August 4, 2025 • 48 mins
This week on Reset, I sat down with Fabienne Costa, Founder of YCL Jewellery and Co-Founder of SRLA for a conversation that I know so many of you will find powerful and personal.
Fabienne is one of those women who leads with heart and honesty. We spoke about what it really takes to build and grow a business, how she’s navigated co-founding SRLA with her friend, and how becoming a mother has changed the way she leads and lives.
She also opened up about her fertility journey - something that so many high-achieving women silently go through and how it taught her to soften, surrender, and rethink success. I’m so grateful for how generously she shared the raw, emotional side of that chapter in her life.
We also touched on leadership, social media, personal branding, and how she chooses what to share online versus what she protects. And of course, I couldn’t resist asking what advice her 90-year-old self would give her today.
If you're building something, navigating change, or feeling like you're in a season of unknowns this one’s for you.
In this episode, we chat about:
Why she ignored the advice to never go into business with a friend
The behind-the-scenes of building not one, but two brands
Her fertility journey - and the lessons she learned beyond the spreadsheets and goal-setting
How motherhood has shaped her leadership style
What she shares on social media (and what she chooses to keep sacred)
How she’s thinking about AI and the future of business
The things she’s doing now to help set her daughter up for a thriving future
And the powerful wisdom she imagines her 90-year-old self would offer her today
This is such a beautiful and honest chat. I hope it reminds you that you’re not alone - and that even in the hardest chapters, there is softness, strength, and space to rewrite the story.
CONNECT WITH FABIENNE:
YCL Jewels: https://ycljewels.com
SRLA: https://srla.co
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fabienne.ycl/
CONNECT WITH ASH:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ashcam____/
Reset Podcast: https://www.instagram.com/reset___podcast/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:04):
Hello and welcome back to Reset.I'm your host, Ash Cam, and
today we are going to be discussing some of my absolute
favorite topics. We are talking entrepreneurship,
business, motherhood, social media, showing up online and the
future. And to do this, I have a friend
of mine, Fabian in the studio. She's the founder of YCL
Jewellery and an entrepreneurialrole model for so many women.
(00:25):
Welcome to Reset. Thank you.
Really just here here for that beautiful intro Thank.
You, I got you. Tell me.
You juggle so many different hats between business,
motherhood, I know you're on a board, all these things.
But if the current season of your life had a title, what
would it be? A line?
(00:45):
Yeah, that's my word for the year, and I've spoken about it
quite a bit on my Instagram. Every year I tend to have a
word, but this year has never felt more aligned with my word,
which is a line. So that's how I would describe
my current season. Beautiful.
And I know a lot of people are probably familiar with your
jewelry range. I know you're wearing it right
now looking stunning. But for anyone that hasn't heard
(01:09):
of my sale before, can you just explain who it's for, the
background? Tell us about it.
YCL is a very feminine, very wearable jewelry jewelry label.
We like to think that we're accessible luxury.
So you can find a myriad of designs and styles and
(01:30):
categories all designed in houseby myself and our beautiful
general manager. And you will find a range of
price points as well as we really believe that jewelry
should be accessible at a very high quality as well.
That's something that we really pride ourselves on, even down to
the color of the gold. It's something that I've
personally been honing in on forlike the past eight to nine
(01:54):
years that I wanted the perfect blend between yellow and rose
gold. Our gold color is quite a unique
color of gold. I think sometimes people don't
know that we design everything in house and it's something that
is very intentional. It's such a considered process
from start to finish and it's something that we really, really
enjoy. We're a very small, high impact
(02:15):
team so. Yeah, and you're not only
online, you've got physical stores now too.
Yeah. We do.
That's been a whole new world toto start to explore.
It's been really, really great. So we have our showroom here in
Burleigh Heads and we also have a store in Pacific Fair, which
is really exciting. Yeah, it must be so nice to kind
of you started online and then to finally have a space that you
(02:36):
can kind of bring your customersto and immerse them in your
world. Yeah, I think that it's it's,
it's been beautiful because we kind of coincided the launch of
our showroom with the relaunch of our branding, which we're
very known for now, that beautiful dark wine hue.
And that was a really scary stepfor us, especially me as the
founder, even though that has always been the colour that
(02:58):
I've, I just gravitated towards going from a very safe, you
know, like color palette of justlike my whites and my beiges to
a deep hue was really scary. But it's been incredibly
impactful for the brand. And I think it's made, it's made
the brand extremely memorable aswell, which I just don't think
that we had that space in the market prior to the rebrand.
(03:18):
Yeah, and you're also Co founderof a a new brand, we'll call it
a baby brand. It's just started, Sorella, with
a friend of yours, Georgia. Tell me a little bit about the
business, but then also everyonesays don't miss mix friends and
family business. Like how are you girls
navigating that? Yeah.
Which I completely agree with. So Georgia not only is a friend,
(03:41):
but she's also also the general manager and the the creative
director of YCL. So we've been working on and off
together for nearly eight years now.
And we're honestly the Ying to each other's Yang.
We are could not be more opposite and I think that that
is what has made and blossomed such a beautiful friendship.
And I think early on we really knew that we had this unique way
(04:03):
of working. And when me and her worked side
by side, we just became this force to be reckoned with.
So I was thinking about ways that I could extend this in ways
that I could tap in into something else.
And so I pitched the idea for her and I to start a business
and we didn't know what that looks like, but I just wanted to
do it by her side. And I felt honoured that I could
(04:25):
be by her side and doing it withher and working alongside of
her. I learned from her every single
day and she makes me a better leader, designer and it's, it's
incredible. So I feel very honoured.
We have very open communication.That is how it works.
(04:45):
Nothing is off the table. Me and her have the most
difficult conversations but we leave so much better for it and
even you know if it's hard to hear in the moment, it's
something that is just not a negotiable within our within our
relationship. Obviously, we work side by side
with YCL. She's very much pioneered or so
(05:05):
much of so much of the growth that YSL has had.
We already knew what it was liketo work side by side.
And as a founder who hires thesepeople who are experts in their
field, I need to let go of thosereigns to get the best out of my
team. So I had to learn very early on
to let she do what she does best.
So that kind of is where it all started.
(05:26):
And look, I'm not going to say it doesn't come, you know, like
without its without its challenges.
But I think the biggest issue sometimes is probably ego and
lack of communication and G and I don't have either of those
when it comes to the way that wework together.
So it works it it works well andI'm super grateful.
Oh my goodness. It sounds like you both put in
the effort to keep that relationship strong, but there's
also an element of luck there that you found each other.
(05:48):
I know honestly because I would not.
I've hired family once. I would, I never hire a family
again. And as much as I have friends
that are like, I'd love to come to work for, work for, you know,
work for YCL, I'm just like, no,like I just have that boundary
because it's very hard. Early on, I became friends with
all of my staff and it made things extremely difficult.
It made, you know, the growth ofthe business really, really,
(06:12):
really, really challenging as well because obviously going
from a team of two to a team of 10, the structure of the day is
very, very, very different. When I had only one staff or two
staff members, we used to close the studio for lunch.
There's no way we could do that.Now we have hundreds of orders
to ship. You know, we have shit that we
got to do. So I really grappled with that
in those early days. Whereas when I really aligned
(06:32):
the purpose and the vision I have with the business as well
in line with with the culture that I want to cultivate, I was
able to kind of stop singing my team as my children.
So, but still, I have quite a few of my staff are extremely
close friends as well and we're lucky that it works, but I have
seen the other side of that as well because it can get taken
(06:56):
advantage of on, you know, on both sides, not just from the
employer's side, but also the employee's side.
So yeah, I think it's something that's challenging to navigate,
especially with YCL being a 12 year old brand.
We've grown so much in that space and it's been such a slow
slog, you know? So these changes have been,
they've been really eye opening.You, you learn a lot.
(07:18):
You know, I say that owning a business is like holding a
mirror up to yourself. I always say this to my team
because you have to be able to look at yourself and constantly
be able to change, constantly able to take feedback on from
your team, lead by example. And you have to be able to adapt
and pivot because things change.But you constantly feel like,
you know, you just grow a limb and then it gets, then it gets
(07:38):
cut off, then you like regrow the limb again, then it gets cut
off and you just get used to it again.
So it's like this constant evolution.
But I always say like, I wouldn't be who I am without
this journey that I've had because it's matured me so much
faster probably than what I would have would have matured.
It brings you right back down toearth.
Yeah, tell me, tell me. We've kind of covered a couple
(07:59):
just then, but if you could go back and teach your younger self
2 lessons about business when she was starting at, what would
you teach her? Definitely understand your
numbers first. This is still not something that
I'm great at, even though I'm inthe PNL often and I understand
my daily ECOM data like I'm like, I know that, you know,
(08:20):
just, so just like back to front, I look at AP and L and
I'm like, what the fuck is goingon?
Like numbers don't really, I don't really, I'm not highly
analytical. I'm extremely practical early on
without cash flow. Obviously I started making
insane amounts of money when I was 24.
So that's a big, really, really,really, really, really big
(08:41):
adjustment. And that was before I, I was
still a sole trader. So the profit of the business
one year was $180,000 when I was24, so that was nine years ago
now. So I made $180,000 as a 24 year
old, which is that is that is extreme pressure and you have to
(09:01):
be highly mature about how you manage your money when you're
that young. I also then had to have AI had a
$60,000 tax bill and $20,000 of Hecs that I had to pay off like
that. So that quickly brought me back
down to earth on understanding my figures, saving for tax, and
now I have multiple tax savings accounts.
I have tax for, I have my boss, I have my tax, I have my PAYGI,
(09:24):
have my soup. I have so many accounts it's
absolutely ridiculous. But this helps keep me
accountable because you know, you, you have wages to pay and
that's a really, that's a huge responsibility that I don't take
lightly. So that would be #1 learning my
figures earlier on, because I probably overspent in areas like
photo shoots and collections that didn't sell.
(09:45):
I didn't understand my data thatthat would, that would be my
second understand your data. I never knew to look at, OK, I
need to, I need to release a newcollection.
What is selling? Let me look up what's selling.
I never, it seems so simple, butI never knew that.
So now every design decision we make in the business is so
data-driven. It is insane.
(10:07):
We look and we have 12 years of historical data.
So we're really lucky there. We have this incredible pool of
data we can pull from that is completely invaluable to us.
And as as a designer, I'm not designing what I want.
I'm so blessed that SIM is just a dream.
I love her. She's my, she's my little, she's
my little creative outlet SIM. But otherwise, I'm designing for
(10:28):
mass market, for a commercial space, which is sometimes hard
for an artistic person to step into.
So I had to learn. I had to learn how to actually
design things. What's the point of being a
designer if no one is actually going to buy your shit, right?
So that would be #2 understand your data.
Yeah, which are both like on theoutside, it's like, oh, she runs
(10:50):
a fashion brand. It's jewellery, It's fun, it's
fun, it's glamorous. But yeah, I feel like behind
every business, it's the numbersand the data that really will
make or break you. Yeah, if it's.
What you know I was able able topush the needle forward.
Yeah. And then also afford you more
opportunities to do more of the creative and the design and keep
growing. Definitely.
Yeah. Was there a moment when you sort
(11:12):
of like, those pinched me yourself kind of moments like,
whoa, I've made it? So many.
Yeah, so many. Yeah.
Makes me cry. I always cry in podcast
interviews, just so you know, highly emotional.
And I'm completely fine with it.The first person to get these
couches, it's OK. So many.
(11:32):
I don't know why I am due for myperiod.
It's like coming any day. It's probably starting actually
on this white couch, which is great.
The day that we first got our 12orders, we got 12 orders in one
day. That was fucking huge.
That was insane. I bought myself a really nice
Land Land Rover when I was 24. That felt really, really good,
(11:54):
my dream car. And I felt like such a boss in
that car. And it's funny now I don't even
care. It's so funny how you change as
you get older. But I was 24.
But I saw this beautiful car that was incredible.
My mum probably first seeing like this the success because
she supported me so much. I was, I just just about to
(12:14):
graduate a Bachelor of nursing and I had two subjects left and
I told her mum I'm quitting my degree to start a jewelry brand
and she's like, what the fuck bad.
Like I had no experience. I'd made some jewelry here, all
there. My beautiful mother supported me
and she was okay. Like, I support you, Fabian.
(12:35):
OK, But like, can you just finish your degree?
No, Mama, I can't. I'm 21 and reckless.
I can't reach my degree. I have to focus everything on
this. So that was a moment buying my
first commercial space, but evensigning my first lease when I
was 2524. So many and it's it.
It's crazy as you get older, I've never had more
(12:57):
responsibility and more weight because the business has grown
so much. Yet I am the least stressed I've
ever been within my business andI probably need to as much as
it's funny, I was listening to something and I were talking
about when an, an entrepreneur kind of stays like this, we stay
really, really steady. We don't shift if things are
(13:19):
good and we don't shift if things are bad.
And that's me now. And it probably means that I
probably need to celebrate more because I'm because I don't
celebrate as much, but I'm not really fazed either way.
Nothing can really shake me from.
I've been through it all. I've been through nearly losing
the business. I've been through making so much
money. I've been through making no
money. I've been through so many things
that shape you as a person and as a business owner that now
(13:43):
honestly, I stay like this. Like, I'm excited and I'm happy,
but I used to become elated or completely, completely, like
better ridden. Like it would be either one or
right now it's not. So I think that, but it's,
you've just reminded me. Like I still got excited about
things, but I think it's nice tojust celebrate those moments.
(14:03):
So I can probably think of more that were really, you know, like
etched into my mind early on andnot so much now.
So yeah. OK, I'll check in with you in a
few weeks maybe. Like, hey, what do we celebrate?
Yes, yes, you've spoken about your mom.
Yeah. You're also a mother now.
How has becoming a mum changed the way you approach business
and leadership in life? My team would say that I am way
(14:30):
less controlling and way less heightened.
So I am one of those women that became more relaxed when I had a
had a kid, which was good for mebecause I'm very, very Taipei.
I love to be able to control my environment and what that looks
like. So that's great because I think
that that shifts into motherhood.
I'm a very relaxed mother, probably too much so, whereas my
(14:52):
partner's the kind of hyper vigilant you.
Need. You need a bit of both.
Yeah, we have. We have a bit of both.
So I he would probably say I'm too relaxed with her sometimes.
But it works and it keeps me really grounded and it makes
sure that I'm showing up in the best way for her.
I'm definitely a lot more nurturing now as well.
I thought I was patient. Becoming a mother showed me that
(15:14):
I'm not, especially with a three-year old toddler that
tests you in every single way, but I think work as well,
probably prior to giving birth to season.
I very much identified with that.
But there's nothing wrong with that.
That consumed me for, you know, like the over the over the last
decade of my life and it's givenme so many opportunities that
(15:34):
now I can be the present mother that I am that my mother could
never because she was a single mom working full time job and
there's no one else to look after us.
So yeah, I would say now I approach everything through a
different lens. I approach it through a slower
lens. And that's definitely something
that I'm focusing more on this year.
I went back to work with season after three weeks, which was
(15:56):
just traumatizing in so many ways.
And it was just my ego and my FOMO that made me go back to
work. Even though I'm extremely
strategic. I put everyone in place that
needed to be there for the business to thrive and for me to
not be there, and I didn't afford myself that time and
space. I'm blessed that my partner was
able to take eight months off, so he was there.
(16:17):
So I was still able to breastfeed.
I was still able to do things that I wanted to do, but I was
putting this extra pressure on myself and I don't necessarily
feel that anymore. I don't feel that pressure that
I think potentially some women that have a career prior and
then have a baby and also especially if they own their own
business. I don't feel that I love what I
(16:39):
do more than ever and I feel more aligned with and with with
my purpose. But right now my season is
season. I just want to focus on her and
I want to spend time with her. And I'm blessed that I can still
pay myself a full time wage because I've created this
incredible business and I can work the hours that work for me.
So I was actually talking to a friend, beautiful, beautiful
(17:01):
friend, Lauren the other day. She owns our recruitment agency.
I think the thing that you know her and I was really inspired by
how she has been able to carve out time for her child and for
her work, and it looks really, really, really, really
different. She works at night, but that's
what works for her because she has to spend the whole day with
(17:24):
her beautiful baby. So that actually has completely
shifted my mentality. I never used to work at night
and now I am. So I can take season out in the
morning and I can do things and the team always knows that I'm
I'm I'm available. But my contact hours just look a
little bit different. And I think for so long, I
always think that I need to leadby example, like if I need to be
(17:46):
the first one there every singleday.
And that's just what I'm like after 12 years of running,
running my business and some of my team have been with me for
close to 8 years. They know how I work.
They know that they can rely on me.
And it's time that I've I affordmyself and allow myself that
space and to reap the rewards ofall the sacrifices I've made
(18:07):
over these years so I can be with be with my daughter.
Yeah, going back after three weeks, I I think previous me
would have done the same. But I've been trying really hard
to listen and learn and absorb from people like yourself.
Just like OK, if I could do thatagain, maybe it would be
slightly differently. Completely like completely
(18:29):
different. I will not do that for the next
baby. I lost time with season and I'm
never getting back, you know, and not even like physical time.
She was with me every single day.
It's more spiritual and emotional time.
I wasn't present all the time and you can't be.
And as a mother, I'm not going to buy into the mother's Guild
(18:49):
that we all should feel. But fuck like you do, like you
do you want to be the best mother to your child.
And that looks different for everyone.
But I've learned that they grow so fast and every mother tells
you and you're like, shut up. But it's true.
They grow so fast. And I'm so glad that I've come
to the realization. You know, I came to the
realization probably which she just before she turned 3.
(19:11):
So I feel like I can make it up right.
And I and I know I'm there for her in in so many ways, so many
ways. And it looks different every
single day is different. But I will take a good chunk of
time off next time. Yeah, sure.
I'll still probably, you know, pop into the photo shoots and
I'll still be designing away because we are running a 2 two
person design team. But I'm not going to place the
(19:33):
expectation that I need to be there for all the meetings or I
need to understand everything that's going on in the business.
I need to place trust in the people that I've hired because
they're so incredible at their role.
And by me giving them reins, it actually shows them I can see
the potential, but sometimes they can't even see it.
Giving them the reins and allowing them to fail and
(19:54):
allowing them to thrive. Giving them space to do both
because both are going to happenand they need to know that
you're there for either either or.
They find this new capacity within themselves and this new
sense of empowerment. It only makes them want to do
better. It only makes them upskill,
thrive in their role and be happy.
And that's what you want in yourteam.
(20:15):
You want them to find a role in a company that they feel like
they can really add value and they can thrive and they can
grow with, you know, with the brand.
And that is our team. They're just incredible and I'm
good at finding people, you know, so I need to let them do
what they're good at so I can step back and have that time
with my daughter. Yeah, which is such a gift as a
(20:38):
leader, and it's uncomfortable for so many of us, right?
But like, as you said, that is the best way to let them grow
and thrive and just really take the business to a level that
maybe will surprise you as well.You're just like, sit back and
be like, work your magic, guys. I trust you.
Yeah. And I.
Think it's, you know, we have our very niched skill sets as as
(21:02):
business owners, we can't do it all and we're not good at
everything. I am very, my skill set is
extremely niched and I have hired in areas where people have
skills that I do not have and have experience that I don't
have to enable us to get to the place I want to with the
business. And I don't even know what that
is. But just the way that YSL has
(21:23):
grown over the past three years has been so incredible to watch.
And I couldn't even have imagined what she what she is
now as a business and a brand. Exciting.
It is exciting. It is exciting.
Social media. It's one of those kind of love,
hey, messy, messy conversations,but I feel like everyone now
(21:47):
wants to know who's behind a brand and you show up online
quite vulnerably and share. I'm sure there's different
things that you intentionally doand don't share, but something
you've been sharing a lot about lately is your fertility
journey. Can you talk to us a little bit
about that? Yeah, I felt cold to share that.
So I started doing Ivy. I started trying naturally for
(22:09):
my daughter's season in when I was 2827, the year I turned 28.
So at the end of 2019, we started trying and then after a
year of not falling, we decided to do to do IVF.
Never. I knew no one in in my life that
had done IVF like everyone around me.
(22:30):
Not that I had many friends thathad children then, but the
friends that I did fell pregnant, you know, easily,
probably for one or two times and, you know, after trying one,
one or two times. So I was like, oh, like it's
gonna be fine. Yeah, we'll just pull then.
Obviously, when the IVF conversation came up, I looked
online and it was only one of the owners of Sabo Skirt that
(22:50):
was talking about it. I could not find anything
online. It was only this particular
woman that shared her journey from start start to finish.
And I was so thank, I'm so thankful and she would never
know this, but I am so thankful for the videos that she shared
because I watched them religiously.
The thought of having to inject myself with needles and like
look like, like I used to be a nurse.
(23:12):
I'm not, I'm, you know, that is not, it's not necessarily that
like it, you know, I've, I've seen all these different things
I've gone through so much as I as a nurse, but I think it's
such a vulnerable, sensitive area.
And I was like, what do you mean?
I have to inject and then I havesurgery and then what they put
something up me like what? Like I had no concept of it.
So it, it inspired me to share. And I think since going through
(23:34):
that. So we had three failed rounds
with season, like obviously not with season, but my, my first
IVF round of IVF, I got 5 embryos.
The first 3 failed. Then I had a laparoscopy, found
out that I had silent endo all over my pelvis.
I have no endosymptoms. So that was, yeah, that was
wild. And then I have really high
natural killer cells all throughmy uterus.
(23:56):
So we have high, we have naturalkiller cells all in our body.
It helps us fight off, you know,like illness and any, any kind
of disease. I have an abnormally high amount
in my uterus. Every time either my partner and
I were falling potentially naturally, my body was shedding
it because it was seeing it as something that it should attack.
And that what was that? That's what was happening with
all the embryos that were being implanted.
(24:18):
So my body was fighting them offand you know, just like
essentially, you know, just likeattacking it before and then it
would shed out of my like shed. Then my 4th embryo failed
thawing and they pull it out of the freezer.
So season was my lucky lost. And she took, I did a whole new
protocol to fight off the natural killer cells like pretty
(24:38):
much just to just like neutralize them.
And she took and you know, it's funny looking back, it was
traumatic and it was sad and it was all the things that you
would expect it to be, right? But my partner and I hope we can
have three. We still only have one.
We're starting to try for a second.
I'm getting ready to do IVF again.
I have to fill a whole new roundbecause I have, I have no, no,
(25:01):
no embryos left. But my partner and I always say
we'd love to have three if we, if we could be blessed.
Like 1 is a blessing. We're the lucky ones.
We have our beautiful baby. There's so many women that are
still waiting for their baby, but we would have never had
five. So had all of my embryos worked,
I would have never met Susan. And she is the light of my life.
Yeah, to reflect on it like that, it's making me emotional
(25:23):
too. Yeah.
And I think you have to find those little, those little, you
know, like pockets of wisdom andhope because it can be a really
long, arduous, taxing, devastating experience
otherwise, you know? So it's helping me get ready to
do it again. But I'm also scared.
(25:43):
I'm scared because the first time, I didn't necessarily know
what I was losing. I didn't have a child.
So every time I lost a baby, I didn't.
Yeah, it was sad, but I didn't know what I was losing.
I know what I'm losing now, you know, So.
But it's not going to stop me. And I really want to bring
season along the journey I want.There is no shame in IVFI.
Want her to be part. I want her when that child is
(26:07):
conceived. But I'm lying on that bed and
someone's shoving something out my vagina.
I want her there. I want her to be part of that
because she's so intrigued. She's in that stage.
Beautiful little 3 year old. She just wants a little sibling.
She thinks she has a baby in herbelly.
Apparently I have strawberry milk coming out of my boob.
There's a baby in my belly and it kicks all the time
(26:28):
apparently. Like she's just in this
beautiful age and it's so maternal and it's just
beautiful. And I, I can't wait to give her.
I hope. I hope I can give her a sibling.
I'm nervous it might not be the same, you know, experience, but
I'm so excited and it took me a while to get here as well.
Ash, I know there are a lot of women that have a baby and
(26:48):
instantly like, yes, I can't wait for another that was not
me. I was traumatized by having a
first child and I really struggled but those first two
years because I think I put way too much.
There's so many factors there that I think that that I know I
will change this time that I think definitely aided my
feeling of longing and lack of identity.
(27:09):
And I was struggling to ship from ship from, you know, like
the maiden archetype to the mother archetype.
Now it feels so natural. I just lean into the chaos of
life now. But it took me a long time.
I didn't feel ready to have a second child until the beginning
of this year. So season was close to three and
there'll be a four year age gap if we can hopefully fall this
this year. And it all is perfect and
(27:30):
exactly as it's meant to be. But it took me a lot longer than
you know, Most of my friends whohad their first with me already
have their second. And that's, that's fine.
That just wasn't my journey. I'm glad that I've got into the
space of excitement. Actually.
I really want to share somethingI've wrote every year.
I tend to write myself a e-mail for six months later and I wrote
myself this e-mail New Year's Eve last year.
(27:53):
So 2024 season was in daycare and I was in this space.
I was really confused. I didn't know if I wanted a
second child. I felt really unsure, really
scared, sense of dread. And I sent it to myself.
I scheduled it to send 1st of July and I read it the other day
and I was like, I can't even relate to that version of myself
(28:13):
anymore. And I think it teaches you how
time can heal and change so muchif we disallow it.
Because now I, I feel so, so at peace.
Even though there's so much external things going on in my
life that I can't, I can't control at the moment.
I feel so at peace. I feel so aligned.
I feel so happy and I feel so excited.
So I'm glad I've waited to get to this point rather than
(28:34):
leaning into the expectations others have of me or society may
have of me as a woman. And I'm 33 and I should already
have three children. That's not my path and I'm OK
with that. I think this timeline that
society sets for us is a really tricky 1.
And I did an episode with a psychologist, Ali, recently
where we explored those timelines and how it is shifting
(28:56):
for so many women to be later inlife.
And me personally, I'm having myfirst baby at 36 and that feels
so aligned and so right for me. But if it was a few years ago, I
wasn't ready for a number of reasons.
And so I think just giving ourselves permission to live
based on our own timeline and what feels right is such a gift.
(29:17):
Yeah. I also love the e-mail to your
future self at the retreats thatthat we run.
We often write a letter to our future self, everyone at the
retreat, and then open it a few months later.
And the last one I did was on New Year's Eve as well.
And I had just found out I was pregnant.
Like the day we were driving to the retreat.
Yeah. And so I'm writing this letter
(29:39):
and I was like, I don't know if this baby is still going to be
around. Like, it's such early days and
yeah, wild, but to read, to readthat.
Have you read it? Yeah.
Yeah. We write them like in three
months, kind of like quarterly. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But such a good practice I thinkto do.
So much can change and I think it, it reminds you of it, it, it
(29:59):
stabilizes you in that notion oftime heals all, time heals all.
Because I remember that I didn'twant a second child.
That's how confused and heightened and sad I was the end
of last year to now. It's, it's completely different.
So time heals everything. And I think it's refreshing
(30:20):
sometimes to have that reminder.And I think that that practice
is that reminder for us. I think it's really important
that you're sharing online this journey that you're going
through with IVF. And so many friends of mine are
really high achieving women similar to you.
And they go through life thinking, OK.
And they, they have it as a proof that if I work harder at
(30:43):
my goals, I'll achieve them. And that plays out time and time
again. And then they choose to enter
this new season of motherhood. And it doesn't happen like we
were told in school of if you have sex, you will fall
pregnant. Like it is actually becoming
rarer and rarer that that is thetruth.
And so many women in my world, Iknow they're going through IVF,
but it's this taboo topic that they go through on their own or
(31:05):
with their partner. And I think it's so beautiful to
have a community of women aroundyou that are on that journey as
well or can make you feel seen and heard and like just be there
for you. And I think that support then
probably works in your favour because your your mental health
is suddenly feeling like loved and it's like that village
(31:26):
around. You.
Yeah. And I think sometimes it's as
simple as having someone hold your hand saying I also know
what this is like. And you're like, what?
Like I thought I was the only person going through this.
And I understand depending on your personality, this stuff can
be heavy loss of a children, infertility, miscarriages, IVF
(31:47):
can be parking heavy. And it is.
And it's not that I don't have my I, I you can see on my
Instagram, I'm and I'm not therecrying on Instagram.
I'm not that kind. I'll, you know, like I'll
happily cry on a podcast, though.
But you know, my if you look at my IVF, I have saved stories.
It is extremely vulnerable. I share my stomach when it was
cut open. I share my bruised, bloated
(32:09):
stomach. I share myself crying the most
ugly, you know, like the most ugly version of myself.
And I don't care because it's real.
It's real. And I always say to my community
on Instagram, I probably share alittle bit uniquely there, but
it needs to be real. I probably share more when I
(32:30):
look hideous and when I'm going through hard stuff than probably
when I more that I do when I speak to camera.
And that's like a positive thingbecause I don't want my life to
look aspirational. Yeah, I love my life.
I am so blessed. I've created everything.
I have my beautiful relationshipof 15 years, my healthy,
beautiful relationship with my family, my business, my very,
(32:52):
very close circle of friends. Everything has been a choice.
It wasn't just handed to me. Yeah, but it's hard.
Life is messy and it's really, really chaotic.
And it can be sad and confusing at times.
And I think like if one woman islooking at my Instagram
thinking, Oh my God, I don't even know her, but she's going
(33:12):
through the same thing that I am.
I am, you know, I'm going through the same thing.
And now my Instagram has actually become a community of
women who were going through in in fertility, IVF, some sort of
it. And it's that made it harder as
well, in all honesty, to share when I was struggling with, you
know, just having a child, it definitely made it harder
(33:33):
because I didn't want to seem that I was a woman that
struggled with infertility. And now I'm complaining about
having a child. So I shared probably a little
bit more mindfully there. And I still do.
I've been quite open about the fact that I think I had
postpartum depletion. Yeah.
But then once again, I'm in a completely new season of my life
now. And it feels beautiful.
And so I, I want the people of my social media to see me move
(33:56):
through that. You know, there's things I do I
choose not to share, like my partner, I've chosen now not to
share season's face anymore now that she's older, which feels
really good for me. Like there are sacred parts of
my life that I'm not willing to exploit for social media in
whatever way. So but I have found a really
nice balance and medium where I share very honestly.
(34:19):
But it's all of my stuff, right?It's all of my stuff because
that feels good and that feels really aligned.
For the woman that's listening that is going through fertility
challenges right now, what do you want to say to her?
I'm mindful that every woman is going to be at a different
stage, and I'm also mindful thatevery experience is relative.
But the one thing for me, for my, for my, the way that I
(34:43):
operate is having that sense of hope, never losing that sense of
hope. And that might seem completely
redundant to say to a woman who's had 20 rounds of IVF, all
that have failed and she's been struggling for five years.
That's a very, very different journey to my two year journey.
But it's that hope that got me, my child and so much medication,
(35:07):
so much medication, so many hormones.
And it was that hope that allowed me to still smile
throughout the day, you know, because this can consume you if
you let it consume you. And sure, when you're doing
around when you're doing a cycle, yeah, it's it is, it is
all consuming. You know, you can't help but
think I shouldn't need that. I shouldn't go there.
I shouldn't be out late. I shouldn't do this.
(35:28):
I was the most stressed with my cycle, like with my cycle of
seasons. I was so stressed.
I didn't feel that I was pregnant and I was I was
stressed. I was highly hormonal.
I wasn't sitting, you know, likemeditating in a in, in like a
fucking, you know, like Darden. I was stressed, I was sad and I
was stressed and I fell, I fell,I fell pregnant and I had the
(35:50):
most beautiful pregnancy and themost beautiful birth.
So it's that hope. It's that hope that I'm leaning
into the second time around. And it is that hope.
And season is just the epitome of that.
She is the epitome, even though I could never have imagined her
perfect little face, I knew it was her all along.
(36:10):
I knew what star sign I was having.
I was saying like for years I'm having, I'm having a Gemini
girl, Gemini girl. It's new and she is my little
Gemini girl. So that is what's going to get
us through the harder days. But like I said, saying that to
a woman that's gone through a different journey to me might
seem so annoying, but for me that is what got me through and
(36:32):
it's what is carrying me throughto do it again with the fear
that I don't know what the journey is going to look like
and I can't. Even though I fell with season
and like my protocol worked, I hope I, I hope it only will
again. And I'd rather lean in with that
energy because that is the energy that I am then conceiving
my child with. And my all of her DNA and cells
(36:54):
are being formed and created with that energy.
So I think not so much about me as well.
I think about the child that I'mtrying to create an internal
world for. Beautiful.
And for anyone who has a friend that is going through that
difficult journey, it can be tricky.
And I know personally when I fell pregnant, I actually found
(37:15):
it really hard to tell some friends that I knew was
struggling. What advice would you have for
us of how to just show up in a way that is not toxically
positive, but just like, how do we, how do we be there?
That's such a beautiful question, makes me want to cry.
I have a friend who is so beautiful and she just, she was
(37:39):
never afraid to sit in the sadness with me.
She didn't ask me too many questions.
I'm naturally a sharer. But if you have friends that
aren't, it's OK to check in. You know, because once again, we
have to own our own shit, right?Like it's OK to check in.
There are so many things that may trigger someone.
(38:00):
It's not up to us to try to navigate their shit.
The way that we can show up as afriend is to you obviously know
what what that friend's like andit's OK to say how are you
going? They might want to talk, but
they might not. Or maybe they don't want to
talk, but no one's asked them because everyone's scared to.
I think sometimes we feel like we're, we can, we're walking on
(38:20):
egg shells. Ask them how are you really
going? If they've just had a round and
they haven't, or they've just done a cycle and they haven't
told you that they're pregnant, just don't ask.
Just let her come to you and tell her.
That was the hardest thing that my friends were so good and
neither of them, neither of themhad children.
They didn't ask me. I told them that I was doing a
cycle and neither of them asked me.
They let me tell them, which wasa beautiful thing.
(38:44):
Don't ask too many questions if that's the way that your friend
is inclined. But also don't be afraid to say
how are you going? How are you going?
Because I think we want it. We we're too scared to ask that
question. And I think in terms of sharing
a pregnancy, that's hard on so many levels for you because you
want to be mindful of others andthat, you know, in all honesty,
(39:04):
there was so many times at the end of that second year when I
hadn't fallen yet. And I see so many.
I'm like, every second chick on the Gold Coast has a baby or is
pregnant, right? But once again, I like to take
accountability for how I show up.
It's no one else's problem that I'm struggling with infertility.
So yeah, sometimes it hurts, butI have so many friends around me
that have just had babies. 5 have been born in the past like
(39:26):
5 months and I think it's actually made me like fertile.
Like it's even though it's hard to hear, all of them fell
completely naturally, probably all within the space of one to
six months. And I couldn't be more happy for
them. And having their babies in my
arms is so healing and makes me so excited as well.
So I think it's important for usas women to take accountability
(39:49):
for how we show up and that we're not, you know, like
dumping our shit on someone elseas well, you know, because our
friends only want to be there for us.
And it's important that we're happy for them as well.
And it's OK to say I'm happy, but I'm sad too.
Yeah, that's OK. Yeah, I think the older I get,
the more comfortable I get holding to conflicting emotions
simultaneously about certain situations.
(40:10):
That's. Actually really, really
beautiful. Yeah, yeah.
Shifting gears a little bit, yeah.
The future, yeah. How do you see AI impacting your
business? What's exciting about it?
So many things are exciting, so many things are tempting as
well. I think it's going to shape the
(40:30):
way that we hire. In all honesty.
I think that's it's important for people to potentially
thinking about their skill set as well.
I naturally want to have a more personable touch to my business.
I'm not looking at replacing roles with AI because like at
this stage, because I want that human touch and I want that as
(40:52):
part of our culture. But I think it's an exciting
opportunity for people to think how can I get involved, How can
I get on board? It's definitely streamlined, a
lot of processes, one of them being our recruitment process.
It used to take us 4 hours to craft a role, you know, like
poster roll, find exactly what we need.
(41:12):
AI is now spitting that out within 30 minutes.
Something that is so unique and tailored to us.
It's really optimizing systems and I'm just excited to get on
board. I'm excited to kind of see the
ride, see the ride. I think it's going to make
certain skill sets redundant, which I think is important for
people to be thinking about. And it's not in the space of
scarcity, but like how can I grow here?
(41:33):
I think it's going to push a lotof people out of their comfort
zone. And I think that it's listening
to something the other day and Iwas saying it's the fastest
moving technology that we've ever experienced in like the
history of technology or something like that.
And it was. So it's exciting.
It's exciting to think about it.To be honest, it's still so over
my head. I have no idea.
Like there's so many things I could apply to jewelry.
(41:54):
You know, virtual reality is another one, like being able to
try on jewelry virtually. We've worked with a little bit
of that, but it's not to the standard that we need it to be.
So I think it's an exciting space and I feel excited because
I'm so ingrained in the world ofECOM and that is that is my
bread and butter. ECOM is my bread and butter.
It's been really fun to see it slowly drip feed its way through
(42:17):
Shopify. That's been really fun to see,
and starting to utilize some more of those tools has been
really exciting. You.
Just got to keep your finger on the pulse though.
Absolutely. And then what are some things on
your why sale bucket list for the future?
I would like to open up another store.
There's a really exciting precinct.
I'm going to say where, but I'vegot my eyes on.
(42:38):
Retail is hard though, and it's scary.
It's so different to online and it requires way more resources,
which is scary. There's that space.
We're also branching into some new product categories and some
new services, which is also really exciting and just seeing
the brand evolve, just seeing the brand evolve.
We are, we operate like a machine for a small brand.
(43:01):
You know, we've just had our beautiful marketing manager go
on mat leave and we've had a very highly experienced
temporary mat leave cover up step in.
And she is so, so incredible at her job.
And she's worked at some really,really, really, really, really
big companies, some also being jewelry brands.
And she gave us the feedback that we, we're a small business
where we operate like a large business.
And that was like the best feedback.
(43:23):
High five, Yeah, for our GM and myself and our whole senior
leadership team because we work really hard on that and
systemizing everything. So that was really good
feedback. Yeah.
Just keep evolving and growing as a brand and designing
beautiful jewellery that people want to wear.
Keep trying to get our price points lower, which is hard with
USD. And the price of gold has gone
up like like 50%. And then Sorella, we're
(43:45):
launching some new incredible lifestyle, lifestyle objects,
potentially going to try to do asplit Interstate residency with
both brands in the end of the year.
So, but I like to grow slowly aswell.
You know, I'm not always lookingfor the next big thing.
I'm just really happy with whereI am, constantly want to grow,
but in a very sustainable way, in a very slow scale way because
(44:09):
that feels right for me. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah. And then just considering that
the future is so unpredictable right now, what are you doing as
a mother to set season up for success for a future that none
of us can predict? What jobs or industries will
really exist when she's an adult?
I'm just leading by example. I'm talking to myself in a such
(44:32):
a loving way. I'm talking about my body in
such a loving way because in an unpredictable world, we need to
raise resilient and strong humans.
And we're not going to do that if we're if especially our
daughters are seeing mommy speakbadly about her body or speak
badly about the fact that she's getting older and she makes it
something to fear. So I'm leading by example
(44:55):
because if I'm raising a resilient woman like my mom
raised me, we can do anything. We can tackle anything, but I
need her to be confident in who she is.
And that starts with me and how I talk to myself and how I show
up for her. And also, when she sees me going
to work, I don't say things likeI go to work to make money.
(45:15):
I tell her first and foremost, mommy goes to work because she
loves it. She loves it, babe, you know,
and you, you're going to do something that you love.
So I don't want her to fear the notion of work either, you know,
because work will look different.
I don't always get it right, butthat's what I try to focus on.
Because they are just little versions of you.
(45:37):
When you have a daughter, they are little and they look up to
you with these big beautiful eyes and you see them take it
all in. You like you see it, you know,
And you're just like, fuck, likeyou don't want to do anything
wrong. But I try not to overanalyze
myself. I try not to over.
I know I'm leading with love andbuilding a loving relationship
with myself first and foremost. And she sees me take time for
(46:01):
myself. I'm not just available to her
24/7. I go and exercise twice a week.
That feels good for me. I go and see movies by myself.
I have, you know I have, I have a work from home day by myself
when she's in daycare. Like there's little things that
I've done to make sure that I can shop for the best in the
best way for her. And that's time to myself whilst
(46:23):
also being a very available mother being there.
So tuck her in every night and to wake her up every morning to
make her dinner every night. So yeah, I think it can be a
scary place if we try to think about what's coming.
But it excites me and I want herto be, I want her to have enough
self empowerment and you know, like curiosity to be able to
(46:45):
explore that and to show up in the mood of wonder instead of
the mood of fear. Yeah.
Final question for you. Yes.
I've had so much fun. Yeah, yeah, we'll do a Part 2.
The final question for today, if90 year old Fabian could give
you a piece of advice right now,what do you think she'd.
Say, I love that I think about this all the time, Ash, She
(47:09):
would say, and I think I'm speaking to all women here who
are listening, that you are the most beautiful, youthful version
of yourself that you will ever be.
So stop being hard on yourself. Stop wanting to change the way
you look. Stop analyzing every beautiful
line on your face because you'vesmiled at your child to a
(47:30):
partner or your mom or your friend because she's looking
back the 90 year old version of yourself amid all the chaos and
all the tiredness and fatigue and stress, she's looking back
and wishing she would get that exact same day that you're
living right now. She's hoping she could go back
there. So stop being so hard on
(47:51):
yourself because we're never going to be this youthful and
young. But it's going to get hotter
though, Like it's just going to happen, right?
Of course. But you know, we're, you know,
we're never going to be this able in our body.
So don't spend the time wishing how you look now away.
I see it, it's everywhere. It's exhausting.
(48:12):
It's sad because there will be atime when they are the 90 year
old versions of themselves thinking.
I wasted so much time thinking about the shit that wasn't even
important. Yeah.
Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Oh. It's been so fun to have you
here. It's.
Been a very long time coming. Yeah, and I'm going to link in
the show notes to all your brands, your personal social
(48:33):
media, all the good stuff. But Fabian, thank you.
Thank you, Ash.
Hello and welcome back to Reset.I'm your host, Ash Cam, and
today we are going to be discussing some of my absolute
favorite topics. We are talking entrepreneurship,
business, motherhood, social media, showing up online and the
future. And to do this, I have a friend
of mine, Fabian in the studio. She's the founder of YCL
Jewellery and an entrepreneurialrole model for so many women.
(00:25):
Welcome to Reset. Thank you.
Really just here here for that beautiful intro Thank.
You, I got you. Tell me.
You juggle so many different hats between business,
motherhood, I know you're on a board, all these things.
But if the current season of your life had a title, what
would it be? A line?
(00:45):
Yeah, that's my word for the year, and I've spoken about it
quite a bit on my Instagram. Every year I tend to have a
word, but this year has never felt more aligned with my word,
which is a line. So that's how I would describe
my current season. Beautiful.
And I know a lot of people are probably familiar with your
jewelry range. I know you're wearing it right
now looking stunning. But for anyone that hasn't heard
(01:09):
of my sale before, can you just explain who it's for, the
background? Tell us about it.
YCL is a very feminine, very wearable jewelry jewelry label.
We like to think that we're accessible luxury.
So you can find a myriad of designs and styles and
(01:30):
categories all designed in houseby myself and our beautiful
general manager. And you will find a range of
price points as well as we really believe that jewelry
should be accessible at a very high quality as well.
That's something that we really pride ourselves on, even down to
the color of the gold. It's something that I've
personally been honing in on forlike the past eight to nine
(01:54):
years that I wanted the perfect blend between yellow and rose
gold. Our gold color is quite a unique
color of gold. I think sometimes people don't
know that we design everything in house and it's something that
is very intentional. It's such a considered process
from start to finish and it's something that we really, really
enjoy. We're a very small, high impact
(02:15):
team so. Yeah, and you're not only
online, you've got physical stores now too.
Yeah. We do.
That's been a whole new world toto start to explore.
It's been really, really great. So we have our showroom here in
Burleigh Heads and we also have a store in Pacific Fair, which
is really exciting. Yeah, it must be so nice to kind
of you started online and then to finally have a space that you
(02:36):
can kind of bring your customersto and immerse them in your
world. Yeah, I think that it's it's,
it's been beautiful because we kind of coincided the launch of
our showroom with the relaunch of our branding, which we're
very known for now, that beautiful dark wine hue.
And that was a really scary stepfor us, especially me as the
founder, even though that has always been the colour that
(02:58):
I've, I just gravitated towards going from a very safe, you
know, like color palette of justlike my whites and my beiges to
a deep hue was really scary. But it's been incredibly
impactful for the brand. And I think it's made, it's made
the brand extremely memorable aswell, which I just don't think
that we had that space in the market prior to the rebrand.
(03:18):
Yeah, and you're also Co founderof a a new brand, we'll call it
a baby brand. It's just started, Sorella, with
a friend of yours, Georgia. Tell me a little bit about the
business, but then also everyonesays don't miss mix friends and
family business. Like how are you girls
navigating that? Yeah.
Which I completely agree with. So Georgia not only is a friend,
(03:41):
but she's also also the general manager and the the creative
director of YCL. So we've been working on and off
together for nearly eight years now.
And we're honestly the Ying to each other's Yang.
We are could not be more opposite and I think that that
is what has made and blossomed such a beautiful friendship.
And I think early on we really knew that we had this unique way
(04:03):
of working. And when me and her worked side
by side, we just became this force to be reckoned with.
So I was thinking about ways that I could extend this in ways
that I could tap in into something else.
And so I pitched the idea for her and I to start a business
and we didn't know what that looks like, but I just wanted to
do it by her side. And I felt honoured that I could
(04:25):
be by her side and doing it withher and working alongside of
her. I learned from her every single
day and she makes me a better leader, designer and it's, it's
incredible. So I feel very honoured.
We have very open communication.That is how it works.
(04:45):
Nothing is off the table. Me and her have the most
difficult conversations but we leave so much better for it and
even you know if it's hard to hear in the moment, it's
something that is just not a negotiable within our within our
relationship. Obviously, we work side by side
with YCL. She's very much pioneered or so
(05:05):
much of so much of the growth that YSL has had.
We already knew what it was liketo work side by side.
And as a founder who hires thesepeople who are experts in their
field, I need to let go of thosereigns to get the best out of my
team. So I had to learn very early on
to let she do what she does best.
So that kind of is where it all started.
(05:26):
And look, I'm not going to say it doesn't come, you know, like
without its without its challenges.
But I think the biggest issue sometimes is probably ego and
lack of communication and G and I don't have either of those
when it comes to the way that wework together.
So it works it it works well andI'm super grateful.
Oh my goodness. It sounds like you both put in
the effort to keep that relationship strong, but there's
also an element of luck there that you found each other.
(05:48):
I know honestly because I would not.
I've hired family once. I would, I never hire a family
again. And as much as I have friends
that are like, I'd love to come to work for, work for, you know,
work for YCL, I'm just like, no,like I just have that boundary
because it's very hard. Early on, I became friends with
all of my staff and it made things extremely difficult.
It made, you know, the growth ofthe business really, really,
(06:12):
really, really challenging as well because obviously going
from a team of two to a team of 10, the structure of the day is
very, very, very different. When I had only one staff or two
staff members, we used to close the studio for lunch.
There's no way we could do that.Now we have hundreds of orders
to ship. You know, we have shit that we
got to do. So I really grappled with that
in those early days. Whereas when I really aligned
(06:32):
the purpose and the vision I have with the business as well
in line with with the culture that I want to cultivate, I was
able to kind of stop singing my team as my children.
So, but still, I have quite a few of my staff are extremely
close friends as well and we're lucky that it works, but I have
seen the other side of that as well because it can get taken
(06:56):
advantage of on, you know, on both sides, not just from the
employer's side, but also the employee's side.
So yeah, I think it's something that's challenging to navigate,
especially with YCL being a 12 year old brand.
We've grown so much in that space and it's been such a slow
slog, you know? So these changes have been,
they've been really eye opening.You, you learn a lot.
(07:18):
You know, I say that owning a business is like holding a
mirror up to yourself. I always say this to my team
because you have to be able to look at yourself and constantly
be able to change, constantly able to take feedback on from
your team, lead by example. And you have to be able to adapt
and pivot because things change.But you constantly feel like,
you know, you just grow a limb and then it gets, then it gets
(07:38):
cut off, then you like regrow the limb again, then it gets cut
off and you just get used to it again.
So it's like this constant evolution.
But I always say like, I wouldn't be who I am without
this journey that I've had because it's matured me so much
faster probably than what I would have would have matured.
It brings you right back down toearth.
Yeah, tell me, tell me. We've kind of covered a couple
(07:59):
just then, but if you could go back and teach your younger self
2 lessons about business when she was starting at, what would
you teach her? Definitely understand your
numbers first. This is still not something that
I'm great at, even though I'm inthe PNL often and I understand
my daily ECOM data like I'm like, I know that, you know,
(08:20):
just, so just like back to front, I look at AP and L and
I'm like, what the fuck is goingon?
Like numbers don't really, I don't really, I'm not highly
analytical. I'm extremely practical early on
without cash flow. Obviously I started making
insane amounts of money when I was 24.
So that's a big, really, really,really, really, really big
(08:41):
adjustment. And that was before I, I was
still a sole trader. So the profit of the business
one year was $180,000 when I was24, so that was nine years ago
now. So I made $180,000 as a 24 year
old, which is that is that is extreme pressure and you have to
(09:01):
be highly mature about how you manage your money when you're
that young. I also then had to have AI had a
$60,000 tax bill and $20,000 of Hecs that I had to pay off like
that. So that quickly brought me back
down to earth on understanding my figures, saving for tax, and
now I have multiple tax savings accounts.
I have tax for, I have my boss, I have my tax, I have my PAYGI,
(09:24):
have my soup. I have so many accounts it's
absolutely ridiculous. But this helps keep me
accountable because you know, you, you have wages to pay and
that's a really, that's a huge responsibility that I don't take
lightly. So that would be #1 learning my
figures earlier on, because I probably overspent in areas like
photo shoots and collections that didn't sell.
(09:45):
I didn't understand my data thatthat would, that would be my
second understand your data. I never knew to look at, OK, I
need to, I need to release a newcollection.
What is selling? Let me look up what's selling.
I never, it seems so simple, butI never knew that.
So now every design decision we make in the business is so
data-driven. It is insane.
(10:07):
We look and we have 12 years of historical data.
So we're really lucky there. We have this incredible pool of
data we can pull from that is completely invaluable to us.
And as as a designer, I'm not designing what I want.
I'm so blessed that SIM is just a dream.
I love her. She's my, she's my little, she's
my little creative outlet SIM. But otherwise, I'm designing for
(10:28):
mass market, for a commercial space, which is sometimes hard
for an artistic person to step into.
So I had to learn. I had to learn how to actually
design things. What's the point of being a
designer if no one is actually going to buy your shit, right?
So that would be #2 understand your data.
Yeah, which are both like on theoutside, it's like, oh, she runs
(10:50):
a fashion brand. It's jewellery, It's fun, it's
fun, it's glamorous. But yeah, I feel like behind
every business, it's the numbersand the data that really will
make or break you. Yeah, if it's.
What you know I was able able topush the needle forward.
Yeah. And then also afford you more
opportunities to do more of the creative and the design and keep
growing. Definitely.
Yeah. Was there a moment when you sort
(11:12):
of like, those pinched me yourself kind of moments like,
whoa, I've made it? So many.
Yeah, so many. Yeah.
Makes me cry. I always cry in podcast
interviews, just so you know, highly emotional.
And I'm completely fine with it.The first person to get these
couches, it's OK. So many.
(11:32):
I don't know why I am due for myperiod.
It's like coming any day. It's probably starting actually
on this white couch, which is great.
The day that we first got our 12orders, we got 12 orders in one
day. That was fucking huge.
That was insane. I bought myself a really nice
Land Land Rover when I was 24. That felt really, really good,
(11:54):
my dream car. And I felt like such a boss in
that car. And it's funny now I don't even
care. It's so funny how you change as
you get older. But I was 24.
But I saw this beautiful car that was incredible.
My mum probably first seeing like this the success because
she supported me so much. I was, I just just about to
(12:14):
graduate a Bachelor of nursing and I had two subjects left and
I told her mum I'm quitting my degree to start a jewelry brand
and she's like, what the fuck bad.
Like I had no experience. I'd made some jewelry here, all
there. My beautiful mother supported me
and she was okay. Like, I support you, Fabian.
(12:35):
OK, But like, can you just finish your degree?
No, Mama, I can't. I'm 21 and reckless.
I can't reach my degree. I have to focus everything on
this. So that was a moment buying my
first commercial space, but evensigning my first lease when I
was 2524. So many and it's it.
It's crazy as you get older, I've never had more
(12:57):
responsibility and more weight because the business has grown
so much. Yet I am the least stressed I've
ever been within my business andI probably need to as much as
it's funny, I was listening to something and I were talking
about when an, an entrepreneur kind of stays like this, we stay
really, really steady. We don't shift if things are
(13:19):
good and we don't shift if things are bad.
And that's me now. And it probably means that I
probably need to celebrate more because I'm because I don't
celebrate as much, but I'm not really fazed either way.
Nothing can really shake me from.
I've been through it all. I've been through nearly losing
the business. I've been through making so much
money. I've been through making no
money. I've been through so many things
that shape you as a person and as a business owner that now
(13:43):
honestly, I stay like this. Like, I'm excited and I'm happy,
but I used to become elated or completely, completely, like
better ridden. Like it would be either one or
right now it's not. So I think that, but it's,
you've just reminded me. Like I still got excited about
things, but I think it's nice tojust celebrate those moments.
(14:03):
So I can probably think of more that were really, you know, like
etched into my mind early on andnot so much now.
So yeah. OK, I'll check in with you in a
few weeks maybe. Like, hey, what do we celebrate?
Yes, yes, you've spoken about your mom.
Yeah. You're also a mother now.
How has becoming a mum changed the way you approach business
and leadership in life? My team would say that I am way
(14:30):
less controlling and way less heightened.
So I am one of those women that became more relaxed when I had a
had a kid, which was good for mebecause I'm very, very Taipei.
I love to be able to control my environment and what that looks
like. So that's great because I think
that that shifts into motherhood.
I'm a very relaxed mother, probably too much so, whereas my
(14:52):
partner's the kind of hyper vigilant you.
Need. You need a bit of both.
Yeah, we have. We have a bit of both.
So I he would probably say I'm too relaxed with her sometimes.
But it works and it keeps me really grounded and it makes
sure that I'm showing up in the best way for her.
I'm definitely a lot more nurturing now as well.
I thought I was patient. Becoming a mother showed me that
(15:14):
I'm not, especially with a three-year old toddler that
tests you in every single way, but I think work as well,
probably prior to giving birth to season.
I very much identified with that.
But there's nothing wrong with that.
That consumed me for, you know, like the over the over the last
decade of my life and it's givenme so many opportunities that
(15:34):
now I can be the present mother that I am that my mother could
never because she was a single mom working full time job and
there's no one else to look after us.
So yeah, I would say now I approach everything through a
different lens. I approach it through a slower
lens. And that's definitely something
that I'm focusing more on this year.
I went back to work with season after three weeks, which was
(15:56):
just traumatizing in so many ways.
And it was just my ego and my FOMO that made me go back to
work. Even though I'm extremely
strategic. I put everyone in place that
needed to be there for the business to thrive and for me to
not be there, and I didn't afford myself that time and
space. I'm blessed that my partner was
able to take eight months off, so he was there.
(16:17):
So I was still able to breastfeed.
I was still able to do things that I wanted to do, but I was
putting this extra pressure on myself and I don't necessarily
feel that anymore. I don't feel that pressure that
I think potentially some women that have a career prior and
then have a baby and also especially if they own their own
business. I don't feel that I love what I
(16:39):
do more than ever and I feel more aligned with and with with
my purpose. But right now my season is
season. I just want to focus on her and
I want to spend time with her. And I'm blessed that I can still
pay myself a full time wage because I've created this
incredible business and I can work the hours that work for me.
So I was actually talking to a friend, beautiful, beautiful
(17:01):
friend, Lauren the other day. She owns our recruitment agency.
I think the thing that you know her and I was really inspired by
how she has been able to carve out time for her child and for
her work, and it looks really, really, really, really
different. She works at night, but that's
what works for her because she has to spend the whole day with
(17:24):
her beautiful baby. So that actually has completely
shifted my mentality. I never used to work at night
and now I am. So I can take season out in the
morning and I can do things and the team always knows that I'm
I'm I'm available. But my contact hours just look a
little bit different. And I think for so long, I
always think that I need to leadby example, like if I need to be
(17:46):
the first one there every singleday.
And that's just what I'm like after 12 years of running,
running my business and some of my team have been with me for
close to 8 years. They know how I work.
They know that they can rely on me.
And it's time that I've I affordmyself and allow myself that
space and to reap the rewards ofall the sacrifices I've made
(18:07):
over these years so I can be with be with my daughter.
Yeah, going back after three weeks, I I think previous me
would have done the same. But I've been trying really hard
to listen and learn and absorb from people like yourself.
Just like OK, if I could do thatagain, maybe it would be
slightly differently. Completely like completely
(18:29):
different. I will not do that for the next
baby. I lost time with season and I'm
never getting back, you know, and not even like physical time.
She was with me every single day.
It's more spiritual and emotional time.
I wasn't present all the time and you can't be.
And as a mother, I'm not going to buy into the mother's Guild
(18:49):
that we all should feel. But fuck like you do, like you
do you want to be the best mother to your child.
And that looks different for everyone.
But I've learned that they grow so fast and every mother tells
you and you're like, shut up. But it's true.
They grow so fast. And I'm so glad that I've come
to the realization. You know, I came to the
realization probably which she just before she turned 3.
(19:11):
So I feel like I can make it up right.
And I and I know I'm there for her in in so many ways, so many
ways. And it looks different every
single day is different. But I will take a good chunk of
time off next time. Yeah, sure.
I'll still probably, you know, pop into the photo shoots and
I'll still be designing away because we are running a 2 two
person design team. But I'm not going to place the
(19:33):
expectation that I need to be there for all the meetings or I
need to understand everything that's going on in the business.
I need to place trust in the people that I've hired because
they're so incredible at their role.
And by me giving them reins, it actually shows them I can see
the potential, but sometimes they can't even see it.
Giving them the reins and allowing them to fail and
(19:54):
allowing them to thrive. Giving them space to do both
because both are going to happenand they need to know that
you're there for either either or.
They find this new capacity within themselves and this new
sense of empowerment. It only makes them want to do
better. It only makes them upskill,
thrive in their role and be happy.
And that's what you want in yourteam.
(20:15):
You want them to find a role in a company that they feel like
they can really add value and they can thrive and they can
grow with, you know, with the brand.
And that is our team. They're just incredible and I'm
good at finding people, you know, so I need to let them do
what they're good at so I can step back and have that time
with my daughter. Yeah, which is such a gift as a
(20:38):
leader, and it's uncomfortable for so many of us, right?
But like, as you said, that is the best way to let them grow
and thrive and just really take the business to a level that
maybe will surprise you as well.You're just like, sit back and
be like, work your magic, guys. I trust you.
Yeah. And I.
Think it's, you know, we have our very niched skill sets as as
(21:02):
business owners, we can't do it all and we're not good at
everything. I am very, my skill set is
extremely niched and I have hired in areas where people have
skills that I do not have and have experience that I don't
have to enable us to get to the place I want to with the
business. And I don't even know what that
is. But just the way that YSL has
(21:23):
grown over the past three years has been so incredible to watch.
And I couldn't even have imagined what she what she is
now as a business and a brand. Exciting.
It is exciting. It is exciting.
Social media. It's one of those kind of love,
hey, messy, messy conversations,but I feel like everyone now
(21:47):
wants to know who's behind a brand and you show up online
quite vulnerably and share. I'm sure there's different
things that you intentionally doand don't share, but something
you've been sharing a lot about lately is your fertility
journey. Can you talk to us a little bit
about that? Yeah, I felt cold to share that.
So I started doing Ivy. I started trying naturally for
(22:09):
my daughter's season in when I was 2827, the year I turned 28.
So at the end of 2019, we started trying and then after a
year of not falling, we decided to do to do IVF.
Never. I knew no one in in my life that
had done IVF like everyone around me.
(22:30):
Not that I had many friends thathad children then, but the
friends that I did fell pregnant, you know, easily,
probably for one or two times and, you know, after trying one,
one or two times. So I was like, oh, like it's
gonna be fine. Yeah, we'll just pull then.
Obviously, when the IVF conversation came up, I looked
online and it was only one of the owners of Sabo Skirt that
(22:50):
was talking about it. I could not find anything
online. It was only this particular
woman that shared her journey from start start to finish.
And I was so thank, I'm so thankful and she would never
know this, but I am so thankful for the videos that she shared
because I watched them religiously.
The thought of having to inject myself with needles and like
look like, like I used to be a nurse.
(23:12):
I'm not, I'm, you know, that is not, it's not necessarily that
like it, you know, I've, I've seen all these different things
I've gone through so much as I as a nurse, but I think it's
such a vulnerable, sensitive area.
And I was like, what do you mean?
I have to inject and then I havesurgery and then what they put
something up me like what? Like I had no concept of it.
So it, it inspired me to share. And I think since going through
(23:34):
that. So we had three failed rounds
with season, like obviously not with season, but my, my first
IVF round of IVF, I got 5 embryos.
The first 3 failed. Then I had a laparoscopy, found
out that I had silent endo all over my pelvis.
I have no endosymptoms. So that was, yeah, that was
wild. And then I have really high
natural killer cells all throughmy uterus.
(23:56):
So we have high, we have naturalkiller cells all in our body.
It helps us fight off, you know,like illness and any, any kind
of disease. I have an abnormally high amount
in my uterus. Every time either my partner and
I were falling potentially naturally, my body was shedding
it because it was seeing it as something that it should attack.
And that what was that? That's what was happening with
all the embryos that were being implanted.
(24:18):
So my body was fighting them offand you know, just like
essentially, you know, just likeattacking it before and then it
would shed out of my like shed. Then my 4th embryo failed
thawing and they pull it out of the freezer.
So season was my lucky lost. And she took, I did a whole new
protocol to fight off the natural killer cells like pretty
(24:38):
much just to just like neutralize them.
And she took and you know, it's funny looking back, it was
traumatic and it was sad and it was all the things that you
would expect it to be, right? But my partner and I hope we can
have three. We still only have one.
We're starting to try for a second.
I'm getting ready to do IVF again.
I have to fill a whole new roundbecause I have, I have no, no,
(25:01):
no embryos left. But my partner and I always say
we'd love to have three if we, if we could be blessed.
Like 1 is a blessing. We're the lucky ones.
We have our beautiful baby. There's so many women that are
still waiting for their baby, but we would have never had
five. So had all of my embryos worked,
I would have never met Susan. And she is the light of my life.
Yeah, to reflect on it like that, it's making me emotional
(25:23):
too. Yeah.
And I think you have to find those little, those little, you
know, like pockets of wisdom andhope because it can be a really
long, arduous, taxing, devastating experience
otherwise, you know? So it's helping me get ready to
do it again. But I'm also scared.
(25:43):
I'm scared because the first time, I didn't necessarily know
what I was losing. I didn't have a child.
So every time I lost a baby, I didn't.
Yeah, it was sad, but I didn't know what I was losing.
I know what I'm losing now, you know, So.
But it's not going to stop me. And I really want to bring
season along the journey I want.There is no shame in IVFI.
Want her to be part. I want her when that child is
(26:07):
conceived. But I'm lying on that bed and
someone's shoving something out my vagina.
I want her there. I want her to be part of that
because she's so intrigued. She's in that stage.
Beautiful little 3 year old. She just wants a little sibling.
She thinks she has a baby in herbelly.
Apparently I have strawberry milk coming out of my boob.
There's a baby in my belly and it kicks all the time
(26:28):
apparently. Like she's just in this
beautiful age and it's so maternal and it's just
beautiful. And I, I can't wait to give her.
I hope. I hope I can give her a sibling.
I'm nervous it might not be the same, you know, experience, but
I'm so excited and it took me a while to get here as well.
Ash, I know there are a lot of women that have a baby and
(26:48):
instantly like, yes, I can't wait for another that was not
me. I was traumatized by having a
first child and I really struggled but those first two
years because I think I put way too much.
There's so many factors there that I think that that I know I
will change this time that I think definitely aided my
feeling of longing and lack of identity.
(27:09):
And I was struggling to ship from ship from, you know, like
the maiden archetype to the mother archetype.
Now it feels so natural. I just lean into the chaos of
life now. But it took me a long time.
I didn't feel ready to have a second child until the beginning
of this year. So season was close to three and
there'll be a four year age gap if we can hopefully fall this
this year. And it all is perfect and
(27:30):
exactly as it's meant to be. But it took me a lot longer than
you know, Most of my friends whohad their first with me already
have their second. And that's, that's fine.
That just wasn't my journey. I'm glad that I've got into the
space of excitement. Actually.
I really want to share somethingI've wrote every year.
I tend to write myself a e-mail for six months later and I wrote
myself this e-mail New Year's Eve last year.
(27:53):
So 2024 season was in daycare and I was in this space.
I was really confused. I didn't know if I wanted a
second child. I felt really unsure, really
scared, sense of dread. And I sent it to myself.
I scheduled it to send 1st of July and I read it the other day
and I was like, I can't even relate to that version of myself
(28:13):
anymore. And I think it teaches you how
time can heal and change so muchif we disallow it.
Because now I, I feel so, so at peace.
Even though there's so much external things going on in my
life that I can't, I can't control at the moment.
I feel so at peace. I feel so aligned.
I feel so happy and I feel so excited.
So I'm glad I've waited to get to this point rather than
(28:34):
leaning into the expectations others have of me or society may
have of me as a woman. And I'm 33 and I should already
have three children. That's not my path and I'm OK
with that. I think this timeline that
society sets for us is a really tricky 1.
And I did an episode with a psychologist, Ali, recently
where we explored those timelines and how it is shifting
(28:56):
for so many women to be later inlife.
And me personally, I'm having myfirst baby at 36 and that feels
so aligned and so right for me. But if it was a few years ago, I
wasn't ready for a number of reasons.
And so I think just giving ourselves permission to live
based on our own timeline and what feels right is such a gift.
(29:17):
Yeah. I also love the e-mail to your
future self at the retreats thatthat we run.
We often write a letter to our future self, everyone at the
retreat, and then open it a few months later.
And the last one I did was on New Year's Eve as well.
And I had just found out I was pregnant.
Like the day we were driving to the retreat.
Yeah. And so I'm writing this letter
(29:39):
and I was like, I don't know if this baby is still going to be
around. Like, it's such early days and
yeah, wild, but to read, to readthat.
Have you read it? Yeah.
Yeah. We write them like in three
months, kind of like quarterly. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But such a good practice I thinkto do.
So much can change and I think it, it reminds you of it, it, it
(29:59):
stabilizes you in that notion oftime heals all, time heals all.
Because I remember that I didn'twant a second child.
That's how confused and heightened and sad I was the end
of last year to now. It's, it's completely different.
So time heals everything. And I think it's refreshing
(30:20):
sometimes to have that reminder.And I think that that practice
is that reminder for us. I think it's really important
that you're sharing online this journey that you're going
through with IVF. And so many friends of mine are
really high achieving women similar to you.
And they go through life thinking, OK.
And they, they have it as a proof that if I work harder at
(30:43):
my goals, I'll achieve them. And that plays out time and time
again. And then they choose to enter
this new season of motherhood. And it doesn't happen like we
were told in school of if you have sex, you will fall
pregnant. Like it is actually becoming
rarer and rarer that that is thetruth.
And so many women in my world, Iknow they're going through IVF,
but it's this taboo topic that they go through on their own or
(31:05):
with their partner. And I think it's so beautiful to
have a community of women aroundyou that are on that journey as
well or can make you feel seen and heard and like just be there
for you. And I think that support then
probably works in your favour because your your mental health
is suddenly feeling like loved and it's like that village
(31:26):
around. You.
Yeah. And I think sometimes it's as
simple as having someone hold your hand saying I also know
what this is like. And you're like, what?
Like I thought I was the only person going through this.
And I understand depending on your personality, this stuff can
be heavy loss of a children, infertility, miscarriages, IVF
(31:47):
can be parking heavy. And it is.
And it's not that I don't have my I, I you can see on my
Instagram, I'm and I'm not therecrying on Instagram.
I'm not that kind. I'll, you know, like I'll
happily cry on a podcast, though.
But you know, my if you look at my IVF, I have saved stories.
It is extremely vulnerable. I share my stomach when it was
cut open. I share my bruised, bloated
(32:09):
stomach. I share myself crying the most
ugly, you know, like the most ugly version of myself.
And I don't care because it's real.
It's real. And I always say to my community
on Instagram, I probably share alittle bit uniquely there, but
it needs to be real. I probably share more when I
(32:30):
look hideous and when I'm going through hard stuff than probably
when I more that I do when I speak to camera.
And that's like a positive thingbecause I don't want my life to
look aspirational. Yeah, I love my life.
I am so blessed. I've created everything.
I have my beautiful relationshipof 15 years, my healthy,
beautiful relationship with my family, my business, my very,
(32:52):
very close circle of friends. Everything has been a choice.
It wasn't just handed to me. Yeah, but it's hard.
Life is messy and it's really, really chaotic.
And it can be sad and confusing at times.
And I think like if one woman islooking at my Instagram
thinking, Oh my God, I don't even know her, but she's going
(33:12):
through the same thing that I am.
I am, you know, I'm going through the same thing.
And now my Instagram has actually become a community of
women who were going through in in fertility, IVF, some sort of
it. And it's that made it harder as
well, in all honesty, to share when I was struggling with, you
know, just having a child, it definitely made it harder
(33:33):
because I didn't want to seem that I was a woman that
struggled with infertility. And now I'm complaining about
having a child. So I shared probably a little
bit more mindfully there. And I still do.
I've been quite open about the fact that I think I had
postpartum depletion. Yeah.
But then once again, I'm in a completely new season of my life
now. And it feels beautiful.
And so I, I want the people of my social media to see me move
(33:56):
through that. You know, there's things I do I
choose not to share, like my partner, I've chosen now not to
share season's face anymore now that she's older, which feels
really good for me. Like there are sacred parts of
my life that I'm not willing to exploit for social media in
whatever way. So but I have found a really
nice balance and medium where I share very honestly.
(34:19):
But it's all of my stuff, right?It's all of my stuff because
that feels good and that feels really aligned.
For the woman that's listening that is going through fertility
challenges right now, what do you want to say to her?
I'm mindful that every woman is going to be at a different
stage, and I'm also mindful thatevery experience is relative.
But the one thing for me, for my, for my, the way that I
(34:43):
operate is having that sense of hope, never losing that sense of
hope. And that might seem completely
redundant to say to a woman who's had 20 rounds of IVF, all
that have failed and she's been struggling for five years.
That's a very, very different journey to my two year journey.
But it's that hope that got me, my child and so much medication,
(35:07):
so much medication, so many hormones.
And it was that hope that allowed me to still smile
throughout the day, you know, because this can consume you if
you let it consume you. And sure, when you're doing
around when you're doing a cycle, yeah, it's it is, it is
all consuming. You know, you can't help but
think I shouldn't need that. I shouldn't go there.
I shouldn't be out late. I shouldn't do this.
(35:28):
I was the most stressed with my cycle, like with my cycle of
seasons. I was so stressed.
I didn't feel that I was pregnant and I was I was
stressed. I was highly hormonal.
I wasn't sitting, you know, likemeditating in a in, in like a
fucking, you know, like Darden. I was stressed, I was sad and I
was stressed and I fell, I fell,I fell pregnant and I had the
(35:50):
most beautiful pregnancy and themost beautiful birth.
So it's that hope. It's that hope that I'm leaning
into the second time around. And it is that hope.
And season is just the epitome of that.
She is the epitome, even though I could never have imagined her
perfect little face, I knew it was her all along.
(36:10):
I knew what star sign I was having.
I was saying like for years I'm having, I'm having a Gemini
girl, Gemini girl. It's new and she is my little
Gemini girl. So that is what's going to get
us through the harder days. But like I said, saying that to
a woman that's gone through a different journey to me might
seem so annoying, but for me that is what got me through and
(36:32):
it's what is carrying me throughto do it again with the fear
that I don't know what the journey is going to look like
and I can't. Even though I fell with season
and like my protocol worked, I hope I, I hope it only will
again. And I'd rather lean in with that
energy because that is the energy that I am then conceiving
my child with. And my all of her DNA and cells
(36:54):
are being formed and created with that energy.
So I think not so much about me as well.
I think about the child that I'mtrying to create an internal
world for. Beautiful.
And for anyone who has a friend that is going through that
difficult journey, it can be tricky.
And I know personally when I fell pregnant, I actually found
(37:15):
it really hard to tell some friends that I knew was
struggling. What advice would you have for
us of how to just show up in a way that is not toxically
positive, but just like, how do we, how do we be there?
That's such a beautiful question, makes me want to cry.
I have a friend who is so beautiful and she just, she was
(37:39):
never afraid to sit in the sadness with me.
She didn't ask me too many questions.
I'm naturally a sharer. But if you have friends that
aren't, it's OK to check in. You know, because once again, we
have to own our own shit, right?Like it's OK to check in.
There are so many things that may trigger someone.
(38:00):
It's not up to us to try to navigate their shit.
The way that we can show up as afriend is to you obviously know
what what that friend's like andit's OK to say how are you
going? They might want to talk, but
they might not. Or maybe they don't want to
talk, but no one's asked them because everyone's scared to.
I think sometimes we feel like we're, we can, we're walking on
(38:20):
egg shells. Ask them how are you really
going? If they've just had a round and
they haven't, or they've just done a cycle and they haven't
told you that they're pregnant, just don't ask.
Just let her come to you and tell her.
That was the hardest thing that my friends were so good and
neither of them, neither of themhad children.
They didn't ask me. I told them that I was doing a
cycle and neither of them asked me.
They let me tell them, which wasa beautiful thing.
(38:44):
Don't ask too many questions if that's the way that your friend
is inclined. But also don't be afraid to say
how are you going? How are you going?
Because I think we want it. We we're too scared to ask that
question. And I think in terms of sharing
a pregnancy, that's hard on so many levels for you because you
want to be mindful of others andthat, you know, in all honesty,
(39:04):
there was so many times at the end of that second year when I
hadn't fallen yet. And I see so many.
I'm like, every second chick on the Gold Coast has a baby or is
pregnant, right? But once again, I like to take
accountability for how I show up.
It's no one else's problem that I'm struggling with infertility.
So yeah, sometimes it hurts, butI have so many friends around me
that have just had babies. 5 have been born in the past like
(39:26):
5 months and I think it's actually made me like fertile.
Like it's even though it's hard to hear, all of them fell
completely naturally, probably all within the space of one to
six months. And I couldn't be more happy for
them. And having their babies in my
arms is so healing and makes me so excited as well.
So I think it's important for usas women to take accountability
(39:49):
for how we show up and that we're not, you know, like
dumping our shit on someone elseas well, you know, because our
friends only want to be there for us.
And it's important that we're happy for them as well.
And it's OK to say I'm happy, but I'm sad too.
Yeah, that's OK. Yeah, I think the older I get,
the more comfortable I get holding to conflicting emotions
simultaneously about certain situations.
(40:10):
That's. Actually really, really
beautiful. Yeah, yeah.
Shifting gears a little bit, yeah.
The future, yeah. How do you see AI impacting your
business? What's exciting about it?
So many things are exciting, so many things are tempting as
well. I think it's going to shape the
(40:30):
way that we hire. In all honesty.
I think that's it's important for people to potentially
thinking about their skill set as well.
I naturally want to have a more personable touch to my business.
I'm not looking at replacing roles with AI because like at
this stage, because I want that human touch and I want that as
(40:52):
part of our culture. But I think it's an exciting
opportunity for people to think how can I get involved, How can
I get on board? It's definitely streamlined, a
lot of processes, one of them being our recruitment process.
It used to take us 4 hours to craft a role, you know, like
poster roll, find exactly what we need.
(41:12):
AI is now spitting that out within 30 minutes.
Something that is so unique and tailored to us.
It's really optimizing systems and I'm just excited to get on
board. I'm excited to kind of see the
ride, see the ride. I think it's going to make
certain skill sets redundant, which I think is important for
people to be thinking about. And it's not in the space of
scarcity, but like how can I grow here?
(41:33):
I think it's going to push a lotof people out of their comfort
zone. And I think that it's listening
to something the other day and Iwas saying it's the fastest
moving technology that we've ever experienced in like the
history of technology or something like that.
And it was. So it's exciting.
It's exciting to think about it.To be honest, it's still so over
my head. I have no idea.
Like there's so many things I could apply to jewelry.
(41:54):
You know, virtual reality is another one, like being able to
try on jewelry virtually. We've worked with a little bit
of that, but it's not to the standard that we need it to be.
So I think it's an exciting space and I feel excited because
I'm so ingrained in the world ofECOM and that is that is my
bread and butter. ECOM is my bread and butter.
It's been really fun to see it slowly drip feed its way through
(42:17):
Shopify. That's been really fun to see,
and starting to utilize some more of those tools has been
really exciting. You.
Just got to keep your finger on the pulse though.
Absolutely. And then what are some things on
your why sale bucket list for the future?
I would like to open up another store.
There's a really exciting precinct.
I'm going to say where, but I'vegot my eyes on.
(42:38):
Retail is hard though, and it's scary.
It's so different to online and it requires way more resources,
which is scary. There's that space.
We're also branching into some new product categories and some
new services, which is also really exciting and just seeing
the brand evolve, just seeing the brand evolve.
We are, we operate like a machine for a small brand.
(43:01):
You know, we've just had our beautiful marketing manager go
on mat leave and we've had a very highly experienced
temporary mat leave cover up step in.
And she is so, so incredible at her job.
And she's worked at some really,really, really, really, really
big companies, some also being jewelry brands.
And she gave us the feedback that we, we're a small business
where we operate like a large business.
And that was like the best feedback.
(43:23):
High five, Yeah, for our GM and myself and our whole senior
leadership team because we work really hard on that and
systemizing everything. So that was really good
feedback. Yeah.
Just keep evolving and growing as a brand and designing
beautiful jewellery that people want to wear.
Keep trying to get our price points lower, which is hard with
USD. And the price of gold has gone
up like like 50%. And then Sorella, we're
(43:45):
launching some new incredible lifestyle, lifestyle objects,
potentially going to try to do asplit Interstate residency with
both brands in the end of the year.
So, but I like to grow slowly aswell.
You know, I'm not always lookingfor the next big thing.
I'm just really happy with whereI am, constantly want to grow,
but in a very sustainable way, in a very slow scale way because
(44:09):
that feels right for me. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah. And then just considering that
the future is so unpredictable right now, what are you doing as
a mother to set season up for success for a future that none
of us can predict? What jobs or industries will
really exist when she's an adult?
I'm just leading by example. I'm talking to myself in a such
(44:32):
a loving way. I'm talking about my body in
such a loving way because in an unpredictable world, we need to
raise resilient and strong humans.
And we're not going to do that if we're if especially our
daughters are seeing mommy speakbadly about her body or speak
badly about the fact that she's getting older and she makes it
something to fear. So I'm leading by example
(44:55):
because if I'm raising a resilient woman like my mom
raised me, we can do anything. We can tackle anything, but I
need her to be confident in who she is.
And that starts with me and how I talk to myself and how I show
up for her. And also, when she sees me going
to work, I don't say things likeI go to work to make money.
(45:15):
I tell her first and foremost, mommy goes to work because she
loves it. She loves it, babe, you know,
and you, you're going to do something that you love.
So I don't want her to fear the notion of work either, you know,
because work will look different.
I don't always get it right, butthat's what I try to focus on.
Because they are just little versions of you.
(45:37):
When you have a daughter, they are little and they look up to
you with these big beautiful eyes and you see them take it
all in. You like you see it, you know,
And you're just like, fuck, likeyou don't want to do anything
wrong. But I try not to overanalyze
myself. I try not to over.
I know I'm leading with love andbuilding a loving relationship
with myself first and foremost. And she sees me take time for
(46:01):
myself. I'm not just available to her
24/7. I go and exercise twice a week.
That feels good for me. I go and see movies by myself.
I have, you know I have, I have a work from home day by myself
when she's in daycare. Like there's little things that
I've done to make sure that I can shop for the best in the
best way for her. And that's time to myself whilst
(46:23):
also being a very available mother being there.
So tuck her in every night and to wake her up every morning to
make her dinner every night. So yeah, I think it can be a
scary place if we try to think about what's coming.
But it excites me and I want herto be, I want her to have enough
self empowerment and you know, like curiosity to be able to
(46:45):
explore that and to show up in the mood of wonder instead of
the mood of fear. Yeah.
Final question for you. Yes.
I've had so much fun. Yeah, yeah, we'll do a Part 2.
The final question for today, if90 year old Fabian could give
you a piece of advice right now,what do you think she'd.
Say, I love that I think about this all the time, Ash, She
(47:09):
would say, and I think I'm speaking to all women here who
are listening, that you are the most beautiful, youthful version
of yourself that you will ever be.
So stop being hard on yourself. Stop wanting to change the way
you look. Stop analyzing every beautiful
line on your face because you'vesmiled at your child to a
(47:30):
partner or your mom or your friend because she's looking
back the 90 year old version of yourself amid all the chaos and
all the tiredness and fatigue and stress, she's looking back
and wishing she would get that exact same day that you're
living right now. She's hoping she could go back
there. So stop being so hard on
(47:51):
yourself because we're never going to be this youthful and
young. But it's going to get hotter
though, Like it's just going to happen, right?
Of course. But you know, we're, you know,
we're never going to be this able in our body.
So don't spend the time wishing how you look now away.
I see it, it's everywhere. It's exhausting.
(48:12):
It's sad because there will be atime when they are the 90 year
old versions of themselves thinking.
I wasted so much time thinking about the shit that wasn't even
important. Yeah.
Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Oh. It's been so fun to have you
here. It's.
Been a very long time coming. Yeah, and I'm going to link in
the show notes to all your brands, your personal social
(48:33):
media, all the good stuff. But Fabian, thank you.
Thank you, Ash.
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