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DAY ONE intro

You're listening to a day one FM show.

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Lucy

Hello and welcome to a very special episode of my Ambition to Start Your Business bootcamp, I'm Lucy Kippist.

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Carrie

And I'm Carrie Kwan. Today we're celebrating the incredible women who joined us in season one. Each of them brought unique insights into what it really takes to start and grow a business. While raising a family.

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Lucy

We'll be sharing some of our favourite moments from their interviews, including audio highlights and reflections on the lessons they shared.

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Claire Waring

And we have the technology available to do this now. So in in years gone by like if I think I have a 14 and a 17 year old now. And so I've been on this mum journey for quite some time. It's frightening where that time has gone. But the changes that I've seen in technology and the ability for women to have both a career or a business and a family life has just grown, I think, exponentially, even in the amount of time that I've had children.I mean, back when I started in, my oldest son was born, there was no such thing as work from home. You were either in the office or you were simply not present and not working and not being able to contribute in any way. Those flexible work arrangements and the notion that you don't have to be in your chair at a desk 24/7 in order to deliver and to thrive at work, is relatively new.

And I think I made that presents a great deal of hope for us, because nobody and this is women and men included, nobody wants to be away from their children 24/7 most of us don't want to be with our children, 24/7. But we don't want to be removed from them. And I think that there is this wonderful opportunity that we have, thanks to technology for a work life blend. That means you can participate in the workforce in a manner and in a way that works for you and your family. Previously, there was really only one way or maybe two ways that that I could say there was part time work or there was full time work. And the sacrifices that full time work, required for you with a family were so great that many women just stepped back for a period of time in their career, and I certainly one.

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Carrie

That leads really nicely, I guess, to what are some of the biggest barriers facing, women entrepreneurs at the moment? And if you could actually change anything about the world of small business and entrepreneurship for women, what would that be?

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Claire

The biggest thing is funding for women, really, that that's what it comes down to. I think being able to access funding and whether that is at a large scale, at a VC scale or whether it's angels or even access to, to loans women typically get, I think is less than 3% of funding for business in Australia. So for women entrepreneurs and in fact, I think it's far less than 3% this year, unfortunately, that access to capital and funding, so that they can grow their businesses so that they can continue to run their businesses is really important. That would definitely be the number one thing.

Carrie

What's that one piece of advice that you wish you had received about, prioritisation or harmonising your life and business early on?

Claire

Yeah. Look, this is a piece of advice that. I have already had that I already knew. But I think that I, perhaps shouldn't emphasise it or take it as seriously I could, and that is that it's a marathon, not a sprint. I think that's really important when it comes to business and to building your own business, because it takes time to build your own business. And I think that there at times with Gether, we've gone really fast and we've worked really, really hard on it for, for the past two years. But it is it is an exhausting thing. And I think because there are no formal holidays when it comes to entrepreneurship, you know, there's not the four weeks a year and there's not, you know, there's not those formal structures in place. It's really easy to be all about the business all the time. And if you want to stay in it, if you want to be in it for the long haul, you do have to take breaks and you do have to, have to pace it like a marathon, I think. And I think I have never found the perfect balance without, in fact, that balance.

What is always terrible or even the perfect blend with that. But it in my experience so far, it really is a marathon, not a sprint.

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Lucy

Clare's passion for community is infectious. She built Gether with her empathy at it’s core.

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Carrie

And she showed us that tech doesn't have to be impersonal. She's constantly pushing the boundaries of technology to deliver impactful and forward thinking ideas.

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Tracy Sheen

The Australian federal government have what they call the Essential eight, which are kind of eight key tips that they recommend all small business owners implement within their business. And some of them, you know, really quite easy and quite quick to do, which is nice. So things like two-factor or multi-factor authentication. So, you know, you absolutely need that switched on particularly all your social media accounts, having a secondary person you can nominate. And if you don’t know how to do it, use ChatGPT. Jump in and prompt it to “How do I do add two factor authentication.” And it will walk you through that. You can do it, and it's going to take you a couple of minutes to do. Once it's done, it's done. And it just gives you that extra layer of security. If you're using Microsoft or Google, chances are you're operating in the cloud. So that's right in one sense that you have your information stored in a cloud based environment, which is typically on encrypted service. That gives you some level of protection. But, you know, as always, taught early on have the old triplicate. So I have something stored in the cloud, have something stored locally, and then have a paper based or a localized based, storage as well. So I think it's just being aware.

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Lucy

What AI tools do you recommend to enhance online presence? I suppose we're talking about branding here around me, like personal branding, but even probably just the churning out of the social media stuff.

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Tracy Sheen

The biggest and quickest win you can do is learn how to prompt. So choose an llm. And by that, I made a large language model. So that could be ChatGPT. It could be Microsoft Copilot. Could be Google Gemini. It could be code. It could be perplexity. It doesn't matter. They all operate the same. And if you can learn how to interact with those systems, your life will change in a good way. And if you don't know what to ask, the biggest tip, ask it what to ask. You know, that's ridiculous. But if you say, I need to write this blog, I need to do a Facebook post. I don't know where to start. It will then come back and kind of go, okay, here you go. And then you can start to drill in. Okay, well, ask me what you need to know in order to help me write that social media post. And it will then go, okay, so tell me about the business. So tell me what you're trying to do, or who do you want to serve or whatever. And you just answer those questions. And the more you interact with that, the better the responses will become.

Mine. I call mine Linus, which is part, geeky, IT joke and part peanuts. Snoopy. Linus, the character the used to drag around a security blanket. Because that's how I feel about my ChatGPT now is I treat it like I used to treat Google. So I check everything with it first. You know, even if I'm in the car, I talk to it now, you know, tell me about what's going on with that. So I would always start there as that. Here's what I'm thinking. Tell me where to kind of start. Then it kind of comes down to me, what do you enjoy doing? Because you've got so many opportunities to create content now. And clients will enjoy receiving your content in different format. So some people like to listen to audio to podcast.

Some people like to watch video, some people still like to read. So you need to kind of drill down and go, okay, I'm going to double down on podcasting. Fantastic. Then find yourself something like cast magic, which is one of my absolute all time favourite AI apps. So cast is in casting a fishing line cast and then magic all one word cast magic and you can upload a podcast, a video or an audio file into it, and it will take it and turn it into a blog, into social media post, into seven tips, frequently asked questions.

You know, whatever you need from there and you can repurpose to your heart's content. Another one I love and is Google Loom, which is a free app through Google. And it is, they call it Google Lm or Google Notebook. And again, you can upload a video or an audio file. And I did this with the upcoming launch of my book. So if you check out the landing page, I created a podcast, a two person podcast. All AI talking about what I'm writing about in the book. So I just added, you know, the overview of the book and then let this thing churn out a podcast. And it's great, you know, and I've had podcasts created anywhere from a couple of minutes through to 15, 20 minutes.

So it's just about kind of figuring out what you enjoy doing to create content, whether it's writing video or audio, and then repurpose it. You don't have to be creating the content all the time. That's not going to build your community online. People don't like you talking at them all the time. So by finding ways where you can repurpose an offer and offer different sorts of ways to interact, that's certainly going to help you build your community and, you know, become known online or improve your social media or your marketing.

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Carrie

Tracy’s advice was so practical. She broke down digital strategy into manageable steps.

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Lucy

Yeah, and she really made tech feel less intimidating. Her message was clear. You don't have to be an expert. You just need to be willing to learn.

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Tatum Steers

Essentially Hirey. So our business and as you mentioned, I work alongside my co-founder Jess. Jess is based in Melbourne and I'm based in sunny Perth. That's our first little challenge that we that we deal with. But it's actually quite easy to overcome. But together we've worked on Hirey, which as you mentioned, it's Australia's first, online support worker directory. Essentially what we're doing is connecting workers in the space with service providers looking to hire, staff for the participants that they support. So I'm not sure if you've ever had a loved one, in need of care. It’s quite challenging to find workers, that often fit the bill 110%. And so for providers is a daily challenge of trying to find the right workers to, provide support to their participants and to what we're doing is making that a lot easier by creating visibility amongst the workforce and facilitating those connections. So it's an online platform that connects service providers and support workers, throughout Australia.

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Lucy

Fantastic. What was the what was the why behind starting this business?

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Tatum Steers

Twofold. Obviously with hiring, and both Jess and I had actually worked in the sector, for the last 15 plus years, and we could see that there was a, just a major issue with trying to find the right support workers for participants, like, on a daily basis. So I think for us as individuals, we'd like to think that we, we feel like we're problem solvers at heart. You know, we often say there's no such thing as problems, only solutions. And that's something that we learned many years ago when we first started working together. And, for that reason, I think that's why we wanted to start Hirey, because we felt that there was a key problem that was facing the industry that, we're so heavily involved in and work working on a daily basis. And so what could we do to solve this problem? And solve for many, many people. And that's how we came up with the concept of Hirey. And then, as two non tech female founders, we decided to build a tech app. So that's, that's kind of how we landed on that. Yeah. And it's interesting because it took us probably about seven years to come up with the idea. We knew that we wanted to work together. We knew that we wanted to start something together. But just what that business was going to be was the unknown. And we were obviously at one point we met working together. And so then, you know, as time progressed and we changed careers, we changed jobs, etc., we'd always come back to it.

And that, that concept of working together. But we just couldn't really hit the nail on the head in terms of what it was that we wanted, like what the problem was that we wanted to solve, and decide on that idea. And then it was around 2021 that we thought, yeah, this is it. This is actually a really good idea. Let's go.

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Lucy

Wow. So that's really curious to me because, you know, I have friends that I talk to, to saying, you know I'd love to work with you. You know you always have a few colleagues that and as you guys did that you really gel with and you've got a similar interest. And I often wonder, you know, how that evolves, but it's obviously just keeping that communication together until the opportunity presents. Did you did you meet regularly to talk through what the idea might be, or did it just kind of come to you?

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Tatum Streers

Do you know what? Like, it's interesting, because when we first met, I'd say we were. We were colleagues. That's our first interaction with one another. And we, as our relationship grew and developed, it then became a friendship. So you kind of move from that, you know, purely colleague to that work colleague like colleague, friendship zone.

And then you're in a friendship zone as well. So I think as we knew that we could work well together on a professional level. We've got similar work ethics. I think we think the same way. But then there's also areas that she's strong in and that, necessary. My, you know, strong points. You always cut your strings. Exactly. And you kind of just put your best foot forward in that regard. But I think, it was a good balance between that friendship, that we found, like we had, areas that we could both really contribute to an add value, and that kind of balanced us out as well.

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Lucy

Tatum’s story is a masterclass in spotting opportunities. She saw a problem and created Hirey to solve it.

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Carrie

Her focus on simplifying hiring for small businesses is so relevant. It's a reminder that innovation often starts with a simple question - how can I make this easier?

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Sarah

Basically, we're here for families of everyday kids. There's a lot of support services that are available for kids who are really quite sick. But pretty much every child will go through experiences where they need to go to a hospital or have a blood test or get a vaccination. And generally, they're doing these in an environment that is, for everybody in the community. So they're often being treated by staff that don't treat kids every day. And it's not that these people don't care because we know they do. It's just they often don't have, a lot of practice with it or they're not set up for it. And the other thing that we found, was parents often don't know and don't have people that can go to for it.

So we're here for families who are needing to prepare their child for some sort of medical experience, or to help them if a loved one is going through a medical experience and we provide the information to the parents so they feel really confident to support their child. A lot of the anxieties that come from the kids have actually come from what they're feeling from the parents or the carers.

And a lot of that anxiety comes from just not knowing. You know, it's the same as every other topic if you don't know. It's a bit, you know, anxious for you to go into it. So we provide things like, here are the common things that your child might be worried about. Here's a way to explain it to them. That age appropriate. And here's some things you can do at home. So you prepare them before they go in. There's a lot of research that shows when children are less anxious, they, tend to recover more quickly. They need less escalated interventions, like, you know, being put under general anaesthetic. And also, it just makes it a much nicer experience for everyone. Makes it operationally more efficient for the providers so they can, you know, charge less of the services or get three more children more quickly to reduce waiting lists. But the big thing for us is the longer term, you know, if you've got a child that is scared of needles, for example, you're much more likely to put off giving them a blood test because, you know, it's going to be really traumatic for them and for you. Blood tests are often a really quick way to identify diseases early, and the earlier you find something, the easier it is to treat. So we really feel that the work we do sets families up for a great relationship with the health system for the rest of their lives, basically. And it's a real win win because when patients have a great experiences, the staff, have a great experience. Their costs are reduced. You find out who might need a little bit of extra help before they get into the very expensive operating theatre. And it's just a great thing around, it's based on research. So all the children's hospital have these amazing people, pool child life therapists. But there aren't that many of them in Australia. And so what we, do is we take the tools and techniques that they use, and we create resources that are really easy for parents and carers to pick up and use at home before they even get into whatever their treatment is, no matter who they're going to have it. Or if it's a loved one and that, you know, trying to tackle. How do I talk to my child about grandma being in hospital?

00:18:53:15 - 00:19:12:11

Lucy

Yeah. It's so, so much thought and research has gone into this as a product. Can you take us back to the time when that was all happening? So I guess I'm not sure if this is correct terminology, but it sounds like that was the research phase. Collecting all that information. What age were your children then?

And how are you piecing together a business while, thinking about the kids and fitting it into family life as well. Was there anything really top of mind that stage.

00:19:21:20 - 00:19:59:08

Sarah

So our kids were two and four at that stage. I had I got diagnosed with ADHD last year, which I think explains a lot of my life. So when I left, I've always been in corporate financial services. So quite high pressure, long hours, types of situations. When I had my son in 2008, I left corporate and I became, marriage celebrant because I really enjoy rituals and ceremonies and sharing things with families and, not happy with just being a marriage. Silver and I started up a network for marriage celebrants because I really was looking for a way to scale. So I spent a lot of my working life helping financial planners and businesses to scale. And how to use technology and frameworks and processes to build things and deliver them in a way that is high quality but scalable. And I just sort of have that desire to improve and build all the time.

And so it seemed quite natural for me to turn this into something that was scalable, because I also know, you know, we're not rich people. We were funding all of this ourselves. We had to make it make money, otherwise we couldn't keep doing it. And we knew it was something pretty early on. It was very clear that it was something that was going to be really helpful.

And, you know, the, story that I told about Travis, that was one of our earliest pilot attempts. And he literally would scream every time he had to go into emergency and just changed. And the doctors were saying, what drugs have you given this child like? He can't be so calm. We've seen him because he was in ER pretty often, and we just knew that it could make such a difference that I knew from my commercial background that we had to make it make money, otherwise we couldn't keep doing it. So, Sara and I had already started a little business doing some fingerprint trades and things for fun. And so we thought, well, we'll give this a go. And we started to try and build it out at that point, we actually put together a team, who were working effectively pro bono to try and make this thing happen, because, again, they believed in what we were doing and they, we put together a prototype.

We actually thought we had a grant from, the federal government to build this. And then at the very last minute, they rang and said, look, we're really sorry. We've been told that on a technicality. We can't give you the grant because we were a company that built apps rather than an app building company. And back in 2012, it was when the iPad had first come out, and the government was really trying to encourage people to build apps.

But unfortunately, this particular grant had very specific wording. So we started then and we got a full storyboard out, like effectively a wireframe of the whole thing. But then the grant fell through, and then my husband got sick and actually had to stop my businesses and go into full time work and so we put Ted down for a nap for a little while.

But I think we, perpetually evolving the product, like, every time we talk to people, every time, you know, I do stuff with my own kids. It's research, you know, we're living and breathing this. I was on the playgroup Victoria board for five years. And, you know, through that we also you learn about, you know, what's changing and things.

But really playing with kids has not changed. And it's probably been our biggest lesson is keep it simple. Kids don't need fancy. You know, we're targeting kids generally between 2 and 10. We often get older kids where they have extra learning needs or, you know, children on the spectrum in particular, who like to play through things a lot to prepare themselves.

We do get older kids, but generally in that 2 to 10 range, and they really don't care if it's a, you know, whiz bang, all singing, all dancing VR thing or if it's a piece of paper with some instructions on how to, you know, do really practical medical play. They get a lot of benefit out of both.

00:23:42:05 - 00:23:49:05

Carrie

Sarah's blend of education and creativity is so inspiring. Ted is such a beautiful concept.

00:23:49:05 - 00:23:55:19

Lucy

And she's proof that a business can be both purposeful and playful. Her passion for early learning really shines through.

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Katharine

I generally help business owners who are feeling really overwhelmed in their social media. Because we know that it can be like a beast that we constantly need to feed. But I, try and I do help people understand that they can do it in a sustainable way that works for them and in a way that doesn't feel like they're selling their soul as well.

Because, you know, there's so many times when you kind of hear so much going on and that you should be doing this and this, this way, really. Yeah. Within everything that is going on and especially, you know, tapping into AI and stuff as well, everything that you have to do with your business still comes back to the fundamentals of the basics of marketing. So getting those foundations right mean that you can actually, you know, still put your message out there without having to follow trends. It doesn't align with you.

00:25:04:00 - 00:25:25:18

Lucy

Yeah, I love that. And I really want to get into the AI component a bit more with you later, because I think that's a really important part of this conversation. But just take us back to the very beginning of your business journey, because that's what this season of ambition is all about, really reflecting on other people's starts to in order to inspire other people to start.

When did you first start the business and why? What was the why?

00:25:29:11 - 00:25:54:04

Katharine

So eight years ago I started, I came from a hospitality background, so I've been doing that for 20 years. Then got pregnant and went, a shift to bit. I think I'm done with that. And during that time there, I was actually working on the socials, a digital marketing for the hotel I was working at. I went, oh, actually found a this is a bit of a calling, I think. And, after our daughter was born, I actually worked for another agency for a while, for about 18 months. And then went out on my own.

00:26:07:06 - 00:26:21:08

Lucy

Imagining that we are a newbie, like we've got our idea and we've just set up our accounts, how long would it take you, roughly to work with someone like you to get that stuff sorted?

Is that like a one session thing? Is that, like, two sessions things? Yeah.

00:26:24:23 - 00:26:41:10

Katharine

So I have my, business set up audit, it’s had different names over the years. But because business manager is now business portfolio, so, you know, constant evolution. But it is the. Yeah. Usually takes about an hour. That we sit we zoom together. I used to make people press all of the buttons, but now zoom has now updated itself where I can take control of screens. It's a wonderful little thing. And you know, so I can quickly click all the buttons, get it done and, you know, make sure that their security settings are all set up and the things are connected. So that's your website URLs verified through meta. Your data assets and pixel is all set up and connected. The events are set up on your website and you're all good to go.

00:27:21:14 - 00:27:23:07

Lucy

Wow. So that's pretty quick.

Catherine has a passion for driving customer and consumer engagement, and has dedicated herself to helping businesses thrive through innovative digital marketing strategies, compelling content creation and comprehensive training.

Korryn

Yeah. So. And it's actually quite funny. Right now, in this at this moment in time. We're in school holidays right now, so that balance, has well and truly gone out the window. But, one thing I have done in the past and will definitely be doing a lot more in the future, is my boundary of school holidays. I'm not one of those people that have a big, physical village local to me with the kids. So, as much as I would love that, the reality is, yeah, we, don't have, you know, the babysitters or the grandparents to drop them off, too. So that is, and it's funny because my daughter's, what, grade two now?

Yes. It was funny a year or two back when she started primary school was going. Yes. This is this is my time to shine. No. The hours greatly reduce. And so I've had to really, reassess business because, the realities that they're getting older very fast. So, navigating the kids along with the business, I've had to really take stock of that.

And, so, yeah, it's been a big process of re learning. Okay. This is going to looks different now. My hubby, he works full time and part of my building, my little, office was the fact that we were still sharing an office. What were we for using at that point after, because he, his work in not gone back full time to the to their offices after the dreaded C period.

So, yeah, it was it's very much he's still here, so I'll have to make some boundaries and figure out how to get this working better for the family. And so yeah, systems wise, like, like, I never knew I would be that person that would love, home delivered groceries so much. Very much really realising that's a massive time suck and brainpower suck for

00:24:15:16 - 00:24:17:07

Lucy

It really is, though. Like when you get them to deliver it and you realize just how much time you spend.

00:24:23:21 - 00:24:48:22

Korryn

I've had an ADHD diagnosis myself recently and just that real that learning of, oh, wait, that's why you feel so exhausted after going into the shopping centre, wondering like, I'm, I'm a very, direct person. Like, I do not venture down aisles. I don't need to. I have my list and I'm like, just pinned is pinned back and just go. But even that, I went, oh, hang on, that that is a massive energy drain on me. Went on for so many years, I didn't realise it. So, yeah, definitely. That's my one hack. And I as much as the cost of living situation in the whole supermarkets thing that's going on, it's a luxury, that, you know Okay, I'll grin and bear that one. A cleaner. It’s a very privileged thing to be saying, but and actually, I haven't had one for nine months now, and I'm getting I'm finding a new clean up because my last one went on their own, merry way. That has been a massive, brain drain for me as well. So just having that bit of help in the home, as tiny as it is, like, I don't do, yeah, I think it's once a month. It's just. Does that help to upkeep, situation? So. yeah, those are my two core things. And I've got a little ADHD, child. So we're learning together what, what processes work best for us. And it's, interesting because, he's a very he's a very structured kid in some ways. But in others, I have to recalibrate how I get him to do the things. So, but then I'm noticing that in myself, too.

Like, my husband does things a certain way, I do things a certain way. And that clash. So it's also. Yeah. Trying not to fight that so much. Now it's that understanding. Yeah, it's, I don't think I've actually given it a couple of key tips, but I’m going through a process of re learning.

00:32:29:11 - 00:32:33:21

Lucy

No. That's great. Yeah.

00:32:33:21 - 00:32:38:08

Korryn

For so many years been forcing things in the way I thought it should be. And, and I guess that's where my business life has adjusted slightly because, yeah, it's, it's understanding why I don't have to do it that way because I see other people doing it that way.

00:32:54:07 - 00:33:00:23

Carrie

Korryn’s story is a great example of designing a business around your life, not the other way around.

00:33:00:23 - 00:33:08:08

Lucy

She's a champion of sustainable entrepreneurship. Her advice to build with boundaries is something every founder should hear.

00:33:08:08 - 00:33:15:19

Lucy

And that wraps up our season one highlights. We're so grateful to each of the incredible women who've shared their journeys.

00:33:15:21 - 00:33:24:14

Carrie

And thank you to our listeners for joining us. If you're thinking about starting a business, we hope these stories inspire you to take that first step.

00:33:24:14 - 00:33:31:10

Lucy

And don't forget to subscribe and share this episode with a fellow mum in business.

Until next time.

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