Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Britney Saunders and welcome to Big Business, the
Speaker 1: place where business is far from boring. And today you
Speaker 1: have landed in one of my bonus episodes. Now this
Speaker 1: episode feels different.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you why.
Speaker 1: Normally every week I record in Sydney in the Nova
Speaker 1: Studios with my producer Xander, and it's just the same
Speaker 1: routine every time. Well, because I'm going away to Bali
Speaker 1: for a week and a tiny bit, I'm actually recording
Speaker 1: this episode in Newcastle and I don't have Xandy here
Speaker 1: and I feel like, what's going on. I've got April
Speaker 1: in the room though. Anyway, for today's bonus episode, that
Speaker 1: feels illegal to be recording here in Newcastle.
Speaker 2: I have lost the message.
Speaker 1: But I had someone DM me and I wasn't sure
Speaker 1: if it was on my main account or on my
Speaker 1: Big Business account, but they said that they were curious
Speaker 1: as to what my week actually looks like, and I thought,
Speaker 1: what a great question. So I thought, I'm going to
Speaker 1: try to break down for you today what a week
Speaker 1: in my life looks like. Which good luck to me
Speaker 1: recording this because no week is ever the same and
Speaker 1: no day is ever the same. But let's just get
Speaker 1: into it. I thought I could also use this week
Speaker 1: as an example. So what has this week that I'm recording?
Speaker 1: This looked like no two weeks are ever the same.
Speaker 1: And I feel like being a CEO, I know you
Speaker 1: can have like a really strict routine where you know
Speaker 1: it's Monday, and like your whole day is.
Speaker 2: Blocked out by each hour.
Speaker 1: But I feel like, for myself in particular, and our
Speaker 1: business in the way it works and all of our
Speaker 1: staff and how involved I am, I can't really have
Speaker 1: a superstructured day every single day. I'll definitely have my
Speaker 1: things locked in that we're definitely doing. For example, it's
Speaker 1: almost nine am and we're here in this studio because
Speaker 1: I know that I needed to come and record this podcast.
Speaker 1: So throughout my weeks, I definitely have my things that
Speaker 1: are locked in that are not changing. But otherwise I
Speaker 1: also feel like I just have to be really flexible
Speaker 1: every day because you never know what's gonna pop up
Speaker 1: every day, and I'm always just like working with and
Speaker 1: helping everyone. But let's run you through this week. So
Speaker 1: today I'm recording this. This is Monday. No it's not,
Speaker 1: it's Tuesday. That's another thing. The weeks you don't know
Speaker 1: what day it is. Let's take it back to yesterday, Monday,
Speaker 1: I was in Brisbane. So every now and then I
Speaker 1: will travel around to our stores to obviously catch up
Speaker 1: with everyone, see how the store's going, but also to
Speaker 1: create some content for the stores, like that's the main
Speaker 1: reason of the trip. Being from Newcastle, we have an
Speaker 1: airport and it's absolutely tiny, so we're actually we're lucky
Speaker 1: that we have an airport and that we can fly everywhere,
Speaker 1: but the flights are always really random times, all limited.
Speaker 1: So April and I actually flew to Brisbane on our
Speaker 1: Sunday afternoon, which was fine. We were happy to do
Speaker 1: that to be in Brisbane on Monday morning. So yesterday
Speaker 1: we got to our Germ Side store at around eight am,
Speaker 1: and April and I had a plan of all the
Speaker 1: videos that we wanted to make were there from eight
Speaker 1: until twelve or just before twelve, So in four hours
Speaker 1: we smashed out I don't know, maybe six different videos,
Speaker 1: ones of myself and then ones of our team members
Speaker 1: at Chamside, and then also we did some customer interaction
Speaker 1: videos which was really exciting.
Speaker 2: I don't know if by the time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, by the time you're listening to this those videos
Speaker 1: are probably already out, but we had this cool idea
Speaker 1: to stand out at the front of the store and
Speaker 1: hand out one hundred dollar gift cards and like get
Speaker 1: people to come in. And it was really funny because
Speaker 1: the first couple of women were like, no thanks, and
Speaker 1: I was like, you don't want one hundred dollars of
Speaker 1: clothes for free radio? So yeah, we were in term side.
Speaker 1: That was our Monday morning, smashed out a heap of content.
Speaker 1: We were out the door in four hours and straight
Speaker 1: back to the airport. We got back for something yesterday afternoon.
Speaker 1: That was our entire day today. For example, we went
Speaker 1: to our Newcastle store to film some content, stopped into
Speaker 1: my cafe and now I'm here in this studio recording,
Speaker 1: and then the rest of my day is we're heading
Speaker 1: back to the office.
Speaker 2: I know this all seems really random, but this is
Speaker 2: literally what my life. Life is.
Speaker 1: A lot of it is based around content. We're heading
Speaker 1: back to the office, or I'll probably swing past the warehouse.
Speaker 1: Then I'll go to the office and spend the rest
Speaker 1: of the day with our marketing team working on things
Speaker 1: with them. And then later this afternoon I'm shooting some
Speaker 1: e com on actually our national retail manager, Grace. We've
Speaker 1: got some tall pants that are coming out because our
Speaker 1: community has been asking us, please, please please make more
Speaker 1: tall items, so we've made those and Grace is tall.
Speaker 1: So she's going to be our website model, which is
Speaker 1: going to be really funny because she's stunning, but she's
Speaker 1: a bit awkward when it comes to modeling, so that's
Speaker 1: going to be really funny. We'll probably make great content
Speaker 1: out of that as well. So that's my day today.
Speaker 1: It's like a bit of podcasting content, working with our team,
Speaker 1: and then shooting some e com in the afternoon.
Speaker 2: And when I'm in.
Speaker 1: The office, I feel as if though I can't have
Speaker 1: anything that I personally want to work on. I can't
Speaker 1: sit at my laptop and just work on something for myself.
Speaker 1: Like when I'm in the office, it's just I'm working
Speaker 1: with everyone else and it's just hey, bri it hebri
Speaker 1: it abrid like every five seconds, which is so fine.
Speaker 1: Another huge part of my role that takes up like
Speaker 1: most of my time. I would say, besides the content,
Speaker 1: is I am the main stock buyer an orderer for
Speaker 1: Fate order?
Speaker 2: Is that hey? Is that even a word? It is now.
Speaker 1: I do that with our operations manager, Siggy Cigarette, and
Speaker 1: we try to do that like at least two times
Speaker 1: a week, like get together and sit down and oversee
Speaker 1: all of our stock. We write every single order for
Speaker 1: every single location for our online store. I also do
Speaker 1: a lot of this at nighttime. And that's another thing
Speaker 1: I guess is the stuff that I don't get done
Speaker 1: in the day because I'm working with everyone else, I
Speaker 1: get done at night. And then people say why do
Speaker 1: you do that, Like you need to switch off, But
Speaker 1: like when you love what you do, like I don't mind.
Speaker 1: I go home every afternoon, I'm straight on my laptop
Speaker 1: and that's actually when I think I'm the most productive.
Speaker 1: So yeah, stock ordering and buy it takes up a
Speaker 1: huge part of my role, as well as sampling, so
Speaker 1: I sample all the pieces on myself, so I'm constantly
Speaker 1: trying those on, talking to our manufacturer, going back and
Speaker 1: forth making changes. That's another huge part of my role.
Speaker 1: I obviously then also have our podcasts, which one of them.
Speaker 2: You're listening to right now.
Speaker 1: So I have Big Business, which is this podcast, and
Speaker 1: then I also have High Scrollers with my friend Matt Aka. Alright, Hey,
Speaker 1: and that always takes up one day of my week.
Speaker 1: It's generally a Monday. Sometimes we can't do Mondays, but
Speaker 1: most of the time that's my Monday podcast day in Sydney.
Speaker 1: What else have we got on this week April? It's
Speaker 1: mainly just like content and brainstorming, chatting with staff. If
Speaker 1: we ever have someone new in the office that they
Speaker 1: can learn from me, I'll be doing a bit of
Speaker 1: that as well. For example, at the moment, we've just
Speaker 1: hired a new social media coordinator whose name is Claire,
Speaker 1: so I'm helping out a bit with her coming on
Speaker 1: board and teaching her the ropes. But the good thing
Speaker 1: is our marketing teams quite big now, so we've kind
Speaker 1: of got this team of people that can always help
Speaker 1: out when someone's new and they can learn off everyone.
Speaker 1: It's a lot of talking to staff just directly about
Speaker 1: their roles.
Speaker 2: Maybe they need help with something.
Speaker 1: We do a lot of planning out photo shoots, like
Speaker 1: figuring out what collections dropping next, ordering stock plus podcasts.
Speaker 1: I say, like, those are the main things that take
Speaker 1: up my week every single week, and it might be
Speaker 1: a whole lot of content one week and then not
Speaker 1: much the next week, or like it's mixed and match.
Speaker 1: But yeah, in a nutshell, content, stock ordering, sampling, podcasting,
Speaker 1: and talking directly with staff are my main things. And
Speaker 1: then there's all the other shit. There's all the other
Speaker 1: stuff too, like talking with real estate agents if we're
Speaker 1: opening a news store. I talk with our builders pretty often,
Speaker 1: almost every day, and our architect Dylan that we design
Speaker 1: all of our stores with.
Speaker 2: It's just like lots of.
Speaker 1: Tiny little jobs that make up my role and I
Speaker 1: absolutely love it. And I know it sounds like a lot,
Speaker 1: but I've given up a lot over the years, especially
Speaker 1: over the last twelve months. I used to do a
Speaker 1: lot of our website, like organizing all of our collection
Speaker 1: pages and all that kind of stuff. But we've moved
Speaker 1: a lot of people around in the company, which has
Speaker 1: freed up my time more to just concentrate on those
Speaker 1: main things that I do. And yeah, that's a little
Speaker 1: look into my week. I'm not one of those people.
Speaker 1: I've seen people like jump on TikTok and they say
Speaker 1: so Monday six am, I wake up, six fifteen, I
Speaker 1: meditate six thirty, I eat breakfast six forty five, and
Speaker 1: then like this meeting at nine on whatever, Like my
Speaker 1: life isn't really like that.
Speaker 2: Like I said in the beginning.
Speaker 1: Of this episode, I have my things that are locked
Speaker 1: in and I know I'm doing, and the rest is
Speaker 1: just like going with the flow of the day. And
Speaker 1: maybe there'll be fires that I need to put out
Speaker 1: in the day, or someone's.
Speaker 2: You know, having issues with a certain staff member.
Speaker 1: It's really just all about being super flexible, and I
Speaker 1: love that. I don't think I would like knowing what
Speaker 1: I'm doing every half an hour of the day. I
Speaker 1: kind of like the randomness of my role, and I
Speaker 1: know my main things that I need to get done.
Speaker 1: I know the goals that I want to achieve. I
Speaker 1: know the pieces of content that I want to make
Speaker 1: for that week. But the rest of it is like
Speaker 1: a mixed bag of lollies. But I really love that,
Speaker 1: and that works for me being a bit chaotic. Even
Speaker 1: though my role right now is still quite varied, I
Speaker 1: will say that just a few years ago or two
Speaker 1: years ago, it was even more varied than what I'm
Speaker 1: doing now. Like, not that long ago, I was still
Speaker 1: like in the warehouse, like moving stock or helping pack orders.
Speaker 1: I was doing a heap on our website, whereas like
Speaker 1: over the last couple of years, I've really tried to
Speaker 1: refine my role and work out as much as I
Speaker 1: want to have my fingers in everything, and I want
Speaker 1: to help with retail operations and I want to help
Speaker 1: with day to day warehouse operations. I've learned that, especially
Speaker 1: for me, I need to focus on the things that
Speaker 1: matter the most, that's going to drive the business forward,
Speaker 1: like that is my job. I'm essentially the top salesperson
Speaker 1: for the company that I've got to keep the company
Speaker 1: moving forward. I actually saw a video on Instagram. I
Speaker 1: think it was Simon from Culture Kings, and he was saying,
Speaker 1: how when you're the CEO of the company, you have
Speaker 1: to be the number one salesperson in the in the
Speaker 1: entire company.
Speaker 2: I was like, that's so true.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I really try not to waste my time
Speaker 1: doing things that don't move the company forward, and instead
Speaker 1: get other people in to do those smaller tasks so
Speaker 1: that my day isn't taken up by all these tiny
Speaker 1: little things and instead I can focus on the bigger picture.
Speaker 1: And another thing that I used to do a lot
Speaker 1: of all the time because it was so easy, was
Speaker 1: I used to do a lot of the modeling for
Speaker 1: fate on our website and on our Instagram, and we
Speaker 1: got into a habit of doing that because it was
Speaker 1: so easy. It was like, oh, let's just shoot it
Speaker 1: on brit So like once a week we'd be doing
Speaker 1: an e comm shoot on me, which is our website images,
Speaker 1: and then we've been doing heaps of content for our Instagram,
Speaker 1: like you know, the modely pretty stuff. And because like
Speaker 1: it costs nothing for me to be a model, whereas
Speaker 1: like when we work with models it costs thousands of dollars.
Speaker 2: There's another episode that.
Speaker 1: I could do as well, like the true cost of
Speaker 1: doing a photo shoot, Like it's just like three thousand
Speaker 1: dollars to poot one model. It's crazy, but it's one
Speaker 1: of those things that we have to do. But one
Speaker 1: thing that we've tried to do is book the model
Speaker 1: instead and not use me every time, also because we
Speaker 1: don't want it to just be like a Britney Lee
Speaker 1: Saunder's website. That's another thing that I that used to
Speaker 1: take up a lot more of my time and it
Speaker 1: doesn't anymore. But yeah, that's a look at a week
Speaker 1: in my life. I know it seems chaotic, and it
Speaker 1: kind of is. I feel like our whole workplace is
Speaker 1: kind of it's like organized chaos, but that's the way
Speaker 1: I love it. I thrive under chaotic situations and I
Speaker 1: love just doing whatever the day is thrown at me.
Speaker 1: But hopefully that gives you a bit of a not
Speaker 1: so much in depth, but a bit of a look
Speaker 1: at a week in my life and kind of what
Speaker 1: my role looks like. But that's all for today's bonus
Speaker 1: and I will see you all on Monday for my
Speaker 1: main episode. Don't forget to rate five stars if you
Speaker 1: haven't already, and you know where to find me on socials.
Speaker 1: Bie