Speaker 1: You're listening to Amma mea podcast.
Speaker 2: Hello, and welcome to biz Inbox.
Speaker 3: I'm m Vernon and I'm Michelle Battersbee.
Speaker 2: And these episodes are kind of like ask us anythings.
Speaker 2: It's your chance to get free career advice from mission.
Speaker 2: So if you can learn how to navigate those tricky colleagues,
Speaker 2: and you can also just get information from a gun
Speaker 2: entrepreneur like Mish about your business or you know what,
Speaker 2: sometimes you can even just let loose and bitch about
Speaker 2: your boss. We know that those are the questions that
Speaker 2: we definitely want to be hearing from you. And the
Speaker 2: best part is you can do this while being completely anonymous.
Speaker 2: We will not say your name if you don't want us.
Speaker 3: To love it. M.
Speaker 4: This week, we have a question that small business owners
Speaker 4: always ask. Plus we're getting into the etiquette of work trips.
Speaker 4: I've got a juicy story on this and advocating for
Speaker 4: some of the hardest working people in every company, the
Speaker 4: wonderful eas.
Speaker 2: So I want to start with the EA question because
Speaker 2: it's really interesting to me. And we got this from
Speaker 2: Ali in Inbox and she says, Hey, ladies, love love
Speaker 2: the pod. I'm an EA for a large financial firm,
Speaker 2: and I'd love to hear how I can make some
Speaker 2: of the execs I work with see the value of
Speaker 2: my role. My boss is fantastic and allows me to
Speaker 2: work on or lead bigger projects, which I have done successfully,
Speaker 2: but everyone seems to see these as my boss's success
Speaker 2: and not my own. Other bosses see me as just
Speaker 2: a note taker and meeting scheduler. How do I show
Speaker 2: people that my role is crucial to the success of
Speaker 2: my exec and the business when they don't see all
Speaker 2: the work I do behind the scenes. Mish, Have you
Speaker 2: ever been in that like EA position or have you
Speaker 2: had an EA?
Speaker 4: I've never had an EA, but my very first like
Speaker 4: proper job was when I worked in a big investment
Speaker 4: bank as an HR generalist and I started as an
Speaker 4: intern actually, and I remember when I was doing my internship,
Speaker 4: the person who was kind of like my buddy or
Speaker 4: like responsible for me and.
Speaker 3: Looked after me.
Speaker 4: I remember her taking me onto the trading floor one
Speaker 4: day and she was like, I'm going to introduce you
Speaker 4: to the most important person on this floor. And I'm thinking, like, okay,
Speaker 4: you know, it's probably the head of the department or something.
Speaker 4: And it was the EA of the head of the department,
Speaker 4: and she taught me such a valuable lesson. She basically said, like,
Speaker 4: don't fuck with the EAS because they're really the most
Speaker 4: powerful people in this building because they kind of control
Speaker 4: the access to those like critical stakeholders who are making decisions,
Speaker 4: and if they like you, they'll prioritize you and help
Speaker 4: you like get in front of these sorts of people
Speaker 4: and like actually advocate for you as well.
Speaker 3: And if they don't like.
Speaker 4: You, you know, that could actually like slow you down
Speaker 4: a little bit.
Speaker 3: I found this question interesting.
Speaker 4: I think my tips here are tips that anyone is
Speaker 4: really able to apply in any kind of role, though,
Speaker 4: because this is ultimately about exposure. I think what's unique
Speaker 4: about the role of the EA is that sometimes, yeah,
Speaker 4: it may feel like their work is behind someone else.
Speaker 4: And so I thought it was interesting with this question,
Speaker 4: how it sounds like she's got a really good relationship
Speaker 4: with the person that she works for. I would kind
Speaker 4: of start by actually sharing this with them, because it
Speaker 4: really is also their job to advocate for their EA
Speaker 4: and to make sure that their value is seen and
Speaker 4: that it doesn't feel like they are taking praise for
Speaker 4: all of their work behind the scenes. Starting there is
Speaker 4: probably a good option even if you're in those meetings,
Speaker 4: like you're in very important rooms involved in really big conversations,
Speaker 4: and I think that's also an opportunity to make your
Speaker 4: knowledge and your expertise known and seen as well, Like
Speaker 4: wherever it's appropriate for you to kind of make a
Speaker 4: comment or ask a question, I think that's a great
Speaker 4: way to show that you know your shit and you're
Speaker 4: on your game. I also think looking at ways to
Speaker 4: cross collaborate is a really good way to gain exposure
Speaker 4: and to show what you're doing to other sorts of people.
Speaker 4: So working with other eas where you can and kind
Speaker 4: of advocating for one another. Another idea is content Like
Speaker 4: it also kind of depends what sort of exposure and
Speaker 4: recognition is she looking for, you know, like is it internal,
Speaker 4: is it external? Is she trying to better her career?
Speaker 4: Is she trying to go for a promotion? So I
Speaker 4: think what she tackles first could also be based on,
Speaker 4: you know, what she's really trying to achieve here. If
Speaker 4: there's any way for her to showcase her work internally
Speaker 4: with any kind of communication tools that you're using, or
Speaker 4: notice boards, or even if it's just linked in, like
Speaker 4: talking about what you're proud of as a way to
Speaker 4: show your work another thing that came to mind. I've
Speaker 4: got many thoughts, it seems. It made me think of
Speaker 4: an episode that we did with SOF where soph was
Speaker 4: talking about the way that you can show your value
Speaker 4: in your performance reviews and in this question she mentioned
Speaker 4: people see me as like a scheduler I think, or
Speaker 4: whatever the word she used was, And it's about showing
Speaker 4: the value and showing how hard it.
Speaker 3: Was for you to even just coordinate something.
Speaker 4: So if you're doing a wrap up of your work,
Speaker 4: it's not just like scheduled X meeting, it's coordinated really
Speaker 4: difficult calendars across four major stakeholders. Managed to get this
Speaker 4: in the diary, which achieved X, you know, and really
Speaker 4: digging a little bit deeper into what it is you've
Speaker 4: actually pulled off to highlight that it's a skill that's
Speaker 4: so good.
Speaker 2: And I think you're right, like those tips can be
Speaker 2: applied for any job, like not necessarily eas but I
Speaker 2: know that every EA I know has gone on to
Speaker 2: be so successful and land their dream job, and I
Speaker 2: feel like that conversation should be really easy for Allie
Speaker 2: to have with a boss. Because she's already been giving
Speaker 2: those big, trustworthy projects for her to work on, and
Speaker 2: I feel like she's in a really good position.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and it sounds like she has a good relationship
Speaker 4: with her boss who really values her. They might just
Speaker 4: not even be realizing that she feels like she's not
Speaker 4: getting that exposure, and it could be a really easy
Speaker 4: conversation to have, to be honest.
Speaker 2: The next question is about overseas work trips.
Speaker 1: Miss.
Speaker 2: I know you have a really good story, so Larissa
Speaker 2: actually gave us a brilliant review on Spotify. Thank you
Speaker 2: so much, Larissa, And she commented, is it appropriate to
Speaker 2: bring your partner to overseas work trips if they are
Speaker 2: booking their own flights but staying in the hotel paid
Speaker 2: for by the company, then extending the work trip to
Speaker 2: a personal trip and paying your way home. This question
Speaker 2: is so interesting to me because my mum, whenever she
Speaker 2: went overseas for work, she'd always bring either me, my sister,
Speaker 2: or my dad, like, no questions asked, But whenever I
Speaker 2: go on a work trip, my parents ask, oh, do
Speaker 2: you think one of us can tag along?
Speaker 4: I'm like no, I was gonna ask, like, what is
Speaker 4: your take on this, like, do you think it's play
Speaker 4: on to do that?
Speaker 2: I think it depends on what kind of work trip
Speaker 2: it is, because the ones that I would go on
Speaker 2: at Mum and mea would be like a packed itinerary.
Speaker 2: And it also depends on the person you want to bring,
Speaker 2: because I feel like if I were to bring my mom,
Speaker 2: she'd be like, yeah, cool, I'll just stay in the
Speaker 2: hotel room. I'll do my own thing like you do
Speaker 2: your thing, whereas my dad would expect to be entertained.
Speaker 2: And I think it's like depending on the person you bring,
Speaker 2: whether they think it's like they need to treat it
Speaker 2: like a solo holiday.
Speaker 4: I think one hundred percent I completely agree with you,
Speaker 4: And honestly.
Speaker 3: That's the answer.
Speaker 4: Like in this situation, to me, like the example that
Speaker 4: Larissa sent through, it sounds totally fine to me, Like
Speaker 4: it sounds like you're not taking advantage of your employer
Speaker 4: in a new way. I love seeing people make the
Speaker 4: most of their company travel and like, one hundred percent,
Speaker 4: go and do something personal after you've completed the work.
Speaker 4: I think where it can get a bit tricky is
Speaker 4: around the context of the trip.
Speaker 3: So we did a.
Speaker 4: Company retreat at Sunroom and it was a three day retreat.
Speaker 4: It was just in Palm Springs, where based in LA
Speaker 4: so it's, you know, a couple of hours drive away.
Speaker 4: We booked a house where our whole team we're going
Speaker 4: to be staying in the house. It was three days
Speaker 4: packed itinery. The goal of doing this retreat was to
Speaker 4: launch our product at.
Speaker 3: The end of it.
Speaker 4: So it was like high stakes, intense work, but also
Speaker 4: really good bonding experience. And an employee asked to break
Speaker 4: her boyfriend and that is not really an appropriate situation
Speaker 4: to bring like a personal friend or family member into
Speaker 4: when the company are all staying under one roof jam
Speaker 4: packed every hour of the day is kind of full.
Speaker 4: It's not like you're leaving the country or having to
Speaker 4: go too far from work. And there's also like not
Speaker 4: really that much to do there, so it kind of
Speaker 4: just feels like the person would maybe just be hanging
Speaker 4: around and like involved in this one external party that
Speaker 4: would have created a bit of an awkward environment for
Speaker 4: everyone else.
Speaker 2: And just eating your snacks inside a class of your
Speaker 2: company and.
Speaker 4: Like the only person sitting at the dinner table at
Speaker 4: the end of these quite intense days. So I think
Speaker 4: you need to apply some thought around like if this
Speaker 4: contextually feels like the right time to bring someone in
Speaker 4: and we'll be able to go off and explore by themselves,
Speaker 4: or will they be crossing paths with everyone else in
Speaker 4: the team and like kind of off to the side
Speaker 4: in this team bonding environment.
Speaker 3: That does change the dynamic.
Speaker 2: That's a good one. I think it's if they're going
Speaker 2: to be bumping into your colleagues, it's a.
Speaker 3: No, yeah, yep.
Speaker 4: And I also think it's like, if you're going overseas,
Speaker 4: then you're definitely taking a bit of a bigger sacrifice,
Speaker 4: like spending time away from your family, and maybe you're
Speaker 4: not that comfortable heading overseas by yourself, or being in
Speaker 4: a different country, different culture. Maybe that scares you a
Speaker 4: little bit, Maybe that gives you anxiety. So I can
Speaker 4: kind of understand like maybe wanting to travel with someone else,
Speaker 4: But I think, yeah, when it's like local and quite intimate,
Speaker 4: then like that also changes things a bit.
Speaker 2: So coming up after the break, we have so many
Speaker 2: questions about listeners wanting to start their own businesses. Don't
Speaker 2: know how, but I'm really excited to learn. And Belle
Speaker 2: has a really interesting question about exactly how to get
Speaker 2: that all started. We will find out after the break.
Speaker 2: So mis Bell emailed us and if you want to
Speaker 2: email us a question for biz Inbox, you can find
Speaker 2: out exactly how in our show notes. And she said
Speaker 2: that she started a small business making baby products and asked,
Speaker 2: how soon can I announce that I have a small business.
Speaker 2: I feel like I should wait until I have some success,
Speaker 2: but I'm dying to spill the beans. I think about
Speaker 2: this question a lot, like I've never started my own business,
Speaker 2: so I don't know why I think about it a lot,
Speaker 2: but I always think about how there's been so many
Speaker 2: times where I wanted to start something or try to
Speaker 2: start something, and I feel a bit like Megie Markle,
Speaker 2: where I just like announcement after announcement and no.
Speaker 3: Delivery, no delivery.
Speaker 1: Oh like there's no jam.
Speaker 2: Okay, it's just announcing, announcing, announcing, and then maybe five
Speaker 2: years later there'll be a jam.
Speaker 3: I'm actually so gutted it preserves, by the way.
Speaker 5: MS Sugar, the Preserves sold out in I think it
Speaker 5: was an hour because we could do a whole episode
Speaker 5: on Mean Meghan Sussex.
Speaker 3: Also, by the way, but I am.
Speaker 2: I actually want you and soph to do a full
Speaker 2: business analysis on what's their website. The Archibalds like that
Speaker 2: whole website, like every little side project from both them.
Speaker 4: Well, I do know what you mean, because influencers in
Speaker 4: particular like also get paid out when they're like coming soon.
Speaker 3: Can't share too much more.
Speaker 4: I've been working on something exciting and everyone's like, oh,
Speaker 4: come on, like.
Speaker 3: Just tell us what it is.
Speaker 4: I do think it's something that you shouldn't just like
Speaker 4: flippantly announce, like some thought should definitely go into it.
Speaker 4: But I think you also need to ask yourself, like,
Speaker 4: where is the fear if I'm feel scared to share?
Speaker 4: Why am I feeling scared? And I think if you're
Speaker 4: scared because you don't think it's good enough or you
Speaker 4: don't think it's successful enough yet, that is not a
Speaker 4: good enough reason to not announce it. So I think
Speaker 4: like trying to dig into what is holding you back
Speaker 4: or maybe like what's also potentially making you want to
Speaker 4: jump the gun. But in all honesty, I don't think
Speaker 4: there is much to lose at all in just putting.
Speaker 3: It out there.
Speaker 4: In my experience, there's really only things to gain. I
Speaker 4: think what you need to be sure of before you share,
Speaker 4: is that this is one hundred percent something that you
Speaker 4: are pursuing, Like you're not just going to say you're
Speaker 4: doing something and in a month it's off the to
Speaker 4: the cliff, like it's done, you know, and then maybe
Speaker 4: you'll go again, and like you might lose a bit
Speaker 4: of credibility, people might not take you too seriously. So
Speaker 4: I think you need to make sure it's definitely something
Speaker 4: that you're passionate about your solving a problem and you
Speaker 4: are going to start to build a solution to that problem.
Speaker 3: So I think you can do.
Speaker 4: Some validating in private, like checking that you're you know,
Speaker 4: you think you're onto something here the problem exists. I
Speaker 4: think we've done like a whole episode on this already,
Speaker 4: or like I've written a newsletter about ways you can
Speaker 4: validate your idea. I think you just want to check
Speaker 4: you're onto something and you're going to pursue it, and
Speaker 4: then I honestly think start talking about it because you
Speaker 4: really want to get feedback from people fast and hard,
Speaker 4: you know, like you want to hear from people outside
Speaker 4: of your circle, like if they are into this, if
Speaker 4: they've got feedback on your product, like you might be
Speaker 4: able to seek investment by just sharing your story, Like
Speaker 4: there's that saying, you know, build in public and it
Speaker 4: really helps. Like before Sunroom was a thing, we'd spent
Speaker 4: maybe two months validating the idea privately amongst our network
Speaker 4: and then asking our network to introduce us to other people,
Speaker 4: been running surveys, we'd been designing our product, and we
Speaker 4: felt like we had something that was maybe good enough
Speaker 4: to show investors and ask them to give us money
Speaker 4: for it. And so I went out of my Instagram
Speaker 4: stories announced Hey, I'm starting this company called Sunroom. It's
Speaker 4: a create a monetization platform. I'm back in Sydney at
Speaker 4: the moment because I'm speaking to investors, and off the
Speaker 4: back of those stories, I had people reply saying can
Speaker 4: I meet and chat with you about this? Like sounds interesting?
Speaker 4: Had funds reached out to me saying would love to
Speaker 4: get you in for a meeting.
Speaker 3: So like, if I hadn't.
Speaker 4: Just bitten the bullet and done that, I wouldn't have
Speaker 4: been able to raise the money to be honest and
Speaker 4: get a lot of introductions. And I definitely felt scared
Speaker 4: doing that because I thought, oh my god, like what
Speaker 4: if this product fails, Like we haven't even built it
Speaker 4: yet like it could be a complete flop, but any
Speaker 4: business can be a complete flop at any moment in
Speaker 4: the journey. So I kind of don't feel like you
Speaker 4: have that much to lose, to be honest in just
Speaker 4: like bringing people along for the ride, because it brings
Speaker 4: people into your story as well, and you can gain
Speaker 4: allies and you can gain your first users because people
Speaker 4: like like to watch the journey.
Speaker 2: That's so interesting. And also I have a bit of
Speaker 2: a follow up question because you have like your personal
Speaker 2: profile is a public profile, and then I wanted to know, like,
Speaker 2: how did you navigate kind of announcing Sunroom on your
Speaker 2: socials after the actual product or was it kind of
Speaker 2: alongside like as you were going building the product, were
Speaker 2: you we announcing it and then did you launch the
Speaker 2: Sunroom Instagram and the newsletter alongside that or was there
Speaker 2: a particular like step by step in your mind as
Speaker 2: you did these things.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so that's a good question.
Speaker 4: From the moment I went out on my socials and
Speaker 4: shared I was founding this new company, I made sure
Speaker 4: that we'd set up an Instagram account and I linked
Speaker 4: it in those stories because I thought, you know, if
Speaker 4: anyone's like liking the sound of this, I may as
Speaker 4: well capitalize on it right now and get them to
Speaker 4: go and follow the account.
Speaker 3: And that actually.
Speaker 4: Worked so well because I was able to push quite
Speaker 4: a lot of people over to that account before we
Speaker 4: even had anything to show for ourselves, and so it
Speaker 4: made us look like a bit more of a legit brand.
Speaker 4: I guess you're about to hear like where the risks
Speaker 4: can come in and this is potentially unique. But it
Speaker 4: then ended up taking us a whole year to actually
Speaker 4: build Sunroom. So we like closed our first round maybe
Speaker 4: in like January twenty twenty one, and we didn't launch
Speaker 4: Sunroom as a platform until February twenty twenty two because
Speaker 4: there ended up being a lot of technology in our
Speaker 4: app that was first time, Like we've got some patents
Speaker 4: and things were being done for the first time, and
Speaker 4: it was actually really hard, and that was honestly probably
Speaker 4: like the most hard on my co founder and I
Speaker 4: like we personally kind of felt like failures for a
Speaker 4: whole year because we couldn't get this product out of
Speaker 4: the gate and it was just taking so long. And
Speaker 4: a part of how we raised money was I went
Speaker 4: out and recruited one hundred founding creators. You know, we
Speaker 4: could show investors We've got these like huge names who
Speaker 4: were down to use our product, and then I basically
Speaker 4: had to keep them warm for a whole year, Yeah,
Speaker 4: and like give them kind of updates on where things
Speaker 4: were at.
Speaker 3: And that at times is kind of.
Speaker 4: What made me feel like a bit of a failure
Speaker 4: and made me feel like maybe people were like losing
Speaker 4: trust and losing faith in me. But at the end
Speaker 4: of the day, like we didn't really end up losing
Speaker 4: that many people because of our delays. It was just
Speaker 4: like a big learning for me, I think and Lucy,
Speaker 4: my co founder, Like we just underestimated the complexity of
Speaker 4: our product. And I also mentioned this in another episode.
Speaker 4: We could have launched with like half the features we
Speaker 4: launched with. We were just too perfectionisty. It's first time
Speaker 4: found our mistakes like everything that we did. But again,
Speaker 4: I would never have changed telling people that I was
Speaker 4: launching this product because like it helped us make money,
Speaker 4: it helped us recruit all those creators, Like it actually
Speaker 4: all played out like how it kind of needed to be,
Speaker 4: and we got there in the end. It's just like
Speaker 4: launching any business is hard and so many things blow
Speaker 4: up in your face that you just can't possibly predict.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's so interesting that you say that, because I
Speaker 2: feel like, because you were in it, you felt it more.
Speaker 2: But it did not feel like a whole year. Like
Speaker 2: when you said it was a whole year. That like
Speaker 2: surprised me because it didn't feel like that at all.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and like we were still making progress.
Speaker 4: So like what I was sharing on my socials was
Speaker 4: just about the progress that we were making. Like, you
Speaker 4: create the narrative yourself, Like you choose what you're going
Speaker 4: to show to people. So what I would choose to
Speaker 4: show was putting a bow on the little winds that
Speaker 4: we were having. But like internally, like it was a
Speaker 4: fucking battle, but like you have to develop resilience and
Speaker 4: grit as a founder, and like that was kind of
Speaker 4: the first taste of it for us. Thanks so much
Speaker 4: for helping us clear the biz inbox. If you've got
Speaker 4: a work question, send it our way. You'll find a
Speaker 4: link to subbit your questions in the.
Speaker 5: Show notes and Mish.
Speaker 2: You and So did an amazing episode that dropped on
Speaker 2: Tuesday about how to email like a man as a
Speaker 2: chronic people pleaser. That one was really hard to listen to,
Speaker 2: but I've been trying my best. You'll be happy to
Speaker 2: know we will be back in the biz in box
Speaker 2: next week.
Speaker 1: Bye bye, Mamma.
Speaker 2: Maya acknowledges the traditional owners of land and waters that
Speaker 2: this podcast is recorded on