August 23, 2023 • 41 mins
Marketing and money may seem to go hand in hand, but the truth is, lots of us struggle when it comes to finances.
In this episode of the Content Rebels, Sarah Spence talks to Molly Benjamin of Ladies Finance Club fame. Whether it’s negotiating in board rooms, asking for a pay rise or learning how to invest, Molly Benjamin has been helping women step into their finance power.
In this episode you’ll learn:
- Why the current generation of working women are still catching up when it comes to money knowledge and power
- Why gaining control over your money is the answer to gaining control over your life
- How to see yourself as a stakeholder to improve your finances
- Where to focus your money when you’re just starting out in your business
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sarah Spence (00:02):
Time to get a little personal. How's your
business bank account looking?Is it growing and healthy or bit
neglected and sick? The thingis, if you don't have good
financial literacy, you don'thave a good business. So settle
in, because for the next 40minutes, it's all about the
(00:23):
money.
Hi, I'm Sarah Spence. I grew aContent Agency from just me to
20 people inside two years. Soyou'd think I'd have my shit
together. And even though I tryto come at everything with a
rebellious curiosity, I've beenso focused on growing this
thing, that I'm a bit behind inthe trends. Join me on this
(00:45):
journey to find out what'sactually happening in the world
of marketing. Welcome to theContent Rebels.
Money makes the world go round,but plenty of us, myself
included aren't very good at it.Why is that? Why can we as
intelligent, capable,professionals and leaders, why
(01:06):
can we manage a marketing orbusiness budget to within an
inch of its life, but when itcomes to our own finances, or
our business finances, we seemto have no idea what we're
doing. Molly Benjamin is thefounder of the Ladies Finance
Club. And you might think she'sgot it all worked out when it
comes to money. But she'sactually pretty open about that
(01:26):
not being the case.
Molly Benjamin (01:28):
That's why I started my business because I
wasn't amazing at money.
Sarah Spence (01:31):
She may not have known everything about money
back then. But as her businesshas grown, so has her knowledge.
And now if there's one thingMolly loves talking about,
it's... well, I think you mightknow.
Molly Benjamin (01:45):
Love talking about money on a Thursday
morning.
Sarah Spence (01:48):
So let's talk about money, about how to make
it, how to keep it and how tospend it very wisely in business
and marketing. But first, howdid someone who didn't know much
about money, start a financeclub?
Molly Benjamin (02:04):
I started Ladies Finance Club because I was
really bad with money when I wasworking for a bank. And what I
noticed as well was a lot of mygirlfriends weren't very good
with money. And a lot of thewomen I worked with in the bank
weren't very good with money. Iremember this one conversation I
had with a work colleague, andshe got a bonus. And I was like,
(02:26):
"Awesome, what are you going todo with it?" And she was like,
"Oh, my God, I'm gonna buy ahandbag." And I was like, "Do
you have property?" She's like,"No." I'm like, "Do you invest?"
And she's like, "No." And I'mlike, "Surely, there is
something better she can bedoing with this money to set
herself up." Absolutely, I'm allfor treating yourself. But this
was a very expensive handbag.And I just thought what is going
(02:48):
on here? How come guys my ageare buying property, and they're
investing in the share market?And we're struggling to pay
rent, we have no emergencyfunds, and we are spending every
cent we earn. We can be so goodat managing budgets in the
corporate world but when itcomes to our personal finances,
we just kind of keep our head inthe sand, it's a little bit too
(03:11):
hard. It's confusing, we're notsure what we're meant to be
doing. So we do nothing. I'vehad accountants rock up to my
budgeting events. And they'relike, I do this for like
millions of dollars, but I don'treally do it for myself. So I
realised then, okay, we neededto do something about this.
Women money stats, super grim,living longer, five years
longer, earning less still a paygap in pretty much every
(03:33):
country. And what that means iswe're retiring with a lot less,
we have a lot less control overour lives. If we have control
over our money, we have controlover our lives.
And what I was seeing as wellwas a bunch of my mum's friends
who just didn't have thiscontrol over their life. And
that demographic of going... oneof the highest growing
demographics of womenexperiencing... sorry, people
(03:55):
experiencing homelessness issingle women over the age of 55.
And it's actually getting worse.And I was like, "All right, we
need to do something aboutthis." I don't want to live with
this problem. I don't want thisto happen to me, my sisters, any
of my friends, anyone, anyfemale.
So I started literally runningevents in my living room with my
girlfriends glass of proseccoand pizzas. And we outgrew my
(04:17):
living room, started runningevents. And then we started
running corporate workshops. Andwe started getting banks
reaching out to us being like,"Hey, can you run some workshops
with us?" And it's kind of grownfrom there. Now we've had about
35,000 women through ourprogramme. We did a roadshow all
around Australia last year, Ibought out a book, we just
bought out a journal with thefounder of "kikki K" Kristina
(04:37):
Karlsson's new company DreamLife. And so what it shows is,
women actually want to learnabout this, but they want to be
communicated to in a way thatisn't male pale, stale, boring,
blue, death by PowerPoint, sticka fork in my eye because it's so
boring. This stuff can be fun,it can be engaging, and we're
(04:58):
getting our money shit together.When you see these women who
have no ducks in a row then theyget their ducks in a row, you
see the confidence and theempowerment that comes with
that. It's like frickingawesome.
Sarah Spence (05:09):
That's so amazing. How did you go about actually
teaching that? You said, you'rebad with money, so how did you
teach yourself all of thisstuff?
Molly Benjamin (05:18):
Well, this has been the best thing because I've
been on the journey with theladies. We run master classes,
every single month, I get tointerview the best people in
Australia on my podcast. So I'vebeen going on this learning
journey as well. But what itmeans is, I am coming from a
place where I kind of know whatmy audience doesn't know,
because I find with financepeople. Sometimes they're just
(05:41):
like, "How do you guys not knowthat?" And I'm like, "Cuz we
were never taught it." We don'tknow this, our brains don't
think this way. You go, "Oh, theASX is up five basis points."
That doesn't mean shite to us.And so there's this rule coming
in at a different level that Ifind that then I can kind of
take the women on this journeyas well. And we can help break
(06:02):
it down and demystify it becausethere's a lot of jargon. And I'm
like, "Wouldn't it just beeasier if we said it this way?"
And they're like, "Oh, yeah, andI'm like, let's just do that then."
Sarah Spence (06:14):
I know, so much jargon, I worked for a bank for
four years. And I learned a lotabout money, but still not
enough to actually properlyapply it myself.
Molly Benjamin (06:25):
And I think there's a lot of... when people
do work in a bank, we don't workin investing, we don't work in
... and it doesn't even matterif you do work in like the
accounts department. But wemight work in other departments.
But there's still like this kindof embarrassment, like, "Oh, we
should probably know about this,because we work for a bank." But
what I've noticed is like no,that is like... our very first
(06:46):
event in London, 50% of theaudience worked in financial
services. So that's just like...that's not true.
Sarah Spence (06:53):
I know. And I feel like we could have a whole other
conversation about financialeducation in the school setting.
But we're here to talk aboutmarketing and content and about
money in relation to that. Sowe'll give our focus to that.
Why do you think we are our ownworst enemies when it comes to
money? There must be somethingabout that combination that
(07:14):
makes us feel so fraught withthose pre-existing ideas that
hold us back. Why do you feellike it's easier for us to
manage money with confidencewhen it's not our own?
Molly Benjamin (07:24):
Yeah, it's a really interesting one. And if
you look at when we go tonegotiate for things, we're a
lot better at negotiating whenit's not ourselves, and it's not
our own salary. So I thinkthere's a number of reasons for
this. I think one is, as asociety women are still not
socialised to talk about money.And I always reflect on why is
(07:47):
this and like, I can come upwith a number of reasons. But I
think a big one is like, ourgrandmas didn't have control
over their own money. We haven'tbeen having these generational
conversations for very long,whereas guys have been
controlling the money forever.But my grandma couldn't open a
credit card with her own name,she couldn't get a home loan in
(08:08):
her own name. You have to have amale signatory, or you have to
be opening it with a partner. SoI always reflect on that.
And then also we're deliveredvery different messages about
money as well. Women are very,very focused on saving, keep
your money in cash, which womenare very good at doing, we're
very good savers. Butunfortunately, investing your
(08:30):
money is what grows your money.And those conversations haven't
been had. I look at my parents,my dad has an investment club.
My mum doesn't. I said, "Mom,why don't you have investment
club?" She's like, "None of myfriends...I want one, but none
of my friends would join." Sothere's definitely like this big
piece around like, I thinkculture society. And in other
cultures, women do manage themoney. But even this thing of
(08:51):
like, it's rude to talk aboutmoney, bills are paid behind
closed doors. Yeah, there's alot.
And another thing is, I think,confidence. Women like to be
really confident at somethingbefore they do it. Money, we
have less of it, just because ofhow the world is. We're more
likely to be caregivers, whetherthat be family or elderly
(09:14):
parents, we're more likely to beflexible, have flexible working
part time, which means we haveless money to manage and invest
with and grow our wealth. Yeah,so I think, look, there's a
number of different reasons butstarting to educate yourself,
you can turn that around.
Sarah Spence (09:34):
Absolutely. Yeah. I just looked it up the first
opportunity that women had inAustralia to open their own bank
accounts, which I'm sure youknow, it was 1974.
Molly Benjamin (09:43):
Yeah.
Sarah Spence (09:43):
But that's only like in 1974 not that long ago,
like that was 10 years before Iwas born. So well and truly into
my parent's adulthood, forinstance, like there has been so
much progress, not enough somuch progress for women. But I
(10:03):
think all of us in this time, welook at that, and we're like,
yes. And we're part of it. Andit's amazing, except we forget
that it's actually so new. It'sso new.
Molly Benjamin (10:16):
And yeah, absolutely. And we are
progressing in so many places,which is fantastic. But I don't
know. But it seems to be when itcomes to our finances, we're
still not. Or we still like it'schanging slowly but it's still
not fast enough. There's stillway too many women I speak to
who aren't investing or who lettheir partner look after their
(10:37):
money. Because they're better atit than they are, where that's
just not true. They've doneresearch, they've done surveys,
men and women are equally ascompetent. Men have more
confidence. And guess how theyget more confidence, because
they do it more. And actually,what research also shows is
women make better long terminvestors.
Sarah Spence (10:58):
So let's just take a moment to reflect on that. Did
you hear it? Women are betterlong term investors. But we've
only been in control of our ownmoney in the very recent past.
I'm bamboozled by the idea thatwomen only gained control of
their bank accounts in 1974.What is with that? But if
(11:23):
finance is something that is sonew to just over 50% of the
population, just why do we makebetter investors then? I had to
find out more.
Molly Benjamin (11:37):
We're less panicky, we're more goal-based
investors, which means when themarket gets rocky, we don't care
because we know we're long terminvestors, we have our goal
here, our short term goals is incash. And I love hearing that
and it's great.
Sarah Spence (11:50):
Yeah, amazing. I'm very financially motivated. I
always have been as a person. Istarted... I think I had my
first business when I was likeseven years old or whatever
offering massages for $1 to myparents.
Molly Benjamin (12:03):
Oh my God! Me too.
Sarah Spence (12:04):
Oh, did you?
Molly Benjamin (12:05):
I had packages as well? I was like, " Do you
want a Deluxe? I'll make you acup of tea." The premium you can
use my Gameboy for half an hour.I love it, we were like
entrepreneurs when we were likeseven years old.
Sarah Spence (12:15):
Indeed. Absolutely. I know, mine was
like you could pay extra to haveEnya playing and like to light
candles on to really set themood. But I've always...I see
people's faces, I talk aboutmoney quite a lot. But I've had
to stop myself. Because thereare just.... I'm actually really
(12:36):
interested in how people liveand how they like, what do you
earn? And how do you spend yourmoney because there must be
like, for a long time, this isgetting personal. But for a long
time, my husband and I hadalmost nothing. We really,
really had nothing. And I wasjust always so curious about all
(12:57):
of our friends and other familymembers and stuff. And like how
do you actually do it? Becausewe're trying not to rack up
credit card debt. And we'retrying to still live a lifestyle
that we want to live. But how doyou do that? But of course,
nobody wants to talk about it,which is so annoying.
Yeah. But it's so fascinatingwhen they do. So we have these
(13:17):
accountability sessions atLadies Finance Club, where
everyone jumps on. And a lot ofthe time it always comes back to
spending and like, "Oh, I'mstill spending too much. How do
I stop spending?" But it'sreally interesting to hear the
different ways people aremanaging money. But there's some
real basics that I think reallyhelp people, but it's just being
(13:38):
like, you've got to be aware ofwhat you're spending. You've got
to even know what that figure isand so many people......dont.
Yes....And even when you do,it's such an ongoing practice,
isn't it? Because you...
Molly Benjamin (13:50):
It never ends.
Sarah Spence (13:51):
It's like exercise, or eating well, like
it is a continued disciplinedpractice, because we have done
like cash flow, budget thingsand kind of done a plan etc. But
unless we're literally trackingit, and I'm getting app alerts
to say "Hey, you're $20 awayfrom your monthly coffee limit."
(14:11):
It's like out of sight out ofmind. And because we don't use
cash anymore, it's like, "Oh, ifI tap and gosh, now, we're going
off on another tangent, but Ifeel worried for my children and
their generation because theirassociation with money is just
'Oh, that's always there in aphone they can just...
Molly Benjamin (14:33):
Totally. And I think especially with ATMs like
I've heard kids say "Oh, it'sjust free money." And so it's
really hard to teach kids abouta cashless society, but that's
what they're gonna grow up with.So...
Sarah Spence (14:46):
Yes. Oh gosh. Yes. Well, we do lots of....you have
to earn things, all of that kindof stuff and a bit of cash, a
bit of spriggy, kind of do yourjobs, tick off your chores, that
money can determine.
Molly Benjamin (15:00):
Yeah, exactly. And people can use, like, I've
heard what I know we're goingoff tangent here. But I've heard
what's quite popular as peopleuse, like substitute money. So
they're still giving them thatmoney, but then they give it to
them. And then they go, "Okay,well, this is what I'm saving
for, here's like my monopolystyle money." And then they get
to cash it in for the actualthing, because it is... It's
(15:21):
about teaching the value ofmoney when you can't see it,
it's hard.
Sarah Spence (15:25):
Lots of our listeners, we know they're small
business owners and freelancers.And of course, I know being one
myself and you are too that it'sso hard to prioritise your own,
like individual financial needswhen you're running a business.
Often it's us as the founders,who are the ones taking the pay
cut in order to invest in thebusiness or to grow the team or
whatever. What advice do youhave for us?
Molly Benjamin (15:49):
Look, yeah, it's a tricky one, especially when
you're starting out, and you'vekind of maybe stepped away from
your full time job and you'rebeing paid. But I think, like a
couple of just like keyprinciples, is pay yourself
first, when you can, it's soimportant to make sure that you
(16:09):
work out kind of what is theminimum amount you need to live
on? And this is for when you'restarting out, obviously. What
are your minimum? What are yourfixed? What are your needs, not
your wants? So what are thefour, they call it the four
walls of your house? So yourrent or your mortgage. Your
utility, your bills, your food,groceries, and then transport.
(16:32):
So what's that coming to? Andthen that gives you a base goal
of how much do you need to befocusing on making minimum. And
then obviously, anything on topof that should definitely be the
goal. But if you can be familiarwith those figures, I feel like
that definitely helps. Becauseyou're like, "Okay, I know, I
need to make this to cover basiccosts." Something I'd see a lot
(16:54):
of business women not do as wellas pay themselves super. It just
has to be a non negotiable. Youhave to be paying yourself
super. People say, "My businessis my super." Look at COVID, how
many businesses did that wipeout? You need to be putting
money away for your retirement.Again, I know that's hard when
you're starting out, we've allbeen there. And I even like
picked up a second job when Iwas starting my business just so
(17:16):
I could have money coming in andmoney going into my super as
well.
Sarah Spence (17:21):
I have to stop here. Honestly, this is
community service announcementtime, super, pay yourself super.
Before you even do anything elseto be honest, super has to be
your priority. I know it's oftenthe last thing that you want to
think about when you're growinga business. But Molly is so
right. As business owners, ascareer-driven people, we need to
(17:46):
focus on our numbers, know ournumbers and pay ourselves super.
Okay, now that's out of the way.So after super, what comes next?
Molly Benjamin (17:59):
Yeah, putting that tax away as well and being
really strict with yourself onputting that tax away first. One
of the accountants who was onour session the other day, she
had a great hack. It was like atthe end of a week, she looks at
how much has come into heraccount. And then she just puts
away like whatever percentage itis for her that 30% straight
(18:21):
into a separate bank account.And then she just knows, "Okay,
that's my money." There's alsofor any sole traders listening,
Hnry, h-n-r-y, fantastic forsole traders. They sort out all
your tax, you get paid to Hnryaccount. They take out your
Medicare, they take out yourtax, they take out your GST,
(18:42):
they can even invest money foryou if you want, and then you
know what hits your bank accountis yours to spend. And then when
that money hits your account,it's working out okay. What am I
going to do with that? I amsomeone who can't work from one
bank account. I need my funmoney separate, to my living
expenses, to my goals. So Iliterally will have like my fun
(19:03):
money account, my livingexpenses, or what I might call
it my adulting account, boringbut very necessary, and then
money for my future. And havingthat it's hard I think as well
when you run your own businessto automate that because you
don't know sometimes when themoney is coming in, you don't
know when you're going to bepaid. But if you can know the
(19:24):
baseline of okay, how much do Ineed as a minimum to come in and
making sure that that's always apriority and you always have
that covered? And obviously thatchanges as your business becomes
more successful and grows.
Sarah Spence (19:34):
Absolutely. I was gonna say that too that it is...
figuring out those percentageson day one is again, another one
of these disciplines and thesepractices that just need to be
continual because that changesand you know your expenses
change as a percentage of yourbusiness as it grows and all of
that stuff.
Molly Benjamin (19:54):
Full confession, I'm still nailing it myself. I
wouldn't say I've got it downpat. But I'm in a position now
where I've got a little bit moreflexibility. But like it's
friggin tough at the start, God,you gotta want it bad because
it's hard.
Sarah Spence (20:11):
I know. And I know so many, really successful
female business owners who havea couple of years in ended up
unfortunately, with reallymassive tax bills and other
things because they've put theirtrust, I think...one of my
biggest tips, I think, forpeople starting out is actually
don't put your trust in anaccountant or a bookkeeper about
(20:35):
your finances. Part of startingyour business has to be
educating yourself and becomingfinancially literate. Because
otherwise you can end up in...even when things are going
really good. After a few years,you can end up in a really tight
situation.
Molly Benjamin (20:50):
Yeah, and I mean, I talked to my accountant,
like when I first started myaccountant was someone who I
spoke with like, once a year, Iprobably speak to my accountant,
once a week. Like I've gotquestions all the time, we do
tax planning, I'm on speed dialwith them. And I think that's
(21:11):
something that people don't doenough. Accountants are so
smart. They're like businessadvisors. So make sure if your
accountant isn't supporting you,make sure you get a good
accountant that you can build areally good relationship with,
who knows your business reallywell. And yeah, but definitely,
you've got to be across your ownnumbers. What I also started
(21:33):
doing as well is actuallygetting like a CFO coach to come
in and help me with my numbers.Because again, like I started my
business because I was not goodwith money. So with my business
finances, what I was finding wasthe same thing. I was keeping my
head in the sand. I was kind oflike, "ah," but then when I
brought in a coach who couldthen explain to me what's going
on, really sit down with me.This is how Xero works. Okay,
(21:56):
this is your financial picture.I was like, "Okay, cool. Okay,
I'm getting this." But itdefinitely takes time.
Sarah Spence (22:02):
Yeah, it really does. And yeah, you really need
I think not just an accountant,but an accountant who also
offers that advisory because Ithink I ended up shopping around
for several years differentaccountants and continually
saying, "Look, I really wantthis help from you." And they
would say, "Yes, yes, I canprovide you that stuff." But it
was like all they were doing,were printing out their reports
(22:23):
and saying, "So you've spentthis much here and this much
here." And I was like, "But Ineed that extra layer of advice
and learning from you." And itwasn't then until I found an
accountant who I was like, veryspecific, like I need actually
the advisory first. And I alsoneed you to be doing the
numbers. And now we're on a goodwicket.
Molly Benjamin (22:43):
That's great. Yeah. And a good accountant will
do that as well.
Sarah Spence (22:46):
Yes, yeah. What lessons can you help us learn to
feel more confident, and moreconfident charging what we're
worth? That's also aboutspeaking up in rooms where we
need to ask for more budget, butalso just ask for pay rise if
we're working in house, etc.
Molly Benjamin (23:03):
Yeah. So I think when it comes to asking for a
pay rise, negotiating yoursalary, have the data there.
What have you brought into thebusiness? Why would this
business hate to lose you? Itcan be really hard to remember
what you're doing every day today, but you might be achieving
(23:26):
all these great things. But ifthey're not written down, you
don't remember like, and MeggiePalmer who created an app called
PepTalkHer, she has this greatkind of saying where she's like,
"I can't remember what I had fordinner two nights ago, let alone
what I did in my role, like amonth ago." So really, like what
I used to do in the corporateworld when I was in marketing in
(23:48):
the corporate world is everyFriday afternoon, I'd have a
calendar, five minutes, I wouldjust write down the top three
things I did that week. And itmight have been like, finish
this campaign. I got this xfeedback, great feedback, or
organised x event. And then whatit meant was when it came to my
(24:09):
review, I had a huge list ofeverything I had achieved. So
when I went to negotiate mysalary, I had a lot more pulling
power, because they're like, "Ohmy God, you've done so much."
And I'm like, "Yeah, I have doneso much. Look at all the stuff
I've been doing."
Another great hack she sharedwhich I share with women that
literally one of our membersstarted doing the next day and
(24:32):
then her boss started doing itto her boss the next day was
just sending... depending onyour relationship with your
boss, how many people they'remanaging fortnightly or monthly,
sum up of what you've beendoing. And this works well I
think for marketing as well. Soyou're like, "Hey, this month I
focused on xxxx, want to checkthis is still the priority area.
(24:52):
Next month, I'm going to befocusing on xxx, can you confirm
that this is right?" Becausewhat that is also doing is
keeping you front and centre ofyour boss's mind, they might be
(25:12):
managing like 20 people, ifyou're the only person doing
that, they're gonna belike...you're just got to be
more front and centre. So ifyou're asking for that extra
budget, they know what you're upto, they know what you're doing.
And again, like when you go forthat pay rise, or that
negotiation, or that new job,they're not just gonna be like,
(25:34):
"Oh, what's Julie been doingthis whole time?" They know
exactly. So it's just havingthat data, that evidence.
And then in the book as well,I've got a whole chapter on
salary negotiation. It's calledMind the Gap. And yeah, just
other like tips and tools. Andthen also, just like some
scripts you can follow as well.And the fact that you don't
always... sometimes I find aswomen, we get offered a job. And
(25:57):
we're like, "Yes, thank you foremploying me." But we've got to
be negotiating, like companiesexpect you to negotiate. And I
always use this example becauseI love this. And I think it kind
of hopefully it helps motivatewomen to negotiate. I've heard
of companies not take someone onfor the role, because they
didn't negotiate. And they'relike, "They're not negotiating?
What are they going to be likewith our suppliers?" So again,
(26:19):
use that as fire if you needsomething. Or pretend you're
negotiating on behalf of yourkids, your family, your future
holidays, your fur baby,whatever it is.
Sarah Spence (26:29):
Yeah, you really got to see yourself I think as a
stakeholder, as someone worthyof investing in.
Molly Benjamin (26:36):
Exactly. And well, we are our own businesses.
So you've got to think about itfrom a business point of view as
well. Why would a business wantto keep you around? Why are you
so important to this company?It's not about you, it's about
them and what you're doing forthem.
Sarah Spence (26:52):
Yeah, such a good shift in mindset. And I think
all of that also applies to anyfreelancers or small business
owners too, because ultimately,it's the same, it's just, go,
keep a track record of all thenice things that your clients
said about you, all the goodfeedback and keep a track
record, obviously, of whatyou're doing. Whether that's
sending them weekly statusreports or a monthly summary, or
(27:14):
tracking the results. And thenyou want to make it really easy
for them. At the end of theproject or at the end of the
retainer, you want to make iteasy for them to just say yes to
more. And if you're coming backat that point, trying to
remember what you did over thelast six months, and you're not
going to have a good story totell.
Molly Benjamin (27:30):
Exactly. And we always do like beautiful docs up
as well. When we work with apartner or something, we'll do a
beautiful wrap up, this iseverything that we've achieved
since we've been workingtogether. Here are the
screenshots, here the results,but it's all delivered really
beautifully. And they're alwayslike, "Oh, wow, thanks. That's
nice than just like your usualword Doc."
Sarah Spence (27:50):
Absolutely. Oh, yeah, design is so important.
Even I'd say in going for roleswhen we've been recruiting over
the last over couple of years,really, those who spend that
extra half an hour creating anice, even if it's just their
CV, not the cover letter, but anice CV with a photo of
themselves, some easy designelements that you can get just
(28:13):
in the free version of Canva.presenting yourself visually,
and what you do visually, itmakes you stand out from the
crowd.
Molly Benjamin (28:21):
Totally. But I think where it differs as well
is we've just done a CV course.And they're like, for the
algorithms and the AI that arereading CVs, they can't be
designed or it can't be inboxes, so they weren't really
plain. So I think if you'reapplying for a job directly with
a small company, go nuts. Ifit's going to be read by AI,
(28:43):
that's where you need to kind ofput it in quite, plain layman
term. So whether you're goingthrough a recruiter or not.
There are often very importantdifferences there because it
might not even get through thealgorithm if it's too designed
up or because it can't readtables.
Sarah Spence (28:59):
Oh, that's so interesting. Wow. Okay, that's a
whole other thing, right. Okay,anyway...
Molly Benjamin (29:05):
I just thought I'd put it out there.
Sarah Spence (29:06):
Yeah, thank you. No, that's incredible.
Molly Benjamin (29:09):
And we've got a great CV course. But there was
so much stuff. I was like, I hadno idea about that. That's
really interesting. Oh, wow.
Sarah Spence (29:14):
Well, isn't that something. So if you're handing
your CV into basically acomputer to read it, and make a
decision on you before a humanhas, it needs to be plain
design. But if you're sending itto a human, you can absolutely
go nuts in Canva. You learnsomething new every single day.
(29:37):
I've been fascinated byeverything I could learn about
women and money from Molly. ButMolly is also a really
successful business owner andhas a business with great
marketing. Honestly, I love theLadies Finance Club aesthetic
and all their social content. SoI asked Molly something that
wasn't at all to do with money.I asked her where her focus lies
(29:59):
when it comes to a marketingperspective.
Molly Benjamin (30:02):
This is great. This is the question I've never
been asked before. But for me,brand has always been like super
important. And my big thing islike breaking it down, making it
easy, making it accessible. AndI think, yeah, like, when I
started my business, like you'redoing everything, so I was
graphics, I was the graphicdesigner, I created the logo
(30:25):
myself back in the day, before Icould afford help or any of that
stuff. So I've definitely seenit change over the years,
especially as we've been able tobring on experts who can create
really nice posts. It's not justme. But yeah, I think we really
focused on Instagram, becausethat was where our audience was.
(30:46):
And it was also the channel thatI was most familiar with. I
think with marketing, it's thatthing, like you never feel like
you're doing enough. But I'vekind of had to come to terms
with the fact that, look,Tik-Tok, I would love to be
doing a Tik-Tok every singleday. But the reality is, I just
don't have time. So we've kindof gone all in on one channel,
(31:10):
which can be risky. We also havea social media presence on
Facebook, we have like 12,000women in our Facebook group. But
yeah, I guess, Instagram andmarketing it. And we're quite
organic in our marketing aswell. Like we do do Facebook
ads, we do do some Instagramads, but like we will get 1,000
(31:30):
people registered to eventorganically through our mail
list and through our socialmedia. But we do a lot
of...Yeah, we really do focus onbuilding that email list as well
and doing that lead magnets andtrying to get people in. But
it's always the case of like, Icould do so much more if I had
more time and more resource butyou can only do what you can do.
Sarah Spence (31:52):
Yeah, and I think you are so beautifully the face
of the brand as well. And I lovethat. For anyone who doesn't
follow Ladies Finance Club,please go and do so because
Molly as a person I feel likethe Ladies Finance Club is the
visual representation of you orwhat I know of you. Of course,
we're not like super closefriends or anything but you are
(32:15):
bubbly and you are gregarious,and you are fun, and you're
bold, and you're interesting.And the brand visuals just
capture all of that, which Ithink really, it ties in so
nicely.
Molly Benjamin (32:30):
more...it's so easy to compare. Maybe we need
to be more like that." But thenI'm like, "No, I want to be fun.
I want to be bubbly. I don'twant to be too serious." And
there was a time where I saw itjust going a bit too corporate,
which is my background. But I'mlike, "No, that's boring. Gosh."
(32:50):
So always just do there. Like,is it fun? Does it make me want
to read it? Is it shareable? Andif it kind of ticks those boxes,
then I might, yeah, let's postit. But sometimes we're posting
about super. And sometimesthat's like, not the most
exciting topic to post about. Soit is a lot of the time, like
how do we engage the women whoneed this the most. And this
(33:13):
information it's a lot, like weposted end of... we're recording
this in June. So we're coming upto end of financial year. And
for women who are earning underlike 47,000, or they are part
time workers or theirstay-at-home mums, they
contribute an extra $1,000 totheir super, they'll get free
(33:34):
$500 from the government. Soit's these little things that
like I'm like, it's reallyimportant that you know this.
How do I get you to engage withthis information? So we're
always thinking, "Okay, how dowe make this share? How do we
actually make this relevant andinteresting and accessible?"
Sarah Spence (33:51):
And I think I mean, you've been doing that
from the start. Right?
Molly Benjamin (33:53):
Yeah.
Sarah Spence (33:55):
I think that served you so well, because your
following does keep growing andyour business keeps growing,
which is awesome. And I thinkyou have also written that wave
from what I can see of the shiftin the Meta Instagram...the Meta
algorithm, sorry, to continue tocreate content that actually is
(34:18):
engaging and is getting seen inthe feeds as well.
Molly Benjamin (34:22):
Yeah, and I definitely think we focus on
like value and education.Sometimes I think probably a
little bit too much, but wedon't really use it that much as
a place to sell. It's very muchlike, this is information we all
need to learn. But yeah,probably speak to experts or
yeah, you need to sell more. Butanyway...
Sarah Spence (34:42):
What's one of the areas of marketing that you're
keen to explore in the future?
Molly Benjamin (34:47):
I love video. My sister's a viral video maker and
I'm always like, "We need tomake more video." So I would
love to do more video,especially on Tik-Tok. It's a
time suck, but I love it. Andthen the other piece is probably
(35:08):
just around YouTube, I'd love toexplore more YouTube and
Tik-Tok, I would love to makethose my new focuses, but also
getting quite obsessed withchatGPT as well. And just the
world that it has opened up asfar as content and I'd heard a
(35:28):
guy speak at an AI conference acouple of weeks ago and he's
like, "People are going to be intwo boats, they're going to be
creating with AI or they'regoing to be consuming with AI."
And we don't want to beconsuming, we want to be
creating. Okay, good. I keepremembering that when I get like
stuck in like these Tik-Tokalgorithm and you're like, "What
(35:49):
am I watching?" Oh, how to makechicken chilli con carne. Great.
Even though I went on there tolook at some budgeting videos.
So yeah, I think I'm quiteexcited about Tik-Tok and
YouTube.
Sarah Spence (36:01):
Yeah, awesome. And video is definitely the future.
We were looking at some videostuff the other day. We do
videos as part of what we offerand the more recent stats all
around the engagement and alsothe retention of information of
video versus....and video with ahuman not just text but video
(36:21):
with a human deliveringinformation is just so much
Molly Benjamin (36:24):
Yeah, so cool, And especially with what we're
greater.
seeing with AI like the otherday I saw...I mean, I did it on
Canva. It wasn't very good. Ilook like a Barbie doll who just
had like their wisdom teethtaken out. I AI'd myself and I
was like, "Hello, what are yourmoney believes?" Anyway, it
didn't look good. But I was likethe future is coming. And I
could actually what I've seen onother platforms is you can
(36:46):
change your language as well. SoI could be French, I could be a
Kardashian. I could be Arabic, Icould be speaking Arabic, like
it was just crazy what you canactually do and what that means
for your business as well. Andcourses and things like that.
Sarah Spence (36:58):
I just saw a deep fake this morning. That was
Arnold Schwarzenegger as Elaineand the soup character from
Seinfeld. It was a deep fakewhere both of them were played
by Arnie. And it was I mean,that's just a funny application.
But yeah, we're into a whole newworld. Which brings us to our
final question that we're askingeveryone, the chatGPT, do you
(37:21):
see it as a friend, a foe or aflash in the pan?
Molly Benjamin (37:24):
Oh, absolute friend. It's going to change...I
think... a guy explained itreally well at this AI
conference. He's like, "Well,when the first iPhone came out,
and it was like this clunkything. Apps didn't really work.
It was a bit dodgy. But it wasthe base." And now look where
we're at. I think we're at like,the first iPhone version. And
(37:46):
it's going to completely changethe way the world works, but
also hoping that legislation cankeep up as well. And like laws
can keep up because it alsocomes with issues that we don't
even know exist.
Sarah Spence (38:00):
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, just even the privacy,
data stuff. And it's a fantastictool. But of course for many
businesses, rightfully so, andparticularly large brands are
very wary of it. Because whenyou put information into it,
there's no guarantee that it iscontainerized and not able to be
then retrieved by other placesand other people, even though
(38:24):
it's meant to keep it safe. Butit's all sitting on a single
server and you don't know that,of course. So it's a complicated
territory. But yes, I'm excitedabout the future with it, too.
Before we finish up, I guess Ijust have to ask, and perhaps
we're ending kind of close towhere we started. But you strike
me as someone who has theconfidence to say, "Yeah, I
(38:44):
don't know that. So I'm going tolearn about it." And I feel like
I have that mindset too. But Ididn't always and it was
actually a turning point wasbeing okay with not knowing
that's really helped me to growmy business. I wonder if that's
something you felt too.
Molly Benjamin (39:00):
Yeah. I mean, it's funny, like, I just wrote a
book on finance. And I'm stilllike, "Oh, I don't know anything
about money." We're hard onourselves and we never feel like
we know everything and the worldof finance is so massive, you
just won't. But I think that wasthe whole basis of me starting
(39:21):
my company was like, so from theget go, I've been like, I'm not
the expert, but we're gonnabring in the experts. We're
gonna bring in the best experts,and we're gonna break it down
together and you'll hear, I'vegot you. We're in this space
together, as opposed to me goinglike.... and it was for a little
while where I really felt thatimposter syndrome where I'm
like, "Who am I to talk aboutmoney?" I have got no money in
(39:45):
my bank account back then. Ithink my women have
definitely... that's whatthey've liked. They've liked
that I'm so open with it becauselike, majority of them are in
the same situation as me,because we learnt three blind
mice on the recorder, we didn'tlearn how to do our tax, which
(40:05):
would have been a lot morehelpful.
Sarah Spence (40:09):
That would have been so much more helpful. Hey,
proper, actual financialeducation, that would have made
such a big difference to me as ateenager and a young adult. But
here we are now, learning it alltogether. Thanks to Molly
Benjamin and the Ladies FinanceClub.
Now, you know, marketing may beabout getting sales in the door,
(40:31):
but as business owners, familymembers, even just being adults
in an adult world, knowing howto save and when and where to
spend is paramount, not just tohaving a successful business,
but also a successful life.
Thanks for joining me on thisjourney. If you want to stay
(40:53):
rebellious in how you practicemarketing, how you show up in
your workplace and how you liveyour life, please subscribe to
the Content Rebels wherever youlisten to your podcasts. This
podcast was recorded on Awabakaland Darkinjung country. Produced
by Pod and Pen Productions.
Time to get a little personal. How's your
business bank account looking?Is it growing and healthy or bit
neglected and sick? The thingis, if you don't have good
financial literacy, you don'thave a good business. So settle
in, because for the next 40minutes, it's all about the
(00:23):
money.
Hi, I'm Sarah Spence. I grew aContent Agency from just me to
20 people inside two years. Soyou'd think I'd have my shit
together. And even though I tryto come at everything with a
rebellious curiosity, I've beenso focused on growing this
thing, that I'm a bit behind inthe trends. Join me on this
(00:45):
journey to find out what'sactually happening in the world
of marketing. Welcome to theContent Rebels.
Money makes the world go round,but plenty of us, myself
included aren't very good at it.Why is that? Why can we as
intelligent, capable,professionals and leaders, why
(01:06):
can we manage a marketing orbusiness budget to within an
inch of its life, but when itcomes to our own finances, or
our business finances, we seemto have no idea what we're
doing. Molly Benjamin is thefounder of the Ladies Finance
Club. And you might think she'sgot it all worked out when it
comes to money. But she'sactually pretty open about that
(01:26):
not being the case.
Molly Benjamin (01:28):
That's why I started my business because I
wasn't amazing at money.
Sarah Spence (01:31):
She may not have known everything about money
back then. But as her businesshas grown, so has her knowledge.
And now if there's one thingMolly loves talking about,
it's... well, I think you mightknow.
Molly Benjamin (01:45):
Love talking about money on a Thursday
morning.
Sarah Spence (01:48):
So let's talk about money, about how to make
it, how to keep it and how tospend it very wisely in business
and marketing. But first, howdid someone who didn't know much
about money, start a financeclub?
Molly Benjamin (02:04):
I started Ladies Finance Club because I was
really bad with money when I wasworking for a bank. And what I
noticed as well was a lot of mygirlfriends weren't very good
with money. And a lot of thewomen I worked with in the bank
weren't very good with money. Iremember this one conversation I
had with a work colleague, andshe got a bonus. And I was like,
(02:26):
"Awesome, what are you going todo with it?" And she was like,
"Oh, my God, I'm gonna buy ahandbag." And I was like, "Do
you have property?" She's like,"No." I'm like, "Do you invest?"
And she's like, "No." And I'mlike, "Surely, there is
something better she can bedoing with this money to set
herself up." Absolutely, I'm allfor treating yourself. But this
was a very expensive handbag.And I just thought what is going
(02:48):
on here? How come guys my ageare buying property, and they're
investing in the share market?And we're struggling to pay
rent, we have no emergencyfunds, and we are spending every
cent we earn. We can be so goodat managing budgets in the
corporate world but when itcomes to our personal finances,
we just kind of keep our head inthe sand, it's a little bit too
(03:11):
hard. It's confusing, we're notsure what we're meant to be
doing. So we do nothing. I'vehad accountants rock up to my
budgeting events. And they'relike, I do this for like
millions of dollars, but I don'treally do it for myself. So I
realised then, okay, we neededto do something about this.
Women money stats, super grim,living longer, five years
longer, earning less still a paygap in pretty much every
(03:33):
country. And what that means iswe're retiring with a lot less,
we have a lot less control overour lives. If we have control
over our money, we have controlover our lives.
And what I was seeing as wellwas a bunch of my mum's friends
who just didn't have thiscontrol over their life. And
that demographic of going... oneof the highest growing
demographics of womenexperiencing... sorry, people
(03:55):
experiencing homelessness issingle women over the age of 55.
And it's actually getting worse.And I was like, "All right, we
need to do something aboutthis." I don't want to live with
this problem. I don't want thisto happen to me, my sisters, any
of my friends, anyone, anyfemale.
So I started literally runningevents in my living room with my
girlfriends glass of proseccoand pizzas. And we outgrew my
(04:17):
living room, started runningevents. And then we started
running corporate workshops. Andwe started getting banks
reaching out to us being like,"Hey, can you run some workshops
with us?" And it's kind of grownfrom there. Now we've had about
35,000 women through ourprogramme. We did a roadshow all
around Australia last year, Ibought out a book, we just
bought out a journal with thefounder of "kikki K" Kristina
(04:37):
Karlsson's new company DreamLife. And so what it shows is,
women actually want to learnabout this, but they want to be
communicated to in a way thatisn't male pale, stale, boring,
blue, death by PowerPoint, sticka fork in my eye because it's so
boring. This stuff can be fun,it can be engaging, and we're
(04:58):
getting our money shit together.When you see these women who
have no ducks in a row then theyget their ducks in a row, you
see the confidence and theempowerment that comes with
that. It's like frickingawesome.
Sarah Spence (05:09):
That's so amazing. How did you go about actually
teaching that? You said, you'rebad with money, so how did you
teach yourself all of thisstuff?
Molly Benjamin (05:18):
Well, this has been the best thing because I've
been on the journey with theladies. We run master classes,
every single month, I get tointerview the best people in
Australia on my podcast. So I'vebeen going on this learning
journey as well. But what itmeans is, I am coming from a
place where I kind of know whatmy audience doesn't know,
because I find with financepeople. Sometimes they're just
(05:41):
like, "How do you guys not knowthat?" And I'm like, "Cuz we
were never taught it." We don'tknow this, our brains don't
think this way. You go, "Oh, theASX is up five basis points."
That doesn't mean shite to us.And so there's this rule coming
in at a different level that Ifind that then I can kind of
take the women on this journeyas well. And we can help break
(06:02):
it down and demystify it becausethere's a lot of jargon. And I'm
like, "Wouldn't it just beeasier if we said it this way?"
And they're like, "Oh, yeah, andI'm like, let's just do that then."
Sarah Spence (06:14):
I know, so much jargon, I worked for a bank for
four years. And I learned a lotabout money, but still not
enough to actually properlyapply it myself.
Molly Benjamin (06:25):
And I think there's a lot of... when people
do work in a bank, we don't workin investing, we don't work in
... and it doesn't even matterif you do work in like the
accounts department. But wemight work in other departments.
But there's still like this kindof embarrassment, like, "Oh, we
should probably know about this,because we work for a bank." But
what I've noticed is like no,that is like... our very first
(06:46):
event in London, 50% of theaudience worked in financial
services. So that's just like...that's not true.
Sarah Spence (06:53):
I know. And I feel like we could have a whole other
conversation about financialeducation in the school setting.
But we're here to talk aboutmarketing and content and about
money in relation to that. Sowe'll give our focus to that.
Why do you think we are our ownworst enemies when it comes to
money? There must be somethingabout that combination that
(07:14):
makes us feel so fraught withthose pre-existing ideas that
hold us back. Why do you feellike it's easier for us to
manage money with confidencewhen it's not our own?
Molly Benjamin (07:24):
Yeah, it's a really interesting one. And if
you look at when we go tonegotiate for things, we're a
lot better at negotiating whenit's not ourselves, and it's not
our own salary. So I thinkthere's a number of reasons for
this. I think one is, as asociety women are still not
socialised to talk about money.And I always reflect on why is
(07:47):
this and like, I can come upwith a number of reasons. But I
think a big one is like, ourgrandmas didn't have control
over their own money. We haven'tbeen having these generational
conversations for very long,whereas guys have been
controlling the money forever.But my grandma couldn't open a
credit card with her own name,she couldn't get a home loan in
(08:08):
her own name. You have to have amale signatory, or you have to
be opening it with a partner. SoI always reflect on that.
And then also we're deliveredvery different messages about
money as well. Women are very,very focused on saving, keep
your money in cash, which womenare very good at doing, we're
very good savers. Butunfortunately, investing your
(08:30):
money is what grows your money.And those conversations haven't
been had. I look at my parents,my dad has an investment club.
My mum doesn't. I said, "Mom,why don't you have investment
club?" She's like, "None of myfriends...I want one, but none
of my friends would join." Sothere's definitely like this big
piece around like, I thinkculture society. And in other
cultures, women do manage themoney. But even this thing of
(08:51):
like, it's rude to talk aboutmoney, bills are paid behind
closed doors. Yeah, there's alot.
And another thing is, I think,confidence. Women like to be
really confident at somethingbefore they do it. Money, we
have less of it, just because ofhow the world is. We're more
likely to be caregivers, whetherthat be family or elderly
(09:14):
parents, we're more likely to beflexible, have flexible working
part time, which means we haveless money to manage and invest
with and grow our wealth. Yeah,so I think, look, there's a
number of different reasons butstarting to educate yourself,
you can turn that around.
Sarah Spence (09:34):
Absolutely. Yeah. I just looked it up the first
opportunity that women had inAustralia to open their own bank
accounts, which I'm sure youknow, it was 1974.
Molly Benjamin (09:43):
Yeah.
Sarah Spence (09:43):
But that's only like in 1974 not that long ago,
like that was 10 years before Iwas born. So well and truly into
my parent's adulthood, forinstance, like there has been so
much progress, not enough somuch progress for women. But I
(10:03):
think all of us in this time, welook at that, and we're like,
yes. And we're part of it. Andit's amazing, except we forget
that it's actually so new. It'sso new.
Molly Benjamin (10:16):
And yeah, absolutely. And we are
progressing in so many places,which is fantastic. But I don't
know. But it seems to be when itcomes to our finances, we're
still not. Or we still like it'schanging slowly but it's still
not fast enough. There's stillway too many women I speak to
who aren't investing or who lettheir partner look after their
(10:37):
money. Because they're better atit than they are, where that's
just not true. They've doneresearch, they've done surveys,
men and women are equally ascompetent. Men have more
confidence. And guess how theyget more confidence, because
they do it more. And actually,what research also shows is
women make better long terminvestors.
Sarah Spence (10:58):
So let's just take a moment to reflect on that. Did
you hear it? Women are betterlong term investors. But we've
only been in control of our ownmoney in the very recent past.
I'm bamboozled by the idea thatwomen only gained control of
their bank accounts in 1974.What is with that? But if
(11:23):
finance is something that is sonew to just over 50% of the
population, just why do we makebetter investors then? I had to
find out more.
Molly Benjamin (11:37):
We're less panicky, we're more goal-based
investors, which means when themarket gets rocky, we don't care
because we know we're long terminvestors, we have our goal
here, our short term goals is incash. And I love hearing that
and it's great.
Sarah Spence (11:50):
Yeah, amazing. I'm very financially motivated. I
always have been as a person. Istarted... I think I had my
first business when I was likeseven years old or whatever
offering massages for $1 to myparents.
Molly Benjamin (12:03):
Oh my God! Me too.
Sarah Spence (12:04):
Oh, did you?
Molly Benjamin (12:05):
I had packages as well? I was like, " Do you
want a Deluxe? I'll make you acup of tea." The premium you can
use my Gameboy for half an hour.I love it, we were like
entrepreneurs when we were likeseven years old.
Sarah Spence (12:15):
Indeed. Absolutely. I know, mine was
like you could pay extra to haveEnya playing and like to light
candles on to really set themood. But I've always...I see
people's faces, I talk aboutmoney quite a lot. But I've had
to stop myself. Because thereare just.... I'm actually really
(12:36):
interested in how people liveand how they like, what do you
earn? And how do you spend yourmoney because there must be
like, for a long time, this isgetting personal. But for a long
time, my husband and I hadalmost nothing. We really,
really had nothing. And I wasjust always so curious about all
(12:57):
of our friends and other familymembers and stuff. And like how
do you actually do it? Becausewe're trying not to rack up
credit card debt. And we'retrying to still live a lifestyle
that we want to live. But how doyou do that? But of course,
nobody wants to talk about it,which is so annoying.
Yeah. But it's so fascinatingwhen they do. So we have these
(13:17):
accountability sessions atLadies Finance Club, where
everyone jumps on. And a lot ofthe time it always comes back to
spending and like, "Oh, I'mstill spending too much. How do
I stop spending?" But it'sreally interesting to hear the
different ways people aremanaging money. But there's some
real basics that I think reallyhelp people, but it's just being
(13:38):
like, you've got to be aware ofwhat you're spending. You've got
to even know what that figure isand so many people......dont.
Yes....And even when you do,it's such an ongoing practice,
isn't it? Because you...
Molly Benjamin (13:50):
It never ends.
Sarah Spence (13:51):
It's like exercise, or eating well, like
it is a continued disciplinedpractice, because we have done
like cash flow, budget thingsand kind of done a plan etc. But
unless we're literally trackingit, and I'm getting app alerts
to say "Hey, you're $20 awayfrom your monthly coffee limit."
(14:11):
It's like out of sight out ofmind. And because we don't use
cash anymore, it's like, "Oh, ifI tap and gosh, now, we're going
off on another tangent, but Ifeel worried for my children and
their generation because theirassociation with money is just
'Oh, that's always there in aphone they can just...
Molly Benjamin (14:33):
Totally. And I think especially with ATMs like
I've heard kids say "Oh, it'sjust free money." And so it's
really hard to teach kids abouta cashless society, but that's
what they're gonna grow up with.So...
Sarah Spence (14:46):
Yes. Oh gosh. Yes. Well, we do lots of....you have
to earn things, all of that kindof stuff and a bit of cash, a
bit of spriggy, kind of do yourjobs, tick off your chores, that
money can determine.
Molly Benjamin (15:00):
Yeah, exactly. And people can use, like, I've
heard what I know we're goingoff tangent here. But I've heard
what's quite popular as peopleuse, like substitute money. So
they're still giving them thatmoney, but then they give it to
them. And then they go, "Okay,well, this is what I'm saving
for, here's like my monopolystyle money." And then they get
to cash it in for the actualthing, because it is... It's
(15:21):
about teaching the value ofmoney when you can't see it,
it's hard.
Sarah Spence (15:25):
Lots of our listeners, we know they're small
business owners and freelancers.And of course, I know being one
myself and you are too that it'sso hard to prioritise your own,
like individual financial needswhen you're running a business.
Often it's us as the founders,who are the ones taking the pay
cut in order to invest in thebusiness or to grow the team or
whatever. What advice do youhave for us?
Molly Benjamin (15:49):
Look, yeah, it's a tricky one, especially when
you're starting out, and you'vekind of maybe stepped away from
your full time job and you'rebeing paid. But I think, like a
couple of just like keyprinciples, is pay yourself
first, when you can, it's soimportant to make sure that you
(16:09):
work out kind of what is theminimum amount you need to live
on? And this is for when you'restarting out, obviously. What
are your minimum? What are yourfixed? What are your needs, not
your wants? So what are thefour, they call it the four
walls of your house? So yourrent or your mortgage. Your
utility, your bills, your food,groceries, and then transport.
(16:32):
So what's that coming to? Andthen that gives you a base goal
of how much do you need to befocusing on making minimum. And
then obviously, anything on topof that should definitely be the
goal. But if you can be familiarwith those figures, I feel like
that definitely helps. Becauseyou're like, "Okay, I know, I
need to make this to cover basiccosts." Something I'd see a lot
(16:54):
of business women not do as wellas pay themselves super. It just
has to be a non negotiable. Youhave to be paying yourself
super. People say, "My businessis my super." Look at COVID, how
many businesses did that wipeout? You need to be putting
money away for your retirement.Again, I know that's hard when
you're starting out, we've allbeen there. And I even like
picked up a second job when Iwas starting my business just so
(17:16):
I could have money coming in andmoney going into my super as
well.
Sarah Spence (17:21):
I have to stop here. Honestly, this is
community service announcementtime, super, pay yourself super.
Before you even do anything elseto be honest, super has to be
your priority. I know it's oftenthe last thing that you want to
think about when you're growinga business. But Molly is so
right. As business owners, ascareer-driven people, we need to
(17:46):
focus on our numbers, know ournumbers and pay ourselves super.
Okay, now that's out of the way.So after super, what comes next?
Molly Benjamin (17:59):
Yeah, putting that tax away as well and being
really strict with yourself onputting that tax away first. One
of the accountants who was onour session the other day, she
had a great hack. It was like atthe end of a week, she looks at
how much has come into heraccount. And then she just puts
away like whatever percentage itis for her that 30% straight
(18:21):
into a separate bank account.And then she just knows, "Okay,
that's my money." There's alsofor any sole traders listening,
Hnry, h-n-r-y, fantastic forsole traders. They sort out all
your tax, you get paid to Hnryaccount. They take out your
Medicare, they take out yourtax, they take out your GST,
(18:42):
they can even invest money foryou if you want, and then you
know what hits your bank accountis yours to spend. And then when
that money hits your account,it's working out okay. What am I
going to do with that? I amsomeone who can't work from one
bank account. I need my funmoney separate, to my living
expenses, to my goals. So Iliterally will have like my fun
(19:03):
money account, my livingexpenses, or what I might call
it my adulting account, boringbut very necessary, and then
money for my future. And havingthat it's hard I think as well
when you run your own businessto automate that because you
don't know sometimes when themoney is coming in, you don't
know when you're going to bepaid. But if you can know the
(19:24):
baseline of okay, how much do Ineed as a minimum to come in and
making sure that that's always apriority and you always have
that covered? And obviously thatchanges as your business becomes
more successful and grows.
Sarah Spence (19:34):
Absolutely. I was gonna say that too that it is...
figuring out those percentageson day one is again, another one
of these disciplines and thesepractices that just need to be
continual because that changesand you know your expenses
change as a percentage of yourbusiness as it grows and all of
that stuff.
Molly Benjamin (19:54):
Full confession, I'm still nailing it myself. I
wouldn't say I've got it downpat. But I'm in a position now
where I've got a little bit moreflexibility. But like it's
friggin tough at the start, God,you gotta want it bad because
it's hard.
Sarah Spence (20:11):
I know. And I know so many, really successful
female business owners who havea couple of years in ended up
unfortunately, with reallymassive tax bills and other
things because they've put theirtrust, I think...one of my
biggest tips, I think, forpeople starting out is actually
don't put your trust in anaccountant or a bookkeeper about
(20:35):
your finances. Part of startingyour business has to be
educating yourself and becomingfinancially literate. Because
otherwise you can end up in...even when things are going
really good. After a few years,you can end up in a really tight
situation.
Molly Benjamin (20:50):
Yeah, and I mean, I talked to my accountant,
like when I first started myaccountant was someone who I
spoke with like, once a year, Iprobably speak to my accountant,
once a week. Like I've gotquestions all the time, we do
tax planning, I'm on speed dialwith them. And I think that's
(21:11):
something that people don't doenough. Accountants are so
smart. They're like businessadvisors. So make sure if your
accountant isn't supporting you,make sure you get a good
accountant that you can build areally good relationship with,
who knows your business reallywell. And yeah, but definitely,
you've got to be across your ownnumbers. What I also started
(21:33):
doing as well is actuallygetting like a CFO coach to come
in and help me with my numbers.Because again, like I started my
business because I was not goodwith money. So with my business
finances, what I was finding wasthe same thing. I was keeping my
head in the sand. I was kind oflike, "ah," but then when I
brought in a coach who couldthen explain to me what's going
on, really sit down with me.This is how Xero works. Okay,
(21:56):
this is your financial picture.I was like, "Okay, cool. Okay,
I'm getting this." But itdefinitely takes time.
Sarah Spence (22:02):
Yeah, it really does. And yeah, you really need
I think not just an accountant,but an accountant who also
offers that advisory because Ithink I ended up shopping around
for several years differentaccountants and continually
saying, "Look, I really wantthis help from you." And they
would say, "Yes, yes, I canprovide you that stuff." But it
was like all they were doing,were printing out their reports
(22:23):
and saying, "So you've spentthis much here and this much
here." And I was like, "But Ineed that extra layer of advice
and learning from you." And itwasn't then until I found an
accountant who I was like, veryspecific, like I need actually
the advisory first. And I alsoneed you to be doing the
numbers. And now we're on a goodwicket.
Molly Benjamin (22:43):
That's great. Yeah. And a good accountant will
do that as well.
Sarah Spence (22:46):
Yes, yeah. What lessons can you help us learn to
feel more confident, and moreconfident charging what we're
worth? That's also aboutspeaking up in rooms where we
need to ask for more budget, butalso just ask for pay rise if
we're working in house, etc.
Molly Benjamin (23:03):
Yeah. So I think when it comes to asking for a
pay rise, negotiating yoursalary, have the data there.
What have you brought into thebusiness? Why would this
business hate to lose you? Itcan be really hard to remember
what you're doing every day today, but you might be achieving
(23:26):
all these great things. But ifthey're not written down, you
don't remember like, and MeggiePalmer who created an app called
PepTalkHer, she has this greatkind of saying where she's like,
"I can't remember what I had fordinner two nights ago, let alone
what I did in my role, like amonth ago." So really, like what
I used to do in the corporateworld when I was in marketing in
(23:48):
the corporate world is everyFriday afternoon, I'd have a
calendar, five minutes, I wouldjust write down the top three
things I did that week. And itmight have been like, finish
this campaign. I got this xfeedback, great feedback, or
organised x event. And then whatit meant was when it came to my
(24:09):
review, I had a huge list ofeverything I had achieved. So
when I went to negotiate mysalary, I had a lot more pulling
power, because they're like, "Ohmy God, you've done so much."
And I'm like, "Yeah, I have doneso much. Look at all the stuff
I've been doing."
Another great hack she sharedwhich I share with women that
literally one of our membersstarted doing the next day and
(24:32):
then her boss started doing itto her boss the next day was
just sending... depending onyour relationship with your
boss, how many people they'remanaging fortnightly or monthly,
sum up of what you've beendoing. And this works well I
think for marketing as well. Soyou're like, "Hey, this month I
focused on xxxx, want to checkthis is still the priority area.
(24:52):
Next month, I'm going to befocusing on xxx, can you confirm
that this is right?" Becausewhat that is also doing is
keeping you front and centre ofyour boss's mind, they might be
(25:12):
managing like 20 people, ifyou're the only person doing
that, they're gonna belike...you're just got to be
more front and centre. So ifyou're asking for that extra
budget, they know what you're upto, they know what you're doing.
And again, like when you go forthat pay rise, or that
negotiation, or that new job,they're not just gonna be like,
(25:34):
"Oh, what's Julie been doingthis whole time?" They know
exactly. So it's just havingthat data, that evidence.
And then in the book as well,I've got a whole chapter on
salary negotiation. It's calledMind the Gap. And yeah, just
other like tips and tools. Andthen also, just like some
scripts you can follow as well.And the fact that you don't
always... sometimes I find aswomen, we get offered a job. And
(25:57):
we're like, "Yes, thank you foremploying me." But we've got to
be negotiating, like companiesexpect you to negotiate. And I
always use this example becauseI love this. And I think it kind
of hopefully it helps motivatewomen to negotiate. I've heard
of companies not take someone onfor the role, because they
didn't negotiate. And they'relike, "They're not negotiating?
What are they going to be likewith our suppliers?" So again,
(26:19):
use that as fire if you needsomething. Or pretend you're
negotiating on behalf of yourkids, your family, your future
holidays, your fur baby,whatever it is.
Sarah Spence (26:29):
Yeah, you really got to see yourself I think as a
stakeholder, as someone worthyof investing in.
Molly Benjamin (26:36):
Exactly. And well, we are our own businesses.
So you've got to think about itfrom a business point of view as
well. Why would a business wantto keep you around? Why are you
so important to this company?It's not about you, it's about
them and what you're doing forthem.
Sarah Spence (26:52):
Yeah, such a good shift in mindset. And I think
all of that also applies to anyfreelancers or small business
owners too, because ultimately,it's the same, it's just, go,
keep a track record of all thenice things that your clients
said about you, all the goodfeedback and keep a track
record, obviously, of whatyou're doing. Whether that's
sending them weekly statusreports or a monthly summary, or
(27:14):
tracking the results. And thenyou want to make it really easy
for them. At the end of theproject or at the end of the
retainer, you want to make iteasy for them to just say yes to
more. And if you're coming backat that point, trying to
remember what you did over thelast six months, and you're not
going to have a good story totell.
Molly Benjamin (27:30):
Exactly. And we always do like beautiful docs up
as well. When we work with apartner or something, we'll do a
beautiful wrap up, this iseverything that we've achieved
since we've been workingtogether. Here are the
screenshots, here the results,but it's all delivered really
beautifully. And they're alwayslike, "Oh, wow, thanks. That's
nice than just like your usualword Doc."
Sarah Spence (27:50):
Absolutely. Oh, yeah, design is so important.
Even I'd say in going for roleswhen we've been recruiting over
the last over couple of years,really, those who spend that
extra half an hour creating anice, even if it's just their
CV, not the cover letter, but anice CV with a photo of
themselves, some easy designelements that you can get just
(28:13):
in the free version of Canva.presenting yourself visually,
and what you do visually, itmakes you stand out from the
crowd.
Molly Benjamin (28:21):
Totally. But I think where it differs as well
is we've just done a CV course.And they're like, for the
algorithms and the AI that arereading CVs, they can't be
designed or it can't be inboxes, so they weren't really
plain. So I think if you'reapplying for a job directly with
a small company, go nuts. Ifit's going to be read by AI,
(28:43):
that's where you need to kind ofput it in quite, plain layman
term. So whether you're goingthrough a recruiter or not.
There are often very importantdifferences there because it
might not even get through thealgorithm if it's too designed
up or because it can't readtables.
Sarah Spence (28:59):
Oh, that's so interesting. Wow. Okay, that's a
whole other thing, right. Okay,anyway...
Molly Benjamin (29:05):
I just thought I'd put it out there.
Sarah Spence (29:06):
Yeah, thank you. No, that's incredible.
Molly Benjamin (29:09):
And we've got a great CV course. But there was
so much stuff. I was like, I hadno idea about that. That's
really interesting. Oh, wow.
Sarah Spence (29:14):
Well, isn't that something. So if you're handing
your CV into basically acomputer to read it, and make a
decision on you before a humanhas, it needs to be plain
design. But if you're sending itto a human, you can absolutely
go nuts in Canva. You learnsomething new every single day.
(29:37):
I've been fascinated byeverything I could learn about
women and money from Molly. ButMolly is also a really
successful business owner andhas a business with great
marketing. Honestly, I love theLadies Finance Club aesthetic
and all their social content. SoI asked Molly something that
wasn't at all to do with money.I asked her where her focus lies
(29:59):
when it comes to a marketingperspective.
Molly Benjamin (30:02):
This is great. This is the question I've never
been asked before. But for me,brand has always been like super
important. And my big thing islike breaking it down, making it
easy, making it accessible. AndI think, yeah, like, when I
started my business, like you'redoing everything, so I was
graphics, I was the graphicdesigner, I created the logo
(30:25):
myself back in the day, before Icould afford help or any of that
stuff. So I've definitely seenit change over the years,
especially as we've been able tobring on experts who can create
really nice posts. It's not justme. But yeah, I think we really
focused on Instagram, becausethat was where our audience was.
(30:46):
And it was also the channel thatI was most familiar with. I
think with marketing, it's thatthing, like you never feel like
you're doing enough. But I'vekind of had to come to terms
with the fact that, look,Tik-Tok, I would love to be
doing a Tik-Tok every singleday. But the reality is, I just
don't have time. So we've kindof gone all in on one channel,
(31:10):
which can be risky. We also havea social media presence on
Facebook, we have like 12,000women in our Facebook group. But
yeah, I guess, Instagram andmarketing it. And we're quite
organic in our marketing aswell. Like we do do Facebook
ads, we do do some Instagramads, but like we will get 1,000
(31:30):
people registered to eventorganically through our mail
list and through our socialmedia. But we do a lot
of...Yeah, we really do focus onbuilding that email list as well
and doing that lead magnets andtrying to get people in. But
it's always the case of like, Icould do so much more if I had
more time and more resource butyou can only do what you can do.
Sarah Spence (31:52):
Yeah, and I think you are so beautifully the face
of the brand as well. And I lovethat. For anyone who doesn't
follow Ladies Finance Club,please go and do so because
Molly as a person I feel likethe Ladies Finance Club is the
visual representation of you orwhat I know of you. Of course,
we're not like super closefriends or anything but you are
(32:15):
bubbly and you are gregarious,and you are fun, and you're
bold, and you're interesting.And the brand visuals just
capture all of that, which Ithink really, it ties in so
nicely.
Molly Benjamin (32:30):
more...it's so easy to compare. Maybe we need
to be more like that." But thenI'm like, "No, I want to be fun.
I want to be bubbly. I don'twant to be too serious." And
there was a time where I saw itjust going a bit too corporate,
which is my background. But I'mlike, "No, that's boring. Gosh."
(32:50):
So always just do there. Like,is it fun? Does it make me want
to read it? Is it shareable? Andif it kind of ticks those boxes,
then I might, yeah, let's postit. But sometimes we're posting
about super. And sometimesthat's like, not the most
exciting topic to post about. Soit is a lot of the time, like
how do we engage the women whoneed this the most. And this
(33:13):
information it's a lot, like weposted end of... we're recording
this in June. So we're coming upto end of financial year. And
for women who are earning underlike 47,000, or they are part
time workers or theirstay-at-home mums, they
contribute an extra $1,000 totheir super, they'll get free
(33:34):
$500 from the government. Soit's these little things that
like I'm like, it's reallyimportant that you know this.
How do I get you to engage withthis information? So we're
always thinking, "Okay, how dowe make this share? How do we
actually make this relevant andinteresting and accessible?"
Sarah Spence (33:51):
And I think I mean, you've been doing that
from the start. Right?
Molly Benjamin (33:53):
Yeah.
Sarah Spence (33:55):
I think that served you so well, because your
following does keep growing andyour business keeps growing,
which is awesome. And I thinkyou have also written that wave
from what I can see of the shiftin the Meta Instagram...the Meta
algorithm, sorry, to continue tocreate content that actually is
(34:18):
engaging and is getting seen inthe feeds as well.
Molly Benjamin (34:22):
Yeah, and I definitely think we focus on
like value and education.Sometimes I think probably a
little bit too much, but wedon't really use it that much as
a place to sell. It's very muchlike, this is information we all
need to learn. But yeah,probably speak to experts or
yeah, you need to sell more. Butanyway...
Sarah Spence (34:42):
What's one of the areas of marketing that you're
keen to explore in the future?
Molly Benjamin (34:47):
I love video. My sister's a viral video maker and
I'm always like, "We need tomake more video." So I would
love to do more video,especially on Tik-Tok. It's a
time suck, but I love it. Andthen the other piece is probably
(35:08):
just around YouTube, I'd love toexplore more YouTube and
Tik-Tok, I would love to makethose my new focuses, but also
getting quite obsessed withchatGPT as well. And just the
world that it has opened up asfar as content and I'd heard a
(35:28):
guy speak at an AI conference acouple of weeks ago and he's
like, "People are going to be intwo boats, they're going to be
creating with AI or they'regoing to be consuming with AI."
And we don't want to beconsuming, we want to be
creating. Okay, good. I keepremembering that when I get like
stuck in like these Tik-Tokalgorithm and you're like, "What
(35:49):
am I watching?" Oh, how to makechicken chilli con carne. Great.
Even though I went on there tolook at some budgeting videos.
So yeah, I think I'm quiteexcited about Tik-Tok and
YouTube.
Sarah Spence (36:01):
Yeah, awesome. And video is definitely the future.
We were looking at some videostuff the other day. We do
videos as part of what we offerand the more recent stats all
around the engagement and alsothe retention of information of
video versus....and video with ahuman not just text but video
(36:21):
with a human deliveringinformation is just so much
Molly Benjamin (36:24):
Yeah, so cool, And especially with what we're
greater.
seeing with AI like the otherday I saw...I mean, I did it on
Canva. It wasn't very good. Ilook like a Barbie doll who just
had like their wisdom teethtaken out. I AI'd myself and I
was like, "Hello, what are yourmoney believes?" Anyway, it
didn't look good. But I was likethe future is coming. And I
could actually what I've seen onother platforms is you can
(36:46):
change your language as well. SoI could be French, I could be a
Kardashian. I could be Arabic, Icould be speaking Arabic, like
it was just crazy what you canactually do and what that means
for your business as well. Andcourses and things like that.
Sarah Spence (36:58):
I just saw a deep fake this morning. That was
Arnold Schwarzenegger as Elaineand the soup character from
Seinfeld. It was a deep fakewhere both of them were played
by Arnie. And it was I mean,that's just a funny application.
But yeah, we're into a whole newworld. Which brings us to our
final question that we're askingeveryone, the chatGPT, do you
(37:21):
see it as a friend, a foe or aflash in the pan?
Molly Benjamin (37:24):
Oh, absolute friend. It's going to change...I
think... a guy explained itreally well at this AI
conference. He's like, "Well,when the first iPhone came out,
and it was like this clunkything. Apps didn't really work.
It was a bit dodgy. But it wasthe base." And now look where
we're at. I think we're at like,the first iPhone version. And
(37:46):
it's going to completely changethe way the world works, but
also hoping that legislation cankeep up as well. And like laws
can keep up because it alsocomes with issues that we don't
even know exist.
Sarah Spence (38:00):
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, just even the privacy,
data stuff. And it's a fantastictool. But of course for many
businesses, rightfully so, andparticularly large brands are
very wary of it. Because whenyou put information into it,
there's no guarantee that it iscontainerized and not able to be
then retrieved by other placesand other people, even though
(38:24):
it's meant to keep it safe. Butit's all sitting on a single
server and you don't know that,of course. So it's a complicated
territory. But yes, I'm excitedabout the future with it, too.
Before we finish up, I guess Ijust have to ask, and perhaps
we're ending kind of close towhere we started. But you strike
me as someone who has theconfidence to say, "Yeah, I
(38:44):
don't know that. So I'm going tolearn about it." And I feel like
I have that mindset too. But Ididn't always and it was
actually a turning point wasbeing okay with not knowing
that's really helped me to growmy business. I wonder if that's
something you felt too.
Molly Benjamin (39:00):
Yeah. I mean, it's funny, like, I just wrote a
book on finance. And I'm stilllike, "Oh, I don't know anything
about money." We're hard onourselves and we never feel like
we know everything and the worldof finance is so massive, you
just won't. But I think that wasthe whole basis of me starting
(39:21):
my company was like, so from theget go, I've been like, I'm not
the expert, but we're gonnabring in the experts. We're
gonna bring in the best experts,and we're gonna break it down
together and you'll hear, I'vegot you. We're in this space
together, as opposed to me goinglike.... and it was for a little
while where I really felt thatimposter syndrome where I'm
like, "Who am I to talk aboutmoney?" I have got no money in
(39:45):
my bank account back then. Ithink my women have
definitely... that's whatthey've liked. They've liked
that I'm so open with it becauselike, majority of them are in
the same situation as me,because we learnt three blind
mice on the recorder, we didn'tlearn how to do our tax, which
(40:05):
would have been a lot morehelpful.
Sarah Spence (40:09):
That would have been so much more helpful. Hey,
proper, actual financialeducation, that would have made
such a big difference to me as ateenager and a young adult. But
here we are now, learning it alltogether. Thanks to Molly
Benjamin and the Ladies FinanceClub.
Now, you know, marketing may beabout getting sales in the door,
(40:31):
but as business owners, familymembers, even just being adults
in an adult world, knowing howto save and when and where to
spend is paramount, not just tohaving a successful business,
but also a successful life.
Thanks for joining me on thisjourney. If you want to stay
(40:53):
rebellious in how you practicemarketing, how you show up in
your workplace and how you liveyour life, please subscribe to
the Content Rebels wherever youlisten to your podcasts. This
podcast was recorded on Awabakaland Darkinjung country. Produced
by Pod and Pen Productions.
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