Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / The 6 Q's with Gen George from LMBDW

Transcript

The 6 Q's with Gen George from LMBDW · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:12
  Hey, we are here for another episode of Female Startup Club. I am with the lovely Jen George. She is a successful female founder. She has exited two businesses successfully in the last eight years. She is the host of a fast-growing girl group worldwide called LMBDW, Like-Minded Bitches Drinking Wine, which has more than 100,000 women. And she is also involved in a new skincare brand for men called The Daily Podcast.
• 0:40
  Thanks for having me. Tell me everything. Tell me all about you. I love wine. I love the morts on the beach. So where to begin? So my startup journey really started when I was 21. I started an employment marketplace called OneShift. It grew to about a million candidates and about 45,000 businesses over about a four-year period.
• 1:05
  We then got acquired back in 2016. And then we spun out advertising tech for marketplaces called Tami, which the team then came on board again for that to, you know,
• 1:17
  Once you do it once, why not do it again? Exactly. And we spun that out and took that global from day one. We drew to a million requests per second in 135 different languages, and we got acquired at the beginning of this year. And then the like-minded bitches started in 2015. So Jane Liu from Chopo and myself were basically looking for other bitches who just wanted to get shit done.
• 1:39
  have a glass of wine, cut the kumbaya and just kind of get to it and go, fuck, do I solve my business problems? How do I grow this? What do we do? And, you know, now we're 120,000 women strong. We're having our very first conference in Sydney in February 2020. It's called Bitch Con. So bummed I'm not here. Heartbreak emoji. Have to be at the next one. Next one. And then, yeah, that's it. That's you in a nutshell. Cool.
• 2:06
  Also the format for Female Startup Club is to ask six simple questions. So we get the same answers from women absolutely everywhere. So let's get stuck in. Perfect. First question is what's your why? My why is to have an impact. So whatever we do is about how do we make sure that it's sustainable so it can keep having an impact after, you know, I get out of it or if I drop off the face of the planet tomorrow. So for example, like my bitches, it's always been, okay, how does this keep replicating and going to different cities?
• 2:35
  and continuing to have an impact with the women on the ground and touch with Jane and I drop off the face of the planet tomorrow, this thing keeps going and it's this movement and almost a cult sometimes, which is scary, but awesome. As well as, you know, with appointment, that was always what it's about. And then also scaling marketplaces because, I mean, we all use them every day. So it's like, how do we impact as many people as possible?
• 2:55
  Yeah. And to break format a bit, I'm going to ask you another question. My bad. I mean, stick to the rules. And so obviously you've got BitchCon coming up. This is a huge thing. I think you told me there's 2000 people. It's unbelievable speakers. It's like incredibly affordable as a conference. So that's a huge thing that you're doing for 2020. What else are you doing to keep that impact going? Like how are you innovating in the group? And yeah, what else is on the line?
• 3:20
  On the horizon. On the horizon. So, Black Money Bitches has always partnered with a group called The Hunger Projects and it's been about microfinancing for women to start businesses in local communities so that they can have a sustainable, again, to our theme, sustainability of having an impact that they don't have to turn up every month for a handout. It's about giving them microfinancing to start businesses to really have a sustainable impact within their own family and their local community.
• 3:44
  So for us, this is the next step of having local events and really adding value to the female founders about growing their businesses and making them sustainable to have more choices in their lives. Whether it's family, work, career, whatever. And then for this conference, then it was about kind of taking that to the next level to having a larger impact. Beyond that, I think we might try and start having them in more cities around the world today.
• 4:07
  Yes, do that. Maybe London next. So Paris, apparently. Come to Paris. We do. Bonjour. Practice my French. Same. And then red wine drinking. Yes, we don't need any practice in that. Cool. Amazing. Moving on to question number two, which is what was an impactful moment in your business that's been like a really big deal in one of your businesses? I think when you think...
• 4:32
  Back to the beginning, I think that's where you kind of see, you know, I'm a true believer in everything happens for a reason. Everything seems that when you look back, in hindsight, it's a funny thing. You always go, oh, and then that led to that, and then that led to that. Whether it's a good or bad thing that happens, the next thing leads to the next thing. It's this chain reaction. Yeah. Yeah.
• 4:46
  And so when we first, you know, I went on a, I quit uni and I was very lucky that my parents were very, you know, you do you, figure out what you want. Obviously uni is not for you. I lasted a whole year. I got a scholarship for Bond Genie on the Gold Coast and so enrolled in law and in property development sustainability. So, you know,
• 5:04
  sign up for everything, sort of double degree. You know, bad idea. And by the fourth semester, I just went, this is just not for me. I can't concentrate. I can't. This is filling something out constantly by the rule book. Just wasn't me. And so I went on a gap year to the south of France thinking, you know, I've heard about this thing that people go and work on super yachts. They have a lot of fun. The owners come on for like a week out of six months. You get paid a whole bunch of money. They feed you, accommodate you, and provide the wine because you're in Europe.
• 5:33
  What else can you need? Exactly. Start living the good life. So by making the choice of going, I don't want to do uni, I'm going to just have some fun and then work out what I want to do, it then made me start one shift going, well, I need some work to hold me up for 30 days, I need one-off shifts, which then caused that. So then I came back to Australia after and then started that.
• 5:52
  And then within six months, we were in, and my other turning point was we were in a current affair and the AFR in the same week, the first week of December 2012. Wow. And our investors saw us and went,
• 6:04
  hey, we want to be a part of this. And so within, we're under a year old. Had you planned to have investment though? So you were just like, oh, wow, okay. They emailed us and said, look, we'd love to catch up with coffee and hear what you're doing and see how we can work together. They had this whole vision of how this business could come together within their traditional model of self-service digital offering and what that ecosystem would look like. They had their five, ten-year plan written out going, hey, can you fit into this? And we're like, oh, yeah, that's a great vision. We can fit into that box. That's a great vision. We'll head that way at 21.
• 6:33
  I was like, yeah, we'll just see what happens. Yeah. Yeah. Everything just kind of, and then the next thing went to the next thing. And so very fortunate with every encounter, every experience that we have in the way. Wow. Incredible. Cool.
• 6:46
  So number three question is how do you win the day? And that's really focusing on mindset, rituals, little tips and tactics that you might have that are like your kind of secret formula for performance. Yeah, definitely. Look, I think everyone talks about, oh, this book changed my life or I've listened to this podcast. I'm horrible at reading and listening for more than 30 seconds. Yeah.
• 7:06
  Maybe in a minute, we'll see how we go. I think you've got to find what suits you. And so for me, it's about spending good quality time with my family, friends, or my partner. And then, and shout out to my partner for putting up with everything. And then- Hey Henry. Yeah. And then training, you know. So I go to the gym, I go for a swim. I try to make sure I'm outdoors. So go for a swim in the sea pool, do some laps, and just-
• 7:28
  put the phone down. Movement. Yes, sunlight. Feet in the grass, feet in the sand. You told me that. And it's amazing how weird that sounds because it also has such a profound impact. Yeah. Their feet on the grass and just breathe.
• 7:42
  Yeah, it's meant to be really good for you. I should do it more often. Mums are right for some. Mums are right. So that leads me to the next question, which is where do you hang out to get smarter? So I know you just said you don't have the books and the podcast, but if you were hanging out with books and podcasts or somewhere else on the internet, how do you get started? Yeah, so I actually do that by going hanging out with people. So if I'm exploring a new topic or a new concept or something,
• 8:09
  what we're trying to figure out how to do it myself. I'll actually just approach people and go, hey, can we catch up and just chat about this? Can you explain how you're doing it? Yeah. And I learn better through seeing, feeling, touching than, you know, reading pages and pages because I switch off. Yeah.
• 8:23
  But then when it comes to apparently the best things to read and listen to is, I think it's a podcast called How I Built That. Everyone refers to that. It's amazing. I listen to every episode multiple times. If you get summaries and let me know what I should listen to, let me know. Give me the top ten. Yeah, I think that's a great idea. And I think that I wish, you know what I wish existed was, can someone do this please, internships for like.
• 8:48
  founders. I want to go and spend like three months like working with crazy founders and being like, I'll just do all your shifts. I will be your assistant. Just let me come in there and like look around and be part of what you're doing. So much, right? And just being a part of other people, you know, out of your own funnel of business. Yeah. Just some, some different industry could be like something totally random. It'd be so cool. I would love that. That's where I want to hang out to get smarter.
• 9:15
  We'll be the new interns. Greta, can I be your intern? Please? Lol. She's serious. Yeah, I actually am. I think I've had a dream about that before. Number five, I think we're up to when you are faced with failure, how do you deal with it and what did you learn? It can be a specific example. It can just be like what your approach is to issues in general, whatever you want. Definitely. So with Tammy, we actually made the wrong infrastructure choice. So there was a strategic change with Google.
• 9:44
  GCP servers to AWSs with their locations, which sounds fine, but then when you're working with a real-time bidder and you have to make bids for ads within a point something millisecond, there can be a point something millisecond delay, which means all your bids get cancelled and then you get voided from the system, right? So you can't even auction bid on anything, right?
• 10:04
  And obviously for marketing, bidding business, that's a bad idea. That's a big no-no. So for us, it was about then having to rebuild that, the cost, the delays, everything, dealing with customers, trying to keep delivering what we're supposed to be doing while doing this in the background with all our other priorities. To say that we pulled more than one all-nighter, pulled our hair out, it was a massive impact and it really sucked. But I think I'm a big believer in just going, okay, it is what it is.
• 10:32
  write down exactly what are the top three things you need to do next, deal with the first three, and then find out the next three, and find out that you're just gonna keep moving. Like, it will just eventually sort itself out. Yeah, and it sounds like you would have learned a lot in that experience about how to avoid that in future. How to carry servers or find servers online and have your own servers to transfer things over, how to buy USB fans because it gets to plus 30 degrees in the city over summer, because the aircon's off on the weekend so your servers don't crash. Ask me about that.
• 11:04
  And question number six is the last question. If you only had $1,000 left to spend in your business bank account, where would you spend it? See, I'm a huge believer in the hustle, the old school.
• 11:14
  So I would be making content depending on who your customers are. So for a jewellery business, I would be literally going and interviewing women and getting them to wear the jewellery and talk about the jewellery and their businesses and other things and then getting them to share it out in their own network. So that's free. It's your time. I would then also look at trying to create partnerships and collaborations through tools like Collabasaurus, which is like $90 a month or $45 a month.
• 11:39
  And we're back. Third time lucky. We just had a little interruption from my auntie Deborah calling. Hi, auntie Deborah. So then I would then um, Partnerships Collabasaurus, which is like $45, $90 a month, something like that. So it's super cheap to get.
• 11:54
  really meaningful high-scale partnerships that are not on pay-to-post situations, but it's how you share audiences. So, hey, you're my customer. I need to get them out to this brand, these kinds of people. You have that. How about we do a cross-post or whatever? Yeah. Ways that don't involve money to exchange. I'm going to sign up right now. You should. Yes, I'm coming for you. Okay.
• 12:13
  Cool. Well, that's the six questions. And thanks for watching Female Startup Club. There's going to be so many more of these amazing videos with all these incredible women who I get to talk to on a really regular basis. So thank you so much for being part of it and helping me and all the support.
• 12:33
  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.
• 12:57
  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.
• 13:20
  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.
• 13:37
  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.
• 14:01
  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.
• 14:24
  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.