She's On The Money - BONUS EPISODE: How To Start Your Own Business With Jasmine Garnsworthy

Episode Date: November 22, 2023

We have another bonus episode from our time in NYC! We're talking business with Jasmine Garnsworthy from Female Founder World. Jasmine is an Aussie living in New York, running her business which advocates, educates and highlights young women in entrepreneurship.  In this chat with V, Jasmine gives you tips to start your business, and grow it once it's found its feet. Acknowledgement of Country By Natarsha Bamblett aka Queen Acknowledgements. The advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's On The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs.  Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN - 321649 27708,  AFSL - 451289.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello, my name is Natasha Nabanunga-Bamblett. I'm a proud Yorta Yorta, Kernai, Wolperi and Awadjeri woman. And before we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of which this podcast is recorded on Awadjeri country, acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through. As this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and the storytelling of you to make a difference for today and lasting impact for tomorrow. Let's get into it. She's on the money.

She's on the money. Hello and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom. My friends, this is an extra exciting episode because I am joined by a very special co-host. Jasmine Garnsworthy is the founder of Female Founder World, a company that runs events and has a whole heap of digital products for women who are starting their small business journey. Jasmine, not very New York of us. You're Aussie born, have a very beautiful Aussie accent, but you moved to New York to advocate for young women who are budding entrepreneurs. After building a small online community, her in-person events have grown

from small catch-ups to amazing events that sell out in literally minutes with a wait list of hundreds of savvy women looking to grow their businesses. Welcome to the podcast, Jasmine. What is it like being a co-host of She's On The Money? Oh my gosh, I am so excited to be here. Thank you for having me. And what an amazing introduction. could you please introduce my own podcast with that? Because I don't think so many glowing things in there, but thank you so much for having me. We're never good at introing ourselves. Like if you said they introduce yourself, I'd be like, hi, my name is Victoria. I really like dogs. Like I'm not good at that. Exactly. I mean, and this is a whole thing that we can get into in the show

as well about women being able to hype themselves up. I will hype you though. So like I will be everybody's personal hype person and I hope that's the vibe they get, but that's the vibe I get from you. Like your content is honestly elite, but I want to know a little bit more for those of you following along because She's On The Money is not necessarily for business, but we have reintroduced our business Bible episodes and I haven't announced this before, but like I'm writing a business book in 2024, which is so exciting, but I want to know why did you start Female Founders world and what does it mean now? So Female Founder World was honestly built out of failure. It was built out of an experience that I had creating my first consumer business. And

before this, I was a fashion and beauty editor for years. So, you know, my roots are in digital media. That's kind of how I got my start. And I started a customized clean beauty brand. This is back in 2016. I think, you know, a lot of folks listening, if you are interested in small business. I do think the beauty space is something that a lot of people are interested in getting into. So I got started in 2016. I was one of the first customized brands in the space. We launched and then next week we're in vogue. We went through Urban Outfitters, we had distribution. Just a really normal journey. This really exciting first couple of years, right? And it takes a sad turn, Victoria. But that's okay. But like how incredible to go,

I started a small business, like you're clearly on the right path, but I think all business owners, we don't know what we're doing. Like at the end of the day, like low key, like you look like you know what you're doing. You're in vogue, right? Well, this is it, right? So I saw all of these other folks coming into the space, coming in with big VC money. And personally, I just froze. I didn't know how to get over that, that hump of how do you get, take this business from, you've got this early traction through to the next stage. And because of my own like lack of confidence of being able to kind of go after this opportunity and really recognizing that the experience and what I had built was worth something. The business just plateaued and I ended up closing it in 2020

and Female Founder World was born out of that experience. And it sounds, honestly, it sounds so cliche. It sounds cheesy, but truly just wanting no one else to have to go through that experience because I do think there are a lot of women who are building products that are for them that don't recognize that the opportunity that they have and the experience that they have is super valuable and you don't need to have an MBA to do this. And that is truly what we are there for. I mean, I've said on the podcast before, I have an MBA and I honestly, if we do it again, I wouldn't bother. I'd do something else. I'd do a startup. I'd do something that I actually got tangible interest, totally tangible, I guess you would say experience

out of because one of the things that I got out of it, I can do like management accounting for big business like for corporate I got a lot of corporate experience but that's not what we want like that's not what my community of small business owners inside cheese on the money want like you don't want to have to do a $70,000 MBA to start a business in fact yeah you walk out of it and it's like you know when they say you learn the most on the job you genuinely do like you don't need to go to university to have a really cool business to be really impactful and there's obviously millions literally of women who have shown us that and honestly through my career I've interviewed now thousands of women who have built businesses from I love it I'm obsessed yeah from

a small amount of revenue it's a side hustle through to I just interviewed the founder of Billy which is a company that she just sold for 310 million dollars just like so all different sizes change and most of them do not have business degrees for good reason because you're more creative than that like I feel like so many of us if you went down the route of having an MBA it's like a structured ladder that makes no sense anymore. And that that's not going to work for the digital world that we live in. A hundred percent. So I want to know, obviously, there are so many women in my community that have side hustles, like your entire community is women who own businesses. What do you think the most common challenge is when it comes to starting? And how

do we get over that? I think the big thing that people need to realize is you don't have to have a perfectly laid out plan to get started. I think that we can really get in our heads about making sure that we have a perfect business plan, that we have all of the money that we need to do X, Y, and Z to get it to a certain level, that we have the perfect product, the perfect packaging, that it looks like the brands that you're seeing on Instagram. And what I think you need to go back and really reassess is these big brands that you might want to be like one day, what did they look like on day one? Because I guarantee it's not what you're seeing today. And the best thing to do is to build your product in collaboration with the person who is going to be your customer.

Build it with your community. Don't just quietly sit at your computer and think that you know all of the answers and then release something out into the world. It is so much more powerful to bring the customer along with you and to get that feedback as you go. And get that buy-in. 100%. They are so committed to your product because they genuinely believe it's been made for them. I have this incredible story about a brand called August, which isn't in Australia yet they're in the US. Oh, no, I know August. I stalk them on social media. So their founder, Nadia Okamoto, is just this incredible, she's like 26 and has built this amazing business. And she had a community that was built around this value of destigmatizing

periods. And she had that for a year. She hosted it on a platform called Geneva. And she built her tampon business with those customers for a year before she actually released a physical product. She's since raised millions of dollars. They go viral on TikTok. She's a genius. They sold out. She started by building with the community. So the big mistake people make is wanting to sit at their laptops by themselves and

quietly make this perfect thing. It does not work like that. It's always community first. I feel like historically it's been very, here's a product. I'm going to tell you the 50 different reasons why you need it. Whereas nowadays, and it's not even just nowadays, it's just smart marketing, smart strategy. Now I go, well, Jasmine, what are you struggling with?

what can I help you with? And obviously you've got a niche, so you're asking questions about that. But to go to your side and be like, wow, I feel really heard. This product really is for me. They're doing the marketing themselves. Like your consumer is going to convince themselves that that's the only one they need because you've taken on all of their feedback. Totally. Not only have you then created a product that people actually want to buy, which by the way, is the hard thing. Creating the product that people want is the whole thing when you're getting started. But you've also then got this really core group of evangelists who will go out and bat for you. And don't misunderstand how valuable it is, even if it

is 50 people in the beginning, to have those folks to spread the word when you do have a product to sell. I cannot for the life of me remember the author, but there is a great book called 100 True Fans. And I am obsessed. It's like that. It's about finding your core group of your community and loving on them so hard because they're just going to be those evangelists that go out and be like, Jasmine's amazing. Have you seen Jasmine? What's Jasmine doing this week? Like they're obsessed and their obsession transforms into positive advocacy for your brand. And you see it in, there are a number of brands that I follow online that do do this. And August is one of them where, you know, in the comments on TikTok, that is not a kind space sometimes, right?

They, August, don't have to worry about that because if someone is unkind, they have all these true fans that are like, I'm sorry, sit down. That's unacceptable behavior in this community. These are not the values that we are upheld by. And you just go, how do I create that? That is how you create that, my friend. Following Nadia, following what she does with August. And I just, I get so excited watching it. It's very, very cool. But one of the things that I got out when we were talking about MBA, like literally only thing I got out of my MBA that I'm like, oh, that was sort of worth it was my network, right? And I could have just found these people on LinkedIn if I really wanted to, which arguably would have been free. Like, can you imagine if

I'd invested the 70, nearly $80,000 that I had spent on my MBA in my business? I don't want to talk about it because it frustrates me, but network is so important. And you have clearly identified that with female founder world, because that's basically what you do. When it comes to networking? What do we need to know? How do we know who to network? What's a waste of time? What is actually the follow-up process? Should I be anxious about this? What if I don't even have a brand yet, but you're telling me to network? Jasmine, that's overwhelming as all get out. Isn't it funny how the word network as well now has this really icky connotation? I think that when I say networking, people get a little bit like, like you just said, they have that immediate

reaction where they're like, oh, I don't know, it feels transactional and it feels like I'm- Oh, I'm just scared of making new friends, Jasmine. Right. Okay. Because that's essentially what it is. You're just building relationships. And at this point, like I truly don't know, like the lines are so blurred between personal and professional, particularly when you're a small business owner, that your network isn't this transactional thing. It needs to be something that you're investing in from the beginning. And I'm a big advocate. And what I've seen work really well is peer mentorship. So you do not need to be reaching

out to the person who has built the company that you want to build, who is maybe 10 steps ahead of you. You need to be reaching out to the people who are alongside you. Start right now if you haven't done this yet. I don't care if it's an Instagram DM, if it's an email, like reach out to these people and start building that network because as you grow, their businesses will grow too. And at some point you're all kind of coming up together and it creates this just momentum where you're fueling each other, it leads to opportunities for collaboration and partnership. And when you're building a small business, you have so many questions that you just can't Google. It's stuff like, is this supplier dodgy? Is this price okay? What do I put in my retailer pitch

deck? How do I get investors? This is stuff that's really hard to Google. And you're going to need to rely on those relationships that you have just built over time to be able to really ask these questions and get that advice to grow your business. Plus, this is a hard game. You need people who understand where you're coming to this from. My husband is amazing. He is an amazing support to me. But when I have issues in my business or I have a hard day with my team, I'm on text with my founder friends sharing that. Same. I have a group chat of business owner friends. You need it. Build that group chat for yourself. It doesn't have to be this structured mentorship kind of experience. Just go and find people who are at where you're at and build with

them. Yeah, no, I could not agree more. My like little group of girls that all own like not similar businesses to me, but I would say now similar sized businesses. We kind of all started at the same area. They're the ones I want to talk to. I'm like, oh my God, this happened or this HR issues come up once you're bigger. I don't feel so bad because if I go out to brunch with one of my girlfriends and I'm talking about that, they're like, oh, well, that's really important. And you're just like, no, it's not like, can you empathize with my frustration here? But the same thing, you know, your pitch decks are so challenging. You can't just Google those things.

If you have a strong network, like I feel like I do. The amount of times I've been like, I'm really struggling with this. They're like, oh, babe, I'll just send you mine. Yeah. I'm like, wait, what? Like, you're going to happily send that? They're like, yeah, of course. Like, you can just get it done.

I spent hours doing this and oh, it was so frustrating because what goes around comes around, the next time they ask a question, I'm like, what do you need? I will put it on a silver platter. How do I give this to you so that you get the same experience? Because I feel like you, I don't want to say owe each other in a way, but you just want each other to be so successful because I'm like, no, you help me. I help you. It's like this beautiful, I guess, ecosystem that isn't family and it isn't friends. And that to me was at the very start when I didn't have it the most isolating part. But what's your kind of like go-to? Do I slide into their DMs and be like, hi, Jasmine, I think you're really cool. Like, or do I go, hi, Jasmine, can we get coffee? Like,

what's the gate? I think you always need to be leading it with, if you're going into any relationship, right? So if you've got a friendship and you've known this person for 10 years, you can go in right off the bat with them and ask them for something, right? Because you've built that relationship. But if you're going in cold with somebody that you don't know, you need to lead with a reason why they would want to have a coffee with you. Or you need to really like do need to like dangle a little bit of a carrot to entice them to start this relationship because we're all busy so yes i would i would say jump into their dms there's nothing wrong with that we also have a group chat on a platform called geneva that's like free to

join i don't even know what geneva is do i live under an australian rock it's kind of i think it's kind of new it's a platform that's um i don't know they call it like discord or slack for gen z oh i have slack yes it's like that but this is for gen z it's got my most definitely a millennial I am very millennial too. And a lot of our community are millennials as well. But it's just the way that the platform feels, the attitude, the vibes in there are very Gen Z. And we like that. No, I do like that. It's not a millennial platform, but a lot of people in there are. So you can jump into a

group chat like that, join an existing community and just embed yourself in there and truly lead with the value you can offer. So if you see another founder asking a question on the Instagram stories, be the person that can say, hey, yeah, I can recommend somebody for this job that you're hiring for or go in and add that value so that you can start the relationship off with that kind of act of service rather than trying to take from somebody because you don't want to be going in with that kind of transactional attitude. No, absolutely not. And you said something so important before about how it's mutually beneficial,

this relationship that you have. Otherwise, why are you there? Yes, 100%. So you need to show people that you want to create a mutual relationship where you are not just taking from them, but you want to add to them as well. I couldn't agree more on the mutually beneficial thing because I feel like I don't know you would be the same because of the position you're in sometimes you do have people that dm you and go Jasmine you're amazing can you please tell me xyz you're like I know that I want to help people but that is a question you could have googled or that is something that you know if we were out for a

coffee I'd have a chat with you about but like it's just a take message it's not this give take relationship. And this is probably uncovering some of my dirty secrets, Jasmine. But if I identify that there is somebody that I want to network with, I look at them and it might be you, right? I've seen Jasmine. I've seen female founder. I'm like, oh my gosh, this is exactly what I want to do. I'm not going to DM you straight away. I'm going to start following you. I'm going to follow your business. I'm going to start liking all your posts. I'm going to comment on some stuff. I might reply to your stories a few times. You're hopefully going to see my name pop up a few times, maybe if I'm lucky because I've been good at interacting with your content you check my

content out too and then maybe you follow me or maybe you don't it doesn't matter too much but then I might go hey Jasmine weird one but I've been following you for a while I think your vibe is amazing and I think that we'd get along really well I am in a similar position or I'm doing this or I'm doing that I reckon that I have so much value and you have so much value and we definitely should put that in the same room at some point I'll pay for the coffee let me know when you're free. I feel like that always lands so much better than like, hi, Jasmine, I just followed you and I think that we should get coffee. I'm probably going to say no to that because as a small business owner, we only have so many plates. We only have so many hours in a day. And I feel like if you're

immediately showing me, oh my gosh, like I've got value, you've got value. There's like that pre-existing kind of pseudo social relationship. I want to be your friend. I do genuinely want that, especially if I can see that you're not just a brand new follower. However, same thing for LinkedIn, same thing for like Facebook, same thing for like this Geneva app. I feel like you've got to prove why you're there to begin with, not just go, hey, I would like something. Yeah. And also think of Instagram as LinkedIn for entrepreneurs as well. Like this is our networking tool. Yes, absolutely. And it's not, I don't know, I found so many of my best friends via Instagram. Like, it's crazy. All of the girls that work for me that you have just met,

I stalked them all on Instagram and then basically poached them from their jobs because I was like, I can see what you're doing. I think you're doing a great job. So do you want to do that great job at my house? And it's been really fun. But I think showing up on social media is a massive one. So obviously just sliding into someone's DMs, I don't know if that's as scary as, you know, being front-facing when it comes to creating content for your business. You're incredible at showing up authentically, I would say very authentically and very organically on your social media. How do you do that? How do I step into that? I feel like that, especially in 2023, is so important to be able to do if you want a successful business. Jasmine, how?

This is such an interesting time for small business owners, particularly women who are small business owners. I think we have this interesting like opportunity, but also pressure where you can show up as the face of your business and it will drive sales. The women that I'm talking to in our community, the best TikToks that perform for them are the ones where they are fronting the content as the business owner. People are buying from people, not from brands. And so you have to show up or somebody has to show up as a person that is front facing for the business. But it can be really hard and it's a challenge. Not everybody feels comfortable being on camera, particularly in this age of video where we're not just putting photos of ourselves up

there. You are speaking, you are doing video and maybe you're doing skits. That is not something that people are inherently born being comfortable with. Oh, no. The entire reason, Jasmine, I have a podcast is because video was too overwhelming. Yes, I understand. I was like, heck no, I'm not going to be on video. And now I'm the biggest hypocrite because I'm like, what other TikToks can I do? I understand. Look, I do struggle with this a lot where I'm kind of like, how much is right to share? What is the payoff of actually being this vulnerable and creating, spending this much time creating content? But ultimately, every opportunity that I've had to grow our business has been because somebody has connected with me, my story, the content I've

created. And so that's why I just keep showing up every single day. I would say you need to be finding a mix that works for you. And when you just said something really important that we said showing up authentically, that doesn't mean that you have to be participating in this vulnerability Olympics that is the internet right now. You do not have to be just bearing the worst thing that's ever happened to you on the internet so that people can like connect with that. You can be authentic in a way that is safe for you and is also reflective of the brand that you want to build. So I think it's about putting those like parameters around what authenticity means to you. I'm somebody that has a pretty chill vibe. Like I am not dancing on TikTok. I am not going

to get you dancing. I'll make a TikTok. I will not dance. No. And there is a line, Jasmine. Yes, there is a line. We are millennials. I'm really sorry. I can't dance. Like I did 14 years of dance school and I still cannot. Okay. Well, you're probably better than me. Oh, no, no, no, no. There's a reason I was always at the back of the concerts. I have a friend who is, this is such Tangent, who is a professional dancer. She's literally a rockette, one of the best dancers in the world. And she has tried to teach me how to dance and she can't. So no, no, no, no, no, she can't do it. I'm so sorry. I know, I know. We can't have everything. Some of us are born with it. Some of us aren't. But all of that to say that, pick what authenticity means to you. For

me, it means showing up and just chatting to the camera like this. It means showing day in the life vlogs. And it means mixing in a little bit of like my secret sauce to business related content and that essentially is just your personality. I think it's interesting as well because when you say show up authentically people go so I have to show everything. Yeah no. And I think that's really really not the point like authentically means in exactly the same way I'd have a conversation with you that's how I converse with my community because I adore my community and they deserve to be spoken to in the way that I speak to people and I think that's always been the driving force behind our content and what we do on She's On The Money. And I share so many

random tidbits, like, you know, my favorite foods, you might know, you know, dribs and drabs through listening to different platforms. But unless you're a LinkedIn stalker, which is fine, you're not going to know that much about my husband. You're not going to know that much about my family. I never share that side of things. Like I have so many beautiful nieces and nephews that I just don't post on my social media but I spent honestly most weekends with and I think that sometimes you have to draw lines because you go no like let's just leave it at that like you can have personality Victoria you can have my offensive comments you can have you know my spicy opinions on money you can have all of those things authentic content doesn't mean 100%

transparent it means that you know I'll tell you the truth always but that doesn't necessarily mean that I will put it all on a silver platter so that hopefully you like my content enough to sell something because to me that's exhausting and for a while I was doing that and I was just like this is too much like I need something for me I need something that's like not so exhausting and I think that's really important as well to go no no no you don't have to show up and be authentically completely 100% transparent of like every minute of your waking day because I'm pretty sure that any person who does a day in the life isn't doing every single minute, every single bathroom break, every single phone call, text message, like all of those things. It's like, here are the things

I want to share with you. Yeah, absolutely. I think you need to put parameters around that. You're so, so right. And, you know, but I do think when you do show those small personal moments or those, a little bit of personality, like you're just, think of that as like a trust building exercise. You're showing who you are so that when you do sell something to somebody, they trust you and they will buy from you. 100%. All right. I think we should jump into a break because I have 6 million different questions to ask you about growing your business once you've actually started. So guys, do not go anywhere and neither should you, Jasmine. All right, Jasmine, we are back at it. I'm so excited. Like talking about small business and

just even business in general, I just get so excited because there's so much opportunity, especially for women to grow businesses in 2023 and you know before we had a chat about just like showing up and starting and obviously this podcast is not about going here's the perfect product because I mean we would have already taken it if we had another idea for you let's be honest but I want to know I guess what do we do once we've started we've got our business we've set it up we have our product that we think is perfect and going to hit the mark in every way shape and form. What next? So if you're talking about scaling, there's two different things, right? So you have a product, you have it out in the world and you want to get traction. So that's

kind of the first thing. And the way that brands are getting traction now that I'm seeing, honestly, it is video content. That's why I hired six months ago, a full-time video producer. 100%. And I also have somebody who follows us around a couple of days a week and creates video content as well. Mine's in Perth. We've got Brooke, who you met before. And Brooke is incredible, amazing but she lives in a different state to me so like we've worked our way to make it work yeah but that would be so good maybe i need to maybe you need to also somebody to edit somebody to film i can't possibly capture all of the things that i'm doing in the day and also do the things i need to do in the day so having somebody to create that content is really powerful and we need to

break that down as well because i was saying this to one of my girlfriends just like v i'm so in awe of what you do like you're here you're there you're everywhere you're like do three episodes a week. You're always on Instagram. You do so many TikToks. We do a minimum of 14 TikToks a week just of the podcast, which is fine. But you're looking at She's On The Money five years after it started with a team that are creating that. And obviously, it's authentic. And if I'm on my social media personally, I don't want to burst the bubble. But the reality is I probably haven't edited that reel. I haven't edited that video. I've probably had someone who's done it. I've signed off on it. I'm really happy with it. But I think smaller business owners and smaller

founders put so much pressure on themselves to go, I have to be everything to everybody. And I have to do this day in the life. I've seen Jasmine do it. You know, Victoria's done it a few times. We need to do that. My friend, that might not be the priority right now. Actually growing your business might be the priority. So we need to maybe compare apples with apples, not apples with oranges because I'm an orange right now. I've gone through the hard yards of not being able to afford stuff and having to do 6 million things myself and staying up till 3am every single night, literally crying because I'm like, I posted no stories. Like my engagement is going to be down. My business is going to be through the floor tomorrow. And I just, I want to, I guess,

normalize that you don't have to be everything to everybody. And with scale often comes a lot more exposure and you don't need to be everything to everybody all at once. I would also say like, try a bunch of stuff in the beginning. The theme that I'm hearing from people that are in the community for female founder world is that there is no theme. Like, yes, the video content piece is performing really well for a lot of folks. A lot of people haven't cracked that or that's not working for them. And they're going to find their own thing that's resonating with their own customers. Or is this special thing that the founder or the small business owner like really understands and so that's what they're going to do to drive the

business forward things like doing community sampling programs do you know the brand gorgy yes okay so it's this amazing energy drink company they've been around for like five minutes they're in whole foods doing amazing things like they're very u.s very u.s but i'm psychotic on tiktok okay yes that's why i know them i don't think the average you know australian listener is gonna go of course okay so there's this energy drink company called gorgy and the way that they've really just been able to skyrocket is that they are doing this community sampling program, which basically means they're identifying interesting folks on TikTok who are not influencers, are not professional content creators, and they're gifting those people

to create content because we're in this era where literally anyone can go viral and you're searching the thing on TikTok before you buy it and anyone could be appearing at the top there. I do search things on TikTok. I reckon TikTok's going to become one of the next big search engines. Oh, 100% it is. It has to, because that's what I'm using it for. Yes, I'm using it to grow my business. I have questions about how do I do this? How do I do that?

And I search TikTok before I search Google. Yeah, I'm literally the same at the moment. Complete side note, it is no secret that I am pregnant and having a baby in three and a half months. Terrifying. We could talk about that all day. Me too. But like every single baby product, because this is my first baby, I don't know anything

about anything. Like I don't even know what weighs up. Like I just learned what a hucker is and I was like, wow, that's crazy. Like that's cool. but I'm TikTok searching everything. I'm like, I want the mums to tell me what is this good? Can I watch the video? How does that work? But the same thing is happening in your community. Like this is just really relevant for me right now. But you know, if you haven't tried an energy drink, let's be honest, Whole Foods isn't the cheapest place to go. Maybe I want to look it up first and

see what other people's opinions are. And you go, oh, I definitely want that. I am, if anything, really bad at being peer pressured. Like the internet is peer pressure. And also, you know what the other thing that I think people should take away from what you just said is, yes, you know, creating the content on TikTok, doing the community sampling on TikTok is a great way to grow. But also think about how you are discovering products now and reverse engineer it. So you're maybe looking stuff up on TikTok to get a review. And then maybe you're going to the website and seeing what the reviews are under the product. Or maybe you're then googling it to see if one of the mom blogs that you follow or whatever has written about it like

reverse engineer how you're discovering products and then think about how you can get traction with customers by building that journey for them i could not agree more let's take it all the way back i know that you had your beauty business you wrapped that up in 2016 and then you've started female founder world which is honestly slay but if we could go back and get jasmine to do it all again. We're doing Female Founders World again. What would you wish that you had known at the start, maybe about your first hire or your first time to outsource something or your first time to, you know, think about the way social media works? Obviously, it was a while ago and social media changes, but you know what I mean. Yeah, I've made a few mistakes around hiring. I think wanting to

bring someone on full time when maybe you aren't ready and you genuinely don't need to. There is this huge gig economy right now where you can tap amazing talent and have them work for you a couple of days a week and build up these different experts who are doing different things in the business. And so I would say start off by identifying where you need folks to come in and finding experts who can do that part-time rather than who are working full-time in the business. And then you kind of have this obligation to them. I think that that's a really great way to stay lean and get started. For me, it wasn't until I brought somebody into the team that the business was really able to grow. And you just like hold things so tightly in the beginning. You feel like

anytime you outsource something, it's going to mean that the product isn't going to be as good or it's not going to be as good as how you can do it. But truly done is better than perfect or good is better than perfect when you're trying to scale a business because you cannot own all of these things and be working on the business and in the business at the same time. You need to build space for yourself where you can be thinking 10 steps ahead and move into this role of managing people who are then doing the thing that's driving the business. And this is definitely this like little switch that has to happen when your business gets a little bit of traction. Now, I'm not going to lie. This feels like a personal attack. If you go and get my team, they will be like, what if you

said, Hey, what is, I guess Victoria's downfall? Like what is the worst thing about her? I mean, they've probably got a lot of personal things to say, but they would say from a business perspective, she just won't let's go. And I love being across it as well. So like I have a bit of FOMO in addition to going, oh, well, I guess it's my business. You know, if we're doing an Instagram post, I'm like, well, I guess at the end of the day, like not to have too many tickets, but it's my business. The best person to do content must be me. Letting go was really hard. My team know that because they're consistently like, V, I am actually competent at my job. Like we don't micromanage anymore, but I think it's so important to know that. But how do we know what to let go

of and what are those core activities that, you know, at the end of the day, we should still be doing? Because for me, I'm still the one answering the DMs. And that to me is so important because I feel like as the founder of She's On The Money, I want my fingers on the pulse. I want to be in my community, talking to them, getting a little bit dirty, getting a bit gritty, because I could hire a full and I do have a full-time community manager who doesn't like that I'm managing the DMs. But I find that really helps me and that's something that I let go of for a few months and was like, actually, no, I need to be back here. So how do I know what to outsource or what to let go when as a small business owner, everything feels important? I just want to like

follow on what you just said there about the DMs. Even brands that are huge, their founders are still trying to find a way to stay close to their customer. So even people who are doing like huge amounts of revenue and have insane amounts of sales coming through their business, they are still finding a way to stay close to customers. So whether it's reading the DMs or having a team kind of like compile insights or reviews or whatever, you do need to find a way to stay close to the customer if you're going to be handing off those things. But how you kind of know what to hand off and what to keep yourself, I really think it's about what is your core products that you're offering. For us, it's content, right? And so that's why you want to

be across the content because that is literally the thing that you're offering that is building the business. So I don't create our content anymore, but I do the last 10%. So I'm the person who still sends content live because I want to make sure it's perfect before it goes up, but I've hired somebody else to do all of that groundwork, but I enjoy that piece of it as well. So I think you really need to think about what can you outsource and what can you take off the table that frees you up to do that kind of like 10% that is maybe just the finishing it off and that you still enjoy. I would also say like, for me, I think that you need to look at what's new. I like to try and understand everything in the business. And so before, for example, we outsourced TikTok,

I spent a lot of time trying to figure out TikTok for myself. And yes, I could have hired someone immediately just to do that. But I think that it is really valuable to have that understanding so that when you do hire someone, you know what they're talking about and you can help kind of shape those conversations. Because they're the professional, but at least you're on exactly the same page. Absolutely. And I think the same goes if you have a physical product and you want to go into retailers, like as the business is growing, there's always going to be new challenges. And I do think that as the person that is leading the business forward, you need to have the understanding of those new things and be making sure that you're outsourcing the stuff that you've understood and

that you can create some blueprints that other people can copy and paste and execute for you. And you're focused on the new thing, whether that is a new channel like TikTok, whether that is getting the brand retailers and that you're understanding it so that then you can then bring in the expertise to do it for you. I love that so much. I would agree that always having your finger on the pulse and doing the last 10%, I'm exactly the same. Like the girls schedule it for me, but it's not scheduled to go live. It's in the scheduler and I have to approve everything. Yeah, always. I don't think I'll ever let that go. No, I also love that part of the job. I'm like, oh, this is such a smart witty post. Look at us

though. Like, I feel like I'm so proud of my team when I go through that or I go, oh, actually, because I am actually the only finance expert in my business, I'm like, oh, let's actually schedule this one on this day because that's a, you know, really popular day for this particular content. Or I know a lot more about, you know, let's say the tax cycle and when people are going to be looking for tax content. And like that all comes into strategy and you still kind of get to be a part of the strategy and then you get to see it come to life. And honestly, it now comes to life in a way that I could have never executed. I'm like, look at this post. Slate. I can't do that. Amazing. I thought that was really interesting what you just said there because you said,

you know, I'm the only finance expert in my business. And something that I found really helpful and that I've seen other businesses do really well is hire somebody or hire people who represent your customer in some way. So my first hire was our content coordinator, Paige, who's still with me. She's incredible. And she is on the side also building a beverage business. She is literally our community member. That's exactly how I've hired. So Jessica was my first She's On The Money team member. And she started as my PA and then she went to EA and now she's done a few other things. And now she is manager of all of our partnerships at She's On The Money. and she is incredible but the reason I adore her is she was our community member in our like our

interview with her I sat her down I was like obviously a little bit nervous I'd had businesses before but I was like this is for a podcast this is so wild I was like why do you want to join cheese on the money and she's like Victoria to be really frank cheese on the money changed my life I got out of debt because of you I love interacting with your posts I love this this this and this and I was like, I need you because my community are you. And that has been our strategy the whole time. I don't need finance experts. I need people who know when to say, oh V, like I'm building an online course at the moment for investing. So they are my sense check. I do it and they're like, oh, I really don't get this or I know our community would be a bit overwhelmed with that. Because,

you know, if I sit down and go, all right, Jasmine, let's talk about the difference between ETFs and managed funds. I know that so well, but you might go, hey, back up, back up, back up. that feels overwhelming. Could we maybe just intro it a little bit softer? And I go, yes, of course we can. Whereas, you know, you and I, especially when you had your beauty brand, you might've just been all gung ho on beauty because you're like, well, everyone knows because I've been talking about it for so long, right? So they are my sense check and I wouldn't change it for the world. I don't need more me. I need more them because they are experts at what they do. I feel like this chat has been incredible, but it could also be a little bit overwhelming

because there's so much to think about. If someone is listening to this, because our community, not all of them are business owners, but also some business owners, they need the little kick up the butt too. So what is your key piece of advice for someone who goes, you know what, I don't know if I want to start a business. I'm sitting on the fence. I'm a little bit yes or no. What would you say to them? I would, first of all, if you're not doing it because you are a little bit afraid, and I understand that. I've been that person as well. I would go and look for people who you can see yourself in, who have achieved the kind of thing that you want to and just dive into their story. We constantly are posting case studies about people who come

from all different backgrounds. Some of them raise lots of money. Some of them bootstrapped while they're in college and reinvested their sales to grow their businesses. And they come from all over the world. They have all kinds of backgrounds. Go and find someone who resonates with you so that you can, first of all, to see that it's possible. I think that traditional business media kind of shows us the same people, right? Like they show us the same version of business success. It's a lot of men. It's a lot of folks in tech, a lot of people who are doing. Yeah. I have not noticed. Shocking. And it can make you feel like maybe somebody like you can't do this thing. You can, you can. And I promise you lots of people like you are doing it right

now and have done it. So go and find a person that can be a little bit of an inspiration to you, who you can use as a framework of what is possible and follow them, engage with them, deep dive on their story. That would be step one. I would agree with that. I also think this is going to sound probably not what you're expecting from me, but like, it's not that deep. I feel like so many times we get analysis paralysis and we like overlook everything and go, oh my God, it's too hard. It's this, it's that. I promise just starting is not that deep. Step one, not step 10. Yeah. Like stop getting so far ahead of yourself. Like, do you know how much of your business

process you can do for free before you even like, you don't need to set the structure up and then think about it. We can contact suppliers. We could work out how much things might be for our potential new business. We could, you know, get some Pinterest boards together on brand vibes that you like. That's free. Do you know how excited I get with a new Pinterest board? if we've got like a new course coming out I'm always like it can't just be she's on the money or Victoria branded like it needs its own brand obviously Jasmine so like I get so excited with those things do those things that spark joy and make you excited for the next step but also if the steps are feeling way too big break them down even further and make them even smaller it might

be small things every day and I think there's also this really I guess I look at your community and I'm just in awe I'm like it's full of so many big beautiful businesses that are just like wow like I want to stand among them but like some of us are mums who are like I actually I really want to do that but I want to do it on the side or I am a stay-at-home mom and I want to do that or you know I already have a full-time job Jasmine I don't have the ability to just quit and be you know a startup queen like that's fine too so like I don't think that there is you know you don't have to dive into the VC world immediately. You might, but like these communities, your community, my community are for people who, you know, let's say you want to start a candle company

and you want to do it on the side. Queen, I'm here for you. Let's say you want to build the biggest business in the entire world and sell it for multiple millions of dollars. I'm here for that too. So I think it's so important to remember that there's no such thing as too small of a business and I think that one other thing that I think will frustrate you about your community as well like when you meet new people they're like oh I'm just a no we don't say just like I don't care if your business is small your business is big or whatever you do I think as women going back to what we're talking about at the start we just don't have that confidence to start but that confidence comes with how we speak about ourselves and how we champion ourselves and saying oh I'm

just a small business owner or I'm just a podcaster. Also, small businesses are literally the backbone of the economy. So don't discount what you've wanted to build. Exactly. Oh my gosh. Well, my friend, I think that might be all we have time for. I'm so sorry that we don't have six more hours to do this. We will have to do it again. But where can I find you? Where can my community start networking with you, get involved with Female Founder World? What are the platforms that you exist on and how do we connect? We're everywhere. I'm on Instagram at Jasmine Gansworthy, TikTok Jazz Gansworthy, and Female Founder World is femalfounderworld.com. We have a newsletter, a podcast, a group chat on Geneva. If you head to the website,

you'll be able to find all of those links and all of those free resources. I am going straight to Geneva. You have blown my mind. I'm so excited for another platform. Jasmine, thank you so much for joining me. I am so excited. I just want to do so much stuff now. this is a lot of fun thank you see you later guys the advice shared on she's on the money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances she's on the money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision if you do choose to buy a financial product read the pds tmd and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards

your needs. Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN 321 649 27708 AFSL 451 289.