#awinewith Odette Barry
MEET Odette
Odette is the Founder of Odette & Co, Find Odette here:
Transcript
Danielle Lewis (00:07):
Oh, okay. Let's do it. Odette, welcome to Spark tv. It's so good to have you here.
Odette Barry (00:13):
Well, thanks so much for the invitation. It's very fun to chat with a fellow sparkly business lady.
Danielle Lewis (00:20):
So good. I know, I think we've been stalking each other on LinkedIn Instagram for a while and have some mutual female founder friends, so it's nice to actually do this and have a proper chat.
Odette Barry (00:33):
Absolutely.
Danielle Lewis (00:34):
I love it. So let's start by telling the people who you are and what you do.
Odette Barry (00:40):
Yeah, sure. So I'm Odette. I found a little business called Odette and Co just over seven years ago now. And yeah, I have a background in corporate communications working for Westpac, the peak body for physiotherapy. I worked in the media as a digital editor for Women's Fitness Magazine before starting my business. And what do I do? I'm a publicist, but for the last five years I've actually been teaching businesses how to do their own PR because probably what I discovered in the first few years of running my own business and agency was that most early stage businesses can't afford PR because it's super expensive, which really sucks because early stage businesses are doing really cool shit, and they're the people I really want to talk to. They're changing the way we think. They're changing the model of business, they're creating impact, and they're the people who really should be getting the media headlines.
Danielle Lewis (01:53):
Yeah, and it's funny too, because someone, I don't know, a PR person once said to me, it is all about the story. You can't just go, oh, we released a new product and think that you're going to get all of these headlines. It is about the story you like. Yes, have said that once or twice.
Odette Barry (02:11):
I just wish it's something that everyone fundamentally understood, because it's really awkward when Epic brands come to you and they're like, we want to do pr. And you're like, yeah, but you need to be part of this. We can't just have your product doing it. And yes, you'll get product features without an amazing story for sure, but you're not going to get page space. You'll get a little photo of your product on a page amongst many other products, and that will have impact of course. But if you want to have really big impact, you have to have a story to talk about and you have to be willing to talk about it too, because
Danielle Lewis (02:49):
That's part, yeah. Also, lot of founders don't want to show off and be the face.
Odette Barry (02:54):
Yeah, it's a real challenge in the PR space because I think that PR triggers everyone's insecurities. Like you have to say, you're great, you have to show up and tell everyone you're great. You have to have all of your tires pumped before you step into this domain. And I think for a lot of us, I dunno whether it's purely a gendered conversation, but I think the tall poppy syndrome, imposter syndrome, literally every syndrome under the sun is running against female founders stepping up and just going, Hey, I kind of know what I'm doing and I'm a bit of an expert over here. Come and look at what I'm doing.
Danielle Lewis (03:38):
Oh my God, can we just bottle that and inject it into every female founder on the planet?
Odette Barry (03:45):
I'd like one of those tablets myself. The ironic thing is that I spend all day every day teaching businesses how to step forward and talk to the media and pitch their stories. And meanwhile, my hands are shaking right now. I'm always terrified. I'm talking at an event at the start of May, and I'm always talking on social media about how terrified I get public speaking. And the coordinator of the event was like, Hey, babe, are you sure you want to do this? And I was like, it's all good. I'll just be terrified. But
Danielle Lewis (04:24):
I'm happy to show up terrified,
Odette Barry (04:27):
But I know the power and the impact that it has on your business to get out and share your story. So I do it time and time again, but I also know that there's a process that you have to go through to push yourself into the discomfort. And nine times out of 10, it's about stepping when you feel uncomfortable and you feel like you are not ready.
Danielle Lewis (04:48):
I love that. I mean, I'm exactly the same. This here doesn't phase me because I feel like it's just a conversation with someone I admire, but the public speaking vibe, I do so many keynotes panels, blah, blah, blah, and I love it, but I love it the moment I step off stage, I'm like leading into it. I want to fake my own death. How can I get out of this?
Odette Barry (05:15):
Totally. And my cycle is also fear avoidance. So the thing that I'm afraid of, I'll try not to think about and try not to engage with until it's the last minute, and then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy because I'm not prepared because I avoided it. So trying to break that cycle and just show up prepared and maybe shift gears a little.
Danielle Lewis (05:43):
Yeah, and that's really interesting too, because the other PR person once said to me, A, so the story vibe, but B, know your notes, figure out what your story is, and then there'll be a few headlines have three things in your mind that is the message that you always want to send. So if you're ever in the situation where someone's asking you questions, you're hammering in on your key points.
Odette Barry (06:11):
Absolutely. Yeah. That key message development is not just something that makes your podcast interview or TV interview memorable. It's also what supports that hectic nerves rush that comes in and clears your brain of everything that you possibly knew when you've got some really well articulated, well memorized messages that you can fall back on. It's like muscle memory, and you can default to that when you're like deer in headlights and nothing's in your brain.
Danielle Lewis (06:44):
That is so good. So I assume it's like the answer to this is take my course, but is there any
Odette Barry (06:53):
To pack your own pr?
Danielle Lewis (06:54):
Yeah, insert link below, which we will, but that's kind of an interesting thought. So if we're bridging the gap between where people are today and taking your course, any initial things that founders, female founders specifically should be thinking about if they are starting to dabble in wanting to hack their own pr?
Odette Barry (07:18):
Yeah, totally. I mean, there's so many things that you can do off the bat to prepare yourself for putting yourself in front of the media spotlight. The first thing that I would do is do a digital audit. Google your name and your business name and see what comes up because you know that a journalist, the first thing they do if they mildly interested in you, will go and Google you. So if you've got any rogue social media accounts or old blogs or anything that sort of doesn't represent where you are in your business and where you want to be, get it offline or tidy things up, and LinkedIn is the most highly optimized place for your first and last name. So go and make sure that you don't necessarily have to be regularly publishing as a content creator on LinkedIn, but have it set up as a publicly accessible CV so that a journalist can quickly suss out your background, your qualifications, your experience, so that they can go, yep, this person's an expert.
(08:19):
I want to work with them and have them as part of a story. So digital audit number one. Number two would definitely be go and read the media. Go and listen to podcasts, watch the TV show, buy the magazines. Because the first thing that journos always say is, so I think there's an industry stat that 75% of journalists say that only a quarter of the pictures they receive are relevant to the outlet that they write for. So that means that the vast majority of pictures that land in these journos in boxes are not written for them in particular. So the best thing you can do to change those stats is know who you're pitching to. So know the outlet. So go and study the media, and that's just regularly listening to a podcast or clocking the news or reading a mag and getting to know what their tone of voice is, what sort of experts do they feature? What sort of style of storytelling do they use? Because it'll help you reverse engineer what you are going to need to put forward. So those two things, doing that digital audit and getting closer to the news cycle will just put you in a really good position to feel more confident to step into this space. And also just fast track your growth when you get there.
Danielle Lewis (09:45):
I mean, that's got to be the best advice ever because think about sales, because I always say this to people, if you are just out there spamming everybody, A, you will lose your mind because you are a founder and you do not have enough time to talk to every person on the planet, but B, your conversion rate's going to be shit. So it just makes sense. If you actively want a result out of contacting a journalist, make sure it's the right one. So make sure they're in a space that it makes relevant to you and that your message is targeted. It's just like if you were selling to the wrong customer, don't sell to the wrong journalist with the wrong message. Yeah.
Odette Barry (10:23):
Well, this is why I always say learning good PR skills is not just going to serve you in the media. It's going to serve you in every aspect of your life. It's going to make you better at business development and inquiring wholesalers or clients. It's also going to make you a better lover because you're going to be better at listening and nurturing your relationships. It's going to make you a better boss with your staff because you're going to understand what people's motivations are. And it really, all of these skills are learnable and not rocket science. I know it can feel quite intimidating because whenever my husband always says, whenever anyone asks him what I do, he's like, oh, she's a publicist. And they're like, cool. No one knows what a publicist is,
Danielle Lewis (11:16):
A magician. Basically anyone's
Odette Barry (11:18):
Listening, it's really just about pitching emails, phone calls through to journalists so that we can get your stories published in tv, radio, print podcasts as well. So I think that when people come into the PR domain, they are quite intimidated, but it actually can be quite simple in just really good relationship building, like the cornerstone of great media outcomes.
Danielle Lewis (11:48):
And I mean, just thinking about that, right, your job as a publicist versus a founder trying to hack their own pr, what is your stance on that? I mean, obviously you believe it can be done because you teach it and you've got courses and programs. Do you think that there's a stage in a business's life cycle where they should move from DIY to getting someone to do it for them?
Odette Barry (12:14):
Absolutely. Absolutely. So a publicist, a good publicist will do a much better job than a founder any day of the week. The reason why I exist in this domain is for those that can't afford it. So if you can afford $5,000 per month for a publicist, please invest with them and also do due diligence to find out whether they're the right fit for you and talk to their clients to understand what results they've achieved. Please do not just blindly give money away to all publicists, because I do know that it is a world where there's a lot of people that do get disappointed, so understand what you're really getting.
(12:59):
And normally a PR retainer will be on a minimum three months. So you're kind of at that 15 K mark as a starting point for really good pr. There are people that offer services under that rate. I tend to find that those lower rate services are reflective of the outcomes that you are going to achieve. So good questions to ask a publicist, if you're keen to engage, who have you worked with? Can I speak to them? What kind of results would you anticipate are realistic in a three month timeframe? Which journalists will you be speaking to that you think are going to be quick and easy yeses? Because I tend to find that most PRs might have around the 50% of the journos as an easy yes, 50% of them, they're going to be hustling much like you would be if you were doing it yourself.
(13:51):
So they're going to be better hustlers than you will be and have a bit better ability to cut through the crap and make a really good pitch. But I also know that the vast majority of businesses that I know in the early first three to five years do not have 15 K to burn on a PR campaign unless they're really well funded. So I think learning how to do your own PR is a very well spent investment, not just for the time that you spend doing that PR whenever you do it, but then when you graduate to the point where you can outsource it, you are going to be such a good client and you're not going to waste any of your retainer dollars on chasing down stories that are not newsworthy or investing with a publicist who actually has no idea what they're doing. You're going to be really finely tuned. And I've worked, I've had clients who did hack your own pr, and then several years later after they've had several pieces of coverage that they've generated themselves come on board as clients, and it's been the most lovely working.
Danielle Lewis (15:11):
They felt the pain. Yeah,
Odette Barry (15:13):
Well, they get it. They understand what I'm looking for, what I need, and they don't waste my time saying, Hey, we've got an announcement we want to make about X, Y, Z, and you're like, it's just not a story. There's nothing I can do with that. Whereas people that come into paying for a publicist and they're like, we've got to launch, we've got an event, we've got a product, or I'm launching a new course, understanding that there's a cloud and credibility ladder that you actually have to work through before those sort of business milestones become news. And I can understand that it's really hard for people that don't know PR because a student in my client said to me the other week, why is there an announcement on smart company that Jane Lu has launched a business course? How come she's able to do that? I'm like, well, she's about 25 steps up the cloud and credibility ladder. She's an AFR top 100 earner in Australia. Like generating
Danielle Lewis (16:13):
Just been announced as a shark on Shark Tank.
Odette Barry (16:16):
Exactly. So for me to launch a course and pitch it to smart company, it's very unlikely that they're going to cover that as a news story. I don't have enough cloud or credibility yet. I can pitch commentary. So expert commentary on issues as they happen, I can write opinion editorial for smart company and that will get published under my name, but I just don't have enough cloud. So that's something that I think a lot of businesses don't understand in the early stages when they come into pr, but the sooner they get a handle on it's a ladder, the first time you pitch to Vogue, you're not going to be a cover story.
Danielle Lewis (16:55):
Hey, don't squash my dreams.
Odette Barry (16:58):
I beg.
Danielle Lewis (17:01):
I mean, it's really interesting, isn't it? And I think as founders we're so emotionally connected to our babies that it is really hard to hear sometimes that the thing that we can,
Odette Barry (17:14):
You are not news honey. It's brutal. It's awful, honestly. It's really, and I think that's probably one of the loveliest things that a PR does for a business is soften the nose from journos because that can be really hard to hear. But what I always coach businesses on when they come to learning how to DIY their PR is that the first thing you've got to do is put on a cloak of resilience so that you can deal with the rejection, the radio silence, and the rudeness, because that is very real and it's very hard for a founder for us to hear someone say, you're not news, or, I don't want to run your story, or Why are you pitching this to me because tricky. But if you know that the media landscape has shrunk significantly over the last decade, that journos are under increasing amounts of pressure, that a lot of journos have been writing health stories for 20 plus years. And so they've seen a few stories inside out. And if you know that their inbox is a hundred emails an hour, it changes the way you look at it. And it's easier to not take that rejection and the rudeness and the radio silence as personally as you might as if you're thinking that there's someone on the other end of the email
Danielle Lewis (18:40):
Story.
Odette Barry (18:41):
What's the news, Odette, tell me about that new course you're
Danielle Lewis (18:44):
Launching.
(18:47):
Oh my God, I love that. And you mentioned what results, so asking a potential publicist what results they've been able to achieve for somebody. And it's interesting, I find this funny coming from influencer marketing where many people perceive it as a bit of a dark art, which I think some people think that about PR as well. What can people actually expect? Because I've seen lately a lot more people leveraging their pr. So say they get a story in the Daily Mail or something, but they're actually taking that and pushing it out into social ads and boosting it themselves. And I'm interested to know how you've potentially seen the phrase ROI change and how people should think about ROI when it comes to pr.
Odette Barry (19:38):
Yeah, so I mean, I guess traditionally PR has not been classified as a lead generation tool. It's been more in the reputation awareness top of funnel activities. But I also think that kind of undersells what it can do for bottom of funnel activity. I've seen clients in Hack, Your, Own PR have one story generate $40,000. I've worked on campaigns that have taken a podcast from having 8 million downloads to 12 million downloads in a six month campaign when they've been around for six years. So there's a lot of different metrics that you can measure it by, and it's kind of like, what are you looking to achieve?
(20:28):
I think the primary goal with PR is about changing the way people think and feel about you. And that's really hard to measure. And I think it's also probably one of those things that you don't know until someone's like, oh, I saw you're doing blah blah, I saw you featured in whatever it is. But then there's also those bottom line metrics. So return on investment, I don't think there's a dollar in dollar out. A lot of it depends on the quality of your story, which outlet you pitch to, what the audience alignment is. There's all kinds of different things. I would say appearing with News Corp, appearing with Mama Mia, you know, ABC weekend tv. I've seen them shift the dial monumentally overnight, but I also have seen campaigns need time to generate success. So I wish there was a silver bullet, and I could say it's always this, but it's not.
(21:33):
And also there's platforms like LinkBee that are affiliates ish models, which are cost per click that help you get published in particular media outlets. And they have phenomenal acquisition and lead Jen. So in terms of that repopulating your media wins into digital ads. I always urge everyone to just promote the heck out of any media coverage that they have. Because when you think about it, when you have that opportunity when you're in the media, it's like you're walking into the middle of a football stadium and you're suddenly in front of a hundred thousand people and then you walk out and then what happens? Well, you can use that moment when you are standing in front of that stadium to keep recreating that moment for your existing audience and for new audiences. So when you pop that out via a social media ad as featured in and like a flattering quote from a media outlet, it fast tracks that journey that someone's going to have at the different stages of consideration of working with you.
(22:45):
And particularly for, I dunno, if you're in a competitive landscape like a swimwear brand where there's a gazillion and one other swimwear products, when you're buying online, it's hard to discern whether one black swimsuit suits better than the other. But then when you see as featured in Vogue and Harper's Bazaar as the sexiest sustainable swimwear, you're suddenly fast tracked because you're like, oh, well, they've endorsed it. I trust that. So the equity and the trust and clout that comes from being featured shouldn't be wasted in just that moment where you're featured. I always think if you go into a fish and chip shop and they've got a photo of a newspaper clipping behind the counter, and it's like a celebrity eating a burger that one time you're like, oh, well, if Chris Hemsworth likes these burgers, then I'll do
Speaker 3 (23:41):
Take my money.
Odette Barry (23:43):
Yeah, juice the absolute last drop of lemon out of your Meteor Ops because there's a long lifetime that you can use that endorsement.
Danielle Lewis (23:57):
Yeah, it's really interesting. I just love the concept of thinking longer term. I think everyone wants to go viral, everyone wants to be an overnight success, all these things. But I've just found after being in business for 10 years, that everything takes time. And there's the investment that you make in those PR pieces or anything in your business. You do want to make sure that it gets the longest possible life and that you use it. But I just think putting yourself in the consumer's shoes, exactly what you said when you're shopping for a swimsuit, you do do that as consumers. We do look for validation. We look for the points of differentiation between the two black swimsuits that look exactly the same because,
Odette Barry (24:42):
Well, especially with the way the paid ads algorithms working at the moment. So if you engage with a ad from a black swimsuit brand, the next three ads you're going to see are going to be from competitor swimsuit brands. So if your ad has that, you're endorsed by Harper's Bazaar or Elle or Rush or whoever, you have so much more clout in that ad than the next five ads that they're going to see in the next hour on social. So it's a really tricky and murky landscape, but I think the same goes with your influencer opportunities. They can be repopulated providing it's part of the terms of agreement with your influences, but using it in the same way, turning that into paid campaigns. Like any of those real cornerstone moments in your marketing and PR campaigns, they should be repopulated at every touch point that you can possibly get them out there.
Danielle Lewis (25:42):
Totally. And that's exactly what we say to people as well. So influencer marketing tends to sit top of funnel as well, depending on how long you've been doing it and whether you are optimizing it like slide plug there. But we do the same thing. So we're like, if you are going to invest in an influencer that may not result in billions of dollars in sales, use it. Make sure that you are using it as social content. Make sure that you're using it in your paid ads. Make sure you're using it to get PR depending on who they are, but making sure that you're actually thinking hard about your dollars and where you're investing in them and how you can make them go further. But the other interesting thing, I guess just on that point, PR and influencers, you think about a consumer and touch points. We all talk about how now a consumer can need up to 16 interactions with your brand before,
Odette Barry (26:38):
I think it's 16. Oh,
Danielle Lewis (26:40):
16, the number's been updated since I last did my research, but it's so true. So it's like, okay, well, if they're going to interact with you in all of these different ways to help your marketing dollar go further, you do need to reuse things. You do need to pull that PR onto your social or onto your website or onto whatever, or the influencer onto your EDM or whatever. You really need to think about your sales and marketing as an ecosystem, not as these isolated things that you invest in.
Odette Barry (27:11):
It's such a muddy swamp though, isn't it? Because I just always feel like, yep, you've got to recycle, you've got to get it all out at a gazillion touch points. But then it's also like, are we creating this problem because we're like, oh, let's make a gazillion more pieces of content to make sure we get the cut through, and hence, we're in this problem.
Danielle Lewis (27:36):
We are our own spiral. Great.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
You're welcome here to inspire and delight.
Danielle Lewis (27:44):
You can thank all of us marketers. Yeah. Great. Okay, so let's do a quick left turn because otherwise I feel like you and I are going to talk all day. We've talked a lot about small businesses, why it's important, all that kind of stuff. But I want to talk about your business journey for a quick second. What was it like? You mentioned you've been in business for seven years. Yep, seven years. So what was it like actually going from employee to business owner?
Odette Barry (28:19):
Rewind, go back. Yeah. Well, I guess I straddled it for a long time. I actually had a business before this many, many moons ago, like 14 years ago. I had a fashion store with a friend of mine. Oh, cool. Yeah. So I had some experience. I think I always had that unemployable trait of the entrepreneur, like the curiosity
Speaker 4 (28:48):
And the
Odette Barry (28:49):
Not really relenting to other people's wishes, but with that first business, I was working at Westpac and working on the business on the side. And then the same when I started Odette and Co, I was working and I was picking up a lot of freelance work through the like-minded bitches drinking wine faces
Speaker 4 (29:14):
Group shout out.
Odette Barry (29:19):
And so I think I picked up just enough work to warrant it being almost a full-time job, but I hadn't really told anyone that I had a business. So it was just little things that I was picking out of there, and then as soon as I put it out publicly that I'd started my own business, the avalanche of work just landed on top of me. So I think that first year was just classified by burnout and being a professional Yes person. So there was zero niche, hence the name Odette and Co, so that I could be as wise
Danielle Lewis (30:00):
Everything to everybody.
Odette Barry (30:04):
Yeah. So I think, don't know, I think it was quite thrilling and exciting to be in demand. That was good for my ego to have that opportunity. But at the same time, I was terrified. I had no idea how to do business. I constantly felt like I was an imposter. It was a tricky, exhilarating, exciting, rewarding, terrifying time is how I describe it.
Danielle Lewis (30:37):
No, and I mean, it's interesting because I look back on my early years and kind of think the same. Sometimes I go, where's that feeling where it was so exhilarating and you would stay up till all hours doing things, and now I realize that that did lead to burnout,
Odette Barry (31:01):
But also that energy is something you never get back. That's the start of a new business energy, and it's amazing. And I feel like there's a lot of negative narratives in the business landscape, like anti-hustle culture, and I think that's bullshit. I feel like that's people who've made it pulling up the ladder behind them, and I think that's cruel to everyone who then is going to be beating themselves up for working their high knees off, which there's no way any of us would've found any success if we didn't work until our eyeballs were bleeding. It was
Danielle Lewis (31:36):
Totally, no, I completely agree. I'm still working until my eyeballs are bleeding some days,
Odette Barry (31:43):
But that is what it takes, and I feel like when we have these balanced narratives and that you should be looking after yourself, which I agree, you absolutely should, but there has to be a point where you're willing to go all in for your business because otherwise go and get a job. Totally. It requires a certain kind of crazy to run a business. I am yet to find someone who's really succeeded in their coasting and cruising and just super relaxed about everything.
Danielle Lewis (32:15):
Totally. Well, and I also feel like the big danger there for me is not keeping ahead, not staying ahead of people. If I'm coasting and cruising, to me that goes, oh, I need to be worried because someone's going to come out with something. There's going to be a new change in social media or something that we're completely behind on. For me, if I'm coasting, it means I'm not pushing myself enough. I'm not innovating. I'm not creating more value for my clients. I'm not keeping up with trends. And I agree, you do actually need to look after yourself, particularly as you progress in business, but I don't think you can do it without the hustle. I really do think, and also I miss those days of energy where it was so exciting and
Odette Barry (33:05):
Oh, I don't, I, no, really, I look back on that time and I remember just having feeling like I had no internal organs. I just felt like a shell of a human. I was so empty and had nothing more to give. I had really given a little bit too much and just too many nights working super late. But I do understand that thirst and that the end of the day arrives and I'm like, okay, stop bedtime. Whereas I used to just be like, go, go, go, go, go.
Danielle Lewis (33:43):
Yeah. Just one more thing. Just one more thing. I could tweak the website. I could do this. I could do this. Yeah. I miss the energy. Where's the energy? I also don't think aging helped me at all.
Odette Barry (33:55):
There is that as well. There is that we are not going to be little spring chickens forever. But also I'm so grateful for every year of wisdom in business, in life, like aging, such a beautiful process so far. There's the less flattering sides of it where your body isn't as cute as you might like it to be, but to know things and to know myself and to have seen cycles and trust in things a little bit more and know what I need to do to look after myself in business, that's wisdom that I wouldn't exchange for anything.
Danielle Lewis (34:33):
And it's a great self-awareness, which I think is when you are in that beginning phase, and it is a bit hustle. It is a bit say yes to everything. It is a little bit, I have no fucking idea how to run a business. So you kind of like on that journey as well, that comes with time and reflection and feeling the pain and experiencing different things. That is really nice. If you can actually understand who you are as a person, or at least have some more threads that you can lean on to perhaps replace the youthful energy that might be once gone, but at least now we can reflect and kind of go, this is what I need to replenish my energy to show up as best as I can in my business, but also creating a business that suits you a little bit better as well.
Odette Barry (35:29):
Absolutely. Yeah. I think you just get more discipline into doing those things that look after you. I won't start work without going to the beach every morning for me, and they're things that I know the cost of not doing it. Do you know what I mean? A few laps around the sun in business and you're like, Nope, that doesn't work for me. Totally. I need to do those rituals that perhaps in the first year or two I didn't do because I'd been up till one o'clock working on something. Whereas now it's like, no, no, that has to happen.
Danielle Lewis (36:10):
Yeah, I love that. I think you are spot on. I think that yes, in the early days, we're going to put in the hustle. Yes. Now there's still going to be days that are hustle, but we are actually understanding what you need to show up as a business owner and do right by your clients is critical.
Odette Barry (36:28):
Yeah, absolutely.
Danielle Lewis (36:30):
I love it. Okay, one last piece of wisdom for our beautiful Spark community, female founders who have tuned into this episode. Reflecting on your time as a business owner, as a woman in business, as potentially working with a lot of other women in business, would there be one piece of advice you might give somebody who maybe is just starting out, so who falls into that small business startup vibe that has helped you on your business journey?
Odette Barry (37:02):
Community is everything. Absolutely. Be absolutely fearless in asking for people to be part of your community and set up ways to naturally incorporate them into your life, whatever way it might look, because for me, everything that has been a really significant and meaningful leap forward has come from friends in business, from people within the community who have given me a hand or a leg up, whether that's the first person who helped me in my first business, who helped build my website for a couple of slabs of beer through to friends who have open doors for me, getting my program licensed into Realestate.com or other friends who have helped me franchise my business internationally.
(37:57):
Those relationships with fellow founders and people in industry will be your sanity, your lifeline, and your growth opportunities and those shoulders to cry on when things are hard, because there's always going to be hard times in business. So finding ways to build and foster community around you. For me, I have a shit run club that I go running with, which is like fellow business owners. I have a lovely PR community that I set up on WhatsApp with amazing PRs to collaborate with. I have my beautiful buyer and business Babes, which we meet up once a fortnight, which is the Naffest most embarrassing name, but
Danielle Lewis (38:41):
I love it though. Yeah.
Odette Barry (38:44):
The community of business owners on social media via LinkedIn, via Instagram. That is, that's just everything, and I just think go and ask people that you really like if they're open to a monthly powwow with a group of similarly minded business owners. Set those things up. Actively create those things in your life if you can't find them. But yeah, get good humans around you.
Danielle Lewis (39:15):
That is the most wise advice I think. Odette, thank you so much for sharing your journey and your wisdom and your insights with the Spark community. Absolutely appreciate you and has been a fabulous chat.
Odette Barry (39:31):
Oh, thanks for having me. It's been a treat.
✨ Thank you to IP Australia for supporting the SPARK podcast and women in business ✨
