Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud yr
the Order Kerni Whoalbury and a waddery woman. And before we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country, acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through as this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and the storytelling of you to make a difference for today and lasting impact for tomorrow.
Let's get into it.
She's on the Money, She's on the Money.
Hello, and welcome to She's on Them, the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom. My friends, this is an extra exciting episode because I am joined by a very special co host. Jasmine guns Worthy is the founder of Female Founder World, a company that runs events and has a whole heap of digital products for women who are starting their small business journey. Jasmine, not very New York
of us. You're Aussie Bourne, have a very beautiful Ossie accent, but you moved to New York to advocate for young women who are budding entrepreneurs. After building a small online community, her in person events have grown from small catch ups to amazing events that sell out in the literally minutes with a waitlist of hundreds of savvy women looking to grow their businesses. Welcome to the podcast, Jasmine. What is it like being a co host if she's on the money?
Oh my gosh, I am so excited to be here. Thank you for having me, And what an amazing introduction. Could you please introduce my own podcast with that, because yeah, I come through that so many glowing things in there, but thank you so much having me. I'm never good at introing ourselves, and like, if you said we introduce yourself, I'd be like, Hi, my name's Victoria. I really like dogs. Like I'm not.
Good at that exactly. I mean.
And this is a whole thing that we can get into on the show as well, about women being able to hype themselves up.
I will hype you, though, so like I will be everybody's personal hype person. And I hope that's the vibe they get, but that's the vibe I get from you. Like your content is honestly elite, but I want to know a little bit more for those of you following along because she's on the money. It's not necessarily for business. But we have reintroduced our business Bible episodes and I haven't announced this before, but like, I'm writing a business
book in twenty twenty four, which is so exciting. But I want to know why did you start Female Founders World and what does it mean now?
So Female Founder World was honestly built out of failure. It was built out of an experience that I had creating my first consumer business. And before this, I was a fashion and beauty editor for years, so you know my roots are in digital media. That's kind of how I got my start, and I started a customize clean beauty brand. This is back in twenty sixteen. I think you know a lot of folks listening if you are
interested in small business. I do think the beauty space is something that a lot of people are interested in getting into. So I got started in twenty sixteen. I was one of the first customized brands in the space. We launched and then next week we're in Vogue. We went through Urban Outfitters, had distribution, just so really normal. It's really exciting first couple of years, right, and it it takes a sad turn Victoria, but.
That's okay, But like, how incredible to go I started a small business, Like, you're clearly on the right path. But I think all business owners we don't know what we're doing. Like at the end of the day, like low key, like you look like you know what you're doing, you're in vogue.
Right, well, this is it?
Right?
So I saw all of these other folks coming into the space, coming in with big VC money, and personally I just froze. I didn't know how to get over that that hump of how do you get take this business from You've got this early traction through the next stage.
And because of my own.
Lack of confidence of being able to kind of go after this opportunity and really recognizing that the experience and what I had built was worth something, the business just plateaued and I ended up closing it in twenty twenty and Female found the World was born out of that experience.
And it sounds honestly, it sounds so cliche, it sounds cheesy, but truly just wanting no one else to have to go through that experience, because I do think there are a lot of women who are building products that are for them that don't recognize that the opportunity that they have and the experience that they have is super valuable and you don't need to have an MBA to do this, And that is truly what we are there for.
I mean, I've said on the podcast before, I have an NBA, and I honestly, if we do it again, I wouldn't bother. Do I do something else? Yeah, I do a startup. I do something that I actually got tangible interest totally and tangible I guess you would say experience out of because one of the things that I got out of it I can do like management accounting for big business, like for corporate I got a lot
of corporate experience. But that's not what we want, Like, that's not what my community of small business owners inside Sheese on the Money want, Like you don't want to have to do a seventy thousand dollars MBA to start a business. In fact, yeah, you walk out of it. And it's like you know when they say you learn the most on the job, you genuinely do. Like you don't need to go to university to have a really
cool business to be really impactful. And there's obviously millions literally of women who have shown us that.
And honestly, through my career, I've interviewed now thousands of women who have built businesses from I love it, I've ness yeah, from a small amount of revenue, it's a side hustle through to I just interviewed the founder of Billy, which is a company that she just sold for three hundred and ten million dollars. So all different sizes change, and most of them do not have business degrees.
Reason because you're more creative than that. Like I feel like so many of us, if you went down the route of having an MBA, it's like a structured ladder that makes no sense anymore, and that that's not going to work for the digital world that we live.
In one hundred percent.
So I want to know. Obviously, there are so many women in my community that have side hustles, Like your entire community is women who own businesses. What do you think the most common challenge is when it comes to starting and how do we get over that.
I think the big thing that people need to realize is you don't have to have a perfectly laid out plan to get started. I think that we can really get in our heads about making sure that we have a perfect business plan, that we have all of the money that we need to do X, Y and z to get it to a certain level, That we have the perfect product, the perfect packaging, that it looks like
the brands that you're seeing on Instagram. And what I think you need to go back and really reassess is these big brands that you might want to be like one day, what did they look like on day one? Because I guarantee it's not what you're seeing today. And the best thing to do is to build your product in collaboration with the person who is going to be a customer.
Build it with your community.
Don't just quietly sit at your computer and think that you know all of the answers and then release something out into the world. It is so much more powerful to bring the customer along with you and to get that feedback as you go and get that buy in.
I'm so committed to your product because they genuinely believe it's been made for them.
I have this incredible story about a brand called August, which isn't in Australia yet they're in the US.
August, I stalk them on social media.
So they're founder.
Nadia O Komoto is just this incredible She's like twenty six and has built this amazing business. And she had a community that was built around this value of destigmatizing periods, and she had that for a year. She hosted it on a platform called Geneva, and she built her tampon business with those customers for a year before she actually released a physical product.
She since raised millions of dollars. They go viral on.
TikTok, so they sold out. She started by building with the community. So the big mistake people make is wanting to sit at their laptops by themselves and quietly make this perfect thing.
It does not work like that. It's always community first. I feel like historically it's been very here's a product, I'm going to tell you the fifty different reasons why you need it. Whereas nowadays, and it's not even just nowadays, it's just smart marketing, smart strategy. Now I go, well, Jasmine, what are you struggling with? What can I help you with? Then obviously you've got a niche, so you're asking questions
about that. But to go to your side and be like, wow, I feel really heard this product really is for me. They're doing the marketing themselves, like your consumer is going to convince themselves that that's the only one they need because you've taken on all of their feedback totally.
Not only have you then created a product that people actually want to buy, which, by the way, is the hard thing. Creating the product that people want is the whole thing when you're getting started, but you've also then got this really core group of evangelists who will go out and bat for you. And don't misunderstand how valuable it is, even if it is fifty people in the beginning, to have those folks to spread the word when you do have a product to sell.
I cannot, for the life of me remember the author. But there is a great book called one Hundred True Fans, and I am obsessed. It's like that. It's about finding your core group of your community and loving on them so hard because they're just going to be those evangelists that go out and be like, Judsmine's amazing. Have you said, Judsmine,
what's Jusmin doing this week? Like they're obsessed, and their obsession transforms into positive advocacy for your brand, and you see it in there are a number of brands that I follow online that do do this, and August is one of them. Where you know in the comments on TikTok, that is not a kind space sometimes, right they August don't have to worry about that because if someone is unkind, they have all these true fans that are like, sorry,
sit down, that's unacceptable behavior in this community. These are not the values that we are upheld by. And you just go, how do I create that? That is how you create that. My friend following Nadia following what she does with August, and I just I get so excited
watching it. It's very very cool. But one of the things that I got out when we were talking about NBA, like literally the only thing I got out of my MBA that I'm like, oh, that was sort of worth it was my network, right, And I could have just found these people on LinkedIn if I really wanted to, which arguably would have been free. Like can you imagine if I'd invested the seventy nearly eighty thousand dollars that
I had spent on my MBA in my business. I don't want to talk about it because it frustrates me, but network is so important and you have clearly identified that with female founder World, because that's basically what you do when it comes to networking. What do we need to know? How do we know who to network? What's a waste of time? What is actually the follow up process? Should I be anxious about this? What if I don't even have a brand yet, but you're telling me to network?
Like Jasmin, that's overwhelming as all get out.
Isn't it funny how the word network as well now has this really icky connotation. I think that when I say networking, people get a little bit like like you just said, they have that immediate reaction where they're like, oh, I don't know, it feels transactional, and it feels like.
I'm just scared of making new friends jument.
Right, Okay, because that's essentially what it is. You're just building relationships. And at this point, like I truly don't know, like the lines are so blurred between personal and professional, particularly when you're a small business owner, that your network isn't this transactional thing. It needs to be something that
you're investing in from the beginning. And I'm a big advocate and what I've seen work really well is peer mentorship so you do not need to be reaching out to the person who has built the company that you want to build, who is maybe ten steps ahead of you. You need to be reaching out to the people who
are alongside you. Start right now. If you haven't done this yet, I don't care if it's an Instagram DM, if it's an email, like, reach out to these people and start building that network because as you grow, their businesses will grow too. And at some point you're all kind of coming up together and it creates this just momentum where you're fueling each other. It leads to opportunities
for collaboration and partnership. And when you're building a small business, you have so many questions that you just can't google. It's stuff like is this supplier Dodgy? Is this price okay? What do I put in my retailer pitch deck? How do I get investors? This is stuff that's really hard to google, and you're going to need to rely on those relationships that you have just built over time to be able to really ask these questions and get that
advice to grow your business. Plus, this is a hard game, like you need people who understand where you're coming to this from. My husband is amazing. He is an amazing support to me. But when I have issues in my business or I have a hard day with my team, I'm on text with my founder friends sharing that my.
Group chat of business own friends.
You need it. Build that group chat for yourself.
It doesn't have to be this structured mentorship kind of experience. Just go and find people who are at where you're at and build with them.
Yeah. No, I could not agree more. My little group of girls that all own like not similar businesses to me, but I would say, now, sim less sized businesses, we kind of all started at the same area. They're the ones I want to sook too. I'm like, oh my god, this happened or this hr issues come up. Once you'll be bigger. I don't feel so bad because if I go out to brunch with one of my girlfriends and I'm talking about that, they're like, oh, well that's really important.
You're just like, no, it's not like you can empathize with my frustration here. But the same thing. You know, your pitch decks are so challenging. You can't just google those things. If you have a strong network, like I feel like I do. The amount of times been like I'm really struggling with this. They're like, oh, babe, I'll just send you mine.
Yeah.
Like wait, what, like you're gonna happily send that? They're like yeah, of course, Like you can just get it done. I spent hours doing this and oh it was so frustrating because what goes around comes around the next time they ask a question, I'm like, what do you need? I will put it on a silver platter. How do I give this to you so that you get the
same experience because they feel like you. I don't want to say owe each other in a way, but you just want each other to be so successful because I'm like, no, you help me, I help you. It's like this beautiful I guess ecosystem that isn't family and it isn't friends. And that to me was at the very start when I didn't have it, the most isolating part. But what's your kind of like go to? Do I slide into their dms and be like high jusman, I think you're
really cool? Like or do I go high jusmin? Can we get coffee?
Like?
What's the gate?
I think you always need to be leading it with if you're going into any relationship.
Right.
So if you've got a friendship and you've known this person for ten years, you can go in right off the bat with them and ask them for something, right
because you've built that relationship. But if you're going in cold with somebody that you don't know, you need to lead with the reason why they would want to have a coffee with you, or you need to really like do need to like dangle a little bit of a carrot to entice them to start this relationship because we're all busy, So yes, I would, I would say jump into their DMS. There's nothing wrong with that. We also have a group chat on a platform called Geneva that's like free to join that.
People know what help an Australian role.
It's kind of I think it's kind of new. It's a platform that's I don't know, they call it like discord or slack forgin. Yes, it's like that, but just like for.
Gen Z, it's got my approach. Definitely a millennial.
I am very millennial too, and a lot of our community are millennials as well. But it's just the way that the platform feels, the attitude, the vibes, and there are very gen Z and we like that.
Do you like that?
It's not it's not a millennial platform, but a lot of people in there are. So you can jump into a group chat like that, join an existing community, and just embed yourself in there and truly lead with the
value you can offer. So if you see another founder asking a question on the Instagram stories, be the person that can say, hey, yeah, I can recommend somebody for this job that you're hiring for, or go in and add that value so that you can start the relationship off with that kind of active service rather than trying to take from somebody, because you don't want to be
going in with that kind of transactional attitude. And are you settling so important before about how it's mutually beneficial this relationship has.
To be otherwise why are you yes?
So you need to show people that you want to create a mutual relationship where you are I'm not just taking from them, but you want to add to them as well.
I couldn't agree more on the mutually beneficial thing because I feel like I don't know you would be the same because of the position you're in. Sometimes you do have people that DM you and go jasmine, you're amazing. Can you please tell me x y zed And you're like, I know that I want to help people, but that is a question you could have googled, or that is something that you know if we were out for a coffee, i'd have a chat with you about. But like, it's
just a take message. It's not this give take relationship. And this is probably uncovering some of my dirty secrets, Jasmine. But if I identify that there is somebody that I want to network with, I look at them and it might be you. Right, I've seen Jasmine, I've seen female Founder World, and I'm like, oh my gosh, this is exactly what I want to do. I'm not going to DM you straight away. I'm going to start following you. I'm going to follow your business. I'm gonna start licking
all your posts. I'm gonna comment on some stuff. I might reply to your stories a few times. You're hopefully going to see my name pop up a few times. Maybe if I'm lucky, because I've been good at interacting with content, you check my content out too, and then maybe you follow me, or maybe you don't. It doesn't matter too much, but then I might go, hey, Jasmin, weird one. But I've been following you for a while. I think your vibe is amazing, and I think that
we'd get along really well. I am in a similar position, or I'm doing this, or I'm doing that. I reckon that I have so much value and you have so much value, and we definitely should put that in the same room. At some point, I'll pay for the coffee. Let me know when you're free. I feel like that always lands so much better than like, Hi, Jasmin, I just followed you, and I think that we should get coffee.
I'm probably gonna say no to that because as a small business owner, we only have so many plates, we only have so many hours in a day, and I feel like if you're immediately showing me, oh my gosh, like I've got value, You've got value, there's like that pre existing kind of pseudosocial relationship. I want to be your friend. I do genuinely want that, especially if I can see that you're not just a brand new follower. However, same thing for LinkedIn, same thing for like Facebook, same
thing for like this Geneva app. I feel like you've got to prove why you're there to begin with, not just go hey, I would like something.
Yeah, and also think of Instagram as LinkedIn for entrepreneurs as well, like this is on network.
Yea, yes, absolutely, and it's not. I don't know. I found so many of my best friends via Instagram, Like it's it's crazy. All of the girls that work for me that you have just met. I stalked to them all on Instagram and then basically approached them from their jobs because I was like, I can see what you're doing. I think you're doing a great job. So do you want to do that great job at my house? And it's been really fun. But I think showing up on
social media is a massive one. So obviously just sliding to someone's DMS, I don't know if that's as scary as you know, being front facing when it comes to creating content for your business. You're incredible at showing up authentically, I would say, very authentically and very organically on your social media. How do you do that? How do I step into that? I feel like that, especially in twenty twenty three, is so important to be able to do if you want a successful business. Asn't how this.
Is such an interesting time for small business owners, particularly women who are small business owners. I think we have this interesting like opportunity but also pressure where you can show up as the face of your business and it will drive sales. The women that I'm talking to in our community, the best tiktoks that perform for them are the ones where they are fronting the content as the
business owner. People are buying from people, not from brands, and so you have to show up or somebody has to show up as a person that is front facing for the business. But it can be really hard and it's a challenge. Not everybody feels comfortable being on camera, particularly in this age of video where we're not just
putting photos of ourselves up there. You are speaking, you're doing video, and maybe you're doing skits like that is not something that people are inherently born being comfortable with.
Oh No, Like the entire eas in judgment I have a podcast is because video was too overwhelmings.
I understand.
I was like, heck no, I'm not going to be on video, And now I'm the biggest tip of crete because I'm like, what other tiktoks can I do?
I understand.
Look, I do struggle with this a lot where I'm kind of like, how much is right to share. What is the payoff of actually being this vulnerable and creating spending this much time creating content. But ultimately, every opportunity that I've had to grow our business has been because somebody has connected with me, my story, the content I've created, And so that's why I just keep showing up every single day. I would say, you need to be finding
a mix that works for you. And when you just says something really important that we said showing up authentically, that doesn't mean that you have to be participating in this vulnerability olympics that is the.
Internet right now.
You do not have to be just bearing the worst thing that's ever happened to you on the internet so that people can like connect with that. You can be authentic in a way that is safe for you and is also reflective of the brand that you want to build. So I think it's about putting those like parameters around what authenticity means to you. I'm somebody that has a pretty chill vibe, like I am not dancing on TikTok.
I am not going.
To get me dancing. I will make a TikTok, I will not dance no and ajutment.
Yes, there is a line we are millennials.
I'm really sorry. I can't dance like I did fourteen years of dance school and I still cannot.
Okay, well you're probably better than me.
Oh no, no, no, no, there's a reason I was always at the back of the concepts.
I have a friend who is this is such a tangent, who is a professional dancer. She's literally a rocket, one of the best dancers in the world, and she she has tried to.
Teach me how to dance and she can't. So no, no, no, no, she can't do it.
So I'm so sorry. I know I can't have everything. Of us are born with it, some of us aren't. But all of that to say that, pick what authenticity means to you. For me, it means showing up and just chatting to the camera like this. It means showing day in the life flogs, and it means mixing in a little bit of like my secret sauce to business related content, and that essentially is just your personality.
I think it's interesting as well, because when you say show up authentically, people go, so I have to show everything? Yeah no, And I think that's really really not the point, Like authentically means in exactly the same way i'd have a conversation with you. That's how I converse with my community, because I adore my community and they deserve to be spoken to in the way that I speak to people.
And I think that's always been the driving force behind our content and what we do on Sheees on the Money, and I share so many random tipbits, like you know my favorite foods. You might know you know dribs and drabs through listening to different platforms. But unless you're a LinkedIn stalker, which is fine, you're not going to know that much about my husband. You're not going to know
that much about my family. I never share that side of things, like I have so many beautiful nieces and nephews that I just don't post on my social media, But I spend honestly most weekends with And I think that sometimes you have to all lines because you go, no, like, let's just leave it at that, Like you can have personality Victoria, you can have my offensive comments, you can have you know, my spicy opinions on money. You can have all of those things. Authentic content doesn't mean one
hundred percent transparent. It means that you know, I'll tell you the truth always, but that doesn't necessarily mean that I will put it all on a silver platter so that hopefully you like my content enough to sell something, because to me, that's exhausting. And for a while I was doing that and I was just like, this is too much, Like I need something for me. I need
something that's like not so exhausting. And I think that's really important as well to go no, no, no, you don't have to show up and be authentically completely, one hundred percent transparent of like every minute of your waking day, because I'm pretty sure that any person who does a day in the life isn't doing every single minute, every single bathroom break, every single phone call, text message, like all of those things. It's like, here are the things I want to share with you.
Yeah, absolutely, I think you need to put parameters that you're so so right and you know, but I do think when you do show those small personal moments or those a little bit of personality, like you're just think of that as like a trust building exercise. You're showing who you are so that when you do sell something to somebody, they trust you and they were five.
Percent all right, I think we should jump into a break because I have six million different questions to ask you about growing your business once you've actually started. So guys, do not go anywhere, and neither should you. Jasmine. All right, Jasmine, we are back at it. I'm so excited like talking about small business and just even business in general. I just get so excited because there's so much opportunity, especially
for women to grow businesses in twenty twenty three. And you know, before we had a chat about just like showing up and starting. And obviously this podcast is not about going, here's the perfect product, because I mean we would have already taken it if we had another idea for you, let's be honest. But I want to know, I guess what do we do once we've started. We've got our business, we've set it up, we have our product that we think is perfect and going to hit
the mark in every way, shape and form. What next?
So if you're talking about scaling, there's two different things, right. So you have a product, you have it out in the world, and you want to get traction. So that's kind of the first thing, and the way the brands are getting traction now that I'm saying honestly, it is video content. That's why I hired six months ago a full time video producer one hundred percent. And I also have somebody who follows us around a couple of days a week and creates video content as.
Well as in Perth, we've got Brooke Cumet before and Brook is incredible, amazing, but she lives in a different state to me, so like we've worked in a way to make it work.
Yeah, but that would be so good.
Maybe I need to Maybe you need to also somebody to edit, somebody to film. I can't possibly capture all of the things that I'm doing in the day and also do the things I need to do in the day. So having somebody to create that content is really powerful.
And we need to break that down as well, because I always say this to one of my girlfriends, just like they I'm so in awe of what you do.
Like you're here, you're there, You're everywhere. You like do three episodes a week, You're always on Instagram, you do so many tiktoks, Like we do a minimum of fourteen tiktoks a week, well just of the podcast, which is fine, but you're looking at she's on the money five years after it started with a team that are creating that, and obviously it's authentic and it's you know, if I'm on my social media, personally, I don't want to burst
the bubble. But the reality is I probably haven't edited that. That real I haven't edited that video. I've probably had someone who's done it. I've signed off on it. I'm really happy with it. But I think smaller business owners and smaller founders put so much pressure on themselves to go I have to be everything to everybody, and I have to do this day in the life. I've seen Jasmine do it. You know, Victoria's done it a few times. We need to do that, my friend. That might not
be the priority right now. Actually growing your business might be the priority. So we need to maybe compare apples with apple, no apples with oranges, because I'm an orange
right now. I've gone through the hard yards of not being able to afford stuff and having to do six million things myself and staying up till three am every single night, literally crying because I'm like I boasted no stories, Like my engagement is going to be down, my business is going to be through the floor tomorrow, and I just I want to, I guess normalize that you don't have to be everything to everybody, and with scale often comes a lot more exposure and you don't need to
be everything to everybody all at once.
I would also.
Say, like try a bunch of stuff in the beginning. The theme that I'm hearing from people that are in the community for female founder World is that there is no theme like, yes, the video content piece is performing
really well for a lot of folks. A lot of people haven't cracked that or that's not working for them, and they're going to find their own thing that's resonating with their own customers or is this special thing that the founder or the small business owner like really understands and so that's what they're going to do to drive the business forward, things like doing community sampling probe. Do you know the brand Gorgey Yes, Okay, So it's this
amazing energy during company. They've been around for like five minutes. They're in Whole Food. It's doing amazing thing.
Like they're very us, very well, I'm psychotic on TikTok Okay. Yes, that's why I know they see them. I don't think the average you know, Australian listener.
Is going to go of course.
Okay, So there's this energy during company called Gorgey, and the way that they've really just been able to skyrocket is that they are doing this community sampling program, which basically means they're identifying interesting folks on TikTok who are not influencers, are not professional content creators, and they're gifting those people to create content because you're in this era where literally anyone can go viral and you're searching the thing on TikTok before you buy it, and anyone could
be appearing at the top there.
I do search things on TikTok. I reckon TikTok's going to become one of the next big search.
Engine one hundred percent it is.
It has to because that's what I'm using it for.
Yes, I'm using it to grow my business. I have questions about how do I do this, how do I do that? And I search TikTok before I search Google.
Yeah, I'm literally the same at the moment. Complete side note, it is no secret that I am pregnant and having a baby in three and a half months. Terrifying. You could talk about that, Oh me too, But like every single baby product. Because this is my first baby. I don't know anything about anything, Like I don't even know what way is up. Like I just learned what a hukker is and I was like, wow, that's crazy, Like
that's cool. But I'm TikTok searching everything. I'm like, I want the mums to tell me what is this good? Can I watch the video? How does that work? But the same thing is happening in your community. Like this is just really relevant for me right now. But you know, if you haven't tried in an in drink, let's be honest, Whole Foods isn't the cheapest place to go. Maybe I want to look it up first and see what other people's opinions are, and you go, oh, I definitely want that.
I am, if anything, really bad at being peer pressured, like the Internet is peer pressure.
And also, you know, the other thing that I think people should take away from what you just said is, yes, you know, creating the content on TikTok, doing the community
sampling on TikTok is a great way to grow. But also think about how you are discovering products now and reverse engineer it so you're maybe looking stuff up on TikTok to get a review, and then maybe you're going to the website and seeing what the reviews are under the product, or maybe you're then googling it to see if one of the mum blogs that you follow or whatever has written about it, like reverse Engineer, how you're discovering products, and then think about how you can get
traction with customers by building that journey for them.
I could not agree more. Let's take it all the way back. I know that you had your beauty business, you wrapped that up in twenty sixteen, and then you've started Female Founder World, which is honestly sligh. But if we could go back and get judsmine to do it all again, we're doing Female Founders World again. What would you wish that you had known at the start, maybe about your first hire, or your first time to outsource something, or your first time to you know, think about the
way social media works. Obviously it was a while ago in social media changes, but you know what I mean.
Yeah, I've made a few mistakes around higher I think wanting to bring someone on full time when maybe you aren't ready and you genuinely don't need to. There is this huge gig economy right now, where you can tap amazing talent and have them work for you a couple of days a week and build up these different experts
who are doing different things in the business. And so I would say start off by identifying where you need folks to come in and finding experts who can do that part time rather than who are working full time in the business, and then you kind of have this obligation to them. I think that that's a really great way to stay lean and get started. For me, it wasn't until I brought somebody into the team that the business.
Was really able to grow. And you just like.
Hold things so tightly in the beginning. You feel like anytime you outsaw something, it's going to mean that the product isn't going to be as good or it's not going to be as good as how you can do it. But truly done is better than perfect or good is
better than perfect. When you're trying to scale a business, because you cannot own all of these things and be working on the business and in the business at the same time, you need to build space for yourself where you can be thinking ten steps ahead and move into this role of managing people who are then doing the thing that's driving the business. And this is definitely this like little switch that has to happen when your business gets a little bit of traction.
Now, I'm not gonna lie. This feels like a personal attack. If you go and get my team, they will be like, what if you said, hey, what is I guess Victoria's downfall? Like what is the worst thing about her? I mean, they've probably got a lot of personal things to say, but they would say, from a business perspective, she just won't let's go right. And I love being across it as well, so like I have a bit of fomo in addition to you going, oh, well, I guess it's
my business. You know, if we're doing an Instagram post, I'm like, well, I guess at the end of the day, like not to have too many tickets, but it's my business. The best person to do content must be me. Letting go was really hard. My team know that because they're consistently like V I am actually confident at my job, Like we don't micro manager anymore. But I think it's
so important to know that. But how do we know what to let go of and what are those core activities that you know, at the end of the day, we should still be doing because for me, I'm still the one answering the DMS, and that to me is so important because I feel like, as the founder of She's on the money, I want my fingers on the pulse.
I want to be in my community talking to them, getting a little bit dirty, getting gritty because I could hire a full and I do have a full time community manager who doesn't like that I'm managing the DMS, but I find that really helps me. And that's something that I let go of for a few months yeah, and was like, actually, no, I need to be back here. So how do I know what to outsource or what to let go when as a small business owner everything feels important.
I just want to like follow on what you just said. They're about the DMS.
Even brands that are huge their founders is still trying to find a way to stay close to their customers. So evening yeah, who are doing like huge amounts of revenue and have insane amounts of sales coming through their business, they are still finding a way to stay close to the customers. So whether it's reading the DMS or having your team kind of like compile insights or reviews or whatever. You do need to find a way to stay close to the customer if you're going to be handing off
those things. But how you kind of know what to hand off and what to keep yourself. I really think it's about what is your core products that you're offering for us. It's content, right, and so that's why you want to be across the content because that is literally the thing that you're offering that is building the business. So I don't create our content anymore, but I do the last ten percent. So I'm the person who still sends content live because I want to make sure it's
perfect before it goes up. But I've hired somebody else to do all of that groundwork. But I enjoy that piece of it as well. So I think you really need to think about what can you outsource and what can you take off the table that frees you up to do that kind of like ten percent that is maybe just the finishing it off and that you still enjoy. I would also say, like for me, I think that you need to look at what's new. I like to try and underst stand everything in the business, and so
before for example, we outsource TikTok. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out TikTok for myself, and yes, I could have hired someone immediately just to do that, but I think that it is really valuable to have that understanding so that when you do hire someone, they know what they're talking about and you can help kind of shape those conversation.
Because they're the professional. But at least you're on exactly the same page.
Absolutely, and I think the same goes if you have a physical product and you want to go into retailers.
As the business is growing, there's always going to be new challenges, and I do think that as the person that is leading the business forward, you need to have the understanding of those new things and making sure that you're outsourcing the stuff that you've understood, and that you can create some blueprints that other people can copy and paste and execute for you, and you're focused on the new thing, whether that is a new channel like TikTok,
whether that is getting the brand retailers, and that you're understanding it so that then you can then bring in the expertise to do it for you.
I love that so much. I would agree that always having your finger on the pulse and doing the last ten percent. I'm exactly the same, Like the girl's schedule it for me, but it's not scheduled to go live. It's in the scheduler, and I have to improve everything.
Yeah.
Always, I don't think i'll ever away go No. I also love that part of the job. And I'm like, oh, this is such a smart, witty post and look at like I feel like I'm so proud of my team when I go through that, or I go, oh, actually, because I am actually the only finance expert in my business, I'm like, oh, let's actually schedule this one on this day because that's a you know, really popular day for
this particular content. Or I know a lot more about you know, let's say the tax cycle and when people are going to be looking for tax content and like that all comes into strategy, and you still kind of get to be a part of the strategy and then you get to see it come to life, and honestly, it now comes to life in a way that I could have never executed. I'm like, look at this post, Slate. I can't say that I'm amazing.
I thought that was really interesting what you just said that because you said, you know, I'm the only finance expert in my business. And something that I found really helpful and that I've seen other businesses do really well is hire somebody or hire people who represent your customer in some way. So my first hire was our content coordinator Page, who's still with me. She's incredible and she is on the side also building a beverage business. She is literally a community member.
To say, how I've hired. So Jessica was my first She's on the Money team member, and she started as my PA, and then she went to EA and now she's done a few other things and now she is manager of all of our partnerships that she's on the money and she is incredible. But the reason I adore her is she was our community member. In our interview with her, I satted down. I was like, obviously a little bit nervous. I'd had businesses before, but I was like, this is for a podcast. This is so wild. I
was like, why do you want to join? She's on the money and she's like Victoria to be really frank, She's on the money changed my life. I got out of debt because of you. I love interacting with your posts. I love this, this, this in this, and I was like, I need you because my community are you, And that has been our strategy the whole time. I don't need finance experts. I need people who know when to say, oh, V like, I'm building an online course at the moment
for investing, so they are my sense check. I do it and they're like, oh, I really don't get this, or I know our community would be a bit overwhelmed with that, because you know, if I sit down and go all right, Jasmin, let's talk about the difference between ETFs and managed funds. Yeah, I know that so well, but you might go, hey, back up, back up, back up. That feels overwhelming. Could we maybe just intro it a little bit softer? And I go, yes, of course we can.
Whereas you know you and I, especially when you had your beauty brand, you might have just been all gung ho on beauty because you're like, well, everyone knows because I've been talking about it so long, right, So they are my sense check, and I wouldn't change it for the world. I don't need more me, I need more
them because they are experts at what they do. I feel like this chart has been incredible, but it could also be a little bit overwhelming because there's so much much to think about if someone is listening to this. Because our community, not all of them are business owners, but also some business owners they need the little kickup the butt too. So what is your key piece of advice for someone who goes, you know what, I don't know if I want to start a business, I'm sitting
on the fence. I'm a little bit yes or no. What would you say to them?
I would, first of all, if you're not doing it because you are a little bit afraid, and I understand that I've been that person as well. I would go and look for people who you can see yourself in, who have achieved the kind of thing that you want to and just dive into their story. We constantly are posting case studies about people who come from all different backgrounds. Some of them raise lots of money, some of them bootstrapped while they're in college and reinvested their sales to
grow their businesses. And they come from all over the world. They have all kinds of backgrounds. Go and find someone who resonates with you so that you can, first of all, to see that it's possible. I think that traditional business media kind of shows us the same people, right, like they show us the same version of business success. It's a lot of men, it's a lot of folks in tech, a lot of people. You're doing yeah, I have not noticed shocking and it can make you feel like maybe
somebody like you can't do this thing. You can you can, and I promise you lots of people like you are doing it right now and have done it. So go and find a person that can be a little bit of an inspiration to you, who you can use as a framework of what is possible and follow them, engage with them deep dive on their story. That would be step one.
I would agree with that. I also think this is going to sound probably not what you're expecting from me, but like it's not that deep. I feel like so many times we get analysis paralysis and we like overlook everything and go, oh my god, it's too hard. It's this, It's that I promise just starting is not that not
step one? Yeah? Like stop getting so far ahead of yourself, Like do you know how much of your business process you can do for free before you even like you don't need to set the structure up and then think about it. We can contact suppliers, we could work out how much things might be for our potential new business. We could, you know, get some Pinterest boards together on brand vibes that you like that's free. Do you know
how excited I get with a new Pinterest board. If we've got like a new course coming out, I'm always like, it can't just be She's on the Money or Victoria branded, like it needs its own brand obviously, jazz men, so like, I get so excited with those things. Do those things that spark joy and make you excited for the next step. But also if the steps are feeling way too big, break them down even further and make them even smaller.
It might be small things every day. And I think there's also this really I guess I look at your community and I'm just in awe. I'm like, it's full of so many big, beautiful businesses that are just like wow,
like I want to stand among them. But like some of us are mums who are like, actually, I really want to do that, but I want to do it on the side, or I am a stay at home mum and I want to do that, or you know, I already have a full time time job, Jasmine, I don't have the ability to just quit and be, you know, a startup queen. Like that's fine too. So like I don't think that there is you know, you don't have
to dive into the VC world immediately. You might, but like these communities, your community, my community are for people who you know. Let's say you want to start a candle company and you want to do it on the side, Queen, I'm here for you. Let's say you want to build the biggest of business in the entire world and sell it for multiple millions of dollars. I'm here for that too. So I think it's so important to remember that there's
no such thing as too small of a business. And I think that one other thing that I think will frustrate you about your community as well, Like when you meet new people, they're like, oh, I'm just a no, we don't say, just like I don't care if your business is small, your business is big, or whatever you do. I think as women, going back to what we're talking about at the start, we just don't have that confidence to start. But that confidence comes with how we speak
about ourselves and how we champion ourselves. And saying, oh, I'm just a small business owner or I'm just a podcaster.
So small businesses are literally the backbone of the economy. So don't don't discount what you've wanted to build exactly.
Oh my gosh, well, my friend, I think that might be all we have time for. I'm so sorry that we don't have six more hours to do this. We will have to do it again. But where can I find you? Where can my community start networking with you? Get involved with Female Founder World? What are the platforms that you exist on, and how do we connect where everywhere?
I'm on Instagram at Jasmine Guance with the TikTok, Jazz Garance with THEE and Female Founder World is female Founderworld dot com. We have a newsletter, podcast, a group chat on Geneva. If you head to the website, you'll be able to find all of those links and all of those free resources.
I am going straight to Geneva like you have in my mind. I'm so excited for another platform, Jasmine, thank you so much for joining me. I am so excited, like I just want to do so much stuff now.
This is a lot of fun. Thank you.
See you lady guys.
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