time I met him was at Nebworth, and he'd not been in the company that long with that incentive.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and he he is very much like my husband.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, traditional business, successful, high earner, not into this network marketing.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: Looked a bit awkward, didn't he?
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: It was a little bit you could tell, it was very much like, oh, what's she doing now?
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: kind of thing.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_01: See a bit of money coming in, it was at Nebworth.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_01: He could throw some shapes around the dance floor, so he'd enjoyed it.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_02: I think he came to support me, didn't he?
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, he did.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_01: But I think from seeing that, it was still very much like, hmm, I'm not, I'm I'm not sure, I get it, but I'm just not sure what this happy clappy thing is.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: But then we met up at Christmas, didn't we?
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you did, yeah.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_01: And we went out as a foursome, so that's the second time I met Henry in the flesh, and again there was the four of us.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, What's been the best thing, would you say, you know, from from you know, Liz joining?
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I expected him to say the money that we've earned, or you know, and it was she's really I can see that she's really thriving on the team element, and it was I think it was that community feel that you miss, don't you, when you're self-employed working on your own.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I've loved it.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like I honestly feel like this is like the best part of like side of corporate.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_02: It's like working in the best corporate you could ever imagine, and people go, uh corporate.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, no, it's honestly like working in a brilliant corporate with full flexibility with an awesome team and no office politics.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they'd be like, if you could dream up amazing corporate and your best job in it, then you this is it.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and and it is it's got all that corporate feel with the head office, yeah.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_01: All the boring behind the scenes stuff that we don't need to get involved in.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_01: And we're just the fun people that you you do just tell people about no office politics, and you get to grow the team that you want to work with.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and so our team, I would say, is 97%, all women.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_01: Majority of people are working full-time, have a business, or they're working it around the kids and they want something flexible, and they start off a little bit skeptical and thinking, I don't really know what this is gonna be.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_01: But they join, they see it for themselves, it's only a£10 joining fee, so it's not a big investment.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_01: They don't even need to like the husband won't even notice the£10 has gone out of the bank, kind of thing, and then they can work it on their terms and have that extra money that that you know, and make it into whatever they want to make.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_02: There's honestly no pressure, is that some people that do a customer every three or four months?
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and what and others that do several a week, yeah.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_01: And this started off for you as earning some extra money, now you've seen the money, but now you've seen the bigger picture.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_02: I was I was like, I am feeling the luckiest person in the world, honestly, do because I have got two businesses that I adore, yeah, and they complement each other.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_02: Now I've completely reconciled that there's no conflict, they just work beautifully alongside each other.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_02: And how lucky am I that?
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm so determined to do it.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, if I can grow these two businesses to be something that I can leave to my girls, then and have worked flexibly whilst doing it and been able to do the pickups, the drop-offs, and boom for them, then that is obviously won the lottery.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I've won the lottery.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that is 100% success, and you're helping so many people instead of having to say to them, I'm really sorry, but there's no jobs available that fit that criteria.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_01: Now you can say, Do you know what?
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_01: There's this.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_01: And if you need an extra 2,000 or 3,000, how much did you earn?
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: So how much did you earn in January?
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_02: Just gone, January, yeah, like£4,000.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_01: And so this year I know that that£20,000 in the first nine months is just gonna scale.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I and I'm changing my like, you know what I mean?
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_02: Like we can look now, theatre tickets, a nicer theatre ticket, not just at the back, but nearer the front.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_02: And it's things like that.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_02: And I thought, oh my little girl, she wants to go and wants to go to Sea World, Sea Life, whatever it's called.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, I'm gonna take one, I'm gonna look, I can afford things like the VIP that you know it's not just the basic.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's so much more than money.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_01: I always say people join for the money and then they realise it's so much more than money.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and also, you know, it's not just about the bills, actually.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_02: If you really enjoy developing others, if you've got like leadership, if you enjoy coaching, mentoring, then that's such and that's the most, in my mind, the most rewarding part of the business as well, is not just helping people save money on their bills, but actually helping people earn money and earn good money that's gonna really change their lives.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_01: Earning pe helping people to save money is like okay, yeah.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_01: But when you can turn around and say to that person that you've just supported on their first appointment, and they've helped their parents to save, so they're feeling nice about that.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_01: You can say, look, you've just earned yourself£250, and yeah, the kids are in the background.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I've had it where they've been holding the babies, and babies being fed the whole the whole kit and caboodle.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and you see the face, it's like, what?
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_01: I'd have to work a week, or I would have had to go, you know, maternity is boosted, it's just so powerful.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and for me, I I sent that message to you thinking, well, she might she she might let me advertise, she might join, but it has absolutely like the amount of energy that you're bringing into the team, you are like an excitable puppy, but it's the friendship for me.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we I feel like being you're like best friends, absolutely and all my friends have come from this business, yeah.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_02: And I've got some lovely friends now through this business.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I think because it does attract quite like-minded people, like generally, the people that do well and you know, are really like switched on, they're hardworking, they're motivated, yeah, and that's all what you need to do to do well in this business.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_02: Anybody can do this business, but I think if you really want to like you know, grab it with both hands, then those people they'll you know, uh yeah.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_01: You just need to know that if you want to have more, you just do a little bit more flexibly, and you will you will get more.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_01: You will it we are a do, you do, you get company.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um so yeah, is there anything else that you would want to add?
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think so.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_02: I think like we said, anybody can do this business, and I think that's the beauty of it.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_02: Like you go, I do know what I think what's so good is you go to these events as well, which I love.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_02: Again, as somebody that's worked from home, setting up a business for like nearly five years, a lot of the time in my pajamas, it's been really isolating.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_02: So joining this business and actually meeting people, having events obviously you don't have to go to them, not compulsory, but you can go and talk people and you go in these rooms and it's so diverse as well.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_02: And you think do you know a lot of companies say they're diverse and they go to their events and everyone looks the same.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_02: Whereas this, this there is really, I think, a place that everybody in your telegram warehouse and everybody is um celebrated.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, whether your aspirations are that you want to do£250 a month so you don't have to put the last weekly shop on the credit card, or if you want to do two grand a month because then you want to leave your job, or you may be thinking actually, I want more than five grand and really change my life.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_02: Everybody is welcome and everybody is celebrated, and anybody can honestly do this business.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember at that first event, that's where I first ever saw you, wasn't it?
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_01: And there was just you there, uh, not just you, but just you amongst three, four thousand people.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, like what on earth?
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_01: What is this?
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_01: But then you saw the business owners on stage, you see so many, yeah.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_01: So I always say the business if you want to earn money with this with this business, make sure you are at one of those events because you see it how big it is, and and what you have actually like joined, and then you came to the second one and you had 20-30 people of your team there, yeah.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_01: I reckon power.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_01: We've got another one on the 18th of April.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_01: That's where the holidays are launched.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_01: So now's a really, really good time to like join.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I think you're gonna take up quite a lot of roles in that in that hopefully, but um, I think what else about the events is I've done a lot of events this year now.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_02: I've I've do lots more events.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, Oh, I thought the other ones are going to.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_02: I went to a recruitment one, and everyone was so miserable.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_02: And I think there was the contrast that everyone was like, oh, the economy's crap, everything's shit.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_02: And then we go to like a utility warehouse, and everyone's like, it's amazing.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's another thing, you get a lot of energy, and everyone's so happy and excited to be there as well.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_01: So um, it's a corporate where if you if you've got a good idea, you keep it to yourself because you don't want anyone else to pinch your idea and you don't want anyone to overtake you or any of that.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas in our business, it's like we share, we want everyone to succeed because the more people succeed, the better we are doing as a company, but also as an industry, yeah.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_01: And and this is you know a real powerful industry to be part of, and that's what you that's what you see when you yeah, when you go to the events, there's definitely not any negativity, it's just we're just firing all cylinders, don't we?
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_01: We just help people to save on them boring bills that most people want to save on, um, but where we are really, really making a difference right now is helping people to earn an extra£200 a month or£2,000 a month or£20,000 a month.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_01: The world is yours.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_01: It really, really is, and I am um, yeah, I am so glad that you we worked out a way where we could fit it in because we will always work out a way where we can fit it into the busiest of schedules.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_02: So, yeah, anybody that wants to join, drop me or Sam a message.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_02: We're more than happy to chat.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um yeah.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_02: But thank you, thank you for interviewing me and thank you so much to everyone listening.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_02: Speak to you later.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for listening to another episode of the Work It Like a Mum podcast.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_02: If you enjoyed this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_02: And don't forget to share the link with a friend.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_02: If you're on LinkedIn, please send me a connection request at Elizabeth Willet and let me know your thoughts on this week's episode.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_02: You can also follow my recruitment site, Investing in Women, on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_02: Until next time, keep on chasing your big screen.