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