#awinewith Ami Bateman
MEET Ami, Co-founder of Pleasant State
You can find them here:
Transcript
Danielle Lewis (00:04):
We made it. We did. Good morning, Amy. Welcome to Spark tv. I'm so
Ami Bateman (00:09):
Excited to have you. Thanks for having me, Danielle.
Danielle Lewis (00:13):
So good. We've got our tea and our coffee and we are ready to go. I love it. Cheers to you. Cheers. Let's start out by telling everybody who you are and what you do.
Ami Bateman (00:26):
I'm Amy Bateman. I'm the co-founder and managing director of Pleasant State. Pleasant State was developed to solve issues around plastic and toxic chemicals in our homes. We developed Australia's very first just add water cleaning bars that dissolve to make healthy singles, plastic-free cleaning products. So anything from a multipurpose cleaner through to a floor cleaner and even a handwash. What's even better is that they actually work, which is often a concern that people have in the space when it comes to more non-toxic, I guess, safer cleaning products. In addition to all of that, we've really set out to build a business that is proving that you can do good while doing business. So we balance people, planet and profit where the first B Corp certified cleaning brand in Australia, which is really amazing and was a really important goal of ours. And to date, we've saved about 300,000 single use plastic bottles from ever being made. And ending up in landfills generated 150,000 liters of toxic free cleaning and donated and gifted close to $80,000 to charity partners like Take three for the Sea and Good 360.
Danielle Lewis (01:38):
Oh my God, what a bloody accomplishment. And on top of that, the brand looks good, which is actually the gripe that I have with things that are more natural or sustainable or environmentally friendly, is that they just don't suit my vibe. But Pleasant State is gorgeous.
Ami Bateman (01:58):
Oh, thank you. Yes, we really did want to change that relationship people had with cleaning. I also really like good design, so that was a really, and continues to be a really important element of our brand. We say that they're ridiculously good looking, so the concept's really simple. I have an example bottle here. This is a glass and silicon bottle. This is a really bespoke design, which we developed and is really limited to pleasant state. And combining that bottle, we have these cleaning bars which come in a home compostable wrapper. So people just fill this bottle that they keep forever with water drop in the bar and clean away and just repeat.
Danielle Lewis (02:40):
So genius. Let's just take us back step for a second. So what did you do leading up to starting this business? How did we get here?
Ami Bateman (02:52):
That is a very long story, probably, but actually over wine. If I were to drink, let's just say I was a jack of all trades, master of none. I had a long history in big corporate businesses. My education was, I did a Bachelor of Commerce and then also MBA at Melbourne University. Yeah, I worked for businesses like Ernst and Young, Transurban, gm, Holden, and then consulted to businesses like Australia Post McDonald's. That was a real highlight. Love. I don't eat their food. I'm actually vegetarian slash vegan, but as a brand, they're really fantastic. They have apple slices, also can't eat. Apple, have other allergies. I know life. So yeah, the way I describe myself is just I like to solve really complex problems and big problems at scale.
Danielle Lewis (03:48):
I love it. And so then what led you to solving the cleaning industry? Was there a catalyst in your own life or what happened there?
Ami Bateman (03:59):
Yes, most definitely. So I had my own personal issue that I had to solve. So for about two years, I'd been suffering from headaches on a daily basis. They were really chronic. That was a very challenging time for me. And so through consulting with lots of healthcare professionals, eventually discovered that our home indoor environments are actually really toxic. In fact, 90% more, sorry, we spend 90% of our time indoors and they're far more toxic than our outdoor environment. In fact, the EPA considers indoor air environment or indoor air pollution to be in the top five risks to environmental health globally. So yeah, what we don't realize is all of the products in our home contribute to that pollution. So anything from your cookware to any plastic products that you have, your chemicals, your carpets, your pillows, your mattresses, they all have what's called volatile organic compounds that emit into the air and hence have a really big impact on our health. So endocrine disruptors, hormonal disruptors, et cetera. And so I had gone through a journey, which was also very challenging of targeting different areas in my home. But when it came to cleaning products, that was actually a really big issue. Just bear with me while I have a drink.
Danielle Lewis (05:20):
Yeah, no, go for it. You deserve.
Ami Bateman (05:25):
So there were no cleaning products at the time that were plastic free because plastics emit emissions into our homes, nor products that even though they had things like organic in their name, they were still using really harsh ingredients including artificial fragrances. In fact, one in three people are impacted by artificial fragrances and will have headaches like me, but 70% of people don't know about
Danielle Lewis (05:51):
That.
Ami Bateman (05:52):
And so I just remember using this product that I thought was safe and my headache would escalate a migraine. And I contacted the company that actually no longer exists, interestingly, and they were a big one in mainstream supermarkets and they just said, no, no, we don't have a problem here. But that was not true. It's a really hidden problem because this category is unregulated. You don't even have to disclose chemicals. And unlike food or beauty products, they've gone undergone massive transformations. We care a lot about what we ingest. We care a lot about what we absorb onto our skin, but we don't consider inhalation, which after injection is actually the fastest route to enter in your bloodstream. And so yeah, I was like, alright, well a product doesn't exist. I need to find something. And at the time I came across just add water cleaning products overseas.
(06:48):
So they had existed commercially for a very long time. This idea of just diluting a product, so think of Baraka, but for cleaning, but direct to consumer hadn't been packaged up in a nice way, but that was changing overseas. There was a US company that I had come across, but it couldn't get in Australia. And then when I looked at it, it had a lot of issues with the product still using acrylics and plastics in the bottle. The product didn't work effectively, which meant people wouldn't switch. So yeah, just decide this would give me an opportunity to pursue my passion in addressing environmental issues because if we had a refill system, we could eradicate single use plastics. Also, obviously my need to address my own health issue by creating something that not only eradicated plastics as much as possible, but used much safer yet effective ingredients. So yeah, that's how that was born.
Danielle Lewis (07:46):
Oh my God, that is so incredible. Isn't it interesting that the stats, you just rattled off, this is not a small problem you had and went, I'll just invent my own little thing. This is a mass problem that we all probably don't realize. It's literally I'm just sitting here in my office box now going, oh my God, I need to open some windows and get outside today. Just given me paranoia, but so interesting that it's actually a mass consumer problem that no one has cared to solve until now.
Ami Bateman (08:21):
Yeah, definitely. And at the end of the day, I do think organizations have a responsibility for ensuring their products are safe. But what I think as consumers we need to understand is it can be an accumulation over time. So little bits here and there all really add up not to scare people. There are definitely some easy fixes. I tend to just focus on one area of my home and change that before moving on to another, so it doesn't get really overwhelming. But yes, I think being really considerate about what we do bring into home, what we are not only eating, absorbing and inhaling is a really good step. And then looking for brands that also care about these issues and are making better for you products is really important.
Danielle Lewis (09:10):
And it's really interesting your point about inhalation. I've got two spark members who are working on medical delivery via inhalation. So delivering drugs like medicinal drugs, like real drugs, not naughty drugs via the nostril, they'll hate me. I've just butchered that. But the idea is that you're right, that's just such a powerful way to get anything into the bloodstream very quickly. So much so that they're doing that in the medical industry. But I guess as a consumer you don't think like that. You don't think about all of the things around you. And the interesting thing about inhalation is it's invisible. We can't see what's actually coming into our systems.
Ami Bateman (09:57):
However, I do believe we have a response to it. If you think most people actually don't enjoy cleaning, there's a group of people who do. But a lot of people, the experience is really unpleasant. Why? Well, they not only don't look very good as we've identified, but when you think you're trapped in a confined space, you're cleaning your bathroom, you do that as you're breathing that in, that's a very unenjoyable experience. When you finish it, you probably have a headache or you're feeling dizzy. There's a whole lot of discomfort, but you associate that kind of smell and experience with efficacy and cleaning. But that's not true. Those things don't have to go hand in hand. And in fact, we are proving that with pleasant state, hence why changing that experience. So it not only looks good, it smells good and it's effective and you don't have that experience at the end.
(10:50):
We did a bit of a collaboration with Dyson, well, I shouldn't say collab, they wouldn't love that they gifted us a couple of their air purifiers. So Sean and I did this. My co-founder Sean, who looks after marketing, did this really cool piece of content where we put the air purifier in my bathroom and we put all of our personal protective equipment in there and sprayed traditional cleaning products and just watched what happened to the air purifier. And it was triggering. It was going from green to red. So green indicates that the air is good quality. Red is that there's a problem, and the air purifier had to work. So the fan ramps up, it would say high volatile organic compounds. One of the products, which is a very well-known window cleaner, triggered the formaldehydes. And not only that, we would leave the room coughing and spluttering, and by the end I had a headache, which wasn't awesome.
(11:50):
And then we repeated the experience with Pleasant State, so no personal protective equipment, stayed in the room, sprayed it, and then we didn't know what was going to happen. We obviously assume, given we've put a lot of work into our ingredients and making sure that they're safe, we didn't know what would occur with the Dyson, but it just stayed in the green. The fan didn't increase. We were able to stay in the room without any impacts. And the stories that we get from customers, just with any issues from endometriosis, inflammation through to headaches, thyroid issues, skin issues is just really heartening. And when times get tough, which as we already were discussing is on a daily basis. So it's really important to think back to those stories and the impact that we're making and remember that there's a bigger reason that we're doing this at Pleasant State.
Danielle Lewis (12:44):
I love it. It's incredible. How did you go when you first launched the brand, was there an education process with the consumer? So being more natural ingredients, less toxic, but also having to kind of DIY. They're used to just going into the supermarket, grabbing something and now they've got to put it together. It is a circular. So do they return things or not return things and refills? Was that an education process with the consumer or did people just get it?
Ami Bateman (13:16):
Yeah, that's a really fantastic question. And the answer to that is it is a massive education piece and it's ongoing. So while over the last sort of four years since we launched our brand, which we did first, we launched our brand, we started educating people, we got them on board through an Indiegogo, I guess, crowdfunding campaign. So that was all to start educating and getting an idea about traction. So while our own community now and other people who use just add water solutions, understand the concepts and the benefits, so it is really easy. It's also convenient. You can purchase in bulk and just have it sitting there. It's still very nascent and immature as a concept. And actually when I was listening to your podcast this morning about sales and stuff, Danielle, I just had another thought where I'm like, we did not pick an easy problem or an easy product or in terms of education and being able to scale the business in a really cost efficient way and also not the easiest way that we went about it.
(14:25):
And that was actually really clear as we started to raise capital, one of the pieces of feedback we got, which was probably the best feedback, was that often the impact VCs that at least I engage with won't necessarily invest in early stage startups that are changing consumer behavior because the cost of acquisition for that customer is actually quite great. And that was such a gold piece of advice. And yeah, I wonder if I was to do this again, would I have chosen a different problem? Probably not, right? Because this one really resonated and I don't like doing easy things, but I do think it's a really important thing to think about when you're starting a business is how much education is there and what will it take to educate people and get 'em on board.
Danielle Lewis (15:15):
Yeah, it's really interesting. So as you are saying that, it's reminding me of, so even so my other business, scrunch is an influencer marketing software. And I remember, so we started that over a decade ago now, and I didn't realize that we would have to tell people what influencers were. So I'm a sales and marketing person, so in my industry I'm like, I don't get why people don't get what this is. And we'd had bloggers for the decade before that. I'm like, this makes so much sense. So even in a category like marketing where we weren't really changing the world, we still had to do so much education. And even through our capital raising journey, years in when we were an established business, one of our shareholders was like, okay, when you talk to this group, you've got to explain what influencers are first.
Ami Bateman (16:07):
And
Danielle Lewis (16:07):
I was like, wow, still. So as a category that you're actually changing consumer behavior, I can only imagine that it's just still ongoing and it is interesting, something that'll probably never go away.
Ami Bateman (16:23):
Yeah, probably. Yeah, I imagine so even though we're quite comfortable with concentrates in other categories, even salt as a refill kind of mechanism is one of those. There's plenty of other kind of concentrates or refills, but in this category it's really different. And now obviously we're being predominantly direct to consumer. Until last week we launched into a range of whites, IGAs up here on the Sunshine Coast. And so direct to consumer, that education piece is actually very different and a bit easier because we can use video, we can use emails, we can use influencers as you discussed, to really explain it and can continue to do that. But the challenge became, okay, now how do we communicate that message really simply in a retail setting where you have a really short amount of time with more mainstream consumers who majority don't understand this concept. So yeah, that was something that we had to think really hard about with our packaging, our point of sale display and doing demos and just repeatedly sharing that message. But yeah, it increases the time and resource commitment and the cost.
Danielle Lewis (17:40):
Yeah, absolutely. Talk to me about the first crowdfunding campaign. So as obviously businesses listening into this, people are always curious about different funding options. And you mentioned crowdfunding, you mentioned capital raising. Obviously you've got a huge consumer base now, so there is an element of that. Great, we have revenue, this is awesome. But take me back to the early days when it was that first crowdfunding campaign. What was that experience like?
Ami Bateman (18:09):
Oh gosh, we're going back a while now.
Danielle Lewis (18:11):
PTSD?
Ami Bateman (18:14):
Yeah. Well, we've done two crowdfund now. So we had the product crowdfund, which was to get the business off the ground, and then we did an equity crowdfund. The reason we chose that model for capital raising, again, probably stems from our bigger purpose, which is to balance people, planet, and profit and prove that doing good is good for business. And so as a result, a couple of things. One, we want to make sure that we don't get distracted from that mission. And so our view is having potentially VCs that aren't necessarily aligned with that mission and just concerned about shareholder outcomes could likely distract us from that. The second is just this idea that the people who create value in the business, whether that's employees, our suppliers, or even our customers who purchase ideally, we want them to benefit from that. So more of a stakeholder perspective to our business and shareholder.
(19:10):
So I think it's important to think about why you are pursuing a particular capital pathway. So for us, that's why we chose that. But also it was really took, I guess that the lean business canvas model approach and sort of minimum viable product approach to launching the business, which was one, do market research, check that we've got a problem and that the solution that we're providing is solving for that the price is right, product, place, et cetera. Then launched the brand on socials and build a community and see if we're getting traction that way. And it's resonating. Three was people actually going to pay for this without us actually having the product in existence. So the Indiegogo campaign really allowed us to do that. Obviously we incentivized through graded discounting, which actually that was something that we had to correct really early on through the campaign, but we wanted to prove that we had to hit a minimum target.
(20:12):
People were actually going to pay before we would proceed with the business. So it was really I guess a hurdle for us to prove, yes, we're solving a real problem. The product is right, the price is right, and there's a market for this, the experience. Wow. Yeah, it was way harder than I thought it was going to be when we first launched. I think the first couple of days I remember thinking, oh, this is great, but we actually hadn't built our database enough. I think we had about 3000 people in our database, but the target was 10,000 and that launching it with 3000 in our database was if we went back and did it again, we should have waited until we got it to about the 10,000 because we had to work so hard in that campaign to get it across the line. So I recall we set a discount for a period of time, but that dropped off and so did the interest in the campaign around that time.
(21:09):
So we did a reset, which was we said we were launching to the UK at the same time, and as a result, we were reducing the price again. So that was enough to get interest into the campaign. And I remember it was myself and Sean and we had two other people who helped sort of get the business off the ground at the time that had marketing backgrounds, Ranil and Sasha, so good friends of mine. And I just effectively created this burning platform to them after a few days, which was, if we don't hit our target, that's it. This business doesn't exist, so we've got to do everything to get this campaign across the line. So yeah, a burning platform in those situations was really important because if we didn't do it, that was a no go for us. But it was hard and they're never cheap.
Danielle Lewis (22:03):
And interesting though I love the concept of proving the model first, proving there is enough market demand proving that people semi get the idea before actually going into product development. I think that's definitely a mistake I made a thousand times in business was taking all of my money and building something and people not wanting it. So I love the idea of getting that market interest first, and I think you can do it in different ways. I know I always say to people, now, put up a landing page and sell it to someone first before you do anything. But I think that's why crowdfunding campaigns are so interesting because it can give you that initial market vibe before you go and invest all of your life savings into product development.
Ami Bateman (22:54):
For sure. And look, I think it really depends on the product and the stage that you're at and how much capital you have behind you. It did create additional pressure. We were really innovating. We were creating something that was in Australia at first. There was no accessing formulation chemists that could or were interested in doing this because it didn't exist here. Finding a manufacturing facility that would do it. It didn't exist. No one was interested in Australia or New Zealand. In fact, it was three people who just really believed in our mission of eradicating plastics and toxins that banded together and had the skills and they started a manufacturing business. So we launched the brand, we launched the campaign, but we were still creating the very first formulation for our multipurpose while trying to find or set up the capability. So I just recall, I think we got to October and we had promised delivery in December and our second manufacturer fell through
Danielle Lewis (23:56):
And
Ami Bateman (23:56):
That you've already got, we raised $87,000 from 1500 backers. So already we have this community that's waiting and we don't know if we're going to get off the ground. And I know other people have had similar experiences. So the pressure's become a bit different. The risk is very different in that situation. But yes, obviously there are benefits that you haven't gone out and made something that people are not going to buy. We already knew that people were going to buy it.
Danielle Lewis (24:32):
Oh my god, it's incredible. So talk to me a bit more about the product development phase. So you mentioned that there were no manufacturers in Australia, in New Zealand who had the capabilities or perhaps the interest in getting the capabilities. So you said there were a few people that banded together to make it happen. Talk to me about that. What happened? What was that like? I'm stressed. Tell me I'm stressed out here.
Ami Bateman (24:59):
I think it comes back to, I mentioned that my strength is just problem solving. So this to me was just one big problem and I just had a spreadsheet of problems or things I had to answer and I would just go through it on a daily basis. My very first one, this is ridiculous, I almost failed chemistry in high school, was who will make this? Who is this chemist? Is it like we've got pharmacist, chemist, is it them? I'm like, I knew about compound chemists, but I just didn't know who they were. So I remember, thankfully I have a big network and I had a mate who is an anesthetist, but he was dating a compound pharmacist, so I just called him. So I just tapped my network. I'm like, who might be able to answer this? I'm just going to call and ask really stupid questions.
(25:53):
And so I asked him if I could speak to his then girlfriend, and she was great. She's like, I'm not the right person, but you need to speak to a formulation chemist. I'm like, okay, great. Formulation chemist. Now I know where to go. Calling formulation chemist, totally. And then he was like, make sure there's the manufacturing process exists for what you're going to create. I'm like, okay, make sure I have that. So each person that I spoke to would just give me tips and I would just keep a record of the conversation. And then I would ask them, who were two more people you can connect me with? And then I would literally turn up at startup events and just unlike other people who will keep their ideas secret, I'm like, I'm not keeping this a secret mainly so that I would remain accountable for doing this
(26:39):
Because I knew if I had this external pressure, I'd promise people I was going to do it. So if I told the world I'm going to do it, I have to do it. So I'd literally turn up to events and say, I'm going to create Australia's first. Just add water cleaning product to eradicate plastics and toxins. Can you help me? These are the things that I'm trying to solve for. And I knew their area of expertise, so if it was operational, I'd ask them. And so that's literally how I found a guy who worked in plastics extrusion. So even though extrusions is a manufacturing methodology, and so he was able to give manufacturing advice and in the end was like, well, this doesn't exist. I know how to do extrusion. So he came to me with a proposal to do that. The two other people who had helped, they worked for another cleaning manufacturer.
(27:33):
And so they had expertise around, not problem solving, but also the cleaning industry, and they connected me with the chemist. So it was quite a small world on the Sunshine Coast, but it was just being brave to say, I'm doing this. Help me who do I speak to? And really connecting them with the mission. I'd walk into meetings and do a little pitch about the problem that I'm trying to solve and how I need people to help. And that was really instrumental people understanding the why, got them really engaged in the process anywhere from my founding team to suppliers, manufacturers, and often at great risk to them. So the manufacturer, they built all of the machinery and everything themselves. They did all of the testing and stuff to make sure they could work it out themselves and took great risk. I was their very first customer, so us succeeding impacted their success. Bottle brokers who helped us to get our really beautiful glass and silicon bottles supported us with really incredible terms, like terms people often haven't heard of. And yet, same with our branding agency, took great risk because they really believed in what we were doing.
Danielle Lewis (28:49):
Oh my God, it's incredible. And I love you. When you were telling that story, you talked about telling everyone what you were doing. And it's so funny, I know from attending many startup events, and people will keep their cards close to their chest. They think everyone's going to steal their idea. And I'm like, people don't steal people's ideas because it is so hard to execute ideas. And it's always surprises me in a good way that people are so keen to support you and your mission. People recognize that you are the one executing, you are the one doing the hard work, so they're so keen to help. It's just the best lesson to share your vision and ask for help. I love it.
Ami Bateman (29:33):
Yeah, definitely. And you're almost manifesting it and holding yourself to account. And honestly, if someone was able to go and do this themselves, good luck to them because yeah, it is so hard. It is way harder than I ever thought it was going to be still to this day. Right? Yeah.
Danielle Lewis (29:50):
Well, and the interesting thing as well, especially about a new category or a new way of doing things, competition means there are other people out there educating the market as well. So that opens up the door to more of a mass consumerism of your product. So it's again, not a bad thing.
Ami Bateman (30:10):
Yeah, totally. And be, I knew this was going to come into the Australian market very quickly. It was a total no-brainer. Why cleaning products and 95% plus water or transporting around something that you can get from your tap at home. So that's just really inefficient. What I did know observing the competition overseas is that they were pursuing a really high volume low price strategy. And so our strategy, and I think this is really important, but be strategic in your positioning because I knew that it was likely that they may enter the Australian market or others were going to pop up. The easiest thing to do in this space is if others want to do it, go for it. You can find these products online on Alibaba. You can import them really cheap. You can package them up in nasty packaging, nasty ingredients, create a brand and just flog it for a really cheap price. But that doesn't align with our ethics. We need to make something that was much safer that comes at a price. So our positioning was really to be a niche differentiated player that added a lot of value and provided a really quality product. And that has been really instrumental in protecting our positioning and ensuring that we remain relevant amongst the competitors.
Danielle Lewis (31:33):
I think it's such an important point because I think sometimes people think competing on price is easy, and so they discount, they're cheap, they cut corners, and it actually becomes really hard because you are competing with so many people. And then it just becomes this race to the bottom, competing on brand and competing on value and ethics is hard as well, but it's so much more sustainable, I think. And you just get such a loyal following. No one is loyal at the bottom. When you do compete on value and ethics, people are so loyal to your brand.
Ami Bateman (32:15):
And we've had to stick really firm to that. Right? And as you said, in our view, we're building a brand. We're building a community that really believes in what we're doing, not just as a product, but also our bigger purpose. We have done lots of research, lots of surveys, lots of analysis using pricing models. We know that our product is priced really reasonably for the, that are really interested in our product and purpose-led businesses. But what was interesting, as we started to have retail conversations, we started to get a lot of pressure on that price, not only for our bottles, but also our bars because you are now in a category where they're looking at the competitors that are doing really cheap refills and really cheap plastic bottles, and that's effectively set a precedent. And so that became a bit of a frustration, and we started to look at, oh, okay, do we need to compromise on ingredients?
(33:09):
Do we need to put pressure on our suppliers to do it cheaper? And so you start to think about all these ways you can cut corners, thankfully, because ethics is really embedded and we are really clear on what we're doing here. We pushed back on that and just decided, all right, well, we need to go and test this and find retail partners that are willing to test it with us. And so our approach going to independent who really support local support, high quality, locally sourced products and are willing to test that, we can maintain that price has been really important. So I think there's some stuff that go around on Instagram around that, right? If you're told that if you're not worth it or that product's not worth it, you're just in the wrong room. And that's really important to remember and important for us to maintain our values and our brand as we move forward.
Danielle Lewis (34:02):
Yeah, I love it because so even just as someone who, obviously I'm in marketing, I've worked with a bunch of brands who are stocked in the big retailers, and it's tough. It's not the kind of silver bullet, oh my God, I made it that everyone thinks it is. You really become at the whim of whoever's doing the ranging, whoever's making those decisions. And I've seen brands really struggle when they were promised things and it's just pulled at the last minute and they discount their products and it ends up on the bottom shelf and all of these things. It's just you lose a lot of control. I just love how strongly you've committed to your vision, and I love as well that you recognize, oh, okay, do we need to make other decisions? You explore that and go, no, that's not aligned. No, that it's not aligned and find another way. I just think it's incredible.
Ami Bateman (34:59):
Yeah, thank you. Yes. And yeah, so choosing those partners is really important. At the end of the day, I wanted to build a business where I liked the people that we worked with and that they shared similar values, which is frustrating at times. I'm really not money motivated, so there's other things that really motivate me. And working with people that do the right thing is really critical. There would be nothing worse for me than finding a partner that's not aligned. That would be a sure way to demotivate me very quickly.
Danielle Lewis (35:35):
Absolutely. Well, you are amazing. Let's wrap this podcast with one last piece of advice. So reflecting on your time in business, what would be a piece of advice that you would give to another woman on her journey in business?
Ami Bateman (35:51):
Yes. This piece of advice came from another woman many, many years ago when I worked in big corporate, and it's that you should do one thing that scares you a little every day. Just one thing back then, for me, it was actually speaking up in meetings. I had this pathological fear I'd been told off once for speaking up, and there were senior people. So that for me, that's where I started just in a meeting saying one thing. And what that does is it compounds over time, and you'll find in six months, in 12 months or 10 years, you'll be doing things that you just never thought you'd be doing. And that piece of advice has definitely supported me and getting to this place at Pleasant State, because yes, still probably I have to do 10 things a day that scare me, but I've built up the muscle to deal with that fear.
Danielle Lewis (36:42):
Incredible. Amy, thank you so much for your time and wisdom. I know everyone tuning in wouldn't have gotten so much value out of that. So I appreciate you so much.
Ami Bateman (36:52):
Thank you so much. It was great to share the Pleasant State journey.
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