Speaker 1: Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud Yr
Speaker 1: the Order Kerni Whoalbury and a waddery woman. And before
Speaker 1: we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I
Speaker 1: would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land
Speaker 1: of which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country,
Speaker 1: acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming
Speaker 1: through as this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing
Speaker 1: and the storytelling of you to make a difference for
Speaker 1: today and lasting impact for tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Let's get into it.
Speaker 3: She's on the Money, She's on the Money.
Speaker 2: Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money podcast, where
Speaker 2: we share the secrets to starting, growing and thriving in
Speaker 2: your own business. I am your host to Victoria Devine,
Speaker 2: and today we've got something extra special for you. It's
Speaker 2: one you've asked for again and again, and honestly we
Speaker 2: could not be more excited to share it with you.
Speaker 2: It's time for another episode of the Business Bible. But
Speaker 2: today we're going to be doing something a little bit differently.
Speaker 2: We are going to be doing our very first business diary.
Speaker 2: So not only are we diving into the biggest questions
Speaker 2: about building your dream business. But we've also brought in
Speaker 2: someone who really knows their stuff and trust me, you're
Speaker 2: going to want to stick around for this one. Today's
Speaker 2: guest is a total powerhouse. She's someone who started her
Speaker 2: journey as a YouTuber and creator, turned it into a
Speaker 2: thriving empire, and has become a trailblazer in the fashion industry,
Speaker 2: all while staying unapologetically herself. She's proof that with grich,
Speaker 2: creativity and a little bit of chaos, you can take
Speaker 2: an idea and turn it into something extraordinary. She's the
Speaker 2: founder of a brand that doesn't just sell clothes, it
Speaker 2: redefines what inclusivity in fashion looks like. Her journey includes
Speaker 2: expanding her size range to make sure everyone feels represented,
Speaker 2: opening a flagship store on the Gold Coast, and becoming
Speaker 2: one of Australia's most relatable business icons. And somehow she's
Speaker 2: found the time to host a kill, a podcast that
Speaker 2: deep dives into the realities of running a business herself.
Speaker 2: That's right. Today we are joined by the incredible Britney Saunders. Britney,
Speaker 2: welcome to the show again. I suppose yeah.
Speaker 3: I'm so glad to be back, and I'm going to
Speaker 3: be chatting with you this time, which makes it even
Speaker 3: more exciting.
Speaker 2: So thank you for having me back. I'm so excited.
Speaker 2: Thank you for doing my Matt leeve cover, by the way,
Speaker 2: that was really kind with you, no worries. You know,
Speaker 2: business owners don't usually get Matt leeves, and I was like,
Speaker 2: I'm just going to have to pull a few friends
Speaker 2: in here and make this work. And you really came
Speaker 2: through clutch, so I do appreciate it. It was my pleasure.
Speaker 2: I'm also super excited to do our very business story,
Speaker 2: which is something our community have been asking and asking
Speaker 2: for because we do our money diarries, which are like,
Speaker 2: I guess the pervy details on somebody's money life, but
Speaker 2: we've never done business ones. And I'm just so excited
Speaker 2: that you kind of get to rip the band it
Speaker 2: off and be the first one. So let's see how
Speaker 2: we go and start as we're going to always start
Speaker 2: business stories with Brittany, can you tell me a little
Speaker 2: bit more about your business journey.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well it's a long story which you kind of
Speaker 3: touched on in the intro. But back in the day,
Speaker 3: I started a YouTube channel before the word influencer was
Speaker 3: even a thing. This is when we just had YouTube,
Speaker 3: and I think Instagram was like barely new, when it
Speaker 3: was just a photo sharing app. And to cut a
Speaker 3: long story short, I made these silly videos for fun
Speaker 3: and then I.
Speaker 2: Just so you know, they weren't silly. I took them
Speaker 2: very seriously. Just so you know, I took them very
Speaker 2: very seriously as an oatly subscriber. Silly. No, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: that was my teenhood, just so you know.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm glad to know I thought they were really
Speaker 3: cool back then, but looking back, they perhaps were a
Speaker 3: little silly. But anyway, to cut a long story short,
Speaker 3: I grew this online platform while I was in high school,
Speaker 3: and then I dropped out of high school. I went
Speaker 3: into full time work and I was just making these
Speaker 3: YouTube videos for fun, and I just so happened to
Speaker 3: organically build an audience.
Speaker 2: From there.
Speaker 3: We then saw the rise of platforms like Instagram and Snapchat.
Speaker 3: So I used that YouTube community to then build onto
Speaker 3: those social platforms and I then became one of the
Speaker 3: first influencers I guess you could say, in Australia. And
Speaker 3: I got to be there for the start of you know,
Speaker 3: all these small businesses popping up on Instagram like this
Speaker 3: was when we saw.
Speaker 2: Instagram brands come to life.
Speaker 3: And these Instagram brands then clued onto the fact that
Speaker 3: they could work with people like me to promote their
Speaker 3: business and grow their social media. So I spent a
Speaker 3: lot of years there in my early twenties working with
Speaker 3: businesses and promoting them in an Instagram photo because this
Speaker 3: was before you know, reels or anything existed.
Speaker 2: With a good filter of course.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, with the stock standard Instagram filters that you'd
Speaker 3: just select as you posted them. And yeah, for many years,
Speaker 3: from the age of twenty one onwards, that was my
Speaker 3: full time job. I had always had an entrepreneurial spirit,
Speaker 3: which I can't even remember if we touched on last
Speaker 3: time I was on the pod, but I had dabbled
Speaker 3: in so many businesses throughout my late teens and early twenties.
Speaker 3: I did mobile makeup, I did mobile spray tans, I
Speaker 3: tried anything and everything, and back then, I honestly didn't
Speaker 3: know that I was attempting to start businesses. It really
Speaker 3: just felt like I was doing little hobbies. So then
Speaker 3: when it comes to starting Fate, which is my business now,
Speaker 3: it really was just you know, another one of those
Speaker 3: things that I was trying, much like my spray tans
Speaker 3: and my mobile makeup and the YouTube videos, I thought,
Speaker 3: let's give this a go. I guess the only major
Speaker 3: difference with doing that was I had had all this
Speaker 3: experience working with other brands, and I had a following,
Speaker 3: and a lot of people have said to me over
Speaker 3: the years, well, you had a leg up in your
Speaker 3: journey because you had all these followers and subscribers on
Speaker 3: YouTube and then you got to launch your business into that.
Speaker 3: And to that I say, I absolutely agree. I had
Speaker 3: a head start by building that following. But it's not
Speaker 3: to say that just because you have followers online you
Speaker 3: know how to run and sustain and grow a business,
Speaker 3: because they're two completely different things.
Speaker 2: I love that people go, oh, you had it easy.
Speaker 2: It's like have you done payroll before, because that stuff
Speaker 2: gets real complicated, real quick. And I, as an ex
Speaker 2: financial advisor, I have seen a lot of influencers come
Speaker 2: to me and go V I think I've really messed
Speaker 2: this up. Help and behind the scenes, it's an absolute mess.
Speaker 2: So I applaud you because also you were kind of
Speaker 2: born into a space where everyone had an opinion and
Speaker 2: as a small business owner. Oh my gosh, that would
Speaker 2: have been so hard in comparison to just starting small
Speaker 2: and growing with your friends and your family, Like you
Speaker 2: just went in hard.
Speaker 3: I did, and I'll be completely honest. You know, people
Speaker 3: always inspired to hear people's business journeys, and you know,
Speaker 3: people say, you know, what was the inspiration behind fate like,
Speaker 3: because they'll look at what it is now and think, wow,
Speaker 3: this must have been some big grand plan that she's had.
Speaker 2: You are so strategic.
Speaker 3: But back then, I wasn't, Like I will admit, I
Speaker 3: went into this not having a clue of what I
Speaker 3: was doing. I didn't say to myself, oh, I'm going
Speaker 3: to grow this to be a massive, multi million dollar company.
Speaker 3: I quite literally just launched this thing with the knowledge
Speaker 3: that I had taught myself. I googled everything. I still
Speaker 3: google everything every single day, let's be honest. But I
Speaker 3: didn't start out with this huge grand plan for this business.
Speaker 3: And I think a lot of owners, especially people that
Speaker 3: are starting in business you know now, they might feel
Speaker 3: that pressure that they.
Speaker 2: Need to have some huge business plan with goals and
Speaker 2: a vision. And whilst I'm.
Speaker 3: All for that, it's also okay if you're just going
Speaker 3: in and getting started, even if you don't really have
Speaker 3: a crack. Yeah, like, because that's exactly what I did,
Speaker 3: and that's what a lot of business owners have done.
Speaker 3: Like they're these tiny ideas that you think, yep, I
Speaker 3: think I'll give this a go and see where it goes.
Speaker 3: And it's just absolutely snowballed over the last seven years
Speaker 3: where it is today. And I never would have thought
Speaker 3: that when I started it. I just simply started.
Speaker 2: I love that, and I feel like just starting is
Speaker 2: the most important thing to do. Tell me, did you
Speaker 2: seven years ago sit down and go, I'm going to
Speaker 2: write up a big business plan? Is that what happened?
Speaker 2: Because I feel like so many of us when we're
Speaker 2: starting a business get caught up in this idea of
Speaker 2: you know, downloading a business plan template and filling it in,
Speaker 2: Like did you do that?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: I did, honestly none of that.
Speaker 3: I think I had like a kmart whiteboard and I
Speaker 3: would write stuff on that physically. But back then, seven
Speaker 3: years ago, I was just going in completely winging it.
Speaker 3: If I was to start another new business to with
Speaker 3: the knowledge that I have now, i'd absolutely you know,
Speaker 3: have a bit of a plan, write everything out, map
Speaker 3: it all out. But back then, you know, I was what,
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 2: How old I was, twenty four or something like that,
Speaker 2: Like I just just the baby I was, and I
Speaker 2: just went in and thought, fuck it, I'm going to
Speaker 2: give it a crack. Yeah, And I think that that
Speaker 2: naivity at the time is what makes up some of
Speaker 2: that secret source. It's like, well, how hard could it be?
Speaker 2: Like other people do it, But now that you're in
Speaker 2: business and you see the cogs in motion and you
Speaker 2: see what's going on, You're like, this is pretty hard.
Speaker 2: Like I think if you knew the reality of what
Speaker 2: seven years later would look like, you'd be like, oh no,
Speaker 2: that's too much. Like I don't think I'm capable, and
Speaker 2: like that's the same as me.
Speaker 3: That's one of the great things about it is you know,
Speaker 3: going in and not knowing what it's going to look like.
Speaker 3: You just learn every single thing as you go. And
Speaker 3: I'm learning even now, seven years in, I'm learning every
Speaker 3: single day. I'm making mistakes and learning for next time.
Speaker 3: Like I think that's the beauty of business, is just
Speaker 3: going in giving it a red hot crack and seeing
Speaker 3: what the universe throws at you.
Speaker 2: So how did you know that Fate could become a
Speaker 2: business instead of just being a fun idea that you're like, oh,
Speaker 2: I you know, you explained before that you felt like
Speaker 2: your business benches before felt like, you know, little hobbies
Speaker 2: on the side. At what point where you're like, oh,
Speaker 2: Fate's not a little hobby on the side, it's like,
Speaker 2: actually a business.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I would say that moment for me.
Speaker 2: So I started Fate.
Speaker 3: I lived in a townhouse rental with my partner, AJ,
Speaker 3: who I'm still with now, so he's been with me
Speaker 3: since the very beginning I started it. We had a
Speaker 3: double garage underneath our townhouse and I said, all right,
Speaker 3: we're moving our cars out and I'm setting this thing
Speaker 3: up in the garage. We're parking on the street.
Speaker 2: He's like, yeah, okay, honey.
Speaker 3: And so it was in the garage that I hired
Speaker 3: my first casual employee. So I guess that moment when
Speaker 3: I hired my first casual employee that felt real because
Speaker 3: because all of a sudden, I had been self employed
Speaker 3: for who knows five years by this point, and all
Speaker 3: of a sudden, I was going to be financially responsible
Speaker 3: for paying someone.
Speaker 2: That's terrifying. Yeah, it is that to me made me
Speaker 2: so anxious, and I don't think people talk about it enough.
Speaker 2: Like I would stay up at like late at night,
Speaker 2: calculating how many months we could not make money and
Speaker 2: I could keep that person employed because it was the
Speaker 2: weight of the world on my shoulders. It's really scary.
Speaker 3: And I remember saying to AJ because it was his
Speaker 3: like mum's friend's daughter, like you know, the family, family friend.
Speaker 3: And I remember saying, like, what if I don't have
Speaker 3: enough money to pay her one week?
Speaker 2: Like these were the thoughts that I was having back then.
Speaker 3: But it was at that moment I think that I realized,
Speaker 3: hang on a second, like because I'm hiring someone, like
Speaker 3: this is a real business.
Speaker 2: And I'd say.
Speaker 3: The second moment that made me realize, hang on, this
Speaker 3: is turning into something was when we moved out of
Speaker 3: the garage and we got our first commercial lease. It
Speaker 3: was just a little ninety square meter areage shed essentially,
Speaker 3: and signing that twelve month lease and knowing that I
Speaker 3: was going to pay, you know, thirty five thousand dollars
Speaker 3: a year in rent. That was also a really defining
Speaker 3: moment for me of like holy shit, Like not only
Speaker 3: am I renting our house, but I'm now renting a shed.
Speaker 3: So those were like two moments to me where I
Speaker 3: knew there's.
Speaker 2: A lot of money, like.
Speaker 3: Oh, oh yeah it was, it was back then, and
Speaker 3: it's still a lot of money now.
Speaker 2: But like in the grand scheme of business, I was
Speaker 2: the same. But I think it's so funny going from oh,
Speaker 2: I'm signing my first thirty five thousand dollars a year
Speaker 2: lease to knowing that you have a flagship store now
Speaker 2: and you've got you know, multiple locations, and the locations
Speaker 2: you've chosen are very strategic because they have you know,
Speaker 2: beautiful like locations, they have great foot traffic, they're in
Speaker 2: the right places for your demographic. I know how much
Speaker 2: you know research you've put into that, which means they're
Speaker 2: not cheat. No, exactly.
Speaker 3: That thirty five thousand dollars rent a year now is
Speaker 3: nothing in comparison to the commercial leases we have now,
Speaker 3: which is terrifying.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it really is, but it's all part of the journey.
Speaker 3: And again, like growth, and I look back and remember
Speaker 3: signing that first lease so vividly and being so scared,
Speaker 3: and again I thought, what if we don't make thirty
Speaker 3: five thousand dollars, you know, and I can't pay the
Speaker 3: rent for the year. But I think it's like when
Speaker 3: you're in those moments and you're scared, Like I think,
Speaker 3: I'm not really woo woo or anything, but I think
Speaker 3: that's the universe saying like, this is your opportunity.
Speaker 2: Take it. Yeah, one hundred percent. So tell me when
Speaker 2: you first launched, how did you plan to make it
Speaker 2: work financially?
Speaker 3: Again, I didn't have much of a financial plan, if
Speaker 3: I'm being completely honest with you. I had obviously been
Speaker 3: an influenza for the years leading up to launching Faith,
Speaker 3: and I'd been really smart with my money back then,
Speaker 3: which I don't know how I did that, because I
Speaker 3: was in my early twenties earning a decent amount of money.
Speaker 2: I don't know how I didn't go nuts and just
Speaker 2: waste it all.
Speaker 3: And I'd never grown up with any guidance from any
Speaker 3: family members or anything like that. But somehow I managed
Speaker 3: to be smart with my money in my early twenties,
Speaker 3: and I had a decent amount of savings, so I
Speaker 3: used money from my savings to launch Fade and just
Speaker 3: pay for all those initial things. Like obviously, I wasn't
Speaker 3: worrying about commercial rent because we were in the garage,
Speaker 3: but you know, buying all my shipping bags and labels
Speaker 3: and stickers and a printer and just all those things
Speaker 3: that I needed to get.
Speaker 2: To launch as well as stock.
Speaker 3: I used my savings for that, and I guess for me,
Speaker 3: back then, it was just important to always know that
Speaker 3: I had money sitting in the bank account. I didn't
Speaker 3: have any kind of financial plan, nothing like that, which again,
Speaker 3: like if I was starting today, I would obviously have
Speaker 3: a bit of a better understanding of my finances and
Speaker 3: you know what the six months ahead are going to
Speaker 3: look like.
Speaker 2: But back then I couldn't even see past that day
Speaker 2: because I didn't know what I was doing. You were
Speaker 2: just having fun. I was just wigging it.
Speaker 3: And I think think for me, it was just from
Speaker 3: the get go, I knew that all of the money
Speaker 3: that I was earning through our sales when we first
Speaker 3: launched wasn't my money. I think a lot of people
Speaker 3: can maybe get caught up if they launch a new
Speaker 3: business and let's say it's a successful launch or you
Speaker 3: have a great first month. In my mind, and I
Speaker 3: don't know why again because no one taught me this,
Speaker 3: but in my mind, I knew that that money that
Speaker 3: was coming in from our sales that we were generating online,
Speaker 3: I knew that wasn't my money to touch, so I
Speaker 3: kept it there in the business bank account and the
Speaker 3: only thing that I would spend it on is more
Speaker 3: expensive for the business.
Speaker 2: I never touched any of it.
Speaker 3: I knew I can't go and buy handbags and high
Speaker 3: heels with this money.
Speaker 2: This is the business's money.
Speaker 3: So it was just yeah, ensuring that I didn't touch
Speaker 3: any of those funds. And I was fortunate to be
Speaker 3: able to do that because I was still influencing, so
Speaker 3: I had an income that I was making myself, and
Speaker 3: I kept the business money in those business bank accounts.
Speaker 2: Smart, so smart, and like in hindsight, you're like, I
Speaker 2: don't even know how I was that smart, but like, no,
Speaker 2: but it's genuinely great advice because you're right. So many
Speaker 2: people and so many small business owners get caught up
Speaker 2: and going, oh, we had a great first launch. I'm
Speaker 2: going to treat myself, and I'm like, it's not your money,
Speaker 2: Like I know that. It feels that.
Speaker 3: Way, I know, and it's hard because you get excited
Speaker 3: and because you're seeing that money come in and like,
Speaker 3: I was so uneducated. I mean, I've been self employed
Speaker 3: for a few years by this point. But when you
Speaker 3: see the full amount coming in from your online sales,
Speaker 3: you know, the tax isn't taken out or anything like that.
Speaker 3: It's just really important to know that number one, that's
Speaker 3: not your money. And number two, all that money there,
Speaker 3: like a lot of it has to go to tax.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that bikes Yeah it does.
Speaker 3: And you you know, I came from working nine to
Speaker 3: five Monday to Friday and getting my pay sleep every
Speaker 3: week and the tax already being.
Speaker 2: Done for me.
Speaker 3: So then to go from that to just money coming
Speaker 3: in but the tax isn't done, that was a huge
Speaker 3: adjustment for me.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So talk to me about your first I guess
Speaker 2: big investment in the business. I know that you probably
Speaker 2: started going, oh, okay, we're going to do it in
Speaker 2: the garage. It's not that much of an investment. I'm
Speaker 2: going to buy some mailers and all of those things
Speaker 2: add up. But what was the first point that you
Speaker 2: were like, oh, I actually need to invest in this
Speaker 2: thing for my business. Oh, good question.
Speaker 3: There was lots of things that I invested in initially,
Speaker 3: So one would be like camera equipment. So I taught
Speaker 3: myself how to shoot e commerce website images. Again, I
Speaker 3: was doing it in the shed, so like, I got it.
Speaker 2: I don't care where you're doing it, just the idea
Speaker 2: that you're like, oh, how hard could it be. I'll
Speaker 2: do my own shoots. Oh, I'll do my own website.
Speaker 2: Oh you know what, I'll do all the mailing. I
Speaker 2: need a hand, I'll get a casual employee. At no
Speaker 2: point where you're like, oh, I could outsource this, I
Speaker 2: could invest in some product photos wore like camera, Yes,
Speaker 2: we'll do it myself.
Speaker 3: I did everything myself from the beginning, all in that shed.
Speaker 3: But yeah, a big investment would have been like a
Speaker 3: Canon camera with a good lens, some flash photography triggers,
Speaker 3: and then my backdrop and then teaching myself how to
Speaker 3: do that and other than that, The next big investment,
Speaker 3: I would say was obviously just moving into that first
Speaker 3: warehouse and the deposits that you have to pay when
Speaker 3: you're moving into a commercial space.
Speaker 2: I just somehow knew, like, even though.
Speaker 3: This was going to be more expensive and I had
Speaker 3: to put down a security bond, that that investment was
Speaker 3: going to be worth it. So yeah, I'd say they're
Speaker 3: the biggest investments other than that, just continually reinvesting back
Speaker 3: into the business, you know, coming out with new pieces,
Speaker 3: creating new collections, and then from there I guess it
Speaker 3: would then be moving into the next warehouse after that.
Speaker 3: And then in twenty nineteen I opened my first boutique
Speaker 3: here in Newcastle where we are based.
Speaker 2: That was a huge investment as well, like.
Speaker 3: Getting the shop counter and the change room's built and
Speaker 3: all that kind of stuff and shop fit outs are
Speaker 3: so expensive they are, and I because it didn't need
Speaker 3: much done to it, I did get a lot of
Speaker 3: like friends of friends in and we kind of did
Speaker 3: it really dephy, but it was a lot of money
Speaker 3: back then, and it took us a lot of months
Speaker 3: to set it up. And again, like I proudly say,
Speaker 3: I had no idea what I was doing. I remember
Speaker 3: googling how to get a point of sale for a
Speaker 3: retail store.
Speaker 2: They're good, but like, how else do you do that?
Speaker 2: You're not born knowing, like you just taught yourself along
Speaker 2: the way. And I think that that's what's for me
Speaker 2: so inspiring about your journey. It's kind of like this
Speaker 2: idea that how hard could it be I could do it,
Speaker 2: It's fine exactly.
Speaker 3: I think that's always been my mentality is just figuring
Speaker 3: it out as you go. And people would probably look
Speaker 3: at me and what I'm doing today and be like, wow,
Speaker 3: like how do you know how to do all these things?
Speaker 3: And my one hundred percent honest answer is, I've just
Speaker 3: figured it out as I went. I have googled every
Speaker 3: single little thing. And I'd say that one of my
Speaker 3: best skills that has gotten me to where I am
Speaker 3: in my business journey now is being a fast learner.
Speaker 3: If you're a fast learner, you're going to move forward
Speaker 3: in your business really quickly if.
Speaker 2: You put yourself to it. And I feel like resourcefulness
Speaker 2: as well, is something that you are very very good at.
Speaker 2: Like you're just like I can find the answer. If
Speaker 2: I don't know the answer, I'm going to find the answer.
Speaker 2: I'm going to find the person. I'm going to find
Speaker 2: the thing I need, whether that is like you know,
Speaker 2: someone to fit out your shop or somebody to help
Speaker 2: you set up a point of sales system, Like you're
Speaker 2: just like I can work it out. I will work
Speaker 2: it out. You've got to have that mentality in business.
Speaker 2: No matter what, we will figure it out exactly all right.
Speaker 2: I want to know more about I guess a day
Speaker 2: in the life, because I'm assuming that a day in
Speaker 2: the life when you were just starting out looked very
Speaker 2: different to a day in the life today. What does
Speaker 2: today look like, and then tell me a bit about
Speaker 2: how they differ. It differs in every way. Obviously.
Speaker 3: I started being extremely hands on, which I think is
Speaker 3: a really amazing way to start a business. So back
Speaker 3: in the shed, I was packing every order. I was
Speaker 3: replying to every customer service email. I was going down
Speaker 3: to our pobox to pick up the returns. I was
Speaker 3: processing their returns for customers. I was shooting all of
Speaker 3: our website photography. I was doing our websites through Shopify,
Speaker 3: so I was setting up our Shopify theme, making sure
Speaker 3: the website was looking amazingly. I was doing our email
Speaker 3: marketing EDMS. There wasn't a thing that I wasn't doing.
Speaker 3: I had my fingers in every part of the business
Speaker 3: and it was like a one man band kind of thing,
Speaker 3: plus my casual employee. And slowly, over the last seven years,
Speaker 3: what I've had to do, which a lot of owners
Speaker 3: will experience in growth, is delegating and letting go of
Speaker 3: those tasks, and this can be a really hard thing
Speaker 3: for business owners to do, especially if you like being
Speaker 3: in control of everything, and you can get so comfortable
Speaker 3: doing everything yourself because you know how to do these processes,
Speaker 3: you're quick at them, and you know that you're not
Speaker 3: going to fuck it up because you know what you're doing.
Speaker 3: So over the years, I've obviously hired a lot of
Speaker 3: people to take tasks off me so I can focus
Speaker 3: on things that are more important. Because, let's be honest,
Speaker 3: as much as I'd love to be sitting here replying
Speaker 3: to our customer service emails every day, you know, if
Speaker 3: I'm concentrating on doing that, then I can't concentrate on
Speaker 3: growing the business. So it's been a long journey of
Speaker 3: letting go of a lot of tasks and bringing new
Speaker 3: people on and now I guess today my role is
Speaker 3: obviously CEO of the company.
Speaker 2: My number one goal is to grow the business.
Speaker 3: That's through expanding our stores and obviously through our social media,
Speaker 3: so you'll see me in a lot of our content.
Speaker 3: So I do a lot of our content. I'm responsible
Speaker 3: for the role out of all of our stores, and
Speaker 3: believe it or not, I'm still our buyer for all
Speaker 3: of our stock, and I run our Facebook ads.
Speaker 2: I love that. I love that. Also very funny because
Speaker 2: you literally said, yeah, you've just got to let go,
Speaker 2: and then you're like, oh, so I'm doing the Facebook ads. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I actually speak to a lot of other founders on
Speaker 3: my podcast, and it's actually made me realize, oh shit,
Speaker 3: I still actually am very involved like this far in like.
Speaker 2: I've spoken to other owners. I know, so am I
Speaker 2: my business. I really like it though, like I don't
Speaker 2: want to lose it, and like I'm good at these things.
Speaker 2: Let me have a turn, like let me still be involved,
Speaker 2: like I started because I wanted to do these things,
Speaker 2: not because I wanted it all to be taken off
Speaker 2: me and me to sit in an office in the corner.
Speaker 2: Like I don't know. I feel like obviously everyone is different,
Speaker 2: but I feel like you and I are very similar,
Speaker 2: and that I still want a little bit of hands
Speaker 2: on stuff, Like I know that my team will tell
Speaker 2: me like, v you don't have to do that. I'll
Speaker 2: be like, give, it's not really the point, is it.
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 3: I'm still very much involved obviously in the day today operations,
Speaker 3: Like today I'm in our office I'll just be working
Speaker 3: with everyone here and maybe tomorrow I'll be at our warehouse.
Speaker 3: But I'm more so just there, like overseeing the operations,
Speaker 3: assisting everyone in their roles kind of thing, and just
Speaker 3: focusing on my tasks as well. But I've found if
Speaker 3: I'm in the office or in the warehouse or around
Speaker 3: our teams, i can't actually do anything that I want
Speaker 3: to do, Like my day is helping them. Then I'll
Speaker 3: go home and do what I want to do. But
Speaker 3: I've definitely given up a lot of roles over the years,
Speaker 3: like those more little roles, so I can focus on
Speaker 3: the bigger things.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: No, I totally agree with that, and they laugh because
Speaker 2: that's you know, literally my days I work as well.
Speaker 2: Complete side note, I was having a conversation with my husband.
Speaker 2: We're talking about, you know, what happens when we have
Speaker 2: other kids, like are we going to have to move house?
Speaker 2: What are we going to do? And he's like, oh, well,
Speaker 2: we could like convert your office because you've got an office,
Speaker 2: Like you could just go to your office and work
Speaker 2: like and it's probably better for you to do that
Speaker 2: because you know, we can convert your office into another
Speaker 2: kid's bedroom one day, and you can go to the
Speaker 2: black office work. And I was like, Babe, I can't
Speaker 2: work at the office, Like I don't think you get this,
Speaker 2: Like I come home to do the work, Like I'm
Speaker 2: not productive in my office at all, because one, I
Speaker 2: want to know what you're up to, but two, like
Speaker 2: it's my opportunity one on one time with everybody in
Speaker 2: the team, checking in, seeing what's going on, helping them
Speaker 2: problem solve being part of the team.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I think another thing as well that I've been
Speaker 3: struggling with a lot and I'm sure you and a
Speaker 3: lot of other owners would struggle with as well, is
Speaker 3: feeling guilty if you aren't there for the team. Like
Speaker 3: let's say, for example, because our office and warehouse are separate,
Speaker 3: They're like ten minutes apart from each other, which is easy.
Speaker 3: But let's say, like today, for example, I'm here at
Speaker 3: our office and I probably won't.
Speaker 2: Be at the warehouse at all. It's just like an
Speaker 2: internal thing.
Speaker 3: But I struggle with thinking, oh, like, where do the
Speaker 3: warehouse team think I am? Like, and you have all
Speaker 3: these internal thoughts.
Speaker 2: Do they think I'm slacking? Do they think I'm out
Speaker 2: at lunch? Yes?
Speaker 3: Do they think, oh, where is she you know, like
Speaker 3: she's not here if I'm not at the office for
Speaker 3: a certain amount of days because I'm in Sydney or
Speaker 3: at the warehouse, like I think, oh, they're judging me.
Speaker 3: But these are just like internal guilt thoughts.
Speaker 2: Oh, they're definitely internal. I have them as well. It's
Speaker 2: why before. So today I'm podcasting, which means I'm not
Speaker 2: in my office either, and I won't be all day.
Speaker 2: So I like messaged everybody on Slack to be like, hey,
Speaker 2: I hope you have a good day, just so you
Speaker 2: know this is where I'm going to be because you
Speaker 2: just get the guilts.
Speaker 3: Oh that's me every time I'm down in Sydney every
Speaker 3: Monday for my podcast too, and I'm always like, I've
Speaker 3: got four hours on the road today, like bring me
Speaker 3: if you need Like, oh, the.
Speaker 2: Car time is golden. Please call me while we're driving
Speaker 2: because in an instant an hour has gone and we've
Speaker 2: had a really good chat and solved a few problems.
Speaker 2: Like please call me when I'm in the car. It's
Speaker 2: my favorite. All right, I have more questions. I'm sorry,
Speaker 2: I feel like we could chat about this. What is
Speaker 2: something that nobody warned you about when going into and
Speaker 2: running your own business.
Speaker 3: Well, to answer that broadly, it would obviously be everything,
Speaker 3: because I didn't go to anyone for any advice before
Speaker 3: going into business. So to answer it broadly, i'd say everything.
Speaker 3: But if I had to narrow it down to like
Speaker 3: one thing that's kind of slapped me in the face,
Speaker 3: I would say, like how complex dealing with people is,
Speaker 3: as in like team members and how much your business
Speaker 3: journey that you've started. And let's be honest, like, when
Speaker 3: we start businesses ourselves, it's almost like you're starting it
Speaker 3: for you. And if you're going to be the one
Speaker 3: doing everything, like it's your business, you're doing everything. But
Speaker 3: at a certain point, if you scale and you all
Speaker 3: of a sudden have all of these employees, how much
Speaker 3: that business is no longer about you at all and
Speaker 3: it's actually about everyone else.
Speaker 2: And just like.
Speaker 3: Managing people, and like, one of the things that I
Speaker 3: always say is like it's really hard, or if not impossible,
Speaker 3: to be the perfect manager and the perfect entrepreneur because
Speaker 3: they are two complete different things. And obviously, when we
Speaker 3: start a business, we're starting it from our entrepreneurial fire,
Speaker 3: like we've got all these ideas we want to bring
Speaker 3: them to life. But then if your company grows to
Speaker 3: a certain point and you all of a sudden got
Speaker 3: all of these employees, Yes, you've got to keep being
Speaker 3: an entrepreneur. You've got to innovate, you've got to move
Speaker 3: the business forward. But also you have to then figure
Speaker 3: out how to be the best manager that you can be.
Speaker 3: And I had no management experience. I barely worked in
Speaker 3: jobs for like a year throughout my early days. I
Speaker 3: would get a job, been quitted after six months, and
Speaker 3: go on to something else. I worked over twenty jobs
Speaker 3: since I dropped out of school.
Speaker 2: You were just collecting experience so that you could build
Speaker 2: this I was You're like, oh, I know how to
Speaker 2: use a point of sales system onwards and next what's next?
Speaker 3: I know how to put fries in the fry machine.
Speaker 3: Next exactly we've learned that.
Speaker 2: Don't bore me. I'm not going to keep doing it.
Speaker 2: I need to go do Now, what's a cheeseburgle look like?
Speaker 2: Exactly right?
Speaker 3: But yeah, I would say the biggest eye opener for
Speaker 3: me has just been dealing with the people side of
Speaker 3: business and how complex that truly is. Like just finding
Speaker 3: that balance of yeah, growing your business and keeping it
Speaker 3: moving forward, but also being an attentive and good manager,
Speaker 3: which again, like no one taught me that I'd never
Speaker 3: managed a single person before starting Fate, and now we've
Speaker 3: got teams upon teams.
Speaker 2: You know, one hundred percent. And I feel like, you know,
Speaker 2: this is probably outing both of us, but I feel
Speaker 2: like when you have an entrepreneurial spirit and you are
Speaker 2: an entrepreneur, that does not mean that you are a
Speaker 2: good manager. Like it's something that over time you really
Speaker 2: have to learn. And I think that people in our demographic,
Speaker 2: like you and I, I know, are probably very driven
Speaker 2: by doing the right thing and being the best manager
Speaker 2: that you can be. But that's a lot of work
Speaker 2: because it's indirect competition with this idea that you can
Speaker 2: just go and do whatever you want to become an
Speaker 2: entrepreneur and you know, leave a job after six months
Speaker 2: because you're like, well on bord of this, I want
Speaker 2: something new, Like you have so many people that you're
Speaker 2: responsible for their salaries, their careers, you know, their personal growth,
Speaker 2: and honestly their mental health. And I think that becoming
Speaker 2: a good manager it takes so much work, and I
Speaker 2: don't think people realize what that journey actually looks like
Speaker 2: because like your first person, you're like, oh, this isn't
Speaker 2: too bad. I've gone, you know, become a little bit
Speaker 2: buddy buddy with them. That's fine, I love doing this.
Speaker 2: And like, over time you start adding team members and
Speaker 2: the dynamics starts to shift and then you're like, oh,
Speaker 2: hold on, what do I have to do here about this?
Speaker 2: And oh what does the next team hire look like?
Speaker 2: And then we're starting to talk about things like cultural
Speaker 2: fit and you're like, I don't even know what the
Speaker 2: definition of that is like, and it's just it's a
Speaker 2: lot hey, oh, one hundred percent.
Speaker 3: That's been the most eye opening part of business for sure,
Speaker 3: And like dealing with people and culture, it's something that
Speaker 3: you're never not going to deal with. And I think
Speaker 3: when a company gets to a certain size, you just
Speaker 3: kind of have to always expect that there's going to
Speaker 3: be some sort of problem happening within the people within
Speaker 3: your team, and it's just like learning to manage that.
Speaker 2: You know, it could be something.
Speaker 3: As little as someone has said something that has upset
Speaker 3: someone else.
Speaker 2: It's dealing with little things like that.
Speaker 3: And I think really with any business, like the bigger
Speaker 3: business gets, the bigger your problems get.
Speaker 2: One hundred percent, and I find that the bigger your
Speaker 2: business gets, the more impactful the tiny problems are. So
Speaker 2: someone saying something and it not being addressed asap becomes
Speaker 2: a massive snowball issue as opposed to you know, just
Speaker 2: going oh, sorry, I didn't mean that and moving on
Speaker 2: like it's wild how the small things can throw the
Speaker 2: big issues off.
Speaker 3: To any business owners out there or aspiring business owners.
Speaker 3: If there's one thing that I've learned in my seven years,
Speaker 3: it's no matter how tiny a little problem is, speak
Speaker 3: about it straight away.
Speaker 2: Don't sweep stuff under the rug.
Speaker 3: And I know, in the start of your business journey
Speaker 3: when like you said, you've got one or two people
Speaker 3: working for you and you're all really buddy buddy, and
Speaker 3: you're going out for drinks on the weekend because you
Speaker 3: have also become friends.
Speaker 2: Trust me, I've been there and done that.
Speaker 3: You can so easily just go, oh, I'll just sweep
Speaker 3: this under the rug kind of thing, because it's easier
Speaker 3: to do that. But I've learned the hard way, and
Speaker 3: I'm sure every business owner does.
Speaker 2: Oh we all have. We all have.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it doesn't matter if it's as tiny as someone
Speaker 3: has said something to someone that they've just maybe even
Speaker 3: taken in the wrong way.
Speaker 2: It's just so important.
Speaker 3: I always say, you've got to have a hard conversation
Speaker 3: to have an easy life. If you just have easy
Speaker 3: conversations all the time, you're going to have a hard life.
Speaker 3: So all awkward as it is, it's really important to
Speaker 3: throw yourself in the deep end and have those hard conversations,
Speaker 3: sit the person down, you know, figure out what's going on.
Speaker 2: Don't just sweep shit under the rug, even though that's
Speaker 2: the easy option and where all people pleases. We don't
Speaker 2: want to upset anyone. We don't want to catch anyone
Speaker 2: off guard. But in business like, you'll thank yourself for
Speaker 2: it down the future because that and you'll thank Britney
Speaker 2: for it as well. You'll be like, oh, thank god.
Speaker 3: You will, because if you don't do anything about it now,
Speaker 3: that tiny little comment that was made on that Thursday
Speaker 3: afternoon in six months time is going to turn into
Speaker 3: an absolute nightmare for you.
Speaker 2: Trust me, Trust me one hundred percent. And you know what,
Speaker 2: so many people listening to this and not going to
Speaker 2: trust us, and they're going to do it. And at
Speaker 2: that point I'm just going to go, Babe, that's a
Speaker 2: ride of passage. Call me when you get through that bar.
Speaker 2: Exactly right, Let's go to a really quick break because
Speaker 2: on the flip side, I have so many more questions
Speaker 2: for you guys. Don't go anywhere. Okay, so we're back.
Speaker 2: Tell me now, what do you think of the top
Speaker 2: three most important skills of yours that have made your
Speaker 2: business successful? Number one?
Speaker 3: I would say we've already touched on it. Being a
Speaker 3: fast learner. I feel like that's one of my best skills.
Speaker 3: And just having that mentality of I can figure it
Speaker 3: out on my own and I can learn that. I
Speaker 3: don't know where I got that like false sense of
Speaker 3: self confidence from, like back when I started face It's
Speaker 3: not false, you got great.
Speaker 2: You just want to try and try again.
Speaker 3: But I'd say, yeah, like that willingness to just learn
Speaker 3: things really quickly, and now, like seven years in, my
Speaker 3: confidence is through the roof. There's nothing that I in
Speaker 3: my mind I can't do, Like it doesn't matter what
Speaker 3: it is, it doesn't matter if I've never done it before.
Speaker 3: If there's a task that needs doing and I don't
Speaker 3: know what it is, I am fully confident in myself
Speaker 3: that I can pick that task up, learn it straight away,
Speaker 3: bing bang bong, It's dune.
Speaker 2: I love it. And it might take a little bit
Speaker 2: longer at the start, but like I tell my team
Speaker 2: this all the time. I'm like, there's a YouTube tutorial
Speaker 2: for everything. Don't worry about it, like we can work
Speaker 2: it out. Like can I build a website? Yes, I
Speaker 2: learned on YouTube how to build an entire square space website.
Speaker 2: Like I've got this.
Speaker 3: I don't mean it with TikTok now, like we didn't
Speaker 3: have TikTok when we were starting Fade or for those
Speaker 3: first few years, Like TikTok makes everything so much easier.
Speaker 2: It's how our parent Britney, Yeah, what do I do about?
Speaker 2: And I go to TikTok straight away and then some
Speaker 2: mum tells me exactly what the answer is. Same thing
Speaker 2: for business one percent.
Speaker 3: So yeah, i'd say my first skill is being a
Speaker 3: fast learner. The second one is I would say being
Speaker 3: a really good problem solver. Business is going to throw
Speaker 3: you hurdles every bloody day, Like there's never a day
Speaker 3: where something hasn't gone a little bit pear shaped. It
Speaker 3: could be something drastic, or it could be something tiny.
Speaker 3: And I think in business it's really important to just
Speaker 3: have that problem solving mentality. You can't just cry and
Speaker 3: crawl into a little ball and say this is it's
Speaker 3: too hard. You've just really got to embrace having that
Speaker 3: mentality of all right, this has happened. Shit is absolutely
Speaker 3: hitting the fan XYZ has happened. But let's work out
Speaker 3: a solution for this. And I've definitely learned so far,
Speaker 3: touch Wood, that there is a solution for every problem
Speaker 3: that your business is going to throw at you. So
Speaker 3: I would definitely say that is being a good problem solver.
Speaker 3: And the third most important skill. I mean, this is
Speaker 3: more niche to me, but I would say, like another
Speaker 3: skill that's held me a lot in my business journey
Speaker 3: is knowing how to make bloody good content for social media.
Speaker 2: Yeah, can we talk after this, because like I suck
Speaker 2: your content? You are absolutely correct, And I mean I
Speaker 2: did ask what was I guess something about you not
Speaker 2: necessarily what everybody needs, but bloody hell, your content is
Speaker 2: just so good. Like I do want to watch that
Speaker 2: video of you packing orders. I really do, Like I
Speaker 2: stop and I watch and I'm just like, I this
Speaker 2: so good? Like what is your secret source to content creation? Brittany?
Speaker 3: Okay, so I've obviously had a lot of experience. You know,
Speaker 3: I started making those YouTube videos.
Speaker 2: Just why I'm asking, we've got this old an opportunity.
Speaker 3: I started making those YouTube videos in high school, which
Speaker 3: was like over fifteen years ago now, so I've had
Speaker 3: a lot of practice being in front of the camera.
Speaker 3: I think I'm naturally an entertainer, like I think I
Speaker 3: have an entertainer type of personality, which is definitely something
Speaker 3: that I've used to my advantage. And i think one
Speaker 3: of the big things as well is for the whole
Speaker 3: time that I've been on the internet, and I'm almost
Speaker 3: like ancient on the internet now, I would say for
Speaker 3: the entire time, I've just always never been afraid to
Speaker 3: be myself. I think that's been one of the biggest
Speaker 3: keys to my success is I've just shown up on
Speaker 3: the internet for the last fifteen or so years and
Speaker 3: I've just been myself.
Speaker 2: Sure, I've gone through a lot of.
Speaker 3: Phases in my life over those last ten to fifteen years,
Speaker 3: but I've I've just been like unapologetically myself and I've
Speaker 3: been confident in showing up as me, which I think
Speaker 3: is just so important, especially now because consumers are more
Speaker 3: switched on than ever. Followers are more switched on than ever.
Speaker 2: They can see straight through the bullshit.
Speaker 3: And I think what has really helped me in my
Speaker 3: journey is I've just always been me. I've never tried
Speaker 3: to be something I'm not, or showcase my life in
Speaker 3: a way that it isn't, or fit into an aesthetic,
Speaker 3: you know. I've just always been me, Brittany from Newcastle,
Speaker 3: you know. And I think that's really helped in my
Speaker 3: journey for sure when it's come to creating that fun,
Speaker 3: everyday organic content totally.
Speaker 2: And do you find that now? I feel like you
Speaker 2: are wildly successful at the end of the day, like
Speaker 2: Fate is not a small business, and you are still
Speaker 2: very approachable. You're very relatable and I adore that. And
Speaker 2: this might be a hard question, but are you finding
Speaker 2: it harder and harder to show up as you as
Speaker 2: time goes on and your business becomes massive or are
Speaker 2: you going nahs. It's really easy because you know, to
Speaker 2: preface this question. That's something that I really struggle with
Speaker 2: that over time, And maybe it's because I'm in this
Speaker 2: money space and like money is a fickle topic for everybody,
Speaker 2: but when I started she is on the money. I
Speaker 2: was relatable because I had debt. I was relatable because
Speaker 2: I hadn't purchased my first home and I went through
Speaker 2: that journey and now I have multiple properties, and I go, oh,
Speaker 2: is that that relatable? Like should I be sharing these things?
Speaker 2: Like is this something that as a business owner, I
Speaker 2: guess in the fashion space, is that something that you
Speaker 2: have to think about or are you just like NAHV,
Speaker 2: I'm just me and it works out, it's all good.
Speaker 3: I definitely have had that thought, honestly, But I think,
Speaker 3: you know, whatever, it is, Like We've been renovating our
Speaker 3: house for the last two years and I haven't really
Speaker 3: made content about it, but I've done little bits and
Speaker 3: bobs on my Instagram story, like that's the only place
Speaker 3: I've posted about our house. And even then, like we're
Speaker 3: doing a really nice renovation. I've got some like really
Speaker 3: expensive things in the house, and I've been really mindful
Speaker 3: with posting it, even though like everyone has been loving
Speaker 3: seeing my story updates on the house, and if I
Speaker 3: don't post anything for a week or two, people say,
Speaker 3: have you got any updates on the house, Like they've
Speaker 3: really been loving, loving seeing the journey. But even then
Speaker 3: I've thought fuck, like, you know, whatever it is I'm showing,
Speaker 3: I'm like, this is a really expensive stone bench, and
Speaker 3: I've thought, fuck, are people going to take that in
Speaker 3: the wrong way? But I think what it comes down
Speaker 3: to is like, yes, I can show those things on
Speaker 3: my social media, but what really matters, And I guess
Speaker 3: what has helped is like that I'm staying true to myself.
Speaker 2: I'm not all of a sudden going.
Speaker 3: Oh, and I've got this fancy stern bench like I
Speaker 3: of course I do. I'm still me showing up you like,
Speaker 3: look at.
Speaker 2: This six stove a stone it is so sexy.
Speaker 3: I think it's just important that I've just stayed true
Speaker 3: to myself and I know that, you know, if you
Speaker 3: are showing things online that may seem out of touch,
Speaker 3: you can have those thoughts. But then again, I think
Speaker 3: as well, people idolize the Kardashians, watch their lives and
Speaker 3: all the shit they do, and if people are going
Speaker 3: to say something about me putting a bench in my kitchen, it's.
Speaker 2: A good point. It's a good point.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like people idolize celebrities and you know, billionaires. But yeah,
Speaker 3: I guess as fate has grown, I have been more
Speaker 3: mindful with what I share, and I would never want
Speaker 3: to come across like I'm out of touch and I
Speaker 3: have had those thoughts that you have, But again, I
Speaker 3: think it just all comes back to just still showing
Speaker 3: up as myself and not allowing the money to like
Speaker 3: change who I am. And I don't think I would
Speaker 3: ever change no matter how much money I come into
Speaker 3: into my lifetime, Like I'm always going to be just
Speaker 3: like Britney from Newie that loves going to the pub.
Speaker 2: To have a chicken snit through with my partner. No,
Speaker 2: I love it. And now you have just a really
Speaker 2: nice kitchen and that's lip.
Speaker 3: And now we can have a nice chicken snitzle on
Speaker 3: the nice stone bench exactly exactly.
Speaker 2: So talk to me about you have, I guess, grown
Speaker 2: up with social media like you have taught us about
Speaker 2: social media. I suppose you have a massive following on
Speaker 2: Instagram and on TikTok. What would be your number one
Speaker 2: tip for small business owners who haven't had that, who
Speaker 2: are going on I'm doing this for the very first time.
Speaker 2: Where would you tell them to focus? I would say
Speaker 2: capture everything.
Speaker 3: One thing that I didn't do when I started Fate
Speaker 3: was I hit it from my social media, which is
Speaker 3: really weird because I had a booming YouTube channel and
Speaker 3: I've logged my day to day life. But when I
Speaker 3: started Fate, I made very like secretive videos where people
Speaker 3: knew that I was launching this business. And I had
Speaker 3: a spare room in my townhouse and I set it
Speaker 3: up as my little office and I would show that
Speaker 3: because I had a nice little office works desk with
Speaker 3: my computer on it, and I was like, this is
Speaker 3: my office. But I never showed the garage because I
Speaker 3: was worried that it would look dodgy or people would
Speaker 3: say that's cringe or embarrassing. So all I have from
Speaker 3: that very beginning of my journey is a few photos
Speaker 3: that I took, like packing my first order, and then
Speaker 3: I had one of my friends come over it every
Speaker 3: now and then and he would help me pack the orders.
Speaker 3: So my friend Wade, like has these videos of us
Speaker 3: doing a time lapse of packing in the garage.
Speaker 2: So cute.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And so obviously the internet was really different back then.
Speaker 3: We didn't have reels, and we didn't have TikTok or
Speaker 3: anything like that. But if I was starting my business now,
Speaker 3: I would capture all of those little moments because imagine
Speaker 3: if I had known back then what it would turn
Speaker 3: into today, I would have loved to have shared that
Speaker 3: part of my journey more, but instead I like hit
Speaker 3: it and was embarrassed of it. So to anyone starting
Speaker 3: on socials now and launching a business, like, if you're
Speaker 3: open to it, I would organically share the journey of
Speaker 3: what it's like.
Speaker 2: I would make.
Speaker 3: Videos saying, hey, I'm setting up my busines in my
Speaker 3: spare room.
Speaker 2: Come decorate my office.
Speaker 3: With me, and I'd make a video showing I'm going
Speaker 3: to have my labels here, I'm going to have my
Speaker 3: printer there. This is where I'm going to pack the orders. Like,
Speaker 3: I'd show all that stuff, and people now like are
Speaker 3: so interested in seeing all of that stuff. And that's
Speaker 3: how you can start to create a community is by
Speaker 3: sharing the journey.
Speaker 2: And like, yeah, I completely.
Speaker 3: Didn't have the opportunity to do that because I didn't
Speaker 3: have Instagram reels or TikTok. But now with the way
Speaker 3: that TikTok especially is, people love seeing that behind the
Speaker 3: scenes shit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they even start requesting, hey, Rittman, can you
Speaker 2: pack my order in one of those videos, like they
Speaker 2: want that and that's so engaging one hundred percent.
Speaker 3: So I would say, don't be afraid to capture all
Speaker 3: of those moments, and maybe you don't have to post
Speaker 3: them all if you're too scared, but I'd even just
Speaker 3: capture them and save them for your own memories, because
Speaker 3: you never know, in seven years you might look.
Speaker 2: Back and be like, holy shit, look out far we've come.
Speaker 2: That would be really good content for me today, I
Speaker 2: know literally.
Speaker 3: So that, yeah, that would definitely be my advice.
Speaker 2: I know you work as an influencer, well, used to
Speaker 2: work as any influencer. How did that shape the way
Speaker 2: that you have then approached influencer marketing in your brand?
Speaker 3: So we don't do a whole lot of influencer marketing
Speaker 3: with Bait, we definitely do and obviously, yeah, I was
Speaker 3: an influencer for so many years and worked with so
Speaker 3: many brands. I think the influencer landscape has changed a
Speaker 3: lot since I was influencing back in the day. Compared
Speaker 3: to today, it's definitely a really saturated market.
Speaker 2: And what we actually.
Speaker 3: Do now at FATE is we mainly and pretty much
Speaker 3: only work with micro influencers.
Speaker 2: You won't see us working with any huge influencers.
Speaker 3: Just because it's so saturated and obviously there's no guarantees
Speaker 3: with working with influencers, like you could pay someone ten
Speaker 3: grand for a TikTok and like you are not promised
Speaker 3: one sale, So it's really risky.
Speaker 2: And I'm not.
Speaker 3: Saying working with influencers is bad. They're obviously so amazing
Speaker 3: for businesses, like influencers have played a huge part in
Speaker 3: scaling businesses over the last five to ten years. But
Speaker 3: what we do now is we mainly work with micro influencers.
Speaker 3: So people that might have, you know, five thousand followers,
Speaker 3: ten thousand followers, fifteen thousand followers, and whilst that's not
Speaker 3: that many followers, you will probably find that those people
Speaker 3: have far more engaged audiences than someone with one hundred
Speaker 3: thousand followers. So yeah, we invest our money into micro influences.
Speaker 3: It's obviously more affordable for businesses and it's less of
Speaker 3: a financial risk. Rather than paying one person ten thousand dollars,
Speaker 3: we could take a ten thousand dollar budget and go
Speaker 3: and work with a ton of micro influencers. So yeah,
Speaker 3: that's kind of our focus for influencers, and that's really.
Speaker 2: What we do, and I think that that's important as well,
Speaker 2: and it's so interesting to learn, but it's also just
Speaker 2: it's so obvious that it's more engaging. So like I
Speaker 2: can tell that the selection that you guys have made,
Speaker 2: with the influences that you work with, like reading that
Speaker 2: they are good brand fits. Not only are they that,
Speaker 2: but they've probably already purchased your products and they were
Speaker 2: super stoked when you slid into their DMS and said, hey,
Speaker 2: we'd love to work together. They're like, holy moly, Like
Speaker 2: I already love your brand and it's just so obvious
Speaker 2: that that's your strategy. Well from another business owner, I suppose,
Speaker 2: because it is so organic, and whenever somebody pops up
Speaker 2: and they're doing you know, and unboxing or they're doing
Speaker 2: you know, look at my outfit, I'm like, oh that
Speaker 2: makes sense. Of course that was fate, Like of course
Speaker 2: they've weaseled their way in here because that's the perfect
Speaker 2: fit for them. And I just I wanted to ask
Speaker 2: because I was like, I feel like you have a
Speaker 2: more organic approach to It's still there, but it's not
Speaker 2: who can we get who's trending this month, who's the
Speaker 2: biggest dog on the on the app? At the moment,
Speaker 2: I think as well, like, as I said, like the
Speaker 2: influencer landscape has changed so much, and I was obviously
Speaker 2: there through the rise of it, but I think now
Speaker 2: people are kind of getting really fed up of like
Speaker 2: big influencers just constantly promoting products, Like it's not authentic anymore,
Speaker 2: and people probably see a sponsored ad and scroll pass
Speaker 2: as quickly as they can. So it works really well
Speaker 2: for us, like working with you know, those micro creators
Speaker 2: who have small, engaged audiences because their audience really trust
Speaker 2: what they're saying. And just recently as.
Speaker 3: Well, another thing that we've done, so we have a
Speaker 3: Facebook community group which is called Fate Society, which is
Speaker 3: like the best group ever, and we are launched a
Speaker 3: like Fate Society pr list into our community.
Speaker 2: Oh I love that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're starting, We've already started it. But it's something
Speaker 3: like we're building and we're going to do a lot
Speaker 3: with in twenty twenty five. And instead of like you know,
Speaker 3: working with influencers on TikTok and stuff, we're actually working
Speaker 3: directly with members of our community and we're getting them
Speaker 3: to create wholes and stuff, and we're really going to
Speaker 3: build that within our own community and like hype up
Speaker 3: our own customers, you know, being on the Fate pr list.
Speaker 3: So it's just like another activation that we've launched recently
Speaker 3: that we're going to scale.
Speaker 2: More into the new year. I'm obsessed. I actually adore
Speaker 2: that so much. I'm biased, Like I agree that Fate
Speaker 2: Society might be good, but that she's on the money community.
Speaker 2: It's it's different, Like our Facebook group is my face
Speaker 2: and you're probably the same. Like I just love going
Speaker 2: in there and seeing what people are talking about and
Speaker 2: joining in the conversation around our brand.
Speaker 3: Oh, it's so great, like people for us, Like they're
Speaker 3: sharing their outfit.
Speaker 2: Photos in there.
Speaker 3: They're posting about an item saying can I get styling
Speaker 3: tips I bought these pants?
Speaker 2: Or like what size should I get in these?
Speaker 3: Does anyone have photos? Like it's just so great having
Speaker 3: a community group. And we launched it at the start
Speaker 3: of this year just like oh, we'll make this group,
Speaker 3: and now it's yeah, it's become such an amazing part
Speaker 3: of our business and community.
Speaker 2: I adore it. I adore it. Tell me. Obviously, launching
Speaker 2: a Facebook group is actually something that a business can
Speaker 2: do for free to I guess promote community within their
Speaker 2: brand and really help awareness. What would be your advice
Speaker 2: for small businesses with tight budgets when they want to start.
Speaker 2: I guess building community.
Speaker 3: I would say definitely going back to what we spoke
Speaker 3: about creating that organic social content. If you're confident enough
Speaker 3: to do it yourself by posting on Instagram and TikTok
Speaker 3: videos of you and behind the scenes in your business,
Speaker 3: and it's not going to be perfect, and it doesn't
Speaker 3: have to be post ninety nine videos in the one
Speaker 3: hundredth one.
Speaker 2: Will do well.
Speaker 3: I know that sounds a lot, but it's just a
Speaker 3: matter of starting. Like that's how you're going to build
Speaker 3: that organic community is by creating content and having people
Speaker 3: follow along your journey and be honest and transparent about
Speaker 3: your journey. Don't try to make it look a certain way,
Speaker 3: you know, just again like show up as yourself on
Speaker 3: socials and start building a community that way. And I
Speaker 3: know it's so hard and it's so scary, especially when
Speaker 3: there's so many businesses already out there now that are
Speaker 3: so established, but you just got to remember, like we
Speaker 3: all started in that same position where we had no
Speaker 3: idea what we were doing, and I'd just say use
Speaker 3: apps like Instagram and TikTok to your absolute advantage because
Speaker 3: you never know what may come of it. And then
Speaker 3: from there, if you has started to build up a
Speaker 3: community on your TikTok and your Instagram, you might get
Speaker 3: to that point where you feel like you can start
Speaker 3: a community page. And that's a great comment about the
Speaker 3: Facebook groups.
Speaker 2: It is free.
Speaker 3: It is free to make a Facebook community group. And
Speaker 3: I absolutely love that our community group is going so
Speaker 3: well that we're actually getting rid of our mobile app
Speaker 3: at the end of this year, because really, yeah, we
Speaker 3: got the mobile app because the number one feature that
Speaker 3: we liked the most was the fact that we could
Speaker 3: send a notification to people's phones. And so I think,
Speaker 3: like the subscription for our app that we've had.
Speaker 2: For almost two years.
Speaker 3: Now, I think it's like it might be around twelve
Speaker 3: thousand dollars a year for us to just have the app,
Speaker 3: and that's on top of like our Shopify and everything,
Speaker 3: Like it's just another twelve thousand dollars a year. And
Speaker 3: since launching our community group, you know, I can go
Speaker 3: in there and post every day, like and it doesn't
Speaker 3: feel as annoying to the customer because we're not sending
Speaker 3: a notification to their phone home screen. Instead, it's like
Speaker 3: Britney's posted in Fate Society and people will be probably
Speaker 3: more interested to go and see what that is rather
Speaker 3: than a generic notification.
Speaker 2: On their phone.
Speaker 3: So yes, starting that group has been the best thing,
Speaker 3: one of.
Speaker 2: The best things we've done all year. To be honest,
Speaker 2: I love that and your community are probably going, yeah, exactly, Brittany, exactly.
Speaker 2: We love it there like it's my favorite and it's
Speaker 2: crazy how much they can take off like ours obviously
Speaker 2: is the backbone of our business. It's where we started.
Speaker 2: It's why the podcast even started, because the community were like,
Speaker 2: what else are you going to do? How else do
Speaker 2: we get content like this? And I was like, oh
Speaker 2: my gosh. But now it's a full time job in
Speaker 2: our business for someone to manage our Facebook community. That
Speaker 2: makes it not free though, So that does change the ballgame,
Speaker 2: which is a good thing. It's the best problem to have. Brittany.
Speaker 2: I have one last question before I rap it, because
Speaker 2: I know that if very generous with your time. Do
Speaker 2: you think that the social media landscape is still evolving?
Speaker 2: And what do you think the next big I guess
Speaker 2: business trend is. Yeah, that's a good question.
Speaker 3: I mean I think social media is always going to
Speaker 3: be evolving, and I know that a lot of business
Speaker 3: owners can hate that thought because you just feel like
Speaker 3: you're constantly having to try to keep up with the
Speaker 3: trends and stay up to date. And business owners can
Speaker 3: naturally find it really comforting to just stay doing the
Speaker 3: same thing all the time. But in business, like, you've
Speaker 3: got to be willing to change the way you do
Speaker 3: things every single week, especially when it comes to social media.
Speaker 3: That's just the way the cookie crumbles. If I'm being honest,
Speaker 3: I think it's going to change a lot. It's obviously
Speaker 3: changed a lot over the last five to ten years,
Speaker 3: and I always say, like, i' mean rigged to see
Speaker 3: where social media goes, like in the next two, three,
Speaker 3: four years. You know, I'm sure as much as we
Speaker 3: love TikTok and Instagram now, I'm sure in a couple
Speaker 3: of years time, there's going to be other apps that
Speaker 3: we're all using instead of those, Like maybe we'll see
Speaker 3: those die out.
Speaker 2: I don't know, because meta is huge, But we're going
Speaker 2: to have to keep up, Brittany, like we can we
Speaker 2: on these tastes.
Speaker 3: We've got to keep keep up, especially if you want
Speaker 3: to keep growing and moving forward, but it's also equally
Speaker 3: as important to foster those like loyal customers and like
Speaker 3: keep them involved. And that's where your community comes into play. Like, yes,
Speaker 3: you want to stick with the trends and find new
Speaker 3: customers and more people to join your community, but you
Speaker 3: really want to nurture and foster that community that you
Speaker 3: have now that is hopefully going to stay with you
Speaker 3: throughout all of those changes regardless.
Speaker 2: So I'm really.
Speaker 3: Intrigued to see where social media goes in the next
Speaker 3: few years. I can't say what direction it's going to
Speaker 3: be in. I know that affiliate marketing is becoming really popular.
Speaker 3: When it comes to influencers, it's wild. Yeah, like the
Speaker 3: linked in my Amazon store front?
Speaker 2: Where's your dressed from? Brittany? Oh, it's in my Amazon
Speaker 2: store front? Yeah, whe's your dressed from LinkedIn bio? I know,
Speaker 2: but I actually, Brittany, I just want to know. I
Speaker 2: actually like that.
Speaker 3: And we haven't done affiliate marketing all at Fate And
Speaker 3: for those listening if you don't know what affiliate marketing is,
Speaker 3: it's essentially where we can create a storefront and influencers
Speaker 3: can get their own customer link, and we don't pay
Speaker 3: the influencer anything upfront. We let's say give them the outfit.
Speaker 3: It's on them to promote that outfit and get people
Speaker 3: to shop through their link, and then they'll make a
Speaker 3: commission through that. So I think it's a good thing
Speaker 3: because the influencing. Yeah, influencers have to work for that money.
Speaker 3: They have to make the sales and if they're not
Speaker 3: generating sales, then they don't.
Speaker 2: Get anything, which honestly makes so much sense.
Speaker 3: I will say it is a little bit more shady
Speaker 3: because people just share their link on their story and
Speaker 3: say here's the link, but they don't disclose that they'll
Speaker 3: make commission through that.
Speaker 2: And I think that's where it's getting it right. Like
Speaker 2: in affiliate marketing, I think is brilliant. But the way
Speaker 2: that it is rolling out across social media because so
Speaker 2: many people don't get it, I feel like you're right,
Speaker 2: it is a bit shady and that needs to be
Speaker 2: cleaned up so that people can go, oh my god, no,
Speaker 2: I really want to shop Britney's link for that outfit. Yes,
Speaker 2: I think.
Speaker 3: There will be a lot of rules brought into place,
Speaker 3: the same way that all the rules were brought in
Speaker 3: a round sponsored posts and needing to disclose when something's paid,
Speaker 3: and I do see influencers sharing their link and saying
Speaker 3: like affiliate, you know in the little stars on the screen.
Speaker 3: But yeah, i'd say we're definitely going to move into
Speaker 3: even more of an affiliate marketing space. And again we
Speaker 3: haven't done that with Fate yet. I'm definitely open to
Speaker 3: exploring it because again, it's like less of a risk
Speaker 3: for the business.
Speaker 2: We just have to give the.
Speaker 3: Creator the outfit and it's on them to make the sales,
Speaker 3: which I think is really clever and a lot more
Speaker 3: safer of a risk for a business. But yeah, that's
Speaker 3: my one prediction.
Speaker 2: I feel like it's more organic as well. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: feel like the organicness of social media will go back
Speaker 2: to where it used to be. It feels more like
Speaker 2: a genuine recommendation because an influencer is not going to
Speaker 2: be promoting it if they don't think it's going to sell.
Speaker 2: And more often than not, now, as you said earlier
Speaker 2: in the episode, you could pay an influencer ten grand
Speaker 2: and it doesn't guarantee you a sale. In this an
Speaker 2: influencer isn't getting get paid, so they're going to be like, oh,
Speaker 2: I wouldn't work with Victoria because like, my audience aren't
Speaker 2: going to be interested in her product, I'm going to
Speaker 2: go to find one that actually fits my audience. And
Speaker 2: I think that that's a push in the right direction.
Speaker 2: That low key I love, Like, I just think it's smart.
Speaker 2: Who wants to sign up as a fate affiliate? Let
Speaker 2: me know? Yeah, Brittany. We did an affiliate marketing podcast recently.
Speaker 2: It was a deep dime, a little solo yap from
Speaker 2: meving like, all right, this is what it is, this
Speaker 2: is how it works. So if you haven't listened to that,
Speaker 2: go back and check it out. But Brittany, what an episode.
Speaker 2: This was our first business diary and I am so
Speaker 2: flipping excited about it. You have shared so much gold.
Speaker 2: I know our community is going to be like, oh
Speaker 2: my gosh, that was the best. Can we have more
Speaker 2: of it? And you absolutely so thank you for being
Speaker 2: so open to share. I guess your journey with fish
Speaker 2: because that's really special and we don't get the opportunity
Speaker 2: that often for people to go, oh, well, actually this
Speaker 2: is how it started. And you know, even with my
Speaker 2: friends who are founders, right like, we go out and
Speaker 2: we talk about people management. But I never get to
Speaker 2: sit them down and be like, so tell me, how
Speaker 2: did you start your business? Like what did that look like?
Speaker 2: Or why were you embarrassed of your garage? Like why
Speaker 2: wouldn't you share that? That's so cool? Like these are
Speaker 2: the things that even founders who are friends with founders
Speaker 2: don't get that info. And I just think that that's
Speaker 2: so special. I know our listeners are going to be
Speaker 2: very inspired, but also just very grateful to have a
Speaker 2: little peep into the life of Britney.
Speaker 3: Oh well, it was an absolute honor and thanks for
Speaker 3: having me on. I love talking about this stuff. So
Speaker 3: anytime you want me back, just let me know.
Speaker 2: Oh, I feel like you've done so much for the
Speaker 2: She's on the Money community and shameless plug for those
Speaker 2: of you who don't know. My new book, The Business
Speaker 2: Bible is officially out now and it is packed full
Speaker 2: of lessons and advice and insights from incredible entrepreneurs, including Brittany.
Speaker 2: Because you got involved. How does that feel to have
Speaker 2: I guess your business story in a book that is
Speaker 2: published on shelves around the country.
Speaker 3: It's bloody amazing. I'm honored to be a part of
Speaker 3: it all. So thank you so much.
Speaker 2: I was so excited when you said yes, I was like, yes,
Speaker 2: it's going to be reap. Oh my gosh. I literally
Speaker 2: wrote it with everybody, I guess in our Facebook group
Speaker 2: in mind, because they're the people that are like the
Speaker 2: backbone of our business. They're the people that I always
Speaker 2: am trying to create content for. So grab a copy
Speaker 2: if you want, Brittany, you don't have to do yours.
Speaker 2: This in the mail. It's en route, don't you worry.
Speaker 2: But oh my gosh, I love this. And next year
Speaker 2: there's going to be a few changes in the She's
Speaker 2: on the Money community. Business Bible episodes are actually going
Speaker 2: to head on over back to the Business Bible feed,
Speaker 2: not going to live always on the Shees on the
Speaker 2: Money feed. So jump on over there. I'll put the
Speaker 2: links in the show notes so that you can subscribe
Speaker 2: and never miss an episode like this one. Brittany again,
Speaker 2: thank you. I know our community has adored this because
Speaker 2: I have. And we're all the same, right, like, we're
Speaker 2: just girls who want to learn more about people where
Speaker 2: girls were just girls, Like how hard could it be?
Speaker 2: Exactly right? The advice shared.
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