Speaker 1: Hello.
Speaker 2: My name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud yr the
Speaker 2: Order KERNI Whoalbury and a waddery woman. And before we
Speaker 2: get started on She's on the Money podcast, I would
Speaker 2: like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of
Speaker 2: which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country, acknowledging
Speaker 2: the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through
Speaker 2: as this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and
Speaker 2: the storytelling of you to make a difference for today
Speaker 2: and lasting impact for tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Let's get into it. She's on the Money, She's on
Speaker 1: the Money. Hello and welcome. I'm Victoria Devine, the owner
Speaker 1: of several successful businesses, and I am joined by one
Speaker 1: of the hardest working side hustlers I know. It is
Speaker 1: Jess Gorici. Hello, welcome back to the show. You excited.
Speaker 3: I thank you for having me back.
Speaker 1: I feel like this one could have been written by you,
Speaker 1: because Jess, the community have been a little bit pervy
Speaker 1: and have been asking how I manage my time within
Speaker 1: the businesses, and I feel like that is a very
Speaker 1: fair question because sometimes I don't even know how I
Speaker 1: manage my time. You might humble me a few times
Speaker 1: throughout this and be like Victoria, that's aspirational. You say
Speaker 1: you do that, but it's in your calendar and it
Speaker 1: never happens. So feel free to pull me up on that,
Speaker 1: because I feel like authenticity is important here. But I'm
Speaker 1: going to give a little bit of insight today on
Speaker 1: where I put my focus and how I do things
Speaker 1: to keep myself on track and keep my team in
Speaker 1: order and still grow a business while I think still
Speaker 1: having a balanced and lovely life.
Speaker 3: I love that. I think it'll be super helpful and
Speaker 3: really insightful for everybody who maybe wants to do that
Speaker 3: for themselves someday.
Speaker 1: Now, I really want to start by saying, obviously this
Speaker 1: is going to look very different. Yes, we all have
Speaker 1: you know this is a Beyonce quote, right, everyone has
Speaker 1: the same twenty four hours in the days Beyonce. No,
Speaker 1: I hate that. But how I manage my time now
Speaker 1: is incredibly different to how I managed my time when
Speaker 1: I was first starting out. So I kind of want
Speaker 1: to break this up and do it in like three parts.
Speaker 1: So like the starting phase, how did I manage my time?
Speaker 1: Then the growing phase, and then a more established phase,
Speaker 1: which we're currently in now, because I think it's very unfair,
Speaker 1: especially in the business Bible community where we talk so
Speaker 1: often about you know, authenticity and transparency, Like I can
Speaker 1: be super transparent. I can tell you about my week
Speaker 1: right now, it involves getting a pedicure, Jess like slay,
Speaker 1: I've worked so hard to get to this point, but
Speaker 1: that's not going to help you grow or change or
Speaker 1: you know, justify the hard work that you're putting in.
Speaker 1: And you go, well, I can't just start living the
Speaker 1: exact same life that Victoria's living because that would make sense.
Speaker 1: Like that's ridiculous. And don't get me wrong, I understand
Speaker 1: the privilege. It is quite aspirational. When I like put
Speaker 1: it down on paper, I'm like, oh wow, I have
Speaker 1: achieved a lot and I'm really proud of it. But
Speaker 1: I also worked really hard to get here. So I
Speaker 1: think there's going to be a few different parts and
Speaker 1: this is the only way I can think of doing
Speaker 1: it that makes the most sense, gives you, guys, the
Speaker 1: transparency and the authenticity that I think you deserve.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think as well, you know, there are
Speaker 3: a lot of people who are probably starting up their
Speaker 3: business while they work another job, and so I think
Speaker 3: looking at it in those kind of three stages that
Speaker 3: you were talking about will be really helpful because no
Speaker 3: matter where you are in your business journey, if you're
Speaker 3: listening right now, hopefully you can get some little tips
Speaker 3: and tricks to help you out.
Speaker 1: All right, So let's dive straight in. Let's talk about
Speaker 1: the starting phase. Let's go back to when I had
Speaker 1: started Zella, and then She's On the money came along.
Speaker 1: I feel like, there's my babies when I took about them.
Speaker 1: I don't know how I did it, Like, I don't
Speaker 1: know how I wasn't institutionalized. That's probably not helpful, No, no,
Speaker 1: not Yeah, okay, let's dive into it. So at the
Speaker 1: time that I was starting Zella, it came up as
Speaker 1: an opportunity because I was already working in a wealth
Speaker 1: practice and I knew that I wanted my own thing,
Speaker 1: and I had been discussing with the director there, like
Speaker 1: how do I do this and also do that? And
Speaker 1: it meant a lot of extra hours because obviously I
Speaker 1: couldn't build my wealth practice on his watch because he
Speaker 1: still paid me for thirty eight hours a week to
Speaker 1: run his business. But in addition, to that. I was
Speaker 1: finishing my MBA, so I was doing I would say,
Speaker 1: an accelerated MBA. I think that's what it is actually called.
Speaker 1: But I was doing six units each and every single semester,
Speaker 1: as opposed to four, which normal people would do.
Speaker 3: What does that look like in terms of hours?
Speaker 1: Roughly a lot of hours. So I think about thirty
Speaker 1: hours a week. It's what I was doing, and I
Speaker 1: was going to UNI three or four nights a week
Speaker 1: after work. A day in the life would look like
Speaker 1: me getting up ridiculously early. I also had an obsession
Speaker 1: with fitness at the time, so I would get up
Speaker 1: at like four thirty five am the gym. I'd have
Speaker 1: my bullet coffee. What the hell, please don't go down
Speaker 1: that route, because I thought that's what all successful people did. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you've probably heard me absolutely shit all over that now,
Speaker 1: because I'm like, ah, that's actually not an indicator of success.
Speaker 1: Why did I, as a smart person, even think that.
Speaker 3: If I'm up at four thirty in the morning, I
Speaker 3: am not succeeding in my book? Yes, yeah, I am
Speaker 3: failing miserably.
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, absolutely not. If I'm up before fall thirty.
Speaker 1: It was an accident. Now, or someone's paying me a
Speaker 1: lot of money, yes, Jess, you and I would begrudgingly
Speaker 1: getting up still. So I was getting up really early,
Speaker 1: going to the gym, and I would be at my
Speaker 1: desk by six thirty or seven. And I had the
Speaker 1: privilege of being allowed to work on my business prior
Speaker 1: to business hours starting at nine am, so nine till five,
Speaker 1: So I would either be at my desk working on
Speaker 1: my business at work, or I would be at my
Speaker 1: desk working on UNI assignments. And I often found that
Speaker 1: the time between seven and nine it was like a
Speaker 1: nice time block of going, Okay, I've got two hours
Speaker 1: to smash out whatever i'd prepare the night before, and
Speaker 1: you know, get an assignment done or you know, at UNI,
Speaker 1: a lot of your assignments are about a thousand words.
Speaker 1: And I remember in my head, I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: I can smash out a thousand words in two hours,
Speaker 1: and that's just how my brain worked. I'd be like, yep, cool,
Speaker 1: can time block that. But every single thing that I
Speaker 1: did was in my calendar, so the gym, the coffee,
Speaker 1: the shower, literally the time that I needed for UNI,
Speaker 1: because if it wasn't scheduled, it wasn't happening, and ess
Speaker 1: as you know, I have adhd yes and you guys
Speaker 1: nowadays are like v we reminded you of that three
Speaker 1: weeks ago, and I'm like beh because I'm the worst
Speaker 1: at taking my medication. But back then I was very
Speaker 1: medicated because otherwise nothing would get done and I didn't
Speaker 1: have any support. I'd work my nine to five job.
Speaker 1: I would usually eat at my desk. I used to
Speaker 1: order you foods all the time. I barely ever left
Speaker 1: the office to eat because to me, that was an
Speaker 1: hour that I could use to either work on a
Speaker 1: UNI assignment or work on my business five five point
Speaker 1: thirty K. Sometimes i'd have to work late, that would
Speaker 1: be fine, but UNI always started at six, so I'd
Speaker 1: be at UNI by six and I would have another
Speaker 1: U foods to eat at UNI, usually cold because like
Speaker 1: the other side of the campus had the microwaves, so
Speaker 1: like Yollo eat cold dinner. This all good, and UNI
Speaker 1: would usually go to nine or ten PM. I'd then
Speaker 1: go home and get ready for work the next day.
Speaker 1: So usually the start of my week. It really depended
Speaker 1: on what I was doing and how I was doing it.
Speaker 1: Like with Unique, sometimes it would be like Monday, Wednesday, Friday.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it would be the first three days of the week.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it'd be the first four. It depended, and I
Speaker 1: always jumped at the opportunity to do what they call
Speaker 1: intensive units. So I remember having the offer. You know,
Speaker 1: you'd do your four units as usual, but you could
Speaker 1: pick up two intensive units each semester, and you were
Speaker 1: able to do them in a four day like super course.
Speaker 1: So you would take a Monday and a Friday off work,
Speaker 1: or it would happen over like Christmas, holidays or Easter
Speaker 1: or something, and you would do all twelve weeks of
Speaker 1: content in four days, including all of your assignments.
Speaker 3: Like it sounds it's great, but lack. That sounds crazy, but.
Speaker 1: It's relatively normal. Like if you've done an MBA, you
Speaker 1: know that that exists. It's not actually that unhinged. But
Speaker 1: you do four full days, but it is really time
Speaker 1: intensive because every day you would have an assignment due.
Speaker 1: So on the first day you do full day of content,
Speaker 1: finish at like six pm, go home, write your assignments,
Speaker 1: submit it, come back for the next day, and you
Speaker 1: would break up all of those units across four days,
Speaker 1: and then that fourth day would basically be exam day,
Speaker 1: so you'd have four eight twelve units across three days
Speaker 1: and then an exam and like finishing up your assignments
Speaker 1: or a group assignment on the fourth day. I think
Speaker 1: I ended up being able to do my MBA in
Speaker 1: just under two years because of that, which is very helpful.
Speaker 1: The second I stopped doing my MBA, kind of they
Speaker 1: crossed over, but not really like I enrolled while doing
Speaker 1: my MBA to do my finance diploma, so did that
Speaker 1: as well. Again much because it was online and it
Speaker 1: could be like self paced, but just time consuming. Weekends
Speaker 1: were spent working on union assignments or actually working on
Speaker 1: my business. It was the only time I had. I
Speaker 1: feel like a lot of people will look at it
Speaker 1: and go, well, that's not worth it at AOL, it
Speaker 1: might not be to you. Like that was what I
Speaker 1: was wildly passionate about at the time. And I was
Speaker 1: willing to sacrifice family time, and I was willing to
Speaker 1: sacrifice friends time. And you know, there are so many
Speaker 1: holidays that my girlfriend's got to go on together that
Speaker 1: I ultimately had to say no to. There are so
Speaker 1: many brunches I didn't go to, and friend gatherings and
Speaker 1: sports and social things that I didn't get to do
Speaker 1: because that's how I was choosing to build my business,
Speaker 1: and all of that happened. But yes, I built Zella
Speaker 1: on the side once the NBA stuff had finished, I
Speaker 1: obviously was really really wildly passionate about it. And She's
Speaker 1: on the Money came up and She's on the Money
Speaker 1: used to be lunch and learn sessions. So I used
Speaker 1: to run these lunch and learn sessions at different law firms,
Speaker 1: different big corporates to hopefully get some clients from my
Speaker 1: new business, Zella, because like, you can't just steal my
Speaker 1: current works clients, I'd have to get new ones. So
Speaker 1: I ran these lunch and learn sessions and realized I
Speaker 1: really wanted to work with women, so I was like,
Speaker 1: let's call it, She's on the money. So I think
Speaker 1: I was doing those in twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen, and
Speaker 1: it was just basic financial literacy, and yeah, it kind
Speaker 1: of like snowballed from there and over time, I think
Speaker 1: it wasn't till twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen that I thought,
Speaker 1: why not give this hole She's on the money like
Speaker 1: thinger go and created a Facebook group. It was more
Speaker 1: so I could connect with the people that went to
Speaker 1: my workshops, and I would have a curriculum inside that
Speaker 1: Facebook Jess and I every week would be like, all right,
Speaker 1: so this week on Monday, We're talking about superannuation and
Speaker 1: on Wednesday, I'm going to drop a superranuation activity. And
Speaker 1: like it was all very structured, yeah, and so time consuming,
Speaker 1: but that is what I would do. And then from
Speaker 1: one thing and this will be a longer story, just
Speaker 1: to like frame where we started. I supper, sorry, Jess,
Speaker 1: we started there. And then I remember the day it
Speaker 1: hit seventeen hundred people in that Facebook group and I
Speaker 1: was like, this is wild, like we're talking twenty nineteen. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I asked the group, I said, what do you
Speaker 1: want me to do? Like how do I make this
Speaker 1: more approachable? Like what content can I create? And they said,
Speaker 1: we really want you to create video content? Can you
Speaker 1: like start a YouTube? Which is funny now because I
Speaker 1: said absolutely not. I'm never going on video hipocrite.
Speaker 3: By Irony exactly.
Speaker 1: And one thing led to another and decided to do
Speaker 1: a podcast instead felt less scary and I think that
Speaker 1: is written in the wall. The podcast kind of blew
Speaker 1: up and I realized that that needed a lot more love.
Speaker 1: And then, you know, because of the podcast and because
Speaker 1: of the community in my Facebook group, my wealth business
Speaker 1: started to grow and I got quote, real clients and
Speaker 1: got to go out on my own and do those things.
Speaker 1: And it's not so that you guys can go, wow,
Speaker 1: she's really disciplined and sacrificed so much like I was
Speaker 1: just wildly passionate about it. And then Zella and She's
Speaker 1: on the Money of grew together, and then ultimately, you know,
Speaker 1: grew the business, started hiring people, and then you know,
Speaker 1: created these two teams of people that could support me
Speaker 1: so that I could take a bit of pressure off myself. Yeah,
Speaker 1: when it came to the hours that I was putting in.
Speaker 1: And then in September twenty twenty two, made the decision
Speaker 1: that in the future, I really did want to have
Speaker 1: a family and I did want to have a life,
Speaker 1: and I wanted some balance back, and I sold that
Speaker 1: wealth business and started just doing mortgage broking, which was
Speaker 1: a very small component of Zella at the time, and
Speaker 1: grew that and also just kept growing Cheese on the money.
Speaker 1: So that's the starting phase.
Speaker 3: Crazy, it sounds like a lot of hard work.
Speaker 1: That's what I said at the start, not sure if
Speaker 1: I should have been institutionalized.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I feel like starting a business sounds like such
Speaker 3: a dream in your head when you think about it,
Speaker 3: this far away concept that people don't necessarily understand the
Speaker 3: legwork that you have to do to start until you're
Speaker 3: in the thick of it. And I think for you, you
Speaker 3: had a pretty good trajectory that not all small businesses have.
Speaker 3: Like you had so much opportunity, Yeah, really rapid compounded growth.
Speaker 3: And you know you were saying that kind of twenty
Speaker 3: nineteen phase we started doing sheetes on the money, and
Speaker 3: then by twenty twenty, you know, the Facebook group, the podcast,
Speaker 3: did it all taken off? Yeah, And that's unheard of.
Speaker 3: And I feel so lucky that I was in the
Speaker 3: right space at the right time. And I think also
Speaker 3: we need to preface this. We're talking about my journey.
Speaker 3: We're not talking about what's expected of you.
Speaker 1: Like Jess, if you said I want to start my
Speaker 1: own business, is it worth doing what you did? They
Speaker 1: I would go you need to seriously consider whether it
Speaker 1: is or not, Yeah, because for most people it's not.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And it's very different, and I think it's more
Speaker 3: and more people are out there. There's more and more competition,
Speaker 3: and it is partly what you're doing and how you
Speaker 3: meet you are, and partly what timing you have and
Speaker 3: what you do, and so that can be really hard.
Speaker 1: Sorry to cut you off there again. I think it
Speaker 1: also needs to be pointed out very clearly. It's been
Speaker 1: mentioned once already, but like I do have ADHD, I
Speaker 1: hyper focus on things. Yeah, when I have a B
Speaker 1: in my bonnet, it is like nobody else, like you've
Speaker 1: seen it in the business, Like you just think I'm
Speaker 1: insane sometimes, like the amount of times that our team
Speaker 1: tries to peg me back because you go the what's
Speaker 1: it going to be? Like are you going to do this,
Speaker 1: this or this? And I go I'm doing it all
Speaker 1: and you guys go, no, that is actually unreasonable, we
Speaker 1: cannot deliver that, And I go, oh, yeah, okay, sorry,
Speaker 1: Like I have had to really reset my expectations about
Speaker 1: what I expect from other people. And I think that
Speaker 1: you know, we're on the same page now, but historically
Speaker 1: I'd be like, well, I can do forty fifty sixty
Speaker 1: seventy hour weeks. Why can't you? Yeah, Like, why aren't
Speaker 1: you as passionate about my business? As I am, and
Speaker 1: you cannot expect that from other people, but I expected
Speaker 1: it from myself, and that's where burnout happens.
Speaker 3: One hundred percent. I think even with just freelancing for me,
Speaker 3: you know, you have to spend the time researching what
Speaker 3: works and putting the time into finding the right clients
Speaker 3: and the management and the relationships, and I think there
Speaker 3: are so many little things that take up the time.
Speaker 3: And if you're someone who, like both you and I,
Speaker 3: are working a full time job and trying to start
Speaker 3: or do something on the side to give you a
Speaker 3: bit of extra money, I think what you were saying
Speaker 3: about having reasonable expectations on yourself is so important because
Speaker 3: if you are doing those ninety hour weeks like what
Speaker 3: you were doing, it's a miracle that you didn't, you know,
Speaker 3: end up incredibly unwell or I did.
Speaker 1: I ended up in hospital with shingles. Yeah, well, it's
Speaker 1: not a flex That is an indicator that I had
Speaker 1: burnt myself out. And I fully believe that I could
Speaker 1: have built Zella and she's on the money over a
Speaker 1: longer timeframe that you know, was more sustainable for my
Speaker 1: physical and mental health and was healthier, but I didn't
Speaker 1: because I didn't know any different, and I just had
Speaker 1: to be in my bonnet and I wanted to get
Speaker 1: it done. And that's a part of my personality as well,
Speaker 1: and I think that that's why I'm like, oh, like
Speaker 1: when this topic came up and we're talking about you know,
Speaker 1: lots of people are asking about how I manage my time.
Speaker 1: I felt really awful being asked that because I look
Speaker 1: at it and I go, that was not how to
Speaker 1: manage your time. That was not yes, did I get
Speaker 1: where I needed to go, but like at what cost? Yeah,
Speaker 1: at the cost of a lot of friendships, at the
Speaker 1: cost of a lot of experiences, at the cost of
Speaker 1: a relationship at the time, like so much went absolutely
Speaker 1: in the bin because I was so set on what
Speaker 1: was going on, and it was kind of like, you know,
Speaker 1: twenty one, twenty twenty two. I was like, this is
Speaker 1: not sustainable, and like you were around for that, you
Speaker 1: worked for Shees on the money. I remember coming in
Speaker 1: one day and being like I think I'm going to
Speaker 1: sell Zella wealth and you were like, wait what And
Speaker 1: I was like, I just can't keep this up, and
Speaker 1: you were like, Babe, I've been telling you that for
Speaker 1: a long time. And like, who said this? Because that
Speaker 1: was me. So I think it's so important to you know, obviously,
Speaker 1: work hard if the reward is worth it and you
Speaker 1: see the value in it, because I think that it
Speaker 1: is so genuine to love what you do. But I
Speaker 1: do not believe the concept that you know, if you
Speaker 1: love what you do, you never work a day in
Speaker 1: your life. No, no, no, I worked really hard. I
Speaker 1: love what I do, but I definitely worked. I never
Speaker 1: felt like I haven't worked. In fact, I'm the type
Speaker 1: of personality who craves work like I would go insane
Speaker 1: if you weren't giving me tasks and things to think
Speaker 1: about and work to do. Like this whole maternity leave
Speaker 1: thing drives me up the wall. Like hate the idea
Speaker 1: that I'm going to be pulled away from my business.
Speaker 1: Love the idea that I'm starting a family and want
Speaker 1: to give that the time and energy it deserves. At
Speaker 1: the same time as knowing I have so many competing
Speaker 1: priorities and this love for my shoes on the money,
Speaker 1: community and the business I'm building and the staff that
Speaker 1: I have that I don't want to be away from it,
Speaker 1: at the same time as going victoria. If you don't
Speaker 1: step out of this business for at least twelve weeks.
Speaker 1: You're gonna regret it when that baby is older. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I think it's about value. But I guess let's
Speaker 1: go to a really quick break because when we get back,
Speaker 1: I'm going to chat more about I guess, how to
Speaker 1: manage your time effectively during a growth phase. And then
Speaker 1: let's chat about managing your time in an established phase
Speaker 1: and what were life balance actually looks like for me now,
Speaker 1: because I promise it's so much better.
Speaker 3: All right, everybody, we're back, and next on the list
Speaker 3: is to chat about the growth phase. So you've worked
Speaker 3: through your startup phase, maybe you've taken the jump into
Speaker 3: employing your first employee.
Speaker 1: On the money employee.
Speaker 3: I know, how fun, what a throwback.
Speaker 1: You're lucky. I'd had some experience with some other employees before,
Speaker 1: and you were like the little guinea pig. Yes, you
Speaker 1: were the first she's on the money employee.
Speaker 3: That's so exciting. And I guess what was that like
Speaker 3: for you stepping from the space of like being by
Speaker 3: yourself and doing your ninety hour weeks to you know,
Speaker 3: stepping into managing time with other people there to support you,
Speaker 3: but also to manage.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was a lot, and I was young and diluted,
Speaker 1: so I thought it was great at the time. But
Speaker 1: the first team I built was the Zella team, and
Speaker 1: at the time I did have a business partner, so
Speaker 1: it was a little bit easier to grow it, but
Speaker 1: there was a lot of responsibility. And that was my
Speaker 1: first quote big team we had of nearly thirty and
Speaker 1: I was so worried. Like all the time, I was
Speaker 1: consistently anxious because I'd be like, well, how am I
Speaker 1: meant to be in this position? And they know I
Speaker 1: own the business, but I'm also half their age, and
Speaker 1: I'm also, you know, not nearly as experienced, and it's
Speaker 1: kind of like a fake it till you make it,
Speaker 1: but also fake it because you can't have people see
Speaker 1: that you're not capable. Yeah, so there was a lot
Speaker 1: of pressure that I guess put on myself during that phase,
Speaker 1: and it's beautiful and I don't wish to change anything.
Speaker 1: I think that the leader I am today is a
Speaker 1: much different leader to the leader I was back then.
Speaker 1: I'm sure that there are people that I could have
Speaker 1: done better by. I'm sure there are situations that I
Speaker 1: could have managed better. I think there are things that
Speaker 1: you know, I lost along the way that I didn't
Speaker 1: have to lose, but I didn't know how not to
Speaker 1: lose them at that point. And I think during growth
Speaker 1: phase that's where all the learning happens. It's not just
Speaker 1: your business growing, it's you growing because you've never done
Speaker 1: this before and you don't know what's right or wrong,
Speaker 1: and ultimate there is no right or wrong. So hiring
Speaker 1: our first employee was overwhelming. Thankfully, I was well supported
Speaker 1: and had like a lawyer that drew up our employment
Speaker 1: contract and what that would look like. And at the time,
Speaker 1: we were doing payroll internally, so I'd have to work
Speaker 1: all of that out. And you know, it was a lot.
Speaker 1: Opening an office is a lot, like you know, not
Speaker 1: to get into the nitty gritty of it, but officers
Speaker 1: are so expensive to manage, like to run. You have
Speaker 1: not only the rent on the office, but you have
Speaker 1: all of the overheads, You have a fit out. You
Speaker 1: then have ongoing maintenance costs. We had to pay a cleaner.
Speaker 1: We were then stocking the fridge. All of those little
Speaker 1: things that add up. You go, oh my gosh, there's
Speaker 1: no milk in the fridge for coffee and tea. Oh,
Speaker 1: let's get a coffee machine. Oh my gosh. All right,
Speaker 1: so now we have a coffee machine, but because of
Speaker 1: its volume of usage, it needs to be serviced every month.
Speaker 1: And like, oh, we want the you know, floyer of
Speaker 1: our office to be really nice. Let's get some plants.
Speaker 1: Maintenance of plants. Like, it's just stuff that adds up,
Speaker 1: and not everybody has these expenses. When I decided to
Speaker 1: go get rid of a business partner, get rid of
Speaker 1: all of that and start from scratch on my own,
Speaker 1: having to do that again on my own was really overwhelming.
Speaker 1: And then I guess I was in the privileged position
Speaker 1: where that was a really black and white bread and
Speaker 1: butter business, right, Like it's financial advice. We did accounting,
Speaker 1: and then we didn't, and then we were doing mortgage broking.
Speaker 1: That is such a basic business and I won't say
Speaker 1: basics in dumb it down business, but that's a pre
Speaker 1: existing business model, jess. It exists, right, like you know,
Speaker 1: the mortgage broking businesses exist. I could spend so long
Speaker 1: on Google studying other people's websites, their organizational structures, having
Speaker 1: a look at their LinkedIn, seeing who got hired first,
Speaker 1: who did they prioritize networking in the industry, talking to
Speaker 1: people about well, what did you prioritize, how did you
Speaker 1: do this in this growth phase? This is where I
Speaker 1: needed the mentors that I had the most. I feel
Speaker 1: like in that really startup phase, I had blinkers on.
Speaker 1: I didn't want other people's opinions. But the second I
Speaker 1: started to have to have bigger responsibilities like staff, I
Speaker 1: was like, well, I better get back on this mentor thing,
Speaker 1: because like, they've done it before. So for me, hiring
Speaker 1: my first employee inside Zella was not as scary as
Speaker 1: hiring you.
Speaker 3: That's so interesting.
Speaker 1: I really liked you. I'm just still here, like what
Speaker 1: nearly four years later, so kudos for putting up with me.
Speaker 1: But she's on the money was such a different business model.
Speaker 1: I didn't know anybody else who was running a media
Speaker 1: podcasting business. I didn't know what that would look like,
Speaker 1: or how that would grow, or is it worth biting
Speaker 1: the bullet and paying this amount because there wasn't any
Speaker 1: direct ROI because with a mortgage broker, I worked on
Speaker 1: a three times multiple, so I'd be like, all, right,
Speaker 1: of their income, thirty percent goes to the business and growth,
Speaker 1: thirty percent should be profit. And thirty percent should be
Speaker 1: overheads that I pay the stuff. That's how I would
Speaker 1: work it out, and I go all right, So taking
Speaker 1: all of that into consideration, this is what they should
Speaker 1: be paid, and this is what they should be earning
Speaker 1: for the business. Yeah, there was direct You earn X
Speaker 1: and I pay you Y, and that is a deal
Speaker 1: with you. We've never had financial targets. Yeah, obviously now
Speaker 1: do partnerships and do do a lot of financial things,
Speaker 1: but we've never had those targets because media and podcasting
Speaker 1: are so different. It's not like I can treat you
Speaker 1: like a mortgage broker and be like, yes, this role
Speaker 1: is very black and white. You go out, this are
Speaker 1: your sales targets, and this is what you get paid.
Speaker 1: And if you wake way more sales targets, then you
Speaker 1: get paid more. But it's not mortgage broking. So I
Speaker 1: think that that, to me, was one of the hardest things,
Speaker 1: and in that growth phase it was really challenging, and
Speaker 1: we made a few mistakes. We hired people that were like, Loop,
Speaker 1: this isn't a good fit, and I think you've got
Speaker 1: to grow through what you go through. So to me, yes,
Speaker 1: it was good. But also, this is the stage where
Speaker 1: the pressure started to be taken off because I had
Speaker 1: people that I trusted to do the things that I
Speaker 1: was doing. It was hard. I don't know if you
Speaker 1: remember how controlling was. Yeah, I didn't want to let
Speaker 1: go of anything.
Speaker 3: I'm glad we've worked through that now, but I.
Speaker 1: Didn't want to let go. But once I learned how
Speaker 1: to let go, I was like, that's why she's here,
Speaker 1: because she's better at it than New Victoria.
Speaker 3: And what was your time like during that period?
Speaker 1: Very busy because I feel like you are switched on
Speaker 1: twenty four hours a day still because you're trying to
Speaker 1: grow a business and you know, make sure Jess is
Speaker 1: happy and then do any hire another Jess? And what
Speaker 1: does this look like? But there was a lot less
Speaker 1: pressure because you're not setting things up for the first time,
Speaker 1: you're not working out your accounting system. At this point,
Speaker 1: I did a really big review of my business and
Speaker 1: realized that there were a lot of things I should
Speaker 1: be outsourcing. So that was the point at which I
Speaker 1: was like, Okay, well, how many hours a week am
Speaker 1: I wasting or using on lots of different things? And
Speaker 1: I time tracked my hours. I think for a month,
Speaker 1: every hour of the day was allocated for and then
Speaker 1: I did a big review and I worked out how
Speaker 1: long it was taking me to do payroll, how long
Speaker 1: it was taking me to do a CA counting, And
Speaker 1: I went through and I printed out my outlook. I
Speaker 1: like screenshot it and printed out the outlook and like
Speaker 1: used different color highlighters as I went through, and was like,
Speaker 1: all right, well that's an admin task. That's an admin task.
Speaker 1: And that was how I worked out that we needed
Speaker 1: another admin. But also what could we outsource far out
Speaker 1: was actually taking me fifteen to twenty hours a month
Speaker 1: to do payroll and bookkeeping and all of the reconciliations
Speaker 1: for our bank accounts, And I went, that's a waste
Speaker 1: of my time because that's working in the business, not
Speaker 1: on the business, like at the end of the day.
Speaker 1: That's a task that needs to be done every month.
Speaker 1: That's when we hired a bookkeeper. And I thought, okay,
Speaker 1: well that's a good use of time because that gives
Speaker 1: me another fifteen hours a month to grow the business. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I think that time blocking and it sounds really lame.
Speaker 1: I would just like every night go back through because
Speaker 1: I didn't do it. As we're going I'd go through
Speaker 1: my calendar and be like, all right, well, between ten
Speaker 1: and ten thirty, oh what did I do? I did this,
Speaker 1: And between eleven and twelve I did this, and like,
Speaker 1: I blocked it all in. And then after a month,
Speaker 1: I printed four pages and I went through and I
Speaker 1: highlighted the tasks that could be handed off without impacting
Speaker 1: the business. And that's where we started to grow a
Speaker 1: lot more. But it also helped me to understand what
Speaker 1: my focus should and shouldn't be, because my job was
Speaker 1: to grow the business, and I think I was lucky
Speaker 1: to know that handing tasks like that over was not
Speaker 1: going to send the business into a spiral. In fact,
Speaker 1: it freed me up to do more content, to go
Speaker 1: from having one podcast a week that we had two
Speaker 1: three plus two other shows. And I think that that's
Speaker 1: where you've got to let go to grow.
Speaker 3: It's such an exciting phase for so many people, but
Speaker 3: I think also very challenging navigating that new and growing space.
Speaker 3: If we think now about heading into the established phase,
Speaker 3: obviously now it be your businesses are totally there, We're
Speaker 3: all set up, were very solid. Can you walk us
Speaker 3: through your days and your weeks now and how you
Speaker 3: kind of spend your time.
Speaker 1: Okay, So right now, let's be brutally honest. This is
Speaker 1: a pre recorded episode, and I'm thirty nine weeks pregnant.
Speaker 1: So I'm on Matt Lee. Hi, Hi, I have had
Speaker 1: a baby right now while I'm talking to you. Just
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's boy. I don't know if
Speaker 1: it's girl. You can probably go check socials because that
Speaker 1: would be public information now, but I think that let's
Speaker 1: just pretend it's not today and I'm not super pregnant.
Speaker 1: In my feet don't look to like sausages these days.
Speaker 1: It's a lot more relaxed. I feel like I don't
Speaker 1: have nearly as many meetings in my calendar. If you
Speaker 1: looked at my calendar, there might be two or three
Speaker 1: things in my calendar each day, which leaves me a
Speaker 1: lot of time to work on the business and strategize
Speaker 1: and plan and really reinforce the relationships I have in
Speaker 1: the business. A lot of the time, I'm not, you know,
Speaker 1: creating product, because I now have a team that does that, like,
Speaker 1: So to be even more transparent, She's on the money
Speaker 1: now has six full time employees and two I would
Speaker 1: say part time, and Alisa Hi. She's full time employee,
Speaker 1: but not by me, by our podcast studio, and she
Speaker 1: works one hundred percent of her time on she's on
Speaker 1: the money. And then we've got Beck who is a
Speaker 1: part time or so there's eight in the team. I
Speaker 1: don't have to script the episodes anymore. That used to
Speaker 1: take me, you know, one or two hours each script,
Speaker 1: and you know, you extrapolate that out how many shows
Speaker 1: we have and how many hours we do of content
Speaker 1: every week, so that's alleviated. I don't have to cut
Speaker 1: up videos any more myself. I don't have to edit
Speaker 1: the podcast any more myself in my quote spare time.
Speaker 1: I don't have to do any of the social media
Speaker 1: posts because we've got Georgia and she does all of them.
Speaker 1: So I think my time is more spent on the strategy.
Speaker 1: I feel very privileged, but it's like my favorite part.
Speaker 1: Like I get to come in with my ideas and
Speaker 1: you know, I might sit down with you just and
Speaker 1: be like, oh my gosh, I've got this laundry list
Speaker 1: of dream clients and you go, no way is they
Speaker 1: I'm going to work on contracting them and seeing if
Speaker 1: they're interested in working with us, And I go, wow,
Speaker 1: like that just happens for me. You know. I come
Speaker 1: in and go, hey, Georgia, I've been thinking about this
Speaker 1: new content. I've seen this, this and this. I'd love
Speaker 1: to create something similar. Or I have this really good
Speaker 1: idea about a content series pretty Rogue. Can we try it?
Speaker 1: And Georgia and Brooke will do it? So I think
Speaker 1: it's so nice to be I guess in control. I
Speaker 1: still think about it twenty four seven, like this is
Speaker 1: still my baby, but it looks so different like my morning's.
Speaker 1: We're not getting up at four thirty am, Jess. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I get up at six thirty seven with my husband
Speaker 1: and we go for a walk and we get coffee.
Speaker 1: And there's just such a better work life balance now.
Speaker 1: But I genuinely believe I worked for that, like I
Speaker 1: have worked my butt off, and at the time, that's
Speaker 1: not the life I thought I would have. I thought,
Speaker 1: I'm going to be a really big hustle, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be so rich, I'm going to do this that the
Speaker 1: other like to me, I would look up to people
Speaker 1: like Elon musk Yah, which is disgusting, is so disgusting.
Speaker 1: Do not clip that out and tell anybody. But I
Speaker 1: would look up to them and be like they are
Speaker 1: so committed to their work. They get up every day
Speaker 1: and like they just make decisions and do this. And
Speaker 1: I just look at it now and I go, am
Speaker 1: I as aggressive about growth as I was?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: No, Like, Jess, what do I think of growth? Like,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't want a big team anymore. I
Speaker 1: feel like I've gotten out of that phase. And then
Speaker 1: I look at it again and go, I would much
Speaker 1: prefer to have quality over quantity. Like you might be
Speaker 1: in a situation where you want to build a megabusiness,
Speaker 1: you might be in a situation where you want to
Speaker 1: build a part time business that just has some extra income. Like,
Speaker 1: We're all on different wavelengths. But to me, creating the
Speaker 1: lifestyle that I have today took so long. I wasn't
Speaker 1: born into a family who had intergenerational wealth who could
Speaker 1: kick start my business. I had to work so hard
Speaker 1: and compromise so much to be able to get here.
Speaker 1: But I think that now my focus is just on
Speaker 1: having the resources, giving my team a beautiful work life balance,
Speaker 1: showing them that I care, because the more I care
Speaker 1: about them, the more they give to our community, and
Speaker 1: the more our community thrives for me. I think it's
Speaker 1: just about focusing on how to make this business as
Speaker 1: sustainable as possible. We had a couple of months ago
Speaker 1: a strategy session with the She's on the Money team,
Speaker 1: and we sat down and we were like, Okay, well,
Speaker 1: what does this look like. How do we introduce additional
Speaker 1: revenue streams to the business so that we can thrive
Speaker 1: and not be so stressed if you know, the podcast
Speaker 1: doesn't work out in a few years, because you never
Speaker 1: know what the world looks like in media. And I
Speaker 1: think that that, to me is just exciting. Now, yeah,
Speaker 1: because we have created that sustainability and you know as
Speaker 1: well as I do, that we have enough money coming
Speaker 1: in the door to sustain the team, so we can
Speaker 1: try a few different things and see if they fail.
Speaker 1: But I did not have that opportunity at the start.
Speaker 1: I couldn't try something and see if it failed. I
Speaker 1: would have no more money to pay salaries, I would
Speaker 1: have no flexibility. I would be done. So I was
Speaker 1: so conservative at the start. Now we just try things,
Speaker 1: see if they work. If they don't work, we'll just
Speaker 1: delete them and pretend it never happened.
Speaker 3: I think that gives some really good insight into how
Speaker 3: people can look at the trajectory of their business. I
Speaker 3: think staying away from comparison culture is also really important
Speaker 3: and important because yeah, like you said, we all technically
Speaker 3: have the same twenty four hours in the day, but
Speaker 3: we don't have the same opportunities or the same twenty
Speaker 3: four hours as the person next to us. And it's
Speaker 3: easy to look at a business and think that it's
Speaker 3: doing really well, but you don't know the behind the scenes.
Speaker 3: You don't know if somebody is doubling or tripling up
Speaker 3: on their workload or.
Speaker 1: I feel like I used to look at people and
Speaker 1: not understand that. And like I think people still look
Speaker 1: towards us and go, wow, like your work life balance
Speaker 1: is crazy because they see like our work retreats.
Speaker 3: Yeah, of course they look lit.
Speaker 1: We had the best fun, right, but also we did
Speaker 1: so much hard work on that we got through so
Speaker 1: much content. Like that's the not so shiny part that
Speaker 1: you know, we didn't put on socials because we were
Speaker 1: actually busy working. Yeah, and you might look at me
Speaker 1: and go V's work life balance looks so sick. I
Speaker 1: can't believe she gets up early, you know, every morning
Speaker 1: with her husband, goes for a walk with their dog
Speaker 1: and has a lot more flexibility, and like, I do
Speaker 1: have time every three weeks in my calendar to get
Speaker 1: a pedicure because it's important to me. But I've worked
Speaker 1: really hard for that, and I have so much support
Speaker 1: around me, and without that support, I could never yeah
Speaker 1: do that. Yeah, And I think that that's where you go,
Speaker 1: not taking the piss, But I did work really hard
Speaker 1: for this.
Speaker 3: Yeah, one hundred percent. Some people just have more resources
Speaker 3: and more money and more support and just focusing on
Speaker 3: being one percent better every day, I think is something
Speaker 3: that anyone starting their small business journey should really try
Speaker 3: to focus on.
Speaker 1: Agreed.
Speaker 3: Sometimes I feel like trying to grow as a creator,
Speaker 3: you know you don't get there as fast as you
Speaker 3: want to, but you also need to remember, like for me,
Speaker 3: I work full time. I love my job and I
Speaker 3: give a lot to my job, and just because I'm
Speaker 3: not growing as fast as somebody else doesn't mean my
Speaker 3: time is being spent less effectively.
Speaker 1: I know. And it's so easy to look at somebody
Speaker 1: else who had a video go viral and blew up
Speaker 1: overnight and you're like, oh, I could have done that.
Speaker 1: I could have done that, Like, I don't know, we
Speaker 1: do it all the time, even if she's on the money.
Speaker 1: Like sometimes you and I be like, hey, we did
Speaker 1: that like a month ago. Why did that then work
Speaker 1: for this person?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: And I think that it's just not helpful. It's not constructive.
Speaker 1: Stay in your own lane, work out what you want.
Speaker 1: I think something that I wish I had done earlier
Speaker 1: in my business journey is really go, well, what are
Speaker 1: my values? What am I trying to create? Because I
Speaker 1: think I was a bit of a bull that had
Speaker 1: seen a red flag and I'm like, I'm going to
Speaker 1: take over the world.
Speaker 2: Men.
Speaker 1: Absolutely not, Like I can work in finance. If a
Speaker 1: boy can do it, I can do it. Like I
Speaker 1: was very aggressive with what I wanted to achieve, and
Speaker 1: let's be honest, that has played into our success. But
Speaker 1: was I super happy? Absolutely not. So I guess that's
Speaker 1: a very very good place to probably leave it. I
Speaker 1: think I've exposed enough of my business repress today and
Speaker 1: my personal secrets, so let's leave it at that. What
Speaker 1: do you reckon? I think?
Speaker 2: So?
Speaker 3: I will see you all on Friday, Bye, guys? Bye?
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Speaker 1: in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's
Speaker 1: on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should
Speaker 1: not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision.
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