#awinewith Natalie Coulson
MEET Natalie
Natalie is the Founder of Amped Up Communications.
Find Natalie here:
Amped Up Communications website and Instagram @amped_up_comms.
Transcript
Danielle Lewis (00:09):
Natalie, thank you so much for being here on Spark tv. Really appreciate your time, and I can't wait to dive into our conversation.
Natalie Coulson (00:19):
Such a pleasure.
Danielle Lewis (00:21):
And I think the best place to get started is just giving us a little bit of a background on your story. So have you always been a business owner? Was there a career path, and then you decided to take the leap, paint us a picture on how you became the owner of Amped Up Communications.
Natalie Coulson (00:40):
So I was definitely not always a business owner raised by school teachers. I was taught to follow the rules, be diligent, conscientious, and do as I was told. So that is pretty much how I started off in my world of education. So yeah, no, I was following a traditional path, went to uni, studied communications, and I was really ambitious and dead keen to become either a magazine journalist. I wasn't even aspiring to editor. I just wanted to be a magazine journalist or a TV presenter. I could, I had this cognitive dissonance. I could not figure it out, but life just figures it out for you. So I did a hell of a lot of work experience. I was always putting my hand up, going to TV stations, doing work experience at publications, built up my portfolio. I had a show reel. I put that together for tv, and it was really just the magazine opportunity came up first. So I kind of always had this, oh, but I'd love to be a TV presenter. But then I have revisited that in a different, and now we can be content creator, so you can be a video. Oh, that's right.
Danielle Lewis (01:57):
You're a media channel in and of yourself,
Natalie Coulson (01:59):
So those skills are still really valuable. So yeah, I ended up starting off as a journalist, travel journalist for a year and a half, which yes, there were some exciting parts of that. I did go on trips, I went on the GaN on the train. I went to Canada and I wrote for the Harvey World Travel Magazine at the time, this is like 22 years ago, they were actually quite progressive and we were writing for Yahoo Travel and other online platforms that probably don't exist anymore. But, so that was how I started. And then I just thought, oh, I really want, they brought me in on conversations about business development and I really enjoyed that. And an opportunity came up to take a media sales cadetship, which would then lead to, was promised it would lead to work at a really large media organization. I was feeling a bit frustrated that I was just at a really small company.
(02:58):
Looking back, I'm like, why was I concerned? Because it was like travel journalists. Having said that, a lot of the time you were behind the desk you were writing it wasn't all super glamorous, didn't pay amazingly well. Yeah, no. So then I got into the larger publishing companies via the media sales cadetship, and that actually took me to, it sounds the sales side, and I'd never thought of being a salesperson. Sales was really what I did. Working at the ice cream shop or working as in a restaurant, there is an element of sales definitely. And so at first I was really uncomfortable about it, but then I realized that that happened for a reason. And somehow my plans to go to editorial never quite materialized. And I really enjoyed working in media sales. So I worked at Better Homes and Gardens for a couple of years at Murdoch Magazines, and then I went overseas.
(03:58):
So they had made my dream to go overseas, so went over to Canada, great place. So I worked in Toronto. They had quite a big magazine publishing empire over there. So I worked at all three of the magazine publishing companies there over nearly course of almost 10 years. And I was pinching myself the day when they sent me to New York to meet with clients for lunch. For them. It was like, oh, she doesn't, she's got flexibility at the time. No kids, she can go to New York. And I was like, are you kidding me? This little Australian girl from the central coast. And I'm like, woo-hoo. Getting paid to go to New York. That's awesome. Showed me that I could think big. They'd send me off across on sales trips to meet with clients across Canada. I had clients that were in Singapore, the US and most of those were for a large, very unsexy financial publication.
(04:57):
But sometimes the unsexy things can, sometimes the unsexy has the money and it was just really, really, really good. So anyway, to cut a really long story short, when I got back to Australia, I did work in the magazine industry here for another 18 months. And then I thought, no, it just wasn't for me anymore. And I started to think for one of the last jobs I had, it was for a small publishing company. Again, it was like I'd gone full circle and they actually had one of the travel magazines. They bought it from the original place that I'd worked at. So it was really like, okay, this is topping and tailing and they wanted me to have an A BM to work for them. And then it just got me thinking about, okay, what can I do with this A BM? So that role didn't feel right, the magazine industry just wasn't right for me anymore. And so I thought, okay, I will start my own business. Well, there's a lot more to it of course, than just getting an BI know, but
Danielle Lewis (05:59):
I love the leap. You're like, this doesn't feel right anymore. I'll
Natalie Coulson (06:02):
Start my own business. I know. So I thought, okay, well, because I just hadn't felt that magazines were the right vehicle for clients anymore. That was just the place I was in. It definitely was right for some clients, but as a whole, I just wasn't feeling it anymore. So much of the world had gone online and yes, there's an online component, but what I'd loved about print, I just wasn't feeling it. So I thought, well, now what I need to do is just ask businesses. And I thought I could offer the most value at that time to small businesses. I just asked, I just talked, I listened. So I spent a few months watching my savings go down and just wherever I was working out, I'd go networking. I would be in a ferry line, I'd be in the doctor's waiting room, just ask people what they did and how they were promoting themselves. So that's how that, and then actually that was around the time we met. It was soon after that. It was probably six months after that. Oh wow. Everyone had been asking about influencer marketing. And so I'd been doing some very general supporting some small businesses just with marketing and communications advice. And then I started to run influencer marketing campaigns and I thought, I'll just figure this out. And so then I found Scrunch and I reached out to you and you were, I think, coming to Sydney. So that's how that all evolved
Danielle Lewis (07:29):
When I was on a plane every week.
Natalie Coulson (07:33):
But then I ended up going back to more generalist marketing and communications, and then I did a couple of contracts, and then you end up doing the juggle between working with some small businesses and then working on a large contract. And that was great again for another 18 months and then had a baby. And then I realized, I don't want, it's a time when you can clarify really what you do want, I think, and decided, no, I really want to make business and running my own business, my main priority. Amazing. Yes, that's where I are now. That was about 2019. I said, no, I've got to go all in. And then I realized I needed to create a much stronger brand. I'd never really spent a lot of time creating my own brand. And that's been spent so
Danielle Lewis (08:31):
Much time as a marketer working on everybody
Natalie Coulson (08:33):
Else's brand. I was very audience focused, and even as I spoke with them, the clients, it was always, okay, who's your target audience? I would jump straight to that. And then I was a huge learning curve for me to realize actually it was really covid that changed things for me because I just love networking. So I would be out talking to people, and I didn't really need a good website. It was just once I talked to people, they saw what I did, I could meet their problem, and then we just went from there. But then once you are the brand, well, and I suppose that was first introduction to personal branding without me really realizing it. But then as everything's changed, obviously for everyone with the pandemic and I had to rethink things. So that was sort of middle of 2020, I officially launched Amp Up Marketing and Comms, and yes, we're what, nearly two years in.
Danielle Lewis (09:33):
Wow. I love that. It's like everything led to the next thing. It wasn't kind of like a, I've got this strategy to do this business. It's the next thing, the next thing, the experience, and it all builds on itself. I love that. Nothing is ever a waste. You look back and it's just like everything that you do leads you to the moment. Definitely. Yeah. That's amazing. So right now then amped up marketing and comms, what services do you offer and what kind of customers do you service?
Natalie Coulson (10:06):
Yeah, and I think this leads into a challenge that I've always faced, which is over the course of a 20 year career, you do do a lot of things and work with a lot of different clients. And so narrowing that down to one brand and one message and one set of service offerings has been a challenge of mine. And so what I'm focusing on now is personal branding. So I have a personal branding program. I also, it's interesting how that evolved because I found some of the clients I'm working with now came to me asking for what I had, and I thought, well, hey, I did copywriting. I can look after a marketing strategy, but no, no, we want what you have. And so they really helped me to shape this focus around personal branding. Wow, that's awesome. So yeah, it's the same thing. Everything's just evolved. So yeah, so what I'm offering now is so content marketing, so rebrands, so company rebrands content strategy. But yes, a big focus on personal branding.
Danielle Lewis (11:18):
Amazing. And I had to kind of think too, so what kind of customers, because in my mind I think about the Spark community and it's lots of founder led businesses where the personal brand is so important because for so long you are the face of that brand. Do you find that's mostly the type of people you work with or kind of big and small, the
Natalie Coulson (11:39):
Yeah, definitely. So I find that most of the people I'm working with are, well in this capacity, they're mostly entrepreneurs or people who are just the Spark community. They've maybe been in corporate and they need to define who they are outside of that corporate environment to relaunch as a business owner. And it's not an easy always, it is easy for some, but it's not always an easy transition. I found that really difficult when I first went to networking events, I was like, oh, I'm not Natalie from, oh, this is really weird.
Danielle Lewis (12:18):
Oh, I remember when I moved from corporate to my own business, I was like, I thought I had to run it. I was in corporate, and it took me a long time to go, no, this is my business. I get to run it the way I want to run it. I get to wear tracksuit pants if I want to wear tracksuit pants. Not a suit.
Natalie Coulson (12:41):
Exactly. There's always rules that you get to break. And then, yeah, that's probably the most fun. And that's the rebellion for me. Sorry, mom and dad, but from that school teacher upbringing, they gave me such a great structure and such a great foundation. But now I can break those rules
Danielle Lewis (13:02):
And I think it's amazing. I had that same moment. So moving from corporate to startup world or business world, my parents both were employees in their same jobs for 40 plus years, like unheard of now, but working for the same companies. And that's all I saw. I thought, well, that's what I've got to do. I've got to go to school, do well, go to uni, get a job. And then when I found out that you could start your own business, I was like, what? This is amazing.
Natalie Coulson (13:31):
Oh, my parents still don't get it, but that's okay.
Danielle Lewis (13:34):
Oh, totally. My parents are the best, but I'm not sure if they know what I do. But they're my biggest supporters. My biggest supporters. And I love to death. Yes. Oh, that's so good. So you mentioned a challenge being defining what you do, and I think that that evolves over time as you've kind of pointed out. But moving from that employee mindset, corporate world to running your own business, have there been any other challenges along the way that you wish people had have told you were coming?
Natalie Coulson (14:07):
I'm pleased. No one told me it was coming and you hear it all the time having to wear all the hats. But what that really means, working in the magazine industry, I was just so used to doing my job, which was meeting with clients, putting proposals together. Yes, I would take them to lunch, negotiate new contracts. That's what I did. And everything around me looked fantastic. They had marketing, a marketing team, a PR team, designers. When I worked at Better Homes and Gardens, we worked in the same office as Men's Health and Marie Claire, and they had a chef, so you didn't have clients in and they'd have massive lunches, and it was different time. So I got used to that. And then when it was just me sitting at my dining room table, I know
Danielle Lewis (15:05):
How shock is it? I know how to
Natalie Coulson (15:07):
Create
Danielle Lewis (15:07):
That. Where's my chef?
Natalie Coulson (15:08):
I know. I'm like, I know what I can offer, but how can I offer the whole package? So I struggled with that for a long time. But now, yeah, so it's I guess building your own design team and yes, learning a lot of different things. So I've definitely learned how to, and I think I was always across numbers being in a sales role, but profit loss, that sort of side of it was definitely a learning curve. But that's something like
Danielle Lewis (15:40):
Learning a new language, isn't it?
Natalie Coulson (15:41):
And it's just all the setup zero and just so many systems and all the experimentation. So yeah, I'm glad no one told me, and I'm sorry if that's a shock if
Danielle Lewis (15:50):
Anyone think No, I tend to agree. I'm like, if I knew how hard it was, do you think I would've done it?
Natalie Coulson (15:56):
No, but I think it's just anything just starting. So I learnt piano growing up, and when you start and you're learning the basics, you don't think, you're not putting pressure on yourself to be able to do grade whatever, masterpieces. It just comes over time. And I think it's the same sort of,
Danielle Lewis (16:20):
You need to crawl before you walk potentially,
Natalie Coulson (16:23):
Which is not easy
Danielle Lewis (16:26):
And not for ambitious entrepreneurs, the type of people, it's really
Natalie Coulson (16:29):
Frustrating.
Danielle Lewis (16:30):
But it's true though. And I think one of the traps we fall into is not being perfect or not being all the way over here on day one. It's having to put in the work, having to do the small things. And I'm even so 10 years in and I'm making little changes to my website and I'm like, this is so infuriating. But it's like you're still,
Natalie Coulson (16:54):
It doesn't stop. That's just the journey. And I'd still rather do that than have a whole team doing it and making their decisions. I get to do it my way. Yeah, I love that. Make my own mistakes and celebrate my own achievements.
Danielle Lewis (17:10):
It's nothing like making your own mistakes though. It's funny people often say that, find people who've done what you want to do and emulate that. But I think there's different personality types. I'm a little bit of a need to feel the pain, make my own mistakes, and then that's how I learn, which is not very efficient, let me tell you. But it is visceral then, and it's really helps you go, okay, now I really understand my customer's problem. I really understand technology
Natalie Coulson (17:39):
Or what happened. And I think that's why I like the way I started out. I just wanted to listen. I just wanted to learn. And I'm really trying to, if I go through a phase where I'm really busy and then it becomes quiet again, which everyone goes through the ups and downs, it's not necessarily a bad thing. It just means there's a change. Then I'm like, okay, I really need to listen because there's a new direction I've got to go in and the clients end up driving it.
Danielle Lewis (18:09):
And I do love that because you are right. Well, firstly, if you don't have clients, you don't have a business. So having the self-awareness to listen to what's going on with your clients in the market, I think is what actually prepares you for that change and helps you adapt a lot quicker when big things happen. And I think we've experienced lots of big things in the last couple of years. So needing to adapt quickly has been huge, I think, for people.
Natalie Coulson (18:39):
And I feel very fortunate to be a few years into this entrepreneurial journey, but I think that also puts me in a position to help others who are just new in the space as you're in the same boat.
Danielle Lewis (18:53):
Yeah, exactly. So on that note then, so we've got a lot of people who are tuned in who are very early stage, they've just decided to take the leap into starting their own business. Are there a couple of pointers around developing your brand or your personal brand or get starting and getting the word out there about yourself that you might offer to a new business starter?
Natalie Coulson (19:17):
Yeah, I think, and I didn't necessarily start it this way, but I think just from what I've learned is really take the time to, and then the time might be a weekend. It doesn't have to be months or anything. Just why are you doing this? Who are you? And you may don't have to have a final answer, but just write it down, who am I? Why am I doing this? What am I wanting to achieve? Just to have that awareness. If it's just, oh, I want flexibility and I want, why are you doing what you're actually doing with your business outside of the lifestyle goals? Because that would just, and put it up somewhere and maybe even do a vision board. So that sort of inner thinking will help guide everything. I was very audience focused, which would be straight after you've had your weekend inner reflection all about the customer. So then would be getting, and you don't know, have to know who your target audience is right away or target market. It's talking to people, getting an idea. So it's taking that agile approach and realizing you don't know everything. And look, I have spoken to business owners who said, oh gosh, as soon as I started promoting myself, I was flooded with work. So that happens as well. And then that's a different conversation around setting boundaries
(20:46):
And not taking on everyone.
Danielle Lewis (20:48):
Exactly. Knowing what, and that's it. I think if you do that self-reflection piece, what kind of work you want to actually take on what's servicing the goal, not just saying, oh my God, I'm a new business owner. I should say yes to everything. Because having a scarcity mindset really going, I've got to take everything. It's like, no, actually I want to build this my way.
Natalie Coulson (21:10):
Well, I think that's what the vision board, and I'm looking up at my vision board. That's why I keep looking up there. But I think that's why, I mean, having that bigger, that end goal, and probably I do a new vision board every year, so it's like it changes, but having an idea of the bigger picture, but then why you're doing it. Because when I think about it, yes, maybe I didn't dedicate that consciously, but my purpose was to help small business owners at the time to promote themselves better and not get ripped off or going down, just educating them. That was what was really driving me. So I suppose I did have awareness of that, but I didn't necessarily articulate it in that very clear way that I would now.
Danielle Lewis (21:55):
But I think that changes over time. I think you can have, when you're first starting out a bit of a sense, a bit of a gut feeling on where you want to go and what value you want to bring and why you're in it, but actually being able to articulate it really clearly, I think changes over time. I mean, so scrunch has been, we've been in business for 10 years and I just changed the unique selling proposition again this week. I've refined it again, and I'm like, I just think you just keep figuring
Natalie Coulson (22:24):
Out what that's okay. I beat myself up about that too at times. Think, oh, I can't change it. But I think it's just about having consistency for a period of time, and then you can change it, but you do
Danielle Lewis (22:38):
Still have to evolve with the market, and you do have to listen to what your customers are saying and how they're evolving. So you do have to evolve. You can't stay. It's like the magazine business. It's
Natalie Coulson (22:48):
Literally like that. Definitely.
Danielle Lewis (22:51):
Hey, they had got a rude shock when digital came out and they had to adapt and evolve, and I think we all do.
Natalie Coulson (22:59):
Yeah, definitely.
Danielle Lewis (23:01):
That's so good. Okay, so years into business now we are kind of talking about adapting and overcoming and all the things that we've got to do. And we hear a lot about founder burnout and overwhelm, and it is listening to all of these things that we've got to do, all the systems, processes, the people, the personal brand, the putting ourselves out there. How do people, and I know it'll be different for everyone, but how do people, or sorry, founders maybe take stock, I guess, of where they're at and really understand when they are a little bit overwhelmed and overworked, and how do they architect their day and their life to bring a little bit more self care and perspective in business? What do you think?
Natalie Coulson (23:49):
Well, I know I really hit that burnout during lockdown because even though I was very fortunate and that little boy was going to daycare, so I did have that time when he was away, but I think because we weren't doing anything socially, I would just work all the time and I was enjoying it, but I wasn't exercising properly because I would go for a walk, but I love going to the gym and that routine is different. So yeah, I learned through that time. Yes, I can do that for a while, but at some point it'll catch up with me. I
Danielle Lewis (24:27):
Agree.
Natalie Coulson (24:28):
Yeah, I always feel it when I've pushed it right to the limit. Same. And then I know I ended up having a super busy January, which it wasn't expected, but I sort of thought, oh, make hay while the sun shine. And I was overseas. I was working from overseas, which looked a bit ridiculous, but it worked for me. But then when I got back, I kind of crashed the beginning of February, so it all caught up with me,
Danielle Lewis (24:51):
And it always does, doesn't
Natalie Coulson (24:52):
It? So I think it's kind of being patient with yourself and realizing you're going to have these ebbs and flows and it's not like a corporate job. You can actually have a few days off, even if businesses slowed down
Danielle Lewis (25:08):
And not, I guess feeling guilty about it. No,
Natalie Coulson (25:11):
Which I probably do too much, but my advice would be not to, because things do you need that downtime to reevaluate.
Danielle Lewis (25:20):
Yeah, absolutely.
Natalie Coulson (25:21):
So yeah, I suppose in the day-to-day though, it is. I mean, time blocking on my calendar is what I do. And having some flexibility, I've started dedicating one day a week to my own brand.
Danielle Lewis (25:36):
That's cool.
Natalie Coulson (25:37):
It doesn't mean I entirely follow it, but it means that it's blocked off. I don't have any meetings on a Friday. And then yeah, there'll be a few bits and pieces, but I try to schedule work Monday to Thursday and just meetings on, I try to just have meetings Tuesdays and Thursdays with clients, so that's providing a better structure, but then throw in a sick child and things just happen and you have to roll with it. So
Danielle Lewis (26:05):
How do you find being a mom in business?
Natalie Coulson (26:09):
Well, it teaches you, I know when I was off when I wasn't working, that was a great time for innovation because you're just thinking constantly. That's how it affected me. I kind of became even more ambitious. But yeah, I mean, look, there's the juggle, but
Danielle Lewis (26:29):
There's always
Natalie Coulson (26:29):
Juggle. There's always juggle. Yeah. So I couldn't manage six children like business chicks and Isaac. I like that way too much for me. But yeah, whatever your limits are, it's working within that.
Danielle Lewis (26:48):
I think it's that, like you said, being aware of why you're doing what you're doing, then really understanding your day, how you want to structure that. I love that you block out Fridays for a certain task and confined meetings to Tuesday to Thursdays. That's super cool. And then being flexible because whether it is a sick child or Covid is canceled daycare or whatever it might be, it'll also be a customer that calls you at the last minute with something wrong. There's literally always something in business that you have to contend with. So being flexible and being agile in your approach when you do know that vision and that why
Natalie Coulson (27:34):
Knowing your own flow as well. In corporate, you have to work well whenever the company says you have to work, so you got to show up. Well, I know it's changed now. A lot of people are working from home, but even you've got to dial in, you've got to be there at a certain time that presenteeism. Whereas I've kind of identified, I'm a bit of a night owl, so I have flexible mornings, so sometimes I won't start working until 10 o'clock. Mind you, I'm still looking doing stuff on my phone. But that's my personality like that. And I don't see it as work. Engaging on LinkedIn is not work, but even though it is work, so that works for me. But for other people, they need solid time away from their phone. So I make sure that I don't, so I will have late nights so I don't start till 1:00 AM. I did do that for a while, but then that caught up with me a bit too much. But I will work till 11 sometimes. But then other nights it's like Netflix. And so for me, that works. I'm not a 5:00 AM person.
Danielle Lewis (28:42):
Me
Natalie Coulson (28:43):
Neither. For other people, 5:00 AM is gold. So yeah, finding what works for you for sure.
Danielle Lewis (28:49):
Yeah, I love that because I think sometimes we feel guilty if we're not up at 5:00 AM and if we haven't journaled and meditated and run on the treadmill before six, we're doing it wrong. But I'm like, I just love the idea of some days you're going to nail it and the vision you have for your day is going to come true. And then other days it's not. And that's all right. Sometimes before we started recording, I said after this recording, I'm getting in a bath and I'm finishing my champagne and I'm reading a magazine. That's what I need today because exhausted. But I think if you don't understand that and don't know that about yourself and don't give yourself that space and that grace to do that and take that time, that's when it's very, very easy to become overwhelmed.
Natalie Coulson (29:36):
And I've suffered major burnout before. I'm pretty open about that on LinkedIn and going through a whole year where I couldn't work and I had really severe depression and that.
Danielle Lewis (29:52):
What turned that around for you?
Natalie Coulson (29:54):
Well, many things which are probably not fit for this podcast.
(29:59):
I had to come back. Did you to share? No, I had to come back from, I had to leave an abusive relationship. I had to come back to Australia from Canada and rebuild my life, which incredible. So I was really keen to get back into the magazine world, but I think it was just a weird time because it felt like nothing was working. But that's part of the reason I thought, well, that's not working either magazines don't even feel like they're right. I don't feel like I belong even in that anymore. Everything had to break to rebuild again. So now I understand that, but at the time it was pretty devastating.
Danielle Lewis (30:42):
When you're in the thick of it, it is so hard to see getting out of it. You can literally sometimes only just see the next step to, sometimes you can only see if I just do this tiny little task, maybe something
Natalie Coulson (30:57):
Else. Yeah, no, I had times where I wasn't even brushing my teeth. I could not get out of bed to do anything. So it was pretty bad. But those days are long.
Danielle Lewis (31:09):
Congratulations. That is first celebrating. Yeah, it is
Natalie Coulson (31:12):
Fucking incredible. And well, yeah, hopefully no one listening has been through depression. That was that severe. But it does. Yeah, if you've not been through it, it's intense. You just can't do anything. So yeah, it is really amazing. You just have to do things one step at a time. And that's probably what taught me to take things one step at a time, is literally my health dictated it.
Danielle Lewis (31:42):
Well, and sometimes that's something that think people don't think a lot about is that if you don't have your health and you don't look after
Natalie Coulson (31:49):
Yourself, but nothing,
Danielle Lewis (31:50):
Yeah, it, I've personally lived with somebody who was in that position and it is just debilitating and it's so hard to get them into a shower
Natalie Coulson (32:01):
Or Oh yeah. But I'd be able chart my life to doing all the things that I thought I should do. Yes. Pick all the life boxes.
Danielle Lewis (32:12):
Oh my God, you just gave me goosebumps.
Natalie Coulson (32:14):
And then I realized they're not my life boxes. So it was just, yeah, I was completely burnt out in every way. So that's what happened. But I think what I learned from that too is about intuition. So I knew there were a lot of things wrong, but I kept ignoring it and building one thing on top of the next. And it was all built on a shaky foundation with not the right relationship, not in the right country. I felt like I was living someone else's life after a while. And so now I feel like I'm living my own life.
Danielle Lewis (32:50):
That's unreal. And you know what I love, and I know we're talking about this after we talked about sitting down and defining your business and how you want your life to look, but I'm like, just based on this part of the conversation, I'm like, that is why you do that, right? Because it's so easy to go, I should just make this business what I did for my job, or I should
Natalie Coulson (33:12):
Just, that's right.
Danielle Lewis (33:14):
My partner does that or whatever. Sitting down and giving yourself the space to think about what you want and how you want every day to look is really powerful for how you're going to show up in your business over time.
Natalie Coulson (33:28):
Well, it is. Otherwise you end up being a people pleaser, which I was for many years because I was brought up that way. And I am still driven by pleasing. I want to do the right thing for my clients, but I don't need to do it at the expense of my health or finance or whatever. Yeah, I can set those boundaries. So that's definitely something to be aware of starting because clients can take over and dictate, but they're not really the right clients, which I've learned the hard way. So
Danielle Lewis (34:05):
I know, and again, though, it goes back to sometimes you don't know until you're in it and you kind of go, wow, this is not the type of customer I want to be dealing with, or this is not the type of work I want to be doing. And it's really interesting. We even, so scrunch used to be the influencer platform and the agency, and we knew for so long that the agency wasn't the right model for us. And we just held on and held on because people knew us for being the agency. So we get briefs all the time, and you just get in this cycle of, I have to reply to that, I have to pitch on that work. And there's some kind of status with winning campaigns, and it took us so long to make that call. It
Natalie Coulson (34:49):
Becomes toxic.
Danielle Lewis (34:50):
Oh, it totally does. And then you don't service those customers as well as you should or as well as you want to and believe you should as a person. It took us so long to be able to make that decision to move on from the agency and just focus on the tech, which is what we're good at. But for so long it was like that's what we thought we had to do. That was the model that we thought we had to uphold and why everyone knew us. And funnily enough, the world didn't end when we made that decision.
Natalie Coulson (35:18):
And it doesn't The thing, yeah,
Danielle Lewis (35:21):
I don't know why it just took us so long to do it, but it was a combination of actually sitting down and talking out what kind of business we wanted to be in long term. Yeah. So I think that's amazing advice. Alright, well look, you are fabulous. If there's one piece of advice you could leave the Spark community with, although I feel like we've just done 30 minutes of nine drawing advice, what would it be? If you were talking to a female founder who was just right at the start of their journey, what would you say to them?
Natalie Coulson (35:58):
Just do it. It's never going to feel right. I know we've talked about all the different things. You need to learn all the hats, but you've got to do a lot of things in a corporate job anyway. Or if you have a burning desire to start a business or a purpose that you are wanting to fulfill, just start. It can just start as, I mean, I have what I call a side project at the moment, which I have spoken to you about Danielle called Rebuild Relaunch, which is targeted at helping domestic violence survivors. That is literally a blog and an Instagram page currently. Yeah. Awesome. And that's okay. I've started and so I'm practicing what I preach.
Danielle Lewis (36:44):
That's fantastic.
Natalie Coulson (36:45):
Don't worry that
Danielle Lewis (36:46):
Yeah, it's not going to be perfect on day one and the only way it gets perfect, which is never perfect, the only way it gets to the place where you envision it is exactly like you said, one step at a time. Just get something out. Get something out, get something out and build on that.
Natalie Coulson (37:02):
And I think the other thing is, like I mentioned, I did speak with a business owner just last week who said, oh no, as soon as I launched my own business, I tripled a number of clients. And so that can happen. And so it's just about being conscious about what you really want and saying no to things. And I know that person was working, she found she was working every weekend, and so it's realizing, well, do I want to work weekends and working and maybe you do and have Monday and Tuesday off. Yeah.
Danielle Lewis (37:38):
Yeah. I love that. Define what business looks like and what success looks like for you. Yeah, amazing. Oh my God, you are incredible. Thank you so much for spending your time with us today. I know everyone tuning in would've gotten a lot of value out of that and I'm sure scribbling lots of things on the post-It notes and going away to implement. So I appreciate you so much. That was fantastic.
Natalie Coulson (38:04):
Oh, thanks Teddy. I'll enjoyed it.
