Latest / She's On The Money / Business Diaries: How Brittney Saunders Built Fayt

Transcript

Business Diaries: How Brittney Saunders Built Fayt · She's On The Money

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud or
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: the Order Kerni Wholbury and a waddery woman. And before
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: of which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: through as this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: and the storytelling of you to make a difference for
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: today and lasting impact for tomorrow.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Let's get into it.
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: She's on the Money, She's on the Money. Hello, and
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: welcome to She's on the Money, where we share the
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: secrets to starting, growing and thriving in your own business.
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: I am your host to Victoria Devine, and today we've
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: got something extra special for you. It's one you've asked
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: for again and again, and honestly we could not be
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: more excited to share it with you. It's time for
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: another episode of the Business Bible. But today we're going
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: to be doing something a little bit differently. We are
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: going to be doing our very first business diary. So
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: not only are we diving into the biggest questions about
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: building your dream business. But we've also brought in someone
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: who really knows their stuff and trust me, you're going
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: to want to stick around for this one. Today's guest
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: is a total powerhouse. She's someone who started her journey
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: as a YouTuber and creator, turned it into a thriving empire,
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: and has become a trailblazer in the fashion industry, all
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: while staying unapologetically herself. She's proof that with grich, creativity
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: and a little bit of chaos, you can take an
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: idea and turn it into some being extraordinary. She's the
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: founder of a brand that doesn't just sell clothes, it
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: redefines what inclusivity in fashion looks like. Her journey includes
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: expanding her size range to make sure everyone feels represented,
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: opening a flagship store on the Gold Coast, and becoming
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: one of Australia's most relatable business icons. And somehow she's
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: found the time to host a killer podcast that deep
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: dives into the realities of running a business herself. That's right.
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: Today we are joined by the incredible Britney Saunders. Britney,
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: welcome to the show again.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: I suppose yeah, I'm so glad to be back, and
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: I'm going to be chatting with you this time, which
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: makes it even more exciting. So thank you for having
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: me back.
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: I'm so excited. Thank you for doing my Matt leave
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: cover by the way, that was really kind with you,
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: no worries. You know, business owners don't usually get Matt leaves,
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: and I was like, I'm just going to have to
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: pull a few friends in here and make this work.
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: And you really came through clutch, so I do appreciate it.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: It was my pleasure.
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: I'm also super excited to do our very first business story,
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: which is something our community have been asking and asking
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: for because we do our money diarries, which are like,
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: I guess the pervy details on somebody's money life, but
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: we've never done business ones, and I'm just so excited
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: that you kind of get to rip the banded off
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: and be the first one. So let's see how we
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: go and start, as we're going to always start business
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: stories with Brittany, can you tell me a little bit
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: more about your business journey.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, it's a long story which you kind of
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: touched on in the intro, but back in the day,
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: I started a YouTube channel before the word influencer was
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: even a thing. This is when we just had YouTube,
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: and I think Instagram was like barely new, when it
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: was just a photo sharing app. And to cut a
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: long story short, I made these silly videos for fun
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: and then I.
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: Just so you know, they weren't silly. I took them
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: very seriously. Just so you know, I took them very
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: very seriously as an oatally subscriber. Silly. No, no, no, no,
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: that was my teen hood, just so you know.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm glad to know. I thought they were really
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: cool back then, but looking back, they perhaps were a
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: little silly. But anyway, to cut a long story short,
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: I grew this online platform while I was in high school,
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: and then I dropped out of high school. I went
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: into full time work and I was just making these
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: YouTube videos for fun, and I just so happened to
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: organically build an audience. From there, we then saw the
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: rise of platforms like Instagram and Snapchat. So I used
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: that YouTube community to then build onto those social platforms
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: and I then became one of the first influencers I
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: guess you could say, in Australia, and I got to
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: be there for the start of you know, all these
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: small businesses popping up on Instagram like this was when
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: we saw Instagram brands come to life. And these Instagram
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: brands then clued onto the fact that they could work
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: with people like me to promote their business and grow
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: their social media. So I spent a lot of years
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: there in my early twenties working with businesses and promoting
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: them in an Instagram photo because this was before you know,
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: reels or anything existed with a good filter of course,
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: oh yeah, with the stock standard Instagram filters that you'd
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: just select as you posted them. And yeah, for many years,
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: from the age of twenty one onwards, that was my
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: full time job. I had always had an entrepreneurial spirit,
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: which I can't even remember if we touched on last
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: time I was on the pod, but I had dabbled
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: in so many businesses throughout my late teens and early twenties.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: I did mobile makeup, I did mobile spray tans, I
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: tried anything and everything, and back then, I honestly didn't
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: know that I was attempting to start businesses. It really
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: just felt like I was doing little hobbies. So then
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: when it comes to starting Fate, which is my business now,
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: it really was just you know, another one of those
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: things that I was trying, much like my spray tans
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: and my mobile makeup and the YouTube videos, I thought,
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: let's give this a go. I guess the only major
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: difference with doing that was I had had all this
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: experience working with other brands, and I had a following,
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: and a lot of people have said to me over
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: the years, well, you had a leg up in your
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: journey because you had all these followers and subscribers on
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: YouTube and then you got to launch your business into that.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: And to that I say, I absolutely agree. I had
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: a head start by building that following. But it's not
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: to say that just because you have followers online you
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: know how to run and sustain and grow a business,
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: because they're two completely different things.
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: I love that people go, oh, you had it easy.
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: It's like have you done payroll before, because that stuff
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: gets real complicated, real quick. And I, as an ex
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: financial advisor, I have seen a lot of influences come
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: to me and go v I think I've really messed
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: this up. Help and behind the scenes, it's an absolute mess.
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: So I applaud you because also you were kind of
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: born into a space where everyone had an opinion and
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: as a small business owner, oh my gosh, that would
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: have been so hard in comparison to just starting small
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: and growing with your friends and your family. Like you
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: just went in hard.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: I did, and I'll be completely honest. You know, people
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: always inspired to hear people's business journeys, and you know,
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: people say, you know, what was the inspiration behind fate like,
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: because they'll look at what it is now and think, wow,
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: this must have been some big grand plan that she's had.
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: You are so strategic.
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: But back then I wasn't, Like I will admit, I
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: went into this not having a clue of what I
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: was doing. I didn't say to myself, oh, I'm going
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: to grow this to be a massive, multi million dollar company.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: I quite literally just launched this thing with the knowledge
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: that I had taught myself. I googled everything. I still
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: google everything every single day, let's be honest. But I
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: didn't start out with this huge grand plan for this business.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: And I think a lot of owners, especially people that
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: are starting in business you know now, they might feel
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: that pressure that they need to have some huge business
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: plan with goals and a vision. And whilst I'm all
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: for that, it's also okay if you're just going in
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: and getting started, even if you don't really have a crack. Yeah,
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: because that's exactly what I did, and that's what a
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: lot of business owners have done. Like they're these tiny
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: ideas that you think, yep, I think I'll give this
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: a go and see where it goes. And it's just
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: absolutely snowballed over the last seven years where it is today.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: And I never would have thought that when I started it.
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: I just simply started.
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: I love that, and I feel like just starting is
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: the most important thing to do. Tell me, did you
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: seven years ago sit down and go, I'm going to
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: write up a big business plan? Is that what happened?
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: Because I feel like so many of us when we're
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: starting a business get caught up in this idea of
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: you know, downloading a business plan template and filling it in,
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: Like did you do that?
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: No? I did, honestly none of that. I think I
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: had like a kmart whiteboard and I would write stuff
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: on that physically. But back then, seven years ago, I
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: was just going in completely winging it. If I was
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: to start another new business to with the knowledge that
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: I have now, i'd absolutely you know, have a bit
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: of a plan, write everything out, map it all out.
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: But back then, you know, I was what, I don't
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: know how old I was, twenty four or something like that.
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: Like I just just a baby. I was a baby,
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: and I just went in and thought, fuck it, I'm
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: going to give it a crack.
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think that that naivety at the time
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: is what makes up some of that secret source. It's like, well,
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: how hard could it be? Like other people do it,
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: But now that you're in business and you see the
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: cogs emotion and you see what's going on, You're like,
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: this is pretty hard. Like I think if you knew
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: the reality of what seven years later would look like,
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: you'd be like, oh no, that's too much, Like I
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: don't think I'm capable, and like that's the same as me.
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: That's one of the great things about it is you know,
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: going in and not knowing what it's going to look like.
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: You just learn every single thing as you go. And
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: I'm learning even now, seven years in, I'm learning every
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: single day. I'm making mistakes and learning for next time.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: Like I think that's the beauty of business, is just
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: going in giving it a red hot crack and seeing
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: what the universe throws at you.
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: So how did you know that Fate could become a
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: business instead of just being a fun idea that you're like, oh,
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: I you know, you explained before that you felt like
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: your business benches before felt like, you know, little hobbies
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: on the side. At what point where you're like, oh,
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: Fate's not a little hobby on the side, it's like,
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: actually a business.
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So I would say that moment for me. So
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: I started Fate. I lived in a townhouse rental with
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: my partner, AJ, who I'm still with now, so he's
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: been with me since the very beginning I started it.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: We had a double garage underneath our townhouse, and I said,
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: all right, we're moving our cars out and I'm setting
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: this thing up in the garage. We're parking on the street.
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: He's like, yeah, okay, honey.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: And so it was in the garage that I hired
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: my first casual employee. So I guess that moment when
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: I hired my first casual employee that felt real because
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: because all of a sudden, I had been self employed
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: for who knows five years by this point, and all
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: of a sudden, I was going to be financially responsible
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: for paying someone that's terrifying.
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it is that to me made me so anxious,
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: and I don't think people talk about it enough. Like
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: I would stay up at like late at night calculating
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: how many months we could not make money and I
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: could keep that person employed because it was the weight
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: of the world on my shoulders.
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: It's really scary. And I remember saying to AJ because
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: it was his like mum's friend's daughter, like you know,
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: the family, family friend. And I remember saying, like, what
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: if I don't have enough money to pay her one week?
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: Like these were the thoughts that I was having back then.
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: But it was at that moment I think that I realized,
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: hang on a second, like because I'm hiring someone, like
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: this is a real business. And I'd say. The second
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: moment that made me realize, hang on, this is turning
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: into something was when we moved out of the garage
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: and we got our first commercial lease. It was just
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: a little ninety square meter store o read shed essentially,
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: and signing that twelve month lease and knowing that I
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: was going to pay you know, thirty five thousand dollars
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: a year in rent, that was also a really defining
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: moment for me of like, holy shit, like, not only
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: am I renting our house, but I'm now renting a shed.
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: So those were like two moments to me where I
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: knew there's a lot of money, like, oh, oh yeah
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: it was, it was back then, and it's still a
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: lot of money now. But like in the grand scheme
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: of business, I was the same. But I think it's
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: so funny going from oh, I'm signing my first thirty
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: five thousand dollars a year lease to knowing that you
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: have a flagship store now and you've got you know,
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: multiple locations, and the locations you've chosen are very strategic
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: because they have you know, beautiful like locations, they have
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: great foot traffic, they're in the right places for your demographic.
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: I know how much you know research you've put into that,
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: which means they're not cheat.
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: No, exactly, that thirty five thousand dollars rent a year
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: now is nothing in comparison to the commercial leases we
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: have now, which is terrifying. Yeah, it really is, but
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: it's all part of the journey. And again, like growth,
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: and I look back and remember signing that first lease
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: so vividly and being so scared, and again I thought,
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: what if we don't make thirty five thousand dollars, you know,
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: and I can't pay the rent for the year. But
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: I think it's like when you're in those moments and
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: you're scared, Like I think I'm not really woo woo
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: or anything, but I think that's a universe saying like,
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: this is your opportunity. Take it.
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, one hundred percent. So tell me when you first launched,
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: how did you plan to make it work financially?
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: Again, I didn't have much of a financial plan, if
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: I'm being completely honest with you. I had obviously been
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: an influencer for the years leading up to launching Faith,
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: and I'd been really smart with my money back then,
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: which I don't know how I did that, because I
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: was in my early twenties earning a decent amount of money.
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: I don't know how I didn't go nuts and just
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: waste it all. And I'd never grown up with any
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: guidance from any family members or anything like that. But
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: somehow I managed to be smart with my money in
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: my early twenties, and I had a decent amount of savings,
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: so I used money from my savings to launch Fade
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: and just pay for all those initial things. Like obviously,
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: I wasn't worrying about commercial rent because we were in
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: the garage, but you know, buying all my shipping bags
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: and labels and stickers and a printer and just all
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: those things that I needed to get to launch as
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: well as stock. I used my savings for that, and
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: I guess for me back then, it was just important
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: to always know that I had money sitting in the
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: bank account. I didn't have any kind of financial plan,
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: nothing like that, which again, like if I was starting today,
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: I would obviously have a bit of a better understanding
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: of my finances and you know what the six months
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: ahead are going to look like. But back then I
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: couldn't even see past that day because I didn't know
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: what I was doing. You were just having fun. I
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: was just wigging it. And I think for me it
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: was just from the get go, I knew that all
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: of the money that I was earning through our sales
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: when we first launched wasn't my money. I think a
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: lot of people can maybe get caught up if they
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: launch a new business and let's say it's a successful
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: launch or you have a great first month. In my mind,
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: and I don't know why again, because no one taught
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: me this, But in my mind, I knew that that
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: money that was coming in from our salves that we
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: were generating online, I knew that wasn't my money to touch.
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: So I kept it there in the business bank account
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: and the only thing that I would spend it on
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: is more expensive for the business. I never touched any
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: of it. I knew I can't go and buy handbags
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: and high heels with this money. This is the business's money.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: So it was just yeah, ensuring that I didn't touch
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: any of those funds. And I was fortunate to be
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: able to do that because I was still influencing, so
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: I had an income that I was making myself, and
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: I kept the business money in those business bank accounts.
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: Smart, so smart, and like, in hindsight, you're like, I
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: don't even know how I was that smart, but like, no,
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: but it's genuinely great advice because you're right. So many
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: people and so many small business owners get caught up
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: and going, oh, we had a great first launch. I'm
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: going to treat myself, and I'm like, it's not your money,
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: Like I know that.
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: It feels that way, I know, and it's hard because
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: you get excited and because you're seeing that money come
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: in and like, I was so uneducated. I mean, I've
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: been self employed for a few years by this point.
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: But when you see the full amount coming in from
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: your online sales, you know the tax isn't taken out
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: or anything like that. It's just really important to know
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: that number one, that's not your money. And number two,
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: all that money there, like a lot of it has
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: to go to tax.
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and that bikes Yeah it does.
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: And you you know, I came from working nine to
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: five Monday to Friday and getting my pay sleep every
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: week and the tax already being done for me. So
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: then to go from that to just money coming in
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: but the tax isn't done, that wasn't a huge adjustment
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: for me. Yeah.
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: So talk to me about your first I guess big
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: investment in the business. I know that you probably started going, oh, okay,
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: we're going to do it in the garage. It's not
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: that much of an investment. I'm going to buy some
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: mailers and all of those things add up. But what
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: was the first point that you were like, Oh, I
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: actually need to invest in this thing for my business.
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: Oh good question. Ah, there was lots of things that
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: I invested in initially, so one would be like camera equipment.
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: So I taught myself how to shoot e commerce website images. Again,
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: I was doing it in the shed, so like, I
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: got it.
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: I don't care where you're doing it, just the idea
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: that you're like, oh, how hard could it be. I'll
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: do my own shoots. Oh, I'll do my own website.
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: Oh you know what, I'll do all the mailing. I
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: need a hand. I'll get a casual employee. At no
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: point where you're like, oh, I could outsource this. I
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: could invest in some product photos who were like camera, Yes,
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: we'll do it myself.
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: I did everything myself from the beginning, all in that shed.
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: But yeah, a big investment would have been like a
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: Canon camera with a good lens, some flash photography triggers,
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: and then my backdrop and then teaching myself how to
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: do that and other than that, The next big investment,
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: I would say, was obviously just moving into that first
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: warehouse and the deposits that you have to pay when
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: you're moving into a commercial space. I just somehow knew, like,
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: even though this was going to be more expensive and
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: I had to put down a security bond, that that
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: investment was going to be worth it. So yeah, I'd
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: say they're the biggest investments other than that, just continually
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: reinvesting back into the business, you know, coming out with
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: new pieces, creating new collections, and then from there I
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: guess it would then be moving into the next warehouse
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: after that. And then in twenty nineteen I opened my
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: first boutique here in Newcastle where we are based. That
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: was a huge investment as well, like getting the shop
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: counter and the change room's built and all that kind
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: of stuff and shop fit outs are so expensive they are,
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: and I because it didn't need much done to it,
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: I did get a lot of like friends of friends
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: in and we kind of did it really deep why
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: But it was a lot of money back then, and
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: it took us a lot of months to set it up.
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: And again, like I proudly say, I had no idea
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: what I was doing. I remember googling how to get
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: a point of sale for a retail store.
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: And they're good, but like, how else do you do that?
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: You're not born knowing, like you just taught it yourself
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: along the way. And I think that that's what's for
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: me so inspiring about your journey. It's kind of like
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: this idea that how hard good to be, I could
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: do it. It's fine, exactly.
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: I think that's always been my mentality is just figuring
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: it out as you go. And people would probably look
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: at me and what I'm doing today and be like wow,
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: like how do you know how to do all these things?
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: And my one hundred percent honest answer is, I've just
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: figured it out as I went. I have googled every
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: single little thing. And I'd say that one of my
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: best skills that has gotten me to where I am
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: in my business journey now is being a fast learner.
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: If you're a fast learner, you're going to move forward
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: in your business really quickly if you put yourself to it.
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: And I feel like resourcefulness as well, is something that
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: you are very very good at. Like you're just like
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: I can find the answer. If I don't know the answer,
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: I'm going to find the answer. I'm going to find
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: the person. I'm going to find the thing I need,
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: whether that is like you know, someone to fit out
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: your shop or somebody to help you set up a
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: point of sales system, Like you're just.
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: Like I can work it out. I will work it out.
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: You've got to have that mentality. In business, no matter what,
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: we will figure it.
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: Out exactly, all right. I want to know more about
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: I guess a day in the life, because I'm assuming
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: that a day in the life when you were just
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: starting out looked very different to a day in the
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: life today. What does today look like? And then tell
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: me a bit about how they differ. It differs in
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: every way. Obviously.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: I started being extremely hands on, which I think is
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: a really amazing way to start a business. So back
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: in the shed, I was packing every order. I was
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: replying to every customer service email. I was going down
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: to our pobox to pick up the returns. I was
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: processing their returns for customers. I was shooting all of
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: our website photography. I was doing our websites through Shopify,
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: so I was setting up our Shopify theme, making sure
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: the website was looking amazingly. I was doing our email
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: marketing EDMS. There wasn't a thing that I wasn't doing.
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: I had my fingers in every part of the business
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: and it was like a one man band kind of thing,
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: plus my casual employee. And slowly, over the last seven years,
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: what I've had to do, which a lot of owners
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: will experience in growth is delegating and letting go of
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: those tasks, and this can be a really hard thing
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: for business owners to do, especially if you like being
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: in control of everything, and you can get so comfortable
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: doing everything yourself because you know how to do these processes,
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: You're quick at them, and you know that you're not
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: going to fuck it up because you know what you're doing.
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: So over the years, I've obviously hired a lot of
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: people to take tasks off me so I can focus
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: on things that are more important. Because, let's be honest,
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: as much as I'd love to be sitting here replying
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: to our customer service emails every day, you know, if
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: I'm concentrating on doing that, then I can't concentrate on
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: growing the business. So it's been a long journey of
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: letting go of a lot of tasks and bringing new
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: people on and now I guess today my role is
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: obviously CEO of the company. My number one goal is
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: to grow the business. That's through expanding our stores and
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: obviously through our social media, so you'll see me in
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: a lot of our content. So I do a lot
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: of our content. I'm responsible for the role out of
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: all of our stores and believe it or not. I'm
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: still our buyer for all of our stock, and I
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: run our Facebook ads.
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: I love that. I love that. Also very funny because
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: you literally said, yeah, you've just got to let go,
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: and then you're like, oh, so I'm doing the Facebook ads. Yeah.
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: I actually speak to a lot of other founders on
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: my podcast and it's actually made me realize, oh shit,
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: I still actually am very involved like this far in
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: like I've spoken to other owners.
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: I know, so am I my business. I really like
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: it though, like I don't want to lose it, and
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: like I'm good at these things. Let me have a turn, like,
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: let me still be involved, like I started because I
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: wanted to do these things, not because I wanted it
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: all to be taken off me and me to sit
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: in an office in the corner. Like I don't know.
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: I feel like obviously everyone is different, but I feel
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: like you and I are very similar in that I
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: still want a little bit of hands on stuff, Like
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: I know that my team will tell me like, v
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: you don't have to do that. I'll be like, give,
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: it's not really the point, is it.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: No.
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: I'm still very much involved, obviously in the day to
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: day operations. Like today I'm in our office, I'll just
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: be working with everyone here, and maybe tomorrow I'll be
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: at our warehouse, but I'm more so just there, like
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: overseeing the operations, assisting everyone in their roles kind of thing,
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: and just focusing on my tasks as well. But I've
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: found if I'm in the office or in the warehouse
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: or around our teams, i can't actually do anything that
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: I want to do, Like my day is helping them.
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: Then I'll go home and do what I want to do.
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: But I've definitely given up a lot of roles over
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: the years, like those more little roles, so I can
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: focus on the bigger things.
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah. No, I totally agree with that. And they laugh
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: because that's you know, literally my days I work as well.
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: Complete side note, I was having a conversation with my husband.
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: We're talking about, you know what happens when we have
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: other kids, like are we going to have to move house?
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: What are we going to do? And he's like, oh, well,
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: we could like convert your office because you've got an office,
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: Like you could just go to your office and work
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: like and it's probably better for you to do that
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: because you know, we can convert your office into another
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: kid's bedroom one day and you can go to the
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: black office work. And I was like, Babe, I can't
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: work at the office, Like I don't think you get this,
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: Like I come home to do the work, Like I'm
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: not productive in my office at all, because one, I
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: want to know what you're up to, but two, like
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: it's my opportunity one on one time with everybody in
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: the team, checking in, seeing what's going on, helping them
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: problem solve, being part of the team.
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I think another thing as well that I've been
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: struggling with a lot and I'm sure you and a
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: lot of other owners would struggle with as well, is
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: feeling guilty if you aren't there for the team. Like
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: let's say, for example, because our office and warehouse are separate,
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: they're like ten minutes apart from each other, which is easy.
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: But let's say, like today, for example, I'm here at
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: our office and I probably won't be at the warehouse
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: at all. It's just like an internal thing. But I
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: struggle with thinking, Oh, like where do the warehouse team
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: think I am? Like, and you have all these internal thoughts.
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: Do they think I'm slacking? Do they think I'm out
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: at lunch.
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: Yes, do they think, oh, where is she? You know,
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: like she's not here if I'm not at the office
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: for a certain amount of days because I'm in Sydney
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: or at the warehouse, like I think, oh, they're judging me.
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: But these are just like internal guilt thoughts.
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: Oh, they're definitely internal. I have them as well. It's
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: why before So today I'm podcasting, which means I'm not
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: in my office either, and I won't be all day.
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: So I like messaged everybody on Slack to be like, hey,
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: I hope you have a good day, just so you
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: know this is where I'm going to be because you
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: just get the guilts.
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: Oh that's me every time I'm down in Sydney every
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: Monday for my podcast too, and I'm always like, I've
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: got four hours on the road today, like bring me
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: if you need like, oh, the.
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: Car time is golden. Please call me while we're driving
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: because in an instant an hour has gone and we've
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: had a really good chat and solved a few problems.
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: Like please call me when I'm in the car. It's
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: my favorite. All right, I have more questions. I'm sorry,
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: I feel like we could chat about this. What is
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: something that nobody warned you about when going into and
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: running your own business.
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: Well, to answer that broadly, it would obviously be everything,
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: because I didn't go to anyone for any advice before
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: going into business. So to answer it broadly, I'd say everything.
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: But if I had to narrow it down to like
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: one thing that's kind of slapped me in the face,
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: I would say, like how complex dealing with people is,
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: as in like team members and how much your business
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: journey that you've started. And let's be honest, like when
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: we start businesses ourselves, it's almost like you're starting it
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: for you. And if you're going to be the one
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: doing everything, like it's your business, you're doing everything. But
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: at a certain point, if you scale and you all
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: of a sudden have all of these employees, how much
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: that business is no longer about you at all and
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: it's actually about everyone else. And just like managing people,
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: and like, one of the things that I always say
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: is like it's really hard, or if not impossible, to
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: be the perfect manager and the perfect entrepreneur because they
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: are two complete different things. And obviously, when we start
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: a business, we're starting it from our entrepreneurial fire, like
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: we've got all these ideas, we want to bring them
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: to life. But then if your company grows to a
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: certain point and you all of a sudden got all
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: of these employees, Yes, you've got to keep being an entrepreneur,
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: you've got to innovate, you've got to move the business forward.
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: But also you have to then figure out how to
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: be the best manager that you can be. And I
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: had no management experience. I barely worked in jobs for
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: like a year throughout my early days. I would get
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: a job and quit it after six months and go
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: on to something else. I worked over twenty jobs since
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: I'd dropped out of school.
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: You were just collecting experience so that you could build
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: this I was. You're like, oh, I know how to
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: use a point of sales system onwards and next what's next?
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: I know how to put fries in the fry machine.
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: Next exactly we've learned that. Don't bore me. I'm not
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: going to keep doing it. I need to go do Now,
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: what's a cheeseburger look like? Exactly right?
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: But yeah, I would say the biggest eye opener for
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: me has just been dealing with the people side of
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: business and how complex that truly is, Like just finding
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: that balance of yeah, growing your business and keeping it
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: moving forward, but also being an attentive and good manager,
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: which again, like no one taught me that I'd never
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: managed a single person before starting Faith, and now we've
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: got teams upon.
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: Teams, you know, one hundred percent. And I feel like,
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: you know, this is probably outing both of us, but
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: I feel like when you have an entrepreneurial spirit and
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: you are an entrepreneur, that does not mean you are
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: a good manager. Like it's something that over time you
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: really have to learn. And I think that people in
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: our demographic, like you and I I know, are probably
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: very driven by doing the right thing and being the
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: best manager that you can be. But that's a lot
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: of work because it's in direct competition with this idea
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: that you can just go and do whatever you want
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: to become an entrepreneur and you know, leave a job
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: after six months because you're like, well, on board of this,
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: I want something new, Like you have so many people
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: that you're responsible for their salaries, their careers, you know,
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: their personal growth and honestly their mental health. And I
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: think that becoming a good manager it takes so much work,
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: and I don't think people realize what that journey actually
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: looks like, because like your first person, you're like, oh,
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: this isn't too bad. I've gone, you know, become a
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: little bit buddy buddy with them. That's fine, I love
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: doing this. And like, over time you start adding team
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: members and the dynamics starts to shift and then you're like, oh,
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: hold on, what do I have to do here about this?
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: And oh what does the next team hire look like?
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: And then we're starting to talk about things like cultural
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: fit kneeling. I don't even know what the definition of
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: that is like, and it's just it's a lot.
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: Hey, oh, one hundred percent. That's been the most eye
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: opening part of business for sure, And like dealing with
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: people and culture, it's something that you're never not going
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: to deal with. And I think when a company gets
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: to a certain size, you just kind of have to
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: always expect that there's going to be some sort of
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: problem happening within the people within your team, and it's
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: just like learning to manage that. You know, it could
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: be something as little as someone has said something that
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: has upset someone else. It's dealing with little things like that.
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: And I think really with any business, like the bigger
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: business gets the bigger your problems get.
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: One hundred percent. And I find that the bigger your
• 30:41
  Speaker 3: business gets, the more impactful the tiiny problems are. So
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: someone saying something and it not being addressed asap becomes
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: a massive snowball issue as opposed to you know, just
• 30:54
  Speaker 3: going oh, sorry, I didn't mean that and moving on
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: like it's wild how the small things can throw the
• 30:59
  Speaker 3: big issues off.
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: To any business owners out there or aspiring business owners.
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: If there's one thing that I've learned in my seven years,
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: it's no matter how tiny a little problem is, speak
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: about it straight away. Don't sweep stuff under the rug.
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: And I know, in the start of your business journey
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: when like you said, you've got one or two people
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: working for you and you're all really buddy buddy, and
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: you're going out for drinks on the weekend because you
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: have also become friends. Trust me, I've been there and
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: done that. You can so easily just go, oh, I'll
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: just sweep this under the rug kind of thing, because
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: it's easier to do that. But I've learned the hard way,
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: and I'm sure every business owner does.
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: We all have. We all have.
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it doesn't matter if it's as tiny as someone
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: has said something to someone that they've just maybe even
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: taken in the wrong way. It's just so important. I
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: always say, you've got to have a hard conversation to
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: have an easy life. If you just have easy conversations
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: all the time, you're going to have a hard life.
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: So all quit as it is. It's really important to
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: throw yourself in the deep end and have those hard conversations,
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: sit the person down, you know, figure out what's going on.
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: Don't just sweep shit under the rug, even though that's
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: the easy option and where all people pleases. We don't
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: want to upset anyone. We don't want to catch anyone
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: off guard. But in business like, you'll thank yourself for
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: it down the future because that and.
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: You'll thank Brittany for it as well. You'll be like, oh,
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: thank god, you will.
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: Because if you don't do anything about it now, that
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: tiny little comment that was made on that Thursday afternoon
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: in six months time is going to turn into an
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: absolute nightmare for you.
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: Trust me, trust me one hundred percent. And you know what,
• 32:40
  Speaker 3: so many people listening to this and not going to
• 32:42
  Speaker 3: trust us, and they're going to do it. And at
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: that point I'm just going to go, babe, that's a
• 32:45
  Speaker 3: ride of passage. Call me when you get through that bar.
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: Exactly right.
• 32:49
  Speaker 3: Let's go to a really quick break because on the
• 32:51
  Speaker 3: flip side, I have so many more questions for you, guys.
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: Don't go anywhere. Okay, so we're back. Tell me now,
• 33:03
  Speaker 3: what do you think of the top three most important
• 33:05
  Speaker 3: skills of yours that have made your business successful?
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: Number one, I would say, and we've already touched on it.
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: Being a fast learner. I feel like that's one of
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: my best skills. And just having that mentality of I
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: can figure it out on my own and I can
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: learn that. I don't know where I got that like
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: false sense of self confidence from, like back when I
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: started FAE.
• 33:27
  Speaker 3: It's not false, you got great. You just want to
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: try and try again.
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: But I'd say, yeah, like that willingness to just learn
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: things really quickly, And now, like seven years in, my
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: confidence is through the roof. There's nothing that I in
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: my mind I can't do, Like it doesn't matter what
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: it is, it doesn't matter if I've never done it before.
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: If there's a task that needs doing and I don't
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: know what it is, I'm fully confident in myself that
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: I could pick that task up, learn it straight away.
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: Bing bang bongb It's done.
• 33:54
  Speaker 3: I love it. And it might take a little bit
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: longer at the start, but like I tell my team
• 33:59
  Speaker 3: this all the time. I'm like, there's YouTube tutorial for everything.
• 34:02
  Speaker 3: Don't worry about it, like we can work it out.
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: Like can I build a website? Yes, I learned on
• 34:07
  Speaker 3: YouTube how to build an entire square space website, Like
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: I've got this, don't.
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: I don't mean it with TikTok now, like we didn't
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: have TikTok when we were starting Fade or for those
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: first few years, Like TikTok makes everything so much easier.
• 34:19
  Speaker 3: It's how our parent Britney, Yeah, what do I do about?
• 34:22
  Speaker 3: And I go to TikTok straight away and then some
• 34:25
  Speaker 3: mum tells me exactly what the answer is. Same thing
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: for business.
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: So yeah, i'd say my first skill is being a
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: fast learner. The second one is, I would say, being
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: a really good problem solver. Business is going to throw
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: you hurdles every bloody day, Like there's never a day
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: where something hasn't gone a little bit pear shaped. It
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: could be something drastic, or it could be something tiny.
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: And I think in business, it's really important to just
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: have that problem solving mentality. You can't just cry and
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: crawl into a little ball and say this is too hard.
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: You've just really got to embrace having that mentality of
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: all right, this has happened. Shit is absolutely hitting the
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: fan XYZ has happened. But let's work out a solution
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: for this. And I've definitely learned so far. Touch would
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: that there is a solution for every problem that your
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: business is going to throw at you. So I would
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: definitely say that is being a good problem solver. And
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: the third most important skill. I mean, this is more
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: niche to me, but I would say, like another skill
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: that's held me a lot in my business journey is
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: knowing how to make bloody good content for social media.
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, can we talk after this, because like I suck
• 35:42
  Speaker 3: your content? You are absolutely correct, And I mean I
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: did ask what was I guess something about you not
• 35:49
  Speaker 3: necessarily what everybody needs, but bloody hell, your content is
• 35:53
  Speaker 3: just so good. Like I do want to watch that
• 35:55
  Speaker 3: video of you packing orders. I really do, Like I
• 35:57
  Speaker 3: stop and I watch and I'm just like why this
• 36:00
  Speaker 3: so good? Like what is your secret source to content creation?
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: Britney Okay, So I've obviously had a lot of experience,
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: you know, I started making those YouTube videos.
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: Just why I'm asking, I'm like, oh, we've got this
• 36:12
  Speaker 3: old an opportunity.
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: I started making those YouTube videos in high school, which
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: was like over fifteen years ago now, so I've had
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: a lot of practice being in front of the camera.
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: I think I'm naturally an entertainer, like I think I
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: have an entertainer type of personality, which is definitely something
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: that I've used to my advantage. And i think one
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: of the big things as well is for the whole
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: time that I've been on the Internet, and I'm always
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: like ancient on the internet now, I would say for
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: the entire time, I've just always never been afraid to
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: be myself. I think that's been one of the biggest
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: keys to my success is I've just shown up on
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: the internet for the last fifteen or so years and
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: I've just been myself. Sure, I've gone through a lot
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: of phases in my life over those last ten to
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: fifteen years, but I've been like unapologetically myself and I've
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: been confident in showing up as me, which i think
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: is just so important, especially now because consumers are more
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: switched on than ever. Followers are more switched on than ever.
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: They can see straight through the bullshit. And I think
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: what has really helped me in my journey is I've
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: just always been me. I've never tried to be something
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: I'm not, or showcase my life in a way that
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: it isn't, or fit into an aesthetic, you know. I've
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: just always been me, Brittany from Newcastle, you know. And
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: I think that's really helped in my journey for sure
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: when it's come to creating that fun, everyday organic content totally.
• 37:43
  Speaker 3: And do you find that now? I feel like you
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: are wildly successful at the end of the day, Like
• 37:49
  Speaker 3: Fate is not a small business, and you are still
• 37:52
  Speaker 3: very approachable. You're very relatable and I adore that. And
• 37:56
  Speaker 3: this might be a hard question, but are you finding
• 37:59
  Speaker 3: it harder and harder to show up as you as
• 38:02
  Speaker 3: time goes on and your business becomes massive or are
• 38:05
  Speaker 3: you going nahs. It's really easy because you know, to
• 38:08
  Speaker 3: preface this question. That's something that I really struggle with
• 38:11
  Speaker 3: that over time, And maybe it's because I'm in this
• 38:14
  Speaker 3: money space and like money is a fickle topic for everybody,
• 38:17
  Speaker 3: but when I started she is on the money. I
• 38:20
  Speaker 3: was relatable because I had debt. I was relatable because
• 38:23
  Speaker 3: I hadn't purchased my first home and I went through
• 38:25
  Speaker 3: that journey and now I have multiple properties, and I go, oh,
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: is that that relatable? Like should I be sharing these things?
• 38:32
  Speaker 3: Like is this something that as a business owner, I
• 38:35
  Speaker 3: guess in the fashion space? Is that something that you
• 38:37
  Speaker 3: have to think about or are you just like NAHV,
• 38:39
  Speaker 3: I'm just me and it works out, It's all good.
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: I definitely have had that thought, honestly, But I think,
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: you know, whatever, it is, Like We've been renovating our
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: house for the last two years and I haven't really
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: made content about it, but I've done little bits and
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: bobs on my Instagram story, like that's the only place
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: I've posted about our house. And even then, like we're
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: doing a really nice renovation. I've got some like really
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: expensive things in the house, and I've been really mindful
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: with posting it, even though like everyone has been loving
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: seeing my story updates on the house, and if I
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: don't post anything for a week or two, people say,
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: have you got any updates on the house, Like they've
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: really been loving, loving seeing the journey. But even then
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: I've thought, fuck, like, you know, whatever it is I'm showing,
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: I'm like, this is a really expensive stone bench, and
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: I've thought, fuck, are people going to take that in
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: the wrong way? But I think what it comes down
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: to is like, yes, I can show those things on
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: my social media, but what really matters, And I guess
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: what has helped is like that I'm staying true to myself.
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: I'm not all of a sudden going, oh, and I've
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: got this fancy stern bench like I of course I do.
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: I'm still me showing up you like, look.
• 39:46
  Speaker 3: At this six stove stone. It is so sexy.
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: I think it's just important that I've just stayed true
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: to myself and I know that, you know, if you
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: are showing things online that may seem out of touch,
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: you can have those thoughts. But then again, I think
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: as well, people idolize the Kardashians, watch their lives and
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: all the shit they do, and if people are going
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: to say something about me putting a bench in my kitchen, it's.
• 40:18
  Speaker 3: A good point. It's a good point.
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, like people idolize celebrities and you know, billionaires. But yeah,
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: I guess as fate has grown, I have been more
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: mindful with what I share, and I would never want
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: to come across like I'm out of touch and I
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: have had those thoughts that you have, But again, I
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: think it just all comes back to just still showing
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: up as myself and not allowing the money to like
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: change who I am. And I don't think I would
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: ever change no matter how much money I come into
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: into my lifetime, Like I'm always going to be just
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: like Britney from Newie that loves going to the pub
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: to have a chicken snitz with my partner.
• 40:54
  Speaker 3: No, I love it. And now you have just a
• 40:56
  Speaker 3: really nice kitchen and that's lip.
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: And now we can have nice chicken snitzle on the
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: nice stone bench exactly exactly.
• 41:06
  Speaker 3: So talk to me about you have, I guess, grown
• 41:09
  Speaker 3: up with social media like you have taught us about
• 41:13
  Speaker 3: social media. I suppose you have a massive following on
• 41:16
  Speaker 3: Instagram and on TikTok. What would be your number one
• 41:20
  Speaker 3: tip for small business owners who haven't had that, who
• 41:24
  Speaker 3: are going, oh, I'm doing this for the very first time.
• 41:27
  Speaker 3: Where would you tell them to focus?
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: I would say capture everything. One thing that I didn't
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: do when I started Fate was I hit it from
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: my social media, which is really weird because I had
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: a booming YouTube channel and I've logged my day to
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: day life. But when I started Fate, I made very
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: like secretive videos where people knew that I was launching
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: this business. And I had a spare room in my
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: townhouse and I set it up as my little office
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: and I would show that because I had a nice
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: little office works desk with my computer on it, and
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: I was like, this is my office. But I never
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: showed the garage because I was worried that it would
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: look dodgy or people would say that's cringe or embarrassing.
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: So all I have from that very beginning of my
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: journey is a few photos that I took, like packing
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: my first order, and then I had one of my
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: friends come over it every now and then and he
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: would help me pack the orders. So my friend Wade,
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: like has these videos of us doing a time lapse
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: of packing in the garage. So cute. Yeah, And so
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: obviously the Internet was really different back then. We didn't
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: have reels, and we didn't have TikTok or anything like that.
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: But if I was starting my business now, I would
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: capture all of those little moments because imagine if I
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: had known back then what it would turn into today,
• 42:41
  Speaker 2: I would have loved to have shared that part of
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: my journey more, but instead I like hit it and
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: was embarrassed of it. So to anyone starting on socials
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: now and launching a business, like, if you're open to it,
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: I would organically share the journey of what it's like.
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: I would make videos saying, Hey, I'm setting up my
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: business in my spare room. Come decorate my office with me,
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: and I'd make a video showing I'm going to have
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: my labels here, I'm going to have my printer there,
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: this is where I'm going to pack the orders. Like,
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: I'd show all that stuff, and people now like are
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: so interested in seeing all of that stuff. And that's
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: how you can start to create a community is by
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: sharing the journey. And like, yeah, I completely didn't have
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: the opportunity to do that because I didn't have Instagram
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: reels or TikTok. But now with the way that TikTok
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: especially is, people love seeing that behind the scenes shit.
• 43:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and they even start requesting, hey, ritman, can you
• 43:35
  Speaker 3: pack my order in one of those videos, like they
• 43:38
  Speaker 3: want that and that's so engaging.
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: One hundred percent. So I would say, don't be afraid
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: to capture all of those moments, and maybe you don't
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: have to post them all if you're too scared, But
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: I'd even just capture them and save them for your
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: own memories, because you never know, in seven years you
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: might look back and be like, holy shit, look out
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: far we've come.
• 43:56
  Speaker 3: That would be really good content for me today.
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: I know literally, so that, yeah, that would definitely be
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: my advice.
• 44:02
  Speaker 3: I know you work as an influencer or used to
• 44:04
  Speaker 3: work as an influencer. How did that shape the way
• 44:07
  Speaker 3: that you have then approached influencer marketing in your brand?
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: So we don't do a whole lot of influencer marketing
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: with BA, we definitely do and obviously, yeah, I was
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: an influencer for so many years and worked with so
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: many brands. I think the influencer landscape has changed a
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: lot since I was influencing back in the day. Compared
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: to today, it's definitely a really saturated market. And what
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: we actually do now at FATE is we mainly and
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: pretty much only work with micro influencers. You won't see
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: us working with any huge influencers just because it's so saturated,
• 44:42
  Speaker 2: and obviously there's no guarantees with working with influencers, like
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: you could pay someone ten grand for a TikTok and
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: like you are not promised one sale, So it's really risky.
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: And I'm not saying working with influencers is bad. They're
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: obviously so amazing for businesses, Like influencers have played a
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: huge part in scaling businesses over the last five to
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: ten years. But what we do now is we mainly
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: work with micro influencers, so people that might have you know,
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: five thousand followers, ten thousand followers, fifteen thousand followers, and
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: whilst that's not that many followers, you will probably find
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: that those people have far more engaged audiences than someone
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: with one hundred thousand followers. So yeah, we invest our
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: money into micro influences. It's obviously more affordable for businesses
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: and it's less of a financial risk. Rather than paying
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: one person ten thousand dollars, we could take a ten
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: thousand dollar budget and go and work with a ton
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: of micro influencers. So yeah, that's kind of our focus
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: for influencers, and that's really.
• 45:43
  Speaker 3: What we do, and I think that that's important as well,
• 45:47
  Speaker 3: and it's so interesting to learn, but it's also just
• 45:51
  Speaker 3: it's so obvious that it's more engaging. So like I
• 45:54
  Speaker 3: can tell that the selection that you guys have made
• 45:57
  Speaker 3: with the influences that you work with, like I rereading
• 46:00
  Speaker 3: that they are good brand fits. Not only are they that,
• 46:02
  Speaker 3: but they've probably already purchased your products and they were
• 46:05
  Speaker 3: super stoked when you slid into their DMS and said, hey,
• 46:08
  Speaker 3: we'd love to work together. They're like, holy moly, Like
• 46:10
  Speaker 3: I already love your brand and it's just so obvious
• 46:13
  Speaker 3: that that's your strategy. Well from another business owner, I suppose,
• 46:17
  Speaker 3: because it is so organic and whenever somebody pops up
• 46:20
  Speaker 3: and they're doing you know, and unboxing or they're doing
• 46:22
  Speaker 3: you know, look at my outfit, I'm like, oh that
• 46:24
  Speaker 3: makes sense.
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: Of course that was.
• 46:26
  Speaker 3: Fate, Like of course they've weaseled their way in here
• 46:28
  Speaker 3: because that's the perfect fit for them. And I just
• 46:31
  Speaker 3: I wanted to ask because I was like, I feel
• 46:33
  Speaker 3: like you have a more organic approach to It's still there,
• 46:37
  Speaker 3: but it's not who can we get who's trending this month,
• 46:40
  Speaker 3: who's the biggest dog on the on the app at
• 46:43
  Speaker 3: the moment?
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: I think as well, like as I said, like the
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: influencer landscape has changed so much, and I was obviously
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: there through the rise of it, but I think now
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: people are kind of getting really fed up of like
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: big influencers just constantly promoting products, like it's not authentic anymore,
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: and people probably see a sponsored ad and scroll pass
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: as quickly as they can. So it works really well
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: for us, like working with you know, those micro creators
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: who have small, engaged audiences because their audience really trust
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: what they're saying. And just recently as well, another thing
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: that we've done, so we have a Facebook community group
• 47:19
  Speaker 2: which is called Fate Society, which is like the best
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: group ever, and we are launched a like Fate Society
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: pr list into our community.
• 47:29
  Speaker 3: Oh I love that.
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're starting, We've already started it. But it's something
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: like we're building and we're going to do a lot
• 47:36
  Speaker 2: with in twenty twenty five. And instead of like you know,
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: working with influencers on TikTok and stuff, we're actually working
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: directly with members of our community and we're getting them
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: to create wholes and stuff and we're really going to
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: build that within our own community and like hype up
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: our own customers. You know, being on the Fate pr list.
• 47:55
  Speaker 2: So it's just like another activation that we've launched recently
• 47:58
  Speaker 2: that we're going to scale more into the new year.
• 48:01
  Speaker 3: I'm obsessed. I actually adore that so much. I'm biased,
• 48:05
  Speaker 3: Like I agree that Fate Society might be good, but
• 48:07
  Speaker 3: that she's on the money community. It's it's different, Like
• 48:11
  Speaker 3: our Facebook group is my face and you're probably the same.
• 48:13
  Speaker 3: Like I just love going in there and seeing what
• 48:15
  Speaker 3: people are talking about and joining in the conversation around
• 48:18
  Speaker 3: our brand.
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: Oh, it's so great, like people for us, Like they're
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: sharing their outfit photos in there, They're posting about an
• 48:25
  Speaker 2: item saying can I get styling tips I bought these pants?
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: Or like what size should I get in these? Does
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: anyone have photos? Like it's just so great having a
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: community group. And we launched it at the start of
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: this year just like oh, we'll make this group, and
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: now it's yeah, it's become such an amazing part of
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: our business and community.
• 48:45
  Speaker 3: I adore it. I adore it. Tell me. Obviously, launching
• 48:49
  Speaker 3: a Facebook group is actually something that a business can
• 48:52
  Speaker 3: do for free to I guess promote community within their
• 48:57
  Speaker 3: brand and really help awareness. What would be your advice
• 49:01
  Speaker 3: for small businesses with tight budgets when they want to start,
• 49:05
  Speaker 3: I guess building community.
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: I would say definitely going back to what we spoke
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: about creating that organic social content. If you're confident enough
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: to do it yourself by posting on Instagram and TikTok
• 49:17
  Speaker 2: videos of you and behind the scenes in your business,
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: and it's not going to be perfect, and it doesn't
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: have to be post ninety nine videos in the one
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: hundredth one will do well. I know that sounds a lot,
• 49:29
  Speaker 2: but it's just a matter of starting. Like that's how
• 49:32
  Speaker 2: you're going to build that organic community is by creating
• 49:36
  Speaker 2: content and having people follow along your journey and be
• 49:40
  Speaker 2: honest and transparent about your journey. Don't try to make
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: it look a certain way, you know, just again like
• 49:48
  Speaker 2: show up as yourself on socials and start building a
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: community that way. And I know it's so hard and
• 49:54
  Speaker 2: it's so scary, especially when there's so many businesses already
• 49:57
  Speaker 2: out there now that are so established, but you just
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: got to remember, like we all started in that same
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: position where we had no idea what we were doing,
• 50:06
  Speaker 2: and I'd just say, use apps like Instagram and TikTok
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: to your absolute advantage because you never know what may
• 50:13
  Speaker 2: come of it. And then from there, if you have
• 50:16
  Speaker 2: started to build up a community on your TikTok and
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: your Instagram, you might get to that point where you
• 50:20
  Speaker 2: feel like you can start a community page. And that's
• 50:23
  Speaker 2: a great comment about the Facebook groups. It is free.
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: It is free to make a Facebook community group. And
• 50:30
  Speaker 2: I absolutely love that our community group is going so
• 50:34
  Speaker 2: well that we're actually getting rid of our mobile app
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: at the end of this year because really, yeah, we
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: got the mobile app because the number one feature that
• 50:43
  Speaker 2: we liked the most was the fact that we could
• 50:46
  Speaker 2: send a notification to people's phones. And so I think,
• 50:50
  Speaker 2: like the subscription for our app that we've had for
• 50:53
  Speaker 2: almost two years now, I think it's like it might
• 50:57
  Speaker 2: be around twelve thousand dollars a year for us to
• 51:00
  Speaker 2: just have the app, and that's on top of like
• 51:02
  Speaker 2: our Shopify and everything, Like it's just another twelve thousand
• 51:05
  Speaker 2: dollars a year. And since launching our community group, you know,
• 51:09
  Speaker 2: I can go in there and post every day, like
• 51:11
  Speaker 2: and it doesn't feel as annoying to the customer because
• 51:14
  Speaker 2: we're not sending a notification to their phone home screen. Instead,
• 51:18
  Speaker 2: it's like Britney's posted in Fate Society and people will
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: be probably more interested to go and see what that
• 51:23
  Speaker 2: is rather than a generic notification on their phone. So yes,
• 51:28
  Speaker 2: starting that group has been the best thing, one of
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: the best things we've done all year.
• 51:32
  Speaker 3: To be honest, I love that and your community are
• 51:35
  Speaker 3: probably going yeah, exactly, Brittany, exactly. We love it there,
• 51:39
  Speaker 3: like it's my favorite and it's crazy how much they
• 51:42
  Speaker 3: can take off like ours obviously is the backbone of
• 51:45
  Speaker 3: our business. It's where we started. It's why the podcast
• 51:49
  Speaker 3: even started, because the community were like, what else are
• 51:51
  Speaker 3: you going to do? How else do we get content
• 51:53
  Speaker 3: like this? And I was like, oh my gosh. But
• 51:56
  Speaker 3: now it's a full time job in our business for
• 51:58
  Speaker 3: someone to manage our Facebook community. That makes it not
• 52:01
  Speaker 3: free though, So that does change the ballgame, which is
• 52:05
  Speaker 3: a good thing. It's the best problem to have. Brittany.
• 52:08
  Speaker 3: I have one last question before I rap it, because
• 52:11
  Speaker 3: I know that if very generous with your time. Do
• 52:14
  Speaker 3: you think that the social media landscape is still evolving?
• 52:19
  Speaker 3: And what do you think the next big I guess
• 52:21
  Speaker 3: business trend is.
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a good question. I mean, I think social
• 52:25
  Speaker 2: media is always going to be evolving. And I know
• 52:27
  Speaker 2: that a lot of business owners can hate that thought
• 52:29
  Speaker 2: because you just feel like you're constantly having to try
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: to keep up with the trends and stay up to date.
• 52:36
  Speaker 2: And business owners can naturally find it really comforting to
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: just stay doing the same thing all the time. But
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: in business like, you've got to be willing to change
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: the way you do things every single week, especially when
• 52:47
  Speaker 2: it comes to social media. That's just the way the
• 52:50
  Speaker 2: cookie crumbles. If I'm being honest, I think it's going
• 52:54
  Speaker 2: to change a lot. It's obviously changed a lot over
• 52:57
  Speaker 2: the last five to ten years, and I always say, like,
• 52:59
  Speaker 2: I mean regged to see where social media goes, like
• 53:02
  Speaker 2: in the next two, three, four years. You know, I'm
• 53:05
  Speaker 2: sure as much as we love TikTok and Instagram now,
• 53:08
  Speaker 2: I'm sure in a couple of years time, there's going
• 53:10
  Speaker 2: to be other apps that we're all using instead of those,
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: Like maybe we'll see those die out. I don't know,
• 53:15
  Speaker 2: because meta is huge, But we're.
• 53:17
  Speaker 3: Going to have to keep up, Brittany, like we get
• 53:19
  Speaker 3: we're going to be like.
• 53:21
  Speaker 2: What on these tastes, We've got to keep keep up,
• 53:25
  Speaker 2: especially if you want to keep growing and moving forward,
• 53:27
  Speaker 2: but it's also equally as important to foster those like
• 53:32
  Speaker 2: loyal customers and like keep them involved. And that's where
• 53:35
  Speaker 2: your community comes into play. Like, yes, you want to
• 53:38
  Speaker 2: stick with the trends and find new customers and more
• 53:41
  Speaker 2: people to join your community, but you really want to
• 53:43
  Speaker 2: nurture and foster that community that you have now that
• 53:46
  Speaker 2: is hopefully going to stay with you throughout all of
• 53:48
  Speaker 2: those changes regardless. So I'm really intrigued to see where
• 53:52
  Speaker 2: social media goes in the next few years. I can't
• 53:55
  Speaker 2: say what direction it's going to be in. I know
• 53:58
  Speaker 2: that affiliate marketing is becoming really popular. When it comes
• 54:02
  Speaker 2: to influencers, it's wild. Yeah, like the linked in my
• 54:06
  Speaker 2: Amazon storefront?
• 54:07
  Speaker 3: Where's your dressed from? Brittany, Oh, it's in my Amazon
• 54:09
  Speaker 3: store front? Yeah, where's your dressed from? LinkedIn bio? I know,
• 54:13
  Speaker 3: but I can't keep heart Brittany. I just want to know.
• 54:15
  Speaker 2: I actually like that. And we haven't done affiliate marketing
• 54:19
  Speaker 2: all at Fate And for those listening if you don't
• 54:21
  Speaker 2: know what affiliate marketing is, it's essentially where we can
• 54:24
  Speaker 2: create a storefront and influencers can get their own customer
• 54:28
  Speaker 2: link and we don't pay the influencer anything upfront. We
• 54:32
  Speaker 2: let's say give them the outfit. It's on them to
• 54:35
  Speaker 2: promote that outfit and get people to shop through their link,
• 54:38
  Speaker 2: and then they'll make a commission through that. So I
• 54:40
  Speaker 2: think it's a good thing because the influencing. Yeah, influencers
• 54:44
  Speaker 2: have to work for that money. They have to make
• 54:46
  Speaker 2: the sales and if they're not generating sales, then they
• 54:50
  Speaker 2: don't get anything, which honestly makes so much sense. I
• 54:54
  Speaker 2: will say it is a little bit more shady because
• 54:56
  Speaker 2: people just share their link on their story and say
• 55:00
  Speaker 2: here's the link, but they don't disclose that they'll make
• 55:03
  Speaker 2: commission through that.
• 55:03
  Speaker 3: And I think that's where it's getting it right. Like
• 55:06
  Speaker 3: in affiliate marketing, I think is brilliant. But the way
• 55:10
  Speaker 3: that it is rolling out across social media because so
• 55:13
  Speaker 3: many people don't get it, I feel like you're right,
• 55:15
  Speaker 3: it is a bit shady and that needs to be
• 55:17
  Speaker 3: cleaned up so that people can go, oh my god, no,
• 55:19
  Speaker 3: I really want to shop Britney's link for that outfit.
• 55:22
  Speaker 2: Yes, I think there will be a lot of rules
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: brought into place, the same way that all the rules
• 55:26
  Speaker 2: were brought in a round sponsored posts and needing to
• 55:28
  Speaker 2: disclose when something's paid. And I do see influencers sharing
• 55:32
  Speaker 2: their link and saying like affiliate, you know in the
• 55:34
  Speaker 2: little stars on the screen. But yeah, i'd say we're
• 55:37
  Speaker 2: definitely going to move into even more of an affiliate
• 55:40
  Speaker 2: marketing space. And again we haven't done that with Fate yet.
• 55:43
  Speaker 2: I'm definitely open to exploring it because again, it's like
• 55:46
  Speaker 2: less of a risk for the business. We just have
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: to give the creator the outfit and it's on them
• 55:51
  Speaker 2: to make the sales, which I think is really clever
• 55:53
  Speaker 2: and a lot more safer of a risk for a business.
• 55:57
  Speaker 2: But yeah, that's my one prediction.
• 55:59
  Speaker 3: I feel like it's more organic as well. Yeah, I
• 56:01
  Speaker 3: feel like the organicness of social media will go back
• 56:06
  Speaker 3: to where it used to be. It feels more like
• 56:07
  Speaker 3: a genuine recommendation because an influencer is not going to
• 56:10
  Speaker 3: be promoting it if they don't think it's going to sell.
• 56:13
  Speaker 3: And more often than not, now, as you said earlier
• 56:16
  Speaker 3: in the episode, you could pay an influencer ten grand
• 56:19
  Speaker 3: and it doesn't guarantee you a sale. In this an
• 56:22
  Speaker 3: influencer isn't getting get paid, so they're going to be like, oh,
• 56:24
  Speaker 3: I wouldn't work with Victoria because like, my audience aren't
• 56:27
  Speaker 3: going to be interested in her product. I'm going to
• 56:28
  Speaker 3: go to find one that actually fits my audience. And
• 56:31
  Speaker 3: I think that that's a push in the right direction.
• 56:33
  Speaker 3: That low key I love, Like, I just think it's smart.
• 56:36
  Speaker 2: Who wants to sign up as a fate affiliate? Let
• 56:39
  Speaker 2: me know?
• 56:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah? And Brittany, we did an affiliate marketing podcast recently.
• 56:43
  Speaker 3: It was a deep dime, a little solo yap from
• 56:46
  Speaker 3: meving like, all right, this is what it is, this
• 56:48
  Speaker 3: is how it works. So if you haven't listened to that,
• 56:50
  Speaker 3: go back and check it out. But Brittany, what an episode.
• 56:53
  Speaker 3: This was our first business diary and I am so
• 56:56
  Speaker 3: flipping excited about it. You have shared so much gold.
• 56:59
  Speaker 3: I know community is going to be like, oh my gosh,
• 57:01
  Speaker 3: that was the best. Can we have more of it?
• 57:03
  Speaker 3: And you absolutely so thank you for being so open
• 57:07
  Speaker 3: to share. I guess your journey with Faigh because that's
• 57:10
  Speaker 3: really special and we don't get the opportunity that often
• 57:13
  Speaker 3: for people to go, oh, well, actually this is how
• 57:15
  Speaker 3: it started. And you know, even with my friends who
• 57:18
  Speaker 3: are founders, right, like, we go out and we talk
• 57:20
  Speaker 3: about people management, but I never get to sit them
• 57:23
  Speaker 3: down and be like, so tell me, how did you
• 57:25
  Speaker 3: start your business? Like what did that look like? Or
• 57:27
  Speaker 3: why were you embarrassed of your garage? Like why wouldn't
• 57:30
  Speaker 3: you share that? That's so cool? Like these are the
• 57:32
  Speaker 3: things that even founders who are friends with founders don't
• 57:35
  Speaker 3: get that info. And I just think that that's so special.
• 57:38
  Speaker 3: I know our listeners are going to be very inspired,
• 57:40
  Speaker 3: but also just very grateful to have a little peep
• 57:43
  Speaker 3: into the life of Britney.
• 57:44
  Speaker 2: Oh well, it was an absolute honor and thanks for
• 57:47
  Speaker 2: having me on. I love talking about this stuff, so
• 57:49
  Speaker 2: anytime you want me back, just let me know.
• 57:51
  Speaker 3: Oh, I feel like you've done so much for the
• 57:53
  Speaker 3: She's on the Money community and shameless plug for those
• 57:56
  Speaker 3: of you who don't know, My new book, The Business
• 57:59
  Speaker 3: Fible is officially out now and it is packed full
• 58:02
  Speaker 3: of lessons and advice and insights from incredible entrepreneurs, including Brittany.
• 58:09
  Speaker 3: Because you got involved. How does that feel to have
• 58:11
  Speaker 3: I guess your business story in a book that is
• 58:13
  Speaker 3: published on shelves around the country.
• 58:15
  Speaker 2: It's bloody amazing. I'm honored to be a part of
• 58:17
  Speaker 2: it all. So thank you. So much.
• 58:19
  Speaker 3: I was so excited when you said yes, I was like, yes,
• 58:22
  Speaker 3: it's going to be reap. Oh my gosh. I literally
• 58:25
  Speaker 3: wrote it with everybody I guess in our Facebook group
• 58:28
  Speaker 3: in mind, because they're the people that are like the
• 58:30
  Speaker 3: backbone of our business. They're the people that I always
• 58:33
  Speaker 3: am trying to create content for. So grab a copy
• 58:37
  Speaker 3: if you want, Brittany, you don't have to do your
• 58:38
  Speaker 3: lis in the mail. It's en route, don't you worry.
• 58:42
  Speaker 3: But oh my gosh, I love this. And next year
• 58:45
  Speaker 3: there's going to be a few changes in the She's
• 58:47
  Speaker 3: on the Money community. Business Bible episodes are actually going
• 58:50
  Speaker 3: to head on over back to the Business Bible feed,
• 58:53
  Speaker 3: not going to live always on the Shees on the
• 58:55
  Speaker 3: Money feed. So jump on over there. I'll put the
• 58:57
  Speaker 3: links in the show notes so that you can subscribe
• 58:59
  Speaker 3: and an episode like this one. Brittany again, thank you.
• 59:03
  Speaker 3: I know our community has adored this because I have.
• 59:06
  Speaker 3: And we're all the same, right, like we're just girls
• 59:08
  Speaker 3: who want to learn more about people where just girls
• 59:12
  Speaker 3: were just girls? Like how hard could it be?
• 59:14
  Speaker 2: Exactly right?
• 59:21
  Speaker 3: The advice shared on She's on the Money is general
• 59:24
  Speaker 3: in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's
• 59:28
  Speaker 3: on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should
• 59:31
  Speaker 3: not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision.
• 59:35
  Speaker 3: If you do choose to buy a financial product, read
• 59:37
  Speaker 3: the PDS TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards
• 59:41
  Speaker 3: your needs.
• 59:42
  Speaker 4: Victoria Divine and She's on the Money are authorized representatives
• 59:46
  Speaker 4: of money. Sheper pty Ltd ABN three two one IS
• 59:50
  Speaker 4: six four nine two seven seven zero eight AFSL four
• 59:54
  Speaker 4: five one two eight nine.
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 2: They