August 6, 2024 • 33 mins
What makes a boss truly great? Olivia from Just Live Social joins us to share her journey from budding entrepreneur to leading a thriving marketing agency in Toronto. Olivia discusses managing rapid growth, balancing personal relationships and professional duties, and the essential qualities new leaders need.
We dive into the "Girl Boss" culture, addressing the misleading portrayals of entrepreneurship on social media. Olivia and I explore maintaining professional boundaries, the pressures of being liked by colleagues, and the unglamorous realities. We also tackle the emotional challenges of leadership, from handling feedback to the difficult task of firing employees. We are here to empower you to lead with clarity, confidence, and emotional balance!
Olivia's IG:@livi.ferney
Just Liv Socials IGl: @justlivsocial
Just Liv Social's Tiktok: @justlivsocial
Liv Mangement: @livmgmt
https://www.justlivsocial.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to Confessions of a Wannabe it Girl
, the podcast helping you filterout the BS in pursuit of
becoming the next it Girl, andin very it Girl fashion, I think
a lot of us have, maybe,aspirations to be the leader in
the group, the gal in charge,whatever that may look like for
you.
Yet I didn't know a lot aboutwhat it takes to really be a
(00:23):
good boss.
I mean, the most people I havemaybe been in charge of are the
two people at one point I havehad hired for the podcast and
occasionally working on filmsets and in projects where I've
gotten to act as an associateproducer or, you know, just a
member of the team.
So I really wanted to dive intowhat it takes to be a good boss
(00:45):
.
What does being a good bosslook like?
But I had no personalexperience of being a boss of
like a major amount of people,like, say, even over two or
three.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
So, that being said, I am joined by Olivia from Just
Live Socials to dive into whatreally makes a good boss.
So let's do it.
Welcome to Confessions of aWannabe it Girl.
I'm your host, marley Fregging,and I'm here to help you filter
out all the bullshit and becomethe next it Girl.
This podcast explores thereality of what it really takes
(01:20):
to make it out there.
As it turns out, it is way lessInstagrammable than I thought
it was going to be.
I'm still very much a work inprogress, but there's simply
nothing else I'd rather be doingthan chasing my dreams.
So let's learn from my mistakesand work together to achieve
our dreams with more confidence,clarity and direction.
Let's get after it.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Hi guys, and welcome back to Confessions of a Wannabe
it Girl.
I am joined by the lovelyOlivia from Just Live Social, a
premier marketing agency inToronto specializing in
influencers as well as UGC, andtoday we are diving in to
talking about qualities ofmaking a good boss.
(02:01):
So, olivia, thank you so muchfor joining us.
Hi, I'm so happy to be here.
Thanks for having me.
I'm very excited to be here.
I mean, I think, if you listento this podcast know we have a
deep obsession with social mediaand the world of social media,
so I don't only think that youare very close, I just talk
about being a boss, as you arethe boss of your own company and
(02:23):
founder correct, correct, yesbut also have a cool job that we
probably all like.
So, amisa, I want to start offreally quickly telling us how
you became a boss?
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Yeah for sure.
So this is the girlies aregoing to love this story.
I will be very candid with you.
I am a bit of a cheapskate whenit comes to getting things done.
I've always been one of thosepeople that will reach out and
try and do promotions.
When I was 14, I was textingnail salons saying, hey, can I
come in and make a video on mynails for free?
And there was this spa inHamilton, ontario, that did lip
(03:01):
injections and I was obsessedwith getting my lips done.
But, as we all know, it'sexpensive.
So I reached out and was like,hey, I have a marketing degree,
let me run a campaign for youguys.
And you know I had no realexperience in the social media
space other than doing a littlebit of influencer work here and
there, and I ran an extremelysuccessful campaign with them.
They called me back and, yes,just answer that question.
(03:21):
I did get the lip injections forfree, of course.
And they called me back andwanted me to kind of come and
work for them full time.
So I took them on as a clientand things really exploded for
the business and I was just soblessed.
Things just started reallyrolling after that campaign ran
and after a few months we had amassive client roster and I had
(03:43):
to scale the business veryquickly.
Which we will get into is anightmare for a lot of people.
So I'm happy that I can sharesome kind of some tips and
tricks on how to scale and notbe a crazy boss, although I'm
not sure all of my employeeswould agree with that.
But yeah, that's kind of how Igot into things and I've just
yeah, I've been really lucky tohave a really good team around
me and we've grown so fast.
It's been awesome.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Yeah, that's insane.
How many employees do you?
Speaker 3 (04:04):
currently have.
So currently we work with over35 contracted workers.
Yes, yeah, which is no littlefeat, no, little feat.
Yes, it's so crazy.
There's a lot of peopleunderneath me at all times and a
lot of different personalities,and I would say about 90% of
(04:25):
them are women.
We try to keep everybody that'sworking full time as female.
We are fully like female ownedand operated, but in the
contracted workers.
Sometimes our videographerswill be male, which, of course,
I want to be inclusive ofeverybody, but I really like us.
We're in the tech space.
They really try and make surewe're providing opportunities
for females that aren't reallyrepresented in a lot of those
areas.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Yeah, and my view on that is when it's equal, let me
know.
Until then, I'm cool with it.
You know, Until then we're good.
Yeah, exactly so.
Did you ever have like a shitboss?
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Oh my God, of course Everybody's had that horrible,
horrible boss, the worst one.
I go to my first job so I wasworking for like cash under the
table as an infant at DairyQueen and it was really really
tough because we were friendsand it was like family friend
and I love her to death.
I hope if she hears this I loveyou.
You're amazing, but it is sodifficult to balance friendship
(05:21):
or especially family friendships, and being a boss like that is
the worst line.
To kind of it's such a blurredline and going from like screw
you, you mess this up, you'relate, you're gonna get fired, to
like hey, you want to go see ashow later is so confusing for
employees and I remember thatwas just really really difficult
for me I know we definitely allhad a shit boss.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
I mean, I got everybody like also just like
very mid bosses along the waylike not great not good.
What do you think makes a goodboss?
Speaker 3 (05:48):
I think that that is.
That's a question that everysingle person is going to answer
so differently.
I mean, I have a lot of familymembers and that are involved in
business and they are tyrantsand they think I am the worst
boss on the planet.
You're not screaming at youremployees every single day.
I think it comes down to afeminine thing, so I think
females will answer this sodifferently than men will.
(06:10):
But a lot of men are tyrants atwork and they get the numbers.
They're going to see millionsmore dollars in their business
than I will see in my lifetimeLike that's just.
They're going to build thoseconglomerate businesses because
they're robots and I don't liketo run my business like that.
And if that means that I'm notgoing to be the billionaire, I'm
not gonna be the Jeff Bezos,I'm fully okay with that.
So I think what makes a goodboss for me is a lot of like.
(06:32):
You know you've got to bereally charismatic, you've got
to have a lot of empathy foryour people, but you have to be
able to still have that likeauthoritative confidence stance
around all of your employees,because if you're all best
friends, unfortunately it's notgoing to work out.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
So how do you run the team then, or the contractors
and all the people?
How do you enable people to godo their thing, trust them to do
it, not be a tyrant about it?
And then like what happens whenyou get into some swimming?
Speaker 3 (07:00):
I used to cry a lot.
Managing people is a freakingnightmare and nobody talks about
it.
It is like babysitting adultsconstantly and it's just so
difficult to manage people.
But over time you know, aftermaking mistake after mistake
after mistake, you're going tostart to realize how to do it.
For me, I am the leastmicromanaging boss on the planet
(07:22):
.
I let my employees like freerange all the time and I'm sure
a lot of them will work athree-hour day one day and then
a 20-hour day the next day.
I have a really rigorousinterview process and I also do
three months of probation foreverybody that comes out to the
team.
So during that I'm on your buttfor those three months to make
sure are you filling it?
Every day those people have tobe filling out exactly what
(07:42):
they're doing during the day andafter the day, what they got
done, what they didn't get done,why they didn't get done it.
And if you can survive thosethree months then, like that's
our kind of our trust lock of go, do your thing.
But if I start to feel peoplefalling behind them, we have to
kind of move you back into thatprobation space.
But that seemed to be somethingthat really worked well for me.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Wow, Okay.
So at first I was like wow,she's really chill.
And then I'm like wait, no, butit's not, it's hard, yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Yeah, you really have to, cause people would just.
I used to be so chillaxed witheverybody that came on to the
team and it was.
It was great.
We had really great companyculture.
Everybody's really happy rightoff the get-go, which is awesome
.
But people will not respect youand they will walk all over you
and they will time steal andeven when people are your
friends, they will.
You know they'll come for freemoney and free time and all the
(08:34):
free resources that come withhaving a chill boss.
So, yeah, I definitely I try tobe a chill boss, but there's
lots of things you have to becareful about, for sure.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
I'm so curious because I feel like it's already
come up a few times how do youmanage if you're working with
friends or people you becomefriends with, even in the
workspace?
You know you seem like a lovelygal we just met.
You know we just hopped on thepodcast, thank you.
Wait, how do you keep thatauthority figure at the same
time and like really slam thebook down while still like
(09:06):
keeping company culture?
Speaker 3 (09:08):
positive.
That's a really good question.
Yeah, I do bring it up all thetime because it's been such a
sore spot for me and, I think,every young woman.
When we're trying to buildthese kick-ass female founded
and run organizations, we wantto hire our friends.
It's natural.
It would be really weird if youdidn't want to hire your
friends, especially if you'remaking all this money all of a
sudden but you've got all theseopportunities and you've got
(09:29):
great girls around you.
You assume, of course, likelet's all let's, let's kill it
together, but it just does notwork that way.
I've hired a lot of friends andit's worked out very poorly.
Luckily, most of us are stillfriends, but we but I made a
really kind of strict rule withmyself just to not hire friends
anymore, and that's superimportant.
And when I feel that's also aninterview question for me when
(09:50):
I'm interviewing new people islike what do you see?
I think this is a questioneverybody should have in their
interview process is what do yousee our relationship being like
when we work together?
Because people will so oftensay oh, like, I expect us to be
best friends and that is a hugebusiness red flag that run, run
for the hills.
Don't hire that person becausethey're going to be so upset
every time you try and give themconstructive criticism.
(10:10):
They will feel like they can'tcome to you, they won't respect
you and then that whole hiring afriend circle happens again.
So yeah, I just really try andmake it clear and I don't go out
drinking with the girls, Idon't go out partying with the
girls.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
It's yeah, that was literally my next question,
because I do think, you know, inour culture of you know posting
everything on, you know,there's a little bit of I've
seen it as particularly with,like, the accounting, it's like
the next sorority of your lifeis, you know, going out to drink
with the co-workers.
So you remove yourselfobviously from that situation.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Yes, yeah, you have to.
I think it works a little bitdifferently when you're working
in a Fortune 500 company thathas you in every single day
eight to five.
But for me I've done it before,I've definitely done it before
We'll go out for bottle servicewith the team if we had a really
good service month or whatever.
But I stay sober and I nolonger drink around the girls
(11:05):
Everybody just gets to adifferent comfortability and to
jump back to Monday morning orSunday whenever we're working is
just really difficult, and Ithink it's more difficult on
them than it is for me Cause, asas I said earlier, I had that
tough experience with the bossthat just couldn't balance that
line and it's.
I don't want to put any of myemployees through that.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Wow, so you're more worried about them.
You think you could handle itand you're like I got it, I can
probably handle it.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Yes, because it's.
I can shut off brain and heartso quickly.
It's taken years, but now it'slike if it's work stuff, it's
work stuff, and if an employeehates me one second I can brush
it off my shoulder.
It's not Definitely important.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Yeah, well, I want to talk a little bit to that.
You know you can shut it offand myself very much included,
and I find, often with females,but I'm a female, I love the
females Like I'm always want tobe with the girls.
How do you get over this needto maybe be liked by them then?
Speaker 3 (12:09):
great question oh, I don't know that this ever goes
away.
This really doesn't ever.
We're females, like we all, Iswear most of us, probably 95%
of that, and I'm making that upcompletely, but I would say a
good 95% of us have that urge tobe wanted and liked by other
females.
Girl gang is a big thingnowadays and we all want to have
(12:30):
this happy-go-lucky coworkergroup on social media and
unfortunately, it's just noteverybody's going to like you
Especially.
Oh, this is such a good thingfor me to touch on while we're
talking about that.
I think In social media today,especially on Instagram, tiktok,
we're seeing all the girl bossstuff like crazy right.
It's like be an entrepreneur, bean entrepreneur, be an
(12:52):
entrepreneur.
I will warn everyone that youwill find people that are not
going to like you.
You're going to fail a milliontimes.
You're probably going to gobroke five or six times and your
first business probably is notgoing to work out Like it sucks.
Being an entrepreneur isexhausting.
If you have a good businessidea, go to a VC firm.
Go to a VC firm.
(13:12):
Go raise some capital.
Go find somebody else to takecontrol of all the people,
because if you are passionateabout swimsuits, you're just
going to end up managing peoplefor the next 10 years of your
life.
You're going to be anaccountant, you're going to be a
business manager.
You're going to be doing allthese things and you're going to
not have any time to do theactual swimwear aspect of it.
You're going to be hiringpeople to do the swimwear so,
like that is such a big thing,not everybody's going to like
(13:33):
you.
It's exhausting.
Be careful when you, you know,sign up to be an entrepreneur,
because you're an entrepreneur,you're not going to be, you know
, the makeup specialist or the.
You know whatever it is thelash artist, the bikini model,
the, you know.
Whatever you want to do.
It's really like its ownseparate entity when you're a
business owner and it's nottalked about enough.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
So many people think, because of Instagram and they
see the front facing part, thatthat is the job and it's like,
oh no, there's so much more.
That is actually the job thatwe don't see.
And I think so much now.
The person who maybe wanted tomake the bikini is smart enough,
hopefully, at this point andrealizing they're doing it and
(14:12):
they go and find an influencerto be the face while they still
continue to do what they weredoing.
Yeah, kind of how, because thatcrumbles, unfortunately.
So, unfortunately, um,unfortunately.
At the same time, like you know, you didn't want to be the face
.
Did you ever face impulsors?
Speaker 3 (14:30):
going back to the kind of social media stuff with
the, the girl boss stuff thatwe've got going on absolutely,
and I think the biggest thingthat I saw at the beginning that
really upset me is the porschesand the stacks of cash and the
Van Cleef and you know, the bighomes and everything I mean.
Given today's housing market,the odds that I'm 24 right now,
(14:55):
the odds that anybody under 30can afford a house by themselves
, being an entrepreneur isliterally impossible.
I know there are going to be afew people that do it, but it is
so difficult to scale a wholebusiness, make it successful,
have a net profit positive andthen buy all these things.
(15:15):
It's insanity to me that we'repushing this.
And I will tell you right nowwe have clients that are in the
States that own so this is agood example clients of the
States that own a hedge fund andthey basically their whole
thing is Lamborghinis andsupermodels and jets and they
are not profitable, Like theyweren't profitable a year ago.
(15:37):
Now they're doing good, butit's, at the time, not
profitable.
We go in, we hire all thesemodels, pay for all these cars,
and these guys just drive aroundlike they own it and tell the
world.
This is how you becomesuccessful.
Like social media is a lie.
Almost everything you consumehas been created to convince you
that you know it's real.
But it's like watching a movieall the time there's people
(15:58):
behind screens and deskscreating content to make you
feel a certain way, every secondof every day.
So we're sitting here havingthis imposter syndrome over you
know, becoming a boss because Ican't afford a Porsche at 18
years old, when meanwhile, thatgirl probably doesn't own that
car Maybe she does, but it'slikely her parents.
It's so insane to me that wehave such high expectations of
(16:19):
young women who want to becomeentrepreneurs and business
owners.
And so, yeah, I still face thatall the time when I'm traveling
for work, I'll see people myage that have made it and, you
know, are doing all these things, but there's people lying and
there's content being created.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
That's it's not, and you have to remember that rear
like that's not mentioned in the30 second tiktok reel, like
nobody brings it up.
(16:51):
I'm still trying to figure outthe correct political way for me
to bring it up.
It's tough, you know, becauselike if you don't say it, we
know it's deep down but we don'tthink it when we're just
scrolling at the end of the day.
And yeah, you know, it goesback into this whole idea of the
girl boss culture and I love,hate the girl boss culture.
Do you have any hot takes?
Speaker 3 (17:13):
I should watch my mouth here.
Yeah, I am very teeter-totterwith the girl boss culture.
I have been to a lot of eventsand I've kind of spoken at some
events and stuff that are crazygirl boss culture and sometimes
I feel amazing afterwards andsometimes I don't feel so good.
And I tend to not feel so goodat the ones where we sit around
and pout about us being womenand just say, oh my gosh, like
(17:37):
we're women, we deserve allthese things and we're hot and
we're cool and we're smart andlike everybody listen to us and
give us money, but likesometimes I want to go to an
all-female workshop where wefocus on like finances and
actual, you know, usable assetsto business and stuff like that.
So girl boss culture sometimesforgets about the education side
(17:59):
of business and just kind ofgoes towards like we deserve
more.
I'm like, no, we're still gonnawork, we're gonna work harder
than you you men actually but westill, we want to see the work.
So that's kind of my opinion onit.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Yeah, I think I have a similar opinion.
I like love, hate it.
I love the mentality, Like Ilove that.
It attracted me as a child andnow I'm like I'm in it and I'm
cool with it and you got me andcongrats it worked.
But also there's two sides ofit, which I think is exactly
what you're saying.
(18:31):
There's talking about doing thework and then there's doing the
work, which is not always soinstagrammable and cool.
You know it is really doing.
It's like finances or firingsomebody.
They're shitty.
Let's don't talk about that.
You know that.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Said you ever faced a challenging experience as an
assistant, I think one of theworst, the worst things that
ever happened, and I mean now.
This happens all the time and Ifeel very equipped to handle it
, but one of the worst thingsthat you will ever have to do
and that I ever had to do isfiring the first person you ever
have to fire.
Letting go of contract workersis different, because you can
(19:08):
just choose to stop working withsomebody, but when you actually
have to remove somebody fromyour company, it is devastating.
It is really sad, you will cryand if you don't cry, you're
still going to probably screamin a bathroom or into your
pillow for an hour or two.
It's very frustrating.
People get so upset and theydon't understand why.
And it's brutal because eventhe first person I ever let go
(19:30):
was stealing money like straightup stealing money and I cried.
This person is literallyscrewing me.
And yet I was sobbing like afour-year-old who just stubbed
their toe.
It was ridiculous and I thinkthat's something that every boss
is going to have to go throughat some time.
Just a nightmare, but you justhave to keep doing it.
(19:50):
So you get a little numb to it,because it does not get easier
for a while Are you talking toyourself.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Do you have your bullet points?
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Yeah, I usually try and like walk around and hype
myself up to some some likeCardi B for five minutes and I'm
not going to burst out cryinghalfway through.
And yeah, when it comes to theactual let go process, I can't
start like rapping, you know midmidfire job, but I, yeah it's.
You've got to be very carefulwhen you're letting somebody go,
(20:18):
because there are very strictthings obviously that you have
to say and you have to have goodreasoning.
You can't just be firing peoplebecause they said something
mean about you.
So you know it's quite, it'susually quite straightforward.
It gets really tough when theperson kind of refuses to accept
it and wants to have a longerconversation about it.
But usually what happens is youknow you just you let the
person go very, very straight tothe point and then if they feel
(20:41):
like they need to speak withsomebody else, they can speak to
an HR representative orsomebody else from the company,
because it's inappropriate forme to continue the conversation
at that point.
How do you take feedback fromyour team?
I think it's really importantto ask your team how you're
doing all the time and I try todo that constantly.
I think as a boss, it's alsoimportant to kind of reflect,
even daily, but I try to do itonce a week just to say like how
(21:03):
am I messing up?
Because you've always got yourhands in so many buckets, the
odds are you're messing upsomewhere.
It would be very bizarre if youwere not messing up somewhere.
You get you know there's toomany things going on all at once
.
So I try and really write downlike what areas are my employees
struggling and how have Icaused that?
Because as a boss it is myfault.
Whatever they're doing wrongusually has something to do with
(21:24):
me.
So if somebody you know isn'tgetting their projects done in
time, then I need to ask youknow what's going on?
And I'll try and take the girlswe do lunch with anybody that's
in our area quite frequentlyjust to talk about that and
continue to talk about theirgoals and kind of their
aspirations.
And usually along the thoseconversations comes up like how
can I support that?
I find when you let people giveyou criticism I mean I've seen
(21:48):
the boxes and stuff where peoplecan just put in little notes
and whatnot of what's goingwrong.
I have done stuff like thatbefore.
Sometimes it can get a littlebit nasty and then I personally
am bad at taking nasty feedback.
I get grumpy and I'm like, oh,that person sucks right, whereas
if we have a more open-endedconversation about it, it's good
.
I also love to let the girlstalk by themselves, like
(22:13):
sometimes I'll send them outwith my COO or my CMO to lunch
and then they'll feel more openabout you know, talking a little
bit of crap about me, which isgreat, because I'm like all
right, let's figure out wherethis is coming from and
reevaluate.
I'm not going to walk in and belike oh, sydney told me, you
said this on Monday, but it's agood way for me to kind of wrap
my head around some ways that Imight be messing up.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
So this lunch, you know I'm picturing this team of
like at least you know 10 arounda lunch table.
How do you not let this get outof control?
When you're opening the flightgates for feedback or maybe talk
about personal conflictionswith work, how do you keep it?
Speaker 3 (22:43):
small.
We keep it very small, sousually I actually would never
let it get to 10 people, and Idon't even know if we have more
than 10 people in one area at atime.
Yeah, so if I go see, you know,our team in Miami, then I'm
going to be talking to like fivepeople at a time.
If we're in Hamilton or Toronto, probably five or six maybe,
and that keeps the conversationsmall always, which is key 15
(23:09):
people, no chance.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
That's working nightmare.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
Yeah, I'm definitely letting my emotions get them up
to me.
I am a massive advocate ofmeditation.
I meditate twice a day.
I would lose my mind if Ididn't.
I'm also a huge breathwork fan.
There's a girl in miami I metum a few months ago and she does
breathwork.
Her name's Kira and I'll sendyou the stuff after you're done.
Your brain's going to explodeif you haven't done breathwork.
(23:31):
It's the best thing in thewhole world and that is just
something that's completelychanged my life.
When I'm upset, coming home anddoing breathwork or doing a
guided meditation if you have acrazy brain that's running all
over the place do guided.
I can't sit there and meditatein dead silence for 20 minutes I
would like.
There's no chance I'm making itthrough that.
So just yeah, I meditate likecrazy because otherwise I
(23:51):
probably would scream at peopleand I.
That's one thing I refuse to doto my team members, no matter
what's happening.
I never want to yell atsomebody.
I don't like raising my voiceat all.
I don't think there ever is asituation where you need to be
doing that.
And if it is, then one of us istoo upset about something and
not in control of our emotions.
So that's when I always turnback to like do I need to go
work out, do I need to gomeditate or am I hungry?
Speaker 1 (24:11):
sometimes it's hunger for real that's real, and then
approaching, like sayingfeedback yourself, like what do
you for some who's maybe nevergiven that kind of conversation
it's really tough.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
It's definitely tough to give people feedback.
In a way, I think sometimespointing out what people are
doing going back to elementaryschool tactics here the two
stars and one note is always areally good way to go and find
two things that they kicked buttin.
(24:45):
And if that's just, maybe I canjust go personal Like you're
such a charismatic, awesomehuman around our clients.
I'm just really happy to workwith you.
Can you give me a call later?
Just so they feel happy,because there's nothing like
getting that text of like hey,we need to talk later, just
losing their mind for two hoursfor your calls.
Always say something nice.
Say, hey, give me a call later.
They're hyped, they get on okayand then I'm gonna suggest ways
(25:08):
to fix it.
I'm never like, hey, you'remessing up, fix it, like here's
what we need to do, or do youhave any suggestions on how I
can achieve this, because I'mstruggling with this on my end.
How do you feel about it?
Speaker 1 (25:20):
so always try and take the blame right get in the
space to respond like hey,thinking what was like some, I'd
be like.
This is not my fault, thoughthis is actually not my fault,
but I'm here for time.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
That's so funny.
I was talking to a girlfriendtoday.
I had a situation at work and Icalled her and I said you're
going to hate this, but I know Ididn't mess this up.
This was not my fault, just soyou know you're going to be on
my side.
But yeah, those ones can bereally tough.
I think that comes honestly.
That comes back down to thehiring process too.
If you have a really goodhiring process, you're going to
(25:53):
be able to tell right awaythrough interview questions if
someone's going to be stubbornlike that Because there are
situations where employees areright and I am wrong, and that's
fine, but I need to make surethat I'm in the headspace to
figure out that I'm wrong.
I won't if they really believethey're wrong, like we need to
figure it out.
But I've honestly never had asuper, I've never had a super,
(26:14):
super tough problem withemployees doing stuff like that.
I think it's just yeah, itcomes down to hiring the right
people that are going to be opento like a conversation where
there's not like a definitiveI'm right, you're wrong.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Yeah, from what I'm hearing is for you, being a good
boss starts with really being agood person, picking strong
candidates in the interview.
So what are your?
What are your like?
Red flags or like things thatyou're kind of like?
Oh I, I, as a boss, need toknow that doesn't work well for
my company.
It doesn't work well for me.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
First off, watch out for lying people that come in
and we all do it.
We all do it.
But I always tell people toexplain at least two of the jobs
on their resume and then I'lldo a little bit of back checking
, just because people lie, and Ithink that that's a really big
red flag for any company whenyou come in.
I also don't love when peopleyou know expect me to believe
that they're going to stay withme for their entire lives.
(27:07):
So I tend to ask people whattheir one-year goal is and what
their five-year goal is, and ifthey're like I'm going to be
exactly in this position making$20 an hour and be so happy with
it in five years, I'm like,well, that's not true.
I'm going to assume you'relying.
I love realistic people.
If they say like yeah, I Like,yeah, I want to come in and
learn for five years and then Imight be interested in launching
my own business one day and Ihope that you can help with that
(27:29):
.
I'm like that's awesome, that'sreally cool that you're able to
tell the truth.
Here's a million reasons whyyou might not want to be a boss.
Here you go, but it's yeah,that seems to be two of my
really big red flags.
And again jumping back to thefriends thing when people are
really insistent on like usbecoming best friends through
the process of working, justsomething I have to be careful
(27:50):
with because I'm like that'sgoing to hurt you and it's not
going to be good for our workingrelationship.
So usually those things I'mlike absolutely.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Yeah, I have a tough one with that one too.
I like love working withfriends and I hate working with
friends.
It's rough and then at the sametime, like there are
friendships that came from workand we seem to have no problem.
So I'm like no, it works.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
There's a million situations where it works.
It's just when it doesn't work.
It's real bad.
It's really really bad.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
You know it can be not only traumatic for you as a
friend, but I also think it canknock your confidence as a boss
because then you see differentempathy inside that you see, not
that I'm a boss of 35 people.
What do you do to keep yourconfidence up as a boss after
maybe things have gone awry, orwhen things go awry and you
don't want your ego to getmassive?
Speaker 3 (28:45):
I think that's a good question.
I think, yeah, watching.
Watching is such a difficultline for people to balance.
You have to watch your ego, butyou have to keep your
confidence in check as well.
Jumping right to ego checkyourself, check yourself, ladies
.
Check yourself.
Make sure you are not the mostconfident person in the world.
(29:05):
I understand that you want tofeel that way and it's great,
but when you think you knoweverything, your business is
fucked.
Your business is so screwedYou're going to go down and down
in flames.
You don't know everything, andthe more that you can open your
eyes to the things that youdon't know is the better that
your business is going to do,the better of a boss you're
going to be, the happier youremployees are going to be.
(29:25):
It's so important to checkyourself and watch your ego and
I think, in terms of keepingyour confidence up, because,
looking at the other line ofthings, there's lots of girls
that are kicking butt right nowand all to them, just check
yourself, watch yourself, keepgrowing.
You're doing amazing.
And I see this a lot, especiallyin, maybe, moms and younger
women that want to get intobusiness.
(29:47):
They're really struggling withself confidence like crazy and I
understand that and there'sthat imposter syndromes.
How could I ever run a businesswhen I've been a mom for the
last 10 years, or I have noeducation or I have, you know,
no money?
I'm not sure where to start.
That can be really really toughfor anybody and I think the
best way to combat that is goingto networking events.
(30:07):
It's huge.
They're everywhere.
Now that COVID is done, justGoogle a female forward
marketing event or networkingevent or whatever industry
you're in, buy a ticket, getyour butt down there.
You're going to meet 40 peoplein the same scenario as you and
you're going to meet 80 peoplethat know a lot more than you
and they're going to teach yousomething and you going to leave
just feeling so empowered andso just so much better being
(30:30):
around other women that want togrow like that and there's
enough success in the world foreverybody.
You're just going to feel solike happy.
I know when I'm feeling likecrap and you know things, maybe
we didn't have a good month.
When I go to those events, I'mjust like a new light, glowy,
happy person right after.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
You know, I feel that like getting in the situation
with the people that are doingwhat you are doing or want to be
.
Not only does it up yourconfidence, I find that it
reignites my interest in doingthe actual work, not just
sitting around and chattingabout it.
We're talking about like well.
For you it sounds like it mightbe finances.
For me, it's usually likepitching emails and things.
Yeah, but you know, it reallymakes me go back to why, exactly
, if they were to get back andstart or hire somebody, what is
(31:15):
the most important thing theywould look for?
Speaker 3 (31:18):
I think organization, I think that's what I would go
for.
That's tough.
It depends on what you know,how they're starting the
business Right from the veryget-go.
I would love I'm a bigsalesperson, as I'm sure you are
too Like, we just want to getout there and talk to as many
people as we can, which is great, but when there's two of us
it's just a fiery disaster andnobody's watching the books,
(31:38):
nobody's writing anything down,never good.
So, yeah, right-hand man,probably just the most organized
person I could possibly find,and that is who I had helping me
at the beginning.
And that's a lot of the reasonfor our success very early on
was because, like, my brain wasjust go, go, go and she just
made sure everything was, youknow, taking care of on the back
end.
And that's so important becauseif you make a million dollars
tomorrow and you don't knowwhat's happening with it, you're
(32:00):
done for Disaster.
So, yeah, organized people areawesome.
When you're a kind of salesforward person and vice forward.
If you're super organized, gofind somebody that can talk
everybody's ear off, because Ithink he'd flip.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
I would love he just arrives to work all day.
You keep me away from numbers.
I ain't that.
No numbers, perfect.
Then first, hey Olivia, you areso wonderful, you are so spoke.
Thank you so much Taking time,so real spoke.
Thank you so much for takingtime to join the podcast.
Everybody needs to know whatthey can do.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
Absolutely yeah.
So you can find us atwwwjustlivessocialcom and that's
where you can apply to workwith us or apply to be a client
of ours.
And then, on top of that, youcan find us on social media at
Just Live Social.
Thanks guys so much, and thankyou, marley, this was awesome.
Oh my God, thank you, you'rethe boss.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Thank you so much for listening to Confessions of a
Wannabe it Girl.
Don't forget to rate andsubscribe to the show.
As always, we'll see you nextTuesday.
You.
Welcome back to Confessions of a Wannabe it Girl
, the podcast helping you filterout the BS in pursuit of
becoming the next it Girl, andin very it Girl fashion, I think
a lot of us have, maybe,aspirations to be the leader in
the group, the gal in charge,whatever that may look like for
you.
Yet I didn't know a lot aboutwhat it takes to really be a
(00:23):
good boss.
I mean, the most people I havemaybe been in charge of are the
two people at one point I havehad hired for the podcast and
occasionally working on filmsets and in projects where I've
gotten to act as an associateproducer or, you know, just a
member of the team.
So I really wanted to dive intowhat it takes to be a good boss
(00:45):
.
What does being a good bosslook like?
But I had no personalexperience of being a boss of
like a major amount of people,like, say, even over two or
three.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
So, that being said, I am joined by Olivia from Just
Live Socials to dive into whatreally makes a good boss.
So let's do it.
Welcome to Confessions of aWannabe it Girl.
I'm your host, marley Fregging,and I'm here to help you filter
out all the bullshit and becomethe next it Girl.
This podcast explores thereality of what it really takes
(01:20):
to make it out there.
As it turns out, it is way lessInstagrammable than I thought
it was going to be.
I'm still very much a work inprogress, but there's simply
nothing else I'd rather be doingthan chasing my dreams.
So let's learn from my mistakesand work together to achieve
our dreams with more confidence,clarity and direction.
Let's get after it.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Hi guys, and welcome back to Confessions of a Wannabe
it Girl.
I am joined by the lovelyOlivia from Just Live Social, a
premier marketing agency inToronto specializing in
influencers as well as UGC, andtoday we are diving in to
talking about qualities ofmaking a good boss.
(02:01):
So, olivia, thank you so muchfor joining us.
Hi, I'm so happy to be here.
Thanks for having me.
I'm very excited to be here.
I mean, I think, if you listento this podcast know we have a
deep obsession with social mediaand the world of social media,
so I don't only think that youare very close, I just talk
about being a boss, as you arethe boss of your own company and
(02:23):
founder correct, correct, yesbut also have a cool job that we
probably all like.
So, amisa, I want to start offreally quickly telling us how
you became a boss?
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Yeah for sure.
So this is the girlies aregoing to love this story.
I will be very candid with you.
I am a bit of a cheapskate whenit comes to getting things done.
I've always been one of thosepeople that will reach out and
try and do promotions.
When I was 14, I was textingnail salons saying, hey, can I
come in and make a video on mynails for free?
And there was this spa inHamilton, ontario, that did lip
(03:01):
injections and I was obsessedwith getting my lips done.
But, as we all know, it'sexpensive.
So I reached out and was like,hey, I have a marketing degree,
let me run a campaign for youguys.
And you know I had no realexperience in the social media
space other than doing a littlebit of influencer work here and
there, and I ran an extremelysuccessful campaign with them.
They called me back and, yes,just answer that question.
(03:21):
I did get the lip injections forfree, of course.
And they called me back andwanted me to kind of come and
work for them full time.
So I took them on as a clientand things really exploded for
the business and I was just soblessed.
Things just started reallyrolling after that campaign ran
and after a few months we had amassive client roster and I had
(03:43):
to scale the business veryquickly.
Which we will get into is anightmare for a lot of people.
So I'm happy that I can sharesome kind of some tips and
tricks on how to scale and notbe a crazy boss, although I'm
not sure all of my employeeswould agree with that.
But yeah, that's kind of how Igot into things and I've just
yeah, I've been really lucky tohave a really good team around
me and we've grown so fast.
It's been awesome.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Yeah, that's insane.
How many employees do you?
Speaker 3 (04:04):
currently have.
So currently we work with over35 contracted workers.
Yes, yeah, which is no littlefeat, no, little feat.
Yes, it's so crazy.
There's a lot of peopleunderneath me at all times and a
lot of different personalities,and I would say about 90% of
(04:25):
them are women.
We try to keep everybody that'sworking full time as female.
We are fully like female ownedand operated, but in the
contracted workers.
Sometimes our videographerswill be male, which, of course,
I want to be inclusive ofeverybody, but I really like us.
We're in the tech space.
They really try and make surewe're providing opportunities
for females that aren't reallyrepresented in a lot of those
areas.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Yeah, and my view on that is when it's equal, let me
know.
Until then, I'm cool with it.
You know, Until then we're good.
Yeah, exactly so.
Did you ever have like a shitboss?
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Oh my God, of course Everybody's had that horrible,
horrible boss, the worst one.
I go to my first job so I wasworking for like cash under the
table as an infant at DairyQueen and it was really really
tough because we were friendsand it was like family friend
and I love her to death.
I hope if she hears this I loveyou.
You're amazing, but it is sodifficult to balance friendship
(05:21):
or especially family friendships, and being a boss like that is
the worst line.
To kind of it's such a blurredline and going from like screw
you, you mess this up, you'relate, you're gonna get fired, to
like hey, you want to go see ashow later is so confusing for
employees and I remember thatwas just really really difficult
for me I know we definitely allhad a shit boss.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
I mean, I got everybody like also just like
very mid bosses along the waylike not great not good.
What do you think makes a goodboss?
Speaker 3 (05:48):
I think that that is.
That's a question that everysingle person is going to answer
so differently.
I mean, I have a lot of familymembers and that are involved in
business and they are tyrantsand they think I am the worst
boss on the planet.
You're not screaming at youremployees every single day.
I think it comes down to afeminine thing, so I think
females will answer this sodifferently than men will.
(06:10):
But a lot of men are tyrants atwork and they get the numbers.
They're going to see millionsmore dollars in their business
than I will see in my lifetimeLike that's just.
They're going to build thoseconglomerate businesses because
they're robots and I don't liketo run my business like that.
And if that means that I'm notgoing to be the billionaire, I'm
not gonna be the Jeff Bezos,I'm fully okay with that.
So I think what makes a goodboss for me is a lot of like.
(06:32):
You know you've got to bereally charismatic, you've got
to have a lot of empathy foryour people, but you have to be
able to still have that likeauthoritative confidence stance
around all of your employees,because if you're all best
friends, unfortunately it's notgoing to work out.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
So how do you run the team then, or the contractors
and all the people?
How do you enable people to godo their thing, trust them to do
it, not be a tyrant about it?
And then like what happens whenyou get into some swimming?
Speaker 3 (07:00):
I used to cry a lot.
Managing people is a freakingnightmare and nobody talks about
it.
It is like babysitting adultsconstantly and it's just so
difficult to manage people.
But over time you know, aftermaking mistake after mistake
after mistake, you're going tostart to realize how to do it.
For me, I am the leastmicromanaging boss on the planet
(07:22):
.
I let my employees like freerange all the time and I'm sure
a lot of them will work athree-hour day one day and then
a 20-hour day the next day.
I have a really rigorousinterview process and I also do
three months of probation foreverybody that comes out to the
team.
So during that I'm on your buttfor those three months to make
sure are you filling it?
Every day those people have tobe filling out exactly what
(07:42):
they're doing during the day andafter the day, what they got
done, what they didn't get done,why they didn't get done it.
And if you can survive thosethree months then, like that's
our kind of our trust lock of go, do your thing.
But if I start to feel peoplefalling behind them, we have to
kind of move you back into thatprobation space.
But that seemed to be somethingthat really worked well for me.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Wow, Okay.
So at first I was like wow,she's really chill.
And then I'm like wait, no, butit's not, it's hard, yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Yeah, you really have to, cause people would just.
I used to be so chillaxed witheverybody that came on to the
team and it was.
It was great.
We had really great companyculture.
Everybody's really happy rightoff the get-go, which is awesome
.
But people will not respect youand they will walk all over you
and they will time steal andeven when people are your
friends, they will.
You know they'll come for freemoney and free time and all the
(08:34):
free resources that come withhaving a chill boss.
So, yeah, I definitely I try tobe a chill boss, but there's
lots of things you have to becareful about, for sure.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
I'm so curious because I feel like it's already
come up a few times how do youmanage if you're working with
friends or people you becomefriends with, even in the
workspace?
You know you seem like a lovelygal we just met.
You know we just hopped on thepodcast, thank you.
Wait, how do you keep thatauthority figure at the same
time and like really slam thebook down while still like
(09:06):
keeping company culture?
Speaker 3 (09:08):
positive.
That's a really good question.
Yeah, I do bring it up all thetime because it's been such a
sore spot for me and, I think,every young woman.
When we're trying to buildthese kick-ass female founded
and run organizations, we wantto hire our friends.
It's natural.
It would be really weird if youdidn't want to hire your
friends, especially if you'remaking all this money all of a
sudden but you've got all theseopportunities and you've got
(09:29):
great girls around you.
You assume, of course, likelet's all let's, let's kill it
together, but it just does notwork that way.
I've hired a lot of friends andit's worked out very poorly.
Luckily, most of us are stillfriends, but we but I made a
really kind of strict rule withmyself just to not hire friends
anymore, and that's superimportant.
And when I feel that's also aninterview question for me when
(09:50):
I'm interviewing new people islike what do you see?
I think this is a questioneverybody should have in their
interview process is what do yousee our relationship being like
when we work together?
Because people will so oftensay oh, like, I expect us to be
best friends and that is a hugebusiness red flag that run, run
for the hills.
Don't hire that person becausethey're going to be so upset
every time you try and give themconstructive criticism.
(10:10):
They will feel like they can'tcome to you, they won't respect
you and then that whole hiring afriend circle happens again.
So yeah, I just really try andmake it clear and I don't go out
drinking with the girls, Idon't go out partying with the
girls.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
It's yeah, that was literally my next question,
because I do think, you know, inour culture of you know posting
everything on, you know,there's a little bit of I've
seen it as particularly with,like, the accounting, it's like
the next sorority of your lifeis, you know, going out to drink
with the co-workers.
So you remove yourselfobviously from that situation.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Yes, yeah, you have to.
I think it works a little bitdifferently when you're working
in a Fortune 500 company thathas you in every single day
eight to five.
But for me I've done it before,I've definitely done it before
We'll go out for bottle servicewith the team if we had a really
good service month or whatever.
But I stay sober and I nolonger drink around the girls
(11:05):
Everybody just gets to adifferent comfortability and to
jump back to Monday morning orSunday whenever we're working is
just really difficult, and Ithink it's more difficult on
them than it is for me Cause, asas I said earlier, I had that
tough experience with the bossthat just couldn't balance that
line and it's.
I don't want to put any of myemployees through that.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Wow, so you're more worried about them.
You think you could handle itand you're like I got it, I can
probably handle it.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Yes, because it's.
I can shut off brain and heartso quickly.
It's taken years, but now it'slike if it's work stuff, it's
work stuff, and if an employeehates me one second I can brush
it off my shoulder.
It's not Definitely important.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Yeah, well, I want to talk a little bit to that.
You know you can shut it offand myself very much included,
and I find, often with females,but I'm a female, I love the
females Like I'm always want tobe with the girls.
How do you get over this needto maybe be liked by them then?
Speaker 3 (12:09):
great question oh, I don't know that this ever goes
away.
This really doesn't ever.
We're females, like we all, Iswear most of us, probably 95%
of that, and I'm making that upcompletely, but I would say a
good 95% of us have that urge tobe wanted and liked by other
females.
Girl gang is a big thingnowadays and we all want to have
(12:30):
this happy-go-lucky coworkergroup on social media and
unfortunately, it's just noteverybody's going to like you
Especially.
Oh, this is such a good thingfor me to touch on while we're
talking about that.
I think In social media today,especially on Instagram, tiktok,
we're seeing all the girl bossstuff like crazy right.
It's like be an entrepreneur, bean entrepreneur, be an
(12:52):
entrepreneur.
I will warn everyone that youwill find people that are not
going to like you.
You're going to fail a milliontimes.
You're probably going to gobroke five or six times and your
first business probably is notgoing to work out Like it sucks.
Being an entrepreneur isexhausting.
If you have a good businessidea, go to a VC firm.
Go to a VC firm.
(13:12):
Go raise some capital.
Go find somebody else to takecontrol of all the people,
because if you are passionateabout swimsuits, you're just
going to end up managing peoplefor the next 10 years of your
life.
You're going to be anaccountant, you're going to be a
business manager.
You're going to be doing allthese things and you're going to
not have any time to do theactual swimwear aspect of it.
You're going to be hiringpeople to do the swimwear so,
like that is such a big thing,not everybody's going to like
(13:33):
you.
It's exhausting.
Be careful when you, you know,sign up to be an entrepreneur,
because you're an entrepreneur,you're not going to be, you know
, the makeup specialist or the.
You know whatever it is thelash artist, the bikini model,
the, you know.
Whatever you want to do.
It's really like its ownseparate entity when you're a
business owner and it's nottalked about enough.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
So many people think, because of Instagram and they
see the front facing part, thatthat is the job and it's like,
oh no, there's so much more.
That is actually the job thatwe don't see.
And I think so much now.
The person who maybe wanted tomake the bikini is smart enough,
hopefully, at this point andrealizing they're doing it and
(14:12):
they go and find an influencerto be the face while they still
continue to do what they weredoing.
Yeah, kind of how, because thatcrumbles, unfortunately.
So, unfortunately, um,unfortunately.
At the same time, like you know, you didn't want to be the face
.
Did you ever face impulsors?
Speaker 3 (14:30):
going back to the kind of social media stuff with
the, the girl boss stuff thatwe've got going on absolutely,
and I think the biggest thingthat I saw at the beginning that
really upset me is the porschesand the stacks of cash and the
Van Cleef and you know, the bighomes and everything I mean.
Given today's housing market,the odds that I'm 24 right now,
(14:55):
the odds that anybody under 30can afford a house by themselves
, being an entrepreneur isliterally impossible.
I know there are going to be afew people that do it, but it is
so difficult to scale a wholebusiness, make it successful,
have a net profit positive andthen buy all these things.
(15:15):
It's insanity to me that we'repushing this.
And I will tell you right nowwe have clients that are in the
States that own so this is agood example clients of the
States that own a hedge fund andthey basically their whole
thing is Lamborghinis andsupermodels and jets and they
are not profitable, Like theyweren't profitable a year ago.
(15:37):
Now they're doing good, butit's, at the time, not
profitable.
We go in, we hire all thesemodels, pay for all these cars,
and these guys just drive aroundlike they own it and tell the
world.
This is how you becomesuccessful.
Like social media is a lie.
Almost everything you consumehas been created to convince you
that you know it's real.
But it's like watching a movieall the time there's people
(15:58):
behind screens and deskscreating content to make you
feel a certain way, every secondof every day.
So we're sitting here havingthis imposter syndrome over you
know, becoming a boss because Ican't afford a Porsche at 18
years old, when meanwhile, thatgirl probably doesn't own that
car Maybe she does, but it'slikely her parents.
It's so insane to me that wehave such high expectations of
(16:19):
young women who want to becomeentrepreneurs and business
owners.
And so, yeah, I still face thatall the time when I'm traveling
for work, I'll see people myage that have made it and, you
know, are doing all these things, but there's people lying and
there's content being created.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
That's it's not, and you have to remember that rear
like that's not mentioned in the30 second tiktok reel, like
nobody brings it up.
(16:51):
I'm still trying to figure outthe correct political way for me
to bring it up.
It's tough, you know, becauselike if you don't say it, we
know it's deep down but we don'tthink it when we're just
scrolling at the end of the day.
And yeah, you know, it goesback into this whole idea of the
girl boss culture and I love,hate the girl boss culture.
Do you have any hot takes?
Speaker 3 (17:13):
I should watch my mouth here.
Yeah, I am very teeter-totterwith the girl boss culture.
I have been to a lot of eventsand I've kind of spoken at some
events and stuff that are crazygirl boss culture and sometimes
I feel amazing afterwards andsometimes I don't feel so good.
And I tend to not feel so goodat the ones where we sit around
and pout about us being womenand just say, oh my gosh, like
(17:37):
we're women, we deserve allthese things and we're hot and
we're cool and we're smart andlike everybody listen to us and
give us money, but likesometimes I want to go to an
all-female workshop where wefocus on like finances and
actual, you know, usable assetsto business and stuff like that.
So girl boss culture sometimesforgets about the education side
(17:59):
of business and just kind ofgoes towards like we deserve
more.
I'm like, no, we're still gonnawork, we're gonna work harder
than you you men actually but westill, we want to see the work.
So that's kind of my opinion onit.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Yeah, I think I have a similar opinion.
I like love, hate it.
I love the mentality, Like Ilove that.
It attracted me as a child andnow I'm like I'm in it and I'm
cool with it and you got me andcongrats it worked.
But also there's two sides ofit, which I think is exactly
what you're saying.
(18:31):
There's talking about doing thework and then there's doing the
work, which is not always soinstagrammable and cool.
You know it is really doing.
It's like finances or firingsomebody.
They're shitty.
Let's don't talk about that.
You know that.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Said you ever faced a challenging experience as an
assistant, I think one of theworst, the worst things that
ever happened, and I mean now.
This happens all the time and Ifeel very equipped to handle it
, but one of the worst thingsthat you will ever have to do
and that I ever had to do isfiring the first person you ever
have to fire.
Letting go of contract workersis different, because you can
(19:08):
just choose to stop working withsomebody, but when you actually
have to remove somebody fromyour company, it is devastating.
It is really sad, you will cryand if you don't cry, you're
still going to probably screamin a bathroom or into your
pillow for an hour or two.
It's very frustrating.
People get so upset and theydon't understand why.
And it's brutal because eventhe first person I ever let go
(19:30):
was stealing money like straightup stealing money and I cried.
This person is literallyscrewing me.
And yet I was sobbing like afour-year-old who just stubbed
their toe.
It was ridiculous and I thinkthat's something that every boss
is going to have to go throughat some time.
Just a nightmare, but you justhave to keep doing it.
(19:50):
So you get a little numb to it,because it does not get easier
for a while Are you talking toyourself.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Do you have your bullet points?
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Yeah, I usually try and like walk around and hype
myself up to some some likeCardi B for five minutes and I'm
not going to burst out cryinghalfway through.
And yeah, when it comes to theactual let go process, I can't
start like rapping, you know midmidfire job, but I, yeah it's.
You've got to be very carefulwhen you're letting somebody go,
(20:18):
because there are very strictthings obviously that you have
to say and you have to have goodreasoning.
You can't just be firing peoplebecause they said something
mean about you.
So you know it's quite, it'susually quite straightforward.
It gets really tough when theperson kind of refuses to accept
it and wants to have a longerconversation about it.
But usually what happens is youknow you just you let the
person go very, very straight tothe point and then if they feel
(20:41):
like they need to speak withsomebody else, they can speak to
an HR representative orsomebody else from the company,
because it's inappropriate forme to continue the conversation
at that point.
How do you take feedback fromyour team?
I think it's really importantto ask your team how you're
doing all the time and I try todo that constantly.
I think as a boss, it's alsoimportant to kind of reflect,
even daily, but I try to do itonce a week just to say like how
(21:03):
am I messing up?
Because you've always got yourhands in so many buckets, the
odds are you're messing upsomewhere.
It would be very bizarre if youwere not messing up somewhere.
You get you know there's toomany things going on all at once
.
So I try and really write downlike what areas are my employees
struggling and how have Icaused that?
Because as a boss it is myfault.
Whatever they're doing wrongusually has something to do with
(21:24):
me.
So if somebody you know isn'tgetting their projects done in
time, then I need to ask youknow what's going on?
And I'll try and take the girlswe do lunch with anybody that's
in our area quite frequentlyjust to talk about that and
continue to talk about theirgoals and kind of their
aspirations.
And usually along the thoseconversations comes up like how
can I support that?
I find when you let people giveyou criticism I mean I've seen
(21:48):
the boxes and stuff where peoplecan just put in little notes
and whatnot of what's goingwrong.
I have done stuff like thatbefore.
Sometimes it can get a littlebit nasty and then I personally
am bad at taking nasty feedback.
I get grumpy and I'm like, oh,that person sucks right, whereas
if we have a more open-endedconversation about it, it's good
.
I also love to let the girlstalk by themselves, like
(22:13):
sometimes I'll send them outwith my COO or my CMO to lunch
and then they'll feel more openabout you know, talking a little
bit of crap about me, which isgreat, because I'm like all
right, let's figure out wherethis is coming from and
reevaluate.
I'm not going to walk in and belike oh, sydney told me, you
said this on Monday, but it's agood way for me to kind of wrap
my head around some ways that Imight be messing up.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
So this lunch, you know I'm picturing this team of
like at least you know 10 arounda lunch table.
How do you not let this get outof control?
When you're opening the flightgates for feedback or maybe talk
about personal conflictionswith work, how do you keep it?
Speaker 3 (22:43):
small.
We keep it very small, sousually I actually would never
let it get to 10 people, and Idon't even know if we have more
than 10 people in one area at atime.
Yeah, so if I go see, you know,our team in Miami, then I'm
going to be talking to like fivepeople at a time.
If we're in Hamilton or Toronto, probably five or six maybe,
and that keeps the conversationsmall always, which is key 15
(23:09):
people, no chance.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
That's working nightmare.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
Yeah, I'm definitely letting my emotions get them up
to me.
I am a massive advocate ofmeditation.
I meditate twice a day.
I would lose my mind if Ididn't.
I'm also a huge breathwork fan.
There's a girl in miami I metum a few months ago and she does
breathwork.
Her name's Kira and I'll sendyou the stuff after you're done.
Your brain's going to explodeif you haven't done breathwork.
(23:31):
It's the best thing in thewhole world and that is just
something that's completelychanged my life.
When I'm upset, coming home anddoing breathwork or doing a
guided meditation if you have acrazy brain that's running all
over the place do guided.
I can't sit there and meditatein dead silence for 20 minutes I
would like.
There's no chance I'm making itthrough that.
So just yeah, I meditate likecrazy because otherwise I
(23:51):
probably would scream at peopleand I.
That's one thing I refuse to doto my team members, no matter
what's happening.
I never want to yell atsomebody.
I don't like raising my voiceat all.
I don't think there ever is asituation where you need to be
doing that.
And if it is, then one of us istoo upset about something and
not in control of our emotions.
So that's when I always turnback to like do I need to go
work out, do I need to gomeditate or am I hungry?
Speaker 1 (24:11):
sometimes it's hunger for real that's real, and then
approaching, like sayingfeedback yourself, like what do
you for some who's maybe nevergiven that kind of conversation
it's really tough.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
It's definitely tough to give people feedback.
In a way, I think sometimespointing out what people are
doing going back to elementaryschool tactics here the two
stars and one note is always areally good way to go and find
two things that they kicked buttin.
(24:45):
And if that's just, maybe I canjust go personal Like you're
such a charismatic, awesomehuman around our clients.
I'm just really happy to workwith you.
Can you give me a call later?
Just so they feel happy,because there's nothing like
getting that text of like hey,we need to talk later, just
losing their mind for two hoursfor your calls.
Always say something nice.
Say, hey, give me a call later.
They're hyped, they get on okayand then I'm gonna suggest ways
(25:08):
to fix it.
I'm never like, hey, you'remessing up, fix it, like here's
what we need to do, or do youhave any suggestions on how I
can achieve this, because I'mstruggling with this on my end.
How do you feel about it?
Speaker 1 (25:20):
so always try and take the blame right get in the
space to respond like hey,thinking what was like some, I'd
be like.
This is not my fault, thoughthis is actually not my fault,
but I'm here for time.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
That's so funny.
I was talking to a girlfriendtoday.
I had a situation at work and Icalled her and I said you're
going to hate this, but I know Ididn't mess this up.
This was not my fault, just soyou know you're going to be on
my side.
But yeah, those ones can bereally tough.
I think that comes honestly.
That comes back down to thehiring process too.
If you have a really goodhiring process, you're going to
(25:53):
be able to tell right awaythrough interview questions if
someone's going to be stubbornlike that Because there are
situations where employees areright and I am wrong, and that's
fine, but I need to make surethat I'm in the headspace to
figure out that I'm wrong.
I won't if they really believethey're wrong, like we need to
figure it out.
But I've honestly never had asuper, I've never had a super,
(26:14):
super tough problem withemployees doing stuff like that.
I think it's just yeah, itcomes down to hiring the right
people that are going to be opento like a conversation where
there's not like a definitiveI'm right, you're wrong.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Yeah, from what I'm hearing is for you, being a good
boss starts with really being agood person, picking strong
candidates in the interview.
So what are your?
What are your like?
Red flags or like things thatyou're kind of like?
Oh I, I, as a boss, need toknow that doesn't work well for
my company.
It doesn't work well for me.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
First off, watch out for lying people that come in
and we all do it.
We all do it.
But I always tell people toexplain at least two of the jobs
on their resume and then I'lldo a little bit of back checking
, just because people lie, and Ithink that that's a really big
red flag for any company whenyou come in.
I also don't love when peopleyou know expect me to believe
that they're going to stay withme for their entire lives.
(27:07):
So I tend to ask people whattheir one-year goal is and what
their five-year goal is, and ifthey're like I'm going to be
exactly in this position making$20 an hour and be so happy with
it in five years, I'm like,well, that's not true.
I'm going to assume you'relying.
I love realistic people.
If they say like yeah, I Like,yeah, I want to come in and
learn for five years and then Imight be interested in launching
my own business one day and Ihope that you can help with that
(27:29):
.
I'm like that's awesome, that'sreally cool that you're able to
tell the truth.
Here's a million reasons whyyou might not want to be a boss.
Here you go, but it's yeah,that seems to be two of my
really big red flags.
And again jumping back to thefriends thing when people are
really insistent on like usbecoming best friends through
the process of working, justsomething I have to be careful
(27:50):
with because I'm like that'sgoing to hurt you and it's not
going to be good for our workingrelationship.
So usually those things I'mlike absolutely.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Yeah, I have a tough one with that one too.
I like love working withfriends and I hate working with
friends.
It's rough and then at the sametime, like there are
friendships that came from workand we seem to have no problem.
So I'm like no, it works.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
There's a million situations where it works.
It's just when it doesn't work.
It's real bad.
It's really really bad.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
You know it can be not only traumatic for you as a
friend, but I also think it canknock your confidence as a boss
because then you see differentempathy inside that you see, not
that I'm a boss of 35 people.
What do you do to keep yourconfidence up as a boss after
maybe things have gone awry, orwhen things go awry and you
don't want your ego to getmassive?
Speaker 3 (28:45):
I think that's a good question.
I think, yeah, watching.
Watching is such a difficultline for people to balance.
You have to watch your ego, butyou have to keep your
confidence in check as well.
Jumping right to ego checkyourself, check yourself, ladies
.
Check yourself.
Make sure you are not the mostconfident person in the world.
(29:05):
I understand that you want tofeel that way and it's great,
but when you think you knoweverything, your business is
fucked.
Your business is so screwedYou're going to go down and down
in flames.
You don't know everything, andthe more that you can open your
eyes to the things that youdon't know is the better that
your business is going to do,the better of a boss you're
going to be, the happier youremployees are going to be.
(29:25):
It's so important to checkyourself and watch your ego and
I think, in terms of keepingyour confidence up, because,
looking at the other line ofthings, there's lots of girls
that are kicking butt right nowand all to them, just check
yourself, watch yourself, keepgrowing.
You're doing amazing.
And I see this a lot, especiallyin, maybe, moms and younger
women that want to get intobusiness.
(29:47):
They're really struggling withself confidence like crazy and I
understand that and there'sthat imposter syndromes.
How could I ever run a businesswhen I've been a mom for the
last 10 years, or I have noeducation or I have, you know,
no money?
I'm not sure where to start.
That can be really really toughfor anybody and I think the
best way to combat that is goingto networking events.
(30:07):
It's huge.
They're everywhere.
Now that COVID is done, justGoogle a female forward
marketing event or networkingevent or whatever industry
you're in, buy a ticket, getyour butt down there.
You're going to meet 40 peoplein the same scenario as you and
you're going to meet 80 peoplethat know a lot more than you
and they're going to teach yousomething and you going to leave
just feeling so empowered andso just so much better being
(30:30):
around other women that want togrow like that and there's
enough success in the world foreverybody.
You're just going to feel solike happy.
I know when I'm feeling likecrap and you know things, maybe
we didn't have a good month.
When I go to those events, I'mjust like a new light, glowy,
happy person right after.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
You know, I feel that like getting in the situation
with the people that are doingwhat you are doing or want to be
.
Not only does it up yourconfidence, I find that it
reignites my interest in doingthe actual work, not just
sitting around and chattingabout it.
We're talking about like well.
For you it sounds like it mightbe finances.
For me, it's usually likepitching emails and things.
Yeah, but you know, it reallymakes me go back to why, exactly
, if they were to get back andstart or hire somebody, what is
(31:15):
the most important thing theywould look for?
Speaker 3 (31:18):
I think organization, I think that's what I would go
for.
That's tough.
It depends on what you know,how they're starting the
business Right from the veryget-go.
I would love I'm a bigsalesperson, as I'm sure you are
too Like, we just want to getout there and talk to as many
people as we can, which is great, but when there's two of us
it's just a fiery disaster andnobody's watching the books,
(31:38):
nobody's writing anything down,never good.
So, yeah, right-hand man,probably just the most organized
person I could possibly find,and that is who I had helping me
at the beginning.
And that's a lot of the reasonfor our success very early on
was because, like, my brain wasjust go, go, go and she just
made sure everything was, youknow, taking care of on the back
end.
And that's so important becauseif you make a million dollars
tomorrow and you don't knowwhat's happening with it, you're
(32:00):
done for Disaster.
So, yeah, organized people areawesome.
When you're a kind of salesforward person and vice forward.
If you're super organized, gofind somebody that can talk
everybody's ear off, because Ithink he'd flip.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
I would love he just arrives to work all day.
You keep me away from numbers.
I ain't that.
No numbers, perfect.
Then first, hey Olivia, you areso wonderful, you are so spoke.
Thank you so much Taking time,so real spoke.
Thank you so much for takingtime to join the podcast.
Everybody needs to know whatthey can do.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
Absolutely yeah.
So you can find us atwwwjustlivessocialcom and that's
where you can apply to workwith us or apply to be a client
of ours.
And then, on top of that, youcan find us on social media at
Just Live Social.
Thanks guys so much, and thankyou, marley, this was awesome.
Oh my God, thank you, you'rethe boss.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Thank you so much for listening to Confessions of a
Wannabe it Girl.
Don't forget to rate andsubscribe to the show.
As always, we'll see you nextTuesday.
You.
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