#awinewith Michelle Broadbent
MEET Michelle Broadbent, Founder of Michelle Broadbent
You can find them here:
Transcript
Danielle Lewis (00:05):
Michelle, welcome to Spark tv. Thanks so much for having me,
Michelle Broadbent (00:09):
Danielle. I was very much looking forward to this. I'm very excited. And do you know that I've had five people cancel their podcast recordings this week, so I'm just excited that someone wants to talk to me.
Danielle Lewis (00:21):
Time. It's the most wonderful time of the year, isn't it, everyone? And you know what? I'm not going to take responsibility for that, but that is absolutely something that I'm advocating at the moment. We are, what are we, two weeks before Christmas as we record this? And I have been working with my clients to help them just eliminate that non-essential stuff in their calendars. And I'm sorry, that has been,
Michelle Broadbent (00:49):
I blame you.
Danielle Lewis (00:50):
I blame you. You know what? You've been given the gift of time. How good is that when that happens when you're already so busy and then someone cancels a meeting and you're like,
Michelle Broadbent (01:00):
I know. It's so funny. Like right now, Danny is so happy that I get some space, but I'm just going, oh, January, Danny is going to be stressed. Well,
Danielle Lewis (01:11):
Yes, to try and fit it all in because you've got a podcast schedule to fill. So yes. No, I understand your pain. But no, I was really looking forward to this and I'm glad. Yeah, I'm glad we're doing it.
Michelle Broadbent (01:22):
Absolutely. So let's kick off by telling everybody who you are and what you do.
Danielle Lewis (01:27):
Well, I'm Michelle Broadband, and my business is, I have my own business, which is Michelle Broadband. And then I also have another part to my business, which is my accountability circles. So I support female founders and I help them overcome the operational overwhelm of running a business solo,
Michelle Broadbent (01:50):
Which is bloody huge. Oh my God. Operational overwhelm. I've never heard it put like that, but so I think encapsulating of what we go through, just thinking of all of the things, just talking about how busy we are leading into Christmas, it's kind of never ending, is it? There's always something that we should be doing.
Danielle Lewis (02:12):
Absolutely. And so I work with a lot of women who are incredibly good at their craft. So they could be creatives, they could be consultants, coaches, people that are really, really good technically at the thing that they're brilliant at, which is why they started their business. But a lot of them are not natural business owners. They may never have worked in small business before. I worked with a lot of women who have come out of corporate where there are magic fairies that take care of all the stuff that we need to think about as business owners. And for so many people, that is where that overwhelm kicks in terms of the doing of the work, the delivery of the work to clients. That's not always the pain point. It's all of the other hats that we wear as founders. All those other roles that we fulfill we're the marketing director, we're the logistics manager, we're the sales director, we're the finance manager. I know all of those different things that until we started running our own businesses for a lot of women, they've never had to do that stuff before.
Michelle Broadbent (03:24):
Yeah, it's really interesting, isn't it? I think that it's one of the things that people aren't prepared for. They kind of do think, okay, I've had this job as, let's say, a graphic designer and I've gone, well, I could do this for myself. And I love graphic design, I love working with clients. I'm going to go and do that. And it's almost then everything else that you're right, that is a bit of an afterthought and kind of a little bit of a shock sometimes I think you just go, you are right. Then bring back the magic fairies of corporate land who did all of these things. So it's almost that bit of that. You dunno what you dunno.
Danielle Lewis (03:59):
It's a hundred percent true, Danny. It's like people get into this for various reasons, but often the ones that I hear is I wanted freedom and I wanted to have time. And it's like, you are never going to work as hard in your life as you will building your business. Now, that's not to say that it's going to be like that forever, but definitely in those early years and at any growth stage. So I tend to work with women when they are in some kind of growth stage. Usually they're through that startup phase and then they're moving into that next stage of growth, and that's where those growing pains kick in. It's when you've kind of been doing everything yourself and realize that that's just not sustainable. Usually there's been some opportunity cost or there's been something that has happened in either their business or their life that has caused them to go, I can't keep doing this. Do I burn my business to the ground or do I sort my shit out? And actually becoming a grownup business owner stepping into that CEO role,
Michelle Broadbent (05:13):
I have been in business for over 12 years now, and I don't think I'm a grownup business woman yet. I literally still, things surprise me that I'm learning every day, which was also kind of why I like it, because it's so fascinating and interesting and yeah, it's something that you can really obsess over, but it is really interesting going, okay, what do I need to do to step into that CEO role? What do you think some of the big things, like big ticket items are when you see some go from, okay, bit of a hobby, bit of overwhelmed, I'm actually going to take this very seriously, I want a little bit of that freedom in my life. What are some of the big ticket items that really help people get there?
Danielle Lewis (05:56):
So I think it's starting to, I talked about wearing all the different hats. You are the head of every department. You are the department, you're not just the head of it. It's actually identifying what is in your zone of genius. Where are you of the highest value to your business? What is the stuff that only you can do? So we'll come back to your graphic designer example. Now. They could be working directly with clients, taking breaks, all of that sort of stuff. Do they need to be doing their bookkeeping? Do they need to be scheduling their own meetings? Do they need to be creating pitch documents? And I'm not saying that they do or they don't, but it's looking at those things that are outside of their zone of genius and getting that support of experts of people that do know what they're doing. Because what I see way too many people doing for way too long is muddling through figuring it out.
(06:58):
And that is, I guess something that we all do as business owners. We are not all in the position unless you have got a big juicy pot of gold somewhere that you can just draw upon infinite funds. Often this is a layered approach, but what I do with the women that I work with is help them identify what are those first things that need to go and connect them to the resources that can do it, because there are incredible people out there who can make your life so much easier, but often people just don't even know where to start. Or even that that is a thing. I mean, I've had conversations with big businesses where there's functions like outsourced functions that they didn't even know were a thing, like virtual CFOs, for example, that sort of real high level financial support. And it's like, oh, do they exist? It's like, yeah, you don't have to have someone on the payroll. So it's that coming back to what you said earlier, people don't know what they don't know, but I've been doing this for so long that I am able to spot it a lot quicker than someone who is in it. When you are in your own business and you are in the weeds and you are just in that day-to-day grind, it's really hard to see or even imagine what different and better could look like.
Michelle Broadbent (08:28):
You know what I love about what you just said? So I just spoke to this beautiful woman in business who started exactly the same story. Hers is in sort of more child support services, but she got into it because she absolutely loved what she did, and everyone's been saying to her, well, to grow the business, you have to step out of that role and just be the sales person and get in a team of consultants. And we were talking about it and she was like, that really makes me sad because this is the bit I want to do and I love to do, and I don't want that kind of model. And I love how you took it back to, well, what is your zone of genius? Where do you want to play? And what are all of the things that you're doing right now that you're actually adding no value to? And how do we take those off your plate so you can either do more or have that elusive freedom that we want?
Danielle Lewis (09:20):
That's right. And what I also didn't say there, but I love what your client was saying, it's like what brings you joy For some people, whilst they may not be a natural creative, I know really an ex-client of mine who was an incredible keynote speaker, she used to fiddle around on Canva. Literally, I used to say, are you resizing images on Canva again? Is that how? But it was almost soothing for her. She got a lot of joy out of doing that stuff. So that wasn't the first thing to go for her because it was something that she actually enjoyed doing. It did get to a point where it wasn't tenable for her to keep doing it, but it's like if there's something that brings you joy and you really, really enjoy doing it, there's no kind of rules. It's not like, well, you have to let, you must let go of finance. You must let go of marketing. It's like, what are you great at? What do you love doing? And do more of that. You're allowed. That's why we work for ourselves. Otherwise we'd go and work for somebody else. I love the
Michelle Broadbent (10:36):
Moment that I learned that. So I built a business and I was miserable, and then I just had that epiphany moment that I was like, well, you are the boss.
Danielle Lewis (10:48):
You good to pick. Yes. And that I work with so many women who have built these beasts of a business that they don't even recognize because they've followed that sort of stereotypical cliched pathway to success. It's like stopping trading time for money, create an online program, build up, have staff and team and all the problems that come with that. And that is brilliant. For a lot of people. That is definitely one path to growth, but it's not the only path to growth. And also I think a lot of women lose touch with why they started their business in the first place. They kind of get on that hamster wheel. They're in reactive mode. And I see this a lot because I work with a lot of service-based business owners, so they are at the mercy of their client's demands, and it's almost like their clients shape their businesses. For them. It's like, hold on a second. What am I doing this for all the time? So it's that outside lens looking in. That's very much what I do.
Michelle Broadbent (11:56):
And I love how you talked about really identifying those areas because I think that one thing that you said around we are in the weeds. We are in the day-to-day, you almost can't even see a path forward. I do love that idea of firstly identifying everything that you're doing and perhaps just picking off one small item. And it's almost like when you see that one thing, someone else do that thing, you're like, oh my gosh, what else could I outsource? How else could I solve this problem?
Danielle Lewis (12:27):
And also doing one small action and getting the win from that. So I think we all have our, I call it our evidence file. It's the stuff that validates future decisions, really. So for example, something that was completely transformative that I did in my business this year was that I engaged the services of a bookkeeper. Now I have been in business for eight and a half years, but because my brain is operational, that's my background, it's never been an issue for me. I've always happily done my own invoicing, done my reconciliations, all of that sort of thing. But because my business was growing, what used to take me an hour on a Friday, it was expanding. It was bleeding through the week, and it was one of those things that I kept putting on the back burner because I was in delivery mode and it was like, oh God, I've done all this. I'm going to have an invoice. Do as I say, not as I do. So I brought in a bookkeeper who when I look at what I am paying their service a month
(13:42):
And the impact that it has had on my business, I feel like really I've leveled up because I have got this next level visibility on the numbers and being able to future project and all of that sort of thing that I didn't have before. And I wouldn't have done it myself. It would've been just, I would've sort of done the rudimentary base level of that function in my business. But getting a professional in to help me has absolutely transformed my business and given me confidence to then make other decisions and know that there are, and I know that there are great people out there, but I work with a lot of women who have been burnt before. They've engaged a service provider in there. It's not just finance side of things. It could be a web designer, it could be a social media manager, it could be an executive assistant where it hasn't gone so well. And so then they just shut down any idea of bringing anybody else ever into their business because that one time didn't work.
Michelle Broadbent (14:55):
And I think the unfortunate thing is sometimes it's the 10 times it didn't work. But it's interesting. I've had full-time employees that haven't worked, and then I've had service outsourced options that don't work. But then I've got a handful of people that I've found, and once they're good, you'll slowly ratchet up what they can do. And I'm like, I will love you and I will never let you go.
Danielle Lewis (15:21):
You're not going anywhere. Yes, that's right.
Michelle Broadbent (15:23):
It is a bit of a, you've got to think of it in context of I tried that marketing campaign and it didn't work, so I'm going to try something else. You wouldn't say, well, I posted on Instagram once and I didn't make a million dollars, so therefore Instagram doesn't work. You wouldn't say that about something like marketing. So why say it about something like outsourcing operational activities.
Danielle Lewis (15:43):
That's right. It's so true. But I think there is, when you're working for yourself, there's so much at stake.
(15:51):
And coming back to that example of when you're working in corporate, there's so many layers of infrastructure. If one thing doesn't work, there's all this kind of scaffolding around you to prop you up so the whole company doesn't collapse. If one person forgets to, I don't know, do the pay run or something like that, I'm sure there would be an uproar in a big corporation. Yeah, people are telling you about it. There's layers of checking. But for small business owners, it's like if you invest time and energy and money in training someone and then they don't work out, it's natural to feel despondent and it's not worth trying again. But it's like finding a life partner. You've got to kiss a lot of frogs sometimes, or you could get it right the first time, who knows? Or it could be right for a long time. And I see this sometimes we are talking about humans, it could be right for a long time. They could be absolutely brilliant until they're not. And it's recognizing when to cut the cord and know that you are worthy of great support in your business. That is a lot of the work that I do with people is to help them realize that A, there's great people out there, but B, that they are deserving of them.
Michelle Broadbent (17:11):
Oh my God. Talk to me about that because this has been a little revelation that I found. So I do a lot of work in sales training, and that was a lesson I had to learn about people. It's like, wow, I can tell you what to do, but if you don't think that you are capable are worth it, people will listen to you that you have something of value to say you won't do any of the things that I tell you to do. So it almost became a mindset problem, not a training problem. So I'm fascinated to hear your experience there too.
Danielle Lewis (17:41):
I see it all the time, Danny, and it, it upsets me because I see these incredibly talented, gifted women who have got all these incredible talents, but they're too scared to sort of show their full selves or deliver in a way that more people, that sort of visibility problem that we talk about, it's like they're too scared to actually, and I think we use that term, put themselves out there and people think, oh, that means I have to be dancing on
Michelle Broadbent (18:17):
Reels
Danielle Lewis (18:18):
Or something or whatever. So I'm mindful of using that term. That's not what I mean. It's more just showing up and presenting yourself. It could be just being brave and going to a networking event or reaching out to that old contact on LinkedIn, those sorts of things. There's always that stumbling block. And that's why I come back to that evidence file that I was talking about earlier. It's like, look at the winds. Look at the thick. We focus so much on the negative. We always focus on the person that says, no, not the five people that said yes, or the glowing testimonials that we get from clients or the people that have absolutely loved working with us and have referred us to other people. But that one bastard, that one thing that I probably misinterpreted anyway. Yes, exactly. Or they weren't the right person for you anyway.
(19:13):
Often those kinds of people, they're not your people. But what I see happens sadly, is that people spend too long at the party. They spend too long trying to win those people over as opposed to kind of shifting the spotlight onto the wins. So that is a huge thing. But you know what? It's so common, and I think if the listener is sitting there going, oh, that's me. It's like, that's everyone. And I've worked with and continue to work with people who have got quite a high profile, and even those people, even with tens of thousands of followers and published books and appearing on TV all the time and all of that, I used to work in television. I saw how crippled with anxiety a lot of those superstars were. It is so common.
Michelle Broadbent (20:08):
It's just wild, isn't it? You hear that, and it is still something that everybody struggles with. And it's funny. I mean, I'm just thinking of myself and I have those days where I go, oh my God, I don't want to do it. I don't want to show up on stories. I don't want to talk. I answer the phone. All of those things. And then you say, even those people have issues with anxiety and putting themselves out there and all that stuff. I don't know, it's just such a common problem that we all have, but it's almost like we don't talk about it enough. We don't draw enough attention to
Danielle Lewis (20:43):
It. And that's why I love with my circles, it is that safe space for small groups of women who are all in the trenches together. They're all women building their businesses to talk about this stuff because it doesn't get talked about. And as business owners, particularly if we have team, all of us have got clients, you feel like you need to have your shit together and show up and be on and pair and makeup and know what you're talking about all of the time. But being around a safe crew where you can share this stuff openly and then hear in return that either people are also feeling that way right now, or they have felt that way in the past. It's that normalizing of the trials and tribulations of running a business as opposed to only hearing about and seeing the shiny stuff that highlights is always said to us, not that reality.
(21:49):
And I'm not saying that we need to go down the doom and gloom hole. I think that's not as well does. And that draining, right? We've all been in those rooms where it's like, oh my God, no one's buying and no one's doing this, and everything sucks. And it's like, is it really, or is it just like you're having, it's just a bad day or a bad week. And that's why being the ops girl that I am, it's like, let's look at the data. Let's look at the facts here. What's real and what's not. But that sharing, that normalizing is so, so important.
Michelle Broadbent (22:24):
And it's, I think about this all the time. A lot of women in business are sitting at home alone behind the laptop. And even if you do have a team or an outsourced freelancers that you use or those clients, you often can't have certain level of conversations with any of those people. You really do need to find other women who are going through the same experience as you just to keep your sanity in business. I think
Danielle Lewis (22:55):
A hundred percent. That hundred, it's that sense check. It's like, am I going crazy? But even things like, I've mean, pricing is a huge one. That is a huge pain point for a lot of business owners. I don't know how much to charge. And it's like you put that number on the bottom of the proposal and you close your eyes and you pray that everything's going to be okay and that the client's going to say yes. But even just having people that you can sense check that sort of thing with that know and understand you, that is the difference. There are so many brilliant online Facebook groups and online groups of hundreds, thousands of female business owners, and when I see people snap polling those groups, what should I do about this? And then there's this pile on of 45 responses from people that don't know anything about them or their business that just causes more confusion and pain. Whereas having people that really understand you and your business and what your goals are, because what success is for me is probably going to be different to what success is for you and what success is for each of our individual clients. And that's really important when you are sharing advice, and I'll use the air quotes here, is to have that baseline information because you could be steering people up the garden path and causing way more confusion than when they started.
Michelle Broadbent (24:33):
Yeah, it's actually such a good point. And I often think that people ask advice of people who haven't been in their shoes kind of to procrastinate a little
Danielle Lewis (24:44):
Bit. It's absolutely a procrast. It's perfectionism coming out as procrastination. It's like, I don't want to put this out into the world until it's perfect. Everyone tell me it's perfect. Tell me my decision is right. And then you've got all of these people who yes, have probably never been walked. They say like walk a mile in someone's shoes. But it's yes, spot
Michelle Broadbent (25:07):
On. I love how you talked about the data before, and it's almost like I feel like that's the best way to make a decision. If you can actually get the person who is going to buy the product from you to give you that feedback and to be okay that it's like either way, yes, it's leaning in that direction or leaning that, or I'd change this or I'd buy if, or whatever the words are. But going out and collecting the data from the people who are actually have either done what you've done before or done what you want to do before or are your actual customers who are going to make the decision going out and getting that data, that's high quality data. I think anything else is a little bit of a procrastination exercise.
Danielle Lewis (25:50):
It's procrastination and it's also wasted energy. Danny, what I speak to people who hypothesize, it's like, oh, I don't think they do dah dah, don't think. And it's like, why don't you ask them? Why don't you just ask them? Because we learn by doing. And there are so many brilliant ideas that are sitting on people's clouds or hard drives, right, that have you never seen the light of day because they've been too scared to pull the trigger. And unless you are, I don't know, knocking down a building or laying concrete or doing something that is pretty immovable what we do, we can change. Absolutely. We're not burning down buildings or doing anything dramatic, and we're not saving lives either. That's the other thing. It's like none of it at the end of the day, what is it going to hurt if you just tried it and see
Michelle Broadbent (26:54):
What happens? See what happens. I love it. And this also makes me reflect as well as I think that because we live in such a public world, I feel like people are afraid to make mistakes.
Danielle Lewis (27:05):
They are.
Michelle Broadbent (27:05):
But one thing I keep saying is you don't have to build in public. It's so funny. I'm like, if you put out a price and then you change your price, you don't actually have to post that on social media and go, oh my God, we're raising it. Sure, you do need to talk to your customers, but if someone brand new comes into your world and looks at your website and sees your new price, they have none of that history. They don't need to go to your social media and go, oh my God. Oh, they've just changed their price. They don't need to know about that. You don't actually have to pull the kimono open on everything that you do in business.
Danielle Lewis (27:42):
Totally true. And also, no one is paying that much attention to us. No one is. No one is. And if they are, they've clearly been stalking you to a very, very minute detail. And then I would be going, well, why haven't you pulled the trigger previously? I just think we think that people are paying way more attention to us than they actually are. Everyone's just thinking about themselves.
Michelle Broadbent (28:11):
Oh my God, that is so true. Okay, we could talk all day, but I love to wrap up these podcasts 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?
Danielle Lewis (28:28):
I think it comes back to what I was just saying about just try, try, take action. Just take the next step. Break things. If things feel big and overwhelming and scary, what's the teeniest tiniest step that you could take to start to build that momentum? So who can you connect with on LinkedIn? Who can you send an email to? Who can you pick up the phone and call? What is that tiny thing that you can do that's going to take you in the direction that you want to go? That's all it is. I hate to tell you, but it's just one action. Then the next action, then the next, and all the actions after that. That is what is going to get you to reaching your goal, but you need to take the action. Don't sit there and stew on it. Don't let that brilliant idea of yours fester in a Canva file or somewhere that no one's ever going to see. Take action.
Michelle Broadbent (29:30):
Oh my God, you are absolutely incredible. Michelle. Thank you so much for your time today and sharing your experience and your wisdom with the smart community.
Danielle Lewis (29:40):
Thanks so much for having me. Bye.
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