#awinewith Tanya Williams
MEET Tanya
Tanya is the Founder of Digital Conversations.
Find Tanya here:
Digital Conversations website and Instagram @saleswithoutsocials.
Transcript
Danielle Lewis (00:08):
Hey, amazing. Tanya, thank you so much for being here on Spark tv. I am so excited to have you. We have known each other in some degree in different businesses for years and years and years, so that's why I reached out because I have followed your journey and thank you are absolutely amazing. So thank you for spending. Thank you. So thank you for spending your time and having a little vino with me today.
Tanya Williams (00:38):
I love it.
Danielle Lewis (00:40):
So why don't we kick things off and talk to the Spark community about how you got to actually starting a business now. I know you have three businesses, so tell us what the career journey was and what the spark was to actually start a business and where you are now.
Tanya Williams (00:56):
Cool. Well, I've always been in the marketing, sales, digital space throughout my whole career. Worked in lots of different roles as we do. And then in 2014, I was made redundant for a role and I figured, what do I do now? I didn't want to do what I was doing, and I always look at worst case and best case scenario when I make decisions, I go, what's the worst case? And I went, well, the worst case is that I have to go back to work and if this business idea doesn't work, I have to go back and work for someone. Can I do that? Yeah, I could probably do that. So I just figured
Danielle Lewis (01:32):
The world won't end. Yep.
Tanya Williams (01:34):
Yeah, why not? So I had a little bit of money in the bank and I went, what the hell? I'll give it a go for three months, let's just see what happens if I've got to go back to work, I go back to work. And the idea was around what I call traditional marketing originally, which was around helping people bridge that gap between traditional marketing and digital and how the two come together and so forth and strategy and tactics and all that sort of stuff. And look like any business that evolves and changes over times. And you go here and you go there, and we were just talking before about ideas and going in different directions, but it's been eight years. So yeah, I'm like, oh my God, I can't believe that it's been eight years in business. And look, it looks a
Danielle Lewis (02:15):
Little bit flies, doesn't it? Oh
Tanya Williams (02:16):
My God, it goes so fast. I have just a few more wrinkles than what I did when I started. That's
Danielle Lewis (02:21):
Why we cover the grays. Yes, yes.
Tanya Williams (02:25):
But yeah, look, it's been a great journey. I love the flexibility around running my business and being in the digital space, the marketing space. I can literally work from anywhere. I just say I need a laptop and a wifi connection on a phone, and I literally will do that. So I travel a lot. I'm heading to Cairns in a couple of days and I'll go up there, I'll do a bit of work and there's a bit of play and so forth. So I think that's what I really love about it. And I think if I had to go and work for someone, I would really struggle with actually being in an office all the time and not being my own boss and making my own rules. So it has been a fantastic journey along the way. Then I decided to do just add more to your plate because why not?
Danielle Lewis (03:06):
Absolutely. You don't need sleep. One lesson, you don't need sleep.
Tanya Williams (03:10):
Absolutely. So in 2018, I wrote a book and it was called A Child Free Happily Ever After, and it was about my choice not to have children and interviewing women from all around the world and looking at all different scenarios. So women who were child free by choice by circumstance, moms who love being moms and moms who regretted it and just sharing a lot of stories and why women have all this pressure and so forth. So off the back of that naturally evolved a business and it's designed to help women who are struggling to make that decision struggling with the pressure that women face and start up a whole big conversation. And that's a global community of people who have in that sort of space. And that's what a book can do for you, I suppose. And it's been so fantastic to just meet and become friends with women all over the world who are also child free by choice. So that sort of plugs along and I don't do a lot in there and I focus a lot on that last year and I've had to shift focus back to digital conversations and then of course in the middle of a pandemic, why not start another business
Danielle Lewis (04:19):
Timing? I love it. I love it.
Tanya Williams (04:21):
So we've been dog sitting for probably eight or nine years, but I actually wanted to start my own brand around that and do more with that. So I started three sport dogs and three sport dogs is a dog sitting service. So we have some daycare dogs, we have weekends long stays and so forth. But my vision for that is very much so it is when Harvey retires, I want him to come in and I want him to learn behavioral training and bringing other areas in and I want to create some cool products. And so it was more a longer term plan of we're going to productize and we're going to do some other things. So between the three of them, it keeps me a little bit busy. So I'd go, thank God I don't have kids. I dunno where the word that would fit.
Danielle Lewis (05:09):
I know. Look, to be honest, I don't know how moms do it. All of the respect to the moms. Absolutely. It's just crazy. And look, that is my next question to you is how the heck do you do it all? Because that's so much on your plate. How do you find time for you and sanity?
Tanya Williams (05:30):
Look, I'm a very good scheduler. I'm super duper organized and I have lists everywhere. So I have lists on my phone, I have written
Danielle Lewis (05:39):
Lists, just looking at a list that I haven't done absolutely you can do later.
Tanya Williams (05:44):
So there's lists of stuff. So that keeps me on track and I'll often lose priorities and stuff and I go, oh look, there's a sale. It's such and such as we do online, but so I have to be very organized with my time. I'm very lucky that three sport dogs is very much a complimentary business for me. So I can literally be sitting here working and just be surrounded by puppy love while they're sleepy on the floor or they're playing. And so I don't have to be constantly looking at them usually around me. So that's a little bit easier to manage. But look, it also helps to have a very supportive husband as well. So hubby is a tradie. He works of set hours, he finishes early. So if I need him to do things, he does all my bass and he does different. I'll go, honey, this needs to be done. This dog needs to be this dog's getting picked
Danielle Lewis (06:39):
Up it.
Tanya Williams (06:40):
So I delegate things to him a lot as well. But it's really important to have that supportive partner stuff that I just said to him earlier, I'm going to need more help from you with certain things because the next couple of weeks for me looks insane. So when I ask you to do something, can you please do it? Yeah. But I think when you're running multiple businesses, or even if it's you've just got one, you have to be organized and you have to delegate where you need to delegate and you have to look at priorities and go, well, what needs to be done? And by when and what can move? And it's just a matter of managing your time accordingly and you just make it work. I love to say if you give a busy person something, you give a busy person something, they'll get it done. And that rings true for me all the time. People will go, if Tanya says she'll do it, she will do it and she'll get it done. It doesn't matter how busy, she'll just make it happen. And I think so many busy people that I know are the same, they just make stuff happen.
Danielle Lewis (07:35):
And it's interesting too, I finding what works for you. I mean, we just kind of said lists everywhere, scheduling calendars, but I think everyone works differently. I mean literally I'm holding a notebook and a texter. I need to physically write it down. I've tried so many organization tools and online things and I'm like, get with the technology woman. And I'm like, no, I just need it on a piece of paper in front of me and it will happen. So either that or it's got to be in my diary, either one of those places and we are okay.
Tanya Williams (08:07):
Yeah, and that's it. You've got to do what works for you a hundred percent. Because some people I know, a few people are like OCD with their list and I literally will write something on the list just so I can cross it off. I'll be like, oh, I love that feeling of going. Me too.
Danielle Lewis (08:20):
Those endorphins give me those endorphins.
Tanya Williams (08:23):
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Danielle Lewis (08:25):
So obviously super important to stay organized and write everything down, all those good things. What about challenges running through businesses? Surely you've run into a few challenges over the years.
Tanya Williams (08:40):
Look, time is always a big one for me. And when I say time, I talk about people having respect for my time. So I hate people being late. So whether it's an online meeting, whether it's someone that's dropping a dog off, whether it's whatever it is, I find when people are just blase about time
Danielle Lewis (08:59):
Really
Tanya Williams (08:59):
Infuriates me. My time is so precious and my husband does it as well. I'm like, oh my God, who's got time? Whatcha doing? Hurry up. I'm so conscious with things because I jam pack so much in that it's really an issue for me and I just find it really disrespectful when people don't respect other people's time. So that's a big one for me in terms of what I don't like and a challenge for me.
Danielle Lewis (09:24):
Have you found a good way to communicate that with people who are not
Tanya Williams (09:29):
Prompt? Well, there's obviously certain ways of doing that and I always manage, when I'm onboarding new clients, I always, I've got a little thing that I send them and I mentioned to them that time is very valuable and if things can't just be mindful of respecting each other's time and stuff like that. So there's things and it's just a matter of reminding people sometimes that all planning the ease. Yeah. I'll be like, sorry, yeah, you are 15 minutes late, I have to go. I've got another meeting. So it only takes usually someone doing that once where you go, well, you soon learn that. And I always find that it's usually the people who are less secure that to make you wait. Yes as well. It's like a power play thing. And I'm like, I don't like to play games.
Danielle Lewis (10:12):
Yeah, I got an empire to build. You can do that on your own time.
Tanya Williams (10:17):
Yeah, play games over there. So I mean that's always a challenge. What else? I mean there's lots of, I suppose challenges. Obviously cashflow and making sure there's enough coming in to pay the bills at times is a bit scary as well. So as much as there are so many amazing things about running a business and having that flexibility and the balance and making your own calendar and doing all that sort of stuff, then sometimes, yeah, it can get pretty stressful. You're like, oh my god, have I got enough air to cover what needs to be paid and mortgage? And there are certainly times like that. So it really is, when people talk about it being a roller coaster, it really is these great times and then there's, oh my God, what's happened? And then it's just this good and crap and good and crap and everything. And I kept waiting for it to be all just smooth sailing. And I'm like, I'm
Danielle Lewis (11:06):
Waiting for that too. What is that going to happen?
Tanya Williams (11:12):
At some point it's just all going to just be seamless and
Danielle Lewis (11:15):
Easy. And I know I'm like, if I just hit here, then my life will be stress free.
Tanya Williams (11:20):
Absolutely. Currently
Danielle Lewis (11:22):
Not
Tanya Williams (11:22):
Figuring out that that's probably not going to happen. Yeah,
Danielle Lewis (11:26):
Why we drink the wine, Tanya?
Tanya Williams (11:28):
Absolutely. Yes. I probably should have bought shares in a wine company when I started the business I think. Oh my
Danielle Lewis (11:34):
God, that would be brilliant. Yes,
Tanya Williams (11:36):
Yes. So I mean, we all have different challenges in business and I think they've changed over time as well when I first started to where they are now and depending on what's happening at that given point in time, and obviously covid happened and that presented its own challenges that no one expected. So look, I think you just have to roll with it. So I think I'm okay with change. I sort of embrace it and go, okay, well this shit's happening and this shit's real. So I can either complain about it and whine about it and mope and just be like, oh, pull me, me, or I can do something about it. And that's typically where I'll go. I might have a bit of a whingeing complain and go Right now what are we going to do to make this happen and what can we change? So I've always got a pretty positive attitude about that sort of stuff and being able to turn things around in my mind pretty quickly in terms of going, okay, that's crack now, what's the plan? And I think in business that's probably important to be able to do that, otherwise you can really go down a rabbit hole and even mentally, it's hard to get out of it if you can't roll with the punches.
Danielle Lewis (12:44):
And I think that's a really good point. I find it interesting. So scrunched my other business, been in business for 10 years, covid hit and obviously, and I don't want to discount what everyone went through, it was horrendous, but when I looked at it, I went, this is just another problem. I have had problems every year that I've been in business. This is just a new thing to deal with. And yes, it was probably the biggest problem and the one that went on for the longest, but it was, you've got to have that mindset of if it's not, it will be something else. There'll be some kind of natural disaster or a new technology come out or your customers have changed or whatever it is. There's always a problem having that ability to say, okay, cool, get it, have a little cry, have a little wine now how are we going to move forward and solve it?
Tanya Williams (13:37):
Absolutely. And I think it's really important to have that sort of attitude towards it because you don't win in the doom and gloom. You sit there and be like, oh, pull me. This is all crap. But it doesn't achieve anything. It makes you feel like crap. It doesn't help you move your business forward. So you just have to go, okay, it was a pretty shitty thing that happened or whatever, and let's have a plan to change things and make the future a rosier place. And I think having that ability makes a big difference to how you come out of it as a business as well.
Danielle Lewis (14:11):
Yeah, absolutely. And so interesting, speaking of challenges, problems, all of the good things. So having the business, the child-free by choice, I'm really interested, obviously that's a very female oriented issue. What's your lens on being a woman in business? You've obviously explored social issues that women face and I live in the camp of decided not to have kids as well. My businesses are my babies. Do that, honey. Yes, thank you. Thank you. But it's super interesting, right? Because it's not like I don't have people who are so really, really, and I'm like, oh really? Do I have to talk about this again? So obviously it's a very, I guess more of a social issue than a women in business issue. But then I think then you've probably got a lens on women in business and have you had any challenges in that respect or where do you think we all stand?
Tanya Williams (15:14):
Yeah, look, it's an interesting one. I've found that particularly my world and my business community, most people have been in that space with me for a long time. They know me, they know the choices that I've made. They're very supportive of that. I've always been very mindful to support myself with women who are supportive of my choices and vice versa. So even in my friendship group, a lot of my friends have kids, but I'm fine to be the rock star only that comes in, feeds them sugar and goes home. But they accept my choices and are very happy with my choices just as I am with them. So my lens around this conversation is all about what I call the C word, which is choice women doing what is right for them. So whether they want 10 kids, whether they want one, whether they want none, it's no one else's business.
(16:03):
They should be allowed to make their own rules and do what's right for them. And I think that's really important. And look, as a business owner, I haven't really come up a lot against people going or saying they're not going to use my services because I'm not a mom or any of that sort of stuff. So I've been lucky in that respect. I have been to the odd networking event where as we know, the first thing you get asked when you go to a networking event as a female is, oh, so how many kids do you have?
(16:30):
And what I'd like to see is a change in dialogue around that because I'm like, I'm at a networking event. Children now have absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I'm here at a work event anyway. And I think the issue is that so many women relate to each other on that level of going, well, you're a mom and I'm a mom, okay, so we've got some commonality right there. And I remember going to a Commonwealth Bank event actually, and I'd never had this reaction before, but I remember a woman asking me and when I said, oh no, I don't want, I'm not having kids, I don't want them. She was really visibly like, oh, I was just like, oh, is there a problem with that? And she was like, oh, oh no. And she literally did not know what to say to wow.
Danielle Lewis (17:12):
You
Tanya Williams (17:13):
Could obviously see, and she was a mom and she was like, I could literally see her face going, I've got no idea what I'm going to talk to you about now. And I was a bit like, and I said, well, everyone makes their life choices and whatever. And I said, I'm happy for everyone and what they do, and you could see. And she very quickly scuttled off somewhere else and it was just like, really?
(17:33):
You can't have a conversation with someone who's not a mother. I can have a conversation who's with a mother. So it's interesting that it pops up in event sort of situations. I remember being at another event a few years ago, which was a women in business event, and for some reason when everyone hopped up and introduced themselves, it became this thing to go, how many kids you had while my mom with three kids or blah blah. And I'm like, hang on a minute again, we're at a business event and it was small business owners. How is that relevant to you being able to be a good business owner? But I find that sometimes they're like, it's just not relevant. That's not a conversation that needs to happen in this particular space. And it comes up a lot I think around those types of things when it's a networking event or a bit women, and don't even start me on the whole mompreneur,
Danielle Lewis (18:23):
Oh God,
Tanya Williams (18:26):
Do we have to have a word for everything? I am a child free preneur. I'm a mum. Just like really, we're just business owners.
Danielle Lewis (18:35):
And I think that there's something in that though that worries me because, so we work in the influencer space and when people call themselves influencers, they forget they're business owners and mompreneur is the same. They think they're just running this small hobby business and they one limit themselves because they kind of cast that, well, I'm just doing this from home. It's just a hobby. But then there's this, not failure to understand, but again, limiting to understanding on all of the best business practices to actually doing things properly. And I've seen some run into a few issues because they're kind of thinking of themselves that way. So I just like the idea of maybe we're just business owners, maybe we all live in this ecosystem. Where are these set of rules that we probably need to follow to be legally and financially sound? Yeah, it's
Tanya Williams (19:33):
Really interesting and everything, there's a preneur of something. There's a, it's just like, and I'm the same, I'm not a fan of that word because I just think, well, I've got three businesses, but I don't class myself as an entrepreneur. I just class myself as a business owner. And that's how I see myself. I'm like, I don't want to put titles and cans on everything that we do. And I think we're in a space at the moment in the business world where that's happening a lot.
(20:01):
It's got to be you've attach a certain identity to something or a certain word. It's just like why do we have to be? And I always said to people, why do I have to be one thing? It's the same as this whole issue of motherhood. Well, you're more than a mother anyway. Often you're a partner, you're a sister, you're a business owner, you're a Aries or you're a blogger or we wear all these hats as women and I just find it very limiting just to give yourself one title. And that's why I call myself the chief of everything because
(20:32):
I don't just do one thing. I'm in charge of everything that's in my world and I don't want to just be limited by one thing either. I want to be this diamond with lots of facets and lots of different sides to me because I think one, I'm never going to get bored. That's who we are as people as well. We have so many different sides and parts to our life and business owners is one part of that as well. So I just think why limit yourself, make your own rules and do what works for you.
Danielle Lewis (21:02):
Yeah, we went through this funny stage in business where everyone was like, you've got a niche down. You can only concentrate on one thing. You've got to focus. And I'm like, I love that right now there's a resurfacing of the multi-passionate entrepreneur.
Tanya Williams (21:20):
Yes, I love that word.
Danielle Lewis (21:21):
I love it too. I love it too. I also have, I guess back to the pre when we weren't recording, you have so many ideas and half of them are written down on that said piece of paper that I'm like, please do not do anything else other than what you need to do. But I think it's okay as well. Some of the, I've obviously focused down to two businesses now instead of four, which I'm feeling very good about, but there's nothing wrong with that. Everything I learned in all of the things, the projects I started, the businesses I've run and exited, that is what makes me a really good business owner because of all of those different experiences. And if I was just like, Nope, I can't do anything but focus on influencer marketing, I wouldn't know all of the things that I know today.
Tanya Williams (22:09):
And I think it gives you that, pardon me, to allow yourself to have space to explore different things as well. Even if you go, well, I'm just going to see what happens if it works, it works, or just allow it. I think there's so much pressure for success as well where it's like, oh, if you're not achieving, and I think there's a lot of social media contributes to this because it's all like, oh, if you're not turning over six figures and doing this and doing that, I hate the
Danielle Lewis (22:36):
Six
Tanya Williams (22:36):
Figures figure
Danielle Lewis (22:37):
You're doing.
Tanya Williams (22:39):
There's probably around, well one, it's not right for everyone. Sometimes it's putting unrealistic expectations, everyone's different, and it puts this expectation of you have to be doing this, and if you're not doing that, then you're a failure and it's dangerous. It's
Danielle Lewis (22:55):
So dangerous.
Tanya Williams (22:56):
And that sort of stuff contributes to people's mental health and how they're feeling about their business and going, oh my God, am I doing all wrong? Am I a huge failure? I think you've got to give yourself the freedom and the permission to go, you know what, I'm just going to just see what happens and and I think if you always look at that best case and worst case scenario, I've never borrowed money to go into any businesses. I've always bootstrapped it. I've always played it safe in terms of risk. And I've always gone, well, you know what, if it doesn't work, then it's cost me that amount of money. And oh, next I think you can't get caught up in that whole success thing and that whole thing and what is success anyway, what it means to me could be totally different to what it means to you or someone else.
Danielle Lewis (23:41):
And I think that is such a good point because it's so easy to get behind the headlines. It was really interesting. I saw this post from someone the other day who was like, you see this? Oh, I had a hundred thousand dollars launch, but you don't know that they spent $90,000 getting into habit, so they made no money. So you've really got to I think, sit down and actually understand what's important for you and what you want your life to look like for some people. It's interesting, I went through that phase of we raised capital for scrunch, we moved into this massive office space, grew the team, and we thought that that was the definition of success. I hated it. We have completely flipped the switch. We all work completely remotely now. We do lots of agency outsourcing. The model has completely changed from what I thought a successful business was supposed to look like. And you still see in media today, the unicorns, they raised this much capital, they've just moved into a new office, they've got growing the team, all those things. It's like that is what's celebrated. So why don't we start celebrating other forms of success and what success looks like for individuals?
Tanya Williams (24:50):
Absolutely. And that's what I mean. And when you look at, there's so many stories of people doing that that they go and they raise all these millions of dollars and it looks like this on the outside it looks like a massive success, and then it all fails and goes under it and you just go whether it grew too big, too fast, whether it was so much of it is ego driven, what it looks like to the world. I don't care what people think of what I'm doing, I just need to be secure with it and happy with what I'm doing and people think that I should be bigger or should be this. I'm like, that's on them for them to deal with, not me. I'm just doing my thing. And same thing, I work from home. I go out and I do meetings and stuff like that, and I love the fact that I can work from anywhere that I want.
(25:32):
I don't have to have offices and I don't have to have staff, and I'm making all those choices for what's right for me. And I think every female founder should do that. If you want to have an office for staff, go ahead. If that works for you, if you don't, then that's fine as well. There's no right or wrong. And I think that's where the dialogue needs to change around this whole conversation of people going, well, that's the right way to do it and that's what you should do. Well, no, because everyone's totally different. Your vision's different, what you're trying to achieve, how you work, we're all individuals and I think we need to celebrate that rather than going, well, you've done it the right way and you've done it the wrong way. There is no right or wrong way.
Danielle Lewis (26:08):
Yeah, exactly Right. No, I love that. And I think that that's what contributes to your ability to show up in your business as well. When you are not enjoying what you're doing and it's not in alignment with your values, that's where it gets really hard to get out of bed every day.
Tanya Williams (26:23):
Yeah, absolutely.
Danielle Lewis (26:26):
So then on that topic, how do you stay motivated? How do you look after you and keep up the energy to run three businesses?
Tanya Williams (26:34):
Well, this helps.
Danielle Lewis (26:36):
Yes, absolutely. I'm on board. I'm on board.
Tanya Williams (26:39):
That helps. But look, I've always been pretty self-motivated my whole life. I've always been that sort of person who can be like, right, get up, do this. So I've never needed anyone to push me in that respect. I'm very big on balance as well. So because I do work from home, obviously I have the ability, we've got a beautiful pool area out the back. So in particular in summer I'll go, right, that's it. I'm having half an hour and I'm going to read outside by the pool for half an hour. Everything can wait. So I'm good at creating those boundaries and just going, well, you know what I need to have. I know how important having the downtime is as well. I know when I have that downtime and I'm not crazily rushing through my day, but that lets me breathe, reboot, I get ideas, it sparks keeps my brain fresh and working. It's when I rush through and be like, oh my God, I'm so crazy that it's not healthy for anyone. So I'm good at that balance. I'm good at taking time out. So I travel a lot. I have long weekends, I do all that sort of stuff. I typically finish work normally by about lunchtime on a Friday because hubby finishes work,
(27:50):
But then most of the time I'm doing bits and pieces over the work in and jump over the weekend and I'm jumping in and out and stuff. But again, I can create my week how I need it to. The last couple of days have been really busy, so I've been at my desk at 6, 6 30 in the morning. I do like to exercise. So typically I'll be up early and I'll start my day with some exercise. So then I feel motivated and I feel focused and so forth. Haven't been so good on that the last couple of weeks. But
Danielle Lewis (28:19):
It's good that BBS and flows though, it's good. So not a morning person, everyone's like, got to get up at 5:00 AM and do all the things. I'm like, absolutely not. But I feel like you come in and out of energy and some days you show up seven days a week and I'm on the treadmill and other weeks I have had too much wine that week.
Tanya Williams (28:41):
And I think you just got to accept that there's been all these circumstances that have impacted me not being able to go to F 45 in the morning in my normal class times and stuff like that. And I'm like, it is what it is. I'll just work around it and then I'll be back there probably next week or whatever. But it's just accepting of that and not putting too many boundaries on yourself makes a difference. But for me, I just make my days work for me. I make sure I have that balance and that downtime. I think that's super, super, super important for everybody to do that and know when your body's telling you that you need a break. So if you're sitting there and you've typed the same thing 10 times or you've read over something and you going, nothing's sinking in, that's saying you're staring
Danielle Lewis (29:23):
Aimless the computer,
Tanya Williams (29:26):
Step away from the computer, go and do something else for an hour.
Danielle Lewis (29:30):
Come back
Tanya Williams (29:31):
If we need to. But I think we've got to listen to our bodies more as well. And what are they telling us if we get in there and we're squinting and we can't say anything so tired, that doesn't help anyone. Least of all you.
Danielle Lewis (29:43):
Yeah. Oh my god, you are so right. And I think that it's really interesting. I think so personally, I came from corporate first and then started businesses and you're in such a rigid nine to five, nine to five, nine to five. I found that when I had a team, I was like, oh, I've got to sit here at my desk until five o'clock. I've got to show everybody what being a good worker looks like, even though I'd go home and work for the rest of the night anyway. But I think that figuring out what works best for you and how you show up and where your energy is. Some people are great early in the morning, some people are great late at night. For me, I'm exactly the same. If I just go, go, go, go, go, no creative work, no CEO work gets done. It's all just push and it's all just keeping things the status quo. And I feel tremendously guilty when I have downtime, but if I pick up a book and start reading, it's like all the ideas flow and I'm like, why don't you do this more? Give yourself a hard time.
Tanya Williams (30:49):
I'm just going to read this book now. And then you're just like, nothing's going to distract me. And then all of a sudden you'll get this great idea, you like, oh, I have to go. I
Danielle Lewis (30:55):
Got to go write a course. I'll be back.
Tanya Williams (30:58):
Absolutely. Which is brains relax. So you're giving it time to think and it's so important.
Danielle Lewis (31:04):
Oh my god, I don't think growth in any growth in business happens if you don't actually have that downtime.
Tanya Williams (31:12):
Absolutely. 500%.
Danielle Lewis (31:15):
Yeah. Okay. So lots of people tuning into Spark tv, early stage business owners or people who want to take the leap into starting their business and might be feeling a little bit nervous, anxious, not sure. Do you have any advice for new business owners or new founders just to kind of kick them off and get them started? Anything you wish someone had told you?
Tanya Williams (31:39):
Yes,
(31:41):
I wish I had had probably a bit more money in the bank to back me through those starting months and so forth, just in terms of I, because thought it, because I wasn't obviously expecting to start a business either. So I was working corporate and spending everything that I earned. Pretty much I feel I wish I had been a bit more prepared from a financial point of view. I wish I hadn't have spent so much time faffing around with getting a website done and business card and all that sort of stuff. I think if I had my time over again, I would've just started going and meeting with people, trying to learn more clients faster and having more of those conversations because I think it's really easy to go, well hang up, I need to spend two months doing your website and I have to have pretty business cards and I have to have all these pretty bits that we go and we get, which don't actually really need to get started.
(32:32):
So I think I'd probably flip the way that I do some of that. And look, I think if you can start it with minimum risk, as I said, I bootstrapped it and went, what can I do? What are the bare minimum things that I need to run the business? So I need an internet connection and I need a phone and I need certain things and I need to host my website. And there was certain you have to look at going, well, what do I need and what do I not need? And look, those costs have gone up over time because I've gotten a bit more advanced in how I've done certain things. So you need different tools that are more expensive and all that sort of stuff as you know. But starting out I was like, bare minimum, what is it that I need that I can keep the costs lay down working from home where, what can I get rid of?
(33:16):
What do I have to have? Because that's going to help you obviously have more money to be able to spend where you need it to pay the bills and so forth. So I think and have a plan of some sort. It doesn't have to be a massive big plan of going, well, I'm going to do this. Have something where you think, well, this is who my audience is going to be. This is what the core services are going to be and that will evolve and change over time. Don't get too set in your ways and if things are pushing you in a certain direction, be able to tweak what you're doing and go, well, you know what things are sending me that way. Maybe there's opportunities there that I need to be exploring. So don't be set in your ways and be okay to change and go with the flow and stuff. I think that will take you where you need to go sometimes as well. And sometimes it's somewhere where you didn't expect and it just happens and it happens for a reason. You go, wow, that was the right thing. So you just dunno. You've just got to try things.
Danielle Lewis (34:10):
I love that so much. So a bit more cash in the bank, have a plan and go lean. So don't spend time on faffing about with websites and bits and pieces go after customers. ASAP.
Tanya Williams (34:23):
You don't need to go and spend $10,000 on a website. That's just
Danielle Lewis (34:25):
Crazy. Oh my God. No. I literally say that to people now. I'm like, Squarespace costs $30. Go in there and do it yourself and then try and sell it. And if someone buys, then maybe improve it later. But you've got to work on actually solving a customer's problem first.
Tanya Williams (34:44):
Absolutely.
Danielle Lewis (34:46):
I only say that I did it the wrong way as well. I spent thousands of dollars on websites and technology and all of those things, and I was like, what is wrong with me?
Tanya Williams (34:55):
But the good thing is that you learn from your mistakes and you go, yes, I'll do it better and I'll do it differently.
Danielle Lewis (35:00):
Exactly. Exactly. And that's what this is all about. It's like if we can make the mistakes and pass them on so people don't have to, then we have done our job here today.
Tanya Williams (35:09):
Absolutely.
Danielle Lewis (35:10):
Absolutely. Oh my God, that's incredible. Well, you are absolutely fantastic, Tanya. Thank you for spending a wine, virtual wine with me and a Spark community. Cheers. And yeah, well absolutely. We'll wrap it here and thank you. You are a legend. I appreciate your time.
Tanya Williams (35:27):
Thank you. Thanks Danielle.
