Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / Doone & Jules Lund in Conversation: Creator Economy & Funding Your Small Biz on Disrupt Radio

Transcript

Doone & Jules Lund in Conversation: Creator Economy & Funding Your Small Biz on Disrupt Radio · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:16
  Startup Nation for the makers and breakers.
• 0:22
  Hey, Jules here. Startup Nation celebrates some of the country's most innovative entrepreneurs. And you have to be innovative to break into a saturated market. The podcasting space is the perfect example. It's all about finding a niche and cultivating a community. Like Doon Rasheen, she is the founder of the Female Startup Club. It began as a classic bedroom floor side hustle. And today the show is in the top 0.5% of podcasts globally.
• 0:48
  and a top 10 podcast for entrepreneurship in the US and UK, and amassed over 14 million views on TikTok. As for Doon herself, well, she was named Young Australian of the Year in 2022. It's a great story from an inspiring founder. Enjoy.
• 1:07
  It's been a busy start to the year. We've just launched some new programs. I've just been in Canada doing a speaking gig. So do they pay you for those? Yeah, of course. So how do those inbound leads come? Are you on the speaker circuit? Is it via your podcast? They fly you over there. They put you up. They pay you. How did you get it?
• 1:26
  Yeah, well, that one was kind of specific to a partner slash sponsor that I already work with. They're called Thinkific, and they are a B2B software for creators like me who build courses and sell digital products online. So I flew over for a week to do a bunch of...
• 1:43
  I mean, a few different things with them, including some collab marketing kind of things that we filmed, but also a panel discussion with a few of us and then a kind of keynote speaking opportunity. In addition to that, which was paid, went to a great hotel, had a great time, spent a couple of days in Whistler at the end and then flew back. It was amazing. But yeah, usually speaking gigs, it's mostly inbound.
• 2:04
  And I've just started a, well, I've signed with a, like a talent company that manages speaking gigs. So we're hoping to kick that off soon. Amazing. Can you tell me a bit more about this company? And, you know, there'd be a lot of people out there like consultants that we know or coaches in any way, shape or form, whether that's leadership or even sort of financial coaching. Is this sort of a bit of a, a bit of software that you can drag and drop your content, create education modules? Yes.
• 2:33
  So Thinkific is just incredible for hosting content, you know, in a really easy way for your audience or your customers to view. So you basically, if you're launching a course, for example, you go in, you'd add all your information, you record your video modules, and then you just kind of...
• 2:48
  upload it all there and they handle everything from, I mean, you can use them for landing pages, you can use them for the kind of hosting of the digital content, but then also, you know, right through to checkout and payment systems as well. I use my own website for my own landing pages and sales landing pages, but I use them specifically to host the content and then also for the checkout and payment system.
• 3:10
  It's amazing. It's really cool. So I'm just looking at it now. Thinkific. It's almost like terrific, but think at the front. Basic is $36 a month. Then you start $75 a month or grow $150 a month and you can start a 30-day trial. That's pretty interesting stuff. I
• 3:26
  I find that really amazing because there'd be a lot of people that are completely pushing out like newsletters, blogs, videos, and giving it away for free, which you sort of have to do to create your community to start with. But there's a moment where you have to then sort of gate it. And I've always wondered how these work and no doubt it works for you.
• 3:43
  Yeah, I mean, you can find mostly all information online for free. But if you're able to kind of find ways to provide free value through your content, but then if someone wants to go deep on one specific niche or one specific topic and have everything in one place, just kind of like in a step-by-step process with templates and downloadables and all that kind of thing, you can then just put it behind a software like this. And even though you still give away a lot of your content for free, you can give people the package wrapped up with a nice little bow. So what is your sort of...
• 4:13
  I don't know, growth strategy. Because I know you have your newsletter, and I realised when I signed up to it today that it's probably only for females, is it? I mean, it's definitely targeting the women audience, but it's...
• 4:28
  high value. You can get lots of different insights in there. I'm sure you'd get a lot of great stuff. Am I allowed in there? I've got a female name, Jules. I wasn't sure if your moderators would have picked up, but I did click on that, but I don't want to be the creepy guy. No, I know multiple guys who read my emails. I know multiple people who are subscribed. I get little replies to my inbox every week. It's great.
• 4:54
  Awesome. That's great. And so, yeah, what's your strategy? Because newsletters are really interesting one. What I've always loved about them, and I've been banging on about them when everyone was creating sort of online communities, social communities, you know, the first iteration of Facebook communities, you know, I'd built 400,000 followers and then they changed the edge rank algorithm and I went from reaching 100% of them to 2%. So I, I'm like, Oh, this is bullshit, right? I'm not building a community this way. And
• 5:21
  But yet an email database, you own 100% and you control that. And it's like there's no one in the middle. So newsletters have always been a really powerful, but yet not the sexiest of strategies. How does that work for you? And how many have you got on your list? And how does that sort of flow into your education?
• 5:37
  Yeah, you know, I think newsletters are a great way to keep in touch with the audience, especially because people like to consume things differently. So, you know, we have the podcast, we have social channels, and they kind of sit at the top of our funnel where people can discover us that way. And then they filter down into the newsletter. And some people just prefer the written form of content. So it's great.
• 5:56
  for them, having it delivered to your inbox, insights, frameworks, kind of just displayed really easy, easy to digest, easy to snack on. And then in our newsletter, we have relevant kind of industry news for women in business. We have job opportunities at cool female founded companies and lots of just good resources and little tips and tricks that you can access. And then that filters directly to kind of our...
• 6:19
  you know, paid products and paid offerings. So it filters them down to bottom of the funnel. And so for us, you know, it's a great channel. I mean, if you're thinking about a podcast, when you're listening to something, you're not directly clicking, you might be at the gym, you might be driving a car. So it's very kind of, you know, in one ear out the other. Whereas if you get someone onto your email list, especially like you said, you own that list, it's not going to turn off anytime soon.
• 6:41
  soon if the channel changes or the algorithm changes. But then you're able to, you know, directly have people clicking into your website, clicking into a checkout cart or whatever it might be. If there was entrepreneurs listening and they're thinking about all of these channels, because you know, when you when you give birth to another one, you know, you have to feed it. Right. So a newsletter is like, holy shit. And I know that, you know, the content is overlap. Like it's almost like you take the content you put in the chop shop. All right. I got to put it in text. Repurpose it.
• 7:08
  Yeah, repurpose it here, short form for that. Then I'm going to get some, you know, long form on podcasts. And I'm going to get a click of that because we're obviously filming that. And then I'm going to put that in the newsletter. But it's still a lot. Can you give us a bit of an idea of the resources required for that sort of content machine?
• 7:24
  Yeah, absolutely. I would say like if you're, especially if you're an early stage founder and you're just starting out, pick one channel and start with that one channel and don't move on from that channel until you've got it all figured out until you've stacked your systems and your processes and you're consistently kind of in a flow with that. And then once that is 100% locked down, then move on to another channel and then build out again, your different systems and your different processes. You know, for us, we have a number of different people who work across
• 7:54
  I have my VA, I have my contract editor. There's a number of people that go into making all of our content across all of our channels because we have everything from my personal Instagram, the business Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, the podcast, newsletter, TikTok. And that's like the free side of it. And then we have our paid products and our paid funnels.
• 8:13
  And then I have one-to-one coaching and then I do angel investments. So there's lots of different moving parts to Female Startup Club. And we do have multiple people kind of making that work. But the only way it works is because we have really clear systems and processes for everyone to follow and kind of action.
• 8:28
  newsletter, we use Beehive. It's a great tool for creators. I think there might even be a free option that you can start on and you kind of build your way up until a certain amount of subscribers and then you start paying. And it's really easy to use. They've also just launched within the platform different ways that you can monetize and just immediately add different sponsored posts and things like that.
• 8:50
  that in there. You can have a referral program, grow your newsletter from directly in the platform. It's really an amazing tool. So if you are kind of in that early stage of just trying to figure things out and you want to test it out as a channel for you, it's a great platform. It's called Beehive. And they will be asking you to talk at one of their overseas conferences and putting you up in a nice...
• 9:11
  I mean, we'll see. Tyler, the founder, is pretty great. He launched it about a year and a half ago and it's doing something crazy. Like, I think the last thing I saw him post on LinkedIn was like 5 million ARR less than 12 months into it. He's crushing. Hey, one of your focuses right now are programs for early stage founders and future founders. Can you tell us a little about that?
• 9:32
  Yes. So our core hero program that we kind of released in soft launch at the end of last year and kind of, you know, ironing out the kinks at the start of this year is a program that's developed for early stage business owners who are in the space of e-commerce specific
• 9:47
  particularly CPG, so consumer packaged goods, who are looking to really upskill in organic content marketing and learning what's needed to launch their own ads. And that's kind of an offering based on really who our audience is when we think about who's talking to us on social, who's in our newsletter, who's listening to the show.
• 10:05
  And then from there in the pipeline, our next program that we have coming out is, it's so cool. It's basically a program that's all centered around funding, because that's another thing that comes up time and time again from actually anyone that's even coming on the show to anyone that I'm talking to in the DMs in our audience. Everyone wants to know funding. What does it mean to raise capital? How do you go about it? How do you do a pitch deck? How do you access grants? How do you access, you know, different kinds of debt? All that kind of thing. So it's a program really centered around funding.
• 10:35
  all facets of funding, but with a kind of primary focus on raising capital and especially raising from angels. Tell me what you think about this opinion of mine. I wish that I was more discerning and I felt like I had just to move. Okay, next step funding, next step funding. I didn't think there was any other option, right? And I regret that because in some ways...
• 11:01
  I think so many of the people that are asking you about funding are probably way too early and they probably need to just have a blast, you know, really try it out at their own time, their own speed, bootstrapping to really get.
• 11:17
  that product to get traction before they're just going, here's my idea and it's going to work with enough money. Because we got that money and as soon as you take money, holy shit, everything's harder to do. And the clock starts ticking and the pressure starts building and you start to run out of the money. And if you haven't proven that that money that you said you were going to double or triple in that time, if you haven't, then you're sort of caught.
• 11:45
  So I say to people like, yeah, I know everyone's talking about funding and young people funding, but one of the things I would say is like, what if you didn't fund for 12 months or two years? Can you now focus on that period in your life? Absolutely. And I think a big problem or part of the problem is that the media really glorifies the fundraise. Yeah. You know, you're splashed, you're seeing splashed on the cover, these amazing founders raising, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars and...
• 12:11
  And what gets into this is your ego and wanting to be in that moment without really kind of just taking a moment to be self-aware, reflect and observe who you are as a person to understand, do you even want to raise? What's the kind of business that you want? Do you want a lifestyle business where you don't need to have someone to answer to?
• 12:29
  and, you know, make decisions alongside. Or maybe you are the person that does want that. You want to go really fast. You want to have other people in your business who are going to be calling the shots alongside you. And that's kind of, you know, your appetite for a business. And that's totally fine. But I think we can often get lost in just identifying what we actually want and what our goals are in terms of our day-to-day life, in terms of where we want to get to in what period of time.
• 12:53
  And of course, like if you're raising money, your goal is to sell that business and you have to return or you hopefully make a return for your investors. So I think it's about starting to really understand. And that's why, you know, we want to have more resources around this, because understanding your appetite for the startup ecosystem, understanding whether you want to raise or not, and then also going into the different ways that you can access capital for your business, because a lot of people don't realize how many different avenues you have. Yes.
• 13:22
  And I think there's about seven. There's self-funding, which everyone just kind of forgets that you can do so much to get your own savings, liquidate your own assets, use your nine to five as your investment into the business. Then you can go into grants. There is so much equity-free capital around the world that you can access. You can access this through governments. You can access this through businesses like MasterCard and Amex. You can access this through
• 13:47
  through your local university or philanthropist pitches and donations. And then you've got things like the EMDG grant and R&D incentives and things like that. Then you can do crowdfunding. You can do crowdfunding through just kind of presale on Kickstarter and Indigo and those kind of websites. Or you can go down the pathway of equity crowdfunding through platforms like Virtual and Equities.
• 14:09
  Then there's borrowing and debt, and there's many different parts to that. And then there's obviously capital raising. And then I also like to add in rev-based financing, because if you're building an online business, I mean, it's expensive capital to get, but you can use companies like Clearco or Wayflyer or Shopify Capital, plug in all your data, your Google Analytics and your Shopify data,
• 14:31
  And they'll give you a loan. You can get upwards of a million dollars. And then that goes into your purchase orders or your inventory orders, or it can go into your paid ads. And then they're just taking a percentage of sales back with interest every day until you pay it back. And they know what they can lend you based on your data. And then, of course, you've got things like accelerators, incubators, things like that that also give you capital. Startmate's a great example in Australia, Techstars as well. There's just so many different ways to access capital. You just need to know about it.
• 14:59
  You forgot sort of your rich auntie and the whole diet of natural causes, but you put a pillow over her head and then you take the inheritance, which I'm trying at the moment, but probably just blown it. Hey, Dune, I can now see why you have a chart-topping podcast because that was absolutely epic.
• 15:15
  You know, you talked a little bit about the comparison. That was one of the things. And we talk about funding. I love the fact that your first module can be you do not need to raise funds. And they're like, why? And then you've got all these other options, as you say. But I remember the ego of, you know, but having competitors in the market.
• 15:32
  you know, and going, shit, it's a race to capital. And we didn't even question, do we need the capital? And it was a race to get the headline of the capital because it needed to say we are leaders in the market, right? So we were competing against these people. We thought if they're going to get all the money, we're stuffed. They're going to crush us and suck all the oxygen out of the room. And, I mean, the absurd thing about the PR, and all of our best PR was off the back of raising funds, like $5 million, $10 million. No one advertises how expensive their mortgage is.
• 16:02
  Like, that's literally, you're beating your chest saying this is a massive mortgage. Like, I'm under pressure now. I haven't earned money. You know, like, I haven't brought it. This is not revenue. This is me just getting a massive shitload of loan.
• 16:18
  Absolutely. And when we go through the last couple of years where we're seeing valuations plummet, the ecosystem has changed, you become under an increasing amount of pressure and the pressure to then become, instead of a few years ago, it's grow at all costs, growth no matter what, and now it's become profitable ASAP. And so that also doesn't really even align with raising tons and tons of capital, especially if you're raising hundreds of millions of dollars,
• 16:48
  Yeah, it really depends on, you know, your appetite for, I guess, pressure, but also what you want in terms of your life and, you know, your day to day. I think that's brilliant. Like, truly, what do you want? Because don't assume this is the next step.
• 17:05
  The last thing I'll say, actually, I've just got one further point here. If you phrase millions of dollars in capital, that doesn't mean you get millions of dollars in your pocket to take away with. Your investors aren't saying, hey, I'm going to give you millions of dollars so you can take a big fat salary. They're saying, I want you to have a like, you know, I want you to be fine, but I want you to use this money to make us a lot of money here. So you don't have control over what you take out of the business. If you own 100% of your company, you can pay yourself whatever you want. You can have a dividend of whatever you want. And you have the autonomy to make a decision based on you.
• 17:35
  Love it. Virtual assistants, yay or nay? Oh my God, absolutely a yay. Virtual assistants are amazing. Lifeblood for me. Really? And so what are some, just three of the main tasks they do for you?
• 17:50
  So for me, everything that is basically the way that you think about a virtual assistant, you observe your behavior and anything that you're doing that's a repeat task that doesn't require any decision making or creative thinking. It's just a task that you repeat every day or every week or every month. It's something that I immediately record a loom, get my virtual assistant to copy that into a written SOP, put it on the drive. And then whatever the event is that triggers that workflow, that's just then in action and rinse and repeat every single time that's happening.
• 18:18
  And so for us, we use virtual assistants a lot for our workflow connected to the podcast. So that can look like scheduling the episodes. That can look like transcribing and turning into blog posts. That can look like posting our videos on YouTube. Whatever it is, she's got a list of kind of events that are triggered for...
• 18:36
  from me recording a show. And off the back of that, she just actions that ongoing. I don't need to follow up. I don't need to do anything. It's just in the system. And that's the process. And for me, I've worked with Jane, my VA since 2020. And I just have such a love for her because she makes my admin side of the business just...
• 18:58
  so much easier, but you can use virtual assistants for customer service. You can use it for so many different things in your business. And I would also say if you're a small team, you can build this habit into your staff. If you have someone, especially if you're small and let's say you have one employee or two employees, but they're still quite senior in what they do. Maybe they're a brand marketing manager or the performance marketer. Give your staff access to a VA so they can offload any of the admin they're doing and only focus on high level execution and nothing else.
• 19:27
  creative thinking, brainstorming, whatever it might be. So when you can kind of scale your team by delegating all the things that they actually shouldn't be focusing on to kind of a lower cost staff member, instead of bringing in a junior staff member to your office and then having a lot more costs associated with that, it's a great tool. Yeah.
• 19:50
  Well, that was the founder of the Female Startup Club, Doon Rasheen. If you'd like more info, head to femalestartupclub.com or at femalestartupclub on socials, as well as Doon's podcast. They have an amazing newsletter, which is your gateway to their vibrant community. Again, femalestartupclub.com. Well, this is just one of many interviews we do every day. If you want more of the same, catch me live on air each weekday, 4 to 6 p.m. on DAB Plus and online at disrupt.com.
• 20:19
  dot radio and make sure you follow the podcast on apple spotify wherever you get your podcasts disrupt radio tune in to opportunity
• 20:35
  Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 21:00
  And 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.
• 21:22
  As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the show and post your favorite episodes to Instagram stories. I am beyond grateful when you do that.