Speaker 1: This episode was recorded on Cameragle Land.
Speaker 2: Hi guys, and welcome back to another episode of Life Uncut.
Speaker 2: I'm Brittany and I'm Laura, and I'm very excited to
Speaker 2: introduce today's guest in the flesh. It's definitely not the
Speaker 2: first time we have spoken to her, but the last
Speaker 2: time we spoke to her, unfortunately, wasn't in the same room.
Speaker 2: It was over the interwebs, which it's always better when
Speaker 2: you can go good.
Speaker 1: Don't prove through that episode, go back and listen to it.
Speaker 2: Well, it's Britney Saunders and she is one of the
Speaker 2: most impressive young female entrepreneurs I would say in Aussie business.
Speaker 2: You might know her from one of our episodes, but
Speaker 2: also from YouTube, her huge social media following, or her
Speaker 2: brand Fate the Label, which is absolutely going gangbusters. She's
Speaker 2: had cafes, she's got podcast. She's one of those people
Speaker 2: that just puts her finger in every single pie.
Speaker 3: I'm very, very jealous.
Speaker 2: But we're here today to talk about her brand new book,
Speaker 2: Just Getting Started, which is an unfiltered look at the
Speaker 2: wild ride of building businesses from the ground up, making
Speaker 2: big mistakes and staying true to your vision.
Speaker 4: Already having so many fingers in so many parts, and
Speaker 4: then you just decided to become an author as well, Like, yeah,
Speaker 4: I just thought.
Speaker 5: Like I didn't have enough on so I'm not busy
Speaker 5: enough Lane, But you know what, Okay, So we have
Speaker 5: covered so much with you and also welcome to the Thanks,
Speaker 5: thanks for having me back.
Speaker 4: Thanks, it's good to be here in the flesh this
Speaker 4: time though. Yeah, so we can hug you and touch
Speaker 4: you in real life. Yeah no, but we've covered so
Speaker 4: much on that. We did that episode in May twenty
Speaker 4: twenty three, if anyone wants to go back and listen
Speaker 4: to it. That was really deep dive into like how
Speaker 4: you started Fate, the reasons behind it, the things that
Speaker 4: makes Fate stand out in comparison to other brands in
Speaker 4: the Australian fashion industry. Also, we talked about fat phobia
Speaker 4: in the fashion industry. There was so much in that
Speaker 4: and you also joined us at our live show as well.
Speaker 4: So I feel like we've had a lot of Brittany
Speaker 4: over the last.
Speaker 1: Couple of years.
Speaker 4: But this is something and what you've put out into
Speaker 4: the world around business and being a female entrepreneur in
Speaker 4: the industry and growing that for Scratch and I think
Speaker 4: the thing that's so interesting about your journey to this
Speaker 4: is that it's not like you went to business school
Speaker 4: and took a tradition.
Speaker 1: You know, there's a lot of like life lessons that
Speaker 1: come along the way.
Speaker 4: Yes, before we get unpacking on all of what you
Speaker 4: have been creating over the last couple of years, do
Speaker 4: you have an actually unfiltered for us.
Speaker 6: I got stuck on this last time, and I'm stuck
Speaker 6: on it again, and I can.
Speaker 4: Tell the Brisbane show one there was only two thousand
Speaker 4: people there, so there's gonna be all.
Speaker 6: I feel like I had two on that live show
Speaker 6: night and I can't remember what the other one was,
Speaker 6: but one of them was I jumped in a pool
Speaker 6: with a pad on.
Speaker 7: I would have been like fifteen.
Speaker 4: So it was not recent and you didn't know the
Speaker 4: aftermath of what was going to happen.
Speaker 6: Like I just forgot I had a pad on and
Speaker 6: then I could feel it filling up and then I'm like,
Speaker 6: oh shit, I had to get out of there.
Speaker 3: It's just like in front of like, yeah, you had
Speaker 3: a party.
Speaker 6: Was it like our family home when we were younger,
Speaker 6: and there was like I think we had friends over,
Speaker 6: so I jumped out quickly.
Speaker 3: You know what's worse? You just reminded me. I just remember,
Speaker 3: I reckon, Everyone's done this at some point.
Speaker 2: I remember being at a friend's house or might have
Speaker 2: even been my boyfriend when I was like fourteen. I
Speaker 2: remember taking my tampond to change it, wrapping it in
Speaker 2: the toilet paper, putting the other one in, but not
Speaker 2: putting it in the bin. You know when you've walked
Speaker 2: away later and you realize you've like let left all the.
Speaker 1: Top of the oh.
Speaker 2: And it's that thought of being like, oh my.
Speaker 1: God, like his mum's gonna find that because he's never
Speaker 1: cleaned a bathroom in.
Speaker 2: His lives, mums will had to have put it in
Speaker 2: the bin.
Speaker 7: I think we've all done that.
Speaker 1: Every single person has a periods, So I'll never forget.
Speaker 4: When I was at the beach and my eighteen year
Speaker 4: old boyfriend or seventeen, however old he was, he was like,
Speaker 4: you've got a string hanging out, pulled my what he
Speaker 4: thought was my bikini string, and pulled my tampon out. No,
Speaker 4: not so, if we haven't want to have a moment
Speaker 4: where someone wants to die on the spot.
Speaker 1: That was me.
Speaker 4: I mean firstly, congratulations on the book. It's such a
Speaker 4: huge effort to go from I mean, you can know
Speaker 4: all the things that there are to know about the
Speaker 4: industry that you work in, but then to put pen
Speaker 4: to paper and actually write about it is a whole
Speaker 4: separate kettle of fish. What was the reasoning for wanting
Speaker 4: to write the book in the first place.
Speaker 6: Funnily enough, my partner AJ has been saying to me
Speaker 6: for a lot of years, like, you should write a book,
Speaker 6: and I would always go, oh, like what would I
Speaker 6: write about? And he's like, everything that you've done for
Speaker 6: funny Yeah, So it was something that he had always
Speaker 6: spoke to me about. And then it was just over
Speaker 6: two years ago now that I got an email in
Speaker 6: my inbox from the book Topia team and they're like, hey, like,
Speaker 6: we're looking for new talent to kind of write books
Speaker 6: with us.
Speaker 7: Would you like to do it? And I was like,
Speaker 7: you know what, Yes, I will do it.
Speaker 1: That's a really fast turnaround on a book.
Speaker 7: Two years, yeah, yeah, two two years yeah, but it
Speaker 7: was a bit slower.
Speaker 3: You could have got a one.
Speaker 6: I was being super slow with it, and so I
Speaker 6: had the first couple of calls with them and like
Speaker 6: I've never written a book, so I have no idea
Speaker 6: how to do anything.
Speaker 7: I don't know how this works.
Speaker 6: And I remember I had the first few like zoom
Speaker 6: calls with the team and we decided it would be
Speaker 6: kind of like a memoir and a bit of a
Speaker 6: business book all in one, and like a diary. And
Speaker 6: after those first few calls, the guys that I've been
Speaker 6: chatting with were like, all right, well, we'll wait for
Speaker 6: the first draft to come through. And then I was
Speaker 6: like what. I was like, Oh, like, you just want
Speaker 6: me to write it, and they're like, yeah, that's that's
Speaker 6: what happened. Because I've never done it, I thought maybe
Speaker 6: I would like come down to Sydney and I'd sit
Speaker 6: down with someone and do a big five hour interview
Speaker 6: so they could get to know me. Then they would
Speaker 6: help me, which I'm sure if I asked, they would
Speaker 6: have offered, like to have someone help write it. But
Speaker 6: they're like, just kick me in the deep end. We'll
Speaker 6: see the first draft when you send it over.
Speaker 4: Then they get it and they're like, holy shit, Okay,
Speaker 4: can I in Sydney.
Speaker 1: We'll do there, like the sit down, we'll go through
Speaker 1: that chatter structures.
Speaker 7: That's why I was worried.
Speaker 6: So I started writing the chapters, and I made like
Speaker 6: a Google doc or whatever and shared it with them
Speaker 6: so they could see what I was doing. So then
Speaker 6: as I was writing, they were like making little comments
Speaker 6: and notes to me, or like fixing up my punctuation
Speaker 6: or whatever.
Speaker 2: Well, before we get into that, because obviously that's what
Speaker 2: we're here to talk about. For anyone that hasn't heard
Speaker 2: our episode with you, or might not have heard your
Speaker 2: own podcast, give us the little elevator pitch on how
Speaker 2: you got into business after dropping our school, moving out
Speaker 2: a home, Like, how did.
Speaker 3: You find yourself there?
Speaker 2: Because you were like a blogger, you were a YouTube blogger.
Speaker 6: Yeah, looking back now, there was so many things that
Speaker 6: I did throughout my teens or even earlier that were
Speaker 6: signs that I was always destined to be an entrepreneur.
Speaker 7: I didn't grow up with like the greatest parents.
Speaker 6: I've never had anyone tell me like I should have goals,
Speaker 6: or like I should try hard in school or anything.
Speaker 6: So from a young age, I was just kind of
Speaker 6: forced to figure stuff out on my own. I think
Speaker 6: that's one of my biggest strengths in where I'm at
Speaker 6: now is because I didn't have any guidance or anyone
Speaker 6: saying try hard, or go to UNI, or you should
Speaker 6: do this. I guess I've kind of used that as
Speaker 6: a positive thing and it's allowed me to be able
Speaker 6: to think freely. But just from when I was a
Speaker 6: little kid, I was always trying to do something of
Speaker 6: my own, and I just thought it was hobbies, like
Speaker 6: setting up a little stall out the front of my
Speaker 6: house to try and sell like my toys or whatever.
Speaker 7: I don't think kids do that anymore.
Speaker 1: I think now there's a lot of like straight yeah.
Speaker 7: I was then I did lemonade.
Speaker 2: I said, I've just bought them from a store and
Speaker 2: up sold them.
Speaker 6: No. I think what I did after Easter one time,
Speaker 6: selling all my leftover chopping.
Speaker 1: Yeah, brilliant waste.
Speaker 6: Not what not. Yeah.
Speaker 7: And so there was lots of little things like that
Speaker 7: that I did.
Speaker 6: And then obviously I discovered YouTube when I was in
Speaker 6: high school, which I feel like everyone knows by now,
Speaker 6: maybe some people.
Speaker 7: Who discovered me more recently.
Speaker 6: But I discovered YouTube in high school and I thought,
Speaker 6: that looks great. I want to give that a go,
Speaker 6: And so I started making YouTube videos in high school,
Speaker 6: just sitting in my room at home by myself talking
Speaker 6: to myself. And to cut a long story short, I
Speaker 6: dropped out of school because I just wanted to work.
Speaker 7: I just wanted to earn money.
Speaker 6: And I worked in over twenty jobs from the ages
Speaker 6: of fourteen to twenty one, all the while trying all
Speaker 6: these little business ventures mobile spray tanning, makeup.
Speaker 7: I tried to decorate.
Speaker 6: Phone cases and sell them on Facebook, like I tried
Speaker 6: everything and anything. I had coffee scrubs at one point,
Speaker 6: just trying to sell stuff and make stuff. Yeah, and
Speaker 6: then by the time I was twenty one and I'd
Speaker 6: worked in every industry possible because I just hated every
Speaker 6: job that I got and nothing made me happy. I
Speaker 6: grew that YouTube channel to eighty thousand subscribers, which was
Speaker 6: a big deal back then, it was huge.
Speaker 7: You were like an early adapter. Yeah, it was before
Speaker 7: the word influencer was a thing.
Speaker 6: It was when Instagram was just starting, so that I
Speaker 6: was organically building this Instagram following. And then I threw
Speaker 6: in my full time job at the age of twenty
Speaker 6: one and thought, I'm going to make this YouTube thing
Speaker 6: my job, and I haven't looked back.
Speaker 4: It's interesting because I think the thing about what sets
Speaker 4: you apart in business is that there's people who run
Speaker 4: small businesses, right, Like that's like a thing that a
Speaker 4: lot of women are getting into creating small businesses. It's
Speaker 4: a very big difference between being someone who works in
Speaker 4: small business or works in medium sized business on one
Speaker 4: specific thing versus someone who has an entrepreneurial spirit who
Speaker 4: can like apply the same methods of business but roll
Speaker 4: it out on a cafe or roll it out on
Speaker 4: Fate the label, or roll it out on their social media.
Speaker 4: And that's the thing about it's interesting to sort of say, oh,
Speaker 4: like you started off as an influencer, but doing it well,
Speaker 4: that's already a business like that has to be approached
Speaker 4: with the same sort of mechanics of consistency and how
Speaker 4: you're going to structure your content, how you're going to
Speaker 4: like put a schedule together, like all of those things
Speaker 4: that kind of just seem like, oh, someone just gets
Speaker 4: a phone and does it.
Speaker 2: I don't think you could correct me if I'm wrong.
Speaker 2: I don't think we can call you a small business
Speaker 2: owner anymore because you are You're far beyond a small business.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it was.
Speaker 6: Small once upon a time, and I talk about that
Speaker 6: a lot on my podcast because I was there at
Speaker 6: one stage.
Speaker 7: But yeah, now it's a big business.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's big, it really is.
Speaker 4: But really I think that the rules apply in terms
Speaker 4: of like how you've managed to replicate this over so
Speaker 4: many different types of businesses.
Speaker 7: Yes, And I learned it all well.
Speaker 6: I learned a lot of it from starting that YouTube channel,
Speaker 6: like the discipline and the consistency of posting like then, yeah,
Speaker 6: I've applied that in my businesses, and I think that
Speaker 6: has been one of my biggest strengths in building Fate
Speaker 6: to where it is today is just those skills that
Speaker 6: I learned from building that YouTube channel. Because the YouTube
Speaker 6: channel eventually got to a million subscribers when I was
Speaker 6: twenty four, and then it was around them that I
Speaker 6: launched Fate, and I obviously had just learned, you know,
Speaker 6: how to build an audience online, so then I could
Speaker 6: like take that and then build out our Fate social
Speaker 6: media using those same skills that YouTube taught me.
Speaker 4: How do you figure out, because I think the big
Speaker 4: thing when people make that transition, how do you figure
Speaker 4: out the things that you want to keep that are
Speaker 4: your jobs to do, Like the hats that you're going
Speaker 4: to wear and the things that you're going to give
Speaker 4: away to other people so that you can work on
Speaker 4: your business rather than working in your business.
Speaker 7: Oh, it's one of the hardest things to do.
Speaker 6: And I think all business owners will go through that
Speaker 6: period if their business is growing and they don't know
Speaker 6: what to hold on to and what to let go.
Speaker 7: And also like you.
Speaker 6: Can become quite controlling in business as well and not
Speaker 6: want to let go. And I remember maybe four years
Speaker 6: ago I was finding myself in that sort of situation
Speaker 6: where Fate was going from this little thing where I
Speaker 6: was very hands on to me recognizing that I needed
Speaker 6: to hire more people and then teach them how to
Speaker 6: do all these things that I once loved doing, because
Speaker 6: when I started Fate, I was doing everything with myself,
Speaker 6: totally pack in the orders, doing the emails, doing the returns,
Speaker 6: freaking I taught myself how to do eCOM photography. I'd
Speaker 6: message friends of friends, say can your sister come model
Speaker 6: for me? And then I'd shoot, Like you do everything,
Speaker 6: and when you're young and it's your kind of first
Speaker 6: proper business, it is hard to get to that stage
Speaker 6: where Okay, maybe I don't need to be doing the
Speaker 6: customer service emails anymore, even though you like hold on
Speaker 6: to it. For some reason, I really did struggle, like
Speaker 6: a few years back, like delegating and letting go just
Speaker 6: because you get into the mindset of it's all right,
Speaker 6: I'll do it, take me two seconds totally, and I'm
Speaker 6: sure you could relate with your business totally, but you
Speaker 6: also have to get to a point where you're like,
Speaker 6: you've got to the only way to scale is to
Speaker 6: get people in.
Speaker 1: You can do the job better than exacuate.
Speaker 6: And I think it's just coming to terms with that
Speaker 6: and acknowledging that your business isn't always going to be
Speaker 6: the same and you can very well stay doing the
Speaker 6: same things and like just being involved in every part
Speaker 6: of the operation of every single bit of the business,
Speaker 6: but then the business will stay the same. It just depends,
Speaker 6: like if you want to grow it, you've got to
Speaker 6: like handshit away and trust people, which is difficult.
Speaker 2: Some of the early chapters in your book, I mean,
Speaker 2: one is titled hat Wearer for anybody that is interested
Speaker 2: in going to read a little bit more about the delegating.
Speaker 2: But there's another one called google It, which seems pretty
Speaker 2: self explanatory.
Speaker 7: And do you want to know something funny too.
Speaker 6: As I wrote the book and was doing all the chapters,
Speaker 6: and I did them like all out of order as well,
Speaker 6: Like I would just go, I want to do a
Speaker 6: chapter about this, and so I'd write it and then
Speaker 6: i'd decide later where in the book it was going
Speaker 6: to go. Like, I didn't the book in order, so
Speaker 6: if it seems out of order, that's that's why. And
Speaker 6: so as I had the Google doc happening and I
Speaker 6: was writing all of these chapters, all the titles, I
Speaker 6: just put them in there as like a draft like
Speaker 6: Google it hat wearer, like I just and I thought, oh,
Speaker 6: down the track will give them a better title.
Speaker 7: No, they're all still like that. They didn't change it
Speaker 7: at all.
Speaker 6: They're like Noah, And I'm like, oh, I just put
Speaker 6: out there like because that's what I don't know.
Speaker 7: Anyway, the book's fucking hilarious.
Speaker 2: But it seems like such a I mean, Google it
Speaker 2: seems like such a really basic obvious thing.
Speaker 3: But when Laura and I even.
Speaker 2: Started this podcast we've like six years ago, we talked
Speaker 2: often about the fact that we literally googled how to
Speaker 2: start a podcast, and then you google every I was
Speaker 2: googling how to do a contract. Yea, Like every single
Speaker 2: thing that we did, we didn't know anyone in.
Speaker 3: The industry and we had to learn it ourselves.
Speaker 7: I've googled everything that I know.
Speaker 6: Like, I've never done a course, I never went to UNI,
Speaker 6: I didn't finish school.
Speaker 7: It's googled. Yeah, I've googled everything.
Speaker 6: So there's a whole chapter in there because it's one
Speaker 6: of the questions that I'll get asked, like how did
Speaker 6: you learn how to do all this stuff.
Speaker 7: That you do?
Speaker 6: I literally just googled today in twenty twenty five, I'm
Speaker 6: still googling shit every day.
Speaker 4: Do you use any consultancy, Like do you have now
Speaker 4: with the size of the business of where it is,
Speaker 4: do you have any sort of consultancy programs that you
Speaker 4: use for your staff or is everything kind of run
Speaker 4: by top down?
Speaker 6: Yeah, everything's run top down, and like we have a
Speaker 6: lot of programs now that we use and like internal
Speaker 6: HR programs and everything. But we're still like just figuring
Speaker 6: this shit out as we go. I'm being honest, we're
Speaker 6: making chet up every day. Well, so I always go
Speaker 6: we're just girls, like just we're just figuring this out.
Speaker 1: Just girl.
Speaker 2: One thing I think is interesting that you do speak
Speaker 2: about is like not putting your own name in your
Speaker 2: business name, and that is interesting because you have a
Speaker 2: name that people know, you have a huge following that
Speaker 2: people can associate a name with. Yep, why do you
Speaker 2: think it's so important not to have your name in
Speaker 2: your business name?
Speaker 6: I think obviously there's some super successful businesses and brands
Speaker 6: out there that have the founder's name in it. When
Speaker 6: you think you know all the Charlotte Tilbury's and like
Speaker 6: all those big brands. But when I was starting Fate, I.
Speaker 7: Was like Laurna Jane. Yeah, like I was twenty.
Speaker 6: Three or something when this idea about, and I just
Speaker 6: straight away thought, I don't want it to be called
Speaker 6: Britney someone as the label. First of all, I don't
Speaker 6: think that sounds very good. And again, like I had
Speaker 6: no idea about business. I just dabbled in things over
Speaker 6: the years, but I just thought, I don't want this
Speaker 6: to be completely tied to me.
Speaker 7: And I'm glad that I did that.
Speaker 6: And you know now that I'm so much further into
Speaker 6: my business journey, like I speak with other founders and they.
Speaker 7: Talk about what's your exit strategy. Okay, you're going to
Speaker 7: get out of this.
Speaker 1: You're going to sell it?
Speaker 7: Yeah, and not that I have any intention of selling it,
Speaker 7: but I don't know. Back then.
Speaker 6: I must have thought one day this might be so
Speaker 6: big that I sell it. And then it's really hard
Speaker 6: to sell a business if your name is in it.
Speaker 4: There's two types of businesses though, from my observation, Like
Speaker 4: there's your businesses like Zimmerman, for example, which is the
Speaker 4: family name of the sisters who designed Zimmerman. But people
Speaker 4: don't see Zimmerman as synonymous with the designers.
Speaker 2: Because they weren't uber famous first.
Speaker 4: Well, it's it's not that, it's more so the fact
Speaker 4: that they didn't build the brand around their person. Whereas
Speaker 4: like what we been and discovered now in terms of
Speaker 4: social media is content creator lead. So creator led content
Speaker 4: is like the absolute hero of how to get people
Speaker 4: to engage with the brand. Samantha Wills is a really
Speaker 4: good example of sort of an early adopter of this.
Speaker 4: She was a content creator also create a led content
Speaker 4: with the brand name, but then it came to a
Speaker 4: place of selling it or she wanted to fold the brand,
Speaker 4: but she was like, well, I can't sell it because
Speaker 4: my name is attached to it. Yeah, so it really
Speaker 4: depends on how you run your business. But if you're
Speaker 4: going to be the face of it as well as
Speaker 4: the name of it, you put yourself in a position
Speaker 4: where you can actually.
Speaker 1: Never sell it. And that's a problem.
Speaker 6: The hard thing is, and I think when people are
Speaker 6: starting businesses is they and I was the same.
Speaker 7: You don't think that far ahead.
Speaker 6: And of course when I was starting Fate, like for
Speaker 6: some reason, I didn't want my name in it, which
Speaker 6: I'm glad, but.
Speaker 7: I never had massive dreams for Fate.
Speaker 6: Like people would look at Fate now and think, oh,
Speaker 6: holy shit, she must have had some massive goals.
Speaker 7: No, I was just a girl. I thought, yeah, I'm
Speaker 7: gonna start this business. I didn't have.
Speaker 6: Any dreams to have retail stores and seventy staff and
Speaker 6: the size range that we have now, Like that's all
Speaker 6: just happened naturally, because when you start a small business,
Speaker 6: you have a small mindset. You don't think beyond I
Speaker 6: didn't think beyond just getting it started in my shed.
Speaker 4: When you because I mean, you've approached retail in kind
Speaker 4: of a unique way. A lot of people are pushing
Speaker 4: everything online now and people are closing their retail stores,
Speaker 4: whereas you're opening bricks and mortar stores at a rate
Speaker 4: that's rapid, more.
Speaker 1: Rapid than when I've ever seen anyone do it.
Speaker 4: How have you found that bricks and mortar has facilitated
Speaker 4: and helped your online presence.
Speaker 6: I think it has, Like it's been amazing for us.
Speaker 6: And it's funny that you say that, like so many
Speaker 6: people have said to me over the last couple of years,
Speaker 6: like retail's dying, Retail's dead, and we are seeing all
Speaker 6: of these retail giants collapsing, like so many every day
Speaker 6: I get on Facebook and it's like beings worst is
Speaker 6: going under, Like it's crazy and it is scary. But
Speaker 6: I also, at the same time, have seen a lot
Speaker 6: of conversation around like with the rise of AI and
Speaker 6: everything being so electronic and digital these days, that I
Speaker 6: don't know, people are maybe going to have a bit
Speaker 6: of a shift and want more of a human interaction
Speaker 6: just because you get so frustrated sometimes, like with how
Speaker 6: everything is so robotic.
Speaker 4: I also think it's a bit of a changing of
Speaker 4: the gar because traditionally, like traditional retail, as in like
Speaker 4: bricks and mortar stores was like your Maya's, your David Jones,
Speaker 4: you know, you were really limited unless you were like
Speaker 4: a big cotton on body or a soupre or something like.
Speaker 4: You couldn't afford to have a store in a Westfields
Speaker 4: for firstly, and some of the like the startup brands
Speaker 4: or Australian brands just didn't have the size or scalability
Speaker 4: to be able to have those types of stores. And
Speaker 4: so like we were in Westfield at a really interesting
Speaker 4: time where loads of stuff were closing and the reason
Speaker 4: for that was because they hadn't jumped on online fast enough.
Speaker 4: They didn't have robust online presence. They had really robust
Speaker 4: bricks and mortar presents, but then people weren't shopping in
Speaker 4: the same way. And what's happened over like the last
Speaker 4: ten years is like now you have your brands like
Speaker 4: Zulu and Zephyr, obviously Fate, they've all got their bricks
Speaker 4: and mortar stores, but their online presence is so robust
Speaker 4: that they both supported.
Speaker 7: People are like the social media will bring people in
Speaker 7: the store.
Speaker 6: Now what I'm saying, I saw your TikTok and here
Speaker 6: I am like in person totally. If you can create
Speaker 6: a great product and then have beautiful staff and lovely
Speaker 6: welcoming service, and no pressure to make a sale, like
Speaker 6: you've created like a really enjoyable experience.
Speaker 2: So how many stores you have now five and you
Speaker 2: have plans to continue taking over the world? I have.
Speaker 6: I mean again, I had no plans with Fate when
Speaker 6: I started it. So the fact that we even have
Speaker 6: five stores is just mind blowing to me right now.
Speaker 6: Like this year, this is the first time in three
Speaker 6: years that I haven't been working on our next door.
Speaker 6: I kind of put the brakes on a little bit
Speaker 6: at the end of last year and said, I just
Speaker 6: want to make sure that the foundations are strong across
Speaker 6: the whole company before we go and like do any more,
Speaker 6: because I think it's so easy for founders to get
Speaker 6: caught up in the growth and like rat race of
Speaker 6: and it's such a thrill like to just be like
Speaker 6: opening store five, six, seven A and you see all
Speaker 6: these brands, like we've got twenty stores, just to be
Speaker 6: able to say we've got yeah, and it's like thrilling. Honestly,
Speaker 6: It's like drugs, Like you just get addicted to it.
Speaker 7: Not that I'm addicted to drugs.
Speaker 1: Just from addicted to stores.
Speaker 6: Yeah, but I'm also just really mindful at like fate
Speaker 6: has already grown so much bigger than I ever could
Speaker 6: have imagined. But I'm still very much like got my
Speaker 6: fingers in every pie across the across the whole business,
Speaker 6: and I never want it to get beyond my control. Yeah,
Speaker 6: So we've kind of like slowed down intentionally.
Speaker 4: This year, and well that also comes a tipping point
Speaker 4: right where you're like you're making profit, but you're spending
Speaker 4: all the profit to continue to grow, and so you
Speaker 4: never have this rebalancing because you're like it's coming and
Speaker 4: it's gone out open store, we're upstaffing, we're doing this
Speaker 4: and like the foundations are there and the growth is incredible,
Speaker 4: but also like that's not a sustainable model unless you
Speaker 4: have times to like get on top of it.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and I think a lot of founders can get
Speaker 6: addicted to just continuing to grow and not like.
Speaker 7: Just being happy with like where you're at.
Speaker 6: So it's what I've been doing a lot of this
Speaker 6: year is just like slowing down a bit, making sure
Speaker 6: like everything is like just everything from like our internal
Speaker 6: staffing warehouse, Like we've looked at everything in a way
Speaker 6: that we haven't really had a chance to over the
Speaker 6: last few years because just been go, go go, and
Speaker 6: just like being happy with where we're at and always
Speaker 6: thinking about the next thing that we're doing and instead
Speaker 6: just being like we're doing fucking great well.
Speaker 3: I think it's important from the outset.
Speaker 2: A lot of people, if they don't know like the
Speaker 2: intricacies of your stories, it's very easy to look at
Speaker 2: you and be like far out, like she's so successful,
Speaker 2: she's killing it, she's got, you know, everything going for it,
Speaker 2: which you absolutely do, but it wasn't always the case.
Speaker 2: And I think it's really important to highlight some of
Speaker 2: the failures or the mistakes that you've made along the way,
Speaker 2: to really push the fact that, like these overnight successes
Speaker 2: are not overnight success.
Speaker 7: Overnight it's so long.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you had quite a few like early issues
Speaker 2: financially and some expensive lessons to be learned with like
Speaker 2: importing goods and getting things through customs. Talk us through
Speaker 2: some of those earlier mistakes and lessons that you learn.
Speaker 7: Oh, there's so many.
Speaker 3: Where do I start.
Speaker 7: I'm still making mistakes every day.
Speaker 6: One of the first financial fuck ups that I made
Speaker 6: was actually when I was full time influencing and again,
Speaker 6: like I didn't have like any parents around to tell
Speaker 6: me what to do, like, so I had no idea
Speaker 6: how to do tax. And then obviously i'd drop out
Speaker 6: of school and I'd been working all different kinds of
Speaker 6: jobs and so I would.
Speaker 7: Get my pay slip and the tax was done for me.
Speaker 6: And so then I started earning all this money on
Speaker 6: YouTube and started doing brand deals and everything, and I'd
Speaker 6: moved to Sydney. I was just living by myself, like
Speaker 6: I had no one to tell me, like, now that
Speaker 6: you're self employed, you should put money aside tax and
Speaker 6: you need to get an accountant, like I had no
Speaker 6: one ever tell me.
Speaker 1: It's a rude shock. Although when you figure out how
Speaker 1: much you were the first.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you don't learn it at school either, no, and
Speaker 6: I had not, And so I think I went two
Speaker 6: years there when I started earning a shit ton of
Speaker 6: money like on Instagram and YouTube, and I didn't do
Speaker 6: my tax for two years. And I got a call
Speaker 6: off the ATO and I owed like one hundred thousand
Speaker 6: dollars or like just over and then I was.
Speaker 7: Like, I'm going to jail, Like I thought I was
Speaker 7: going to get done. I thought I was going to
Speaker 7: get locked up.
Speaker 6: But then it was then that I got an accountant
Speaker 6: and paid the money off, and luckily, like I'd saved
Speaker 6: a lot of money too, like because back in the
Speaker 6: twenties sixteen, like everyone was getting all the designer things,
Speaker 6: and it was like, I don't know, the influenza era,
Speaker 6: Yeah for sure, but i'd luckily like put most of
Speaker 6: them money, like I'd had most of the money in
Speaker 6: my bank, so I was able to pay that off quickly.
Speaker 6: And then another one, which I think we spoke about
Speaker 6: on the podcast that we did back in twenty twenty three,
Speaker 6: was just like when we started making swimwear and then
Speaker 6: we were importing it and we had to fill out
Speaker 6: some like customs declaration thing, and again, I'm just a girl.
Speaker 7: I'm just figuring this out.
Speaker 6: You have to like declare the value of the goods,
Speaker 6: and so I put the retail value like.
Speaker 4: The taxes, yeah, whereas most businesses put like way less.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 7: No, I'll be honest. If I sell all this, I'm
Speaker 7: going to make eighty thousand dollars.
Speaker 3: So here I am.
Speaker 6: I put eighty thousand dollars and then I think I
Speaker 6: got tax eight grand or something. And then because I
Speaker 6: was none the wiser, I was like, jeez, that's expensive.
Speaker 6: I paid it anyway, but then I eventually worked out
Speaker 6: you just meant to put the cost of goods, like
Speaker 6: what it cost me to buy, not if I was
Speaker 6: to sell it all.
Speaker 7: Fucking idiot, not your profit. Yeah you're not, but I
Speaker 7: just paid.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh wow, that's expensive.
Speaker 3: But this is the thing.
Speaker 1: Do you know what, though?
Speaker 4: What I love about your social media and I said
Speaker 4: this to you we had on the show last time,
Speaker 4: is how you managed to turn even like the current
Speaker 4: fuck ups into like success stories, or you turn them
Speaker 4: into brand building moments. So like I remember watching one
Speaker 4: where you receive stock because something was wrong with that.
Speaker 1: I can't remember.
Speaker 6: We made like these corset tops out of this like
Speaker 6: kind of silky material, and the straps were like too
Speaker 6: long for some people or maybe they would fit other
Speaker 6: people perfectly, and it was my fault, like we didn't
Speaker 6: put an adjustable slider on the strap because we just
Speaker 6: wanted to be like a seamless kind of corset. And
Speaker 6: so I was like, well, let's just give them away
Speaker 6: for free, and so we just made a video like
Speaker 6: we do in the warehouse. I just said, look, we've
Speaker 6: got these corsets in four different colors and we're just
Speaker 6: placing them in orders randomly this week, and I just
Speaker 6: made a little, I guess, educational video to be like,
Speaker 6: sometimes you fuck stuff up in your business. And then,
Speaker 6: to my surprise, like we didn't say, you know, place
Speaker 6: and order and hope that you'll get one, Like I
Speaker 6: just shared these corsets. Then the orders just came flood
Speaker 6: in on the website. We had people emailing dming, please
Speaker 6: I need this size and this color, and it just
Speaker 6: turned into this whole massive thing.
Speaker 7: The video like went kind of viral, and I.
Speaker 4: Was like, oh, but it's because it's so humbling, because
Speaker 4: you don't see brands do that. That's the thing, right, Yeah,
Speaker 4: Brands don't want to talk about when they mate mistakes.
Speaker 4: Brands want to like cover that shit up and be
Speaker 4: like reperfect, yeah, and seamless. And there's something really humanizing
Speaker 4: about taking on that kind of that, like, oh, well,
Speaker 4: not everything goes to time and.
Speaker 7: Honestly, in business, like nothing is ever perfect.
Speaker 6: And I think if you go into business thinking that
Speaker 6: it's always going to be perfect, you're going to be
Speaker 6: in for a rude shock because there's something going wrong
Speaker 6: every single day and that's just.
Speaker 7: Part of it.
Speaker 4: You've mentioned a couple of times in this chat that
Speaker 4: you didn't have necessary parental support around you or people
Speaker 4: who you were able to go and speak to you
Speaker 4: to get advice or guidance. That your English teacher had
Speaker 4: such a lasting impact on you.
Speaker 6: Yes, So, as I mentioned earlier, I started my YouTube
Speaker 6: channel when I was in high school, and I was
Speaker 6: the only kid in the whole school with a YouTube
Speaker 6: channel because it was so new, like YouTubers were barely
Speaker 6: a thing, and obviously naturally all the kids in my
Speaker 6: school found out about.
Speaker 1: It, and then it's a bit weird.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and look, my videos were weird, So I kind
Speaker 6: of got to give them.
Speaker 3: That what was your angle?
Speaker 1: Early on, like I.
Speaker 6: Was doing like we dance videos like Kesher music videos
Speaker 6: like really embarrassing niche. Yeah, well Kesha was really popular
Speaker 6: back then, and it was cool to make like a
Speaker 6: music video like and all little jump cuts, and so
Speaker 6: obviously all the kids in my school knew about it,
Speaker 6: and then it would became like a talk of the school,
Speaker 6: and then the teachers got involved, and the principal got involved,
Speaker 6: and then there was I had to go to the
Speaker 6: principal's office and it was like you need to take
Speaker 6: these videos down because everyone's talking about them, which is
Speaker 6: so extreme, I know, but it was like I think
Speaker 6: it's because it was I was the only one doing it,
Speaker 6: and the teachers were like, what are you doing?
Speaker 3: You're an outlier.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they probably didn't want you to get bullied, as I.
Speaker 6: Was quite upset, and I remember crying to my English teacher,
Speaker 6: who was always so nice, like I just loved her,
Speaker 6: and she would.
Speaker 7: Say like fuck those little bitches, like you know, she
Speaker 7: would she was in quiet like say that to me.
Speaker 6: I don't know if she used that word because I
Speaker 6: don't want to get her in trouble, but she would
Speaker 6: say like screw them, like you know you do you?
Speaker 6: And then so I always remembered her saying that to me,
Speaker 6: and I didn't stop with the videos.
Speaker 7: I just I kept going with them.
Speaker 6: And then earlier this year, like maybe in February, like
Speaker 6: I dropped out of school, I don't know what. Year
Speaker 6: two thousand and nine, I was sitting at the pub
Speaker 6: having dinner with AJ and I had like a tap
Speaker 6: on my shoulder and it was my English teacher.
Speaker 7: And she was like, oh my god, she's like you
Speaker 7: remember me.
Speaker 6: I was like, of course I do, and we just
Speaker 6: had this really special moment and she's like, let's get
Speaker 6: a photo, and she was like hugging me and cuddling me,
Speaker 6: and she's like, followed you know what I've been doing online.
Speaker 7: She's like, I'm so proud of you. I remember those
Speaker 7: kids in school and look at everything you've done.
Speaker 6: And so we got this special little photo together and
Speaker 6: I was like, oh my god, I love her.
Speaker 7: Could you be my mom? So and so.
Speaker 6: Then yeah, when I launched the book, like, I made
Speaker 6: this cute little carousel of like photos and then I
Speaker 6: shared the photo of her and I and then she
Speaker 6: commented on it like the nicest thing.
Speaker 7: And then that was really nice because I must have like.
Speaker 6: A lot of teachers following me, and then I had
Speaker 6: them all reaching out saying, you've just validated me that
Speaker 6: like I'm going to leave a positive impact on at
Speaker 6: least one kid.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's funny because we don't realize the impact that
Speaker 2: just you, as one person can have on somebody else.
Speaker 2: Like that teacher would have never thought that that one
Speaker 2: conversation with a young student would change the direction of
Speaker 2: your entire life.
Speaker 7: And she remembered it too, like she was the one
Speaker 7: that brought it up to me at the part and
Speaker 7: I was like, oh, you remember that. She's like, yes,
Speaker 7: so yeah, you can.
Speaker 6: Just anyone can leave such an impact on one person
Speaker 6: in one conversation, it is hard to overcome.
Speaker 2: Maybe it's easier now because we're seeing a lot more
Speaker 2: of it and every second person is starting their own businesses,
Speaker 2: but it wasn't always the case back in the day.
Speaker 2: Even when we started this podcast, which was only six
Speaker 2: years ago. I remember I was just working in a hospital,
Speaker 2: and I remember being mortified that my coworkers knew I
Speaker 2: was doing it, Like I tried to hide it from
Speaker 2: them because I thought, how embarrassing that.
Speaker 4: I'm trying a good job, because you've posted all over Instagram,
Speaker 4: but I didn't.
Speaker 2: I remember the intern struggle of wanting to chase a
Speaker 2: dream that was something unique and different in an outlier,
Speaker 2: but also managing that with my normal nine to five,
Speaker 2: like going to working scrubs, but then having a podcast
Speaker 2: where I'm talking about sex that those same people in
Speaker 2: the scrubs can listen to is really mortifying. And I
Speaker 2: remember being like, when someone said, oh, are you doing
Speaker 2: a podcast?
Speaker 3: I was, of course, this is lat of thing. Don't
Speaker 3: listen to it like whatever, my friend. Yeah, but it's
Speaker 3: really hard to.
Speaker 2: Go against the grain sometimes, and like when all of
Speaker 2: your like hats off to you, when all of your
Speaker 2: skipping bullied for trying to do something and you didn't
Speaker 2: stop doing it, Like, I think that that is the
Speaker 2: important lesson there.
Speaker 7: Yeah, exactly right.
Speaker 2: What's it like working with your husband, AJ? Because he's
Speaker 2: not husband?
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, sorry, sorry you might.
Speaker 7: Have said this last time too, I just I didn't.
Speaker 2: It's such a throwaway to me to any long term relationship,
Speaker 2: probably like your husband, what to like working with and
Speaker 2: living with and doing literally everything and having such an
Speaker 2: intricate life with your partner.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I've had a lot of people ask me this
Speaker 6: over the years. I've had a lot of people say
Speaker 6: I could never do that. Each other's heads off, which
Speaker 6: is so fair, And I honestly think it just comes
Speaker 6: down to us, like it just works for us, and
Speaker 6: it doesn't work for everyone.
Speaker 7: And we're really lucky.
Speaker 6: And AJ and I when we first met and started
Speaker 6: like dating, that's when I was like about to launch Fate.
Speaker 6: So I'd already gotten it to the point of like
Speaker 6: about to launch, and so he came to the launch party.
Speaker 6: We did like a launch party in Sydney with like
Speaker 6: influences and everything like eight years ago now, and I
Speaker 6: just he was there and I just always laugh at
Speaker 6: the thought of him being there, and he must have
Speaker 6: just thought, what the fuck is this?
Speaker 1: Like what what?
Speaker 7: Actually? Yeah, what am I actually doing? I'm like, come
Speaker 7: to this launch party. I'm starting this business, you know.
Speaker 6: So he was there for the launch party and from
Speaker 6: day dot like he's obviously been on the journey with me.
Speaker 7: But he was an electrician when we first started dating.
Speaker 6: But he was always super helpful and he would finish
Speaker 6: work at like two, and like he moved into my
Speaker 6: house pretty quick because he was like he'd been working
Speaker 6: away and then he was back at his parents. So
Speaker 6: like he just kept bringing clothes over and then all
Speaker 6: of a sudden, yeah, and I'm like it's too late now,
Speaker 6: Like I can't tell him, believe you know, he.
Speaker 1: Still can't tell him.
Speaker 7: Yeah, So what would now?
Speaker 6: And so he would come home every afternoon and I
Speaker 6: hired my first employee like in my house to like
Speaker 6: help me like pack the orders and stuff, which is
Speaker 6: so fucking random as well.
Speaker 7: Can you imagine, Hey, mom, I got a new job.
Speaker 1: Oh what is that?
Speaker 7: Doing congrats.
Speaker 6: Oh, just working with this girl in her shared, like
Speaker 6: she's just started this little thing, so random. But he
Speaker 6: would come home and he would help us like in
Speaker 6: the shared and so it was like that for the
Speaker 6: first few years of fate, like AJ was just like
Speaker 6: the unofficial employee. He would always come and help us
Speaker 6: or we did you have a pay no no matroit fail.
Speaker 6: And so then like we moved out of the shed
Speaker 6: into our first little commercial warehouse, and again like he'd
Speaker 6: finish work and come and help the girls and I.
Speaker 6: He was just the unofficial employee for so many years,
Speaker 6: and he just got to a point where he really
Speaker 6: took a liking to like when we kind of had
Speaker 6: a proper little warehouse setup, Like he loved setting it
Speaker 6: all up and being amongst it. So he started to
Speaker 6: just like he went four days electrical one day with us,
Speaker 6: and then two days with us. And then it got
Speaker 6: to the point where he like just threw in his job,
Speaker 6: which was so big of him because that's all he's
Speaker 6: ever done, Like he left school, did his apprenticeship and
Speaker 6: then just worked as an electrician.
Speaker 4: And also going from that to working in women's fashion
Speaker 4: is just a total.
Speaker 6: Pivot, absolutely and it was a big thing for him
Speaker 6: to do because he was very much in the mindset
Speaker 6: of like, no, I'm an electrician and that's what I'm
Speaker 6: going to do for the rest of my life because
Speaker 6: it was his family's business and we've never looked.
Speaker 7: Back, and like he absolutely loves it.
Speaker 6: He started like in our warehouse and now he's the
Speaker 6: CFO and like does all of our finances and the
Speaker 6: books and the pays and all that stuff, and it
Speaker 6: just works for us. It also works for us because yes,
Speaker 6: we work together, but like we don't work side by side,
Speaker 6: Like we're not sitting at a desk together all day,
Speaker 6: Like we have our days completely separate.
Speaker 7: And then we are home in the afternoon, I'm like,
Speaker 7: what do you do today?
Speaker 6: Because like we're just working in different areas of the business.
Speaker 6: I think if we were working side by side five
Speaker 6: days a week, eight hours a day, then yeah, sure,
Speaker 6: that would test us.
Speaker 4: And I think that that's probably the thing that's like
Speaker 4: the big difference is people when they look in they're like, oh.
Speaker 1: You guys like together doing everything. That's like, no, we have.
Speaker 6: We're not to lift in boxes together and like growing
Speaker 6: up ladders together, Like no, we don't we do work
Speaker 6: together and if there's a task that needs to be
Speaker 6: done where it's like teamwork, we work really well together,
Speaker 6: but we're not working like without hands in each other's pockets.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and there's also like a sense of like I
Speaker 4: know you can do your job and so I don't
Speaker 4: have to micro manage you to do it. So yeah,
Speaker 4: before you go do that, Yeah, I'll do this and
Speaker 4: then we can come together.
Speaker 6: And it's crazy we always say this, like AJ is
Speaker 6: just he does all of our finances, but he also
Speaker 6: does the warehouse and he does all the maintenance, like
Speaker 6: he does everything. And it's so funny that this business
Speaker 6: that I started so long ago, really selfishly for myself
Speaker 6: is now so beyond that.
Speaker 7: And like we couldn't do it without AJ.
Speaker 6: Now, Like I've always said, God forbid, if something was
Speaker 6: to happen to AJ and I, he's got to stay
Speaker 6: in fate somehow.
Speaker 7: It's like we literally couldn't do it without AJ. Like
Speaker 7: if he was to walk out of my life, which
Speaker 7: he never will because I'm so good.
Speaker 3: Because I pay his bills.
Speaker 7: Yeah, Like I don't know what the fuck I'd do.
Speaker 4: Yeah, how do you manage like the culture of your
Speaker 4: company when you're like growing so rapidly hwing new people,
Speaker 4: how do you approach culture internally to keep it something
Speaker 4: that's like you know, staff facing and building that from
Speaker 4: the ground up.
Speaker 6: We've just had to put like some really back to foundations,
Speaker 6: like solid foundations and strong management because yeah, like not
Speaker 6: that long ago, it was just me and then the girls,
Speaker 6: you know, but now like everyone has a boss that
Speaker 6: is not me, and like I'm at the point now
Speaker 6: where like I'm not really everyone's boss anymore. Like I
Speaker 6: just work with our kind of I don't like to
Speaker 6: like call it a hierarchy or anything, but like I
Speaker 6: work with I guess upper management, and then they've got
Speaker 6: teams underneath them, so it's just us making strategical hires
Speaker 6: or growing people within the company into management positions so
Speaker 6: that there's just like a nice structure and flow there.
Speaker 6: It's taken a long time to get to that point
Speaker 6: because the business has grown so quickly that we've had
Speaker 6: to kind of keep up with it internally as well,
Speaker 6: like making sure that we've got that solid structure in place.
Speaker 2: What have you learned about hiring along the way in
Speaker 2: terms of friends, family, how who you hire?
Speaker 7: I could do a whole episode about that.
Speaker 6: But to put it in a nutshell, thinking back to
Speaker 6: when I started Fate, or when anyone first starts a business,
Speaker 6: you don't take it seriously yourself because it's so new.
Speaker 6: And again, like when I started Fate, it was just
Speaker 6: this fun little idea, Like I'd tried a million other
Speaker 6: things by that point, like selling my Easter eggs, so
Speaker 6: it's all just like fun and games. And in those
Speaker 6: early days, I just was so excited that I just
Speaker 6: hired like friends.
Speaker 7: I was like, Yeah, this would be so fun, We'll
Speaker 7: be able to work together.
Speaker 1: You know. And I'm really hard.
Speaker 6: I'm yeah, I'm in my early twenties. I'd never had
Speaker 6: a job for more than six months. Like I'd never
Speaker 6: been a manager, Like I'd never gotten a promotion, so
Speaker 6: I had zero management experience. And so in those early
Speaker 6: days I did hire like friends of friends and family
Speaker 6: friends and whatever. And it's not to say like it
Speaker 6: wasn't great at the time, Like that was good at
Speaker 6: the time for me, But I again didn't think beyond
Speaker 6: that moment, and I didn't think, hang on a second,
Speaker 6: if I want to turn this into something big, is
Speaker 6: hiring my friends and my family the best decision for
Speaker 6: me and the business, and it's not.
Speaker 7: It's never the best answer for anyone.
Speaker 4: It also can be really hard to manage because when
Speaker 4: there's personal relationship, like it's harder to say, hey, I'm
Speaker 4: not happy with how this you know, impossible.
Speaker 6: Because those boundaries are not there, lines are so blurred.
Speaker 6: So like, yeah, the first like two to three years
Speaker 6: of fate, I did make a lot of wrong hires.
Speaker 7: But it's not to say that it was wrong at
Speaker 7: the time. I just had to do that to learn
Speaker 7: for the future.
Speaker 6: Hang on a second, Like, it's probably not the best
Speaker 6: that you hire friends and family friends or your friend's
Speaker 6: cousin or whatever, because if you want this to turn
Speaker 6: into a bigger business, you're going to need to hire
Speaker 6: people that are actually serious about your business.
Speaker 4: And one day you're gonna have to fire your friends
Speaker 4: and that sucks. Yeah, I don't have any more shifts
Speaker 4: for you, but I love you.
Speaker 2: I know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the worst.
Speaker 4: You like very iconically describe yourself as a cash grabber. Firstly,
Speaker 4: for anyone who might not be familiar, yes, that might
Speaker 4: need some explaining, but also you talk about why starting
Speaker 4: a business for the purpose of just making money should
Speaker 4: not be like one's main priority.
Speaker 6: So I call myself cash grabber, and like people that
Speaker 6: have followed me for many years call me cash grabber.
Speaker 6: And it's just because one time, like three years ago,
Speaker 6: once one.
Speaker 7: Time this wonder it was one time.
Speaker 6: So yeah, one person sent me a DM when I
Speaker 6: was talking about something that we were doing, and this
Speaker 6: woman said, you're such a cash grabber, like as if
Speaker 6: though a woman starting businesses and trying to do something
Speaker 6: for herself is a bad thing.
Speaker 7: And so I remember getting on my story and just saying, look.
Speaker 6: At this fucking idiot calling me a cash grabber, but
Speaker 6: you know what, I am a cash grabber, and what's
Speaker 6: so bad about a woman trying to make some money
Speaker 6: for herself and start businesses.
Speaker 7: So that's where the cash grabber thing comes from. And
Speaker 7: just ever since then, that's what I call myself.
Speaker 6: I often will not often, but like every now and then,
Speaker 6: I'm like, I wonder if that person still follows me,
Speaker 6: or if she got like to butt hurt by me
Speaker 6: laughing on my.
Speaker 1: You grabbed too much cash base she's offered.
Speaker 7: And so that's where cash grabber comes from.
Speaker 6: And I guess people can start businesses for a multitude
Speaker 6: of different reasons, like they want to work for themselves,
Speaker 6: they want to make cash, they want to make millions
Speaker 6: of dollars, but.
Speaker 2: Of course we all want to make cash. You have
Speaker 2: due to survive exactly.
Speaker 6: But I think because my whole career has been so
Speaker 6: like I want to say, it's been really organic, because
Speaker 6: it started from those YouTube videos and it's been you know,
Speaker 6: almost fifteen years or something that I've been making content
Speaker 6: online and my whole business journey has been so organic.
Speaker 6: The money side of it was never my motivator, and
Speaker 6: I think that's why I've been able to get to
Speaker 6: where I am because I don't know, I've just enjoyed
Speaker 6: every step of the way.
Speaker 7: And I think if someone wants to start.
Speaker 6: A business, and I think it would be it's especially
Speaker 6: hard in twenty twenty five, like seeing how many businesses
Speaker 6: there are now, and like when I started, there was
Speaker 6: no such thing as like a business on Instagram, So
Speaker 6: I just did it out of like passion for wanting
Speaker 6: to do something of my own.
Speaker 7: And I think, if.
Speaker 6: Money is your number one motivator, by all means like
Speaker 6: go for gold, Like if your dream is to be
Speaker 6: a millionaire or billionaire, go for gold. But I think
Speaker 6: people can have that as their goal and not understand
Speaker 6: like the work that it's going to take to get
Speaker 6: to that point and maybe be disappointed.
Speaker 7: And I just think it would be hard if money.
Speaker 6: Was the number one motivator, because you know, what if
Speaker 6: you go into a low period, what if you're not
Speaker 6: making sales, then you're feeling shit about yourself when there's
Speaker 6: like so much more to business than just making money.
Speaker 3: It's so interesting.
Speaker 2: I can't remember this guy's name, but he's no one famous,
Speaker 2: but he was just a businessman that started.
Speaker 3: He had a startup over in like San France. He
Speaker 3: was acquired for.
Speaker 2: Hundreds of millions of dollars and he did a post saying,
Speaker 2: you know, like this is how much I made. I
Speaker 2: never have to work again, My friends don't have to
Speaker 2: work in my family doesn't have to work again.
Speaker 3: And he's like, I've never been more unhappy. Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And because all of a sudden, he's like, I
Speaker 2: don't have a purpose. I've got nothing to fill my
Speaker 2: day with. And money doesn't necessarily like you know, I
Speaker 2: don't trust a lot of the people around me. Money
Speaker 2: doesn't necessarily.
Speaker 3: Bring you what you think.
Speaker 2: It's going to bring you, and he always worked towards
Speaker 2: selling it and for this huge acquisition, got to that
Speaker 2: pinnacle and thought, it's actually not what's going to make
Speaker 2: me happy. And I think this is why you can't
Speaker 2: do things purely if your intent is money.
Speaker 7: Yeah, exactly. I couldn't agree more.
Speaker 1: Well, I think a lot of people like sell their
Speaker 1: businesses and then just go on to start another business, right, Well,
Speaker 1: he will, no doubt. That's the thing.
Speaker 4: Like, if you're doing it because you love being an
Speaker 4: entrepreneur and you love creating businesses, the reason why people
Speaker 4: sell them is because they're like, well, cool, I've built
Speaker 4: this one up, I can do another one. Yeah, and
Speaker 4: I can do that whole process from scratch again, rather
Speaker 4: than just working on something that's established.
Speaker 2: What would you say your biggest challenge since becoming such
Speaker 2: like a huge entrepreneur or maybe something about business that
Speaker 2: no one warned you about.
Speaker 6: I would say the hardest part for me, and probably
Speaker 6: a lot of other founders would agree, it's the staffing
Speaker 6: side of business. Because again, like you start a business,
Speaker 6: especially if it's like a small business where it's just
Speaker 6: you and maybe like one person that's coming in like
Speaker 6: two days a week to help in the shed. And
Speaker 6: I have no previous management experience obviously and never worked
Speaker 6: a job for more than six months. And I would
Speaker 6: say the biggest challenges that I've faced now and throughout
Speaker 6: the entirety of Fate, there's just been like the people
Speaker 6: and culture sidetal business, just dealing with you know, so
Speaker 6: many different people and like we've got a team of
Speaker 6: seventy now, so just like, can you just imagine like
Speaker 6: having a room of seventy people that you're with every
Speaker 6: day and like ensuring it all of them are like
Speaker 6: one hundred percent happy one hundred percent of the time.
Speaker 6: It's absolutely impossible, and people will just test you beyond belief,
Speaker 6: and it's hard because business isn't personal, but it feels
Speaker 6: personal when it's your business.
Speaker 7: But it's not like it's it's.
Speaker 6: So weird, but just that constant feeling of like someone
Speaker 6: always having an issue with something and trying to problem
Speaker 6: solve and maybe never being able to make everyone happy
Speaker 6: and then being hard on yourself for that and beating
Speaker 6: yourself up over it, when at the end of the day,
Speaker 6: like that's just life. We're never going to be able
Speaker 6: to make people happy in life in general.
Speaker 7: And you're never going to.
Speaker 6: Be able to make people one hundred percent happy one
Speaker 6: hundred percent of the time in business. And that's definitely
Speaker 6: where I've faced most of my challenges. And I'll take
Speaker 6: any other challenge any day, logistics, shipping stuff going missing,
Speaker 6: massive tax bills or whatever. But the people of the business,
Speaker 6: like they're everything in your business and you need them
Speaker 6: to run the business. But that's also where I think
Speaker 6: most of the challenges in business are.
Speaker 4: I think as well, like retail, I mean, there's other
Speaker 4: industries that are the same. Retail can be a particularly
Speaker 4: tricky one because a lot of your core stuff, especially
Speaker 4: when you have bricks and mortar stores, are staff that
Speaker 4: are working in store and that's not necessarily their passion.
Speaker 1: They're doing it because that's the.
Speaker 7: Hard thing as well.
Speaker 6: It's like this is my passion, and like I can
Speaker 6: give examples, like obviously I'm super passionate about fate and
Speaker 6: everything we do.
Speaker 7: So then I make a massive song.
Speaker 6: And dance online saying these are our stores, this is
Speaker 6: our grand opening, blah blah blah, and then like the
Speaker 6: store opening happens and you've got this store.
Speaker 7: You're then putting so much trust in those staff.
Speaker 6: To have the enthusiasm, Yeah, but accepting and understanding that
Speaker 6: that's just a retail job for them totally, and being
Speaker 6: okay with that and knowing that, like it's not their
Speaker 6: responsibility to have that same enthusiasm as you do. And
Speaker 6: then you know, we've had numerous times over the years,
Speaker 6: people going into store and again back to having that
Speaker 6: like online brand, people are walking into our stores with
Speaker 6: an idea in their mind of exactly how this is
Speaker 6: going to pan out for them. And then if that
Speaker 6: person working one day is like having an off day
Speaker 6: or they're feeling like shit, or they're hungover or whatever,
Speaker 6: because we're just human at the end of the day,
Speaker 6: if they don't give that person the service that they
Speaker 6: thought or the experience they thought, then that falls back
Speaker 6: on me totally.
Speaker 7: And it's you said that your store experience was amazing.
Speaker 4: Like she's twenty one, went out of the weekend. Yeah, right, No,
Speaker 4: it's really difficult, but it is. It's a really hard
Speaker 4: thing to manage because you can then err into the
Speaker 4: territory of micromanaging it. But at the same time, we've
Speaker 4: all had jobs, but we did it because we did
Speaker 4: it because we earned money.
Speaker 1: You're not passionate about.
Speaker 7: I've seen both sides.
Speaker 6: I see the customer's disappointment, but I also remember myself
Speaker 6: working in retail and saying, fuck this.
Speaker 1: You know, so I worked in a nightclub that I
Speaker 1: wasn't enthusiastic about it. Yeah, I can take a drink and.
Speaker 7: I no, it's so difficult.
Speaker 6: And that's the scary thing with opening more and more
Speaker 6: physical stores, is that just physical side, you're opening the
Speaker 6: doors to people actually coming into your business in person, whereas.
Speaker 7: That's where your online is more safe.
Speaker 4: How do you manage like people and like not just staffing,
Speaker 4: but like everyone wanting a piece of you because you're
Speaker 4: so entrenched in your brand like Fate is, even though
Speaker 4: the names are different, and especially if that's because kind
Speaker 4: of the way it's been set up across social media.
Speaker 4: But I would dare say that because of that setup,
Speaker 4: your staff probably all feel a connection to you or
Speaker 4: an excitement or like hiring there, like I know Brittany
Speaker 4: and I want to work for her, But also so
Speaker 4: to customers, like how do you manage your time when
Speaker 4: there's probably a thousand people who will want a little
Speaker 4: bit of Brittany.
Speaker 7: Ah.
Speaker 6: Again, I think it comes back to our workplace structure,
Speaker 6: like for example, with our stores, like I'm not involved
Speaker 6: in their operations. There's someone that is like that oversees
Speaker 6: all the stores, so that I'm not. And again when
Speaker 6: we first opened, like our first and second and third store,
Speaker 6: I was doing that wrong. I was in the group chats.
Speaker 6: I was worrying about their rosters. I was so involved.
Speaker 6: I was texting them all, you know, and I learned,
Speaker 6: you know, maybe after store two or three.
Speaker 7: Hang on a second, I don't need to be in
Speaker 7: the work group chats.
Speaker 6: I don't need to be looking at their shifts, just
Speaker 6: because I was just opening myself up to like so
Speaker 6: many people contacting me at all times. Sure, and again
Speaker 6: it just has to you have to delegate and have
Speaker 6: that person doing that. Otherwise she's just going to burn
Speaker 6: yourself into the ground worrying about who's still lunch cover
Speaker 6: at Miranda today because someone's so caught in sick and
Speaker 6: like you know.
Speaker 1: As someone's going to figure it out.
Speaker 6: As a CEO, I can't be worrying about that kind
Speaker 6: of stuff because I need to work on like moving
Speaker 6: the business forward.
Speaker 2: Well, when you do have your own business, and I
Speaker 2: even think of this from the perspective of life on cut.
Speaker 2: But when you have your own business, you don't ever
Speaker 2: turn off right.
Speaker 3: Your brain is always thinking about it.
Speaker 2: And we are unique in our very small business because
Speaker 2: we will talk to each other at midnight sometimes or
Speaker 2: six am or whatever. We don't have boundaries, but what
Speaker 2: we need them. We need them, but we're also friends,
Speaker 2: so we get away with it. But what do you
Speaker 2: and aj A, your partner, put in place to protect
Speaker 2: your relationship in a way because you are both in
Speaker 2: the same business. It is both it's like you're you know,
Speaker 2: you're both working towards the same goals. Yes, I imagine
Speaker 2: it's very hard when you come home in a relationship
Speaker 2: to not want to continue talking about work and not
Speaker 2: prioritize work. Do you have any rules where it's like, hey,
Speaker 2: no work, no phone from seven to nine, We're going
Speaker 2: to talk.
Speaker 3: We're gonna have a date night, you.
Speaker 6: Guys, We definitely say that to one another week go
Speaker 6: out for dinner and we say we're not talking about work.
Speaker 6: Or AJ's started to become like more involved a little
Speaker 6: bit with like more meetings at work that happen, so
Speaker 6: that I'm not having to go home and tell him
Speaker 6: what's happened. So I've like started bringing him more into
Speaker 6: my role and the people that I kind of oversee,
Speaker 6: so that it's not like I'm doing all these meetings
Speaker 6: in the day and then I go home and have
Speaker 6: to repeat it all to him, which we've only just
Speaker 6: recently kind of started doing. And I think that's going
Speaker 6: to be really helpful. But also like most of the time,
Speaker 6: the stuff that we're talking about is like pretty exciting,
Speaker 6: or we're like thinking of the next big thing that
Speaker 6: we're going to do. So when we go out for dinner,
Speaker 6: if the topic is work, like we're never really talking
Speaker 6: about negative things. We're talking about like exciting stuff or ideas.
Speaker 3: You're on the same page, which.
Speaker 7: We don't mind.
Speaker 6: Yeah, but if sometimes at night he'll like pull out
Speaker 6: his laptop and then start going, so and so hasn't
Speaker 6: done their time sheet. I'm like, put your fucking laptop
Speaker 6: away and I'll sort it out in the morning. I'd
Speaker 6: April has not put her time sheet in, and every
Speaker 6: Friday after and they're like time sheds.
Speaker 7: Like, so AJ doesn't go, what the fuck is he done?
Speaker 1: The pace so he doesn't have to be chasing everyone.
Speaker 4: You wrote a really beautiful chapter towards the end of
Speaker 4: the book about what it is that you're proud of,
Speaker 4: like throughout this journey, and that is like I mean,
Speaker 4: we can always talk about like stopping and smelling the
Speaker 4: roses and actually having this time to reflect, but what
Speaker 4: was it that you learned in doing that process and
Speaker 4: actually taking time to be like, Okay, these are the
Speaker 4: things that I'm really proud of myself achieving. I think overall,
Speaker 4: like writing this book and it reads like a diary,
Speaker 4: like if you read it, and I've been saying to everyone,
Speaker 4: it's a really easy read as well.
Speaker 7: Like when I wrote this book, I didn't try to sound.
Speaker 6: Like a polished author or use like fancy vocabulary or
Speaker 6: you know, wording.
Speaker 7: It's just very much written in my own words.
Speaker 6: And I think one of the coolest things to come
Speaker 6: out of doing this book was just actually writing everything
Speaker 6: down and writing out my life story and all the
Speaker 6: things that I've done, because it allowed me to like
Speaker 6: stop and reflect on everything that I've achieved. Because, like
Speaker 6: I mentioned earlier, it's such a rat race being in business,
Speaker 6: and you can just get obsessed with the growth and
Speaker 6: always wanting to achieve more, and weirdly enough, the more
Speaker 6: that you achieve.
Speaker 7: The less you feel like you're.
Speaker 4: Achieving, it's like a weird thing because you have a
Speaker 4: new benchmark to compare to.
Speaker 1: So you achieved that, and I need to do more
Speaker 1: as ass creep.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I saw a quote the other day.
Speaker 6: It was something like, maybe you feel like you're never
Speaker 6: achieving anything because you're just continuously raising the.
Speaker 2: Bar one hundred percent your standards become higher.
Speaker 6: Yeah, but like and again I was adding in those
Speaker 6: chapters at the end because I felt like it was
Speaker 6: never finished or like it wasn't perfect enough. But get
Speaker 6: to put it in a nutshell, Like one of the
Speaker 6: biggest things I've gotten out of the book was just
Speaker 6: like being able to sit down and just like write
Speaker 6: out my feelings.
Speaker 7: Like it feels like I've written a journal or a diary.
Speaker 6: And I was even saying on my story, even if
Speaker 6: you no one plans on writing a book, like, just
Speaker 6: sit down and write.
Speaker 7: Some stuff about your life.
Speaker 6: Like it's really like a nice exercise to do, cathartic. Yeah,
Speaker 6: it's like relaxing and therapeutic and it allows you to
Speaker 6: stop and reflect because life is just a rat race
Speaker 6: and so is business. So yeah, I actually loved it.
Speaker 6: Like people are like, would you do another one? Yep,
Speaker 6: I reckon, I'm just going to start writing it like
Speaker 6: just for fun. Like no one's asked if I want
Speaker 6: to do a second one, but I'll just write it
Speaker 6: and give it.
Speaker 3: To Itself Publishing FIRS.
Speaker 6: Because it was just like, actually so enjoyable, even though
Speaker 6: throughout it I would stop for two months and then
Speaker 6: I'd get an email from book type you of being like, hey, Britt,
Speaker 6: how's it going.
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 7: Sorry, I'll keep going, But yeah, I really liked it.
Speaker 2: You said when you started out, you didn't have a
Speaker 2: lot of support, and I imagine it would have been
Speaker 2: lovely for someone to have been there to guide you
Speaker 2: into your business journey. For anyone now that has either
Speaker 2: just started a business or really wants to start but
Speaker 2: they don't know what to do, what's your advice for them?
Speaker 3: Read my book.
Speaker 7: I'm going to be lame. But the book is called
Speaker 7: Just Getting Started.
Speaker 6: And the reason why it's called that is because I
Speaker 6: still feel like I'm just getting started, even though I've
Speaker 6: done so much.
Speaker 7: And also sometimes it's about just getting.
Speaker 6: Started, like we were chatting about earlier on like when
Speaker 6: you were talking about how when you started this podcast
Speaker 6: and you were working in the hospital that you were
Speaker 6: worried that people were going to find out and you
Speaker 6: were worried about what they might say or think. That's
Speaker 6: like the number one thing that holds people back from
Speaker 6: doing anything in life is just a fear of judgment
Speaker 6: from others. That's literally what stops people, like even if
Speaker 6: they know exactly what they need to do, it'll just
Speaker 6: be that fear. And one saying that I have been
Speaker 6: using a lot lately and I'm absolutely loving is do
Speaker 6: it scared. And that quote is in the book as well.
Speaker 6: Just because you're scared doesn't mean that you should not
Speaker 6: do it. But people go, I'm not going to do that.
Speaker 6: I'm too scared, and then like that is the reason
Speaker 6: that they don't do it, Whereas like you should reframe
Speaker 6: your mindset to just do it scared anyway, Like whether
Speaker 6: it's coming on a podcast, asking for a pay rise,
Speaker 6: asking to take on some more responsibilities at work, having
Speaker 6: a tough conversation with your partner, whatever it may be,
Speaker 6: just do it scared anyway, because you can still do
Speaker 6: things even if you're scared, and just do it with
Speaker 6: that scared feeling.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 4: I also love what you said in the last episode
Speaker 4: we spoke about, which is about just not having to
Speaker 4: have things perfect, oh, like to do it imperfectly.
Speaker 1: Just fucking do it, just like you know.
Speaker 6: Google everything, make sure you know all the basics that
Speaker 6: you need and just start and then figure out the
Speaker 6: rest as you go, because like, truthfully, I'm still figuring
Speaker 6: out how to do everything as I.
Speaker 7: Go, and I'm so many years into my business journey now.
Speaker 3: But you're doing it.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I'm doing it and figuring it out. You make
Speaker 6: mistakes and go well, next time that happens, I'm going
Speaker 6: to do it differently. But it's just a matter of
Speaker 6: just starting. And if you've got the idea, if you've
Speaker 6: got the enthusiasm, the passion, the idea and the basics
Speaker 6: and the things that you need to get started, just
Speaker 6: give it a world Like what's the worse is going
Speaker 6: to happen?
Speaker 2: You know, there are a bunch of I was my
Speaker 2: Hen's party on the weekend and there are a bunch
Speaker 2: of girls on there that didn't know this interview was happening.
Speaker 2: I hadn't said anything and they were talking about you
Speaker 2: and how oh really yeah, because some of them have
Speaker 2: just started a business, and they were talking about how
Speaker 2: excited they were to read the book, and I thought,
Speaker 2: that's really cool. So I mean the purpose of that
Speaker 2: is just to tell you that you are making a
Speaker 2: really big difference, even if sometimes you think you aren't.
Speaker 2: And you and I were just talking off Mike before
Speaker 2: about like the imposter syndrome on writing a book.
Speaker 3: You're like, You're like, I can't write a book. Is
Speaker 3: anyone going to want to read it? Do I have
Speaker 3: anything to say?
Speaker 6: Because it was new for me, Like, you know, I've
Speaker 6: done a lot of things, but I've never written a book.
Speaker 7: I was like, no, one's not coming good enough. But
Speaker 7: it is.
Speaker 2: But it's a brilliant book just getting started. If you
Speaker 2: guys know anything about Brittany, you're going to want to
Speaker 2: read this. If you're starting a business, you've just started
Speaker 2: a business.
Speaker 3: Grab this book.
Speaker 2: We've absolutely loved it, We've loved having you on.
Speaker 1: You're truly you can keep coming back.
Speaker 7: You see there anytime, like honestly, just let me know.
Speaker 3: And congratulations. We're putting all the links to.
Speaker 2: Podcasts, YouTube's, books.
Speaker 3: Everything, everything's going to be there.
Speaker 7: But there are twenty linksylow.
Speaker 1: But thanks for coming in and having the chat today.
Speaker 4: Thanks for having me, Thanks Brittany,