She's On The Money - How Victoria Manages Her Time in Business

Episode Date: April 23, 2024

As your career or business evolves, the way you spend your day now, will look very different at various points along the way. Join us as today we take a peek behind the curtain to find out how Victoria manages her time in business! She shares insights about her journey divided into 3 distinct phases; the starting phase, the growing phase and the established phase and so much more. 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 back. I'm Victoria Devine, the owner of several successful businesses, and I am joined by one of the hardest working side hustlers I know, Miss Jessica Ricci. Hello. Welcome back to the show. Are you excited? I am. Thank you for having me back. I feel like this one could have been written by you because Jess, the community have been a little bit pervy and have been asking how I manage my time within the businesses. And I feel like that is a very fair question because sometimes I don't even know how I manage my time. you might humble me a few times throughout this and be like Victoria that's aspirational you say you do that but it's in your calendar and it never happens so feel free to like pull

me up on that because I feel like authenticity is important here but I'm going to give a little bit of insight today on where I put my focus and how I do things to keep myself on track and keep my team in order and still grow a business while I think still having a balanced and lovely life I love that. I think it'll be super helpful and really insightful for everybody who maybe wants to do that for themselves someday. Now, I really want to start by saying, obviously, this is going to look very different. Yes, we all have, you know, it's a Beyonce quote, right? Everyone has the same 24 hours in the day as Beyonce. No, I hate that. But how I manage my time now is incredibly different to how I managed my time when I was first starting out. So I kind

of want to break this up and do it in like three parts. So like the starting phase, how did I manage my time? Then the growing phase and then a more established phase, which we're currently in now, because I think it's very unfair, especially in the business Bible community where we talk so often about, you know, authenticity and transparency. Like I can be super transparent. I can tell you about my week right now. It involves getting a pedicure, Jess. Like slay, I've worked so hard to get to this point yeah but that's not going to help you grow or change or you know justify the hard work that you're putting in and you go well I can't just start living the exact same life that Victoria's living yeah because that would make no sense like V that's ridiculous and don't get me

wrong I understand the privilege it is quite aspirational when I like put it down on paper I'm like oh wow I have achieved a lot and I'm really proud of it but I also worked really hard to get here. So I think there's going to be a few different parts and this is the only way I can think of doing it that makes the most sense, gives you guys the transparency and the authenticity that I think you deserve. Yeah. And I think as well, you know, there are a lot of people who are probably starting up their business while they work another job. And so I think looking at it in those kind of three stages that you were talking about will be really helpful because no matter where you are in your business journey, if you're listening right now, hopefully you can get some

little tips and tricks to help you out. All right. So let's dive straight in. Let's talk about the starting phase. Let's go back to when I had started Zella and then She's On The Money came along. I feel like these are my babies when I talk about them. I don't know how I did it. Like, I don't know how I wasn't institutionalized. That's probably not helpful. No. No, not helpful. Tell me more. Yeah. Okay. Let's dive into it. So at the time that I was starting Zella, it came up as an opportunity because I was already working in a wealth practice. And I knew that I wanted my own thing.

And I had been discussing with the director there, like, how do I do this and also do that? And it meant a lot of extra hours because obviously I couldn't build my wealth practice on his watch because like he still paid me for 38 hours a week to run his business. But in addition to that, I was finishing my MBA. So I was doing, I would say an accelerated MBA. I think that's what it is actually called. but I was doing six units each and every single semester as opposed to four which normal people

would do. What does that look like in terms of hours roughly? A lot of hours so I think about 30 hours a week is what I was doing and I was going to uni three or four nights a week after work. A day in the life would look like me getting up ridiculously early. I also had an obsession with fitness at the time so I would get up at like 4 35 a.m go to the gym I'd have my bullet coffee what the hell please don't go down that route because I thought that's what all successful people did yeah and you've probably heard me absolutely shit all over that now because I'm like that's actually not an indicator of success why did I as a smart person even think that yeah if I'm getting up at 4 30 in the morning I am not succeeding in my books yeah I am failing miserably

yeah no absolutely not if I'm up before 4 30 it was an accident now or someone's paying me a lot of money, but Jess, you and I would be begrudgingly getting up still. So I was getting up really early going to the gym and I would be at my desk by 6.30 or 7. And I had the privilege of being allowed to work on my business prior to business hours, starting at 9am. So nine till five. So I would either be at my desk working on my business at work, or I would be at my desk working on uni assignments. And I often found that the time between seven and nine, it was like a nice time block of going, okay, I've got two hours to smash out whatever I'd prepared the night before and, you know, get an assignment done. Or, you know, at uni, a lot of your assignments are about

a thousand words. And I remember in my head, I was like, okay, I can smash out a thousand words in two hours. And that's just how my brain worked. I'd be like, yep, cool. Can time block that? But every single thing that I did was in my calendar. So the gym, the coffee, the shower, literally the time that I needed for uni because if it wasn't scheduled, it wasn't happening. And Jess, as you know, I have ADHD. Yes. And you guys nowadays are like, hey, we reminded you of that three weeks ago. And I'm like, because I'm the worst at taking my medication. But back then I was very medicated because otherwise nothing would get done and I didn't have any support. I'd work my nine to five job. I would usually eat at my desk. I used to order U foods all the time. I barely ever left

the office to eat because to me that was an hour that I could use to either work on a uni assignment or work on my business. Five, five 30 came. Sometimes I'd have to work late. That would be fine. But uni always started at six. So I'd be at uni by six and I would have another U foods to eat at uni. Usually cold because like the other side of the campus had the microwaves. So like YOLO, eat cold dinner. It's all good. And uni would usually go till 9 or 10 PM. I'd then go home and get ready for work the next day. So usually the start of my week, it really depended on what I was doing and how I was doing it. Like with uni, sometimes it would be like Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Sometimes it would be the first three days of the week. Sometimes it'd

be the first four, it depended. And I always jumped at the opportunity to do what they call intensive units so I remember having the offer you know you do your four units as usual but you could pick up two intensive units each semester and you were able to do them in a four-day like super course so you would take a Monday and a Friday off work or it would happen over like Christmas holidays or Easter or something and you would do all 12 weeks of content in four days including all of your assignments like it sounds great but like that sounds crazy but it's relatively normal. Like if you've done an MBA, you know that that exists. It's not actually that unhinged, but you do four full days, but it is really time intensive because every day you would

have an assignment due. So on the first day you do full day of content, finish at like 6pm, go home, write your assignment, submit it, come back for the next day. And you would break up all of those units across four days. And then that fourth day would basically be exam day. So you'd have four, eight, 12 units across three days, and then an exam and like finishing up your assignments or a group assignment on the fourth day. I think I ended up being able to do my MBA in just under two years because of that, which is very helpful. The second I stopped doing my MBA, kind of they crossed over, but not really like I enrolled while doing my MBA to do my finance diploma. So did that as well. Again, much easier because it was online and it could be like self-paced, but just time

consuming. Weekends were spent working on uni assignments or actually working on my business. It was the only time I had. I feel like a lot of people will look at it and go, well, that's not worth it at all. It might not be to you. Like that was what I was wildly passionate about at the time. And I was willing to sacrifice family time and I was willing to sacrifice friends time. And, you know, there are so many holidays that my girlfriends got to go on together that I ultimately had to say no to. There are so many brunches I didn't go to and friend gatherings and sports and social things that I didn't get to do because that's how I was choosing to build my business. And all of that happened. But yes, I built Zella on the side. Once the MBA stuff had

finished, I obviously was really, really wildly passionate about it. And She's On The Money came up and She's On The Money used to be lunch and learn sessions. So I used to run these lunch and learn sessions at, you know, different law firms and different big corporates to hopefully get some clients for my new business seller because like you can't just steal my current works clients can I have to get new ones so I ran these lunch and learn sessions and realized I really wanted to work with women yeah I was like let's call it she's on the money so I think I was doing those in 2015-2016 and it was just basic financial literacy and yeah it kind of like snowballed from there and over time I think it wasn't till 2017-2018 that I thought why not give this whole

she's on the money like thing ago and created a Facebook group it was more so I could connect with the people that went to my workshops and I would have a curriculum inside that Facebook Jess and I every week would be like all right so this week on Monday we're talking about super annuation and on Wednesday I'm going to drop a super annuation activity and like it was all very structured yeah and so time consuming but that is what I would do and then from one thing and this there'll be a longer story just to like frame where we started I suppose sorry Jess we started there and then I remember the day it hit 1700 people in that Facebook group and I was like this is wild like we're talking 2019 yeah and I asked the group I said what do you want me to do

like how do I make this more approachable like what content can I create and they said we really want you to create video content can you like start a YouTube which is funny now because I said, absolutely not. I'm never going on video. Hypocrite. The irony. Exactly. And one thing led to another and decided to do a podcast instead, felt less scary. And I think that is written in the wall. The podcast kind of blew up and I realized that that needed a lot more love. And then, you know, because of the podcast and because of the community in my Facebook group, my wealth business started to grow and I got quote real clients and got to go out on my own and do those things and it's not so that you guys can go wow she's really disciplined and sacrificed so much

like I was just wildly passionate about it and then Zella and She's On The Money kind of grew together and then ultimately you know grew the business started hiring people and then you know created these two teams of people that could support me so that I could take a bit of pressure off myself yeah when it came to the hours that I was putting in and then in September 2022 made the decision that in the future I really did want to have a family and I did want to have a life and I wanted some balance back and I sold that wealth business and started just doing mortgage broking which was a very small component of Zella at the time and grew that and also just kept growing She's On The Money. So that's the starting phase. Crazy. It sounds like a lot of hard work.

That's what I said at the start. Not sure if I should have been institutionalized. Yeah. I feel like starting a business sounds like such a dream in your head when you think about it, this far away concept, but people don't necessarily understand the legwork that you have to do to start until you're in the thick of it. And I think for you, you had a pretty good trajectory that not all small businesses have. No, of course not. I had so much opportunity. Yeah. Really rapid compounded growth. And, you know, you were saying that kind of 2019 phase where you started doing Sheets on the Money and then by 2020, you know, the Facebook group, the podcast, it had all taken off. Yeah. And that's unheard of. And I feel so lucky that I

was in the right space at the right time. And I think also we need to preface this. We're talking about my journey. We're not talking about what's expected of you. Like Jess, if you said, I want to start my own business, is it worth doing what you did, V? I would go, you need to seriously consider whether it is or not. Yeah. Because for most people, it's not. Yeah. And it's very different. And I think it's more and more people are out there. There's more and more competition and it is partly what you're doing and how unique you are and partly what timing you have and what you do. And so that can be really hard.

Sorry to cut you off there again. I think it also needs to be pointed out very clearly. It's been mentioned once already, but I do have ADHD. I hyper-focus on things. When I have a bee in my bonnet, it is like nobody else. Like Jess, you've seen it in the business. Like you just think I'm insane sometimes. Like the amount of times that our team tries to peg me back

because you go, V, what's it going to be? Like, are you going to do this, this or this? And I go, I'm doing it all. And you guys go, no, that is actually unreasonable. We cannot deliver that. And I go, oh yeah, okay, sorry. Like I have had to really reset my expectations about what I expect from other people. And I think that, you know, we're on the same page now, but historically I'd be like, well, I can do 40, 50, 60, 70 hour weeks. Why can't you? Like, why aren't you as passionate about my business as I am. And you cannot expect that from other people, but I expected it from myself. And that's where burnout happens. A hundred percent. I think even with just freelancing for me, you know, you have to spend the time researching what works and putting the

time into finding the right clients and the management and the relationships. And I think there are so many little things that take up the time. And if you're someone who like both you and I are working a full-time job and trying to start or do something on the side to give you a bit of extra money. I think what you were saying about having reasonable expectations on yourself is so important because if you are doing those 90 hour weeks, like what you were doing, it's a miracle that you didn't, you know, end up incredibly unwell. I did. I ended up in hospital with shingles. Yeah. Well, there you go. It's not a flex. That is an indicator that I had burnt myself out. And I fully believe that I could have built Zella and she's on the money over a longer time

frame that, you know, was more sustainable for my physical and mental health and was healthier. But I didn't because I didn't know any different. And I just had to be in my bonnet and I wanted to get it done. And that's a part of my personality as well. And I think that that's why I'm like, oh, like when this topic came up and we're talking about, you know, lots of people are asking about how I manage my time. I felt really awful being asked that because I look at it and I go that was not how to manage your time that was not yes did I get where I needed to go but like at what cost yeah at the cost of a lot of friendships at the cost of a lot of experiences at the cost of a relationship at the time like so much went absolutely in the bin because I was so

set on what was going on and it was kind of like you know 21 2022 I was like this is not sustainable and like you were around for that you worked for she's on the money I remember coming in one day being like I think I'm gonna sell Zella Wealth and you were like wait what and I was like I just can't keep this up and you were like babe I've been telling you that for a long time like who said this because that was me so I think it's so important to you know obviously work hard if the reward is worth it and you see the value in it because I think that it is so genuine to love what you do but I do not believe the concept that you know if you love what you do you never work a day in your life. No, no, no. I worked really hard. I love what I do, but I definitely worked.

I've never felt like I haven't worked. In fact, I'm the type of personality who craves work. Like I would go insane if you weren't giving me tasks and things to think about and work to do. Like this whole maternity leave thing drives me up the wall. Like hate the idea that I'm going to be pulled away from my business. Love the idea that I'm starting a family and want to give that the time and energy it deserves at the same time as knowing I have so many competing priorities and this love for my She's On The Money community and the business I'm building and the staff that I have that I don't want to be away from it at the same time as going, Victoria, if you don't step out of this business for at least 12 weeks, you're going to regret it when that baby is older.

So I think it's about value, but I guess let's go to a really quick break because when we get back, I'm going to chat more about, I guess, how to manage your time effectively during a growth phase. And then let's chat about managing your time in an established phase and what work-life balance actually looks like for me now, because I promise it's so much better. All right, everybody, we're back. And next on the list is to chat about the growth phase. So you've worked through your startup phase. Maybe you've taken the jump into employing your first employee. You were the first She's on the Money employee. I know, how fun, what a throwback. You're lucky I'd had some experience with some other employees before and you weren't like the

little guinea pig. Yes. You were the first She's on the Money employee. I know, that's so exciting. And I guess, what was that like for you, stepping from the space of like being by yourself and doing your 90 hour weeks to, you know, stepping into managing time with other people there to support you but also to manage? Yeah it was a lot and I was young and deluded so I thought it was great at the time but the first team I built was the Zella team and at the time I did have a business partner so it was a little bit easier to grow it but there was a lot of responsibility and that was my first quote big team. We had a team of nearly 30 and I was so worried like all the time. I was consistently anxious because I'd be like well how am I meant to be in this position and they know I

own the business but I'm also half their age and I'm also you know not nearly as experienced and it's kind of like a fake it till you make it but also fake it because you can't have people see that you're not capable. Yeah. So there was a lot of pressure that I guess put on myself during that phase and it's beautiful and I don't wish to change anything. I think that the leader I am today is a much different leader to the leader I was back then. I'm sure that there are people that I could have done better by. I'm sure there are situations that I could have managed better. I think there are things that, you know, I lost along the way that I didn't have to lose, but I didn't know how not to lose them at that point. And I think during growth phase,

that's where all the learning happens. It's not just your business growing, it's you growing because you've never done this before and you don't know what's right or wrong. And ultimately there is no right or wrong. So hiring our first employee was overwhelming. Thankfully, I was well supported and had like a lawyer that drew up our employment contract and what that would look like. And at the time we were doing payroll internally, so I'd have to work all of that out. And, you know, it was a lot. Opening an office is a lot like, you know, not to get into the nitty gritty of it, but offices are so expensive to manage, like to run. You have not only the rent on the office, but you have all of the overheads. You have a fit out. You then have

ongoing maintenance costs we had to pay a cleaner we were then stocking the fridge all of those little things that add up you go oh my gosh there's no milk in the fridge for coffee and tea oh let's get a coffee machine oh my gosh all right so now we have a coffee machine but because of its volume of usage it needs to be serviced every month and like oh we want the you know foyer of our office to be really nice let's get some plants maintenance of plants like it's just stuff that adds up and not everybody has these expenses. When I decided to go get rid of a business partner, get rid of all of that and start from scratch on my own, having to do that again on my own was really overwhelming. And then I guess I was in the privileged position where that was a really

black and white bread and butter business, right? Like it's financial advice. We did accounting and then we didn't, and then we were doing mortgage broking. That is such a basic business. And I won't say basic as in dumb it down business, but that's a pre-existing business model, Jess. Yeah. It exists, right? Like, you know, the mortgage broking businesses exist. I could spend so long on Google studying other people's websites, their organizational structures, having a look at their LinkedIn, seeing who got hired first, who did they prioritize, networking in the industry, talking to people about, well, what did you prioritize? How did you do this? In this growth phase, this is where I needed the mentors that I had the most.

I feel like in that really startup phase I had blinkers on I didn't want other people's opinions yeah but the second I started to have to have bigger responsibilities like staff I was like I better get back on this mentor thing because like they've done it before so for me hiring my first employee inside Zella was not as scary as hiring you that's so interesting I really liked you I'm sorry and you're still here like what nearly four years later so kudos for putting up with me. But She's On The Money was such a different business model. I didn't know anybody else who was running a media podcasting business. I didn't know what that would look like or how that would grow or is it worth biting the bullet and paying this amount because there wasn't any

direct ROI. Because with a mortgage broker, I worked on a three times multiple. So I'd be like, all right, of their income, 30% goes to the business and growth, 30% should be profit and 30% should be overheads that I pay the staff. That's how I would work it out. And I go, all right. So taking all of that into consideration, this is what they should be paid and this is what they should be earning for the business. There was direct, you earn X and I pay you Y and that is a deal. With you, we've never had financial targets. Obviously now do partnerships and do a lot of financial things, but we've never had those targets because media and podcasting are so different. It's not like I can treat you like a mortgage broker and be like, Jess, this

role is very black and white. You go out, these are your sales targets and this is what you get paid. And if you make way more sales targets, then you get paid more, but it's not mortgage broking. So I think that that to me was one of the hardest things. And in that growth phase, it was really challenging and we made a few mistakes. We hired people that were like, this isn't a good fit. And I think you've got to grow through what you go through. So to me, yes, it was good, but also this is the stage where the pressure started to be taken off because I had people that I trusted to do the things that I was doing.

It was hard. I don't know if you remember how controlling I was and how I didn't want to let go of anything. You're nodding and smiling. I'm glad we've worked through that now. But I didn't want to let go. But once I learnt how to let go, I was like, that's why she's here because she's better at it than you, Victoria.

And what was your time like during that period? very busy because I feel like you are switched on 24 hours a day still because you're trying to grow a business and you know make sure Jess is happy and then do we hire another Jess and what does this look like but there was a lot less pressure because you're not setting things up for the first time you're not working out your accounting system at this point I did a really big review of my business and realized that there were a lot of things I should be outsourcing so that was the point at which I was like, okay, well, how many hours a week am I wasting or using on lots of different things? And I time tracked my hours, I think for a month, every hour of the day was

allocated for. And then I did a big review and I worked out how long it was taking me to do payroll, how long it was taking me to do accounting. And I went through and I printed out my outlook. I like screenshot it and printed out the outlook and like use different color highlighters as I went through and was like, all right, well, that's an admin task. That's an admin task. And that was how I worked out that we needed another admin. But also what could we outsource? Far Out was actually taking me 15 to 20 hours a month to do payroll and bookkeeping and all of the reconciliations for our bank accounts. And I went, that's a waste of my time because that's working in the business, not on the business. Like at the end of the day, that's a task that needs to be

done every month, that's when we hired a bookkeeper. And I thought, okay, well, that's a good use of time because that gives me another 15 hours a month to grow the business. So I think that time blocking, and it sounds really lame. I would just like every night go back through, because I didn't do it as we were going. I'd go through my calendar and be like, all right, well, between 10 and 1030, oh, what did I do? I did this. And between 11 and 12, I did this. And like, I blocked it all in. And then after a month, I printed four pages and I went through and I highlighted the tasks that could be handed off without impacting the business. And that's where we started to grow a lot more, but it also helped me to understand what my focus should and shouldn't be because my job

was to grow the business. And I think I was lucky to know that handing tasks like that over was not going to send the business into a spiral. In fact, it freed me up to do more content, to go from having one podcast a week that we had to three plus two other shows. And I think that that's where you've got to let go to grow. It's such an exciting phase for so many people, but I think also very challenging navigating that new and growing space. If we think now about heading into the established phase, obviously now your businesses are totally there. We're all set up. We're very solid. Can you walk us through your days and your weeks now and how you kind of spend your time. Okay. So right now, let's be brutally honest. This is a pre-recorded episode

and I'm 39 weeks pregnant. So I'm on mat leave. Hi, I've had a baby right now while I'm talking to you Jess. I don't know if it's boy. I don't know if it's girl. You can probably go check socials because that would be public information now. But I think that let's just pretend it's not today and I'm not super pregnant. My feet don't look to like sausages. These days it's a lot more relaxed. I feel like I don't have nearly as many meetings in my calendar. If you looked at my calendar, there might be two or three things in my calendar each day, which leaves me a lot of time to work on the business and strategize and plan and really reinforce the relationships I have in the business. A lot of the time I'm not, you know, creating product because I now have a

team that does that. Like, so to be even more transparent, She's On The Money now has six full-time employees and to, I would say, part-time. Annalisa, hi. She's a full-time employee, but not by me, by our podcast studio. And she works 100% of her time on She's On The Money. And then we've got Beck, who is a part-timer. So there's eight in the team. I don't have to script the episodes anymore. That used to take me, you know, one or two hours each script. And, you know, you extrapolate that out to how many shows we have and how many hours we do of content every week. So that's alleviated. I don't have to cut up videos anymore myself. I don't have to edit the podcast anymore myself in my quote, spare time. I don't have to do any of the social media posts because we've

got Georgia and she does all of them. So I think my time is more spent on the strategy. I feel very privileged, but it's like my favorite part. Like I get to come in with my ideas and, you know, I might sit down with you, Jess, and be like, oh my gosh, I've got this laundry list of dream clients. And you go, no worries, Vae, I'm going to work on contacting them and seeing if they're interested in working with us and I go wow like that just happens for me you know I come in and go hey Georgia I've been thinking about this new content I've seen this this and this I'd love to create something similar or I have this really good idea about a content series pretty rogue can we try it and Georgia and Brooke will do it so I think it's so nice to be I guess

in control I still think about it 24 7 like this is still my baby but it looks so different like my mornings we're not getting up at 4 30 a.m jess yeah i get up at 6 37 with my husband and we go for a walk and we get coffee and there's just such a better work-life balance now but i genuinely believe i worked for that like i have worked my butt off and at the time that's not the life i thought i would have i thought i'm gonna be a really big hustler i'm gonna be so rich i'm gonna do this, that, the other. Like to me, I would look up to people like Elon Musk, which is so disgusting. Do not clip that out and tell anybody, but I would look up to them and be like, they are so committed to their work. They get up every day and like, they just make decisions and do this.

And I just look at it now and I go, am I as aggressive about growth as I was? Yeah. No. Like Jess, what do I think of growth? Like, you know, I don't want a big team anymore. I feel like I've gotten out of that phase and then I look at it again and go I would much prefer to have quality over quantity like you might be in a situation where you want to build a mega business you might be in a situation where you want to build a part-time business that just has some extra income like we're all on different wavelengths but to me creating the lifestyle that I have today took so long I wasn't born into a family who had intergenerational wealth who could kickstart my business. I had to work so hard and compromise so much to be able to get here.

But I think that now my focus is just on having the resources, giving my team a beautiful work life balance, showing them that I care because the more I care about them, the more they give to our community and the more our community thrives. For me, I think it's just about focusing on how to make this business as sustainable as possible. We had a couple of months ago, a strategy session with the She's On The Money team. And we sat down and we were like, okay, well, what does this look like? How do we introduce additional revenue streams to the business so that we can thrive and not be so stressed if, you know, the podcast doesn't work out in a few years, because you never know what the world looks like in media. And I think that

that to me, it's just exciting now. Yeah. Because we have created that sustainability and you know, as well as I do, that we have enough money coming in the door to sustain the team. So we can try a few different things and see if they fail. But I did not have that opportunity at the start. I couldn't try something and see if it failed. I would have no more money to pay salaries. I would have no flexibility. I would be done. So I was so conservative at the start. Now we just try things, see if they work. If they don't work, we would just delete them and pretend it never happened. I think that gives some really good insight into how people can look at the trajectory of their business. I think staying away from comparison culture is also really important.

because yeah like you said we all technically have the same 24 hours in the day but we don't have the same opportunities or the same 24 hours as the person next to us and it's easy to look at a business and think that it's doing really well but you don't know the behind the scenes you don't know if somebody's doubling or tripling up on their workload or I feel like I used to look at people and not understand that and like I think people still look towards us and go wow like your work-life balance is crazy because they see like our work retreats yeah of course they look lit we had the best fun right but also we did so much hard work on that we got through so much content like that's the not so shiny part that you know we didn't put on socials because we're actually

busy working yeah and you might look at me and go V's work-life balance looks so sick I can't believe she gets up early you know every morning with her husband goes for a walk with their dog and has a lot more flexibility and like I do have time every three weeks in my calendar to get a pedicure because it's important to me. But I've worked really hard for that. And I have so much support around me. And without that support, I could never do that. And I think that that's where you go, I'm not taking the piss, but I did work really hard for this. Yeah, 100%. Some people just have more resources and more money and more support. And just focusing on being 1% better every day, I think is something that anyone starting their small business journey should

really try to focus on. Agreed. Sometimes I feel like trying to grow as a creator, you know, you don't get there as fast as you want to. But you also need to remember, like for me, I work full time. I love my job and I give a lot to my job. And just because I'm not growing as fast as somebody else doesn't mean my time is being spent less effectively. I know. And it's so easy to look at somebody else who had a video go viral and blew up overnight. And you're like, oh, I could have done that. Like, I don't know. We do it all the time. Even when she's on the money, like sometimes you and I will be like, hey, we did that like a month ago. Why did that then work for this person yeah and I think that it's just not helpful it's not constructive stay in your own lane work

out what you want I think something that I wish I had done earlier in my business journey is really go well what are my values what am I trying to create because I think I was a bit of a bull that had seen a red flag and I'm like I'm gonna take over the world men absolutely not like I can work in finance if a boy can do it I can do it like I was very aggressive with what I wanted to achieve And let's be honest, that has played into our success. But was I super happy? Absolutely not. So I guess that's a very, very good place to probably leave it.

I think I've exposed enough of my business secrets today and my personal secrets. So let's leave it at that. What do you reckon? I think so. We'll see you all on Friday. Bye, guys. Bye. the advice shared on she's on the money is general in nature and does not consider your

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