Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Britney Saunders, and welcome to Big Business, the
Speaker 1: place where business is far from boring. And today I'm
Speaker 1: recording on a wobbicle land. Now I somehow manage to
Speaker 1: build an empire from the garage underneath my house, and
Speaker 1: I'm here to share.
Speaker 2: It all with you, from the winds.
Speaker 1: The huge mistakes, the challenging times, and the funny moments
Speaker 1: in between. So, whether you're in business already, perhaps you're
Speaker 1: not in the game at all, Maybe you're just looking
Speaker 1: for some inspiration, or you just simply want to hear
Speaker 1: the tea, this is the podcast for you. Coming up
Speaker 1: on today's episode, I'm going to talk about what it's
Speaker 1: like to be a female business owner, CEO, entrepreneur in
Speaker 1: a man's world. I'm going to be talking about some
Speaker 1: of the challenges that I myself have faced. I'm going
Speaker 1: to talk about some specific moments that have stood out
Speaker 1: to me when I've thought, holy fuck, if I was
Speaker 1: a man, then I'd be the mayor. And which, by
Speaker 1: the way, I love that Taylor's Swift song. I played
Speaker 1: it for AJ last night when I told him that
Speaker 1: I was doing this episode, and I don't think he's
Speaker 1: ever really heard that song, which, by the way, you
Speaker 1: need to listen to that song if you haven't heard it,
Speaker 1: The Man by Taylor Swift, and so I played it
Speaker 1: for AJ. I said, listen to the words, and he
Speaker 1: was like, oh, this is really cool. Like I've never
Speaker 1: really heard this song or actually listened to the words.
Speaker 1: But I'm just going to be talking about what it's
Speaker 1: like to be a female founder and leader in a
Speaker 1: world where men rule everything. So without further ado, let's
Speaker 1: just get straight down to business.
Speaker 2: So let's feel the tea.
Speaker 1: What is it like to be a woman founder, CEO, entrepreneur,
Speaker 1: business owner, even manager or leader in a world where
Speaker 1: men are just favored. I can obviously speak about this
Speaker 1: because I'm a female CEO and founder, and I've definitely
Speaker 1: had some instances myself where it's in my tracks. But
Speaker 1: at the same time, I think I have never allowed
Speaker 1: a man to completely stop me. If anything, I think
Speaker 1: I just have this false sense of confidence or I've
Speaker 1: had it since the very beginning where I've never let
Speaker 1: a man kind of doubt me. But there have been
Speaker 1: a few instances over the years, and I'm sure there's
Speaker 1: a lot that happened to me that I don't even
Speaker 1: realize because I'm so confident within myself. But I know
Speaker 1: for a lot of women, they don't have this like
Speaker 1: extreme weird confidence that I somehow have built over the years,
Speaker 1: and that you know, doing something ballsy or starting a
Speaker 1: business or applying for a loan or any of those things.
Speaker 1: It can be quite daunting, especially when you're dealing with men.
Speaker 1: Now in my business, I weirdly deal with a lot
Speaker 1: of men, actually, even though it doesn't seem that way.
Speaker 1: Fate is a female dominated business and I absolutely love
Speaker 1: that we've got two guys in the company more. But
Speaker 1: the girlies just love Fate and when we put up
Speaker 1: a job at all, the girlies come pouring through. But
Speaker 1: we've got aj obviously my partner, and then we've got
Speaker 1: we've got Josh in the warehouse warehouse Josh. And we've
Speaker 1: had a few other guys over the years too, mainly
Speaker 1: in the warehouse. But Fate is a female dominated company
Speaker 1: and I love that. It's not to say it hasn't
Speaker 1: come with its challenges over the years, but I absolutely
Speaker 1: love and am so proud to say that.
Speaker 2: We employ so many women now.
Speaker 1: One of the I guess first instances that really stood
Speaker 1: out to me when I was dealing with a man.
Speaker 1: And by the way, like, the way that I deal
Speaker 1: with men in my business is obviously not like internally,
Speaker 1: it's externally. It's all of our solicitors, it's our accountants,
Speaker 1: it's our real estate agents, because we've got what seven
Speaker 1: or eight bloody commercial leases like and most of the
Speaker 1: people that we deal with are men. We've got our contractors,
Speaker 1: we've got our bin guys, we've got our posters, like
Speaker 1: just all these outside people that we deal with most
Speaker 1: of the time of men. And so I've got a
Speaker 1: bit of a story to tell you now. Ah yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say what one it was. And I mean
Speaker 1: no harm when I say this at all, like, and
Speaker 1: I know it was lighthearted, but it just made me
Speaker 1: think in the moment, if I was a guy, would
Speaker 1: this conversation be playing out the way that it is.
Speaker 2: So fate this.
Speaker 1: Was maybe three ish years ago now or two and
Speaker 1: a half years ago, we had our one store, we
Speaker 1: just had our one Newcastle store, and I made the
Speaker 1: crazy decision, fuck it, I'm going to open a store
Speaker 1: in Sydney, and so I ventured down and again I
Speaker 1: don't want to get in any sort of trouble for
Speaker 1: saying this, Like, whoever is listening from Westfield Miranda, I
Speaker 1: mean no harm by saying this.
Speaker 2: I love you guys, I love the store there, but
Speaker 2: there was this this moment.
Speaker 1: Okay, so I'm the The thing with me as well,
Speaker 1: is like I'll go and do everything by myself, Like
Speaker 1: I'm that confident in myself and my business and my
Speaker 1: brand that I reached out to all of these Westfields,
Speaker 1: which actually makes me think, just the thought that I'm
Speaker 1: having right now, I wonder because when you want to
Speaker 1: have a store in a Westfield or wherever, like you
Speaker 1: just find their people and you email them, like you
Speaker 1: can find their emails on their website like for retailers,
Speaker 1: and you kind of pitch yourself to them. And I
Speaker 1: emailed a lot and I didn't hear back from a few,
Speaker 1: and that just made me think, I wonder if I had,
Speaker 1: like if there's shopping centers I've never heard back from,
Speaker 1: is that because I'm a woman, you know? Or would
Speaker 1: I be taken more seriously if I was a guy,
Speaker 1: Because some you just don't hear from hear back from
Speaker 1: it all, and others you do. But anyway, Westfield Miranda,
Speaker 1: which is where our second Fate store is, like the
Speaker 1: second one we ever opened is in Sydney, and they
Speaker 1: were the first ones that got back to me when
Speaker 1: I reached out to a bunch in Sydney. So I
Speaker 1: locked in meeting with them and it was a girl
Speaker 1: and a guy, and I just so confidently drove down
Speaker 1: to Sydney, like by myself. I'm this young girl, and
Speaker 1: the thing with me is like, yes, I'm professional, but
Speaker 1: when it comes to my business and being in meetings
Speaker 1: and doing all the things, even though it's like corporate,
Speaker 1: I quite literally just rock up as myself, like I
Speaker 1: don't ever try to pretend to be anyone else in
Speaker 1: my role, even though I'm a CEO, Like I don't
Speaker 1: walk in with a blazer and act all mighty and smart,
Speaker 1: like I just shove and go, how are you? Like,
Speaker 1: I'm Brittany from Newcastle. What you see like on social
Speaker 1: media and the way that I portray myself on my
Speaker 1: podcast is exactly how I am when I'm meeting professionals.
Speaker 1: Sure I might be a little bit more professional, but
Speaker 1: I'll still be funny. And so I remember rocking up
Speaker 1: to Westfield Miranda again, no offense to Westfield Miranda, I
Speaker 1: love you guys. And I met with this guy and
Speaker 1: girl and Westfields and all shopping centers they essentially have
Speaker 1: their own agents, right like the leasing agents. They're like
Speaker 1: an agent for the center and they look after all
Speaker 1: the tenants. And so I met these people. They were
Speaker 1: really nice, shook their hands and I always love shaking
Speaker 1: a guy's hand with like a bit of extra strength,
Speaker 1: just to be like, yeah, this is me and this
Speaker 1: is who I am. And then what you'll do when
Speaker 1: you go walking through a center is they will walk
Speaker 1: you through and kind of show you around. And I'd
Speaker 1: never been there before, so they're showing me all the
Speaker 1: different areas. And then we get to the store that
Speaker 1: I was looking at, which is now our store and
Speaker 1: has been for like almost it's almost three years this year.
Speaker 1: Fucking hell, I don't know, but anyway, I don't want
Speaker 1: to talk about how fast the time is going.
Speaker 2: Anyway.
Speaker 1: I remember the guy that I was with, and he's
Speaker 1: in a suit. I'm there in my fucking jeens, and
Speaker 1: he started obviously questioning me about fate and about my business,
Speaker 1: and part of me gets it. You know, I'm this
Speaker 1: young blonde girl who's super energetic and I'm there by
Speaker 1: myself and don't look like a professional business owner. But
Speaker 1: what the fuck does a professional business owner look like?
Speaker 1: And so we're walking through the center. The lady that
Speaker 1: was with him, she had done her research. She knew
Speaker 1: exactly who I was, she knew exactly who Fate was.
Speaker 1: She had seen our social media. Oh my god, there's
Speaker 1: another Okay, hold, I thought, there's also another story that
Speaker 1: I'm going to tell after this one, which just like
Speaker 1: jogged in my memory. And so he's questioning me about
Speaker 1: the business, about Fate, and I'm just talking about who
Speaker 1: we are, what.
Speaker 2: We do, our size range, this, that and the other.
Speaker 1: And I just got the sense from this guy, even
Speaker 1: though he was being really lovely, I felt like he
Speaker 1: was kind of laughing at me, and I felt like
Speaker 1: he was kind of doubting me. And I only had
Speaker 1: one other store, obviously, our Newcastle store at this stage,
Speaker 1: and it was performing exceptionally well, like I'm super confident
Speaker 1: in opening another store based off the store that we've
Speaker 1: had for however many years by that point, And we
Speaker 1: got to the store and we had to look through
Speaker 1: I loved it. It was in shambles. If you remember
Speaker 1: seeing my content on Instagram, like we were going to
Speaker 1: have to give the whole thing a makeover. And then
Speaker 1: we started talking about figures and he was saying, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, like i'd expect if you were to move
Speaker 1: into this space, you would make about this much in
Speaker 1: revenue for a year. And so we started throwing around
Speaker 1: figures and like sales figures, and I remember going, really,
Speaker 1: and I think the number that he said was less
Speaker 1: than what our Newcastle store was making at the time
Speaker 1: in a year, Like he said, in a year, he'd
Speaker 1: probably do this turnover, and I was like, oh really.
Speaker 1: I was like, no, I think we would do more
Speaker 1: because I was confident in fate and I know what
Speaker 1: our Newcastle store was making at the time. I was like, nah,
Speaker 1: I think it would be actually more around this. And
Speaker 1: we kind of went back and forth and it was
Speaker 1: like him going na na, na, na, na, I don't
Speaker 1: think so, and me going.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, And like I was being
Speaker 2: really funny with it. I'm like, is that a challenge?
Speaker 1: And so I was being funny with him. It was banter,
Speaker 1: like it was not intended to be malicious or anything
Speaker 1: on his part, but we had this back and forth
Speaker 1: over what he thought I could generate in that store
Speaker 1: versus what I thought I could generate in that store.
Speaker 1: And I remember saying to him, is that a challenge?
Speaker 1: And he's like, yep, oh, put you up to the challenge.
Speaker 1: And we were laughing and it was funny and whatever.
Speaker 1: And this is why I don't want to get in
Speaker 1: trouble with Westfield.
Speaker 2: Miranda or anything.
Speaker 1: But I remember leaving after meeting them, both shaking their
Speaker 1: hands and I said, yep, let's keep the combo going.
Speaker 2: I'm keen on this store. I want it.
Speaker 1: And then I remember calling AJ on the way home,
Speaker 1: and it was one of the first things that I
Speaker 1: said to AJ was I felt like that guy was
Speaker 1: like underestimating me. I felt like he wasn't confident in
Speaker 1: me the way that I am. And that was one
Speaker 1: of the first moments where I thought, I wonder if
Speaker 1: I would have had that conversation with that guy if
Speaker 1: I was a man, would that conversation have gone that
Speaker 1: way and would have been like, oh, no, I don't
Speaker 1: think you'll make that much if I was a guy.
Speaker 1: And that is just a little moment in my career
Speaker 1: and business journey that is stuck with me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's really interesting that Hello, sorry, it is produced
Speaker 3: for they get to say who's jumping in for any
Speaker 3: new new listeners. It's really interesting that you've brought that up,
Speaker 3: because would he be questioning your knowledge and your understanding
Speaker 3: of your business and what you think it could generate
Speaker 3: if you were a man, Because I don't think he
Speaker 3: would have, and I don't think many other men would
Speaker 3: question that. I think that they would accept that that
Speaker 3: male knew and understood his business well enough to give
Speaker 3: you an honest take on what they think they could make.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and I can't I can't remember what the figure was,
Speaker 1: but he and he would have been also talking, you know,
Speaker 1: based on the stats of the previous stores that had
Speaker 1: been in there, and like maybe those stores hadn't been
Speaker 1: as successful in that space.
Speaker 2: But I remember him just.
Speaker 1: Saying like you might generate like six hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: grand a year or whatever it was, and I was like, nah,
Speaker 1: I reckon, I'll do over a million in this space,
Speaker 1: and him instead of just him going oh, really like shit,
Speaker 1: like you must have a really good product or whatever,
Speaker 1: or a great community.
Speaker 3: Or even asking you, oh, why do you think that
Speaker 3: you're going to you know what I mean?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was just this again. It wasn't malicious.
Speaker 1: I just think like, if I was a guy, maybe
Speaker 1: that conversation wouldn't have gone that way. And what I
Speaker 1: found so much satisfaction in and what I find and
Speaker 1: will continue to find so much satisfaction in, is then
Speaker 1: we opened, you know, and we just go boom. And
Speaker 1: because you have to report your sales figures to Westfield.
Speaker 1: I remember a massive change of tone in the way
Speaker 1: he spoke to me after that, and for months after that,
Speaker 1: it went from like having this funny, weird interaction the
Speaker 1: first time I met him, and then we ended up
Speaker 1: getting along really well, and he would call me and say,
Speaker 1: how's everything going, Oh my god, I heard.
Speaker 2: How good you did on Saturday.
Speaker 1: And then he wanted me to go into another Westfield
Speaker 1: because a lot of these agents look after a lot
Speaker 1: of Westfields.
Speaker 2: And then it was brit I've got this other shop
Speaker 2: for you. Come and look at this other center in Sydney.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, oh, well, well, well here we were.
Speaker 2: You were thinking I was gonna make X amount.
Speaker 1: I've knocked it out of the fucking park, and now
Speaker 1: you want my money in another center. So that's just
Speaker 1: a little fun story that I'll never forget another one.
Speaker 1: When I was venturing down to Melbourne to look at
Speaker 1: opening our store there again, I started with all the
Speaker 1: shopping centers everyone knows.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: I ended up going with a boutique in Hawthorne. Go
Speaker 1: visit the girlies down there if you're ever around. But again,
Speaker 1: I have a lot of experience with going and meeting
Speaker 1: these center managers and leasing agents and whatever. And I
Speaker 1: was super excited about this one because it's like the
Speaker 1: biggest shopping center down there. I don't really want to
Speaker 1: say which one because I don't want to get in
Speaker 1: trouble in because I'm not a tenant there, but like
Speaker 1: the big shopping center down there that everyone raves about.
Speaker 1: I spoke with the guy there and I locked in
Speaker 1: for ajen myself to fly down to go and see
Speaker 1: one of the stores there and see the center. And
Speaker 1: I had been emailing back and forth with this guy
Speaker 1: and we locked it in. He knew that I was
Speaker 1: flying down, he knew that I had booked flights, blah
Speaker 1: blah blah blah blah. When we got to the center,
Speaker 1: I was just immediately disappointed because I could tell that
Speaker 1: he hadn't even looked up who who we were. And
Speaker 1: the thing that solidified it for me that he'd done
Speaker 1: no research was he asked if we are using social media.
Speaker 2: For our business and I was like, yeah, we're using
Speaker 2: social media for our business. We're like one of the
Speaker 2: biggest brands in the country on social.
Speaker 1: Are And so I never pursued that center and I
Speaker 1: never emailed that guy after that meeting because he ruined
Speaker 1: it for me, and I just wonder like, was that
Speaker 1: just him or did he not bother looking into anything
Speaker 1: that I do or fate because I'm a woman, like,
Speaker 1: I'll never really know, but that was just another little
Speaker 1: instance for me. Now let's get onto some of the
Speaker 1: other common challenges that female leaders, entrepreneurs CEOs may face. Obviously,
Speaker 1: what I've touched on for this whole episode so far
Speaker 1: is just simply not being taken seriously. I think that's
Speaker 1: something that applies in life in general. You know, women
Speaker 1: are never taken as seriously as men. Sorry to all
Speaker 1: the men listening, but surely if you're listening to this
Speaker 1: podcast in general, you're a girl's guy, you know.
Speaker 2: But it's just not being taken seriously.
Speaker 1: And I'm sure that I have not been taken seriously
Speaker 1: a billion times by men that I speak with, But
Speaker 1: maybe I just don't notice it because I'm just so
Speaker 1: confident in myself that I'm probably shaking hands with these
Speaker 1: guys and like, who the fuck is this girl? But
Speaker 1: I've just got this like fearless confidence about myself that
Speaker 1: I don't even notice it anymore. But there obviously are
Speaker 1: those moments that stand out, and I'll always remember those.
Speaker 1: Now another weird one which is personal to me and
Speaker 1: I think also probably to a lot of other female
Speaker 1: more so leaders like this could even apply to like
Speaker 1: management positions, you know, people that are are bosses in workplaces.
Speaker 1: Is I've dealt with some experiences over the years with staff,
Speaker 1: like going back to my staff and us being a
Speaker 1: female dominated workplace. I've dealt with a lot of experiences,
Speaker 1: and at the end of it all I have said
Speaker 1: out loud and said to my colleagues or said to
Speaker 1: AJ I've said to myself, I wonder if that person
Speaker 1: would have treated me that way if I was a
Speaker 1: fifty year old man. So obviously females aren't taken seriously
Speaker 1: in life in general anywhere near as much as men are.
Speaker 1: And without like going to in detail, I've dealt with
Speaker 1: some staff conflicts over the years, especially like in my
Speaker 1: early development years and like when we opened up our
Speaker 1: first couple of stores, and I've had some people treat
Speaker 1: me in ways that's just like completely thrown me off guard,
Speaker 1: whether it's people saying personal attacks against me. I've had
Speaker 1: staff members that have been exiting the company, especially in
Speaker 1: my earlier days when I didn't know how to handle
Speaker 1: those kinds of situations. And I've just some of the
Speaker 1: shit that I've had, like past staff members say to me,
Speaker 1: where I've thought after it all and like once it's
Speaker 1: all finished and we're done with the fucking drama, not
Speaker 1: that it's drama with the situation where I've turned to
Speaker 1: AJ and I've said, I don't think that previous employee
Speaker 1: would have spoken to me in that way or treated
Speaker 1: me that way if I wasn't a thirty year old girl,
Speaker 1: because I just couldn't ever imagine in a million years
Speaker 1: some of the stuff that people have said to me.
Speaker 1: I couldn't imagine them acting that way towards a fifty
Speaker 1: year old guy, Like it just wouldn't happen. So whilst
Speaker 1: it's amazing to have this female dominated company and all
Speaker 1: of these female staff members. I've also feel like I've
Speaker 1: experienced firsthand the negatives of being a female in a
Speaker 1: position of authority and power, where my own staff have
Speaker 1: not taken me seriously enough or have felt like they
Speaker 1: could say shit to me that they wouldn't dare to
Speaker 1: say to a man or an older man. And yeah,
Speaker 1: that's just like another thing that I thought was worth
Speaker 1: pointing out.
Speaker 3: Do you find that your assertiveness and your role as
Speaker 3: a boss is perceived differently than someone like aj who
Speaker 3: also has a senior role within your company.
Speaker 2: Do you think, like in terms of my staff, a.
Speaker 3: Lot of the time, men who are assertive and who
Speaker 3: are confident it's view differently to when a woman does it,
Speaker 3: And a lot of people kind of get their back
Speaker 3: up about that, and or they could find it bitchy
Speaker 3: or they could find it cold.
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely, I think this is just like social bias.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's the right word, but when
Speaker 1: a female is assertive, let's say, for example, someone has
Speaker 1: done something and they need to be spoken to. You know, Hey,
Speaker 1: I'm going to pull you up on this because XYZ.
Speaker 1: It can come not it can come across. But people
Speaker 1: might see that as Oh, she's being a bitch, or
Speaker 1: she's being rude, or she's attacking me, or she's being nasty,
Speaker 1: Like I feel like that can often be people's first
Speaker 1: thing that they want to think and say instead of Oh,
Speaker 1: this is my boss and she's giving me some constructive
Speaker 1: feedback about something that I'm maybe didn't do the best
Speaker 1: and I need to improve or learn better for next time. Whereas, yeah,
Speaker 1: if AJ had delivered that message to them, I don't
Speaker 1: think you know, anyone would go AJ's a bitch and
Speaker 1: AJ is personally attacking me. But because that message is
Speaker 1: being delivered from a female, it can be so different.
Speaker 1: It can be personal when at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: as a leader or a manager, when you're delivering a
Speaker 1: message to someone, it's never personal. It's just business and
Speaker 1: it's just you doing your job. But because you're a female,
Speaker 1: oh she's a bitch because she did this, when that's
Speaker 1: literally not the case at.
Speaker 3: All, even for my self, brit Like, I'm a man,
Speaker 3: and even now, like even and through situations that I'm
Speaker 3: in throughout life, I am clocking myself and noticing that
Speaker 3: I need to really unravel a lot of these societales
Speaker 3: expectations that we have put on men and women and
Speaker 3: their different roles and how I perceive that energy that
Speaker 3: I'm given. So say, for example, if I hypothetically have
Speaker 3: a female boss, society has trained us to have this
Speaker 3: view that like, man are the leaders, and man are
Speaker 3: the ones who are the bosses, and they're the ones
Speaker 3: who are gonna, you know, give us our directives. And
Speaker 3: we're in an age now where and it's really amazing
Speaker 3: that we have so many incredible female leaders stepping forward
Speaker 3: and really taking up space. But we're also in a
Speaker 3: position where that bias is still there and I see
Speaker 3: it in myself and I try and work on that myself.
Speaker 3: But it's just such an interesting topic to think about.
Speaker 1: It's just ingrained in society and it's been that way forever.
Speaker 1: It's a man's world at the end of the day.
Speaker 1: And I think that's really like big and great of
Speaker 1: you that you can actually clock that within yourself. There's
Speaker 1: been so many times over the years, like where we
Speaker 1: are dealing with HR related things in our workplace and
Speaker 1: it's always very highly emotionally strung and I go home
Speaker 1: to AJ and I'm like, fuck, like I'm dealing with
Speaker 1: this at work today and it's so personal and it's
Speaker 1: so emotional when at the end of the day, I'm
Speaker 1: just trying to do my job. And I've had so
Speaker 1: many moments, especially more recently, where I've thought, I wonder
Speaker 1: if and again I don't want to be like surrendering,
Speaker 1: but I've thought to myself, this would be so much
Speaker 1: easier if AJ was the CEO and I wouldn't have
Speaker 1: to deal with this kind of stuff because and I've
Speaker 1: just thought this for my own sake, like I mentally
Speaker 1: can't deal with this kind of stuff and focus.
Speaker 2: On growing the company.
Speaker 1: And you know, one minute I'm in a HR meeting
Speaker 1: and something's fucking going to shit, and then next minute,
Speaker 1: I've got to go out and make a funny warehouse video.
Speaker 1: Like I'm flinging myself around. But I've literally thought, like,
Speaker 1: at any point, should AJ be the CEO so that
Speaker 1: I don't have to deal with like the emotional side
Speaker 1: of this. And then it makes me think, I reckon
Speaker 1: if AJ was doing my job and he was sitting
Speaker 1: in on these HR meetings and delivering these messages to people,
Speaker 1: if they're not the nicest messages, maybe it would be
Speaker 1: a lot fucking easier, But why does it have to
Speaker 1: be that way?
Speaker 3: You know, do you ever feel like you're watching how
Speaker 3: you're saying things because you're a woman.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like I'm so mindful with the way that I
Speaker 1: say everything always, especially when I'm dealing with a delicate
Speaker 1: situation and the fucked thing as well, like speaking to
Speaker 1: this whole topic of like men and women some of
Speaker 1: the stuff that like we've dealt with over the years,
Speaker 1: and like I'm always honest about this on my podcast, Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: Fate is an amazing workplace, but we still deal with
Speaker 1: staffing issues. Like you can't avoid that no matter what
Speaker 1: business or brand you are or how amazing everything is.
Speaker 1: It's just funny as well, when let's say we're dealing
Speaker 1: with a scenario and we're having to put someone on
Speaker 1: a performance plan, which is not fun by the way,
Speaker 1: or you're having to see someone exit the company, and
Speaker 1: like I go home and I like trauma dump onto
Speaker 1: AJ about my day and he always goes fucking hell,
Speaker 1: Like this is so different because AJ is a trade
Speaker 1: by trade and he used to work like up in
Speaker 1: the minds and he says to me, you know, if
Speaker 1: something like this had happened, or if someone said that
Speaker 1: to our boss at the at the mind sight, the
Speaker 1: boss would go, get the fuck off my site and
Speaker 1: see you later, and that would be it. But then
Speaker 1: females have to deal with things in such different ways,
Speaker 1: and I'm like why, like it just it's all doesn't
Speaker 1: make sense. And AJ's like, God, if this was happening
Speaker 1: at my workplace back in the day, would have told
Speaker 1: to get fuck off and you'd.
Speaker 2: Never see him again.
Speaker 1: Whereas like, females have to be so we don't have
Speaker 1: to be, but we are so much more delicate with
Speaker 1: the way that we deal with everything. But men can
Speaker 1: literally tell someon to get fucked and fuck off the
Speaker 1: job site and that's it. Like why do they do that?
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: It's extremely interesting.
Speaker 1: Topic, Xander, but I thought we've been talking for ages,
Speaker 1: so I want to just go over quickly. A few
Speaker 1: other challenges more so, like maybe not ones that I've
Speaker 1: experienced myself, but just challenges that females will or may
Speaker 1: experience in the workplace or throughout their entrepreneurial career. Now,
Speaker 1: one thing that I found really interesting was the fact
Speaker 1: that women are statistically less likely to receive venture capital
Speaker 1: or large business loans now, I don't have any investors,
Speaker 1: I've never taken out a loan, so I can't speak
Speaker 1: from my own experience on this, but I just found
Speaker 1: that so crazy, and I can't remember where I saw it,
Speaker 1: but I think it's like a two percent of all
Speaker 1: capital that's given out goes to females, like the rest
Speaker 1: is dominated by males, and there's a bias that investors,
Speaker 1: which are mainly men, will just automatically take more interest
Speaker 1: in a company that is owned by a male when
Speaker 1: it comes to giving them money to grow their business,
Speaker 1: whereas females might have to work a lot harder to
Speaker 1: prove to the men that they deserve an investment in
Speaker 1: their company. And again, that is just why, like why
Speaker 1: is that a thing that is just the craziest thing
Speaker 1: to me.
Speaker 3: It's even more crazy that it wasn't that long ago
Speaker 3: that like, women couldn't even get their own credit cards
Speaker 3: or loans without the permission of their husband.
Speaker 2: So can you imagine.
Speaker 3: So I think a lot of that bias is still
Speaker 3: ingrained in a lot of older men because they lived
Speaker 3: through a time where that was the norm, and they're
Speaker 3: still in a lot of control of these situations.
Speaker 1: I think another thing that a lot of female founders
Speaker 1: will experience, and I think I've experienced here and there
Speaker 1: on social media. But again, I've got like a really
Speaker 1: great community online. But it's being judged on social media
Speaker 1: for being a women, being a woman in power and
Speaker 1: putting yourself out there on social media. And I know
Speaker 1: I've seen articles popping up on Facebook or whatever and
Speaker 1: it's like female founder makes ten million dollars and then
Speaker 1: you go to the comments and it's all men being like, ah,
Speaker 1: she just.
Speaker 2: Is a slut. Like sorry to say that word on
Speaker 2: my podcast. You can beat that out if you want, Zander.
Speaker 1: But like you see that yourself on social media, or oh,
Speaker 1: she's just fame hungry, or she's just popular, she's just
Speaker 1: successful because of her looks, like, you know, being more
Speaker 1: critically judged on social media for maybe bragging about your successes.
Speaker 1: I know I even still feel weird bragging about my
Speaker 1: successes because I'm worried that people are going to say
Speaker 1: you're bragging. But if I was a man and I said, hey,
Speaker 1: look at me, I made a million dollars in this cell,
Speaker 1: they'd go fucking good on your mate.
Speaker 2: You're the men. But if it's a female.
Speaker 1: They're like, don't brag about money. You shouldn't talk about
Speaker 1: money in that way.
Speaker 2: Why men can.
Speaker 1: There's so many the things obviously not being taken as
Speaker 1: seriously in work, not taken as seriously, but people who
Speaker 1: are obviously moms, or when they go off work to
Speaker 1: become a mom and then they struggle to perhaps get
Speaker 1: back into the workforce or they struggle to have career progression. Again,
Speaker 1: I think this is just like a standard bias that's
Speaker 1: out there in society. And you know, mothers get so
Speaker 1: shamed on or seen as less than or that they
Speaker 1: can't run a business or have a career because they've
Speaker 1: got kids. There's so much of that, which again, like
Speaker 1: I can't speak from my own experience because I'm not
Speaker 1: a mother, but I know for a fact that that
Speaker 1: is an area that women struggle with when it comes
Speaker 1: to careers and business ownership and entrepreneurship. I mean, there's
Speaker 1: so many things that women struggle with, and I think
Speaker 1: the biggest one out of all of them is that people,
Speaker 1: like the whole theme of this episode, which has just
Speaker 1: been people not taking them seriously. And it's something that
Speaker 1: I've definitely experienced myself, probably more than I have been
Speaker 1: aware of, but at the end of the day, I
Speaker 1: just move forward with full confidence with every single thing
Speaker 1: that I do. And there are those moments that I've
Speaker 1: experienced where I've gone, holy shit, would you be saying
Speaker 1: this to me if I was a guy. But I
Speaker 1: don't let them get to me or get me down.
Speaker 1: If anything, it gives me more fuel to keep going.
Speaker 1: And when someone is doubting my business or saying, what
Speaker 1: is it that you're selling? You're selling clients, Oh, how's
Speaker 1: that going for you? Like I've even had people say
Speaker 1: to me like, oh, good luck with that, like in
Speaker 1: that kind of tone, and I'm like, what do you mean?
Speaker 2: Good luck with that?
Speaker 1: But I honestly, I think there definitely needs to be
Speaker 1: a change in society, and we are seeing a bit
Speaker 1: of a change, like more females in power, more females
Speaker 1: in politics obviously, more females in business ownership and in
Speaker 1: leadership positions in general. But I think society needs to
Speaker 1: let go.
Speaker 2: Oh of all of these.
Speaker 1: Societal thoughts that have been ingrained into all of us,
Speaker 1: because women rule and men would be nothing without us.
Speaker 2: I'm just gonna come right out and say it, who
Speaker 2: run the world? Girls.
Speaker 1: Beyonce said that once and she was so right. Women
Speaker 1: are the best and men would be nothing without us. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they run the world, but they do everything for us.
Speaker 2: At the end of the day. I think I'm gonna
Speaker 2: tell myself that anyway.
Speaker 1: But yeah, this has been a fantastic episode, and hey,
Speaker 1: maybe this will leave you thinking in a different way.
Speaker 1: Maybe the next time your female manager gives you some feedback,
Speaker 1: instead of automatically thinking, oh, she's such a bitch, you know,
Speaker 1: stop yourself and your thoughts and think, is this person
Speaker 1: actually being a bitch or personally attacking me? Or is
Speaker 1: she just doing her job and you're just thinking that
Speaker 1: way because she's a female. It is food for thought anyway.
Speaker 1: As always, I'm going to end today's episode with a
Speaker 1: tip of the week, and this is more of a
Speaker 1: motivational quote. I saw this on social media and I
Speaker 1: loved it and I wrote it down and I thought,
Speaker 1: I'm going to share this as my tip of the
Speaker 1: week and it can just be something that.
Speaker 2: All of us can remember and be mindful of.
Speaker 1: And the quote is, maybe you don't realize how far
Speaker 1: you've come because you keep raising the bar.
Speaker 3: Oh.
Speaker 2: I freaking love that and this is great for myself
Speaker 2: as well.
Speaker 1: I'm always like chasing the next thing or feeling like
Speaker 1: I'm not achieving enough, but that's because I keep raising
Speaker 1: the bar for myself. The bar was once very low.
Speaker 1: Now it's extremely high. But if I go back and
Speaker 1: look at that very first bar, it was so low
Speaker 1: compared to where I am now. So the next time
Speaker 1: you feel like you're not getting anywhere or you're not
Speaker 1: achieving anything, really look back at where where you started,
Speaker 1: and also remember the reason why you're feeling like you're
Speaker 1: not achieving enough or you can't reach it, just because
Speaker 1: you keep lifting that bar higher and higher. So I
Speaker 1: think that's a good thing.
Speaker 2: Anyway. I hope you've enjoyed today's episode.
Speaker 1: Please feel free to rate my podcast five stars if
Speaker 1: you haven't already, and if you have a question for me,
Speaker 1: if you want me to talk about something on the pod,
Speaker 1: if you have a follow up question to any of
Speaker 1: my episodes, please send us a DM on my Big
Speaker 1: Business Podcast Instagram account. That is where we keep up
Speaker 1: to date with everyone's dms and we see them all.
Speaker 1: Xander's in there too in the dms. He took over
Speaker 1: my stories the other day. Xander, I was hoping that
Speaker 1: you would actually do like a video of yourself on there.
Speaker 3: I was going to but then like I didn't want
Speaker 3: to steal your thunder.
Speaker 2: You have my permission, You.
Speaker 1: Have my permission as a female to a male. You
Speaker 1: have my permission to get on my stories every now
Speaker 1: and then if you want.
Speaker 3: And I received that no, thank you.
Speaker 2: Anyway, that's all for this week's episode.
Speaker 1: I'll be back later this week with the main and
Speaker 1: in the meantime, make sure to chase after your dreams
Speaker 1: as if they owe you money.