#awinewith Jane Marx
MEET Jane, founder of The Beautiful Bunch.
You can find them here:
Transcript
Danielle Lewis (00:05):
Jane, welcome to Smart tv.
Jane Marx (00:07):
Thank you. So lovely. So lovely to have you here. Thank you.
Danielle Lewis (00:11):
I know we've already just talked for 10 minutes, so I was like, oh my God, we need to hit record. So good. Let's start out by telling everyone who you are and what you do.
Jane Marx (00:22):
Yeah, I'm Jane and I run the beautiful bunch. We are a social enterprise florist, working with young women who and new arrivals to Australia, so from refugee migrant backgrounds and who have had little to no work experience and who are just really trying to enter the Australian workforce. Yeah,
Danielle Lewis (00:43):
I love it. That's so beautiful. How on earth did you think of this?
Jane Marx (00:48):
Yeah, it's a good question. I started off, so my background is in small business, so I've run a lot of small businesses for people, but I suppose when I was in my mid twenties, I started my first social enterprise. I really just loved the concept. It was very new at the time. There wasn't too many people doing it, and I just felt that I was good at business, that I'd had enough business experience even though I was in my twenties running other people's business. I'd made other people, small businesses, quite a bit of money. I felt like I was quite good at it, but there had to be some sort of meaning or purpose, bigger than profit. And so yes, in my final year of university I interned at a social enterprise, one of the few in Melbourne actually at the social studio, and I just loved it.
(01:47):
It just really just ticked all the boxes. The purpose really resonated with me. And then I also love the challenges that come from running a small business, particularly in the early days. It was still quite new. And so from that point, I went on to start my own social enterprise cafe. I ran that for a couple of years with my husband working with young people seeking asylum that was quite specific in who we were supporting through that. So it was hospitality focused. Then I sold that business and then went and started an event social enterprise that was going really well, that worked exclusively with women. So by that point I decided that I really wanted to focus on women who were new arrivals to Australia, and that was going very well until Covid. Yeah, that
Danielle Lewis (02:41):
Old chestnut
Jane Marx (02:42):
Gross. So yeah, that I've spoken quite a bit publicly about it, but that was a big turning point for me. I was pregnant with my second child at the time and we just signed a lease on the space I'm in right now. Attached to this beautiful little studio is a 250 seat hour wedding venue. And so we were an event social enterprise that registered not-for-profit, providing hospitality training to young women from refugee backgrounds. And it had taken me about three years to get that to a point where I could see it as really being sustainable. And then we were just starting to enter a little bit of a growth period by signing the lease here and we signed the lease in January, 2020. Went into lockdown in March. And so yeah, I had to take so much needed at time to reflect on just the big questions that you don't always really ask yourself on a daily basis.
(03:46):
I think I could speak for a long time about that period, but I think that that's the crux of it. I was forced to stop. I legally couldn't run my business and wouldn't have obviously, but I had to let go of lots of women who were really quite vulnerable and left especially vulnerable during the lockdown period that followed the outbreak. And yeah, I also had to have a baby. I was really pregnant, so I had to focus on that. We started the beautiful bunch because in October, 2020, I had my daughter in July and I looked at the feedback from all of the women who'd participated in the previous social enterprise that I had run, and we did a little crash course in floristry because we'd put on big beautiful events for people and we'd often do the table florals and sometimes bouquets for guests. And so that kind of grew to the point where I had to stop just doing that myself.
(04:50):
That was definitely my favorite part of the job too. And Melanie Stapleton from Cecilia Fox, a florist in Melbourne at the time, really esteemed florist. Melanie did beautiful work and still does in New Zealand. She would train the girls in, like I said, a bit of a crash course in floristry. So two days, two to three days. It was really quick in building botanical knowledge and how to basically create table arrangements and things like that. So I looked at all their feedback and it was definitely their most, just the thing they loved doing the most. And then obviously I'd had two previous businesses, a lot of experience, and I was adamant that my next move would be something that, I don't want to say pandemic proof, but that could withstand something huge happening because I had a great sense of vulnerability having lost that business and having to, I was somewhat forced to sell the first one. So I felt always like this business that no one's going to be able to take this from me. So, which is a bit crazy, but it's kept us going really. But yeah, so I looked at what markets were growing during the pandemic, what businesses in which markets were actually doing quite well,
(06:13):
And that was online floristry, so it made a lot of sense. We had the space, our landlord wasn't charging us rent, which made a big difference. So I had my baby and then a couple months later we launched and it was wild.
Danielle Lewis (06:26):
Yeah. Oh my God, this is incredible. Okay, so there's so many questions that I have for you
Jane Marx (06:32):
About this
Danielle Lewis (06:33):
Story, but I'm interested, one thing you said, and I think that, so I mean obviously Covid was a big deal for a lot of people and I feel like there's something happening now. There's a little cost of living crisis economy, angst happening at the moment. I'm interested, something that you said was you were forced to take a step back and ask yourself the big questions. So what was that process like for you? What did you have to sit with? And I love that way you got to was no one will ever take this away from me again. I will make this anything proof. That's so cool to get there if someone's feeling a bit vulnerable at the moment. What are some of those questions you asked yourself or the process that you went through to get to that next business?
Jane Marx (07:21):
Yeah, that's a really good question. I think for the first time in my adult life from when I was 18 really or before that I started work really young, but let's say for the sake of brevity that probably from when I was 18, I have been just hustling. I have been, I've traveled and I've certainly lived a big full life, but I have not stopped. I am a workaholic. I have really unhealthy habits and I have an enormous amount of energy. I was just born like that according to my mother. And I think that I had been going in what I had felt was the right direction, and I certainly don't want to undermine the amazing things that I was able to achieve in both those previous businesses. But being forced to be at home and stop, you couldn't leave, at least in Melbourne. You couldn't go more than five kilometers from your home.
(08:29):
I had to look inward. I had to do a lot of work because I'd lost a business and my main source of income and I'm not independently wealthy and it was a really stressful time, but the worst thing for a baby is stress. And so I had to actually just work on myself and work through it and find really healthy ways of just dealing with the cards I'd been dealt. I would that. And I think that it had certainly felt like the world had gone quite dark and it forced me to think about what it was. If I could actually just get up and do anything, absolutely anything and bring some joy and light to my own life and then that of others as well, what would I do? And we were doing an event for someone, and I've never actually spoken about this, but we were doing an event for, someone must've been in between the lockdowns, so it was before the beautiful bunch had really kind of kicked off and I was so exhausted that I was waiting for someone. I really blackout at this period of time, but I think I was just getting up at two 30, not sleeping, newborn, dah dah. And here I was just saying I was healthy. I was trying to think
Danielle Lewis (09:49):
Healthy, healthier than when you could have been. There's spectrums here. Yeah,
Jane Marx (09:53):
Exactly on the spectrum that I usually have to confront, but I kind of passed out or fell asleep. I think I blacked out for a moment in there. It's quite romantic now I think about it. But in a bucket of David Austin roses, and I don't know if your viewers know much about flowers, but they are just the most quintessentially beautiful garden rose. They're very strong smelling. They've got a short lifespan because of that. And I woke up with my head just down in a bucket of roses and I just kind of looked up and looked at the sky and I was just like, I should just definitely do something with flowers. This is the only thing that had brought me joy. And during the pandemic, I'd received a lot of flowers from friends because I'd lost a business and then family and some friends because I'd had a baby. And so the flowers were just, I don't know, they just, I don't want to say called me. I'm not that woo woo, but it was definitely a reconnection to the natural world for me that I think informed this next kind of big step. And just when I pictured my life just working with and being surrounded by flowers and by women, I was like, yeah, I think I want to create a sisterhood with this. A really genuinely, truly beautiful business that's dictated by the seasons that's in tune with what's happening in the natural world.
(11:19):
It kind of just came to me in this dreamlike state, waking up in a bucket full of roses from,
Danielle Lewis (11:26):
I love it. I'm not woowoo at all. I just woke up in a bucket of rose.
Jane Marx (11:30):
I just try to romanticize my life always.
Danielle Lewis (11:33):
Why not? Why
Jane Marx (11:34):
Not? Why not? That's why not. What else is there?
Danielle Lewis (11:37):
Exactly. We're the only ones that can romanticize our life, so why not do that? I love it. I love it. So talk to me about, obviously you're a social enterprise, which is incredible. Is a social enterprise and an NFP the same thing? Same thing, or are they different?
Jane Marx (11:54):
Okay. Yeah. So we are a registered, so if you give us money, you donate to us. We have full DGR status. You can claim that back on tax. We are essentially a public, well, not essentially, we are a public institution. How it works, just to put it bluntly, I can't just earn more money here and take more money. We are very much a charitable institution. The reason that we're a social enterprise is because to fulfill our charitable aims, we trade that. We have revenue from goods and services. So that's the only thing that makes us different from a conventional charity. We are a corporate association. We have a board of directors. I'm a founding CEO, so I have, well, I shouldn't say so because a lot don't actually, which is surprising to me, but I have a seat on the board and it operates. Yeah, I think that's something I could really explain it. We operate, we sell things to fulfill our charitable aims and it's the best kind of business. It's not the easiest, but it's the best.
Danielle Lewis (13:04):
Well, and that was, so as soon as you started talking about being a founding CEO, having a board of directors, having a seat on the board, I thought, sounds like there's some complexity being a social enterprise or a charity. What has that been like for you, that journey been like for you?
Jane Marx (13:19):
Yeah, it's been a lot to navigate. I didn't start a with good connections in this space. I was working my first social enterprise I set up when I was working in a bar really long hours. I financed a lot of it through my own wages and money, which is just not what you do. It's just not the norm. Most certainly not all, but a lot of the more established social enterprises, at least that are more established now as opposed to those up and coming there is definitely change. But there is, I'm trying to be careful with how I articulate this, but there's a relative level of privilege because if you think of the resources that you need to have just to start just conventional small business and then you think of the resources you need and more than the resources in terms of finances, just the connections, who you need to be connected with to assemble a board of directors to understand what your financial obligations are, which I wish to you about off air, you're like you're audited all the time. That's not something that just everyone knows how to do and how to navigate. And so I've definitely learned from making a lot of mistakes I think is probably the honest answer there. I try, but that
Danielle Lewis (14:43):
Sounds like every business owner ever. I am 12 years in and I'm still making mistakes.
Jane Marx (14:50):
Yeah, I think definitely. I think that's across the board, I suppose running a charity, you've got public pressure to make sure that what you are doing is robust. You need robust governance, you need good governance, you need really good oversight of just every place that you're putting money. Because even when you start small, we're at a much higher level now, but when you start small, if you're taking donations from the general public or you are getting small grants, someone's money, and it's really important that you do what you say you are going to do with that money. And that's something that you need a framework for. And you need people, you need human resources and more money to try to ensure those things like good governance and that you are achieving your social impact aims that you are paying people the right amount of wages and all those things. It is a huge amount of pressure, but the model, if you can make it work for you, which I certainly have, but it's taken me a long time. I genuinely, I'm a huge advocate for social enterprise and always will be.
Danielle Lewis (16:05):
Yeah, it is interesting, isn't it? I think there's a lot of business owners that start and then go, oh my God, what do you mean? I've got to do bookkeeping and I've got to do taxes, I've got to do this. So I think there are a lot of unknowns, but it just sounds like there's so much more complexity in terms of making sure that you're actually doing the right thing and really doing what you, because it also is a marketing thing, right? As well. You are telling the world that these goods and services that you're buying go back to this purpose. So making sure that there is something structural underlining to make sure that actually happens is really important.
Jane Marx (16:43):
It certainly is. And how you get to having those structures is by surrounding yourself with people who have been on boards, who have been CEOs or involved in an executive level in a SX listed companies. And that isn't something that when I was working in an absolute dive bar, when I started my first not-for-profit, I didn't have access to those people to help me realize this big vision that I had. And so yeah, there definitely is additional barriers in many respects to setting up something like this as opposed to a conventional proprietary with a company or a partnership, whatever. But I would say though, having done it for a long time, it's the potential for growth because you have a social or environmental mission and because you can find people who will back that vision, that big vision about how you're just going to make the world a better place, that is phenomenal.
(17:47):
The fact that I can apply for to do big things is, and often we are successful in that. Now that is really special. And also I would say that when you're building something like this, there is a genuine there commitment from your team to, it's not your average job. I'll say that. They go above and beyond because we're united under a mission. We are very mission driven, and so that means you get to employ people who are just phenomenal. We work with, we have an exceptional team. The women who work here are just undeniably crucial to the growth, and I think that that is something that our mission really attracts some special people. Yeah,
Danielle Lewis (18:34):
Absolutely. And it's interesting, so you said in the early days when you were first starting working at the dive bar, didn't have the connections, obviously now you do have that board of directors and have surrounded yourself with those people. How did you go about getting in front of the right people?
Jane Marx (18:52):
I I actually realized, I only realized this the other day when I was speaking to someone. It's like when you're talking, you're thinking out loud. I was like, oh, yeah, that's how I did it. When I started, I basically took the, how do I say this? I would enter myself in competitions and I would take the pictures and the opportunities that no one else wanted, so I would enter myself in startup. It was a different landscape back then. Unfortunately, I don't think it's as easy now, but I would say I've got a big vision to support new migrants and people from refugee backgrounds in Australia, and we know that meaningful work is the best way to do that. I want to get up and Shark tank vibe pitch in front of a semi, not hostile crowd, but a tough crowd to be preaching to and be kind of advocating for the people who we work to serve in those spaces.
(19:52):
I was just fearless. Now I think about it, I, I'm not fearless point in the right way. I was very frightened, but I just do it anyway. And so I did things like, it's much more well established now, but before I started my first social enterprise, I entered the inaugural Women's Weekly Women of the Future Competition. Oh, cool. Yeah, it was the first one, and I can remember talking to my friends who were in business at the time and they were just mortified that I was going to do that. I, yeah, I took a photo of myself and in my mom's lounge room, I remember that day really vividly actually. And I was like, no, I'm going to enter it. I've got a big idea. And they say they want young women with big ideas. And so I did that and I was successful in that, and I just put myself out there in a big way, always expecting to be rejected and then being just pleasantly surprised when I wasn't. I can face I'm fine with. No, I think that really helped me and has continued to help me still fine with it.
Danielle Lewis (20:49):
Totally. I love No, no is the best sometimes I always say that to people. Yeah, true, true. Okay. Not always,
Jane Marx (20:57):
But
Danielle Lewis (20:57):
It's what I say to people. I'm like, when you think about, because I'm a sales person by trade, when you do sales, not everyone says yes. So it's like, and if yourself, you close 50% of people, then that me and you get 50% of people saying no win. Absolutely. Even if your close rate or your conversion rate is 10%, 90% then of people are saying no to you, but it doesn't matter because you've still got your
Jane Marx (21:24):
Numbers. Focus on the 10%. Yeah, absolutely. Definitely. That resonates with me a lot,
Danielle Lewis (21:29):
But it's like unless you reach out to all of those people or unless you take all of those opportunities or put yourself out there in all of those ways, you don't get the yeses that you get. No, not so
Jane Marx (21:39):
The nos are just
Danielle Lewis (21:40):
Half of the course.
Jane Marx (21:41):
Absolutely. And I think that there's something kind of refreshing. I feel it now, especially in an age where people have good reason to be really careful around what they're projecting to others and what they're putting out in the world. I think particularly with women, it's so hard. I think we have such an learned, it's definitely ingrained within us to just hold the weight, carry the weight of other people's expectations around with us all the time. I'm always so impressed when someone just walks in here with a resume, for example, and they're just like, I just want to know if I can speak to Jane. I'm always just like, yes, yes, actually you can because that's so cool. It takes so much to do that. And I think that I'd like to believe that despite many, many flaws that Australia is still a place where we are kind of still backing the underdog a little bit, where we kind of still want to see that person that is clearly very far outside of their comfort zone, but doing it anyway. We still want to see them succeed. And I have definitely found that with philanthropy, with people who I've spoken to and said, I don't have a lot of financial years behind me, but this is what I have done. I've run a profitable. I'm really good at this. I have a big vision. Will you back me? And I just think, I don't know, just taking big swings like that, just sometimes, not with everyone, but it's still really, I think it really resonates with some people. Yeah.
Danielle Lewis (23:08):
I love it so much. You've just given me inspiration to take more big swings, and that's going to be the thumbnail of this podcast. That's great. Totally. But I just love it because I do talk to a lot of women in business and there are some people at the moment who are like, it's just not happening. I'm not getting sales. But when I ask them what they're doing, they're like, oh, they're not out there taking big swings or a lot of seeds or whatever your flavor is. I just think if you want it, you've got to go after it.
Jane Marx (23:41):
Definitely go hard. We always say, the girls and I are always like, no soft launches. We go hard. Even we're moving to Brunswick East, as I kind of said before and out of our beautiful little Fitzroy North studio, and we are really strategic with our marketing now. We have a digital marketing agency, we have internal marketing support, and it's quite sophisticated. It's definitely working. It's taken me a long time to get to that point, but in addition to that, you best believe we will be doing multiple letterbox drops. We are not too good for that. We are not just focused on conversion with our A CEO and all of our Google ads. We will be walking the streets, handing out little leaflets to be like, we are your new florist. We are in this neighborhood. You should support us. Yeah, we definitely, we still, we cold email people every day.
(24:39):
So a big source of our revenue is our business subscribers, and it really goes a long way for revenue assurance, for our social enterprise. And in terms of providing the young women in our program with really decent work and just good hours on our big corporate subscription days, they get longer shifts and they also are able to go out, the ones who do drive, go and hand deliver the VAs themselves. And so that's so cool. It's just really the bedrock of our business. And so we're always trying to get new business subscribers, and so the girls have just a monster spreadsheet where we just, yes, we're strategic, but we just hit up three people every single day no matter what happens in that day, unless it's our big Mother's Day or Valentine's, and we write to them, we introduce ourselves, we make it personalized, and the girls are like, would you consider a subscription with us? And that's why it's that resilience and that tenacity. I think that is why we have continued to grow each quarter, especially this year. It's been hard and I'm really glad that we've been able to embed that kind of resilience and also diversification of income stream into every aspect of our business because it means when things are tough, we know what to do most of the time, not
Danielle Lewis (25:56):
All the time. I love it so much. Literally, that was my next question, what you attributed your growth to, but love that. So you've got the digital marketing agency doing the cold email outreach every day. Obviously the team is supporting you not above any other strategy like local marketing strategy. That's so cool. And I think that consistency, exactly what you said, no, this is something that happens every day. Yeah,
Jane Marx (26:23):
Absolutely. Again, you
Danielle Lewis (26:23):
Do. You need to be talking about your business every day. If you want sales every day,
Jane Marx (26:28):
Every day, it just doesn't stop. And for us, we were lucky in that I would say that something that's a significant point of difference in this business to others was that we entered an artificial market. So when we launched, we couldn't keep up with demand. And that's very rare. People will say, oh, everyone just wants my product. No, they probably don't. The reality is that you probably have to chip away for a good 18 months to three years before you are just like, oh, wow, we need to grow in some significant way to meet up with demand. It just doesn't happen. We don't have the market in Australia to, it isn't the us. It is really hard. It's just really hard to sell things to people. And so I feel that the success of the beautiful bunch to date really did, yes, it was my experience prior and all the failures and everything that I learned from that, but it was also just very good timing.
(27:21):
Online flower sales was through the roof. We went from seven bunches to 70 pretty quickly, and we even today can't get back to those numbers that we were doing then. It was certainly a big demand for flowers to be delivered to people's homes. So I think that that definitely helped. But because I have a constant, for better or worse, probably worse a lot of the time, but insufficiency complex, I'm always just, it's just not enough. I'm always just like, okay, but we've got to do the next thing, or we have to increase our intake by this. And even now with we're working to support some new arrivals from Palestine. And so yeah, that's a whole thing. And so the new thing that I'm just like, okay, we need to ensure that they're supported and we still need to make sure that all of the young women in our program are supported.
(28:17):
And so we've got this whole new outreach strategy that we've just kind of nutted out in the last 48 hours. And so yeah, I'm constantly just, I think I'd kind of said before, it's that only the paranoid survive mentality, which sounds like really not that great saying it out loud, but I genuinely am just like every day I am just like, let's go. I think that that is part fueled by the fact that I am, yes, I run a business, but I'm first and foremost an advocate for the work that we do. I'm just advocating in a different way, but I am here to see this business grow to the point where if you are a young woman and you are new to Australia and you are struggling to find work, at some point on your journey, you will hear about us. That's what needs to happen. Your auntie, your cousin, your friend, you sister, someone needs to say, Hey, I've heard about this florist, and you don't need skills or experience to work there, and they pay well, and it's a sisterhood and you should go and talk to them. That's what I want to see happen. So I think that it is a big vision, and so it takes a lot to get there. So yeah,
Danielle Lewis (29:27):
No, I love it and I love being pulled by a vision and mission, and I mean, I think it's really interesting. I think you could have rested on your laurels a little bit knowing that you kind of went in at the start and were perhaps inflated. But I love that like nope, every day we show up and we drive the mission forward because it's not enough and there needs to be more and it needs to be bigger, and we need to support more people. I just think it's incredible. I just think if you are driven by a mission, and I don't care if your mission is your mission or your mission is to have a family holiday at the end of the year, I care what drives you. Indeed. I think you really do have to show up every day and do what it takes to get there in some way, shape, or form.
Jane Marx (30:13):
Yeah, I absolutely agree. And I think that's why I just take issue a little bit with, I think, look, I want to get to a point of balance. I need people say, oh, what do you do? How do you balance? And it's like the reality is not particularly, I don't feel like I'm a good example of balance, how to have some sort of elusive word.
Danielle Lewis (30:34):
I'm obsessed. I don't get,
Jane Marx (30:35):
Yeah, it's just like, and I think that yeah, you can definitely only do that for a certain amount of time, and I do want to get to the point where I'm having certainly more. I just want to get to the point where I'm not working at night and where I have four weekends, that's my new goal. However, I do feel that there's just a little bit, particularly in the women in business space, a real emphasis, and don't get me wrong, there should be but on health and wellbeing. But that is often, I feel like that the loudest voices in that space are women who've already made it. And I think that it can be really disheartening for other women who might only be in one year into their business to be told that you need to build your business, you need to work on your business, but not too hard. And it's not healthy to check your emails after 3:00 PM and you need to do yoga every day. And I think it just can, in a way, I think it can go a bit far and add another level of pressure.
(31:32):
And the reality is that people don't often want to talk about or accept is that things are not skewed in your favor in business. There is a very good chance that you will fail, and the numbers don't lie. You can take learnings from things, and I certainly have, but ultimately, if you're not making enough money, you're not making enough money. And that is just a fact. And I think that if I have any advice or anything that I think that has served me, one thing that has served me particularly well is I have thought at every single stage of my, what feels like a long journey in business, I have thought about how I can tip the odds in my favor.
Danielle Lewis (32:16):
Oh, I love this.
Jane Marx (32:17):
Yeah. Yes, I don't have a great network. I have not nearly enough money, but what do I have at hand that I can use to try to make it so that there's a lower chance of my failing?
Danielle Lewis (32:31):
Yeah,
Jane Marx (32:31):
Totally.
Danielle Lewis (32:33):
This is genius.
Jane Marx (32:35):
It's really not at all. I feel that that's just more just accepting the reality of it, rather than trying to say, I think you should manifest. I think you should dream big. And I certainly do that in a huge way, but I think ultimately if you look at things and you're like, okay, I probably don't have enough money, how can I make up for that? And so my thing was always like, I know I've got more energy than most people, so I'll just work harder, faster, longer for the next two years to try to make sure this doesn't fail until I get to the point where I've got a little bit more money, and then maybe I'm not best placed to know what to do with that money, but I think I could get in front of a few people who'll be able to help with that. And so just really scrappy, but just trying to position yourself as best you can to just tip the odds more in your favor, because it's tough. So yeah,
Danielle Lewis (33:32):
So tough. And I just love it. I couldn't agree more, I think to myself on the days where I'm like, okay, what else can I be doing? And I've not thought about it as in tipping the scales in my favor, but I always think about, well, what could I do right now? I could sit down and watch Netflix, or I could send 50 emails. Well, you know what? I could actually do both. Do both,
Jane Marx (33:57):
Do both, do both.
Danielle Lewis (33:58):
But it's like what the biggest commodity that I have is time. And look, I must admit, I'm fortunate I don't have kids, and I have a very understanding husband who knows. I'm just obsessed with my
Jane Marx (34:12):
Business. That's important.
Danielle Lewis (34:13):
Totally. That helps. But I know I have time, and I know that there are so many different strategies that sales and marketing strategies that are free if you're willing to put in the time.
Jane Marx (34:27):
Exactly, exactly. Yeah. It was the same with that. For so long, I just did all the marketing, just my husband's a photographer, he took all the photos, I didn't pay him anything. I'm like, oh, I'm pretty good at writing. Okay. So I would be quite confident in writing the newsletter and doing all of that. And yeah, I really made sure that, exactly like you said, that you are just looking at, okay, so I don't have money, but I have time or I have a little bit of money, but I feel short of time, so I'm going to spend that money in ways that will maximize the time. Exactly.
Danielle Lewis (35:01):
Oh, a thousand percent. I now have a VA who is the best part of, I shouldn't say this, but the best decision I made, best person on the team. They take so much stress off my plate, and it is all of the things that I shouldn't be doing. So all of say data entry or tagging people in MailChimp, just little things that I shouldn't add no value to. They take the stress off my plate so that I can think of all of these so I can be here talking to you on a podcast because that's where I add value.
Jane Marx (35:36):
And no else can do that
Danielle Lewis (35:38):
Totally. But it is that incremental. That didn't happen at the start. It was only in the start.
Jane Marx (35:44):
Yeah, it takes time. And I think it's easy for people who are well-resourced, not to rag on them too much, but to say, I know people, a lot of the, I was the courier with my children for this business until we were in the black, until we actually made cash. I had cashflow for a courier, I delivered all the flowers. And I can remember people were mortified at that, but I was just like, no, that's what I'm doing. I'm not spending money on a courier. I have two till four. I'll get it done. Then yes, I had to call some customers and ask them to come out because I couldn't leave my children in the car. Was it a professional service? No. Was it super friendly and do people probably still remember it? Yes. And did it get us to a point where we had enough of a runway to then go and employ a courier and then I could dedicate my time to doing marketing and grow the sales?
(36:33):
It has to happen incrementally. And then there comes a point where you need to be, I think, particularly smart in different ways about how you spend your time. I've been challenged recently with knowing that we're at the stage with a beautiful bunch where I actually have to have a clear head because I'm making big decisions, and I've been able to, up until this point, just be like, I'll just have a coffee or I like to exercise, so I'll be like, oh, I need more energy. I'll go for a run. That really picks me back up. Whereas now it's just not okay, I can't rock up. We're not at the point in the business anymore now where I can just be frazzled and a bit just tired. I actually have to be fresh, be really strategic. I have to be super articulate. I have to kind of be on my game a bit more, and that involves having a rest somewhat well rest of mind. And so that's what I've been struggling with. That's my next thing. Now that I'm no longer involved in the day-to-day of the business, it's not enough for me to just be like, oh, sorry, I've just looked over the minutes in the last board meeting. Not really. I have to actually be on my game with those things. Yeah,
Danielle Lewis (37:42):
And it's super cool though. It's interesting. I think sometimes people think you're going to hit a milestone and then go on a holiday, just hang on the beach for the rest of your life. It just every level requires us to grow into that new level and have that self-awareness of what things that we need to step into or change or let go of or whatever it might be. But it's like that's business. It's just every level is just bigger and more challenges and more growth required.
Jane Marx (38:12):
Definitely. And you need to, even as recent as two weeks ago, I was realizing when I was trying to negotiate something with multiple different stakeholders with all very different interests in this project, and I was like, I'm really pushing myself. This is new for me. I'm really a little bit outside of my comfort zone. I'm trying to keep, I dunno, six people happy. And so that was something that it's like that thing of the problems, I don't know, don't go away. You just get better at it. Totally. And so I do feel like that there's always problems to solve. You just hopefully do it with greater confidence and competence and despite always learning and always being challenged. Yeah. I
Danielle Lewis (38:57):
Love it. No, you were spot on. Okay, we could talk all day, but let's wrap up the episode. I always like to leave our amazing spark community with one last piece of advice. So reflecting on all of your time, all of your businesses, what would be one piece of advice that you would give to another woman on her journey?
Jane Marx (39:21):
Look, I think I've definitely touched on this, but I would just say that in an era where I feel that social media fuels a lot of our insecurities and actually can play them back to us, I think that I would just say that try not to let just the weight of people's expectations inform the decisions you're going to make. I have always been really acutely aware of the fragility of my own existence, and I think not enough people live as though they're going to die. And I think that its business is scary. Yes, there's a good chance you might fail, but there's also a chance that you might not. And I think that if you can, something that I managed to do in Covid and I think has really informed a lot of the success today was just quieten the noise. You just have to quieten the noise.
(40:14):
Even if you do fail and it's somewhat public and it's really embarrassing. People have really short memories. No one's going to really remember it or care about it as much as you do. We just get so into our own little life and world and we amplify things and see things that don't exist. I would just say, just do things as though there's no one watching and just don't let people's opinions and expectations of you just try to brush it off as much as you can and just lead intuitively and go for it. Yeah, that was not one thing, but
Danielle Lewis (40:46):
No, I'm so into it. It was exactly what I needed to hear today. So Jane, you are so amazing. Thank you so much for your time and your wisdom and your sharing your honest journey. I appreciate you so much. It
Jane Marx (41:01):
Was my pleasure. Such fun talking to you. Thank you for having me.
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