#awinewith Olympia Kwitowski
MEET Olympia
Olympia is the Founder of Olympia Kwitowski.
Find Olympia here:
Olympia Kwitowski website and Instagram @olympiakwitowski.
Transcript
Danielle Lewis (00:08):
Oh my God. Olympia, thank you for being here on Spark TV and having a little vino with me today. I'm so excited to have you.
Olympia Kwitowski (00:17):
I've been waiting for this for so long, so I'm super excited that it's finally happening tonight. I'm very excited. Cheers.
Danielle Lewis (00:22):
I know. Cheers. Cheers. I know before we started recording, I was like, I don't even know how long we've known each other, but it's been a long time.
Olympia Kwitowski (00:32):
A long time, and
Danielle Lewis (00:33):
We always dip in and out of each other's worlds. I think
Olympia Kwitowski (00:37):
Somehow that's the best way. You still managed to always know what's going on. And you know what? Fun fact, up until very recently, very, very recently when we had all that rain and things got very damp around the house, I had the little card that you gave me when I came to your scrunch launch
Danielle Lewis (00:53):
At the, oh, get out
Olympia Kwitowski (00:54):
In the kitty bar. You had the breakfast event. I had that on my cork board thing that used to be here, and it's
Danielle Lewis (01:01):
Just, my God just
Olympia Kwitowski (01:02):
Recently gone. I think it's still in the drawer, the card somewhere. But yeah, you go,
Danielle Lewis (01:06):
That is hilarious because that is the beginnings of Cru that was like, God, almost like a decade, not a decade ago. We're close to,
Olympia Kwitowski (01:17):
And I was there. I'm very privileged to have been there.
Danielle Lewis (01:21):
Integral part of my business journey, actually. That's so good. But look, so why don't we start with, so the Spark community is basically amazing female founders and they dial into here female founder stories. And I wanted to chat with you because you do a few different things and I really want to share stories around people that aren't doing things that are super traditional. And I would love to know what your background is and how you got started, what you're doing now, and when you had the epiphany moment of starting a business, if that was even a thing.
Olympia Kwitowski (01:57):
Yeah, so okay. I've got, for the last 10 years, I've been working predominantly in the media in radio since coming up to 10 years. I think next year it'll be, so yeah, I don't even really know how I got started in that. It wasn't like I had brand aspirations or anything like that whatsoever to get into radio, but that's just the way it happened. So I started working at four BC as a producer in 2013 and didn't really know the whole fundamentals of it or anything, but just what they say, just get thrown in the detail. Do
Danielle Lewis (02:30):
It, learn on the spot. Yep.
Olympia Kwitowski (02:32):
I didn't have to Google on the first day how to be a radio producer, but have anything back I should have.
(02:40):
So I kind of just started with that and really found that, hey, this is something I really like doing. That kind of led to me doing some on air stuff as well, going out and we'd have heaps of festivals like the Brisbane Festival and shows and stuff. The powerhouse getting out to that and the Vox pop situations and reporting back with live crosses, back to programming and everything. So I quickly got started doing that as well. And then from there thought, oh, I'd like to be on air a bit more. And they really enjoy talking and speaking and essentially being paid to talk.
Danielle Lewis (03:18):
Yeah, I love that. That's basically how I designed my career. Yeah, good. I just get paid to talk and drink wine. That's all I want to do with my life.
Olympia Kwitowski (03:27):
Fantastic. Yeah, it's the best. So yeah, then went on to do traffic reporting for a few years and did the good old chopper traffic chick for a long time and that was fun. And the novelty wears off quite quickly,
Danielle Lewis (03:41):
Can you
Olympia Kwitowski (03:42):
Imagine? Yes. And then back to radio producing again. And then towards the end of, see, I've been in a very unique sort of situation with my career, whereas that I've had, the company that I've worked for had undergone three mergers with big corporations. I actually was essentially made redundant times in my career. So the first time there was a merger where I worked for Fairfax Media and there was a merger with Macquarie, so they changed the programming then. So then I had that timeout and there was one local show still on four BC that was going to air. And then after being working on the Traffic network for a while, I went back to four BC to produce again. Then after just shy of two years, another merger happened. So Macquarie Media, and they merged with the Nine Network,
Danielle Lewis (04:37):
And again,
Olympia Kwitowski (04:38):
They got rid of that show coming out of Brisbane. So you kind of see a bit of a pattern here, what is it? Once bit and twice show, but I went back for a third time, but it was between that third redundancy with the merger with Channel nine, where the show I was working on was no longer, and it was the end of September, 2019. And I thought, okay, well, I've been doing a lot of MCing stuff, but it's never really something that I have put myself out there to do. It's just people who have come to me and said, Hey, we're having this. Can you C it? And I'm actually pretty good at this. This is actually what people come to me to do. So with that just fresh and everything, I set to work and started, built a very simple website with a booking form and everything, and things were going great, things were going really good. I had so many bookings taking me right through to 2020, so even like 2021, and then Covid came along,
Danielle Lewis (05:42):
Oh my God, I was waiting for it.
Olympia Kwitowski (05:46):
And then no more events. So yes, however.
Danielle Lewis (05:51):
So resilience has been a huge part of your journey.
Olympia Kwitowski (05:55):
Yeah, yeah, it has. And I think just the fact that I was quite resilient in just thinking, oh, everyone's in the same boat, I'll just do what I can. Obviously during that time I flipped a few different things around, worked at a local radio station and Nip switch and kept busy. But of course I couldn't release these things that I loved and get out there and talking in front of hundreds of people and stuff like that. However, having said that, I did manage to still do quite a few Covid safe events, everything, which was great. And even a few that were very small audience and zoomed out to the big wide world.
Danielle Lewis (06:37):
Yeah, cool. Yeah,
Olympia Kwitowski (06:39):
So that's kind of me. That's where I am now.
Danielle Lewis (06:43):
Amazing.
Olympia Kwitowski (06:44):
Well, actually during that, so it was probably about five months of the Covid thing, and then new, the nine Network rang me one day and said, we are going to start our in-house traffic division. Would you like to come and start it up? Wow. So the S get go of Covid really to be offered a job. That was fantastic.
Danielle Lewis (07:09):
And I guess now that things are a little bit more opened up, thee work is back on. You can get back in front of people back at events.
Olympia Kwitowski (07:18):
Yeah, it's slowly coming back more and more. So I've had a few things in the last few weeks and a few coming up. So yeah, super pumped for that.
Danielle Lewis (07:25):
That's so cool. So really you've been able to do two things, have a super adaptable career and keep growing, keep learning, keep taking new opportunities as they come, and then build a business around doing literally the thing that you love doing.
Olympia Kwitowski (07:42):
Yeah, talking. It's great.
Danielle Lewis (07:43):
That is phenomenal. I love it. I love it. And how do you manage both? How does it feel doing two things? Do you get busy, get overwhelmed? What's that?
Olympia Kwitowski (07:56):
Yeah. Well, I'm really lucky in the fact that I work in the mornings. So my day starts at five 30 and I finish at midday, which is really great because predominantly things that I mc are in the evenings, but certain things that will happen and stuff where I sort of had to say to myself, oh, hang on, I am actually pretty exhausted from this. I had that happen a few, probably two months ago. I think I got four events that I was MCing in the week tied in with work as well. And just by the end of the week I was just like, I'm just going to go to
Danielle Lewis (08:30):
Bed. That's it. That's it. Yeah.
Olympia Kwitowski (08:32):
No one, talk to me the phone if you need me, text me. I might text you back. I might not, but obviously I am very fortunate to have that and it's pretty manageable. But yeah, just got to
Danielle Lewis (08:47):
Understand your own energy.
Olympia Kwitowski (08:49):
Yeah, that's
Danielle Lewis (08:50):
Right. Yeah, because it's really interesting because I know, and I talk to a lot of business owners who do get burnt out and look to be honest. So I just got Covid a month ago, a few weeks ago, and I, oh my God, I just really struggled to bounce back. I just was like, I don't want to work anymore. I had no energy, I couldn't do it. So I really had to give myself a bit of a kick up the bomb and exercise and eat and not drink and not have the coffee for a week. All those little things that I'm like, you should probably be doing this all the time, but it's just you hit rock bottom that you've decided to look after yourself, but are there things that you do to manage your energy and know that, that you're going to have weeks where it's a little bit more full on? Do you incorporate things into your daily life to make that work?
Olympia Kwitowski (09:45):
Drinking throughout the week is a no. In fact, probably only a couple of drinks on a Friday works for me if that, because just with your voice and everything, if I have the next day, it's so acidic and everything. So even food wise as well, I've had to cut down a few things. A lot of tomatoes and stuff like that. That's one thing. But a big thing that I'm really into is sleep banking. I like to call it sleep.
Danielle Lewis (10:12):
Sleep banking.
Olympia Kwitowski (10:14):
Yes.
Danielle Lewis (10:14):
Tell me about this phenomenon. Oh my God.
Olympia Kwitowski (10:17):
Because your life is about to change. Once that case about sleep banking,
Danielle Lewis (10:21):
Please.
Olympia Kwitowski (10:22):
If I have an event or something coming up, I will sleep in advance to catch up on the sleep that I may be missing out on.
Danielle Lewis (10:30):
Wow, okay.
Olympia Kwitowski (10:32):
Yeah. So for example, I've got an event on Thursday night, which will run a little bit longer than they usually do. So it'll start at about four o'clock, starting off with a team meeting with everyone getting together to talk about how the event will go. And then I probably won't finish till about nine o'clock, and I usually like to be in bed by nine. Me too. I'm going to be sleep banking on a Wednesday, so I'll come home and I'll pretty much sleep for a number of hours and that will be in preparation of my Thursday.
Danielle Lewis (11:02):
Oh my God. That is literal genius. Did you just make this up or did you read it somewhere? Tell me how this came to fruition.
Olympia Kwitowski (11:09):
No, I've never seen it anywhere. I just came up with it and I kind of questioned, I think I might've even put it out on Twitter or something or other. I said, do you believe in sleep banking or do you think that sleep is just something that needs to be catch up on? And it was sort of mixed responses. I think I should put it out there again. I might have to tweet it again and see what it is.
Danielle Lewis (11:29):
I think you should, every female founder, I know that we'll talk about this when we promote this video, but every female founder needs to know about this.
Olympia Kwitowski (11:38):
Okay, well, I'm so here for it to spread the word. So yeah, I definitely think that sleep is something you can bank and keep it in. You've got it stored in you.
Danielle Lewis (11:50):
I totally agree with you because, so I've been in little covid nightmare that I've been going through. I've not been sleeping well at all. And when I did my little week of change, week of being a good human, I started sleeping really well. And then when we flew to Perth, we had this horrendous six, eight hour delay sitting in the airport. Then they canceled the plane at midnight and then put us on the five. So by the time you get home, you get this four hour window of sleep to get back to the airport. And I was like, you know what? Because I've slept really well for the last couple of nights, this is fine. I can totally deal with this. It's all good. If I hadn't been sleeping crap, I had been before, I would've lost it. So I think you're onto something.
Olympia Kwitowski (12:37):
Well, I should really get something down in writing. You really
Danielle Lewis (12:41):
Need this or something.
Olympia Kwitowski (12:44):
You can help me get it out there.
Danielle Lewis (12:45):
Yeah, absolutely. That is so good. Okay, cool. So then I love what you said when you decided to start the MCing business around how you went, just whipped up a website, simple booking form, get it out there. What was that process like? So how did you go, okay, what exactly do I need? What's the minimum that I could do and how do I spread the word?
Olympia Kwitowski (13:09):
Yeah, like I said, I've never really spread the word so to say. I just always had people come to me. So when I got the website up, I decided then LinkedIn was great. LinkedIn was something I went to straight away post, Hey was doing this, now I'm doing this. Here's my website. And then I just found that linking up with people who work in those marketing events, industries, just getting things up in front of those people. So when they're looking for someone, they've got you in the front of their mind. And I think MCing as well. It's such a visual thing. Someone wants to know, you can talk, you're going to look good doing it, you're going to have all your shit together, all that kind of stuff. You're going to come prepared to know what you're doing, and hopefully it can be funny as well and tell some really danky jokes.
Danielle Lewis (14:00):
You're like, I've got a few of those up my sleeve.
Olympia Kwitowski (14:02):
I love to do that. So just really being quite constant. But that again, it wasn't the start of covid, but just putting it out there, letting people know what I was doing when I was able to have those situations.
Danielle Lewis (14:18):
Well, and I guess too, being in the radio industry for so long, your LinkedIn would have connections in the right space, I assume so it's not like you're, I'm in a totally new industry, I have no connections and I need to start from scratch. It's like, okay, I've created a business around something that people know me for, which is speaking, and I do have a bit of a network. So it wouldn't be like what you did, what It wouldn't be surprising for people on LinkedIn.
Olympia Kwitowski (14:46):
Yeah, that's right. And especially with all the prs and everything, sending new media releases and press day in, day out, just replying to one of their saying, well, thanks for that. I'm not working on radio anymore. Can't get you any airtime, but here's what I'm doing.
Danielle Lewis (15:01):
I love that.
Olympia Kwitowski (15:02):
If they need someone, if they've got a movie premiere or an event launch or whatever, they might need someone in Brisbane. If they're based in Sydney, they might need someone in Brisbane. So they're like, and then any sort of thing like that, do a bit of an email around type thing. Yeah.
Danielle Lewis (15:19):
Well, I guess it's that willingness to just tell people what you're doing. Realistically. I find that, I do find it funny when founders don't want to tell people about their business. It's like, no, get the word out there. Tell every person you meet.
Olympia Kwitowski (15:35):
That's right. Yeah. And look, networking has been good as well. I mean, I think in the past when I was a lot younger, I did, I had a background in speech and drama before all this speech and drama teaching and acting and stuff like that. And I think a lot of the time you're kind of led down this false sense of you need to be out there, you need to be in front of casting directors and people in the industry. And you know what? It's all just bullshit. It was all just, all it was was just booze up and everyone going out to a bar or something or an after filming function, whatever, and everyone just getting shit faced.
(16:11):
And that's just not what it was about. And that's for a long time, that's what I thought I had to do in order to try and get somewhere in that whole world and everything and going to casting. So you go to a casting and afterwards they might invite you out somewhere with all the people from the agency and you'd think, oh, we've got to go because such and such is going to be there, or blah, blah, blah from Vivian's is going to be there. And you're like, oh, just all absolutely nothing. Everyone's drunk. I can't remember who they met the night before anyway, and they've all got hangovers. Yeah. So I think I wasted a considerable amount of my life post before the last 10 years in media and stuff, doing that kind of stuff. And it just gets you nowhere.
Danielle Lewis (16:54):
Yeah, it's really funny. I had the same moment of realization. So when I started scrunch, I was like, I will be everywhere. I'll be at every event. I'll be on every panel, I'll be this i'll that. And then at some point when I was fucking exhausted, I was like, hang on a second. These things that I'm doing is making no contribution to growing my business. I know all it's doing is making me tired and helping that person that invited me on the panel, you said maybe that's okay, but not everyone, not every time.
Olympia Kwitowski (17:24):
Yeah, that's totally, it took a long time to realize that, and I think it took a long time as well for me to realize that whilst I was always going for that acting thing and acting roles and everything, the most success I ever had in that world was when I was just being myself. The first big commercial that I got was the Aldi commercial, and it was unscripted and I was playing myself.
Danielle Lewis (17:53):
I love that
Olympia Kwitowski (17:54):
Something's not right here because I go in and I've got this preconceived notion of the character I'm going for. It's just not happening. Then that was a really great moment in my life, actually.
Danielle Lewis (18:08):
But that's so funny because it's like what is your point of difference? And your point of difference is you, and especially in your business, it's like people hire you because you are you. And I think that with personal brands being so tied into most people's businesses these days, leveraging that and being yourself is the best way.
Olympia Kwitowski (18:33):
It is. A hundred percent.
Danielle Lewis (18:35):
Yeah. That's incredible. I love that. So I mean obviously Covid was a huge challenge for you. Well, not just you, but everyone on the planet, but obviously with your type of business. Has there been anything else that's come up since starting the business where you're like, okay, wasn't really expecting that to be a challenge, learn new skills that business process been like for you?
Olympia Kwitowski (18:57):
I think the business process has actually been looking back. I mean, I do feel like pretty lucky. One thing I probably did learn was the importance of having terms and conditions on your books and
Danielle Lewis (19:11):
Security. I learned that the hard way too.
Olympia Kwitowski (19:15):
It's fun, isn't it? Yeah. Oh yeah.
(19:18):
Only a few months ago I had one that slipped under as well, and that was actually, I was being booked by a company overseas and everything was great. We'd done the Zoom interview and everything and they're like, okay, great. This is what we need you to do. We'll be sending you the information. And the information just did not come via email. And I like, this is a bit odd. And then I was the one to contact them, and then it was like, oh, sorry for the miscommunication. That person actually doesn't work here anymore. We've actually gone ahead and booked someone else. Yeah, this was one day out as well.
Danielle Lewis (19:55):
Oh my God.
Olympia Kwitowski (19:56):
Yeah. So I had thought, okay, well, I hadn't got anything back signed sealed type thing. And I thought, oh, I don't have anything to stand on here. Here's something that I've taken time out of my life to prepare for and book this in. And spent time on the Zoom interview and downloaded the app I needed to communicate with over there overseas and everything. It didn't eventuate. And to be honest, I don't even know if the event actually went ahead in the capacity that they wanted it to here, because I never saw anything come in or anything
Danielle Lewis (20:29):
Online. Yeah,
Olympia Kwitowski (20:30):
No. That was the most recent one of me just like, okay, yeah, got to do this every
Danielle Lewis (20:38):
Time. Yeah, it's really funny. I mean, I've been a salesperson my whole life, so asking people for money and contracts and proposals, I've never been a real issue. But I remember when I started Scrunch the business and it was mine and I wasn't working for a big corporate and using their logo and contracts and all that kind of stuff, I had a really weird moment of when to contract and invoice people, and I almost felt like I shouldn't do it. It was this really, really weird mindset shift to go to. It was almost like, well, I don't want to insult them. I don't want to hurt the relationship. And my accountant had to slap me in the face and be like, that's what your business for is to make money into whatever you, but unfortunately, we had a couple that we either didn't send the contract through and got started on work, and then they pulled the pin and we had no cancellation clause in place or monetary compensation, and then another one where the talent on something did something crazy and we ended up having to cover costs and it was just a nightmare.
(21:49):
So I'm all about as soon as they say the words yes or write the words, yes, that is the indicator that gives you a contract and an invoice and get them to pay their invoice.
Olympia Kwitowski (21:59):
It's funny though, how we feel like that and sending in voices and stuff and it's weird.
Danielle Lewis (22:05):
Weird. It's so weird when you consider that that's the way the world works. Nobody is going around performing services free. So we're all in the exact same game, but for some reason we hesitated and feel weird about it.
Olympia Kwitowski (22:23):
Yeah.
Danielle Lewis (22:24):
Yeah. It's bizarre.
Olympia Kwitowski (22:26):
Yeah, it is. We've got to get over that
Danielle Lewis (22:28):
Here and now we're taking a stand. Right. I love that. So what's in store for the future for you? So you've gone through obviously the career MCs, back on events and back on. What does the future look like for your business?
Olympia Kwitowski (22:45):
I'm actually thinking about, I've put very minor first few steps in place. I want to get into the online coaching world.
Danielle Lewis (22:55):
That's awesome. I was hoping you would say that. That's so cool.
Olympia Kwitowski (22:58):
I do one-on-ones media training in general, but I want to get into more of the more online something that I can put together, all those modules and everything. I just have so many people coming to me and even when I mc stuff and they say, oh, I've got a presentation to do next week. I'd love to have some time with you and we can do a session and stuff. That's so
Danielle Lewis (23:23):
Cool.
Olympia Kwitowski (23:24):
And looking back, maybe it's something I should have done during Covid, but I didn't. But I think now's the time and I also want to get on more of a speaker circuit. As I said, I went into very, very, very vague details of my resilience and everything over the last 10 years of my life. But yeah, there's been some really things that I've been through and somehow I've come out pretty great.
Danielle Lewis (23:52):
I think you're fabulous. You have come out pretty great. Yeah.
Olympia Kwitowski (23:56):
Some of things, when you think about it, you're like, wow, that's actually pretty tough. And here you are living, surviving and thriving, so and get into the more of a sort of talker, speaker talk circuit thing. So put something together there.
Danielle Lewis (24:12):
Well, and that's it. And I think that there is real power in sharing people's stories. And I mean, obviously that's what we are doing today because somebody is going to have dialed in and going, oh my God, that happened to me and she did this, and that means I can do this. And I guess it gives people permission to potentially take action that they were hesitating on or didn't even know what the world of possibilities were like. So getting up there and actually sharing that story I think is so cool,
Olympia Kwitowski (24:39):
And I want to do that and just piece it all together and yeah, it's quite a story of resilience.
Danielle Lewis (24:47):
I love it. This is so good. We're just mapping out your future career right here. It's amazing. So then I guess the last piece of wisdom, so for the smart community who are dialing in right now, who are either just starting their businesses or they're a little bit scared to take the leap, anything that you wish you had have known or any advice that you would give early stage female founders?
Olympia Kwitowski (25:13):
Yeah, just go for it and do it. I mean, I think back to so many things that before getting into media, I think about so many things and ideas that I came up with, and I think the biggest thing I never had was I never had the right network of people around me who were just go getters and stuff and wanted something. I remember back having these ideas of doing videos and stuff before videos you'd see now about going to places and going to restaurants and reviews and this kind of stuff. But back then no one wanted to do it unless you're paying money. Like Big Mark, you'd speak to a videographer and they'd be like, oh yeah, $500. It's like, well, don't you want to work on a project together and see where it can go? And I think that's probably one of the biggest things that I've, I guess you could say have regrets of not finding the right people around me. But I mean, over 10 years ago, we never really had the sort of social communities and networking opportunities like we do now.
Danielle Lewis (26:25):
People who just, especially in Brisbane,
Olympia Kwitowski (26:27):
Especially in Brisbane, sometimes I think back to the people who just said No. I'm like, wow, what are you doing now? What
Danielle Lewis (26:35):
Are you doing now? That's right, that's right. Clearly that decision worked out well for you. That's
Olympia Kwitowski (26:39):
Right. So just get in there and do it. Another thing is you don't have to have the best website that you've spent thousands of dollars on. You just have to have something out there and have it looking nice. I used to think, oh, my Instagram page, my personal, sorry, my public mc page, I only started at two when this happened and likes whatever. I thought, oh no, that's going to be so bad. People are like, and I think, oh, and that's nothing to do with it. So nothing to do with the whole, don't get caught up in the whole social media and the engagement and the side of things. As long as people have someone to go, like a website or your Facebook page, it has regular updates and they know that you are number one alive and operating two, that what you've got to offer is going to be good and the service is going to be great, and you've got some past experience, that kind of stuff. That's what people want. I used to be so caught up in thinking, oh, this doesn't look good enough. I honestly have taken so many, I should have taken more risks, and I've always been really hard on myself for thinking, oh, to the rest of the world, that doesn't look as good as it could rubbish. It's just about having it out there.
Danielle Lewis (27:54):
You are so right, and when it comes to getting, people do get caught up in that I need thousands of followers. I need to look a certain way, X, Y, Z. But in the world of business, it's value. It's what value can you add and are you in front of the right people? Because if you sell into, so in your case, you sell into the PR or the events manager, they're not the 10,000 people that follow you on Instagram, but if you're on LinkedIn and you have 500 whatever connections, but they're all the right people and they know what you do, and you do have that landing page, you do have that booking form, that's when it happens. It has nothing to do with building these stupid audiences.
Olympia Kwitowski (28:33):
Yeah, I got a bit caught up in that at first, and then I was just like, no, actually this is great. You've got to get your head around that as well. I think the biggest thing is put something out there, be out there and tell everyone what you do, and no one can tell, can tell other people what you do better than yourself.
Danielle Lewis (28:52):
Yes. That is so true. Oh, I love that so much. You are incredible. Thank you so much for being open and honest and sharing your story with Spark tv.
Olympia Kwitowski (29:03):
It was super fun.
Danielle Lewis (29:04):
Cheers. Thank you for joining me. I appreciate it.
