Latest / Smart Business Growth with Nicky Miklós / "Seven Figures and Self-Discovery: Rebecca Saunders Business Rollercoaster"

Transcript

"Seven Figures and Self-Discovery: Rebecca Saunders Business Rollercoaster" · Smart Business Growth with Nicky Miklós

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Thrive in Business Together with Nikki and Ness.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: We would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of country, the Yagara and Bannerong people of Brisbane and Melbourne respectively, where Nikki and I both work and live.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Hello, beautiful listeners, I am really excited for you to be able to devour this episode that we have for you this week.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Ness and I are talking to the wonderful Rebecca Saunders, who's a business and life advisor for ambitious women wanting to do life and business unapologetically on their terms.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: And if ever there is an example of a woman that is doing this, beck is it.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: She's a champagne drinking, post-it note loving, hair free alipatian who helps female business owners turn their uniqueness into a superpower to celebrate their successes and create dream lives and businesses by design.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: Beck has incredible business experience from running her production company that went from zero revenue to seven figures during COVID times, and now she's stepping into her bigger purpose.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: We talk about what that bigger purpose looks like, the impact of stepping into our true authenticity as an individual, as a human, and how that plays out in business as well.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: So I'm going to just leave it there and let you enjoy this episode as much as Ness and I enjoyed recording it for you.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: Beck, welcome to our potty amp.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Thanks for having me.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: Ladies, it is so great to have you here and, honestly, your story is we've got so many stories weaving through your experience in business, your personal life, coming out to Australia with 500 bucks and a laptop and building a business.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: There's just so many different cool conversations that we can have.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: Like how do we narrow this down to a starting point?
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: Keep it at 20 minutes or 25 minutes.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: Exactly, this might be 52 podcast episodes.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: So we've got a really good starting point, because obviously, the last few years have been tumultuous, have been up and down.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: There's been many stories of triumph and tribulation and, of course, disaster and trauma and all sorts of things, and your story in business around this is really, I find it, incredibly fascinating and inspiring and I'd love to pick your brain a little bit about it, because you of course, had or have a production company.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: It was very successful.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: I was also very impressed you landed LinkedIn as your first client, but that's another conversation.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: We'll do a sales app and focus on that.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: But yeah, hope it hit.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: It impacted your business in a pretty significant way.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Do you want to tell us a little bit about that?
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: Actually, I might just let you tell us that story and where you landed on that.
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: So pre COVID, february 2020 was the time that I'd landed on.
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: You know what I'm done, doing what I'm doing and the way I'm doing.
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: It had been percolating for me for, if I'm being really honest, probably about a year, maybe a little bit longer.
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: I started my business in 2012 and I built my company to sponsor myself, to stay in the country.
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: My background isn't in the technical video space, but I built a business in the video production industry and when I got my citizenship so after a few years later let's say, six or seven years later got my citizenship and went.
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: You know what I'm going to need to change it.
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: The business has done what it needed to do.
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: Let's do something different.
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: And so, instead of doing something completely different, at that point I went I'll just put my name on it.
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: So, instead of having the old, old company name, I'll rebrand and put my name on it, and that will make everything seem fresh and different.
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: And a year or so later, I'm like this still doesn't feel right, like I'm not really enjoying this still, and I made a really hard decision to say to my team look, guys, this isn't working for me anymore.
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: I have you all on salary.
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: I am having sleepless nights over having to bring in the projects to pay you guys, because video projects for us were very much project by project, not retainer work, and it all got too much.
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: And so, through theory conversations, I said this is the situation I'll still be pitching for the work and doing the conversations with clients, but I need you guys to be freelancers, not salaried staff.
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: And that conversation happened, I'm going to say, about a week outside of the COVID, covid hitting and the pandemic locking us all down.
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: And that was the situation where, as a business owner, you're like I've done the right thing by me before, but the team have been with me for a long time and so there was a limbo there of documenting how many hours they were actually working on client projects so that we had them as freelancers if we needed to go freelancers.
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: But we hadn't actually terminated their employment, because if I'd terminated it, whilst the whole thing was sorting out about job seeker, job keeper, all the random things that popped up, no one knew what that looked like.
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: And I knew that if we ended their employment, they'd be eligible for nothing right, because they would have lost employment.
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: So we had that delicate balancing act and all I can say is my team, were bloody amazing at being quite happily I say that in inverted comments in limbo, and so we sat in that limbo phase and that's when my phone just started going off the hook.
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: Everyone talks a lot in business about maintaining your positioning and being really focused on one thing, and 10 years of working in the video industry and despite feeling really hard and wanting to close it all down, people knew my name and they had my number, and so we went from quite literally wanting to close the doors and having the conversation to go I'm done here to hitting seven figures in the pandemic, which is our biggest year ever our biggest year to date actually because after the pandemic of two years of crazy, it's burned out here and now we slow back, right back down again to regroup.
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: But yeah, the pandemic for us, the video industry as a whole, took a beating because a lot of people couldn't work and go on site, but for us, we had a film studio, so we were actually still doing lots of live streams and were considered an essential service because of that ability, and that's what saved us and kept us going.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: Wow, what a story to tell.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: I can only imagine that, the way you described that roller coaster at the beginning around that decision.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: I'm really curious to know if you had come to that conclusion in your mind already.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: How did you push through?
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: What was your motivation to go?
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: Was it other people?
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: Did you find something within you that kept you all busy going?
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: Other people?
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: because I could have very easily gone.
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: Ok, I'm done closing all down.
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: We were a month by month rent.
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: We were actually the only tenant in our co-working space because our studio was part of a co-working space.
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: We were the only tenant in the entire pandemic that didn't put our rent on hold because we were still in this, so we could have finished our rent and walked away very easily.
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: Other people because I could see the pain a lot of people were going through and we didn't do it for the money, like we at all.
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: Like when you say seven figures as business owner, like your profit margins can wild, very wildly through that.
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: So team and equipment and all that stuff.
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: It was a case of we could help people.
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: I could help guide you through setting up a home studio.
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: I could ensure CEOs and doctors in the media could do their jobs and educate their teams in the public and our role became more than just what we could do personally.
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: It became we're doing something for society here, yeah, and so that's even beyond the team that's, I think, about even cheese.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: We're going down memory lane because, also, you had the choice of closing the doors and walking away.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: You had the choice, like there were many options, and you oh, am I going to bring the P word?
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: You.
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: Sounds like you had to purer.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: This is memory lane.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: I remember the gym distilleries making hand sanitizer.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: There's the shift in that service offering that you have to make it really relevant.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: We also talked yesterday we were chatting on your podcast, shameless Plug, here, the Champagne Lounge.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: Make sure you go check it out.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: And of course, we'll have linked show nights in the.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: What is that?
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: What do we do?
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: We put links in the show.
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: notes From the show notes.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: That's why there's three of us in this conversation.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: We'll put links in the show note there.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: But also, you talked about that burnout piece and I think what's really interesting, a couple of things in there around finding purpose outside of self.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: It's about the team, it's about the community, society, and also seven figures can sound great, but and we talk a lot about profit is what matters and.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: But then the retraction.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: I think of a conversation we had recently with Michelle Gregory about the recovery, or going up the hill is really hard, but sometimes going down the hill is just as hard in a different way, which is an analogy here that's really relevant about.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: So what does that look like when you actually I don't know what the word would be maybe not downsize, but resized or got a better fit so that you weren't experiencing burnout and your team and that's what we were talking about, what we talk about a lot is that whole burnout piece and avoiding that.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: So what's your insights around finding the right fit, and the right fit for now, because the best fit for now in terms of your business size, what you're chasing, your purpose, can change and you've expanded, you've gone in all sorts of directions and growth angles.
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: So any insights around that I think, if I look at any of it, it's the following, the gut piece, that I feel that if it's sitting there and it's really niggling away to not sit on it for too long and let it fester, and so I say that because we came out of COVID.
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: One of my team then said look, I want to go and pursue my own thing.
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: And I'm like great, go to that.
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: Another person said I really want to just reduce my days.
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: I'm like awesome, that's cool too.
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: Which that then took the pressure off.
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: I had such a beautiful team because you could very easily have had the complete opposite of I'm going to stay employed and I'm going to take this, however you want to take it.
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: I had the nicest team who just saw how hard we all worked and were just super flexible in what they wanted to do, and we came out of that all.
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: And I kept pushing and pushing because, at the end of the day, that's what brought the money in, that's the stuff that brings the money in bond, and I have time or did, I should say, and I had the conversation with my team just a few weeks ago to say again like I'm back where I was in 2020.
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: Like I'm back in 2023, feeling exactly as I was at the beginning of 2020 and I cannot keep it going.
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: I just cannot, and the reason for that was now a mixture of I'm feeling the burnout and can't do things in the same way that I used to do things before.
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: I don't want to do things in the same way that I was doing things before, and technology has meant that anyone can pick up a camera and make video and do the things and know someone that can help them on the cheap, and so it got harder and harder to pitch for work and I have a much bigger purpose now.
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: Like I don't want to be constantly striving for that, and so there was a few little tears on both sides.
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: I was like you're the best team ever, and they're like you've been the best boss ever, like we couldn't have wanted a better one.
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: And I shouldn't have sat on that for so long Like I pushed it down and pushed it down as in to say we can make this work.
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: Look how amazing COVID was.
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: But the reality is you've got to follow what you feel inside.
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: I fully believe, and if that means pivoting and dancing and trying new things, we're pirouetting.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: What I'm really curious to understand more about Beck is Nicky and I had our own individual businesses, which were running really well, that we actually really enjoyed what we were doing.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: We just came together and saw that we had a shared vision, a shared purpose.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: That felt more.
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: It just lit us up more than the work we were doing in the past.
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: And so we naively went oh yeah, your business is a success, my needs, we just come together, we just mush that and we'll be fine.
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: And in retrospect it's actually starting afresh all over again a whole new business model, a whole new way of delivering, a whole different client base.
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: And so we went through the pain of realizing that we're in a startup and it was a very different feel about it.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: So, knowing that Champagne Lounge you launched that in 2023.
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: And this beautiful vision that you share with anyone who comes within your community about the purpose behind it, I'm really curious to know.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: You've come out of a business that clearly did well, when so many businesses didn't.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: The drive.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: It sounded like you were striving and driving a lot.
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: It took a lot from you.
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: How was that transition for you into a completely different business?
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: And please do tell us a little bit about Champagne Lounge, but it is so far removed from the energy I would imagine that you had in the production company to now bringing into this, I guess, creating a community and a very different business model.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: So please do share a little bit about that and particularly how that you've managed the emotion of that Cause I know in the early days of our business heck, more than early days there's been tears and there's been frustrations there's not water in this cup, yeah yeah.
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: So I started the Champagne Lounge in February 2023.
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: And the Champagne Lounge has a very simple mission, really, and it's to ensure that businessmen don't feel lonely in business.
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: And the premise of it was around building something and creating something that didn't have an agenda, that didn't teach you anything, didn't add to your to-do list, but gave women a platform to come together in a virtual networking space that could be about talking about anything, and so that's what the premise of it was, and because it wasn't teaching anything, I made the decision that I would charge a dollar a day for people to be a member of it, and the dollar a day came from.
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: I'm a firm believer that you need to really maximize every single day that you're here, and so 365 days in a year.
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: I was going through a bit of a thing.
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: I can see it on my vision board there's so many 365s.
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: One of my goals this year was 52 podcasts in 52 weeks.
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: I had a thing about the weeks and the days of the year and I'm like I'll make it accessible and I'll make it affordable, and I'm pretty sure a lot of people think I'm crazy or was crazy or am crazy for doing that, because it's gonna take scale and numbers of people to make that into a financially savvy move.
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: And I remember saying to my husband we just bought our country house and, following along from the country house, it was a dream of mine to have the Sydney house and the country house, I don't know why.
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: On the vision board that's just what I wanted and so we have it right.
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: We created that.
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: We bought it to life.
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: And I remember sitting in the pub one day going they wanna change what I'm doing.
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: We've just got a second mortgage back.
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: What are you talking about?
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: And I remember that story.
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: I'm like you know what I'll do?
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: A traffic light system.
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: I'm like, okay, we've got our finances here.
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: I will give the video business my best shot and let's face it, that was February.
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: Now in October I'm not quite sure when this episode will drop, but that's a 10 month, eight, nine month period.
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: I've given it a good, hard crack in the video space and gone.
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: It's still.
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: It's not making me money, it's draining my energy.
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: I made the decision to close that, knowing full well that my income monthly is dramatically different.
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: I was used to doing six figure months or close to six figure months to now doing sub 10.
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: Same guy like very different right now, but I know I need the change of pace to then bring it back up and go again.
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: And you spoke about energy.
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: Like I have so much more energy in what I'm doing now in terms of speaking and coaching and building the Champagne lounge way more that now I've closed down what was energy sucking me.
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: So whilst it was energy driving for that period during COVID, it then got to a point where it was sucking my energy in my time and my creativity.
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: And how do I balance the emotions of that?
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: I wasn't joking.
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: There's been a lot of wine.
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: There's been a fair amount of tears involved, I think in terms of what am I doing?
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: But I don't.
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: I say what am I doing, but I have a really deep knowing that it's gonna be fine.
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday on her podcast.
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: She's a kinesiologist and we were talking about the energy and the knowing in it.
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: I'm like I can.
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: I just have this feeling that it's fine, like it will be fine, it will be what it is, and I don't tend to sit in the negativities of, oh no, $7 a week, okay, like that's a lot of people to get involved, to pay my salary, to pay my mortgage, to all the things.
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: I looked at it and go.
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: This is the first time in 12 years of business that I've had recurring revenue, don't you?
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: That's cool, that's awesome.
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: And so I look at it in slightly different ways.
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: And then I have conversations with our members and people send me little notes and emails to be like that was the best conversation ever.
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: I just needed that.
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: Today I'm like I know what I'm doing.
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: I know I'm doing the right thing.
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: It's just gonna take time.
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: But, like you guys, I forgot what startup phase actually felt like.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's so good, we're happy we're here.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: But also, I imagine it's like childbirth.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: They say that you forget some of the pain of it, which is what makes you go.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: It's okay, I'll have a second or a third child.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: I personally have not.
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: I'm glad you said that, because I would say the same thing, but I'm also child-free, so I don't know, I had two and it is exactly that.
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, otherwise I'd only have one.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: This in itself, a lot of our listeners, I'm sure, will resonate with this piece around the business doesn't feel as exciting or inspiring or even just as good as it used to, and what I'm loving in this conversation is the self-reflection to go.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: What's actually driving this?
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: Yes, it might be a sound business with the numbers, or maybe the industry's changed.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: Do I wanna pivot or pirouette again in the same industry?
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: Or is there in your words, beck?
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: You said initially it's a bigger purpose and finding what that bigger purpose is.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: And as entrepreneurs, we know that people are gonna think that we're crazy.
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: We know that sometimes we get an idea not just in our head but in our heart, in our body, in our being, and if we don't see that through, we'll regret it.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: I speak for us here and I'm sure and it's great to be reminded as well of that knowing and to come back to that and the energy piece I think that was really important.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: A theme that I'm seeing in our conversations and in life at the moment is this slow down to speed up.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: Also, I will say, monthly revenue.
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna post it now on my desk, right now.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: There you go.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: It is that slow down to speed up and if we look at it pragmatically from a business point of view, it's such a good business model to have recurring revenue, but it is harder to build because you don't have that big chunk of project revenue.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: So, again, a lot of our listeners and clients are service-based businesses.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: I think about what is your revenue model?
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: Is it a combination of both?
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: And have realistic expectations.
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: You might not have realistic expectations, actually, because we didn't and we've done it before, but be reminded that it's okay if you're slowing down to speed up and if you're starting again.
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: Are you stuck in the busy trap or on Juggle Street, being all things to all people despite having a team?
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: Or perhaps your business is feeling chaotic?
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: Do the mini-business health check to get 10 strategies in under 10 minutes so you can get time, freedom back, experience peak performance and finally leverage smart growth in your business.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: Head over to b2businesstogethercomau forward slash health check and, if you're ready for us to help in a more hands-on way, email us at hello at businesstogethercomau and we'll set up a time to chat.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: So the other thing I would love to bring into this, because the COVID, the pandemic around the 20s.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: That wasn't just the business.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: It wasn't just the business that had a lot of change.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: You personally went on a journey as well, didn't you Really stepping into your true?
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: authentic self.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: And again we would love to hear a little bit about that.
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: Probably mid pandemic I made the decision just to not wear wigs anymore.
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: So I've had alopecia since I was seven, and alopecia is an autoimmune disorder or condition I should say I don't know the word disorder, Condition, that where the hair follicles attack themselves, and so there's varying different degrees of it.
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: But I have what they call alopecia universalis.
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: So I don't have hair anywhere.
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: I'm not the person to ask for tweezers or any of the like technical things.
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: Or hair ties or hair ties or any of that.
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: But I wore wigs from a very young age and had fun with them, but was wearing them a lot all the time and it went on a pretty, pretty big, I'm gonna say five, six years worth of personal growth and development on self, not to with the end goal of not wearing wigs in mind.
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: I just caveat that with.
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: I wanna be a better person.
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: How do I navigate my energy better?
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: How do I grow and have my personal growth in the journey and be able to do what I wanna do in the world?
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: And part of that process for me got to a point where I went.
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: You know what?
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: I was sat at a conference.
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: I was sat at the business tricks conference in the Barrosa Valley, surrounded by so many people that all had their own stuff that was just getting in the way.
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: And I was sat next to the fabulous Shelly Horton and we were talking.
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: She was talking menopause, I was talking Alopecia and she goes you know what, let's stuff it off, go buy yourself some fancy earrings and just make that your thing instead.
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: And I was like, huh, I wonder what happens if I did do that.
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: And so the next day I went on a wine tour by myself.
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: I'd booked a driver to drive me around the Barrosa and I went.
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: You know what?
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: I'm just gonna have fun with it.
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: So I bought earrings.
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: I don't normally wear earrings, but I bought earrings.
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: I did hair free and I went out wine tasting like I dressed up and made it.
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: I felt like a bit like Sex and the City getting in and out.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: Yes, it does sound very glamorous.
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: It was very glamorous and, yeah, that was the last time I wore a wig, because I got back and I did go.
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: How do I do this in front of clients?
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: How do I do this?
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: Because, historically, I'd done kept track of what colour hair I was wearing when I met people at meetings.
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: Wow, oh, wow and so like to the level of just really make sure you know, like putting anyone in a weird situation and what I was thinking.
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: But I kept track of that.
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: So I got to a point where I just went, okay, let's stuff it.
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: And during the middle of COVID, where masks for mandatory were using more screens, so I was wearing my glasses more, I was Australian summertime, something's got to go here and it's got to be the hair, because the other two are legally required.
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I booked a photo shoot with a photographer again another blessing of the studio space and changed everything overnight just all over socials, all over everything and went, okay, I'm ready, now let's rip the bandaid off and go in.
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: And I haven't looked back.
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: Actually it's been great.
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: That sounds just amazing and I think within that there's that the theme I'm getting through.
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: Everything that you're talking about, Beck, is this sense of trusting your gut, trusting your instincts and trusting yourself.
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, and it takes time.
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: Okay, I think it takes time.
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: If you'd asked me to do that, a friend of mine said to me four or five years ago you do know, when you decide just to take your hair off and do your own thing, your business will go crazy.
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, shut up.
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: No, I'm not ready for that.
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: Like whatever, she was right.
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean what happened?
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: That coincided with my big, crazy, seven bigger year, and the next thing and now I'm on stage is sharing that story and talking about self-confidence and walking to your own beat and doing it your way.
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: And I think I needed to go through that personal journey to get to the point where I can talk about it in a way that doesn't make people feel as though I just flicked a switch and everything was different, because it did take time.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I get this feeling of freedom, like freeing, even watching you talk about it and just feeling it.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: It is a really inspiring story to hear because, you're right, we all have that thing or things that we feel that we have to hide behind and we can't show up as our true, authentic self and I know that we hear those words all the time but actually, as we are, and to feel that we have to put a mask on whether that's a mask or a wig or whatever that is, to be able to have the courage to take that off and then so any tips from actually having the courage to take it off.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: But then also and I'm sorry I'm asking a question and I'm talking, so we're just going to go with it.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: So hold that thought, because then I feel like the reward came through, is what I'm saying?
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: The reward of being able to be yourself, the reward of being free, and there cannot be a coincidence of you stepping into your bigger purpose of you again, that impact on business and not having to worry about those things like what color hair would did I have on.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: That must have just taken up so much space in your brain and mind and energy.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm telling us in it yes.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: So now I'll go back to the question.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: Any tips on that?
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: Because courage, people wait for courage to show up and courage does not show up until we take that first step.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: That's the reality.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: You've got to take the step.
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: You've got to take the step.
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: I think one of the things that I fully believe you should have when you're doing any form of change, whatever it may be stepping into your power, changing up, putting boundaries in place this will still be applicable for that is you need people around you that get it, that have seen the journey for you, that you've got in your corner, and for me, that's the the cheer squad mentality right.
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: It's the people that are going to have your back, regardless of what happens, and so it could be your partner or your spouse, it could be girlfriends, it could be just one best friend.
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: You need someone that you're able to confide in, who knows that you can do it and goes I'm here, as it could happen, we'll just put an extra wine in the fridge and so you've got to have those people there, because there'll be wobbly moments.
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: There'll be massive wobbly moments along the way.
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: If I look back at my journey up to that point, I remember I just moved in with my now husband, and he did know that I had alopecia I was wearing.
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: Weeks before we met, I'd already made the decision and put a photo of me on.
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: We met on Tinder.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: I knew story.
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and so I put that photo on there to be like this is who I am, so you're either going to be accepting of it or you're not.
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: And so that got rid of a lot of tire kickers and so he knew that.
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: And so the reason I share that is he came home from work one day and went baby, it's 40 degrees outside, why are you wearing a wig?
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: You must be like you're wearing a hat, yeah, but I always do this is not just take it off.
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: That's ridiculous.
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: And because I'd gone through the process for my whole life of put my makeup on, put my hair on, I'm ready for the day.
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: And so from that moment, that was the little flex of OK, I went wear hair at home.
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: Okay, I went where it when people are in the house, not just the two of us, so if friends come over and then if I'm going to go exercise.
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: So it was slowly little bits that I was doing behind closed doors and in my own conference zone with one or two people.
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: That then when I went and did the big step out that it was like huh, no one actually made any bad comments or had anything negative to say for me at all.
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: So I'm thinking why does it take so long?
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: but I needed to do that journey.
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: I wouldn't have been able to do it otherwise.
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: So I can't imagine me stepping on to stage or changing all of my social media posts or putting myself out there in this way had I not taken those steps.
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: But the reason I share all of that is you need a person or a set number of people that will have your back and be your cheer squad.
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: I love that and in fact, that's a beautiful way to bring us to the question that we always ask at the end of our time.
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: I feel like we could talk forever, but and I think the angle I want to ask this gone is taking on board what you've just said in relation to accepting that you could a little seed could be planted around change, whether it's a change in your business, it's a change in your life decisions you're making outside of work that feel big to you and scary and going to take a little bit of getting used to.
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: Nikki and I started business together, but we spent 12 months talking about what did we want to do?
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: Were our values aligned, how would the partnership work?
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: Like we did a lot of foundational work before we opened the doors, so to speak.
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: So if somebody's sitting in this space of wanting to create change and knowing that's not necessarily going to happen overnight, what is an overnight action?
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: Does that make sense?
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: That is going to help them start, get started on that particular road.
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: What would be something our listeners could do in 24 hours?
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: That could just be the first step.
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: Tell your person, tell the person to share what that vision is, what that dream is, what that change looks like, and ask them for their help in holding you accountable and or ensuring that you get there Like it doesn't have to be.
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: So we're not talking about a person or train that's five AM go but checking in on that thing.
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: But find the person, because then I like to talk about it like a problem shared, as a problem halved.
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: Get someone on board to help you with it and I don't necessarily need to tangibly or physically or skillfully help you with it, but just being able to talk it through with someone, I think.
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: Find your person and tell the person that's what you're going to do.
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: Oh my God, I love that.
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: That is so doable.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that too because of the simplicity and I think, if I reflect also on my journey, it's definitely Jules has been a key person who is similar.
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: It comes to mind where, sometimes, where I don't believe in myself, jules will say that's just ridiculous, nikki, of course you can do that, or whatever it might be.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: So what I also want to say is it might not be a partner, it could be a biz bestie, it could be a bestie, a sister, and there are so many incredible communities, like the Champagne Lounge, where if you're thinking, I just don't have that person, we're here, we can be your people, we can be your people.
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you got three.
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: You got us in one person.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: So there you go.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: So you reach out to us and make sure you do check out the Champagne Lounge.
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: We absolutely love what you are creating, everything you stand for, and I'm very grateful that we can be each other's person as well.
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: So any final thoughts or words of wisdom from anybody before we wrap up, I think, for me.
• 30:41
  Speaker 3: I'm going to leave it at that one.
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: Ask your person.
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: It's been a beautiful conversation for enabling me to say thank you for letting me share all elements of this story, because I thought we were just going to cover off one.
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: That we've done, several, and you're right.
• 30:51
  Speaker 3: You've highlighted the theme through all of it, which might help me craft something new or a new set of next week.
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: Oh, good so there we go, amazing.
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: It's amazing there's another.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: Sorry, there's always another word from Nikki, yet it's his name.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: But even in that itself, sharing, talking, find your person.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: Ok, I'll shut up now.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: Thanks, everybody.
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: I hope this sparks something in you today that you will go away and be creative about.
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: Have a beautiful day, listeners and viewers, and we'll see you next week.
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to today's app.
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: If you loved what you heard, find us on LinkedIn and let us know what you enjoyed.
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: Also, don't forget to rate and review and, of course, share this episode with your biz besties.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: Ness and I are obsessed with helping you break through your business and life barriers to get you to your next frontier of growth.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: We bring two business minds and two perspectives into your business.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: As the magician, I help connect the dots, see the possibilities and the hidden potential, and as the architect, ness turns those possibilities into practice, implementing plans and frameworks.
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: Because, let's face it, every vision needs a practical pathway to success.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: We offer business health checks, taking you from chaos to clarity in just 30 days.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: Are you curious to find out more?
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: Send us an email or go old school and give us a call.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: All our details are in the show notes and on our website.
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: Until next time, happy listening and here's to thriving in business and life.