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Speaker 1: Hello, I have a topic I'd love to hear Britt discuss.

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Speaker 1: I'm reading out a DM by the way, so as

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Speaker 1: the business grows, there's less and less time as the

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Speaker 1: owner to be in the day to day, which brit

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Speaker 1: has discussed.

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Speaker 2: What I'd like to ask is, what about the culture

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Speaker 2: of the day to day business?

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Speaker 1: As you're not on the floor or there every day,

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Speaker 1: you're taking what your managers tell you about what the

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Speaker 1: culture is like, how happy people truly are in their roles.

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Speaker 2: But what if they're lying?

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Speaker 1: How do you trust that they're telling you the truth

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Speaker 1: and not just blowing smoke. This is a really good question,

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Speaker 1: and I interviewed someone on the pod recently, which that

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Speaker 1: episode isn't out yet, so I don't want to give

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Speaker 1: away too much, but they asked me the same question.

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Speaker 1: Given the fact that we have stores all around the

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Speaker 1: country and the guests that I had on which will

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Speaker 1: be coming out soon, it really made me think because

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Speaker 1: no one's ever asked me that before, Like, you know,

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Speaker 1: we're focusing Sorry myth throat has made the weirdest noise,

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Speaker 1: We're focusing on culture at all times. But I've never

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Speaker 1: really had someone on the outside say, how do you

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Speaker 1: manage to keep everything going well and everyone happy when

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Speaker 1: you can't be there all the time. And I feel

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Speaker 1: like you've kind of already answered your own question within

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Speaker 1: your question, but it comes down to trust. And then

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Speaker 1: you said, but how do you trust the managers to

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Speaker 1: tell you how happy everyone is?

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Speaker 2: And what if they're just lying?

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Speaker 1: This is one of the trickiest parts of business, and

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Speaker 1: especially as your business starts to grow and you have

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Speaker 1: to let more and more people into your business, which

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Speaker 1: I feel like is the first stepping stone. If you

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Speaker 1: start a business yourself and you're the one being hands

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Speaker 1: on with absolutely everything, it's really hard to bring people

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Speaker 1: in and trust them. Like, just think of us as

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Speaker 1: humans and individuals day to day, it's hard to trust people,

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Speaker 1: you know in real life settings. You know, like we

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Speaker 1: all have our guards up and we've probably been hurt

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Speaker 1: by people in our lives, and we all have a

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Speaker 1: certain degree of issue when it comes to trusting people.

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Speaker 2: And then when you just take that.

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Speaker 1: Way, we generally feel about people like we don't really

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Speaker 1: trust people one hundred percent, especially when we're first meeting them.

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Speaker 2: But then when.

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Speaker 1: You're you know, opening up and building a business and

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Speaker 1: you need to bring people in that's like a whole

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Speaker 1: different category of trust because they're in your business, you know,

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Speaker 1: and you're very proud of your own business, especially if

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Speaker 1: you've built it to a certain stage all by yourself.

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Speaker 2: And it's really.

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Speaker 1: Difficult to open up in the first place and trust

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Speaker 1: people to just show up and do their job day

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Speaker 1: to day, even if they're working directly with you, you know,

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Speaker 1: and you've hired like your first all rounder. So it's

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Speaker 1: really difficult to trust people. I think in business it's

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Speaker 1: like you have to trust everyone one hundred percent, but

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Speaker 1: at the same time, you have to know that you

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Speaker 1: can't ever trust anyone. And I think I've said that

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Speaker 1: on the pod, Like it's like you equally have to

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Speaker 1: like be so mindful of the fact that anyone can

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Speaker 1: turn on you at any point, or anyone can do

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Speaker 1: something that you would never expect, Like, you know, you've

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Speaker 1: got to have your boundaries there and be aware of

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Speaker 1: the fact that you know, people can change or people

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Speaker 1: can reveal their true colors, even if they're years into

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Speaker 1: working with you. But at the same time, to be

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Speaker 1: in business and to grow a business and to move

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Speaker 1: out of the way and allow it to grow even bigger,

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Speaker 1: you have to trust people with one hundred percent of

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Speaker 1: everything that you've got. It's like balancing those two together

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Speaker 1: is what owning a business really is. But as for me,

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Speaker 1: how do we keep the culture at Fate, especially when

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Speaker 1: I'm not there every day? This is something that I've

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Speaker 1: been thinking about a lot lately, and I guess when

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Speaker 1: I think about it, I've been thinking this for the

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Speaker 1: longest time, Like even thinking back to when we just

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Speaker 1: had one Fate store and you know, for the first

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Speaker 1: year or whatever that it was open, I was in

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Speaker 1: there working every weekend because I was like, oh, I

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Speaker 1: can't not be there, you know, like I've got to

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Speaker 1: make sure everything's running smoothly. And I remember when I

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Speaker 1: started to step away from working weekends in our Newcastle store,

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Speaker 1: like I felt that sense of not trusting people, but

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Speaker 1: just that worry of you know, are they doing everything, oh,

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Speaker 1: you know, correctly, and are they greeting all the customers

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Speaker 1: and yeah, they're working together, and what are they saying.

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Speaker 2: When I'm not there? Kind of thing?

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Speaker 1: Like you have all these feelings as a business owner,

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Speaker 1: but when it comes to me and Fate, it really

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Speaker 1: is just putting trust into our leadership team as much

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Speaker 1: as I would love to be there every day like

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Speaker 1: I wish I could be, or not even every day,

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Speaker 1: like I wish I could be there one day a week,

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Speaker 1: you know, I wish I could pop into our Hawthorne

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Speaker 1: store and churm Side and all our Sydney stores and

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Speaker 1: make sure the warehouse is all good and checking with

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Speaker 1: all of our retail team. Like it gets to a

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Speaker 1: point in business where like you can't physically obviously do that,

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Speaker 1: and I could, sure I could go visit all of

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Speaker 1: our stores every week. I could just be going on

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Speaker 1: a constant loop around Melbourne and Brisbane and Sydney and Newcastle.

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Speaker 1: But if I was to do that, Number one, I'd

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Speaker 1: come across as a bit of a control freak, which

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Speaker 1: my employees would not like. And two, the business then

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Speaker 1: couldn't grow. You know, I got to a point in fate,

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Speaker 1: and I think I'm still learning that I have to

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Speaker 1: let go and trust the people that I've put into

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Speaker 1: the positions that are there to you know, do their

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Speaker 1: job and hopefully you know, keep the culture strong based

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Speaker 1: on like what they've learned from me and AJ.

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Speaker 2: But also the culture that we've all built together.

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Speaker 1: Because yeah, I was the one that started Fate obviously,

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Speaker 1: but it's our leadership team that has built Fate into

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Speaker 1: what it is today, and that includes our culture massively.

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Speaker 2: So there's nothing that I do day to.

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Speaker 1: Day where I'm checking in to make sure that everyone

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Speaker 1: in our paramatter store is doing amazingly. But I will

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Speaker 1: trust that our head of people and culture will be

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Speaker 1: working closely with our national retail manager, and then our

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Speaker 1: national retail manager will be constantly checking in with our

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Speaker 1: store managers, and then our store managers will be working

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Speaker 1: with their assistant store managers to then push that culture

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Speaker 1: into the wider team of let's say, Fate Paramatter. So

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Speaker 1: it's really just like a big trickle effect. I don't

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Speaker 1: want to say like from the top to the bottom

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Speaker 1: because that makes it sound like a scary hierarchy, but

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Speaker 1: you know, I hope that what I can instill within

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Speaker 1: my leadership team and what our people and culture, you know,

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Speaker 1: drives into our leadership team then has a trickle effect

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Speaker 1: down into the stores. I definitely do think it is

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Speaker 1: really difficult for everything to be perfect when you are

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Speaker 1: working through a chain like that, and I think it's

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Speaker 1: even more difficult for like larger corporations like I think

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Speaker 1: with Fate, Like we're still all quite connected despite the

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Speaker 1: fact that we do have a bit of chain of

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Speaker 1: communication now, but you know, like bigger retailers or whatever,

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Speaker 1: where people working at a paramount of store, like I

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Speaker 1: probably never met the CEO or whatever. I do think

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Speaker 1: one of the advantages of me being still very hands

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Speaker 1: on with Fate is a mega advantage. We also have

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Speaker 1: an advantage in that when we do pick up that

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Speaker 1: something is maybe going wrong or there is a shift

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Speaker 1: in culture, or when we've done a call in to

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Speaker 1: one of our stores, which we do, like we don't

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Speaker 1: do them often because our stores absolutely kill it now.

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Speaker 1: Our store managers do the most amazing job with their teams.

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Speaker 2: But you know, because.

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Speaker 1: We're also closely working together, there have been times where

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Speaker 1: we've been able to pick up on a shift in

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Speaker 1: culture in a store, let's say, and then we can

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Speaker 1: go down and we can figure it out together. So

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Speaker 1: I think that's one of the that's one of the

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Speaker 1: benefits of like, yes we're a big business, but so

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Speaker 1: it's still quite small in terms of how involved I am.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, at the end of the day, it all

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Speaker 1: comes down to trust, Like you have to trust your team.

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Speaker 1: One hundred and ten percent, but also be very mindful that,

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Speaker 1: of course things can change at any given moment. But

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Speaker 1: as a business owner and a boss and a manager,

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Speaker 1: trust is everything. I think having a clear line of communication,

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Speaker 1: check ins one on one's whatever it is that your

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Speaker 1: team needs, making yourself known that we are always there,

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Speaker 1: I think that's really important. And like, especially for our

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Speaker 1: wider part of fate, like within all of our stores

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Speaker 1: that are nowhere near us, them knowing you know who

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Speaker 1: their head office point of contacts are is really important.

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Speaker 1: And yeah, showing up and showing our faces at our

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Speaker 1: stores and not ever not seeing them kind of thing.

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Speaker 1: But at the same time, I think the fact that

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Speaker 1: we don't have to be going to our stores every

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Speaker 1: single week or every fortnight or whatever also would hopefully

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Speaker 1: show our retail teams how much we do trust them

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Speaker 1: in their roles and what if.

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Speaker 2: They're lying you've asked.

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Speaker 1: I mean again, I think you just have to trust

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Speaker 1: that people are going to be giving you the right

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Speaker 1: kind of information. I think it also comes down to

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Speaker 1: being smart as well and knowing your business. Like I

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Speaker 1: think we're pretty good now after all these years of

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Speaker 1: experience that if someone was to be telling us something

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Speaker 1: is all good, like we'd maybe be able to sense

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Speaker 1: that it's off anyway. And when you have so much experience,

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Speaker 1: you can pick up on things. And at the end

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Speaker 1: of the day, I guess like we're not silly or stupid,

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Speaker 1: like we can see things for how they are. I

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Speaker 1: think if you've got a strong line of communication between

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Speaker 1: all the different areas of your business, and there's constant

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Speaker 1: check ins and everyone catching up with one another and

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Speaker 1: making it known to you know, the wider team like

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Speaker 1: reach out if you've ever got any issues kind of thing,

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Speaker 1: and even our store managers working so closely with their teams,

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Speaker 1: there's really not that much.

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Speaker 2: Room for error.

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Speaker 1: I mean, of course, things will always go wrong every

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Speaker 1: now and then in business. That's just what business is.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, to answer your question, I don't know if

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Speaker 1: I've even answered it that well, but it really does

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Speaker 1: all come down to trust.

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Speaker 2: At the end of the day.

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Speaker 1: You just have to trust and get out the way,

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Speaker 1: make sure you're doing everything that you can as the

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Speaker 1: founder and not being completely absent, but also leaving it

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Speaker 1: up to those people that you've put in those positions

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Speaker 1: to keep that culture strong. There's so much more that

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Speaker 1: we could be doing as a company, and that all

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Speaker 1: companies could be doing to keep the wider team connected.

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Speaker 2: And I always think, like, oh, I.

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Speaker 1: Wish I could, like, you know, fly everyone that works

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Speaker 1: at Fate, like into Newcastle and we do something together,

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Speaker 1: because wouldn't that be amazing to like bring the whole

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Speaker 1: company together. But then, like you start to think, I

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Speaker 1: don't think we can do that because that would be

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Speaker 1: very expensive, and then we can't close down our Westfield stores,

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Speaker 1: you know for the day or whatever. But yeah, there's

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Speaker 1: definitely more that we could always be doing, and we're

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Speaker 1: always working on things in the back end at Fate

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Speaker 1: to set ourselves up, I guess for the future to

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Speaker 1: become better and stronger and have that better culture. But

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Speaker 1: you know, all good things take time. So that's my

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Speaker 1: answer to your question, and.

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Speaker 2: I hope that answers it.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, all it really comes down to is trust

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Speaker 1: and just always being in the know of what's going

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Speaker 1: on as much as you can as a business owner

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Speaker 1: without I guess, micromanaging or feeling like your teams are

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Speaker 1: getting annoyed by you just wanting to always know everything

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Speaker 1: that's going on. But yeah, it's trust and especially in

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Speaker 1: the leadership team, I would say, but a very interesting

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Speaker 1: question at that. Thanks for sending it in, and I'll

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Speaker 1: be back next week with a main episode.