April 16, 2025 • 20 mins
This week we're advocating for the unsung heroes of the corporate world – EAs, PAs, and Assistants, you know the people who do it all – with practical tips on how to showcase your true value beyond "just" scheduling. Plus, the definitive guide to work trip etiquette (can your partner tag along in the company-paid hotel?), and Michelle reveals exactly when new business owners should make their big announcement.
Welcome to BIZ Inbox, where Em Vernem and Michelle Battersby turn your anonymous workplace questions into actionable advice. Think of us as your career group chat. Consider this your chance to get free career advice from people who've been there.
Writer and podcaster Em Vernem teams up with entrepreneur Michelle Battersby to tackle your trickiest workplace dilemmas.
If you want your work life issue solved, send us a voice note or email us at podcast@mamamia.com.au.
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HOSTS: Michelle Battersby and Em Vernem
EXEC PRODUCER: Georgie Page
AUDIO PRODUCER: Leah Porges
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to Amma mea podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hello, and welcome to biz Inbox.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
I'm m Vernon and I'm Michelle Battersbee.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
And these episodes are kind of like ask us anythings.
It's your chance to get free career advice from mission.
So if you can learn how to navigate those tricky colleagues,
and you can also just get information from a gun
entrepreneur like Mish about your business or you know what,
sometimes you can even just let loose and bitch about
your boss. We know that those are the questions that
(00:43):
we definitely want to be hearing from you. And the
best part is you can do this while being completely anonymous.
We will not say your name if you don't want us.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
To love it. M.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
This week, we have a question that small business owners
always ask. Plus we're getting into the etiquette of work trips.
I've got a juicy story on this and advocating for
some of the hardest working people in every company, the
wonderful eas.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
So I want to start with the EA question because
it's really interesting to me. And we got this from
Ali in Inbox and she says, Hey, ladies, love love
the pod. I'm an EA for a large financial firm,
and I'd love to hear how I can make some
of the execs I work with see the value of
my role. My boss is fantastic and allows me to
(01:36):
work on or lead bigger projects, which I have done successfully,
but everyone seems to see these as my boss's success
and not my own. Other bosses see me as just
a note taker and meeting scheduler. How do I show
people that my role is crucial to the success of
my exec and the business when they don't see all
the work I do behind the scenes. Mish, Have you
(01:59):
ever been in that like EA position or have you
had an EA?
Speaker 4 (02:03):
I've never had an EA, but my very first like
proper job was when I worked in a big investment
bank as an HR generalist and I started as an
intern actually, and I remember when I was doing my internship,
the person who was kind of like my buddy or
like responsible for me and.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Looked after me.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
I remember her taking me onto the trading floor one
day and she was like, I'm going to introduce you
to the most important person on this floor. And I'm thinking, like, okay,
you know, it's probably the head of the department or something.
And it was the EA of the head of the department,
and she taught me such a valuable lesson. She basically said, like,
don't fuck with the EAS because they're really the most
powerful people in this building because they kind of control
(02:47):
the access to those like critical stakeholders who are making decisions,
and if they like you, they'll prioritize you and help
you like get in front of these sorts of people
and like actually advocate for you as well.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
And if they don't like.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
You, you know, that could actually like slow you down
a little bit.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
I found this question interesting.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
I think my tips here are tips that anyone is
really able to apply in any kind of role, though,
because this is ultimately about exposure. I think what's unique
about the role of the EA is that sometimes, yeah,
it may feel like their work is behind someone else.
(03:31):
And so I thought it was interesting with this question,
how it sounds like she's got a really good relationship
with the person that she works for. I would kind
of start by actually sharing this with them, because it
really is also their job to advocate for their EA
and to make sure that their value is seen and
(03:53):
that it doesn't feel like they are taking praise for
all of their work behind the scenes. Starting there is
probably a good option even if you're in those meetings,
like you're in very important rooms involved in really big conversations,
and I think that's also an opportunity to make your
knowledge and your expertise known and seen as well, Like
(04:16):
wherever it's appropriate for you to kind of make a
comment or ask a question, I think that's a great
way to show that you know your shit and you're
on your game. I also think looking at ways to
cross collaborate is a really good way to gain exposure
and to show what you're doing to other sorts of people.
(04:36):
So working with other eas where you can and kind
of advocating for one another. Another idea is content Like
it also kind of depends what sort of exposure and
recognition is she looking for, you know, like is it internal,
is it external? Is she trying to better her career?
(04:57):
Is she trying to go for a promotion? So I
think what she tackles first could also be based on,
you know, what she's really trying to achieve here. If
there's any way for her to showcase her work internally
with any kind of communication tools that you're using, or
notice boards, or even if it's just linked in, like
talking about what you're proud of as a way to
(05:18):
show your work another thing that came to mind. I've
got many thoughts, it seems. It made me think of
an episode that we did with SOF where soph was
talking about the way that you can show your value
in your performance reviews and in this question she mentioned
people see me as like a scheduler I think, or
whatever the word she used was, And it's about showing
(05:42):
the value and showing how hard it.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Was for you to even just coordinate something.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
So if you're doing a wrap up of your work,
it's not just like scheduled X meeting, it's coordinated really
difficult calendars across four major stakeholders. Managed to get this
in the diary, which achieved X, you know, and really
digging a little bit deeper into what it is you've
actually pulled off to highlight that it's a skill that's
(06:07):
so good.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
And I think you're right, like those tips can be
applied for any job, like not necessarily eas but I
know that every EA I know has gone on to
be so successful and land their dream job, and I
feel like that conversation should be really easy for Allie
to have with a boss. Because she's already been giving
those big, trustworthy projects for her to work on, and
(06:30):
I feel like she's in a really good position.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
Yeah, and it sounds like she has a good relationship
with her boss who really values her. They might just
not even be realizing that she feels like she's not
getting that exposure, and it could be a really easy
conversation to have, to be honest.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
The next question is about overseas work trips.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Miss.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
I know you have a really good story, so Larissa
actually gave us a brilliant review on Spotify. Thank you
so much, Larissa, And she commented, is it appropriate to
bring your partner to overseas work trips if they are
booking their own flights but staying in the hotel paid
for by the company, then extending the work trip to
a personal trip and paying your way home. This question
(07:12):
is so interesting to me because my mum, whenever she
went overseas for work, she'd always bring either me, my sister,
or my dad, like, no questions asked, But whenever I
go on a work trip, my parents ask, oh, do
you think one of us can tag along?
Speaker 4 (07:26):
I'm like no, I was gonna ask, like, what is
your take on this, like, do you think it's play
on to do that?
Speaker 2 (07:35):
I think it depends on what kind of work trip
it is, because the ones that I would go on
at Mum and mea would be like a packed itinerary.
And it also depends on the person you want to bring,
because I feel like if I were to bring my mom,
she'd be like, yeah, cool, I'll just stay in the
hotel room. I'll do my own thing like you do
your thing, whereas my dad would expect to be entertained.
(07:57):
And I think it's like depending on the person you bring,
whether they think it's like they need to treat it
like a solo holiday.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
I think one hundred percent I completely agree with you,
And honestly.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
That's the answer.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
Like in this situation, to me, like the example that
Larissa sent through, it sounds totally fine to me, Like
it sounds like you're not taking advantage of your employer
in a new way. I love seeing people make the
most of their company travel and like, one hundred percent,
go and do something personal after you've completed the work.
(08:30):
I think where it can get a bit tricky is
around the context of the trip.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
So we did a.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
Company retreat at Sunroom and it was a three day retreat.
It was just in Palm Springs, where based in LA
so it's, you know, a couple of hours drive away.
We booked a house where our whole team we're going
to be staying in the house. It was three days
packed itinery. The goal of doing this retreat was to
launch our product at.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
The end of it.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
So it was like high stakes, intense work, but also
really good bonding experience. And an employee asked to break
her boyfriend and that is not really an appropriate situation
to bring like a personal friend or family member into
when the company are all staying under one roof jam
(09:22):
packed every hour of the day is kind of full.
It's not like you're leaving the country or having to
go too far from work. And there's also like not
really that much to do there, so it kind of
just feels like the person would maybe just be hanging
around and like involved in this one external party that
would have created a bit of an awkward environment for
(09:43):
everyone else.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
And just eating your snacks inside a class of your
company and.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
Like the only person sitting at the dinner table at
the end of these quite intense days. So I think
you need to apply some thought around like if this
contextually feels like the right time to bring someone in
and we'll be able to go off and explore by themselves,
or will they be crossing paths with everyone else in
(10:12):
the team and like kind of off to the side
in this team bonding environment.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
That does change the dynamic.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
That's a good one. I think it's if they're going
to be bumping into your colleagues, it's a.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
No, yeah, yep.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
And I also think it's like, if you're going overseas,
then you're definitely taking a bit of a bigger sacrifice,
like spending time away from your family, and maybe you're
not that comfortable heading overseas by yourself, or being in
a different country, different culture. Maybe that scares you a
little bit, Maybe that gives you anxiety. So I can
(10:46):
kind of understand like maybe wanting to travel with someone else,
But I think, yeah, when it's like local and quite intimate,
then like that also changes things a bit.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
So coming up after the break, we have so many
questions about listeners wanting to start their own businesses. Don't
know how, but I'm really excited to learn. And Belle
has a really interesting question about exactly how to get
that all started. We will find out after the break.
(11:21):
So mis Bell emailed us and if you want to
email us a question for biz Inbox, you can find
out exactly how in our show notes. And she said
that she started a small business making baby products and asked,
how soon can I announce that I have a small business.
I feel like I should wait until I have some success,
but I'm dying to spill the beans. I think about
(11:44):
this question a lot, like I've never started my own business,
so I don't know why I think about it a lot,
but I always think about how there's been so many
times where I wanted to start something or try to
start something, and I feel a bit like Megie Markle,
where I just like announcement after announcement and no.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
Delivery, no delivery.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Oh like there's no jam.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Okay, it's just announcing, announcing, announcing, and then maybe five
years later there'll be a jam.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
I'm actually so gutted it preserves, by the way.
Speaker 5 (12:11):
MS Sugar, the Preserves sold out in I think it
was an hour because we could do a whole episode
on Mean Meghan Sussex.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Also, by the way, but I am.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
I actually want you and soph to do a full
business analysis on what's their website. The Archibalds like that
whole website, like every little side project from both them.
Speaker 4 (12:36):
Well, I do know what you mean, because influencers in
particular like also get paid out when they're like coming soon.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Can't share too much more.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
I've been working on something exciting and everyone's like, oh,
come on, like.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
Just tell us what it is.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
I do think it's something that you shouldn't just like
flippantly announce, like some thought should definitely go into it.
But I think you also need to ask yourself, like,
where is the fear if I'm feel scared to share?
Why am I feeling scared? And I think if you're
scared because you don't think it's good enough or you
(13:12):
don't think it's successful enough yet, that is not a
good enough reason to not announce it. So I think
like trying to dig into what is holding you back
or maybe like what's also potentially making you want to
jump the gun. But in all honesty, I don't think
there is much to lose at all in just putting.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
It out there.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
In my experience, there's really only things to gain. I
think what you need to be sure of before you share,
is that this is one hundred percent something that you
are pursuing, Like you're not just going to say you're
doing something and in a month it's off the to
the cliff, like it's done, you know, and then maybe
you'll go again, and like you might lose a bit
(13:55):
of credibility, people might not take you too seriously. So
I think you need to make sure it's definitely something
that you're passionate about your solving a problem and you
are going to start to build a solution to that problem.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
So I think you can do.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
Some validating in private, like checking that you're you know,
you think you're onto something here the problem exists. I
think we've done like a whole episode on this already,
or like I've written a newsletter about ways you can
validate your idea. I think you just want to check
you're onto something and you're going to pursue it, and
then I honestly think start talking about it because you
(14:31):
really want to get feedback from people fast and hard,
you know, like you want to hear from people outside
of your circle, like if they are into this, if
they've got feedback on your product, like you might be
able to seek investment by just sharing your story, Like
there's that saying, you know, build in public and it
(14:51):
really helps. Like before Sunroom was a thing, we'd spent
maybe two months validating the idea privately amongst our network
and then asking our network to introduce us to other people,
been running surveys, we'd been designing our product, and we
felt like we had something that was maybe good enough
(15:12):
to show investors and ask them to give us money
for it. And so I went out of my Instagram
stories announced Hey, I'm starting this company called Sunroom. It's
a create a monetization platform. I'm back in Sydney at
the moment because I'm speaking to investors, and off the
back of those stories, I had people reply saying can
I meet and chat with you about this? Like sounds interesting?
(15:33):
Had funds reached out to me saying would love to
get you in for a meeting.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
So like, if I hadn't.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
Just bitten the bullet and done that, I wouldn't have
been able to raise the money to be honest and
get a lot of introductions. And I definitely felt scared
doing that because I thought, oh my god, like what
if this product fails, Like we haven't even built it
yet like it could be a complete flop, but any
business can be a complete flop at any moment in
(15:59):
the journey. So I kind of don't feel like you
have that much to lose, to be honest in just
like bringing people along for the ride, because it brings
people into your story as well, and you can gain
allies and you can gain your first users because people
like like to watch the journey.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
That's so interesting. And also I have a bit of
a follow up question because you have like your personal
profile is a public profile, and then I wanted to know, like,
how did you navigate kind of announcing Sunroom on your
socials after the actual product or was it kind of
alongside like as you were going building the product, were
(16:37):
you we announcing it and then did you launch the
Sunroom Instagram and the newsletter alongside that or was there
a particular like step by step in your mind as
you did these things.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Yeah, so that's a good question.
Speaker 4 (16:48):
From the moment I went out on my socials and
shared I was founding this new company, I made sure
that we'd set up an Instagram account and I linked
it in those stories because I thought, you know, if
anyone's like liking the sound of this, I may as
well capitalize on it right now and get them to
go and follow the account.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
And that actually.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
Worked so well because I was able to push quite
a lot of people over to that account before we
even had anything to show for ourselves, and so it
made us look like a bit more of a legit brand.
I guess you're about to hear like where the risks
can come in and this is potentially unique. But it
(17:28):
then ended up taking us a whole year to actually
build Sunroom. So we like closed our first round maybe
in like January twenty twenty one, and we didn't launch
Sunroom as a platform until February twenty twenty two because
there ended up being a lot of technology in our
app that was first time, Like we've got some patents
(17:52):
and things were being done for the first time, and
it was actually really hard, and that was honestly probably
like the most hard on my co founder and I
like we personally kind of felt like failures for a
whole year because we couldn't get this product out of
the gate and it was just taking so long. And
(18:12):
a part of how we raised money was I went
out and recruited one hundred founding creators. You know, we
could show investors We've got these like huge names who
were down to use our product, and then I basically
had to keep them warm for a whole year, Yeah,
and like give them kind of updates on where things
were at.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
And that at times is kind of.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
What made me feel like a bit of a failure
and made me feel like maybe people were like losing
trust and losing faith in me. But at the end
of the day, like we didn't really end up losing
that many people because of our delays. It was just
like a big learning for me, I think and Lucy,
my co founder, Like we just underestimated the complexity of
(18:58):
our product. And I also mentioned this in another episode.
We could have launched with like half the features we
launched with. We were just too perfectionisty. It's first time
found our mistakes like everything that we did. But again,
I would never have changed telling people that I was
launching this product because like it helped us make money,
(19:19):
it helped us recruit all those creators, Like it actually
all played out like how it kind of needed to be,
and we got there in the end. It's just like
launching any business is hard and so many things blow
up in your face that you just can't possibly predict.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Yeah, that's so interesting that you say that, because I
feel like, because you were in it, you felt it more.
But it did not feel like a whole year. Like
when you said it was a whole year. That like
surprised me because it didn't feel like that at all.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
Yeah, and like we were still making progress.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
So like what I was sharing on my socials was
just about the progress that we were making. Like, you
create the narrative yourself, Like you choose what you're going
to show to people. So what I would choose to
show was putting a bow on the little winds that
we were having. But like internally, like it was a
(20:09):
fucking battle, but like you have to develop resilience and
grit as a founder, and like that was kind of
the first taste of it for us. Thanks so much
for helping us clear the biz inbox. If you've got
a work question, send it our way. You'll find a
link to subbit your questions in the.
Speaker 5 (20:27):
Show notes and Mish.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
You and So did an amazing episode that dropped on
Tuesday about how to email like a man as a
chronic people pleaser. That one was really hard to listen to,
but I've been trying my best. You'll be happy to
know we will be back in the biz in box
next week.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Bye bye, Mamma.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Maya acknowledges the traditional owners of land and waters that
this podcast is recorded on
You're listening to Amma mea podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hello, and welcome to biz Inbox.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
I'm m Vernon and I'm Michelle Battersbee.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
And these episodes are kind of like ask us anythings.
It's your chance to get free career advice from mission.
So if you can learn how to navigate those tricky colleagues,
and you can also just get information from a gun
entrepreneur like Mish about your business or you know what,
sometimes you can even just let loose and bitch about
your boss. We know that those are the questions that
(00:43):
we definitely want to be hearing from you. And the
best part is you can do this while being completely anonymous.
We will not say your name if you don't want us.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
To love it. M.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
This week, we have a question that small business owners
always ask. Plus we're getting into the etiquette of work trips.
I've got a juicy story on this and advocating for
some of the hardest working people in every company, the
wonderful eas.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
So I want to start with the EA question because
it's really interesting to me. And we got this from
Ali in Inbox and she says, Hey, ladies, love love
the pod. I'm an EA for a large financial firm,
and I'd love to hear how I can make some
of the execs I work with see the value of
my role. My boss is fantastic and allows me to
(01:36):
work on or lead bigger projects, which I have done successfully,
but everyone seems to see these as my boss's success
and not my own. Other bosses see me as just
a note taker and meeting scheduler. How do I show
people that my role is crucial to the success of
my exec and the business when they don't see all
the work I do behind the scenes. Mish, Have you
(01:59):
ever been in that like EA position or have you
had an EA?
Speaker 4 (02:03):
I've never had an EA, but my very first like
proper job was when I worked in a big investment
bank as an HR generalist and I started as an
intern actually, and I remember when I was doing my internship,
the person who was kind of like my buddy or
like responsible for me and.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Looked after me.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
I remember her taking me onto the trading floor one
day and she was like, I'm going to introduce you
to the most important person on this floor. And I'm thinking, like, okay,
you know, it's probably the head of the department or something.
And it was the EA of the head of the department,
and she taught me such a valuable lesson. She basically said, like,
don't fuck with the EAS because they're really the most
powerful people in this building because they kind of control
(02:47):
the access to those like critical stakeholders who are making decisions,
and if they like you, they'll prioritize you and help
you like get in front of these sorts of people
and like actually advocate for you as well.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
And if they don't like.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
You, you know, that could actually like slow you down
a little bit.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
I found this question interesting.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
I think my tips here are tips that anyone is
really able to apply in any kind of role, though,
because this is ultimately about exposure. I think what's unique
about the role of the EA is that sometimes, yeah,
it may feel like their work is behind someone else.
(03:31):
And so I thought it was interesting with this question,
how it sounds like she's got a really good relationship
with the person that she works for. I would kind
of start by actually sharing this with them, because it
really is also their job to advocate for their EA
and to make sure that their value is seen and
(03:53):
that it doesn't feel like they are taking praise for
all of their work behind the scenes. Starting there is
probably a good option even if you're in those meetings,
like you're in very important rooms involved in really big conversations,
and I think that's also an opportunity to make your
knowledge and your expertise known and seen as well, Like
(04:16):
wherever it's appropriate for you to kind of make a
comment or ask a question, I think that's a great
way to show that you know your shit and you're
on your game. I also think looking at ways to
cross collaborate is a really good way to gain exposure
and to show what you're doing to other sorts of people.
(04:36):
So working with other eas where you can and kind
of advocating for one another. Another idea is content Like
it also kind of depends what sort of exposure and
recognition is she looking for, you know, like is it internal,
is it external? Is she trying to better her career?
(04:57):
Is she trying to go for a promotion? So I
think what she tackles first could also be based on,
you know, what she's really trying to achieve here. If
there's any way for her to showcase her work internally
with any kind of communication tools that you're using, or
notice boards, or even if it's just linked in, like
talking about what you're proud of as a way to
(05:18):
show your work another thing that came to mind. I've
got many thoughts, it seems. It made me think of
an episode that we did with SOF where soph was
talking about the way that you can show your value
in your performance reviews and in this question she mentioned
people see me as like a scheduler I think, or
whatever the word she used was, And it's about showing
(05:42):
the value and showing how hard it.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Was for you to even just coordinate something.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
So if you're doing a wrap up of your work,
it's not just like scheduled X meeting, it's coordinated really
difficult calendars across four major stakeholders. Managed to get this
in the diary, which achieved X, you know, and really
digging a little bit deeper into what it is you've
actually pulled off to highlight that it's a skill that's
(06:07):
so good.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
And I think you're right, like those tips can be
applied for any job, like not necessarily eas but I
know that every EA I know has gone on to
be so successful and land their dream job, and I
feel like that conversation should be really easy for Allie
to have with a boss. Because she's already been giving
those big, trustworthy projects for her to work on, and
(06:30):
I feel like she's in a really good position.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
Yeah, and it sounds like she has a good relationship
with her boss who really values her. They might just
not even be realizing that she feels like she's not
getting that exposure, and it could be a really easy
conversation to have, to be honest.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
The next question is about overseas work trips.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Miss.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
I know you have a really good story, so Larissa
actually gave us a brilliant review on Spotify. Thank you
so much, Larissa, And she commented, is it appropriate to
bring your partner to overseas work trips if they are
booking their own flights but staying in the hotel paid
for by the company, then extending the work trip to
a personal trip and paying your way home. This question
(07:12):
is so interesting to me because my mum, whenever she
went overseas for work, she'd always bring either me, my sister,
or my dad, like, no questions asked, But whenever I
go on a work trip, my parents ask, oh, do
you think one of us can tag along?
Speaker 4 (07:26):
I'm like no, I was gonna ask, like, what is
your take on this, like, do you think it's play
on to do that?
Speaker 2 (07:35):
I think it depends on what kind of work trip
it is, because the ones that I would go on
at Mum and mea would be like a packed itinerary.
And it also depends on the person you want to bring,
because I feel like if I were to bring my mom,
she'd be like, yeah, cool, I'll just stay in the
hotel room. I'll do my own thing like you do
your thing, whereas my dad would expect to be entertained.
(07:57):
And I think it's like depending on the person you bring,
whether they think it's like they need to treat it
like a solo holiday.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
I think one hundred percent I completely agree with you,
And honestly.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
That's the answer.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
Like in this situation, to me, like the example that
Larissa sent through, it sounds totally fine to me, Like
it sounds like you're not taking advantage of your employer
in a new way. I love seeing people make the
most of their company travel and like, one hundred percent,
go and do something personal after you've completed the work.
(08:30):
I think where it can get a bit tricky is
around the context of the trip.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
So we did a.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
Company retreat at Sunroom and it was a three day retreat.
It was just in Palm Springs, where based in LA
so it's, you know, a couple of hours drive away.
We booked a house where our whole team we're going
to be staying in the house. It was three days
packed itinery. The goal of doing this retreat was to
launch our product at.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
The end of it.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
So it was like high stakes, intense work, but also
really good bonding experience. And an employee asked to break
her boyfriend and that is not really an appropriate situation
to bring like a personal friend or family member into
when the company are all staying under one roof jam
(09:22):
packed every hour of the day is kind of full.
It's not like you're leaving the country or having to
go too far from work. And there's also like not
really that much to do there, so it kind of
just feels like the person would maybe just be hanging
around and like involved in this one external party that
would have created a bit of an awkward environment for
(09:43):
everyone else.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
And just eating your snacks inside a class of your
company and.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
Like the only person sitting at the dinner table at
the end of these quite intense days. So I think
you need to apply some thought around like if this
contextually feels like the right time to bring someone in
and we'll be able to go off and explore by themselves,
or will they be crossing paths with everyone else in
(10:12):
the team and like kind of off to the side
in this team bonding environment.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
That does change the dynamic.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
That's a good one. I think it's if they're going
to be bumping into your colleagues, it's a.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
No, yeah, yep.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
And I also think it's like, if you're going overseas,
then you're definitely taking a bit of a bigger sacrifice,
like spending time away from your family, and maybe you're
not that comfortable heading overseas by yourself, or being in
a different country, different culture. Maybe that scares you a
little bit, Maybe that gives you anxiety. So I can
(10:46):
kind of understand like maybe wanting to travel with someone else,
But I think, yeah, when it's like local and quite intimate,
then like that also changes things a bit.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
So coming up after the break, we have so many
questions about listeners wanting to start their own businesses. Don't
know how, but I'm really excited to learn. And Belle
has a really interesting question about exactly how to get
that all started. We will find out after the break.
(11:21):
So mis Bell emailed us and if you want to
email us a question for biz Inbox, you can find
out exactly how in our show notes. And she said
that she started a small business making baby products and asked,
how soon can I announce that I have a small business.
I feel like I should wait until I have some success,
but I'm dying to spill the beans. I think about
(11:44):
this question a lot, like I've never started my own business,
so I don't know why I think about it a lot,
but I always think about how there's been so many
times where I wanted to start something or try to
start something, and I feel a bit like Megie Markle,
where I just like announcement after announcement and no.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
Delivery, no delivery.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Oh like there's no jam.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Okay, it's just announcing, announcing, announcing, and then maybe five
years later there'll be a jam.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
I'm actually so gutted it preserves, by the way.
Speaker 5 (12:11):
MS Sugar, the Preserves sold out in I think it
was an hour because we could do a whole episode
on Mean Meghan Sussex.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Also, by the way, but I am.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
I actually want you and soph to do a full
business analysis on what's their website. The Archibalds like that
whole website, like every little side project from both them.
Speaker 4 (12:36):
Well, I do know what you mean, because influencers in
particular like also get paid out when they're like coming soon.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Can't share too much more.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
I've been working on something exciting and everyone's like, oh,
come on, like.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
Just tell us what it is.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
I do think it's something that you shouldn't just like
flippantly announce, like some thought should definitely go into it.
But I think you also need to ask yourself, like,
where is the fear if I'm feel scared to share?
Why am I feeling scared? And I think if you're
scared because you don't think it's good enough or you
(13:12):
don't think it's successful enough yet, that is not a
good enough reason to not announce it. So I think
like trying to dig into what is holding you back
or maybe like what's also potentially making you want to
jump the gun. But in all honesty, I don't think
there is much to lose at all in just putting.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
It out there.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
In my experience, there's really only things to gain. I
think what you need to be sure of before you share,
is that this is one hundred percent something that you
are pursuing, Like you're not just going to say you're
doing something and in a month it's off the to
the cliff, like it's done, you know, and then maybe
you'll go again, and like you might lose a bit
(13:55):
of credibility, people might not take you too seriously. So
I think you need to make sure it's definitely something
that you're passionate about your solving a problem and you
are going to start to build a solution to that problem.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
So I think you can do.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
Some validating in private, like checking that you're you know,
you think you're onto something here the problem exists. I
think we've done like a whole episode on this already,
or like I've written a newsletter about ways you can
validate your idea. I think you just want to check
you're onto something and you're going to pursue it, and
then I honestly think start talking about it because you
(14:31):
really want to get feedback from people fast and hard,
you know, like you want to hear from people outside
of your circle, like if they are into this, if
they've got feedback on your product, like you might be
able to seek investment by just sharing your story, Like
there's that saying, you know, build in public and it
(14:51):
really helps. Like before Sunroom was a thing, we'd spent
maybe two months validating the idea privately amongst our network
and then asking our network to introduce us to other people,
been running surveys, we'd been designing our product, and we
felt like we had something that was maybe good enough
(15:12):
to show investors and ask them to give us money
for it. And so I went out of my Instagram
stories announced Hey, I'm starting this company called Sunroom. It's
a create a monetization platform. I'm back in Sydney at
the moment because I'm speaking to investors, and off the
back of those stories, I had people reply saying can
I meet and chat with you about this? Like sounds interesting?
(15:33):
Had funds reached out to me saying would love to
get you in for a meeting.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
So like, if I hadn't.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
Just bitten the bullet and done that, I wouldn't have
been able to raise the money to be honest and
get a lot of introductions. And I definitely felt scared
doing that because I thought, oh my god, like what
if this product fails, Like we haven't even built it
yet like it could be a complete flop, but any
business can be a complete flop at any moment in
(15:59):
the journey. So I kind of don't feel like you
have that much to lose, to be honest in just
like bringing people along for the ride, because it brings
people into your story as well, and you can gain
allies and you can gain your first users because people
like like to watch the journey.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
That's so interesting. And also I have a bit of
a follow up question because you have like your personal
profile is a public profile, and then I wanted to know, like,
how did you navigate kind of announcing Sunroom on your
socials after the actual product or was it kind of
alongside like as you were going building the product, were
(16:37):
you we announcing it and then did you launch the
Sunroom Instagram and the newsletter alongside that or was there
a particular like step by step in your mind as
you did these things.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Yeah, so that's a good question.
Speaker 4 (16:48):
From the moment I went out on my socials and
shared I was founding this new company, I made sure
that we'd set up an Instagram account and I linked
it in those stories because I thought, you know, if
anyone's like liking the sound of this, I may as
well capitalize on it right now and get them to
go and follow the account.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
And that actually.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
Worked so well because I was able to push quite
a lot of people over to that account before we
even had anything to show for ourselves, and so it
made us look like a bit more of a legit brand.
I guess you're about to hear like where the risks
can come in and this is potentially unique. But it
(17:28):
then ended up taking us a whole year to actually
build Sunroom. So we like closed our first round maybe
in like January twenty twenty one, and we didn't launch
Sunroom as a platform until February twenty twenty two because
there ended up being a lot of technology in our
app that was first time, Like we've got some patents
(17:52):
and things were being done for the first time, and
it was actually really hard, and that was honestly probably
like the most hard on my co founder and I
like we personally kind of felt like failures for a
whole year because we couldn't get this product out of
the gate and it was just taking so long. And
(18:12):
a part of how we raised money was I went
out and recruited one hundred founding creators. You know, we
could show investors We've got these like huge names who
were down to use our product, and then I basically
had to keep them warm for a whole year, Yeah,
and like give them kind of updates on where things
were at.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
And that at times is kind of.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
What made me feel like a bit of a failure
and made me feel like maybe people were like losing
trust and losing faith in me. But at the end
of the day, like we didn't really end up losing
that many people because of our delays. It was just
like a big learning for me, I think and Lucy,
my co founder, Like we just underestimated the complexity of
(18:58):
our product. And I also mentioned this in another episode.
We could have launched with like half the features we
launched with. We were just too perfectionisty. It's first time
found our mistakes like everything that we did. But again,
I would never have changed telling people that I was
launching this product because like it helped us make money,
(19:19):
it helped us recruit all those creators, Like it actually
all played out like how it kind of needed to be,
and we got there in the end. It's just like
launching any business is hard and so many things blow
up in your face that you just can't possibly predict.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Yeah, that's so interesting that you say that, because I
feel like, because you were in it, you felt it more.
But it did not feel like a whole year. Like
when you said it was a whole year. That like
surprised me because it didn't feel like that at all.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
Yeah, and like we were still making progress.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
So like what I was sharing on my socials was
just about the progress that we were making. Like, you
create the narrative yourself, Like you choose what you're going
to show to people. So what I would choose to
show was putting a bow on the little winds that
we were having. But like internally, like it was a
(20:09):
fucking battle, but like you have to develop resilience and
grit as a founder, and like that was kind of
the first taste of it for us. Thanks so much
for helping us clear the biz inbox. If you've got
a work question, send it our way. You'll find a
link to subbit your questions in the.
Speaker 5 (20:27):
Show notes and Mish.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
You and So did an amazing episode that dropped on
Tuesday about how to email like a man as a
chronic people pleaser. That one was really hard to listen to,
but I've been trying my best. You'll be happy to
know we will be back in the biz in box
next week.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Bye bye, Mamma.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Maya acknowledges the traditional owners of land and waters that
this podcast is recorded on
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