The Buzz | Mary Philippou - Business Mentor

If you come to this podcast for an honest – dirt and all insight into business ownership, then you are going to love this episode with Mary Philippou.

Author, Mentor and Entrepreneur - Mary steps us through building an extraordinary fashion label that was stocked around the country, including Myer and David Jones before losing it all and facing that daunting process of reinvention and rebuilding.

This is an incredibly raw chat, from an incredible woman who has seen it all, lived through it and wants you to learn from it.

Welcome to the buzz Mary Philippou

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
I tell you what. If you have come to this
podcast for an honest dirt and all insight into business ownership,
then you are going to love this episode with Mary Philp,
author, mentor and entrepreneur. Mary stepped us through building an
extraordinary fashion label that was stopped around the country Maya

(00:24):
David Jones before losing it all and facing that daunting
process
of reinvention and rebuilding, this is an incredibly raw chat
from an incredible woman who has seen it or lived
through it and wants you to learn from it. Welcome
to the Buzz, Mary Philippo.

(00:47):
There is not much in the business world that today's
guest has not conquered first words to mind would be accomplished.
Successful professional Mary Phillip, who is a sales specialist. She's
a business mentor, strategist, author, and she's all about helping
business owners to build a solid foundation to make money.

(01:09):
Mary has well and truly talked the talk and walked
the walk, and today I'm excited to welcome her to
the buzz. There are gonna be so many nuggets of
gold for those in business, so listeners get ready to
take some notes. Thanks for joining me, Mary. Oh,

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Karen. So nice to meet you. And I'm so excited
being in the studio where I've actually got a microphone.
And
whereas over covid it was all through Zoom and, um,
very different experience. So thank you for having

Speaker 1 (01:37):
me. You're so welcome. Thank you for being here. Thank you.
So you have this enormous wealth of experience, Mary, I'm
keen to go back to your early career. Where did
you start and what drew you into that

Speaker 2 (01:50):
space?
Well, OK, so, um, how far back do we go? Um,
I was in my twenties. I worked for Myers Information Services,
So I was a manager doing shift work,
and, um, I was doing that for probably 5 to

(02:10):
7 years. And, um, at the age of 27 I
was married at 20. A nice Greek girl got married
early to get out of the house. So I was
married early. I didn't marry a Greek boy. I rebelled
and I married an Australian guy. Anyway, he left me
after seven years of marriage.
So at that time, I was 27 and, um, my

(02:34):
life changed, like, 400%. I sort of you know, he
left me. I then took action to change my life
and try and find who I was.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
What did that look

Speaker 2 (02:46):
like? Um, well, I went on a trip overseas. My
father blamed me for
the breakup because a, you know, a Greek girl doesn't
do these. You know, it was my fault, even though
he left. So I travelled overseas for 4.5 months and
met some friends over there. So, um, really explored, um,

(03:07):
Northern Europe and Southern Europe. And it was a wonderful time.
It was the first time I Actually it was the
first time I felt like a teenager because I never
had teenage life. Never had a boyfriend. Never had anything.
Um, we were, you know, raised to be home, very strict.
And I was the first born girl.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
So a bit of pressure there,

Speaker 2 (03:31):
And, um and, you know, I wasn't going to accept
what was
dealt with me, so I needed to, you know, find
who I want. Well, back then, I mean, obviously you
still find who you are. So then I left time. Oh, yeah,
I got out of the marriage. I came back. Um,
my husband at the time said, um

(03:52):
you know, I don't want to live here. I lived
in Werribee, so I moved back to the family home
and he went out and he lived elsewhere. So I
was there by myself, and it was a very scary thing,
you know, Never, You know, because I've never been out
of the runway. So leaving the marriage was really hard
for me because I was a Greek girl and I felt,

(04:14):
you know, um,
not unworthy, but, you know, it happened to me. So
I was establishing myself as a single person, and then,
you know, once you go out there, people start thinking, Oh,
you know, she's single and she wants a bit And,
you know, all those sort of all those things come
And you think, Oh, far out, you know, And it

(04:34):
was all that conditioning and how they viewed married women.
I mean,

Speaker 1 (04:38):
it was traditional.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
Well, that was what, actually, 40 years ago. You know
that that story 40 years ago.
So then, um and so my husband at the time
couldn't handle anything. Um, So I just moved on with
my life, sold the house, went to a party, and
with my brother and my sister in law in Richmond
and met my husband now for 36 years. Yeah,

Speaker 1 (05:02):
yeah, yeah. Oh, that's a funny way of

Speaker 2 (05:05):
working. Yeah. Oh, most definitely. And, um,

Speaker 1 (05:08):
so career wise, then you are at Myer.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
I was at Myer and I was doing shift work.
And then my sister,
who was, um, designing and making tracksuits in Dad's garage
in sunshine. Um said, Oh, Mary, why don't you come
and work? And I said, no, no, and I didn't
think of it. I just kept going. And then one
time I bought my second. I bought my home on

(05:32):
my own in Flemington and then my sister and her
boyfriend at the time. And my good friend, who still
now and was a good friend of theirs, And it
was my accountant for many years offered me a
partnership like this business in the tracksuit in the

Speaker 1 (05:47):
tracksuit. And what was the market there for? The tracksuits?
Was it everyday sports person? Um, it

Speaker 2 (05:56):
was in the eighties, so it was lifestyle eighties tracksuits.
So she designed and they just couldn't find anyone
a manager or anyone to really grow the business. And
so I thought they offered me a partnership, but I
never saw it as a big business. I saw it
as a really good challenge and a change. And, um,

(06:17):
and the personality that I am, I joined. So they
came to me. They offered me a partnership and then
we started gun at sweats. So it was a business
that we started in 1985.
And in eight years I grew Australia wide and internationally
to all retail stores, and we built a, um, a
corporate brand inside the retail space. So we supplied to

(06:41):
Myers David Jones, George's Damaru. Back in the days when
business was business and people were everywhere, there were shoppers
and it was fantastic. I loved those days because it
was about people,
you know, as we now. In the last 1015 years,
it's been moving, changed a lot, and often people lose

(07:05):
themselves when they've come from that fiery space of people
and everyone making money. It was never about,
you know, tough. Well, we did have tough times, but
everyone supported everybody, you know. So it was really good.
So how long

Speaker 1 (07:20):
were you in that business for?

Speaker 2 (07:22):
So we were in that business for, um, eight years.
So I took it Australia wide. And

Speaker 1 (07:28):
was that like when you were first offered that opportunity?
Were you excited by it, or were you a little
bit scared by it? Like, what was your it on? Yeah,

Speaker 2 (07:39):
And then
my husband at the time said, Look, you know, you've
got a house here. Now, I think I better move
in with you to help you pay the rent. And
I got rid of my car, and I and I
know I was driving, and I was driving a van, and, um,
and I was doing deliveries. I was doing sales. I
was doing everything. And as you do so the first

(07:59):
five years, um, I was just knocking on doors, selling
to gyms,
and then it exploded. You know, um, David Jones phoned
us up the men's department, then the women's department. And
what was

Speaker 1 (08:11):
that turning point? Like? How what happened? Where it was
cruising along and you were door knocking, like mad to
that point where those kind of retailers were contacting you.
What do you put that down to?

Speaker 2 (08:22):
Ah, um, well, it was, um,
just constantly persevering and going out to find the paying
clients that can take you to where you need to be.
And it was a surprise, you know, And, you know,
and all I wanted to do was grow gradually because

(08:43):
I had young kids and it was important for me
to be
mum and not grow too big one because I'd never
wanted to lose sight of servicing existing customers to growing
too quickly and not servicing, um, all customers. So I
was we we ran a really tight ship where, um

(09:04):
everything was delivered on time. The billing was done.
You know? We had a warehouse, we employed 10 people.
It was exciting. Loved it. I worked seven days a week.

Speaker 1 (09:14):
Yeah. Yeah. How did you balance the kids with that?
How did you balance your family life over that time?

Speaker 2 (09:19):
Because I was so energetic.
And I presume, um, also, when you love something, Um,
And when you're young and you love something, you can
and family life is important. You manage both. So I
would go to events and sponsor events, and the kids
would be there in the background, or we'd be working
sometimes on the weekends, and they bring their bikes and

(09:41):
they roll up and down on the on, you know,
in the garage there. And you've got to remember, you know,
my ethos in business came from my father, who was Greek,
hard working
first generation. Um, and what was

Speaker 1 (09:54):
that? To

Speaker 2 (09:57):
work hard to get where you wanted, even though he
wanted me to go to university and do schooling. But
I wasn't about that. I wanted to go out and work.
I was a worker and I wanted to, um I
wasn't there focusing building anything in particular. It's just getting
the product out to as many people as possible

(10:18):
because we had a good, great band, Great, uh, brand
that lasted and wore really well. And I wore it
every day and I'd go and knock on the doors
and I would try things on, and I'd be in
a room of all these buys and sports stores. And
I said, You know, you can wear it like this,
you can wear it like that and it was just
all passionate

Speaker 1 (10:36):
and changed so much. You see what it's like now
with these brands on, um, you know, all over social
media and
just so much easier where you actually, you know, had
to get that cut through and get in front of
those audiences. So then, yeah, a core, um quality, then
obviously characteristics, Absolutely. Is that that perseverance? Because I think,

(10:57):
you know, there's a lot of people that, um after
a first couple of cold calls with no great response,
that would be enough to get them to walk away
from the

Speaker 2 (11:07):
gig. I, um
I still use it as a challenge because I love
people and my top quality, My top, um, quality is woo.
So I have the ability to talk to people
very calmly, very naturally. And I didn't find it a
problem because not only I cold called in both my businesses.

(11:28):
I went out there to try and do it for
others to see what I was like. And I still
went and cold called for other companies just to try
things different in my late fifties. So I do love people,
and I love the challenge of seeing what comes
from conversation. How

Speaker 1 (11:42):
do you manage rejection in the cold calling

Speaker 2 (11:44):
space? It just gives me fuel to keep going. That's
how I succeeded. Never gave up. Yeah, Yeah. Never gave
up for the

Speaker 1 (11:53):
listener who might need to do a bit more of
that yet struggles with rejection.
How do you make that mindset shift?

Speaker 2 (12:02):
You know, um, Karen, when you're in business, a lot
of business owners love what they do. But they forget
about this magic word, sales and prospecting. And a lot
of them are not cut out for sales and prospecting. Um,
and it's the biggest,
um, in your business now, whether you do it as a,

(12:25):
um, single owner or whether you employ people and you
gotta be careful when you employ. If you're a small
business and you employ someone, those persons could turn around,
learn the ropes as I've seen happen to myself and
go out and,
you know, sell it underneath you and backdoor you. I mean,
there's no loyalty, you know, which is really unfortunate. Um,

(12:48):
but that's the nature of the world. You know. People
are out there, you know, I can do better. I've learned.
Now I'll do it on my own. And where you've
seen that so many times. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (12:59):
So? OK, so you're with that brand, and then what
makes you want to sell it or get rid of it. Like,
how does it come to an end? Well,

Speaker 2 (13:06):
OK, it didn't come to an end
nicely. OK, um, so the two partners separated and divorced
my sister and my brother in law. So, um, so
she was going through that sort of depression I was managing,
so we were growing rapidly. We just built our head

(13:28):
office space in Abbotsford. Um, along the hour there, and
we worked really hard to do that. And with family
and business, it got really awkward, and
we had to go into. So I had agents across Australia, and, um,
and two of my best girls had left to have
their babies as well. And, um, so I was, you know,

(13:52):
working really long hours because my sister wasn't well, I
was looking after production. I was looking after sales. I
was managing staff and all that and coming home after
late nights. And my husband would go, you know,
you know, you know, when's this? Enough. Enough. And, um,
it was really terrible towards the end. And I felt
a real, um, loss and I felt really bad, but

(14:13):
we had to go into liquidation. Voluntary. We went into
voluntary liquidation.

Speaker 1 (14:18):
So that why did you choose that over?

Speaker 2 (14:20):
OK, so voluntary liquidation means that
So any business owner now listening If they've been in
business for a long time well, a reasonable amount of
time where they're making money, they sit down with their
accountant to say about May they look at money they've made.
And where can we put this money, IE? Avoid some

(14:41):
sort of

Speaker 1 (14:41):
put it back into the business,

Speaker 2 (14:43):
back into the business, back into super or whatever you
need to do or the other way. And for us,
it was the other way that,
um we were trading at a loss of 250,000. And
at the time my bookkeeper wasn't, um, showing us the
right figures and, well, not because in back then, right,

(15:08):
we weren't working properly on a proper a proper profit
and loss. It was it was there. But it wasn't
a real thing, and I could feel things myself. Intuition.
I could feel things. I knew that I was getting sales.
I knew our costs were blowing out, but I never had.
And at the time, my bookkeeper, I had for many

(15:29):
years she had left me. So I was interviewing for
a new bookkeeper. So I was getting a new bookkeeper,
and it was a guy. And, um, he was, um
he was showing me some figures, but you know, when
you work tirelessly and this is what happens, folks, that
when you work on your own,
you get you you're tired. You feel fatigued. You know

(15:51):
what's coming, but you don't really want to face it.
So I sort of had a gut feeling about these things,
but I just kept pushing sales, thinking it was gonna
save us. So I pushed for the sales budget that
I achieved 750,000 with my team around Australia
of sales. But I had no gross profit margin, so

(16:13):
no cross profit margin means all my costs had blown out. Um,
so my sister was unwell, so we put another designer.
We paid X amount of money for her. So even
the sales were coming in. And then during this time,
we won a government grant by, um to increase our marketing.

(16:33):
So we had a marketing company. Karen, come in. Right
hence why? I'm sceptical about
IE the word coaches or marketing companies, consultants that come
in and change your business
to be competitive. So what happens? They came in. They
viewed our business, all our clients, sports shops, boutiques, resorts

(16:56):
and all that. And they said to us, Mary, um,
your competitors are Reebok and Nike, and we've got a
family little business that turns over 1.5 right, and we've
got to compete with these major companies. So they made
us
well, they encourage them. No, no one makes you, but
they encourage you, and we took it on board to

(17:19):
be competitive in that time. You gotta do whatever you
can to stay afloat even though you think you're staying afloat.
But underneath you're drowning, but you don't know yet, and
you don't know until you do your books. And so
um so we design a range and we go in
at a cheaper price point and we do this and
we've lost our

(17:41):
We've lost the brand presence of what we used to
do because we used to supply the basics and people
would buy and buy and buy,

Speaker 1 (17:50):
So it just sounds like it just went totally in
the opposite direction of your vision. Exactly. But it diluted
the brand. So

Speaker 2 (17:58):
it happens. Karen. I mean, how do you How

Speaker 1 (18:02):
do you avoid that happening?

Speaker 2 (18:04):
Um,
how do you avoid that happening? OK, so for now,
So now, as a mentor, I go out and help
other women, right? And so I would say to them,
This is what I believe needs to happen. But I'm
letting you. It's your choice. It's your business. It's your life.
Don't let anyone tell you, because at the end of

(18:26):
the day, you've got to be ready for it right
now, my approach was totally different than what these guys did.
You gotta understand. 40 years ago, they were out there about,
you know, getting more and more dollars from the government. Um, getting, um,
you know, grants across to young people who don't know
any better, and you think they know best. And they don't.

(18:48):
They

Speaker 1 (18:48):
don't. So I think that yeah
goes to that whole tapping into your own gut and
your own tuition, tuition and staying with, like, you Say
what you encourage to your you know, clients And the
mental space is here's all the facts. Now you decide

Speaker 2 (19:05):
now, I wouldn't have known that Karen if I had
not walked the step 100% right. Because everyone can guarantee
you
success. And what I found in later years when I approached,
um to be a mentor, a mentor and not a
coach is that I found so many young people want
to be coaches, but they've never been in business. They
leave the corporate world and they give you all this information,

(19:27):
I think,
yeah, follow these steps and you'll make a million dollars.
Never trust any of that. I never trusted any of that.
And I always stuck to my guns because it's knowledge
now that I an experience that I can share with
other people who are going through starting up a business
and navigating through the business journey for themselves.

Speaker 1 (19:48):
So what happened after that? So

Speaker 2 (19:51):
what happened? And we finish up, So I OK, so
we got a liquidator. We appointed a liquidator, had a
meeting with them, and we all know liquidators can take
a cut now because of my personality type. I was
never going to waste a lot of money.
I straight away got on the phone to all my

(20:12):
creditors and told them of my situation. They were all
very obliging, and they all understood because we're a family
business and they worked with us for years now. I've
worked with suppliers that I gave, you know, we gave
them $100,000 a year, 100 and $50,000 a year, so
it wasn't a very pleasant thing. But I was honest
in my delivery,
and I and the liquidators said, You know, we need

(20:34):
to do a B and C And I said, Look, OK,
I don't want you to do that. I am going
to do that. So I re I got rid of
all my staff, paid all their entitlements. Um, the liquidator
had to then sell all the assets I had to
sell the the factory, my family car, all my materials
and everything. And, um, it was horrific, heartbreaking, heartbreaking, heartbreaking.

(21:00):
And, um and I was really it it it really
damaged my integrity because I'm an honest person and I
like to do things properly and support other businesses because
they were all they were all our suppliers, you know,
we can't be successful without their great fabrics and all
our patent makers, but all the small people were looked after. Actually,

(21:20):
I had more flak about
pattern makers that wanted 2 $300 And I would say
to them, We'll come to the factory and pick out
a couple of sweats and whatever you know. So I
had to sell all our assets and the liquidators were
really nice. They said to my husband and I they said, OK,
we see all this today, but, you know, in two
weeks time, if certain things aren't here, that's OK. So

(21:45):
they were really looking after me. And

Speaker 1 (21:47):
I think that has a lot to do with the
way you approach things, too, right being so personable and
also saying to
them, No, you guys don't worry about that. I'll do
this part, you know, because I

Speaker 2 (21:58):
was trying to save money,

Speaker 1 (22:00):
working with them rather than you know against them. And
it certainly. Yeah,

Speaker 2 (22:06):
And it was a bittersweet because I'm on the phone
cleaning things up, and, um, my father tried to come
to the rescue and said, You know, I want you
to take 250,000 and stay in business with your sister.
I said No, Dad. I don't want your money. Why
did you say no? Because I
couldn't work with my sister anymore. It was five years.

(22:27):
It was We were done. Were done. I was done. Um,
we weren't on the same page as a business moving forward,
and I've been there and done that. And so I
was ready to the next steps. Now. So

Speaker 1 (22:41):
were you a little bit excited about moving on?

Speaker 2 (22:44):
Um, more importantly, I was just probably exhausted. I didn't
have any excitement. No,
because I had to. Well, she left. She left everything. Well,
I was the only one cleaning everything up, my husband
and I. So I had to deal with all the closure,
all the selling of our personal car and everything. And
working with the liquidators. It's a bittersweet. And then Myers

(23:06):
comes to us, you know, in the middle of all this,
we've got a warehouse of $444,000 for the stock. Karen
and Myers walks in
and says, you know, we would like some of the
gun at stock, and I said, Yeah, OK. Um, yeah,
I've got stock, you know? So I'm selling to Myers
in the middle of the liquidation because I didn't tell

(23:28):
my I didn't tell my clients because it was more
important for me to collect all our money from our
clients to have as much money in the business so
I can distribute and pay all the debts that I could. Yeah.
So if I
was, if the word was out that I was going under,
you know, no one would pay me, So I had
to do Hush Hush. So the first thing I did

(23:48):
was ring my creditors. And then I started collecting the debtors.
And then amongst all that, um, Myers came in, cleaned
up all the stock. And,
you know, I believe things happen for a reason. You know,
40 years later, I still believe things happen for a reason.
Even if

Speaker 1 (24:03):
they are bad, you will always see that. Yeah, there's
always something that good comes comes out of it

Speaker 2 (24:09):
now. So if you if you can understand, So if
you're building a a brand around Australia via retail, right,
there are companies that love what you do. So there's
the National Bank. That's all what we did. There's the
Young Prisons Association, which is the Millionaire's club. I had
an agent that sold our product, and she was a

(24:30):
really nice person. And she had a lot of connections
to private companies. And, um, we had resorts that we
sold to. So once I cleaned up the business, um,
the the lawyers came back to me, said, Mary, do
you want the brand? I says, No, I don't want
the label that belongs to my sister. She's gone. I
was just the face of the company. She was the designer.

(24:53):
I don't want her brand. I'm gonna go out and
explore something else, and, um and basically, because I was
the face of the business, I had all these private
clients come to me to manufacture privately for them, right,
because we were manufacturing back then. So we were making things.
So I sold
the machines and the patents to a Vietnamese company, sold

(25:14):
it to them and this that and the other. And
then the next journey began corporate innovations. So

Speaker 1 (25:22):
how did you move from from that to that? Like,
was there a bit of a time gap there or?

Speaker 2 (25:29):
Yeah, well, after

Speaker 1 (25:30):
six months and time to just settle down and take
a beat.

Speaker 2 (25:34):
Well, we're walking along the beach and I'm bawling my
eyes out. It was on my husband's birthday and I
said to my husband,
You know what? That's OK. I got my health. I'm
gonna do this again, and I'm gonna do it successfully
and earn some money this time. And

Speaker 1 (25:47):
how do you get up a like How do you
get up? Like what? What What drives you to get
back up and give it another

Speaker 2 (25:54):
crack? I don't know. I just did it like, you know,
love it. You know,
I guess now, after many, many years and doing a
lot of self exploratory on my individual self as who
I am, my numbers my star sign my Chinese what
I'm here to do in life, I guess. I guess

(26:14):
after knowing my purpose today, I don't know what's in
us that makes us go in in our thirties again.
I don't know. I guess for me it was about
you know what? I loved it. We invested every bit
of money in the business. Now I gotta R. Now,
I gotta make some real hard cash for my family

(26:35):
because everything we made went into the business, you know,
a a building that I had to sell. You know, um,
our wages were minimal. We didn't take a lot of money.
I drove a van for most of my life to
put not life life of that of that time, Um,
to build the brand

(26:55):
and to be the best we can be and grow steadily,
you know? But not everyone shared that same vision. And so,
you know, I believe when the time came, it was
time for me to clean it up and move

Speaker 1 (27:07):
on. Yeah. So then 1992 corporate innovations was born. Um,
And where did that idea come from?

Speaker 2 (27:15):
Well, my husband and I brainstormed together, so we joined
a company, and he says to me, OK, Mays,
you're only getting $5000. I'm gonna build your little desk
in the lounge room because he's a carpenter. Built me
a little desk in Richmond. I had the fax machine there.
Two little bedroom place. Um, now that home was my husband's.
So if it was under my name, I would have

(27:36):
lost it. So it was my husband's home. Built me
a little desk and slowly slowly. I built the business again.
Built it again. So how

Speaker 1 (27:45):
do you start with just $5000?

Speaker 2 (27:49):
Um Well, well, he built a desk. Yeah. Did my
business cards. Couldn't

Speaker 1 (27:54):
he do that for?

Speaker 2 (27:56):
Oh, no, no, no, that was free. No, Karen, of course,
that's free. But

Speaker 1 (28:01):
where does your $5000 go to start up? This kind
of business? Well, you got

Speaker 2 (28:06):
it's got to start, OK? 40 years ago for a start? Yeah,
back then, then right. And also, you got to remember
clients I was taking on. I was getting 50% upfront,
so I've got $60,000 sale, So I got an order
from the physio, um, society of the Physio Association, where
I made them 200 tracksuits. And I've got mirage resorts

(28:28):
and I've got the Ritz Carlton double bay. So all
the clients I knew the structure was from your tracksuit. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. Yeah.
And so then I would make what they
with their name on it. So it grew from there. Yeah,
So I'm putting that 50% up front, so that gave
me that. That allowed me the payment to

Speaker 1 (28:48):
get the production

Speaker 2 (28:50):
happening to production happening. So I found I went to
reconnect with the guy that bought all my stuff in
Springvale bought stuff from there and then I started strategically
thinking about
how I'm going to grow this and make some serious money.
So after going really steadily for two years, spent some

(29:10):
time with the kids, we did a lot of travelling,
slept a lot.
Um, just reconnect my family life with the kids and
my husband and that, and he's been a great supporter,
you know, he I And you know what, guys? I've
heard many stories through Karen's podcast about women going into business.
And
you really need a really good support person if you're

(29:32):
gonna embark on a business idea and you have visions
of growth because you can't do it on your own.

Speaker 1 (29:38):
Absolutely. And that's actually something I was gonna ask you
further down. But I'm gonna ask you that now, you know,
you talk about your personal network, your your husband and
and that's a big part of the motivation behind Putting
this podcast series together is to actually share what happens
behind the scenes,
all these successful people, so you know, personally. But then
There's also that professional network that you know is is

(30:01):
also really crucial to your success. So you had your husband.
Who else did you have in that personal that

Speaker 2 (30:07):
you lean on? OK, so before I went into business,
we approached my mother-in-law. If she would care for the
kids through the day. Yeah, OK, Right. So before I
signed
of the whole business deal, that's before we even had kids. Um,
we spoke to my mother in law and she said yes.
And so you know, I, I give birth in hospital,

(30:30):
and you know I'm on while the baby's asleep. I'm
on the phone chasing customers. Yeah, yeah, but once I
get out, I Then, um you know, I go. So
the the business was in Richmond. She was in Richmond,
so I would go and breastfeed at home at Rose's
house in Richmond,
play with the kids, change their nappies, go back to work.
It was like, you know, those sort of stages, but

(30:52):
I wouldn't have done it. And I've dedicated the book
to my mother in law. To my husband, to my father,
where I learned a lot of knowledge growing up. Yeah,
and
all those things. And so, you know, and my ethos was, Well,
if I'm going to be successful in business and be
a good mom, I need to grow and make money,

(31:13):
because everywhere I'm going, my kids are coming. And, you know,
you just don't do that on
milk and water. You got to do that on real dollars.
So

Speaker 1 (31:22):
who in your professional network has, really, you know, supported
you in contributing to Did you have

Speaker 2 (31:31):
a Yeah. My good friend and accountant, Walter was my mentor.
He spent a lot of time with me
going over figures giving me a, um, a baseline Of what?
The sales need to look like what the GP. Needs
to look like for me to fill in the gaps.

(31:52):
Because you need that. Because I I focus on my
my strengths are people and sales. So the numbers I
know how to make money, but the numbers with margins
are crucial.

Speaker 1 (32:03):
And that was something you obviously learned that first time around.

Speaker 2 (32:06):
So first time around was that
so we, um So we the first five years I
did it steadily. I grew slowly, grew slowly. And then, um,
in year five. We took a trip Australia wide up
to the top of Australia and I left the business
to one of my girlfriends. Nearly lost it. Now, back then,

(32:28):
our marketing was putting brochures, flyers together and cold calling.
So that's how I grew. So
when I nearly lost it, when I left it to
my girlfriend, I came back and I said to my husband, Ok,
now it's time to put a bomb under this. And
that's the language I used. So what I did, I targeted.

(32:48):
So I knew my niche, Karen. So if I'm making tracksuits, um,
I'm gonna target large fitness centres and resorts that need
to wear leisure wear with their brand on it. So
I targeted large centres.
I targeted people that employed 3000 people because I looked,

(33:11):
you know, if I'm gonna turn over, if I want
to turn over a million dollars, I need to find,
you know, 2030 accounts that I can handle myself and
keep servicing them.

Speaker 1 (33:23):
Yeah, So large volume. Yeah, large volume. And this was yeah,
for your corporate innovation. So you're looking for uniform? So
you're looking for large Corporates, Large

Speaker 2 (33:31):
Corporates? Yeah. So those large Corporates were all fitness centres.
They were big resorts. They were Century Cove. They were mirage.
They were, um, the Ritz Carlton Double bay, the Hyde Hotel.
Um, the NAB Bank finished up with my old business. Um, whoever. Yeah,
World vision. You know, I I've got onto world vision

(33:53):
from cold calling in 15 years ago when I was
going through depression. And I doubt that's another story that
I go through, you know? So,
oh, there's many layers to many layers to this. It
doesn't happen overnight. And, um, so anyway, so, um, I
targeted large companies. I used to go to trade shows, um,

(34:16):
to one supply, have a booth. So the brand was
important foundations. Very important. Marketing was important. So I would
go to Sydney every year. I would pick up, um,
new clients. Then I service the clients there. I have
a trade show,
and I did everything at once. Now, customer service is
important to me. So, um, I would always follow up.

(34:37):
I always improve the service and the product to the
client to the point where
they had trust in me. So if I was doing uniforms,
then what? They needed. They needed water bottles and they
needed towels. And they need backpacks. And they need all
sorts of things accessories to go with the business. So
then I generated another add-ons arm to the business. So

(34:57):
I had 56 clients that were turning over $300,000 a
year and kept them for 12

Speaker 1 (35:02):
years. Yeah, and that's the, you know, that's well, you
own the business for 24 years, right? Which is a
long time.

Speaker 2 (35:10):
I got burnt out. I got burnt out around about
1819 years. And then there was another journey in that
as well. Where? I tried other things, too. And that
took me into my early fifties. Yeah, right.

Speaker 1 (35:23):
So back then. So you had the business for 24 years.
There was that 12 years of really, um, exceeding those KPs, um,
and and maintaining those huge annual sales. Um,
I usually impressive stats, and I'm I'm sure those business
owners listening with their sights set on that kind of

(35:45):
consistent growth would love some advice on how to achieve that.
If we just take that first section.

Speaker 2 (35:53):
OK, So what I did, I recognised that I needed
someone to help me because I was up till midnight,
you know? So I pick up the kids, my husband
would pick up the kids, We have dinner together. I
read them books, and then I go back out in
the office. My husband built me a separate studio in
the

Speaker 1 (36:08):
backyard. So it went from your knock up desk to
a studio,

Speaker 2 (36:13):
because we Yeah, we lost that much money, Karen, that
he was so good
conservative that we had to do it. And I you know, I'm, um,
an extrovert. I, I need challenges to, um I need
the challenges because it's like, I'll show you if I
can do this, you know? And so I exceeded all
those challenges. That's how I thrive by having

(36:34):
having, oh, what's the word? Having, um, not able to
achieve that success but wanting to achieve that success? And
for me, it was that financial success. I've had success.
I didn't have the money aligned to that success.

Speaker 1 (36:46):
That was the other, you know, question that I always,
you know, ask and which I was just about to
go into keeping in mind those growth, you know, steps.
Was that your measure of success, or were there other
measures of success in that during that period?

Speaker 2 (37:01):
Um so what happened after doubling the size of my business?
Um, I said to my husband, I need someone else.
He said to me then, OK, I'm gonna give up carpentry.
This was at 40. OK, so he was 40 years old.
He needed a change to rest his body. So he
worked with me for five years, So he was 40

(37:21):
years old. I was 42 and our kids were at
primary school. And then we did a whole lot of
stuff together as a family. It was fantastic. So for
five years, he looked after production because I
as the business grew, he looked after all the deliveries
he looked after packing the orders because we created, um,
a stock service orders for all my main clients. So

(37:42):
we rented the factory next door in Springvale to the manufacturer,
and then all the goods went in there, and then
we had warehouse space Now, So after that, I was
heading into 4647. Menopause kicks in,
um premenopause kicks in. Also went through a dark night
of assault or combined and also that year I think

(38:06):
it was 2005. I lost $300,000 in one week. Oh, Jesus.
How did you do that? Well, not my choosing clients.
All the clients that I had built for 1213 years.
And then what happened? The internet came in, right. And
then Chinese opened up the floodgates with the Internet. So
everything that was Australian made like myself and many others

(38:29):
in Australia were in Melbourne, they suffered. So I, um,
started to pivot. Now I was depressed. I was this
that and the other. So I wake up one morning
and I say to my husband, OK, can I got
sack you today? You can't work for me anymore.
We've got to convert the van. You've got to go
out and get a job and I've got to cut overheads.

(38:49):
So my immediate reaction was to cut overheads and I
did that viciously got rid of raised wage. You know,
we were making $250 for the family. It was fantastic,
but the bubble had burst. And people don't know that
after many years of working long and hard, that success

(39:13):
is there for a short time,
and I and in my later years, I have seen
many other business owners go through that timeline of 10
to 12 years, they're burnt out. They've done it hard.
Their energies are dropping, the market's changing. They don't have
the oomph or the money to reboot it. And that's

(39:35):
what happened to me. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, downsized all
the costs. I lost one of my major clients.
Um, it was funny. Like it was bittersweet. I tell you, Karen,
all my life I've had I've had bad things. And
then good things always come soon after. So I have
a lot of faith in life and the way the
universe works. So I lost one of these clients. They

(39:58):
had a new general manager. It was a big sports.
Um uh, fitness centre in Sydney. I won the tender
by
all those years ago by flying to Sydney, preparing all
the samples, holding stock for them on the on the
vada that they're going to go with me because I
sold it to them. I had all their brand in place.
I had all the product in place. Did all that

(40:19):
work before getting the job, because that's what I do.
I put it out there anyway, So they had gone
through staff changes. They lost their
person that was dealing with me. I lost the gig.
I had no gig. I didn't know what I was
gonna do. And at the same time, I'm depressed, Right?
I'm going through menopause, depressed, crying. Then I had to

(40:40):
look at my day, all those sort of things.
And then they email me and say, Mary, do you
mind if we can come back to you? Because you're
the only one that knows our business. And I think,
thank God, you know, because, you know, my husband was struggling.
You know what was happening to me and my family?
You would have

Speaker 1 (40:58):
felt like you were really going off the rails and

Speaker 2 (41:02):
get back to get back. So
so then I got all the got rid of the factory,
found a place locally to my home, rented a shop
that was empty, put all my stock in there. Did
I did everything possible. I challenged and did it all.
I just had to just to maintain, um, that we
wouldn't lose any more than we had to

Speaker 1 (41:23):
So then, over that time, with the beauty of hindsight,
is there anything that you would have done differently?

Speaker 2 (41:30):
Um,
because I was a bit of a control freak, too. Um,
I knew what I was. I knew what I was doing.
And I I only had one person employed in my
corporate innovation business. That was a bookkeeper I had for
three days a week. She did all my admin. She

(41:50):
did the profit and loss. She did all the bookkeeping.
She did all the forms for all my clients. Um,
no. Because when I love doing what I'm doing, I mean,
I could have invested, but by the time I felt
that way, Karen I I was tired of that whole industry.
I

Speaker 1 (42:09):
was You wouldn't have changed anything. Wouldn't have done

Speaker 2 (42:12):
anything differently. No, because I believe everything I did kept
me
above water and challenged me to be to go outside
my comfort zone. Still, even which I didn't even it
just came automatic to me. I didn't even think about.
I just thought I need customers. Pivot. You know, they

(42:34):
used that word four years ago. Pivot to me was proactive.
Persevere because they're my five mantras. You know, which is,
man, um, passion, people, perseverance. Proactive. Which is the two hardest,
because you got to work hard, and then you've got
to spend money to make money and change, and then
profits the last. Yeah, and they got to be all

(42:54):
in sync because one doesn't work without the other. So, um, anyway,
so many things happened. I pivoted. I went out cold,
calling in the industrial area near my home
and, um, had some success, had some losses. But I
had one success. I picked up world vision. Now it
was a small company they were doing printing, but I

(43:17):
didn't know at the time that they were on the
board with world vision. So once I build rapport with
the owner, you know you don't know You don't know
I was out there being myself because I've always had
the ethos of
small orders become big orders. And he wanted five of
this and 10 of that, and you do those little things.

(43:38):
And I still went to see him and this that
and the other. But he bought another business into his business,
which was, um, working on merchandise for world revision.
And so then he introduced me to that manager and
I grew the business, and I went again and picked up.
And then I bought another brand as well. I had

(43:59):
another lady come to me who I met in my
first business to buy her hospitality business. That all happened
in my 1520 years,
you know, But I was steadily declining in my turnover,
which was coming from the passion. So when your turnover decreases,
you take a look

Speaker 1 (44:16):
at yourself. You take

Speaker 2 (44:17):
a look at yourself first as a person. Do I
love this. Do I don't love this. And,
um, what's happening when the figures deteriorate? You know, you
got to get out somehow quickly before you lose more
than you need to lose.

Speaker 1 (44:34):
Yeah, for sure. So what? What? So, yeah, I was
gonna ask you what your biggest take away from being
in business that long was, um
It feels like there's a bit of overlay there with
what you just said, Um, and obviously figures was a
big you know, it was a big thing for you,
but without me putting words in your mouth. What was

(44:55):
your biggest takeaway from being in business over that

Speaker 2 (44:58):
period. Um,
the biggest takeaway is
being willing to change when you need to being honest
with yourself. Um, look at the business that you're in.
Look at the numbers, the numbers. Because, you know, we
all have passions, Karen. We all love what we do, right?

(45:21):
Like you've gotta think about. You know, I loved what
I did because I love business, but I didn't know
what was coming after business, which is sharing knowledge, which
is why I'm here today. I'm in my middle sixties now.
And so now everything I've endured over 30 years, um,
it's part of knowledge and wisdom for younger people. So

(45:42):
I think the biggest takeaway is Look at your costs.
Be open to change. Um, think about employing people in
a different way than a full time capacity contract. Out, um,
maintain a balanced life. You know, if you're in a marriage,
you gotta spend time in that marriage. You gotta spend

(46:04):
time with your Children. Um, you've got to balance everything.

Speaker 1 (46:09):
I actually had a really wonderful um, a woman who's
been helping me with different things in the business. She
had explained something to me. I was going through a
particularly tricky personal situation a couple of weeks ago, and
she said, Um, think of all the components of your
life as balls. Some are glass balls and some are
rubber balls. The glass balls are Your kids, you know

(46:32):
are are your family. And if you drop those, they're gonna,
you know, shadow. Whereas if you drop,
um, like a rubber ball like business or you know
something else that's going on in your life, that's gonna bounce,
bounce back, I thought that's a really great way of
actually then going through your life and going OK, what
do I consider glass and what do I consider

Speaker 2 (46:53):
rubber? That's right. And, um and
you know, So I took all the approaches that I
need to take I. I ended up ringing a competitor
of mine to, um, work in their business at the end,
when I when I had to quote for a large
world vision job. So I took it into my competitor and, um,
even though I I wanted to try that element because

(47:16):
I was on my own for so long, I wanted
to be part of a team, and I thought I
could be in that space. I tried, but it didn't last.

Speaker 1 (47:26):
So I saw. Um it looked like you sold the
business and then worked in it after

Speaker 2 (47:32):
that. I didn't It didn't it? I just literally I
I gave, um I gave, um, one of my suppliers
who ended up being in business. I gave him a
I gave him my clients.
Um, and I didn't ask for any money. I just
said to him at the time when I had nothing
to do, I said, Look, if you get a sale,
just pay me 10% commission now. I had to. There

(47:54):
was no documents. There was no agreements, which just He
knows me. I know him. And I just you know,
he was honest. I was honest. And he was, Yeah.
So he just sent me, you know, money in my account.
And he said, Oh, here. I got that order. I
got that order and off I went. And, um,
I did a little bit of that other gig working
for another company because I've never worked for anyone else.

(48:15):
I just wanted to try, and that didn't work either. Um,
you know, they sort of said goodbye before financial year
end and that was good. I was happy with that.
And during that time I was helping my mom, who
was really unwell. So I needed the time to look
after my mom who wasn't doing too

Speaker 1 (48:32):
good.
So it's such a big chunk of your life. Um,
you know, when you and and obviously a lot of
stress and pressure and and coming to the end of that, um,
you know, were you a little bit? I'm going back
to that question of being a little bit excited about
starting something new after that corporate innovations? Or were you

(48:54):
just like So? I was

Speaker 2 (48:56):
tired, so tired, Tired. My fifties. Um,
I spent time in my fifties. Um, just pottering. I
did a bit of market research. I did a lot
of self development work working at who I am. I
did some retreats, some inner child stuff. I just wanted
to find out who am I. What am I here
to do?

Speaker 1 (49:15):
Yeah, so then it feels like, Yeah, the next logical
step after that process is to share the knowledge and
experience and that mentor,
and that's exactly what what

Speaker 2 (49:25):
you did so also in my fifties, alongside of my
other business. When I recognised, I wanted to help others
in my early fifties. I then reached out to all
the tafes around Melbourne. Um you know, uh, Swinburne University
Rmit um, Kan Institute and I did mentoring, and I

(49:46):
loved that I did that part of my other stuff
and
that was helping, you know, 3040 business owners in start up.
And they were all varied businesses. So I was a
standing board small business advisor, and I loved all that and,
you know, and that deteriorated
12 months ago or like two years ago as well.

(50:06):
So that space had changed as well. That was called
the niche scheme. And that had changed. It's now become
Workforce Australia. So yeah.

Speaker 1 (50:14):
So the opportunities to mentor change

Speaker 2 (50:17):
as well. Yeah. So then I went into then I
was trying to find mentoring roles within that space with
other providers as such that look after that sort of work.

Speaker 1 (50:27):
OK, what are some of the side benefits or things
that you
found surprising as an outcome?

Speaker 2 (50:35):
OK, helping those other people who were just going into
business so they loved the knowledge. I helped them with
sales strategies. You know, they had a lot of them. Um,
a lot of them, Karen, you know, were dealing with people, right?
So a lot of them had issues as people in
certain situations that might have been relationship. Or it might

(50:57):
have been whatever, you know, addictions or whatever.
And I would always approach it. You know, holistically. As
far as you know. Why don't you? You know, you're
going into business idea Now, do Do you think it's
a good idea that you work on
this first for yourself? Because once you go into business,
it's a whole new ball game. You got to be focused.

(51:17):
You gotta be ready for, you know, all the business
elements of running your own business. You know, you've got
a product and you've got dealing with all these other
things in

Speaker 1 (51:25):
your life. It was kind of the surprise that all
the other personal elements would come.

Speaker 2 (51:31):
Yeah, definitely. And, um, and the joy I sort of
got from helping them because they would say, Oh, Mary,
thank God I've got you. And
you know, you've got so much to help me with
and you're building a relationship. So I had them for
12 months. So you're building relationships with them, and you're
helping them. And, um, the unfortunate thing is that I

(51:52):
could only see them four times a year, because that's
all the funding was allowed allowed for.

Speaker 1 (51:58):
So? So, out of all the businesses you've helped, what
would you say? The most common issue or theme is

Speaker 2 (52:05):
women. Because I had a lot of women women not
paying themselves. Yeah,

Speaker 1 (52:10):
OK, yeah. Well, that's what I was going to

Speaker 2 (52:15):
next. Women not paying themselves. And, you know, even when
I was working with, um,
a large business owner in Moone Pond, So I was there.
So after all my jobs had cleaned up with my business,
a friend of mine suggested Look, you know, in Broad
me is a franchise, and she needed someone in sales,

(52:36):
and I went along there. I mean, sales business owner.
I run the whole show, you know? So I went
in there in sales, but as I was sitting there
observing what was happening in her business
and asking questions that she was struggling and they had
a franchise company come out every, you know, couple of weeks,

(52:58):
and all they talk about is, you know, how are
your sales looking? Never thinking about, you know. Are you OK?
Are you making money? Do you need help in this?
But you know, I look at her, you know, she
didn't have a bookkeeper. I asked her, you know,
Can I help you with this? And so I was there,
So she I just helped her because I just needed

(53:19):
to help her because she was just

Speaker 1 (53:20):
lost.

Speaker 2 (53:22):
So I helped her turn around and get her to
learn how to read a profit and loss, got a bookkeeper,
did some promotions for her and just get her on track,
you know?
So that was my biggest. I was gonna say that
I did

Speaker 1 (53:35):
and then did. At that point, did you think? Oh, actually,
I could help more people with a book like, How
did the book where did that idea come?

Speaker 2 (53:42):
And so the book came from that years, even my fifties.
I used to go to a book writing retreat to write.
I wanted to write a book because everything was about
foundations for me. I used to First it was business
wings in my first in my fifties, and, um
and I was still menopausal. Still wasn't working out. I

(54:04):
knew I wanted to help others. Didn't know I was
going to a lot of networking events. I was confronted
with a lot of coaches. I, I you know a
lot of it. I didn't have self belief either. And
I think that was for menopause. I didn't believe in myself.
Do you think

Speaker 1 (54:20):
that was for menopause? So that was that Wasn't something
that came up before menopause.

Speaker 2 (54:26):
Um,
I don't know. Because you know what? I was really
comfortable selling a product, but I didn't believe I can
transfer this into service.

Speaker 1 (54:35):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (54:36):
And then, you know, then my family was saying to me, Oh,
you know, Mom, stick at what you're doing. What are
you doing? This, you know? So I had people around
me that didn't
feel I had the, uh, credentials to

Speaker 1 (54:51):
go ahead and sell the service. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I
had to do it. Even though you had all that

Speaker 2 (54:55):
success. And then I started believing it myself. That it
was I had so much doubt so much.

Speaker 1 (55:04):
How do you get over that
a lot of work. What does that work like?

Speaker 2 (55:09):
Um, journaling, um affirmations, um, stepping outside your step and
doing other work. I did quite a bit of, um,
volunteer work. I worked, um, through co. Um, before covid.
Um, I was a pro bono coach with Global Sisters,

(55:30):
so I just helped a lot of people. But the
book came along, um, when I was 62.
So I've always wanted to write the book,

Speaker 1 (55:39):
and you've done these retreats. So you had a bit
of an understanding of how was formed

Speaker 2 (55:44):
and well, yeah, but I still needed help because I'm
the I'm I'm I'm a big P person. I'm not
the person.

Speaker 1 (55:52):
So how does one start writing

Speaker 2 (55:54):
a book? So I had the idea. Um, a friend
of mine introduced me to a business coach,
Um, who actually, um, helps you become a keynote speaker. And, um,
by writing a book is forming your, um, CRE credibility.
And I thought that's something that resonated to me. Never

(56:16):
came at a price. So we had to have the
conversation with the hub husband. And he asked me all
those questions. Why do you want to do it? Ray.
I've always wanted to do it. So I got the
money together, sold some shares I had, and I did that.
Now, um, I booked her in for the following year,
but what happened
in September of the year before? So I booked her

(56:38):
in February, but September of the year before 2019, I
fell off a ladder, and I was in. I was
I had a compound fracture. So I was home for
four months. I couldn't do anything, because you know how
I mentioned earlier? I was helping my family while I
was helping being able to do that. So I was
I was always helping others. I was helping my brother,

(56:59):
who had schizophrenia go into a new, um, home life.
Mum and dad needed support. Now, being the oldest, you
take on this responsibility hat, right? Well, my brother is
the oldest, but he was sick at a young age. And, um,
I was at my property down at Dr cleaning out
the gutters on the garage because you can't tell me.

(57:22):
Don't do it. And I'm careful,
but I slipped and fell off the ladder, and I
had a compound fracture. My right ankle went that way
and my bone came out that

Speaker 1 (57:34):
way. So then that would have put you out of action.
So you were saying for four months and was that
good sort of writing

Speaker 2 (57:41):
time? Yeah. So I rang Katrina, and I said, I
guess we'll start now.
OK, I'm ready to go. I'm not good physically, but mentally,
I got my So we booked it and she flew
down from Sydney. And we put the book together.

Speaker 1 (57:54):
How long did it take you

Speaker 2 (57:56):
to? I, um I. I probably wrote for six weeks,
and then she filled in the other bits and, um
and then we launched, I think, the following January through Amazon. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (58:11):
And now that book for the listener is showing me
the money for those screaming for a profit. And
obviously that's the That's the You know, that's the journey, right?

Speaker 2 (58:24):
And after all the 14 years of working with people,
whether they're small business owners, bigger business owners, a lot
of people don't know how to make money. I'm not
talking about even making a wage. You've got to make
a wage. But what profit are you making for yourself?

Speaker 1 (58:40):
So so was that self published? Or did you go
through a publisher?

Speaker 2 (58:44):
Yeah. Um, no through Amazon. Is that Is that through Amazon?
I think

Speaker 1 (58:51):
that's selfish. Selfish? Yeah, but then I see you are
a bit of an award winner. There. It was like
number one, best selling.

Speaker 2 (58:59):
That's the process that they've put you in. Karen. It's look,
because I spoke about, um,
the financial part in the first part of the book,
which is quite unusual. That one the that sort of
gave me that multi award because I talked about other

(59:20):
things that people don't normally talk. I don't know how
the internal book world works, but the first. The first
chapters are about the numbers,
your product, your numbers, why you're going into business and
all those things.

Speaker 1 (59:34):
And I like the way in it. For the listener,
it's super easy. There's like lots of space in between
the lines, lots of pretty graphs and pictures, and there's
even like workbook sections, so you can actually really work
through it as you're working through it.

Speaker 2 (59:50):
That's right, and, um, and I haven't done a lot
with the book. It's sort of been stagnant because it's
not about the book. It's about me
helping the others, helping other people and what you can
do through the book. Well, through the book, Yes, but it's,
you know, I've got Yeah, the book's there. But you
still need to understand what you're doing in the book,

(01:00:11):
you know? So,

Speaker 1 (01:00:13):
um so tell me what gives you the most satisfaction
where you are right now?

Speaker 2 (01:00:19):
Um, apart from my grandchildren, Um,
uh, the the ability to be there for others because
I am a tough person. I have gone through a lot. Um,
I believe, um, knowledge is key to help so many people.

(01:00:43):
I'm not a person that will pick up a a
workbook and work through it. I really believe you need
someone who is, um authentic and gives you the solid,
solid advice. Um, sometimes people are not ready, but sharing
the knowledge and seeing people take the action where they
see the benefits that's that gives me the most satisfaction

(01:01:05):
that people can see value in what I'm saying or
helping them in what they're doing.

Speaker 1 (01:01:11):
So what's next for Mary Philip?

Speaker 2 (01:01:14):
Well, just to
find work in helping others. I did work with Serena
Russo for six months. Um, just last year, um, and
I had a lot of start up businesses. I loved
that because I had many men and women all sorts
of ages from 25 to 60 who wanted to change

(01:01:36):
their lives. And I love that. What a great space
to be in. So, um, I'm looking for more work
like that.
So I'm on. I'm on something else in the background,
but yeah, but in between, if I can share with
others about helping them working through their business life and
their home life, it's so important because the Jerry Maguire

(01:01:56):
movie guys is is my pivotal movie. If the heart's
not there and if you don't have love for others
and love for your family, it just doesn't work so

Speaker 1 (01:02:07):
true. So is there gonna be a show me the
money too?

Speaker 2 (01:02:11):
Um, if I do anything, I probably might even publish
my 30 journals that I've done when I went through
a dark night of the soul, because that's really transitional
stuff
before working out, you know, working out where you are

Speaker 1 (01:02:27):
processing. So

Speaker 2 (01:02:31):
I don't know, we just see

Speaker 1 (01:02:34):
if there's a listener who might be struggling a bit
with motivation, trying to maintain their business. Mojo. What advice
would you share?

Speaker 2 (01:02:42):
Um,
just think about, um, what your sales are. What are
those costs to those sales? What overheads can you reduce
to maintain a little bit of, um, feeling comfortable in
that space until you know where you're going?

(01:03:05):
Um,

Speaker 1 (01:03:06):
what if it's not so financial based? It's more just
lost their motivation. They're going through, you know something, and
they're just losing their business. Mojo. What advice would you
share to So that kick start that again or get
back on track?

Speaker 2 (01:03:22):
OK, do something that makes you happy. Do something that
makes you happy. If you need money to earn money,
just go out and do any job
that brings in the dollars that changes your mindset and
fulfils that hole of financial and something that you can
connect with others. Because, you know, often even in our mind,

(01:03:42):
it's hard. But there are people out there that are
doing tougher and, um, don't speak to a lot of
people like IE friends because they might not understand you.
You need to reach out to people, perhaps who, you know,
you might have an older friend or someone
Or, you know, put in a bit of trust because

(01:04:05):
the biggest journey the biggest. The hardest thing is Karen
is that not everyone understands why you do what you do,
and it's important to connect to people that really get you.
And there's only a handful of those to navigate you
on your way.
Basically choosing

Speaker 1 (01:04:23):
your tribe wisely. Yes, definitely, definitely. What about for the
listener who's passionate about what they do? They're keen to start,
but they're not quite sure where to start. What pals
of wisdom would you share from your many years of
Start up?

Speaker 2 (01:04:38):
OK, well, there's a lot of companies now, like Serena Russo,
a PM, which are providers, which is, um, the ni scheme, um,
that they pay you fortnightly. They pay you fortnightly to
get started. You'll learn,
um, you'll do a business course. You'll put a business
plan financial plan together, and you will earn $750 a

(01:05:02):
fortnight for nine months, and then you'll get a mentor.
Someone like me who's been in the industry either own
their own business or being in that realm of business,
and you'll have a mentor, and that just helps you kickstart.
So there are There are companies out there that will
help you. You don't have to know at all. Exactly.
So that's a good place to start. And I tell

(01:05:24):
people now, even if they want to engage with me,
I'll say, Look, if you haven't got the money,
you have to go on job. Seek job job.

Speaker 1 (01:05:33):
I think the councils too, don't they? Like a lot
of the councils have got the business mentoring programmes as well.
I

Speaker 2 (01:05:38):
work for them as well, too. So reach

Speaker 1 (01:05:41):
out to your network to

Speaker 2 (01:05:43):
reach out to the network. Councils are quite good too,
but also, um, the providers that have a lot of
money they're throwing out in new skills, you know, providing
new skills for people and also
help you with your business journey. The start up of
your business journey.

Speaker 1 (01:06:01):
Mary, I love your energy. You really are a wealth
of information, Curtis, on your journey. So Oh, my goodness,
for all that you have done to support business owners too.
In our community, your passion and
wholehearted commitment to inspiring and guiding business owners is second
to none. Thank you. thank you for sharing your journey

(01:06:22):
so openly. Thank you for the coffee of my book.
I'm very excited to get into that.

Speaker 2 (01:06:27):
Enjoy the chocolates too.

Speaker 1 (01:06:28):
Oh, yeah. I wasn't going to talk about those.
That's just like my private little Thank you for sharing.
Thank you. You're an absolute delight.

Speaker 2 (01:06:41):
Thank you so much, Karen. All the best to your
podcast and your biz. Buzz marketing. Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:06:50):
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Knees marketing.com dot a U backslash free. That's bees Knees
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