Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / 6 Quick Questions with Tash Todd Williams, founder of Word of Mouth Collective (part 2)
Transcript
- 0:00Welcome back. Here are the six quick questions. So question number one is, what's your why? Why are you doing this every single day? Okay, so I feel like there's, I thought about this a little bit. I've got three parts to it, but I'll be quick. The first is,
- 0:25building wealth for me and my family and my friends. So one part of our business is that obviously I work with my brother.
- 0:33this may sound and reek of nepotism, but we hire a lot of our friends. And that is because I don't see the point of success and neither does Alex without it being with our friends and people that we love. Like, what is the point if you're not sharing it with people that you love? So that drives me every day because we have so many people that work in and around the business that I have known for 20 plus years and that they trusted me to do this for them and with them. So that's
- 1:03huge, huge driver for me. But outside of that, like, non-selfishly, there's a really big gap and it's starting to be filled by people like you and people like me, which are women in this industry who...
- 1:22have the privilege and the capacity to make a space for other women that don't have that privilege or that voice. So I find it quite a big responsibility, firstly, as a woman in my 30s, but also because of my background. You know, I...
- 1:41I understand the privilege of being like fairly white passing, but my mum's Korean. So I do think there's also an element of like people of colour, women of colour, women of other backgrounds who have even less access to this space than me. So I...
- 2:01We have a really big focus on mentoring and supporting female founders and female clients. And I'll always try to fit them into the client mix, even if the budget's not quite there, because it's vital to me that they have the opportunity to succeed. I love that. That's so, so cool.
- 2:22Question number two, what has been your favorite marketing moment so far? And this can be a marketing moment that was around growing your own business, or it can be a marketing moment for one of your clients.
- 2:33I mean, there's so many, but I think this year has been, you know, particularly after COVID, that was challenging for all of us, right? So we partnered with, this is a new foray for us into new media. It's actually into podcasts. So we are working with the incredible team behind The Deep, which is hosted by Zoe Marshall. And we saw a need or Zoe saw a need specifically in the start for,
- 3:03tapping into this new media idea of paid subscriptions for podcasts, which is fairly unusual in Australia, although has great uptake overseas. So we fortuitously came across each other, built out a strategy over three months and launched podcasts.
- 3:19four weeks ago, the subscription launch was in the top 25 subscription launches in the world for Apple. So when you think about like a little old us in Sydney against some of these huge players in the States, for me, the stories that we're telling on the date, which are often around women, domestic violence, eating disorders, there's a lot of really important topics that we cover. The fact that that many people care about what we're saying
- 3:48Um, I am very proud of personally and just the success of partnering with Apple, like that's out of this world for us. So it was a big win. It's a real good one. That's a cracker. Question number three, what's your go-to business resource when it comes to a podcast newsletter or a book? Is it lame to say a female startup club? I will accept it. So definitely, definitely you. Um.
- 4:18You know, there's a couple of podcasts I listen to. We all know who they are, like Entrepreneurs on Fire, all that stuff is great. And I do listen to it all. But I have to say my piece of advice is look for inspo or resource in like the unusual. So often it will be me watching TV.
- 4:38a random interview with like a comedian or a chef and I'll look at how they perceive a situation or a problem and I'll take that and apply it to how we do things. So that I find sometimes more valuable because those like really unique perspectives is something you don't often think of. And outside of that, I get my biggest brainwaves walking around the shopping mall. Yeah.
- 5:05Like I'll walk around like Woolies for five hours and just think of things on the weekends. I also love shopping, so that's probably a part of it. That's a good excuse. But I'll just get like brainwaves and I'll just write it down in notes in my phone. I'll leave myself voice notes and then come back to it the next day. And often that's been my best ideas.
- 5:26I've been having these dreams that have been waking me up and then I can't go back to sleep until I write it down because I forget. I'm someone that forgets my dream immediately as I wake up. But it's been like waking me up in the middle of the night for like the last five nights, different things that then I'm like, I can't stop. My brain is just like in overdrive and I have to literally get up because I don't put my phone in my room anymore. I have to come out to the kitchen.
- 5:50put it on my phone and I'm like, what are these moments? I'm not having it. Like stop waking me up. Maybe you need like pen and paper so you can like scribble it. I do. I do. I need it. I need it. It's yeah. It's driving me crazy. I want to know what you wrote down. I'm dying to know. Okay. Question number four, how do you win the day? What are your AM and PM rituals that keep
- 6:20Okay, so I have a bedtime ritual, but I'm extremely chaotic. So I have zero routine in the morning. It's just like whatever I feel like doing, I'll do. How do I win the day? I was thinking about this a lot, and I think it's not working 24 hours a day. Like I hate this concept that like the 24-hour grind and hustle you're winning
- 6:43Absolutely not. Like if you can work one hour a day, you are winning. If you can work less hours in a day, that's winning to me. So having balance, having time to see my friends and family, you have like one life to live. Screw working 24 hours a day. I love my job and I love what we do. But if I'm working until eight o'clock every night, which I don't anymore, I'm losing. So winning is switching off.
- 7:12Amen, sister. I hate that hustle vibe of like work till you die. It's just so unreasonable. I'm not for it. I want to retire at 40. Like that's my goal. Oh my gosh, 100%. Question number five, what is the worst money you've ever spent in the business and how much was it? Okay, we've done some dumb, dumb things, but...
- 7:38Last year, we went through our Amex and we had spent, like, I mean, there's a few. No joke, 30K on Uber and Uber Eats for our team and for travel. And for subscriptions, it was obscene. It was, like, over 20K. So we saved by cutting that down. Like, we cut almost all of our subscriptions, which, honestly, I think a lot of business owners would do. You sign up for, like...
- 8:07whatever reporting tool and you forget about it and you sign up for this whatever document thing and forget about it or Dropbox or Glue. So cut that immediately, go through and audit your transaction history because we found so many transactions and we saved 20 grand immediately. Um,
- 8:27I mean, I don't have a license because I just never had the proclivity to learn. So... I don't have a license either. Really? You and I are so similar. I dropped out of uni. I hated authority. That's why I always had to do my own thing. We're kindred spirits, baby. Like, I just... I just... Look, I'm going to try. I'm going to try. I promised my husband. But...
- 8:56I have no choice. I need Uber. I say this every year, but next year is the year I'm going to be in Australia and I'm going to be actually doing it. Maybe we could do that together. And I'm so unrealistic about what car I want. He's like, no, you cannot have a Porsche Taycan or however you say it and be on your learners. I mean, can't you, can't you? I don't know.
- 9:20Yeah, I know my husband's like, you are not allowed to, I'm not allowed to drive any of his cars. Like, he was like, you'll scratch them, blah, blah, blah. So look, Uber is a non-negotiable for me personally, but we were able to, like, one piece of advice I can give is audit. Audit.
- 9:35Even personally, after that, I went through all my own transactions and I'd like subscribe to stupid apps and things that I didn't need. And even that, I saved probably a grand personally. So a hundred percent. You know what I do is I get all my invoices sent to my main inbox and just every time they come in, I actually just double check that I'm still using it. And if I don't, I cancel immediately on the spot. So I'm kind of always aware of what my
- 10:02subscription-ish are. But I have noticed there was some on my personal, in my personal banking app in the UK, you can see what your direct debits are specifically. And I was like, oh, these ones are like
- 10:16not in use anymore. Like I can get rid of these. So it is important to really check and keep on top of those invoices. It sounds like, I mean, look, what a first world problem, but you know, like it's just so crazy that we set and forget like this. And like, honestly, I'm a marketer's dream on the flip side. Same. I'm a marketer's dream. I love being sold. I'm like, cool. And I love things that look great. It's like, I, you would not believe the amount of ridiculous things I bought because of TikTok.
- 10:47like face wands and curlers and like, I will just sign up for apps and be like, yeah, sweet. This sounds great. And I forget about that. So stupid. I mean, not, I'm not calling anyone stupid. I'm doing it myself. But if you can go back and check and don't kick yourself for it. Like, like what's done is done. You spent the money. You can only fix it from here on in.
- 11:12Question number six, last question. What is just a crazy story, good or bad, from your journey in entrepreneurship? I mean, look, there's so many. As a woman in business, which I'm sure you may or may not have experienced and probably many listeners out there, the amount of times I have been in a room with my brother where...
- 11:41And this maybe doesn't sound that crazy anymore, but it still shocks me to this day. We'll be sitting in a room and if it's a male client, maybe one in every hundred.
- 11:53But still, they will only address my brother. So they'll ask questions. I'll respond. And they will only acknowledge or address my brother. And this has happened to me countless times. Or they'll ask you, like, are you married? How old are you? My brother gets none of that. I've had male clients swear at me. I've never had a female client swear at me in my whole life. But I've had male clients swear at me. Former male clients. So I think...
- 12:23That – we shouldn't normalise that. That is fucking crazy and wild that people behave in this way to women still in a business setting. So, I mean, every woman could tell you a thousand shitty ways men have behaved to them at work. But, you know, that's just a few of them. Oh, my God. Yeah, that is crazy and something that just grinds my gears. Yes. Grinds them real good. That is why what you're doing is so important. So –
- 12:53Having space for women to be heard and to tell their stories and to feel respected and valued. And I guess we have to build that for ourselves because no one else is going to do it for us. But don't like I'm very appreciative of what you've built and I think it's incredibly important.
- 13:14Thank you so much. This has been so fun. Thanks for coming on the show. I've loved chatting with you. I think we're just the same person. I think we are. This is so amazing. Thank you so much for coming on the show. I'm so grateful and I love everything you're doing. Thank you so much, my love.
- 13:36Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
- 14:01And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
- 14:23As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the show and post your favorite episodes to Instagram stories. I am beyond grateful when you do that.
- 14:41Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
- 15:05And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
- 15:28As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the show and post your favorite episodes to Instagram stories. I am beyond grateful when you do that.