Latest / GEL & Tell / Ep 25 - Would We Still Quit Our Jobs to Start a Business
Transcript
- Nora: Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of G: Gel and tell it's Nora: Woo! G: episode 25 which means we're a quarter of a way to a hundred episodes Nora: Yeah, yeah. So cool, isn't it? Also, I missed this. We haven't filmed an episode in three weeks, I think. So G: That's really bad. Nora: I know. But I finished the season. That's been an update since we last filmed. G: Congratulations. how does it feel to have completed your first bodybuilding season? Nora: Very good. I'm very happy. I'm very happy with the results. Very happy with how I handled it. I'm excited to grow now. I'm excited to yeah, go back to performing in the gym, putting on some muscle and going again when the time is right. But for now, I'm also excited about the little things, you know, that I miss during prep. It's not like I've restricted myself too much. I think I've handled it with a lot more balance than people do, but G: Hmm. Nora: yeah, I told you earlier, it's spending good time with my family when I go back for Christmas, having having some homemade food that my mum and my grandma makes, all these tiny things that I couldn't enjoy whilst on prep. So yeah, I'm buzzing. G: Yeah, I don't think they're tiny things either. I think they're special things. And, Nora: Yeah. G: it's good to be looking forward to them and to enjoy Nora: Yeah. G: them is what life's about, isn't it? As much as it's called a season for a reason. Nora: Yeah, yeah, exactly. And it's not like the bodybuilding look is not something that I can sustain year round as well. So I'm looking forward to getting my body back to a healthier state. Not that I'm not healthy, but I could be healthier because obviously I was very, very lean for the comps. we haven't told the viewers how you found your first bodybuilding show experience. G: Yeah, no, I really enjoyed it. I thought it was great. I thought everyone was really welcoming. Awkwardly, I was in the wrong queue when I arrived. So I was actually in the registration queue. Luckily for me, Gio came out of the building and was like, gee, what are you doing? And I was like, just queuing to get in, darling, going to see bestie. And he was like, Nora: Yeah. G: no, you're queuing to register. And I was like, fuck my life. I do not want to get on that stage. I don't even have a bikini with me. thankfully did not stay in that queue. Walk straight in, went upstairs, saw my little bestie on the floor in her little robe waiting. That was the thing that I was very like, I Nora: There's so much waiting. Yeah. G: don't, I think that's psychological warfare, you know, just sat there just being like waiting and you're not allowed to really do anything. Nora: No, 'cause then the town will be ruined and all that. the town. The town. G: The tan being ruined, not really being able to eat or really being able to drink, being, I just thought that was hard to watch, to be as someone that is chronically fidgety and always needing to be doing something. Obviously Nora: Mm. G: was glad to be there to support you through it, but I was, I couldn't do that. I think Nora: Yeah. G: that's harder than the other bits probably is just like sitting there and just. stewing and waiting and overthinking. So it was really interesting to watch it. the show itself was really great. It was really fun. music was cool. yeah, it was really well produced. Everyone Nora: Yeah. G: was super friendly, which I don't know why I wasn't not expecting it, but the community, everyone was chatty and welcoming. And I think sometimes at these kinds of events and more the kind of events that I go to, not everyone's as friendly. Like Nora: Hmm. G: in a high rocks event, you can get sworn out, pushed. on the course, people move out the fucking way and elbowing people and at all costs to try and improve their time. And I actually felt like it was a really supportive, welcoming, collaborative environment where even people that you were competing against were sharing Nora: Yeah. G: things with you. You were sharing hairspray with a girl. She was, you know, you were like, that it was kind like, and I was quite surprised by that. And I don't mean that in I had a negative perception. I just hadn't experienced it before. So I thought Nora: Yeah. G: it was really good. Nora: That's my favorite part about bodybuilding, the people that you meet. You just meet such cool people that you know they have certain attributes and certain values to be where they are, to be competing at such good level, but also to be going through this process. Like not everyone can prep. so you meet people that are very similar to you and everyone respects it. It respec they respect the hard work and they respect what goes into it. So it's not as much as you're competitive when you get on that stage, you're still happy about other people doing really well. because you know G: Yeah. Nora: how hard they work to get there. So yeah, and I think that's the same in business as well. I was watching a YouTube vlog with Gio, and it was a YouTube vlog with Christian Guzman, who's one of the top entrepreneurs in the fitness space and has been for a lot of years. he built he built Alpha Land, which is a place that I want to visit when I go to the US. and he was collaborating with C Bum, which is one of the most known bodybuilders in the bodybuilding space. they both have really big businesses, but they were collaborating, they met up, exchanged ideas, what's worked for them, what hasn't, all of that. And Gio pointed out, well, this is what the people at the top do is like they help each other to get there. As much as they're competitors, helping each other will get them further than you know, just having negative associations with being competitors. and I was like, Yeah. You're actually right. Cause when you think about other big people in the business world as well, you'll always see them collaborating. G: Yeah, 100 % because it's a win win. And I think there's space for everyone to be successful and to Nora: Yeah. G: grow. And I think everyone's stronger with support as well. Because if you're doing Nora: Yeah. Yeah. G: it by yourself, it's lonely, you're more likely to have negative thought patterns. Nora: Yeah. G: Comparison being the thief of joy being a bit cliche, but I do think it's true. Because if you spend more time focusing on what other people are doing, you're spending less time thinking about what yourself is doing. And your energy is going into like stuff that you can't control because you can't change someone else's path. You can't make someone less successful because you're jealous of them or you're thinking negatively about them. yeah. Nora: I think it's a distraction as well. Cause when you think too much about someone else and what they're doing, you're not putting intention into G: into yourself. Nora: yourself and the actions that you need to be taking to be better in yourself. So yeah, I think it's very, very valid. and I do think it's something that we've tried to apply within our business as well. G: 100%. Nora: instead of seeing other competitors, there's so many competitors in our space. But instead of seeing and thinking, focusing too much on what they're doing. It's like we're taking inspiration and we're like happy for other people in the space that are doing well, while still staying in our own lane and focusing on on us. So G: Exactly. And we've had situations where we've had we've on boarded and working with other people that do business coaching and business consulting or social media consulting, we have clients that do similar work to us, and have conversations and support people that do that. Because as much as sometimes it can feel a bit like, is that conflict of interest? It's like, stay in your lane, trust Nora: Yeah. G: that the right people will come to you. And if Nora: Yeah. G: you can help them help them. they're still a service business, even if it's a similar service to what you offer, then, you know, it's not, it's not competing. If there's an opportunity to collaborate. And I think that's a hard lesson to learn, and it can feel uncomfortable. And there are probably occasions where like, you know, you couldn't be in a risky situation, and you could onboard the wrong person, teach them and build them up. And they could poach all your clients and fuck you over. Like that does happen, unfortunately, but if you always have that mindset, then you're probably preventing yourself from opportunities for positive collaboration, supporting people, which is the whole reason of why we do what we do is to help people. Nora: Yeah, a hundred percent. and what I always say is like no one can be you. You know, they can steal your ideas, they can steal your you know, brain G: framework. Nora: works and stuff like that, but they can't be you. And that's your superpower. As cr cringy as it sounds, like, you know, people buy into people nowadays and yeah, there's enough room and enough business for everyone. So G: Preach It system. Nora: Yeah. Speaking of business, G: Mm-hmm. Nora: seeing that we're more than one year in now building gel, it's been one and one year and two months, three months, yeah. G: We incorporated in the end of August 2025. So yeah, it's like Nora: Yeah. Yeah. G: over a year. Nora: Which is so cool. But the topic that we want to touch on today would be would we still quit our jobs to start a business? Yeah. And we'll go into, yeah, a few things that we've got in mind, things that we miss about being employed and so on. But I think it's quite a nice reflection podcast for anyone that might be thinking about going self employed as well, or thinking about what would the differences be as well. I think There are differences, good and bad things, I would say. Would you agree? G: Yeah, 100%. I think it's there's a lot for us to go into here, to be honest. Nora: Well let's start with if we could go back to the day where we knew we were leaving our employee job, knowing what happened since then, would we still do it? G: Yeah, we're in a heartbeat. Nora: Yeah. Yeah. G: 100%. I mean, guess in our unique situation, and for those of you that don't know, and it is a bit spicy, Nora and I worked for the same company before. Nora: Hm. G: So it was a little bit of a collaborative effort on the notice handing in, if you will, which is quite unique. So I think in a lot of situations when you're handing in your notice, you're not doing it with your best friend to go and set up a business together. So like, I do think it's important context that we were very fortunate that we had each other throughout that. Nora: Yeah. And it was a difficult time for both of us as well. G: wasn't easy. didn't make it easy because it was still quite stressful and there was other complexities that came with doing it together but it was pretty ballsy. Nora: Yeah. And we had the support of each other, which wouldn't be the case for many. Yeah. So G: for a lot of people. Yeah, unless you have a work bestie at the moment and you've got a business idea, 10 out of 10 recommend. Nora: It does come with a lot of ups and downs though, just just warning. but yeah, I would not change anything about the last year. Like we've had some really good times, some amazing times, but we've had some really not great times as well. But looking back, if I was to do it again, I would do it again. if I knew was what was to happen. But yeah. Do you miss anything about your old well Our old jobs. G: So are we just talking about the last place that we worked or just like the whole of like employment history kind of vibes? Because like I had jobs for like maybe like 10 years before we went self-employed. So I have like different Nora: Yeah. G: experiences of things that I liked and didn't like about being employed. But I'd Nora: Mm. G: say like the things that I would say I miss. if I'm being really trying to think about what I actually miss would be probably not having to, think about everything, but actually like I was probably doing that by proxy. Nora: Responsibility is a lot less. G: Yeah, yeah, I think like that. But then that's also like what makes it so special. But I think, yeah, less responsibility. So knowing that you're going to get paid at the end of the month, without having as much pressure and stress to like, keep every aspect above water and keep it moving forward. Like Nora: Although knowing us, we were always like yeah. G: We're not doing that anyway. Like that's the irony of this is we were doing a lot of this shit without being paid for it. So do I miss Nora: Yeah. G: it? I'm saying I miss it, but like it was still sort of there. Especially Nora: Mm-hmm. G: because we worked in a startup. think prior to the startup life, I was more in a marketing role. So like I did marketing, I didn't touch any other parts of the business apart from the marketing angles. I didn't Nora: Yeah. G: know all the high level stuff. When you're in a startup, you have access to everything and you're responsibilities are a lot more broad. I often think I was more stressed, employed than I am self employed because I was always worried about getting fired. Nora: Yeah. G: Because so many people got fired all the fucking time and then we have to fire Nora: Yeah. G: people and you know, we used to say it to me, worried about going on annual leave because you could come back and someone's replaced you or you get fired when you Nora: Yeah. G: come back. Nora: That was so anxiety inducing. yeah, G: Mm. Nora: I could not go on holiday and not be anxious. G: And that's why both of us used to check our emails every morning on holiday, reply to Slack messages. And to be honest, like it wasn't, there was no one in the company that was making us do that. That was a personalized pressure that we both felt because of the kind of people we are. And I think it's just because of that, that's why it was inevitable that we're going to set up our own thing. Not everyone that has a job behaves like we did. Nora: Also, not everyone that has a job treats it as their whole life. I think G: which is dead. Nora: which ref for me is like something that I've been reflecting on is like it takes a very specific person to have what it takes to be a good entrepreneur and a good business owner because there's G: Hmm. Nora: so much complexity that comes with it. There's no one telling you what to do. You have to figure that out. There's less structure. You somehow how become all of the people that were in your employed role at once, like you become customer support, you become HR, you become finance, you become like you you have to literally figure out how to do everything. Obviously in a smaller scale, but G: do have to wear every hat. And that's why it's quite Nora: Yeah. G: like, it's exciting. It's like you learn a lot. But there's more stress and pressure and responsibility that comes with it. you miss something, you can end up being fined, or you can end up in like legal issues, or you can end up letting people down or, Nora: Mm. G: you know, if something you do something wrong, and it impacts a client negatively, it feels a lot more personal than when you're in a company and there's someone above you or below you that you can either like manage or Nora: Yeah. G: you know, like, so It's really hard to say that I miss anything really, because I probably don't. But do you miss anything? Nora: don't no, but I think the thing is, right, I think we both went into the startup world with the ultimate goal to start our own business later down the line. And it just so happens that we didn't we did that together. But for me the end goal was always to start my own business, which is why I study entrepreneurship for my second well, for my masters as well. I always G: Yeah. Nora: wanted my my own business. I was never wanting to, you know, go into the corporate world or climb up the corporate ladder or anything like that. It was just not within what I wanted for my life. I respect people who do that, and I look up to them. I know a lot of people our age that are doing amazing at their careers and their corporate w jobs, and that's what they want from their life. But that was never the ultimate goal for me. and G: Yep. Nora: I knew that since, you know, since I finished high school, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Not what business I wanted to build, but I knew that I always wanted to work for myself. G: Yeah, me too. Nora: It might come from the controlling nature that I like I have as a human being. I just like being in control and when you have your own business, you literally have to be in control of everything 'cause there's no one else to do it, basically. But yeah. G: Yeah, so true. And then that's probably why we bonded in the first place, because we both had that mindset of like, everything that happened, we were learning from, evolving Nora: Yeah. G: and trying to improve so we could improve. And we were always open to trying new things, learning, figuring out like that mentality, rather than expecting things to ever be done for us. Because if you think back to when we were working, and yeah, this is probably more startup specific, but like, we built everything from scratch, those departments, Nora: Yeah. G: the frameworks, everything that we were doing, like it was a case of we've got this idea, we build it from nothing. And then we teach other people or we introduce it to the team or we like integrate into the company systems or whatever it was, like that it didn't exist. So like that's kind of the same as running a business. yeah, I'm kind of pregnant. Nora: I think we took a like we experienced what it was like working on a business and building it up without having the full responsibility of it. G: Yeah, which maybe is something that is we're very lucky that we got that opportunity because we got to try things, break things, see things go wrong, see things go really right, and then learn from those lessons and mistakes to take it into our own, which had we not had that opportunity and experience, we probably would have made a lot more mistakes in our first year. But we Nora: Yeah. G: had a lot more scars and battle wounds from Nora: Yeah. G: the years of mistakes that we'd seen and done ourselves. Nora: Yeah, a hundred percent. Is there anything that surprised you? G: about being self-employed. Nora: Mm. G: surprised me about being self-employed. Maybe the feeling of working not feeling quite the same as it used to. So like when you're doing like, you know, like before you'd be like, both of us would do this, we'd work late into the evenings or like jump on at the weekend to do something. And you would almost have this feeling of borderline resentment. You'd be like doing it, but you'd be like you're doing someone a favour. Like you'd feel like this like almost complex of being like, I need to do this because it's not going to get done. I'm not technically being paid extra for it. and I feel a little bit bitter. Nora: Yeah. G: always would do it and never complain verbally, but innately be a little bit miffed. Now, Nora: Mm. G: the thing that surprises me and maybe it's not really a surprise, but it's just different is that feeling isn't there because it's like, whatever I do in the extra hours I put in, are only going to benefit us the company me like, so it's not like there's never a like, I'm doing loads because it's like, Nora: Yeah. G: it's a it's a willing it's a wanting it's a feeling of like, the more I put in the more I get out. I benefit from this, the company benefits from this, I don't expect it from, I don't know, I don't know if that's a surprise, because I guess it's obvious. But Nora: Yeah. G: but the feeling shifts the emotion towards the works different. Nora: Yeah. G: If that makes sense. What about you? What surprised you? Nora: I don't think anything surprised me, I'm just feeling a lot more calm, G: Yeah Nora: less anxious. I think this is the here's what surprised me. The workload hasn't necessarily reduced. I would say, I would argue that there's been months working at gel, growing gel, that have revolved around a lot more workload than we have. had when we were employed. But I'm just really looking forward to doing that work, and I'm feeling very fulfilled and I'm feeling very calm. And on the days where we do have a lot of stress that comes with running your own business and we've had to figure a lot of things out, it's not anxiety. It's just stress that can be managed. it's not that fear of like the world is ending or I'm gonna get fired, G: Yeah. Nora: or there's nothing like that. It's more like, I'm just like. It's another challenge that I'm gonna overcome. And it's what I told you yesterday. There's not been a single time where we didn't figure things out. G: Yeah, and not everything's gone to plan and we have had some like horrifying surprises along the way. know, people surprising us, situations surprising us, being let down, being slightly, you know, taken advantage of, not even slightly, a lot. And like things like that, which we have managed to navigate, which have been unpleasant, but like the anxiety is different, isn't it? Because we're in control and we make the decision. And even if we make the wrong decision, we make that decision together and we Nora: Mm. G: just own it and we move forward from it. And there's no one to blame apart from ourselves, but we don't beat ourselves up. And I think when you're employed, you have this like fear and anxiety of getting blamed by the person above you or the person next to you or the person below you, know, there's like lots of spider's webs in politics and like dynamics that you can't control. And it's a different feeling entirely. Nora: Yeah. Yeah. Now that you've said about being blamed by someone above you and stuff, one thing that I really, really, really love about having our own business is like our work is ours. G: Mm. Nora: It's like we have an idea, it's our idea, we implement it and it's like we take full responsibility for it if it fails, but it's our work. and that's not always the case when you're employed. G: Yeah. Nora: Yeah. So I love that. Cause I'm like I'm just so proud of all of the work that we do for clients. Things will go wrong. They won't always go right. But we're responsible for that. We own that and we improve and I love that aspect of yeah, just having your own thing 'cause G: Yeah, because if you actually think about being employed, all of the work that we did in our previous employment was never owned by us. That was owned by the company. And that's what it is when you're in an employment contract. It's not your IP, even if it came out your brain and you poured your heart and soul into it, you do not own that shit. So all of the strategies and stuff that we built that all of the wins and results that we got, were not ours, they were the company's and that's fine because you know your individual contribution. But what stings is when someone else who didn't do that work. is writing LinkedIn posts claiming those results because technically it was their company. Now that's fine. And by technicality, they own the company and the company owns the results. But when you know as an individual that you poured your heart and soul into something and you did that work, it does fuck you off when someone else is claiming it on LinkedIn. And that can't Nora: Yeah. Yeah. G: happen to us. And that's quite freeing. Nora: Yeah. Really nice. do you what do you think about the freedom of being self employed? Obviously moving to like yeah, working for someone else to working for ourselves. G: I love it. You know what I love is how we're both like quite similar with our approach. So like, and we obviously... Nora: Hm. The thing is how we approach business and running our own business is very different to others that we know. And when we talk to people about how we approach business, they're like, Why are you doing that to yourself? But for us, it's like it just works. Yeah. G: it works. Because, yeah, but we do things that people might think is strange, but it gives us clarity and control and boundaries with ourselves and with each other so that we can operate smoothly without any awkwardness with complete open transparency. So we have, and call us crazy, but fuck off if you do, a shared email address, a shared, Nora: So we know exactly what each other is doing. G: shared calendar. So we know when what we're doing each day, but also that can include our appointments or other things. Nora: I know when Georgia's going to get her nails done, like G: I know when Nora's eyebrows appointment is, when she's training, she knows when I'm training. She knows if I'm letting the dog out. whatever it is, it's in the diary, but it gives us clarity over like how the week looks. So if like, for instance, Nora's training in the afternoon, because that suits her schedule. I know she's training. So I might put a sales call at the same time as that so that we're not being inefficient with how our calendar looks. If I'm going to get my eyebrows done, Nora might put a client call that she does at the same time as that. So then we maximize our time online together, but we always know where each other are. So there's never going to be a situation where like, I'm not online, Nora's thinking where the hell's G, but I've gone to get my nails done or something. Nora: Yeah. G: But it's like, because we've got that transparency, but it's never like, you can't do that during the workday. It's like the trust and the flexibility to know that the work will get done. We've earned the opportunity to have that freedom. If you want to train in the afternoon, go fucking train in the afternoon. If I want to go get my eyebrows done in the day, so I don't have to book it on my weekend, then I'm to go get my eyebrows done in the day. If we want to have an extended lunch to go see a friend, we'll do that, but we'll always do the work. So if we do that, we're both understanding of what we're not going to do is just take half a day. and not do that work in the evening, we would start earlier, finish later and always put the business first, but enjoy that freedom that we've earned and we work so hard for. And it isn't easy to do at the start, but I think we found a really happy balance of that so that we get the most out of the week, but we're not sacrificing personal things. Nora: Yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent. And I think because we trust we're very similar in how we work and the work that we put in and so that we trust that even if we have some flexibility, the work will get done. And I trust that like there's not one of us putting more work than the other. That's not that's just not how we're hired. if anything, sometimes we're a bit competitive with each other. G: Who can do the most? But that makes us super effective. Like we get so much done. But Nora: Yeah. G: then we can also enjoy it. So it's like, know that tomorrow we're meeting up for our content shoot. And then Nora was like, my God, we're go for lunch and go shopping after. And we're almost like excitedly working through the week to get everything off the list, do all of our work so that we can enjoy a Friday afternoon as besties. Nora: Together. Yeah. G: having fucking lunch and then going and going and doing some shopping because we'll have done all of our work and we've allotted that brain space and time to do it. It's things like that, which you can't buy that freedom. And Nora: Yeah. G: it's just such a, such a joy to get that. And I don't think even if your boss says that they're flexible, they don't mean it. I'm sorry. They're looking at when you're clocking in and out, you're not, you're not flexible when Nora: Yeah. G: you're employed. Nora: but yeah, something else that surprises a lot of people, is that we do track our annual leave. Like, G: Yeah, we do! Nora: yeah, yeah. So we have an allowance. We have an allowance and we track it. Which for us it just works. For people th looking outside, being like, But you have your own business, why would you track your days off? That's a fair question, but something that's really important to us is we don't want at any s any point for one of us to feel like they're doing more than the other or for it to not feel equal or anything like that. we value each other but our friendship as well a lot to not let silly things like this like come in the way of that. So like for us, having an allowance and us using it throughout the year just works because we know there's certain like boundaries set and there's certain like expectations set. could we be a bit more flexible with that? Potentially, it's something that we've discussed, but it's something else. Yeah. Yeah. G: I also think it's helpful, right? Because the other week you said to me, gee, you've not taken a day off in however long. And I was Nora: Yeah. G: like, shut, I didn't even realise that I hadn't taken a day off in like four months. So you were like, take Friday off. I was like, okay. But like, had we not tracked that, that would have been a bit ethereal. Like it feels like you've not had time off for ages. Whereas it's like, no, it was the X of this day, you need to take a day off. And it was like, okay, like Nora: Yeah. Yeah. G: that's valid. And it gives us a bit data because if one of us isn't taking enough time off, they need to because they need to reset and have some space to think creatively and like a break. So I think there's that side of it too, that if you're not tracking it, when was your last day off? Like I was speaking to my friend at the gym last night and she's going to Australia in like a week or so, two week amazing once in a lifetime trip. And she was like, I've not had a holiday since January. And I was thinking, have you not taken any annual leave since January? It's fucking nearly November. Nora: Mm. G: Like. Imagine how overworked you must be at that point if you really haven't taken a day off. So if you weren't tracking it, you wouldn't have that visibility. And then we couldn't support and protect each other as well to make sure we are resting. So I Nora: Yeah. G: wouldn't change that. And I think anyone that thinks that's weird is probably not self-employed. Maybe they Nora: Yeah. Yeah. G: are, but they just, I don't know. it works for us, Nora: Yeah. I think it works for us because of how we are, our personalities and stuff as well. What we just both want it to feel like right. And we don't want any like yeah, G: Awkward. Nora: awkwardness. Like the thing is I I would get it if we weren't as good friends and it was all like business. but I would never want you to like feel like you can't take a day off or like and also I think we care about each other's well being and when we don't take days off, like we you do see it and how you show up during the day and all of that. So it's important G: Yeah, 100%. Nora: for both of us to be be excited to come to G: Yeah. Nora: work and like, yeah, just work on our business. So yeah, we track it so that we make sure it's equal and we make sure that all both of us just feel good about where the business is at and how much work is being put in. So yeah, that just works. G: my gosh, there's a question here that says, who is the worst boss, old boss or ourselves? Nora: Ha ha ha. G: No comment. Nora: I think you have s way more pressure and expectations when you have your own business on yourself. It's like there's almost this feeling like we're and because of how we are as people, we'll never be doing good enough. we'll always want more. There's that element G: Thank you. Nora: when you run your own business. no matter how hard it is when you're being employed, having people above you like that you you need to report to and stuff like that. When you have your own business, you the expectations that you set for yourself are so much more than an unemployed role, in my opinion. G: But that's what we do. I think a lot of people, unfortunately for them, don't have high expectations of themselves because they don't believe in themselves. So then the Nora: Hmm. G: bar's lower and they might be happy with a certain business that we would look at and be like, that's not enough, which sounds really rude. And I mean that with love, but we set high expectations. My secondary school's motto was high expectations for all. Healthy, right? Yeah. Nora: That is very healthy. Wow. the thing is, this is what something that I stand by, and I've said this before. entrepreneurship and having your own business is not for everyone. I, G: Mm-hmm. Nora: in fact, think that having an employee role with healthy boundaries can actually make people way happier than running their own businesses. I G: Yeah. Nora: think it doesn't, not everyone can just take on that much responsibility. have such high expectations all the time you never switch off like you can try to switch off but you never do even when you take days off it's still your own business it still needs to keep ticking in the background it still needs to be making money so that you can leave off of that business. So I think in some cases having a nice nine to five where they show up, they clock in, clock out, get the job done and just enjoy life around it. just can't be the right thing. Yeah. G: thing for a lot of people. 100 % There's a lot of shit online that basically says everyone should be quitting their nine to five and going to be their own boss and traveling the world from a laptop and how easy it is to make like 10k months and all this nonsense, which for a lot of people isn't the case. Like, yes, there are people that doing it. And they're probably also the people that are selling you that dream. And that's how they're doing it, because they're selling you that dream. And then it keeps fulfilling their own dream. But it takes a lot to be someone that can do that. You have to have the right mindset, you have to work really hard, be willing to risk a lot. So there's a gamble and a sacrifice. And it's, it's not guaranteed, like you could have a really good month and then make nothing the next month. So you've Nora: Yeah. G: got to be like, headstrong and smart and really hard working. And a lot of people aren't those things. I'm sorry, but like they don't have the work ethic. or the mindset to keep going when it sucks because Nora: Yeah. G: a lot of it is hard. not every day is really fun. Not every day you're getting sales, not every day things are going right. there are days where you're having to do boring things all day, really long hours and keep going even when you're tired and miserable. Work Nora: Mm. G: when you're ill because the work needs to get done. And like Nora: Yeah. G: lot people just aren't willing to do that. Nora: Yeah. G: So they should have a job because then they can go on sick leave. for a day. Nora: Yeah. G: I'm sorry. Nora: Yeah. Yeah. If question If we didn't have gel, what do you think it'd be doing? G: If we didn't have gel, what would I be doing? A couple of things I think I might be doing, and it depends on where my path went, because I can't see how with what I did from lockdown onwards, I wouldn't be doing either something very similar, if not called gel, Nora: Yeah. G: a similar kind of business. The other path that I think I could have gone down in lockdown, and I was very close to was getting my personal training qualification. So I think there is also another path that I would have like in a different universe. I Nora: Yeah. G: think I could have been a fitness coach or either a Pilates instructor. and gone down more of the fitness coaching. And I think I would have still got a lot of fulfillment from that and potentially whether that would have been working in a gym, setting up my own studio or working online. I think I could have done that. Or Nora: Yeah. G: maybe running a marketing agency or working in a higher marketing role still. Those are like the paths I think I would obviously like it's hard to say isn't it because you don't know what life could have looked like. But those Nora: Yeah. G: if I was to think like what could have being a different universal path for me, that's probably mine. What do you think on yours? Nora: Yeah. I think the most obvious answer for me is just go full time on the online coaching obviously I've been qualified for like ten years now, I think. as a P T so probably work in a gym or open my own gym. potentially, that would be something. It would either be something around business or PTing, fitness, coaching. It G: Yeah. Nora: would it would always go back to coaching, whether that would be in a business setting or a fitness setting. Like that would be the thing. I just love being surrounded by people and like I love the coaching side of things. So it would always have been that. G: Yeah, we're so similar, aren't we? just because I think both of us love what we love and I wouldn't want to do something that I didn't enjoy. Like, I love people, Nora: Yeah. G: I love fitness, I love marketing. Nora: Yeah. okay, so if someone was to offer you a hundred and fifty K salary, right? four days a week, fully remote, would you be going to do that or still be at jail? G: What, so you get a hun- what's the job? Nora: I don't know, in marketing. Dream job. G: But this is my dream job. Nora: But but you go back to being employed, have a boss, but you G: I don't think. Nora: not even hundred two hundred and fifty K salary a year. Fully G: Four days a week, remote. Nora: remote. G: Mm-hmm. I just don't think so. I just can't see a world where if it was one day a week and then I could spend... Yeah. Nora: day a week. Georgia, you can't do that. You need to work. You would be so bored. G: No, no, no, no, no, my point would be I've got to do one day a week for them and then four or five days a week on gel, then I'd be like, yeah, sign me up. Well, then I can't do it. Sorry. It's a no from Nora: You're not allowed to work on gel, that's the question. G: me. I just wouldn't. I just couldn't. I just don't like, we make good money. Like, I'm not saying like, personally, we can make that yet. But like, yeah, Nora: I think we can at some point though. G: like, that's what I mean. Like, I think like the opportunity is a lot higher for having Nora: Yeah. G: your own thing. but also the joy and the fulfillment and the days and the fun and I just, wouldn't give that up for that. Like, I don't think it sounds, I don't, can't imagine what I could possibly want to give it up for. I can't even think of something Nora: Yeah. G: that would be worth it. Like, unless someone was like, I'll give you like 10 million pounds and Nora: Yeah. G: you take like a year career break. And I'd be like, right, Nora, I'm going to take 10 mil, we'll have a break from the business, pause it. And then in a year's time we'll reopen, but we'll have loads of capital. And then you'd be like, okay, yeah, take. Nora: Georgia you would literally call me the next day with another business idea. That just wouldn't work. Your brain is not wired that way. G: Well, it depends what the terms were, but we would take the 10 million, wouldn't we? And I Nora: Ha ha ha. G: like say like, but that's obviously an extreme amount of money that's never going to happen. But like, I just can't see a world where that would be something I could do. What about you? Would you leave jail for that salary? Nora: No. No. The thing is, it's really weird to I think we're very similar in that sense. Correct me if I'm wrong. But I think we're both money driven, but not to the point where you sacrifice your values and like what you want from life. we want gel to grow and we want to make more money and we want it to grow as a company and make more revenue, more profit, all of that. And we always aim for record months. month on month, we don't give up. if we see those numbers dropping, it's like, no, we need to do another thing. Right. we are very money driven, but not if we're gonna sacrifice G: Mm. Nora: the life that we want to build for ourselves. And like going back to unemployed role just doesn't align with me. G: No, I just can't see any real benefits to that. And also like when we we are money driven, but only because it's a measurable thing that we can work harder for. So it's not like what we aren't doing is we're not sucking loads of cash out of the business. Like we're not greedy. don't take like, we're not paying ourselves loads. But what we are motivated by is growing the company, growing the revenue, like showing and proving to ourselves that we're capable of doing that and hitting these numbers. Nora: Yeah. G: And that is what's fulfilling. What we're not doing is then going every month, we hit another month. We're not taking more salary or dividends. we actually haven't done that at all. we're not making as much money as we could if we were in a marketing role for an agency. and Nora: Yeah. G: it's not because we can't, we probably could take more cash out, but it's not about that. That's the thing. Nora: No. G: And so we are driven to make the company really successful and to grow the revenue, but it's not just to like, so we can be. like yeah hopefully one day but it's like it's more about building something really special and successful and profitable and like solid and sustainable like that's the fucking dream. Nora: Yeah. I think one thing that I've noticing with solopreneurs nowadays is they focus so much on making the money now to G: Hmm. Nora: build these lifestyles and the fancy cars and the fancy trips and all of that. That these are the people that you see jumping from one business to the next because it's all about the trend. What's working right now, what's gonna make me money now. We're in it for the long run. we wanna build this business up so that it can sustain our families, ten years from now, twenty years from now. G: Yeah. Nora: Who knows, maybe our kids one day would wanna run this. you don't know that, right? But it might be the case. And you know, we're not, you know, not paying ourselves, but we're not paying ourselves to the point where the business suffers. Like we wanna grow this and we wanna like let it expand and yeah. G: Enjoy it. Yeah, 100%. we'd rather be putting money into a pension and getting Lamborghinis, just because Nora: Yeah. Yeah. G: Instagram would make that look cool. I don't want to have a really expensive mortgage and a fancy car that I can't really afford on finance because it looks like I'm more successful. Like, I feel successful if the end if we end the day, having had a good day, help loads of people got great client results, our numbers going up. And I've been able to get a good workout in and enjoy dog walk like that success. Nora: Yeah. yeah. I think we're doing good. G: We're doing great. Nora: Yeah. Well building our the business our way. And I think that's what matters. everything that we just spoke about, it might not relate to other business owners that are building their business and that's okay. I think at the end of the day, you need to w do what works for you. and if that's, you know, being in an employee role, having goals within that employee role to like climb up the ladder, like, you know, get promotions, that's absolutely fine. if that is building your own business by yourself, To build a good 5K, 10K business and live a good lifestyle, that's absolutely fine. If you want to build it with someone else, ideally you have a work bestie. we would also, you know, say that's absolutely fine. That's great, in fact. but yeah, there's no right or wrong in how you want to live your life or like how you wanna build up your career. Like I think, yeah, there's just you need to make it work for you, you need to do it with. passion, you need to show up with energy. we all have one life and you need to just enjoy what you're doing. G: preach. So if you could rewind the clock to Nora, just over a year ago, before you handed in that resignation to go self employed, what would you tell her? Nora: I don't know, I think I was very nervous around that time. it was a difficult, G: Yeah. Nora: difficult time for me. I would just have reminded myself that it will be fine and a year from now, I would look back and be like, That was the right choice. What about G: Nice. Nora: you? G: Yeah, just it's all gonna work out. Stick to your guns. Go for it. Do it. Don't look back. Nora: Yeah. G: Yeah. Nora: And trust Georgia. That's what I would have said. We did we G: Trust Georgia. Nora: did we did trust each other quite a lot. Like there were times where it was difficult. G: It was made difficult. Yeah. And there were other people trying to get in our way and to make us not trust each other. People trying to sabotage us doing this, which was really difficult. Nora: Yeah. G: And we were, you know, under quite strict contractual agreements for the first six months of running our business, where we weren't allowed to do certain things, speak to certain people, tell certain people, post certain things. The guardrails were very heavy. Nora: And that yeah. G: And that was it that caused a lot of stress. Nora: Yeah. Both in the business but also in our relationship. G: Yeah. Nora: But like, yeah, if I one year ago I would like look back, I'd t I'd tell her just like, trust what we have, trust each other and trust that it will all work out in the end. And it did. G: Yeah, just don't look back. Just keep looking forward. Yeah, love it. Nora: Awesome. right. Well, if you enjoyed this podcast, do not forget to rate it five stars on Spotify. We're now up to eleven five star reviews. Would you look at that? I know. Yeah, very proud of that. G: Thanks guys. Nora: but yeah, we'll keep making this hopefully a bit more regularly now as well. But hope you enjoyed this and we will see you on the next one. G: Thank you for joining us and we'll catch up soon. Nora: Bye bye.