#awinewith Liv Wilson
MEET Liv
Liv is the Founder of Vizual Worldwide.
Find Liv here:
Vizual Online website or Instagram @vizualworldwide.
Transcript
Danielle Lewis (00:08):
Liv, you're here on Spark tv. It's so nice to have you.
Liv Wilson (00:14):
It is so nice to be here. Thanks for inviting me. So excited to chat.
Danielle Lewis (00:19):
So cool. And I'm so jealous because you've just come back from a holiday, so you're all bright and chill and loving life.
Liv Wilson (00:30):
Still a little bit tanned from being by the beach. Not to rub it in or anything, but please, I know I've been trying to extend the holiday live for a little bit longer, but it was so nice to be away. Equally nice to be back though and getting back in the swing of regular programming.
Danielle Lewis (00:51):
Oh, that's so good. And I love that holiday live. I love that vibe. Wouldn't it be nice if we could have holiday live or holiday Danny all year round?
Liv Wilson (01:00):
Yeah, and it's definitely, I feel like it would be achievable, but I think I don't have that much money to just have holidays all throughout the year, but that's the goal.
Danielle Lewis (01:12):
That's going to be our next goal. Yeah,
Liv Wilson (01:14):
Definitely. Yeah, it was hectic though, having a holiday pretty much for the month of November. It sort of turned out to be that way, but it was really good. The girls on my team were obviously kind of in overdrive while I was away, but I was just loving being away. And now obviously we know it's such a busy time of year from now on till February, so I feel very refreshed and back when everybody else is starting to go into that burnout stage of the year. I'm like pumped. Ready?
Danielle Lewis (01:53):
Oh my God, it's such a good strategy. I mean, you're so right. Everyone is, I feel like there's two camps right now. It's like some people are just stuff it I'm done and just kind of winding down and then other people are sprinting to the finish line going, how much can I cram in the next three weeks?
Liv Wilson (02:12):
Oh my God. It is three weeks away, isn't it?
Danielle Lewis (02:15):
Yeah, it's not good. It's not good at
Liv Wilson (02:16):
All. That's so wild. Hey, that means my birthday is two weeks away. I'm a week before Christmas.
Danielle Lewis (02:23):
Oh my God, that's so exciting. I love that. I mean, mind you, this will actually come out in the new, so we'll be talking about Christmas and everyone will be like, shut up.
Liv Wilson (02:32):
Long gone.
Danielle Lewis (02:33):
Exactly, exactly. Oh my God. So good. So why don't we kick things off? Otherwise, I feel like you and I are the type of people who are just going to chat all day. Let's kick things off by telling the smart community what it is you actually do.
Liv Wilson (02:49):
Yes, a good idea. So I own a marketing agency called Visual. I specialize in end to end marketing and everything that kind of holds under that big umbrella. So I work, what that really means is I work with brands from the start of their journey all the way through all of the different hurdles in business, scaling their business through the pandemic. Obviously there were a lot of different hurdles that businesses faced, but it's about sticking with the business through all of those things that pop up and pivoting and growing and helping them through really all the different marketing touch points. So things like email marketing, website optimization, social media, content, of course, paid ads, all of the above, really any way that we can help. We do have a team, which I love, and we are all really experienced in lots of different things. So we bring a lot to the table, which is why we're able to offer so many different little sub-services within our end-to-end marketing.
Danielle Lewis (03:58):
Amazing. So I mean, owning a marketing agency, running a marketing agency, that's pretty epic. How did you actually get into that?
Liv Wilson (04:09):
It feels very epic some days and then other days it feels very not epic.
Danielle Lewis (04:15):
A rollercoaster. Yep.
Liv Wilson (04:17):
Some days it's in the same day. I started my career in theater actually. So, so not anything to do
Danielle Lewis (04:28):
With That's interesting.
Liv Wilson (04:31):
Definitely. And it was sort of through my, I studied theater acting and within that we branched out into film and tv, script, writing, producing, and then there was one little subject, which was the bane of my existence for a long, long time, which was presenting to camera and it was entirely basically host presenting or broadcasting. That's what the class lent into. And I couldn't understand why I was doing an acting course and for some reason on camera as Olivia Wilson talking about the weather or whatever. It was really, really challenging for me because I had worked for the three years up to that point in the course perfecting the character development and all of these things, which is what acting meant to me. And anyway, long story short wasn't my favorite subject. I passed it. I did okay, graduated, and my first job out of uni was in broadcasting Surprise.
(05:42):
And I was so excited that I was obviously working in the field and I thought, oh, that's so something that would happen to me. I would get a job gratefully, but in the subfield that I wasn't the biggest fan of. But anyway, I ended up working with baseball Queensland, so the state body that looked after all of the baseball. I worked for the Brisbane Bandits, which is the professional Brisbane baseball team. And I did all of their marketing, comms, pr, sideline reporting, everything that kind of went into their marketing funnel. And it was a really, really amazing experience because I was, they didn't have much in that way before I started. So I was kind of building testing as I went, and they were so happy for that to happen because I was really, really eager to do that. So they were riding that rollercoaster of having someone really into it.
(06:52):
Wow. And there were so many things I probably don't have to say, but I fell in love with that style of presenting. I still do it. Well, I don't do it with that company anymore, but I absolutely love presenting running workshops and I definitely learned to love the other side of that performance, which is really just yourself presenting, because I think I worked out quite quickly that even though it's still live, it's very much best day, best version, best hair outfit, makeup live. That's not really me. That's sort of a character a little bit in itself. So I love
Danielle Lewis (07:36):
That idea. That's actually such an interesting, so many business owners hate showing up on camera. That's such a cool way to frame it. Okay, this is business owner Danny, so just don't worry that Danny doesn't like to actually show up and do a reel. Absolutely. Business owner, Danny needs to show up today and do whatever she needs to do to feel good and get into character and talk about whatever. I really love that idea.
Liv Wilson (08:06):
Yeah, it's something even from way back when I was younger, just in speech and drama classes, I would always talk about, all right, put on your acting cap or put on your acting coach or something. And it's such a childish kind of way to look at it, but so it just works and it works even if you're having a bad day, if you're going through something personally, I remember the first time I was, and it's funny, I can't even remember what the occasion was, but I remember the first time in that job where something just wasn't going for me. Personal family, something. And I just remember the dread of driving to the field, having to set cameras up, review scripts, all of that. And then as soon as the light went on and the producer called action, I thought, oh, it's so ingrained in me now, but it's like, hi, welcome back, da. I so didn't feel like that, but yeah. But it's funny that you talk about that for business owners. I'm working on something which I haven't even told anybody about. My
Danielle Lewis (09:21):
God, God, we breaking news right here. Oh my God.
Liv Wilson (09:24):
Breaking news. It actually is breaking news, but I'm only break the news a little bit. I still got to finalize everything, but I am putting together something entirely based around that concept for business owners because I feel like it's such a shame that so many business owners aren't equipped or the Instagram reels or even just they don't feel necessarily confident standing up on a stage and talking about their business. We've got to sort of cut through that and I've definitely got some experience in that and some good tips. So I'm piecing together something for the new year, which is really cool. I'm very, very pumped about it.
Danielle Lewis (10:12):
That's so cool. Well, that's perfect timing because this is going to come out in the new year, so you never know. It might all be ready and developed, so we make
Liv Wilson (10:22):
Sure it might be That's very, that's cl
Danielle Lewis (10:24):
To all of your things so that if it is out there or people should just get on your email list so they get notified.
Liv Wilson (10:30):
Absolutely. But yes, I wouldn't be surprised if that marries up quite well, actually, I realized I told you my whole life story without actually answering your question of how I love it.
Danielle Lewis (10:42):
No, that was so good though. I really, no, I love that. Those little stories that kind of give the insight, they
Liv Wilson (10:50):
Really are why that is why really? Yeah. So I did that job, I loved it, but I wanted to do more. I didn't really know what that meant. And coming from an acting background, I was very used to having a job and then not having a job because in that acting world or in the creative performing world, very, it can be sparse sometimes, but I was really familiar with that feeling. So I just ended that job and I waited and I hoped that I'd have some opportunity and I did. I worked as a freelancer for two years for all sorts of companies, more sports, sporting companies, production teams, so many different things. And it was really interesting to just test out all of those different marketing skills that I had kind of learned on the job in my previous career and put that into practice for a range of different kinds of people, businesses, industries, product services, everything.
(12:04):
And then I got a bit over the uncertainty. I met my fiance and things in my life kind of needed a bit more structure. So I got a job as a brand manager in a sales and marketing company. Cool. And that, to answer your question, from a year ago, that's where I started. I love it. Yes. That's where the real marketing, that drive in me turned on for marketing. It was very much corporate, very, very black and white, and they were looking at me to bring in some spunk, bring in some youth and that sort of thing into their very, very boring marketing strategy, which I did. I was there for a couple of years. It was a very, really eyeopening experience, lots of positives, lots of things to learn from. And in that time I actually met the person that I started visual with.
(13:16):
So visuals actually was co-founded. And we started the business together to basically continue the really great work that I was doing for that company, just to more of them. And we didn't really know why that would work, why people would care how it would work, any of that, but we just did, and it worked so quickly that it was like, oh my God, I have to tell my boss about this because it feels like soon enough I'm not going, I'm either going to have to choose this rando business that we started or in this company. And really quickly, in six months from launching, and I went from full-time down to Part-time, I was planning on staying at part-time for a year, and I'm pretty sure I stayed for three weeks. It was like nothing. And then I quit and went full-time into the business. And within in that first year, obviously we experienced all of the first year things like getting clients, losing clients, wondering if I should have stayed part-time a little bit longer, all of those things.
(14:36):
And it ended up that my business partner and I just had we're in different mindsets about the business, how quickly we wanted it to grow. And I was just like, oh my God, we've had so much growth really with knowing nothing about business, but everything about what we do. So long story short, I ended up buying him out of the business and really revamping it, taking it to really a new level. And then that was all before the official one year mark, and it has just been full on since then in the best way, the best way possible.
Danielle Lewis (15:27):
Oh my God, that is such a full on first year. So how long have you been in business now? What year are we in?
Liv Wilson (15:36):
We turned two in September, so it's just a little over two.
Danielle Lewis (15:41):
Amazing. So you've kind of had the crazy, crazy formative year and now maybe the more balanced, okay, this is what we stand for, this is the way I'm running the business kind of year.
Liv Wilson (15:50):
Absolutely. Yeah, definitely.
Danielle Lewis (15:53):
I love it. And you mentioned you have a team as well. So talk to me about what that looks like and how it's been growing, because even that's huge, right? You two and you've already built a team. Tell me about that process.
Liv Wilson (16:07):
That process was really daunting. My mentor in business and feels like life at this stage. Just my mentor, Jasmine, one of the, literally our first meeting together, that's something she mentioned. She was like, you've got to get to the stage where you can delegate work and it not be the biggest drama. And I was like, no, I won't be doing that. I didn't want to because I'd sort of come off the back of the co-founder relationship splitting up. And I felt a little bit burnt from that, and I thought, well, I'm awesome, but I don't know if anybody else is the same level of awesome. And that just freaked me out. And she said to me then, so yeah, almost two years ago she said, it's all right. You'll look back on this conversation and you'll think, oh God, now I have to go back to jazz and say I need some help.
(17:09):
And anyway, that happened close to the start of this year, and she really helped guide me into that process of working out if they're subcontractors or if they're employed and all of that. And it was, yeah, I mean it's been difficult actually when I'm such a perfectionist and very, I guess I feel a little bit like I had a sped up version of having to work out who visual is as an entity because it was like I started it with somebody and then all of a sudden it was me. So I really had to get clear on all of that. And then I thought, well, I know that inside and out, I could talk about it in my sleep. But having to really ingrain that into somebody else, it was really hard. And I'm not going to lie, I went through people because it just wasn't working either on their end or my end.
(18:15):
But that was another thing that I learned through that time. It's better. It's better to have nobody than to have the wrong people because that so much, or it can do so much damage. But now I love everything about my team. Jasmine's very much a part of my team. She runs her own incredible business, but she really helps manage the team. I've got a WordPress genius, Julie and Emma, who is newly in the business. She actually came in, she was my, oh shit moment when I worked out that November was going to be one jolly long holiday. She came into the business then and just absolutely saved my life. I was feeling very overwhelmed. I really just needed a holiday and I didn't want to have to do any work, and she really made that possible. So she's a legend. And then I have a videographer photographer. Honestly, what doesn't this man do? His name's Dan. You know how people say Dan the man? Yeah,
Danielle Lewis (19:32):
You have a Dan the Man. Oh my God.
Liv Wilson (19:35):
And you want to know, I've said this before, I think it was just on an Instagram story. This is the first Dan that I've ever met that actually is the man for some reason, guys. Anyway, the Dan's never the man. They're just the worst.
Danielle Lewis (19:51):
That's awesome. I love
Liv Wilson (19:52):
That. He's the best. I've known him for a really long time. He really saves the day a lot with fine tuning things. But he is a very successful videographer and photographer and just everything that you'd want in a friend, but also a person to help grow your business. So that's the team this year have tried to, well, let's be real, probably in the last six months, tried to step into that working on the business rather than in the business 24 7. Fuck, that's hard.
Danielle Lewis (20:34):
Oh my God, yeah, it's a really nice statement to say, isn't it? I feel like it's a really cool Instagram tile to say that you should be working on the business, but practically when between midnight and 5:00 AM
Liv Wilson (20:50):
That's so true because I think I love my, I don't even say that I have a job. I love my business, I love all of my clients and what I do, and I want to spend every second of my working day on their projects because they're just so much fun. I just love them. But yeah, definitely reshaping my mindset to think that visual is also a client of visual.
Danielle Lewis (21:20):
That's such a
Liv Wilson (21:20):
Good way to put,
(21:23):
If my client as in visual isn't looking good, showing up, hitting all the milestones and being strategic, then that's sort of it. And that is hard. It's one thing to understand that logically, but then obviously to put it into practices difficult when your business is growing at a nice pace. So that's kind of where I'm at now, really trying to do that and having a couple of projects like this, speaking to camera kind of little thing that we were talking about, having that and a couple of other things that I'm working on are helping force me to do on the business, not in the business tasks.
Danielle Lewis (22:11):
Yeah, it is such an interesting thought. So thinking about your business as a client, I do love that because you, you're right, you kind of say, okay, well if I don't have the capacity to take on one more client, which is then my business
Liv Wilson (22:28):
So true,
Danielle Lewis (22:29):
Then what am I doing here that I'm kind of capped out? And you're right, thinking about your business as a client is your sales and marketing strategy essentially, if you are making sure that it's tracking to all the metrics, it's showing up, it looks good, it's doing all of the things that'll end up being your sales and marketing funnel.
Liv Wilson (22:49):
Yes, exactly. And it is so much easier said than done. Absolutely. But yeah, it's, for me in a literal sense, it's like blocking out time in my calendar. I do for other clients, and it's just blocked out. It used to be the first thing to move. If I needed to reshuffle my day or something, it would always be the first thing to move. And I still do it. I'm not going to lie, but I'm trying to make that very much a fixed thing. It's really, it's the most important client because like you said, if you're not leading by example or putting it into practice, then it doesn't say much in my opinion about your business. So that's why I am really trying to retrain myself to put visuals, sell a marketing strategy in a very fixed place in my week and carried on.
Danielle Lewis (23:51):
I know, and it's such a good point that you made. So yeah, if your house isn't in order, what does that say to prospective clients about you? There is that funny saying, the website developers' website's never done, or the builder's houses is never done. Everyone's always focusing in on their clients. But it's like saying to people, I'm amazing at social media, and you have a shit social media versus what you've
Liv Wilson (24:20):
Really, it's so true.
Danielle Lewis (24:21):
You've really got to live up to your own standards and claims. I think
Liv Wilson (24:26):
It's so true, and living up to your own standards would be so fine if I didn't give a shit about anything. But I have the highest standards for myself, just for everything, and it's probably my best and my worst quality. But yeah, I definitely hit a point and it was looking at my Instagram like, wow, I haven't really had any, nothing's happening. Oh, that's why I haven't been posting, or I haven't been doing this, or I really haven't refreshed anything. And so quickly I was like, wow, I let this get away from me quite a bit too far and I'm trying to sell clients on these ongoing social media marketing services. Why would they? Because what are they going to look at? First thing they're going to do is go to mine and see what I'm doing.
Danielle Lewis (25:20):
Yeah, it's so true. And I feel like, I mean social media is just one example, but it is kind of that whole idea. It's like if I am telling my potential client that you can sell using social media, you'd want to be able to sell through your own social media,
Liv Wilson (25:37):
Right? Totally. Yeah. It's so true. And it's big time. That's been a really big selling point. I dunno, it's been a big selling point in some of my more recent clients that I've got at the end of this year. They've said, oh, we really like how you show up on social media. And it's like it's the best compliment just because I have felt like I've struggled so much with that. So yeah, that's a really important part of being a business owner. I guess I'm learning,
Danielle Lewis (26:15):
Oh my God, not that there's not a thousand billion things to do. So what about biggest learnings from the last two years of business? Is there anything that's kind of stood out to you that you were like, wow, I didn't see that coming, or something that perhaps if you could impart wisdom on people and go, okay, if you're starting your own business, maybe flag these things?
Liv Wilson (26:40):
Oh my god, so many. There was some really technical or businessy things like invest in a really good accountant. I didn't do that at the beginning and it made year one hard. And year one's always difficult. Probably every year. Every year has challenges, but it made year one unnecessarily difficult. I now have a great accountant. I'm really happy with the company and everything. And yeah, that's like the boring version, invest in a great accountant. And because I'm in the marketing creative industry, I looked for somebody who had experience in that because there are so many kind of random, expensive or things that are just ultra specific to
Danielle Lewis (27:45):
My
Liv Wilson (27:45):
Industry. And that's something that I would definitely suggest, invest in a good accountant and make sure that they align with your industry, but even just your personal values and they should be taking stress away, not giving you stress. So that's one. And then the other one, which is probably more just on a personal level is to trust yourself.
Danielle Lewis (28:17):
Oh, I love that one so much. I mean, the accountant one is actually super important and I totally agree with that. It takes way
Liv Wilson (28:24):
More
Danielle Lewis (28:24):
Important. It's really important. But that is good because I think it's such great advice because you can be just guaranteed challenges for the whole of your business. So there's a lot of times where you do really need to trust yourself.
Liv Wilson (28:41):
And even little things like spending too much time thinking about whether or not your social media templates are looking any good or rewriting copy 50 million times to try and make sure it sounds professional enough and kind of just getting to that point where you just trust that whatever stage you're in, if it doesn't work, it doesn't work, but at least you tried it and trusting in yourself that you'll do it better or you'll give it another go. Because yeah, that was something that definitely took a while. I was trusting other people, which is fine to do, but I was trusting. I was entirely trusting other people and it burnt me and it also didn't serve me at all because I wasn't learning the things that I should have been learning, like accounting, putting the trust in myself and doesn't work, doesn't work. That's actually what I said to myself when I quit my last full-time job, I thought, I'm really young. I'm in a position where if this is the worst fucking thing I could have done, done, I'm going to be so okay. It's not going to totally, I don't have children, I don't have a mortgage, I don't have all of these things. That would just be a devastating, it would impact in a crazy way. I don't, didn't have those responsibilities. So I thought, I'll just give it a go. I'll try very hard. I'll put everything into it and if it doesn't work, it's okay. It doesn't really matter and it's worked. So now I'm like, fuck, I better keep it working. Yeah,
Danielle Lewis (30:34):
That's right. Oh shit.
Liv Wilson (30:37):
Now I'm just getting more of these real life responsibilities. I'm thinking, yeah, it's going to be a problem. This is a real thing now. This is its own little entity. Got to keep it going. But yeah, that was a big just trust. Trust the process or trust yourself. Trust the moment, trust that if it won't work, you'll find out fast enough to not burnt all your savings away.
Danielle Lewis (31:03):
Yes. Oh my God, I love that so much. Good accountant. Trust yourself. Seriously, I think you've kind of hit the nail on the head. There's just, yes, you are year two, but it's like that's just ongoing, right? There's always something. There'll be people come and go, you mentioned team challenges in the early days, but that kind of is consistent, right? You'll keep growing, you'll keep scaling, and it will be about trusting yourself, learning as much as you can and continuing to make it a success.
Liv Wilson (31:39):
Yeah, exactly. And it's fun. It's enjoying the different milestones and even the challenges, even little things now that I know would have really affected my confidence or my enjoyment of running a business don't affect me that way anymore. I kind of think, well, I'm only experiencing this because I'm my own boss, or I'm only experiencing this because I work from home. Hello. Those two things are fucking great. They're the best thing ever. Be your own boss. Work from home, that's pretty good. But sometimes it's like, oh my God, I wish somebody could just tell me what to do. Well, you have to snap out of it, and you have to do it. Tell yourself what to do and trust yourself that what you are saying is going to be the right thing.
Danielle Lewis (32:30):
Yeah. Oh my God, that's such brilliant level self-awareness though, to be able to reflect and kind of go, okay, why am I feeling like this? What is happening? I'm only experiencing this because of X, but X is actually amazing. It's a
Liv Wilson (32:46):
Positive. Yeah,
Danielle Lewis (32:47):
Yeah. Yes. Obviously that wouldn't have been on day one. How did you get to there? How did you get to asking yourselves, yourself, these kind of questions? How did you develop that level of self-awareness?
Liv Wilson (33:07):
That's such a hard question. I think I'm made up a bit differently. I think I've just got amazing. Yeah. Honestly, I think I'm just a bit different. I think I've got a bit of a different mind to most people. I have really intelligent parents, so I was never around anything but this. That's not helpful for anybody if I know that's not really actionable advice, but I learned even before starting a business, I learned things at a very young age. I was put into different situations where I was the youngest out of everybody. I turned 24 the week before Christmas. That's pretty young. So I'm learning as I go. But it's been a bit of a struggle because I guess I'll experience a feeling of being stressed or overwhelmed and then realize, well, you do have an out. You could close up up shop and just be like the other 24 year olds and get a job.
(34:19):
And there's totally nothing wrong with that, but I don't want to do that. I want to do what I'm doing. And it's like, okay, cool. You're feeling shit. Fair enough. Feel shit for the day, feel shit for the hour, but you did this to yourself and you actually love what you've done for yourself and what it's let you have and how you can support yourself and other people. But yeah, I guess just coming back around and going, if this is what you want to do, then it's part of it and dealing with getting good at dealing with those things. But yeah, I'm a bit of an odd kid. I dunno. I don't even know how to answer that because I think it's just my brain.
Danielle Lewis (35:04):
No, no, no. But I do how you said that. I think that's maybe just the action of reminding yourself that you kind of chose this path as a business owner. And if you would like to choose a different path, you can choose that. You can go get a job, you can do whatever. And I also liked how you said, if you want to feel shit today or for the next hour, that's fine, but we're not going to close down our business. So if you'd like to just bill shit for a bit, that's fine. Then get on with it. I think that talking yourself around is important. Yeah,
Liv Wilson (35:42):
It's so necessary. And I work from home, so it's not like, I mean, I can call my team whenever I want. They can call me. We can hash things out over the phone or catch up for coffee, but mentally you have to do that for yourself, and I have to do that for myself because otherwise I stop trusting myself and I start second guessing everything and I feel really down on myself. When the day before I was like fist pumping, like fucking look at me. No, same person, same business, same everything. Yes. It's just the perspective and yeah, it's hard to manage. I guess there's the mental health side of it that you have to really keep in check and just do the things that help yourself. And sometimes for me especially, that is just like, it's a shit day today. It's not like a complete write off, but it's just going to be a low day, but that's fine. Then once I have that and I kind of let myself experience that, I don't really need to have one for a little while. I feel like I'm at the top of my game and that's really good, and how cool that my boss lets me do that,
Danielle Lewis (37:02):
Boss. Oh yes, how good is she?
Liv Wilson (37:06):
So cool. But you know what I mean. Wasn't that the worst when you would work for somebody else and you just know I'm just going to fucking burst into tears at any second now for whatever reason, and you either weren't allowed to or you felt like you couldn't do anything about it because you are under somebody else that's just unforgiving or whatever the deal is where unless something's going to be really detrimental to a client experience or to my business or something, pretty much I feel like I've got to a position where I can have that time if I need it, and it's only going to benefit my business and my clients and me and everyone around me. I won't be such an idiot. I won't be acting like such a crazy woman because I've given myself the time.
Danielle Lewis (37:56):
I love that so much. That is the best piece of advice to end on. Liv, you are incredible. Thank you so much for sharing your story and your insights. I know everyone dialing in, listening in, whatever they're doing. We've gotten a lot out of it, so thank you so much for sharing your time with us.
Liv Wilson (38:17):
Thank you for having me. That was such a fun chat and I just loved speaking to you, and hopefully everyone's got at least a little nugget of wisdom or something to jot down to look back on.
