A Lot On Your Plate - Side Dish: Question time with Zozo Quinn!

Episode Date: September 22, 2023

Jess puts Zoe in the hot seat this week and questions her on her career journey so far and what it’s like now being her own boss and funemployed! Zoe shares some ups and downs of working in marketing and spills the tea on a difficult influencer she’s had to work with in the past! Enjoy piggies x Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Happy Friday Your face If I'm taking on the job To intro every episode now You've got at least work with me on this I just never know if that's you going I just never know if that's us But we're here

Anyway, happy Friday's part of people Happy Friday party people What are you doing this weekend? Well, when this comes out, it will have been the big birthday. Oh, yes. Big 27. But I'm actually not really doing much. Just going for a family night of my brothers tomorrow, which is Friday.

And then Saturday I'm going out for dinner with Jason. And then I think that's it. Excellent. Not really got. I'm not having a birthday night out this year, which is very not like me. It's not like you. I like your birthday nights out. I know everyone always takes it to the farmer

birthday nights out. I don't really, I'm not to blame for that. Absolutely no way. Unsure. Anyway, what are you doing? I'm going to London this weekend for my friend's birthday, but next weekend nothing, same as you.

So it's part of the time this one comes out, nothing. Right. Hugging my boyfriend all week. Okay. So this episode, we are going to quiz our lovely Zozo Quinn on her career journey so far as after the episode that I did, on Life of an Influencer with myself.

A lot of you wanted to know Zoe's backstory. So we're going to do a little bit of that. But first of all, we just want to talk a little bit about something that we'd said in last week's episode about sign language. My sister had messaged me saying, is there different languages in sign languages? And I said, surely they're the same. Like if you do the smiley face, it's got the same. But apparently, quite a lot of you have been very lovely and messages this.

So somebody has mentioned saying currently learning BSL throughout the world there are loads of different versions of sign language even in countries there are different variations like dialects like West Coast could have a slightly different sign for something then say Edinburgh or somewhere in England even though it is still all British sign language somebody else voice noted is in to say that there's all different kinds of languages all over the world such as BSL which is British Sign Language ASL American Sign Language where they would sign with one hand some signs you can do two But in BSL, you would sign with the hand that you would write with. I think that's what they said. Yeah, so it's like the hand that you would... One hand is essentially mimicking paper and one's mimicking a pen. So cool. I think she was kind of saying.

Yeah. Because you do see like a lot of times there's a hand almost like flat and then you kind of demonstrate on the hand. That's true, yeah. So it's like paper and pen. Very interesting. One of our lovely listeners, voice noted in to say that has son is deaf and she had never really had to even think about this before but she found it

really interesting because she's currently learning it with her partner to be able to sign with her son and teach him as well but basically a really interesting point that at school we learn all these languages like I was learning French at school which I couldn't even tell you one fucking thing yeah and also I did Spanish and I did it twice and I sell can say something but we don't ever and don't get me wrong I still think learning language is extremely useful but but to be able to learn a language and be like a sponge when you're a young child you need to be able to be around it constantly and listening to people having full blown

fluent conversations. You don't. You walk away and next minute you go into maths and then you're going to English. It's just confusing. But what she was saying was it should be learned at school or even basics because a deaf person can't ever be taught to hear but people that hear can be taught to sign to be able to communicate with people that can't hear.

So I just found that really interesting and I think it sounds so basic to even think that we don't do that. I know and I'm actually surprised in this day and age with the way the world goes we're like inclusivity and all that that we don't. Yeah. Or that that's not a thing at school at least. Yeah. Do you know what I mean?

It was interesting. I watched a video on you know Natasha from Love Island and she has the hearing aid. What are they? The one that the cochlear implant plant thing that allows you to hear to an extent I think

but I think that's fascinating because when I was younger I don't remember that people could Is that quite a new thing in recent like Oh no I remember loads people at school having that Really? It's like the one that's like behind your ear But then it goes up and connects

Yeah And like your brain somehow Like you can see it on their head Like it sits on your hair That's amazing But there was like a deaf department At my primary and high school I'm sure So that's maybe why

just quite like a special specialised school for deaf and blind I'm sure that's amazing anyway anyway we were yeah we just thought we'd mention that because lots of you guys wrote in

and it's really interesting so I thought we would if you learnt something like we did we want to teach you too absolutely every day's a school so Zoe Zoe Zoe Zoe Zoe Quinn Elizabeth Quinn Yep, that's my other name

Zek Zeket All you have enough Nicknames for me Let's not add another one Zoe Zakeet Let's ask you some lovely lovely, lovely questions

Wow, so many questions for you Stand by You had an hour to send them in So thanks everyone Organised as usual from us Right Where shall I begin asking you the question To bring you into this

Zoe? What is your job title currently? Interesting one because I was thinking with this other day but right now I'm just the director of the company I suppose. You are. Or I did make a wee email signature professional the other night and I put director and strategist.

Like that? Funky. Fancy isn't it? But that is what I do. Yeah. I do all the strat... I mean I do everything right now. It's a one-man band but what did you study at uni or did you go to uni? Yeah. I actually went to college first for two years

and did retail marketing just because I hadn't decided what to do but I knew I wanted to do something to do with clothes and like shopping is what I thought clothes at that time, do you know what I mean? And then I went and did one year at Cali, uni in Glasgow doing international fashion branding

but because I did two at college I haven't straight in the third year so I came away with a uni degree and did you intern didn't you? Did you do anything interning while you're at uni or? Yes, I interned at quiz

for quite a while. I feel I want to say like between six and nine months and then as I was stopping went to St. Lucia for a month, that's when I did volunteering. And then I came back and got the job at quiz.

Right. So anyone that doesn't know quiz is quiz clothing. Just in case. Yeah, quiz clothing. And it's wasn't in the shops, it was in the head office so it was like helping with social media

influencers, like all kind of marketing stuff. Because when you started at Quiz the influencer thing wasn't really massive back then or... Not it wouldn't have been because that's about... The brand collaboration, was it with Danielle from Towie or was it

Sam Fairs? Yeah, there was Sam Fairs at one point and then there was a TOWY drop at another point as well with like Amber Tans than um because i would say quiz clothing was one of the first fast fashion niche brands to be able to do that where they collaborated with a reality star yeah it was yeah or an edit should we say they didn't sit and put pen to paper but yeah um but that was well i mean that would have been close to about seven years ago probably um yeah it would have been when i was like interning yeah so when you think about that in terms like influencer wise

it probably was just quite near the beginning of that sort of world we're living now but when I started there I think my title was Influencer Outreach Assistant I think Yeah

And when I started it was purely for influencer And then obviously I dipped into social Like he'd in there just because it like aligns with that Like that's the two things that piece together And then I went into Influencer Outreach Executive

at quiz and then that's what I moved over to FBL as was influencer exec as well and at FBL is you went from fashion to beauty which was quite not difficult but it is there's a big difference there

I think because with beauty there's a lot more about the actual product that you need to be aware of as well as with fashion you don't really need to know the whole terms of how that what the fabric composition is as much but with... And also in terms of marketing, fashion

as like an instant you put an item of clothing on and you can see what the item is. Looks like, yeah, sell yourself, but tan doesn't really. Whereas like self tan or even skincare is a process of like waiting for the results to happen especially with skincare, it's not overnight either. Yeah.

Whereas tan, at least you've got overnight but when it comes to like marketing, everything needs to be, you need to make sure you're saying the night saying in terms like ingredients or like function or results. Yeah. especially with tan, you need to think about skin tones, skin types, all that kind of stuff. So what I would say about the difference between quiz as well,

quiz was probably more of a fashion follower, wasn't it? It took inspiration from other places. Yeah. Like most fashion brands are. But with FBL, I would say they were quite fashion forward in the sense of being like innovative. So for you, the pressure was on in the sense of we want you to be more, like, you were market leaders. Yeah. Well, I mean, Tanlux, for example, had the first ever tanning drops. Yeah.

Like, a lot of the products that they have were the first of in the tanning category, which obviously is amazing, but it does mean that everything that we did had to be ahead of the game. Yeah. Which is obviously a great business to work for, but it is like... A lot of pressure. A lot of pressure, and it's not always as easy as it looks or even you think it's going to be. Yeah. A lot of competition.

So have you always known that this is the area that you wanted to get into? Probably not. I feel like when I thought about fashion, I did more think about like buying, like fashion buying. Or like kind of like styling, like more actually doing the actual fashion side of it rather than just if you're good at market and you could almost market anything. Yeah. To an extent.

But then buying. when I was at uni and I did that kind of like module of the course, you realise it binds a lot of like numbers and spreadsheets and stuff, which at the time I was like, no, that's not for me. Now, looking back, I would have been good at that. Yeah. Because I actually think I'm actually good with numbers. You would have been quite good at merchandising probably.

Yeah. Whereas at the time I more wanted like the fun, like glamorous side of it so good to me. The way it does to everyone. like I was that person who got sucked into it too but it's just not all fun in games Isn't it mental that at such a young age you're being pushed to choose what you want to do for your career but then it gets to this age where both of us

you did it obviously a bit younger than me but you've changed a whole career you're still sort of in the same sector but you never realise what you really are good at until you get to a certain age and what you enjoy. I think it's wild that I do think like I was talking about this

with my family the other day because my wee brother's 14 and he's having to choose, like, subjects and stuff which does kind of start to shape your career journey because if you've not done something at school, we can't get into at uni. But we were saying, like, just go to uni even if you don't know what to do

because it just buys you time and like, it's good social experience for you and like all that. And we were like big in it up. Whereas before I was quite like, I do agree, not everyone needs to go to uni and all that pish, but if you really don't know and you're not...

I think in Scotland you definitely should. It's free, isn't it? Yeah, you get grants or funding or whatever. And it's not that you should go to be like, oh, I went to uni, but it's like, see, if you don't know and you're still not that driven to be, like, I just want to make good money and, like, go in a company. Go and just enjoy it.

Yeah. It's a good sky for a few years. What is the best and worst part about being self-employed? Worst part for me is definitely not having an office environment and not being around people. I do find that hard. It's obviously what I'm used to. It's helpful that you are available

and we spend a lot of time together but I do still find it hard not like getting up and getting out and socialising from like 9 o'clock in the morning every single day. And also it's difficult not being able to bounce your ideas or even like when you do something you just want to say like, does that look okay?

Yeah. And obviously I can ask anyone who's like sitting with me that day but see if it's like Jason for example, he doesn't know. He would just say everything you'd. do is good or he would be like what about this and i'd be like why would you even suggest that so like that's not helpful yeah but i would say that's the worst i do miss that part and i think i'll always think that like part of me at times has thought maybe i'm just not for self-employed life yeah but i know that's just me adjusting um best part is definitely the flexibility for a pop for lunch

i'm saying i miss going into the office at 9 a m and socialising but i don't miss getting up to going into the office. Yeah. Do you see, there's a couple hours in the morning there that really contradict to each other.

Because someone else has worked here is how he's struggling working from home or certain things rather than an office environment so I think you've kind of covered that. I am.

Although the one thing I'll say is I think when winter comes one, I think it'll be harder in ways because it is very dull and it's just hard on winter in general to like feel motivated because it's pitch black outside from morning and night

but two, not having to go out the house when it's measurable well feel nice yeah definitely whereas it's not a choice well we're going to be absolutely fitness queens in the winters Zoe so we're up in the morning we're up and out wind rain or shine rain rain when wine or why i wish watch i can't get that out you know what i'm saying you don't want out doesn't matter what's what's the worst work thing that has ever happened i e worst experience with a brand influencer or trip but but no need to name names, just the story. He-he-he-le of you guys.

Aw, she's a nice girl. Or if you want to name names. I'm kidding. Don't. I'm trying to think of specifics. But I would say overall, in that line of work, when you're, like, planning events, the worst thing is when people don't show up.

Oh. Or don't even, maybe, like, respond to an extent. Because, honestly, I see standing in a venue. Say we're talking like an intimate dinner here, right? So there's like 10 people, they've all confirmed and you're waiting for them to turn up. That could possibly be the worst feeling in the world. Just hoping that they do.

Or what if one person does, but no one else does. Oh, the dread. It doesn't look good on you as a brand either. And then also to your manager, who you've obviously organised the event, they're like, why didn't nobody turn up? And you send a confirmed guest list. Oh. And then half those, and you're like, this reach is going to be this

and it'll be worth the money you've spent and blah, blah, blah. and then nobody comes. Although that's not really ever happened that much but there has been a few like larger events that I've managed and you've got some big names on the list and then they don't come. Of course you do not.

And it's fine because people don't, people who are there don't know they were meant to be there in terms of guests. Right. But it's just like a bit disheartening because you're like the amount of work that goes into these things.

Yeah. And like I've even said that to you sometimes like when we're talking about things and I'm like, but that's why it matters or whatever like I don't mean bad on you. I just mean, like, being from at the brand side and then also your side. Yeah, because you wouldn't really,

I wouldn't think about how that would affect certain things. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And that, but I don't know if there's anything, like, I can't really think if there's one specific person. There's a few that are a nightmare to work with in terms of, like, content is so half-arced. Who?

I'll give you a clue. Oh, my God, juice. Scottish, but doesn't live in Scotland anymore. and goes out with a edgy reality show star who's no longer on the show I know who you mean.

But it's not you know what it's like it's not a personal hatred it's just their manager one needs to be better because if you sent content to me and it wasn't good enough

I would say to you we can try send it if you want but if it was me I wouldn't sign off and it's just like you're getting paid these people are getting paid a lot of money and they must do it in about five seconds and not even

not even at all putting any effort into it no editing done like nothing added like no text added to the stories or whatever like there's no links added and just all that and you just need to push back and push back and it's just fucking annoying yeah and you just think I know like it's time consuming

I know it's hard and you're putting yourself in front of a camera if you don't feel great and whatever like all that right but I'm like it's no that hard yeah When it's your career, like this is what you chose to do. Like, why are you not good at filming yourself applying a product? Yeah. Why are you still not good at that?

Like, why are you taking on the job? Like, see, this one person wasn't the only person. There's a million that are the same, but it's like, why are you accepting the job when you look like you would honestly rather not do it, do anything else than that? This is what I mean about influences, right? I know I would class myself in that bracket, but I would, you know, I would, never accepts anything that I didn't want to do or I enjoy or I like the stuff

people just accept shit for the coin 100% and also I think see if you don't, see if you send shit content or you make shit fucking videos or whatever if you do that the brand is stupid enough to let you post it

and you don't perform well but you won't perform well and they won't want to work with you again and also see all these brands and all these people that work for them everyone knows someone somewhere. So, for example, I would say someone so-and-so is a nightmare to work with. Yeah. They might think, fuck it, we'll never work with her. Yeah. See, as an influencer or

content creator or whatever, like, even like someone who does press or whatever, you don't want someone saying that about you. Yeah. So that you should always put the effort in. Yeah. It's your job. Like, you wouldn't work in an office and not do your job, would you? No. Love that, Zoe. There you go. Strict mumager. I am very strict with content. So if anybody wants Zoe to manage them, a message. win management. So, are you planning to expand and hire people, Zoe? Well, I've not decided yet what I wanted to.

There's a fine line because there's only so much one person can do, obviously. Yeah. I think you will need to soon, you know. So I would like to have someone that could help me even on like a bit of a part-time basis or even like on a job basis. Why don't you get someone that did your course at Cali? and get them to in tampe you yeah I know I would like that but the problem I have and I know I'm not going to sell myself here

you're perfectionist and you like doing things yourself me and you were discussing this earlier one I'm a perfectionist and you'll never drown as good as me end of the story right two and I don't mean that's not factual that's just my brain yeah two I have zero patience yeah and that is a concern

like Jason's been like just helping me like with like kind of add many bits from it for it to an extent and even when he says one time I'm snapping and he's like you could never have staff yeah but that's because it's Jason now you don't snap at me no I know but I'm probably taking deep breaths at times yeah obviously um that's not hard I would need to kind of decide

if that's for me yeah and then there's loads more think like eventually if you did that you'd need a working space which I would love but you are going from like right now it's just me and I can take on as much as I can and then there's no worries of like workload to an extent because it would only be me that had to suffer if things went bad or whatever which I hope and I'm sure they wouldn't but then in another sense I just quite like working with other people who do similar to me but maybe with like different avenues of it so like press or photography yeah or whatever that then we could just work together maybe build it that way so I'm not sure yet okay but if anyone

would like to get in touch in the choir if one's fucking shit to themselves now I would maybe judge it on a person's fairest

place as you have you got any work role models no sorry is the perfect person no one does it

better than her no it isn't that at all I actually try and not look at other businesses yeah and I know these are businesses and I'm just one person's now

but I try and not look at what other people are posting about and doing because I find it kind of overwhelms me a wee bit and I think like fuck they've got like all these amazing clients or whatever and I just think that just makes me question

my abilities and I don't like that and I also have just decided that's not something I would share I mean I'll maybe share like clients in terms of like maybe stuff you do or like the influence side of things but I don't want to share businesses that I'm doing work for just because I just think with the way

life is people then watch you closely and then you've not posted about them for a few months of they dropped you were you not good enough and things just change with businesses like sometimes they just don't want to invest anymore or whatever it's not necessarily because of your work yeah and i just don't want to that's probably just a me thing but i just don't want the eyes on me in that way yeah um so yeah i don't really look at what other people are doing as much oh my god so you've got so many people are so interested in me and my life okay what is one of your main most ambitious goals now that you're fun-employed?

I think my goal the problem is I'm just not sure my goals are good goals to have but I would like to be in a position that I suppose I'd answer the questions about other people working for me I guess I think my goal is to have I would like to still stay the one-to-one manager for you

and maybe like a couple of selected people I would like to and still have that a very like intimate service she would say she obviously does love me guys she's just exaggerating

so I think like longer term that would be like my one thing that all my time and energy still stays and goes into and then I guess that answers a question really that other someone else

or other people would take more of like the doing the daily things to actually do and I'm just kind of I suppose when you're like starting a business the end goal is like

to almost do less but you want to get to the point that you're making the money and you've got a successful business but you're not the one doing everything yeah totally but I would like to have like a successful business and if it means that it's always me doing it that that is fine

yeah but I think when I'm in better routine and like better like I've adjusted to it, then I'll enjoy it more and I'll be happier with that. How is Jess as a boss who've been laughing about this question? Well, we're laughing about this because I'm like, can you clarify? Because there is like a, it's a weird set up. Because there is my boss, but I pay her. Literally.

Which is absolutely true. But also you pay me in a way because you're the one helping me get the work. I know true. It's a bit of a. Just an ongoing... Well, someone else here has wrote, so we can maybe cover this both. How did it come about for Zoe turning from Powell

to being your mummager? Well, I think there was just the ongoing thing here and there that you were like, I'm not really sure what this means or can you look through this, contracts? I don't know. It was mainly when contracts started coming about because you were like, what am I even looking for? And fees and things.

And like fees. And I think with contracts, most of them do say the same thing when it comes to symptoms of contracts. but there's things that brands will have in as routine or they sneakly put it in and I say that because brands will try and get as much as the can out of it and fair enough like I would be doing the same but there's things like

brand exclusivity and things in contracts that brands put like you can't speak about another state like drinks company for three weeks and unless you read the contract like read every bit of the contract you wouldn't know that's in there and then they could potentially not pay you or fine you or whatever. So there's just important things like that that if you've not worked on that side of things

and you're just the influencer you wouldn't know about. So I think we just started working together on that side of it and then I was helping you with that kind of stuff and then I was moaning about being skint for a holiday and you were like, well why don't you actually work for me? And then we'll start with like a fee. And it just went from there and it went from Cedar to 100 real quick.

Yeah, really weird. So somebody else has said here then, how did you then get into implementing marketing? What made you brave enough to do the jump to go, leave FBL and do your own thing? I think it was a mixture of, I was doing that for you, obviously, and that was getting, like, more and more.

And it's, like, even though I just put it on my list now of, like, check image S, it's like once we open my conversation, it's like you're talking about it all day because, like, more things just come up and then whatever show. it's more of a job than just one text

and an answer. Do you know what I mean? So obviously I was doing that for a while and then like a kind of friend of a friend who's now a friend had asked me to help with a wee bit social stuff for her business and then we had the podcast and like that was taking up a bit more time

well it was just more of a commitment that we probably knew it was going to be which is good but we didn't know how much work would go out and obviously at the start and then it was like I can't really balance all of this so something's going to need to give. And I wouldn't want to want to stop doing this, or you, at times. But also, I wasn't enjoying my job anymore, so you're challenging it.

Exactly. So here I am. Wow. You mean, you've got tons of other questions, to be fair, but we could maybe cover them next week. One piece of advice you'd give yourself in the first couple of years. Oh, the first couple of months, shall we say? I mean I put a post up the other day right and I was laughing as I posted it

and it was like I can't remember what I called it but it was like things to run a successful business right no it was benefits of planning the week ahead and you would do it hadn't done it what you was hitting all of which I do none of the above right However, I thought If I put this out into the world

And I keep reading this That will be me one day So I have started planning week ahead And I mean everything to like I put personal stuff there as well In terms of what days I'm going to do What at the gym or whatever she Because then it holds me accountable

And I'm a write down and tick off person And I will write that down Even if I've already done it But I hadn't written it down Yeah, and then take it off Just so that I can tick it off I am that person Same

So I think it's so beneficial to plan out your week even with a bit of personal thing in there so that it just keeps you right and then also I think like don't get in your own head about things because I know my mum seemed to think that I had a lot of confidence and no one else seems to agree with that because all my pals and even people wrote in like would not have said Zoe doesn't have confidence

but I think with this situation going back to not having someone to like bounce your thoughts or ideas or like work off of makes you question everything you're doing and again why I don't look at other pages because then I'm like because somebody else has asked here do you get imposter syndrome so

I've had it since the minute I left that job and I still have it and even like this week I've had a few new clients come on board that I've created stuff for and even in the first round that I've sent over there's like no changes and I was like okay I'm kind of starting to feel a bit more

okay I know what I'm doing type thing but I definitely have imposter syndrome and I think everyone does to an extent when they do these kind of things but I would say my main advice is you're doing it for a reason so be confident yourself and you won't want to go back to that office job

I know just keep remembering why he did it you know remember why you took that step because there was a lot of reasons well thanks Zoe Quinn hope everyone enjoyed that that was some very interesting career journey from you and if anyone wants to work with Zoe reach out to Zoe

I'm really sure I sold myself there nobody wants you to be their boss now I well have patience and promise no but I mean in the sense if anyone out there has a brand or needs some help with influencing then yeah I can vouch that you

Zoe's the one I do keep you night you do you do you do very much so well thanks for having me on your podcast that was a pleasure welcome back any time I'll see you on Tuesday

see you on Tuesday bye bye