Welcome back to a very special episode, bonus episode of Big Business, and I'm joined by a guest. It's a guy that you all know and love, and we have absolutely forced him to be sitting in the chair across from me right now. Welcome Aj to the podcast.
Yes, thank you. I really don't want to be on here, so.
Look today's episode it's just a bonus episode. We have fun with these and today I thought I would chat to you all about what it's like to work with your partner. I've had a lot of people over the years say to me, how do you and AJ actually manage to work together? I thought I would also tell you how it exactly came to be, which was never
part of my plan. As you all know, I'm very against hiring friends and family, but somehow working with my partner is apparently fine for now, so I guess we And by the way, we really are pressuring AJ into being in this podcast right now, so no pressure for you to actually take the reins. But I'll start with the story of how AJ and I ended up working together. So, Aj, what is your actual profession?
My profession is an electrician.
And how long did you do that for?
So I started when I was sixteen, just left you attended high school. I did it for what fifteen years till I was about thirty one, and then jump ship.
So the way that we got into working together, AJ was obviously with me when I started Fate, like we were dating then. I don't even know how long we've been together. A really long time.
Now too long?
Yeah, too long? RIGHTO. You can just take the piss out of me in this episode. That's what you're good at. So if that means you're going to talk by taking the piss, just do it.
Fate.
So AJ was there when this all came to be. We were living in a three story so annoying townhouse rental. I would never recommend having a three story house like you know, garage and laundry at the bottom, then your laundry and then your bedrooms at the bloody top. Nightmare. And I started Fate and we set it up in the garage downstairs. AJ lost his car spot because that turned into the packing area and the photo shoot area, and essentially I started Fate and I didn't even consider
what you thought of it at the time. But it was just really this little thing, wasn't it like it was never meant to be this big, crazy business that we're doing now. And AJ would go to work every day. You would work like what's seven till two or seven till two thirty, and then he would come home, finish work, behome before three, and then he would jump into the garage and help me. So he would help me packing the orders, doing the returns. We were doing everything really
wrong back then. I'll tell you something funny that we actually used to do when we first started FATE. When you print out a shipping label, you know now, like it prints out from this special printer and it's a sticker already, so then you just peel it and you stick it. Because we didn't know that you could get like a label printer that would do that, we would print our shipping little labels out on an A four piece of paper because we had a printer and a
four paper. Then, like like shit, you not, we did this for every single parcel. We would get scissors and cut out the because it was only in the corner of the A four piece of paper, it wasn't the whole size of the piece of paper. We would cut around. Then we would place it on the shipping bag and then sticky tape four pieces of sticky tape around and
we did that for every single order. And mind you, even though Fate was new, like we would sometimes have like one hundred orders to pack here and one hundred and twenty to pack there, and we were fucking hand cutting from an a four piece of paper every single time. And it wasn't until like a year in that a like, wait, I think we can get this printer that prints these labels out for us. So we wasted so many hours
doing that. And one thing that I really noticed in those early days of me doing Fate and I was still being an influencer and then Aj was working full time being an electrician, is Aj was really unhappy doing what he was doing. It's not that you like, absolutely hated being an electrician, but I was noticing it more in his everyday mental health. I guess that he was coming home and he was angry, and in the mornings when he was waking up, he was like raging from
the second that he woke up. And it was something that I would bring up to him to be like, hey, like you seem really mad, Like you know, when the alarm goes off, I'm sure It's an experience that most of us feel when we're going to work, like that alarm goes off it you would literally just be like fuck,
like you really didn't you really didn't like it. And I used to feel that way when I worked in various roles, and I would bring it up with AJ and say, hey, like, I've noticed that you're not happy when you're waking up and you're getting home and you're really angry. And I would say to AJ, why don't we Like I was trying to like come up with resolutions for him, so I'd be like, why don't you apply to work at a different electrical company, like just to change it up a little bit.
I mean, yeah, I was really angry.
But you didn't realize it at the time.
I didn't realize it, but yeah, now I look back at it, I was definitely angry.
I worked with my.
Family, so you were fighting all the time.
Yeah, you'd go to work, you'd see your family, you'd work with them all day and then like it was just too much. It was a lot.
Yeah, and they're all boys and they're all fight. So it was like his dad and then his brothers. We love them, but they fight a lot when they're working together. That's why I don't hire family. And so I would bring this up with AJ and he'd say, oh, no, like what else am I supposed to do? Like I was getting desperate at one point where I would say to AJ, like why don't we because he's so great,
I'm like, why don't you become like a paramedic? Like I was like thinking full career change, like why don't you become a paramedic a firefighter? Like I was throwing shit out there, and because he was in that really negative headspace of like hating his job and he'd been doing it for so long that he couldn't see that he could do something else. And I think that's a mindset that a lot of people get into, is they get into a job or a career or whatever and
they think, no, this is it for me. And I remember we would almost even like argue about it a bit because I'd get so frustrated with his anger because it was like bringing my mood down. And I'd say like is this it for you? Like is this all you want to do in your life? And he'd be like, yes, this is all I'm gonna do because he couldn't see that, like you can get out there and do something even if you are thirty, Like you can fully change your career.
So anyway, he never ended up getting another job. He just stayed working with his family, and he was continuing to help me in the garage. And then we moved from the garage into our first little warehouse, and then again he'd be coming to the warehouse after work every day. Mind you, he's like working eight hours a day with his dad, crawling under houses, pulling cables, and then coming to help us in the afternoon. So he was working
a lot. Then it got to a point where he then started to come and work with us on Fridays, and then he went four days with his family. Then he came to work with us on Thursdays and Fridays, and then Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and then all of a sudden, before we knew it, maybe like what two years ago now two and a bit years ago, he made the decision to come and work full time with us, and it's been that way ever since. What do you actually do it, Fate.
AJ, Well, a bit of everything. I stay out of your way. That's the main job.
AJ runs our warehouse essentially he looks after all that shit with everyone that's working in the warehouse.
Obviously, AJ don't want to take the credit off the girls.
No, AJ does all the warehouse shit. He knows the business just as well as I do. And he pays all of our invoices now, which is great because I used to and it's like really painful paying your big invoices. So now AJ looks after the money side of things, and he's just essentially my soundboard for all.
Things, and that's my main job.
Yeah. I tell him all my crazy business ideas and people have often said, how do you work together? I could never work with my partner, and I think it's just one of those things where it does work for us. I don't think there's any like special source or magic recipe as to why it does. That's just the way it is, Zander. What do you want to say?
So AJ, I want to know what is the best thing about working with Britt She stays out of my way.
I would say that we just have fun. And like even this morning, I chucked up an Instagram story of us on the way here today because we're doing other stuff after the podcast, and someone said, like, do you and AJ have a fight. Like you guys just seem like you get along really well, And I just think we are lucky in that sense where we do just get along really well. We can work together really well,
and I know a lot of couples couldn't. I know a lot of couples would rip each other's heads off when they're working together.
Has there been one particular time whilst you both have been running fate that has challenged you.
There's definitely probably small moments, but there's never been like a huge moment where I'm like, this is fucking affecting our relationship. But if anything, I'd say it'd just be more so like money things when we're like making huge financial decisions and we're both just getting a bit stressed about it, or maybe even just like dealing with like a staff conflict or issue or something, and then it comes into our relationship because we're talking about it at
home and we might get a bit heated. But nothing like major again, luckily, but I think as a couple, like we're not like that anyway, Like we're very similar in a way, so working together works for us. And also we don't work side by side like I think if we were working side by side every day, like sitting at desks next to each other. Then yet we might get more frustrated with one another. But like there's so many days where we don't even see each other
because he's off there and I'm over here. So it just works for us.
Do you both have certain boundaries set in place, for example, like maybe you don't talk about work when you get home.
No, we talk about all the time. But I think one of the best things about what AJ and I do is we enjoy what we do so much that we like, I know it's lame to say, but I feel like I'm never working Like everything that I do I love and we have so much fun together. And we do have so much fun at work, so we don't really have a life that we feel like we need to escape from or switch off from, because we
do just enjoy it. But when we do go home, like we do switch off, like you know, we'll talk about stuff that we need to talk about, but otherwise, like where it's chilling and live in our own lives and we might talk about work here and there or say my next crazy business idea. But it's just a really good dynamic and balance.
For you both as a couple who run a business together. Is there a point that you both want to get to? Is there a certain goal you want to reach.
Yeah, that's a good question. I don't think either of us could have predicted fate getting to where it is now. Like if you told us when we were in the garage that this is where it would end up, we'd be like, no fucking way. So the sky really is
a limit. But I guess in an ideal scenario, like maybe it would be in the future us stepping away from the business more and which we're doing little bits here and there, Like we've got so many good staff in place now that they're kind of like running the operations. But I'd like me anyway, like I'd like to see us step away from it more and maybe enjoy our
lives a little. If we enjoy our lives anyway, but you know, we could maybe go holidaying and like, you know, enjoy all the hard work that we've done and the money that we do earn. So yeah, i'd say that was the end goal. But I mean I still feel like we're just getting started.
And outside of fate, have you guys got any you know, personal plans coming up. I'm looking at you, Aj, possibly no plans.
No plans.
No.
People always say, like, when are you going to get married? When are you going to have kids? There's a good clip baby title for this episode, like when Brittany and aj are getting married and having kids. We always say, like we think we would just go and like being us, like we would just go in a lope and do something ourselves and then maybe have a barbecue at home or whatever. Because if I'm having a wedding, it's going to be like three hundred grand and I don't want
to I don't want to do that. I'd rather put that in the business. But we actually have no personal plans at all, like because our life is just so good the way it is. We're renovating our house at the moment, so we're hopefully going to finish that before Christmas this year and just keep slaying it at fate.
I want to know, would you guys release a fat baby range.
I mean, it would make sense if we had kids, and then we did, and who knows, maybe I can capitalize on that in the future, but no, for now, like, our life is just so good and we still feel like we're really just getting started with this whole fate thing, even though we're years in, but it really does feel like the start of the journey.
So now we just need to bring out a men's range.
Oh yeah, we do. We are working on that because AJ has been bugging me for years for that, so we'll make it happen.
Will you model the men's range? AJ?
Yeah? Oh, I don't know if we can afford you though, Like your rate's pretty.
High, all mind's low if you want to use me, okay.
Yeah, we'll use you instead. But yeah, anyway, that's a little bonus EP of Big Business. Thanks AJ for being on and saying like four sentences. Yeah, that's all right, you're going to send us an invoice for this.
Yeah, what's my going right?
Fifteen hundred a minute?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, nice, that's already talk for less than a minute.
So well, anyway, friends, thanks listening to today's bonus EP of Big Business, and I'll see you all next week for my main episode.