Transcription
00:00:00
You. Hello and welcome to the Champagne Lounge. My guest on today's episode of the podcast is the amazing Simone Eyles, who I have known now for, I'm going to say, the best part of ten years in our varying business journeys. And she is an incredible member of the Champagne Lounge that shows up with joy and sparkle almost every week to the conversations. Welcome to the podcast, Simone.
00:00:29
Thanks for having me. Beck. I'm so excited to be here chatting to you. It's going to be a lot of fun. Now, you and I have known each other, as I said, a good part of a decade.
00:00:38
Your business journey has gone through multiple different businesses and startups in that time to land where you are now. Tell us a little bit about you and your business journey up until this point. Okay, so I am an entrepreneur and I accidentally started a startup back in 2010. I'm going to say three, six, five cups. It was an order ahead.
00:01:01
App. I started that with my mate, who is a developer. So very happy accident. We were housemates at uni. We're really good buddies.
00:01:11
And I actually wanted to open a cafe because my son was sick, so I knew I was never going back to work. And we decided to make the app and did that and did lots of cool stuff, like did springboard, I think that's where we met. And then traveled the world, met Sir Richard Branson, did a tour of Silicon Valley and then I'm regionally based in I was based in Waggarin Regional, New South Wales, and kind of got the startup bug. And I created a co working space because, I don't know, I was sick of working in my lounge room where I am right now. So wanted to kind of get out of the house and grow up and do all that.
00:01:51
So that was heaps of fun, too. And then I sold both the businesses and had another baby who was born as a micro prem and was pretty exhausted and burnt out. So I'm like, I'm never doing any of that again. That was great, but I need a rest and had a bit of a rest and got a job. I worked as a financial counselor.
00:02:13
I'm currently living on the far South Coast. So we were the bushfires. The black summer bushfires were in our backyard. So I decided to do when Jet was about 18 months old, 2019, I decided I wanted to do something. I didn't want to work yet.
00:02:33
I was recovering. Your burnout real. It's real. It takes a long time to recover. Yep.
00:02:40
So I just wanted to spend some time with her and do the mum thing know? Then the bushfires came and COVID. But that's a whole other story. But I'm a big personal finance geek and a big Scott Pape fan. I was actually listening to a podcast with Scott Pape and Will Anderson because to be a financial counselor, you have to go to TAFE and then you have to do eight weeks of Prak.
00:03:06
And I'm like, I'm not going to do Prak, and that's stupid and boring. And then I heard Scott Pape talk about how he did his prak and he went into the Victorian prisons, the women prisons, and met with women who know pretty horrific lives and they committed crimes, but nothing like and. At the same time. We're just going through the Banking Royal Commission. So we've got people that committed massive fraudulent crimes during the Royal Commission that never stood inside a police station.
00:03:42
And then we've got these women in jail that have lost their kids because there's a $4,000 offense. So I finished walking and listening to that podcast and I came home and I enrolled in TAFE because I'm like, I feel my to complain. So I did TAFE and then, yeah, the fires came and then there was a call out for financial counselors to help businesses impacted by the fires. I live in a teeny tiny town, but it's a very tourist town. We are 100 k's north of the Victorian border, so we have a lot of people come up from Victoria.
00:04:17
I think everyone was told to evacuate. It was horrific. And then COVID came, so that was like a whole other we all know what COVID is, so we don't need to go about it, go on about it. And then I went up and did a stint in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales after the floods, and I worked in the recovery center there, so that was amazing. But it was also quite it was full on and I needed a break from that as well.
00:04:46
So I was in the Northern Rivers and it was actually Beck. I reckon it was this time today, last year, 21 August. Oh, my goodness. I don't know if everyone will remember that Hannah Deviney called out Lizzo for having some lyrics in her song. I think she used the term spaz as a mom of a child who's disabled.
00:05:07
That stuff doesn't really worry me anymore. I've done a lot of work, but I felt like Beyonce also had something similar a few weeks or months earlier. Lizzo, to her credit, and both, and Beyonce changed their lyrics, so I felt like I had something to say about that. So I opened up my voice memo and I started recording, which has turned into my podcast.
00:05:38
And all along during that journey, all along since my son was born, I guess I've had this inkling to do something and give back to the disability space. I wanted it to be something entrepreneurial and empowering and something that was commercial. There's a massive, untapped, invisible economy and a massive opportunity in the disability space. And I'm not saying that as in let's take advantage of people with disabilities. What I mean by that is people with disabilities are people like you and me.
00:06:11
They have money, they like to spend it, they like stuff like they like going to the cafe so no one really markets to them. And with my background, I probably should say I am a graphic designer as well and I've worked in marketing and PR before Startup Life and Babies. But there's no people in the media or advertising or marketing people with disabilities. We have one in five Australians with a disability, yet we do not see that represented in the media. And through these conversations and through the podcast and just speaking to so many people, I found out very quickly that the advertising and marketing industry is busting to engage with people with disabilities, but they just don't know how.
00:07:01
So with my business experience and my life experience, I can kind of converge those two and act as a concierge and have conversations with people and yeah, we've been doing that. We officially launched in July, which is Disability Pride Month, and we have been working our little butts off ever since. And by we, I mean me. That was a very long intro, Beth. Sorry.
00:07:28
You know what? It's wonderful because actually in doing that and sharing to the detail that you did, it's very clear that I'm going to say the word typical entrepreneur because none of us are typical, right? It's that we found a problem, we've kind of solved it. We found people, we want to help people. We have been impacted by things in our lives and that's how we evolve and do things and strive for more.
00:07:52
And even when you get to the point of going right, mouth, mouth done, you can still get dragged back into it for the one of the better good, right? Yeah, that's a really good way. I feel like I'm kind of kicking myself because I did ignore that niggle for so long and when I kind of surrendered is the only way I can explain it. I feel like everything has been easy, which it hasn't been easy. I've been working my ass off.
00:08:24
But as in, the people are coming to me that the conversations that need to be have are being had. It feels like the project is bigger than me and it's leading me and it feels like everything I've ever been through has led to this. And it feels right and it feels good. Which is awesome, exhilarating and also really weird. So I've just surrendered and I'm just all in.
00:08:52
So it's all happening. I love that because you're in flow, right? Like you've taken all of the lessons and all of that life experience to land somewhere. And I was talking to someone else about this earlier, it was a case of it feels very magical to feel to feel normal. We were talking in a health perspective of when you don't have the aches and pains and when you haven't got that sort of bloating feeling.
00:09:18
From a health perspective, that's normal, like not having that stuff is normal, but making it feel normal because it's just what you're used to is not. So necessarily it's normal. So I think you can make business easy if you're in flow and you're doing it with the right intentions and doing the right work at the right time. Sure you got a lot of work to do, but it can feel really rewarding and really easy, which I think yeah. And I can see it I can see it through your work in terms of and what you're doing and the impact that you're having in terms of feeling it and being so in line with the vision and the mission of what you're trying to achieve here, that everyone's jumping on board.
00:09:57
Which is why it's feeling easy, because they get it and you get it and making it easy for them. One of the things that I know is always an interesting piece to do from a business perspective is join two demographics or two areas where they don't understand each other, right? Business owners and website developers or videographers and the clients. There's always someone in the middle that doesn't quite understand the briefing process. How are you navigating that as a mum and an advocate for having disabilities shown in the media and marketing against big corporates?
00:10:32
Because I know you're working with some big organizations now that are wanting to have that conversation, but could possibly be quite archaic on the inside, if that's the right word to use in terms of how they move and navigate those conversations. How are you balancing that? That's a great question and something I have to think about every day. And we've got a really big project in the pipeline now and the only way to manage that is to manage people's expectations, including my own. So when we pitch, or people come to us, brands come to us, we have a conversation.
00:11:09
So we curate our own shoots, we do them independently. And the simple way to put it is, instead of doing a shoot in one day over 12 hours, we'll do it over three days. And our disinfluencers the talent, if they need support workers, if they have any special dietary requirements, we just do all that and there's no crazy pressure and we take our time and that's the way it has to be done. And I think the brands really love that because they didn't know that or didn't quite understand that, but I can manage that because I understand disability. So I solve that massive problem for them.
00:11:50
So they're really happy and we just have the conversations of how it will be and how we do it. And I'm going to say lucky. It's really interesting for a brand, including we've worked with some pretty big brands, to just kind of hand over. They shoot in house, they've got their own teams, they've got stylists, photographers, studios and know, booking an airbnb and bringing know, our own crew, so they've been very brave in believing in us. But I think now you can see our results speak for themselves and we do give back that incredible work, and I think it's because of managing their expectation of trust us, let us do it our way, and you'll get the magic.
00:12:36
And they have that's amazing. And it is so important to set those expectations up front, regardless of what industry you're in. Right. It's setting them up so that you're not setting yourself up to fail, I think, is one of the big things there. The Champagne Lounge isn't just a podcast.
00:12:55
It's an instant digital community for ambitious businesswomen and entrepreneurs like you, wanting more connection, community, and celebration. So wherever you are in the world, whatever stage of business you're at, if you're looking for that ultimate female cheer squad of like minded women, head over to thechampainlounge.com to come and join us.
00:13:18
You did touch on the brand name of what you're doing now, and this influencer, where did that word come from when creating something and creating a brand? Tell me the story behind it. Okay. I can take no credit for it. I have an amazing business coach, Jen Harwood, and I was doing the podcast, and I actually wanted to create a marketplace.
00:13:44
I'm still going to create my marketplace, just not yet. And there were all these moving parts within the marketplace. I was calling it an everything place, which was just confusing. So we had products and services made by people with disabilities, made for people with disabilities, like, really kind of niche down to that segment. And then I had influencers.
00:14:06
And she's, you know, just like I've told you then, I'm like, there's only a handful of influencers in Australia that have a disability, that have a massive following. But I'm like like what I said to you. Like, there's lots of people with disabilities know, brush their hair and use toothpaste and eat food just like everyone else. Everyone else. Yeah.
00:14:27
So I was kind of explaining the concept of what we're doing, and she's like, that stop. That's what you start with. She goes, I know you want to do all those things and you can, but let's just start with one thing. And she's like, you should call it disinfluencer. So we were literally talking.
00:14:45
I'm kind of getting the chills now, because it was like, wow. Yes. And I was literally opened another window registering the domain. And the reason why I love the name so much is this isn't for disability, this is for disruption. So we want to take disability mainstream.
00:15:05
We want to disrupt what you think is possible. So it was just like one of those things that was just like yes. And you could feel it in your bones. It was like, again, one of those magical things of how it just landed so perfectly. Yeah.
00:15:21
Oh, I love that so much. And Jen is an absolute genius, right? I love her. She's been in both our worlds for a while and in terms of that and again, it's a feeling easy thing, right? It's falling into place because it feels so right and it's taking you so long to get to where you are now.
00:15:38
In your experience. To start something new is scary though, isn't it? Starting something brand new. Again, you and I are both in that boat of going, we've done successful businesses, we've sold areas of it, we've had the time to rest, but there's something else calling us, starting something from scratch. For the business owners that are listening, going, this all sounds great, but I don't know, am I scrambling at nothing?
00:16:03
What does it feel like on the back end when you're starting something from new and it looks so good and amazing and it still feels right, but isn't necessarily moving as fast as you want it to move? I think it's harder and I'll explain why. Because when you start, you have no idea. So you have maybe no expectations, but you just say yes and you do stuff and you figure it out. You still do that now, but you don't know the bad stuff, like how things take so long and competitors steal your domain names.
00:16:38
I don't know, there's some stories there, but I think for me, jumping back in and that's why I've been connecting with a few, with Jen and with the Champagne Lounge, putting myself out there to get those networks again. But also, so many things have changed. I sound like an old person and I've always kind of had my finger on the pulse for tech and marketing, but just when I was burnt out, I deleted my LinkedIn. Deleted, like, didn't rest at all, whatever, like, gone. So I had to get a LinkedIn account and I've got maybe 80 followers.
00:17:14
I had 5000. I had all the things, right, all the contacts, all my articles, all the things. Same with instagram. So I deleted all of it and then, yeah, so now I have to come back and start from zero. So it's hard.
00:17:30
It's hard. And Instagram, I was just saying today in our group call, like Instagram, I thought Instagram would be the place for me to play. And it is. But I'm getting more traction on LinkedIn. But that's the only way I can explain it.
00:17:48
It's changed. LinkedIn is like a different planet from what I remember, right? LinkedIn's, like, I'm going to again sound really old. It's like Facebook, but in a good way. Like the reach is crazy.
00:18:02
And someone said to me, and again, when I had to surrender, someone was saying to me if I really wanted to create that impact, I had to be on LinkedIn. And I resisted because I'm like, oh, there's so much to do. And then managing the platforms and creating the content, it's just like more stuff. So I'm very conscious this time in about setting those boundaries and setting those kind of work limits for myself and not just doing all the things for the sake of doing them. Like, it has to be meaningful and create some kind of impact.
00:18:37
So, yeah, it's been really interesting to kind of dive back in and have to kind of remember the few things I know, but also have a very open mind that it's just such a different landscape. And that sounds quite dramatic. So when I had my daughter and I was in my mum bubble and COVID, so I kind of unplugged from social media and I turned into a bread baker and I used to walk every day. The kids were home schooled, so I was not doing nothing like, it was hectic and I was studying TAFE, so that's kind of where I gave my time. But coming back in from where I left it to where it is now, it's like a different world.
00:19:17
So, yeah, there's lots to learn. I've been doing heaps of really again through the networks, meeting people and doing like little mini challenges and listening to heaps of podcasts. And I'm selling now to Enterprise business and I'm speaking to CMOS, and they're not on Instagram. They're not going to find me on Instagram. I have to pitch, I have to sell.
00:19:40
It's just a completely different ballgame, which is amazing, but also like, oh my God, so different. Yeah. What I'm hearing there is it's actually being really intentional about where you put your energy. Not trying to be all things to all people, but actually going, this is what I'm trying to achieve. This is where they are.
00:19:58
This is what I'm going to have to do and stay really quite blinked and focused on those tasks that are going to have the impact that you want them to have. Yeah, but you have to kind of go through that. I'm going to say like a startup term, that trough of sorry, you have to try things that don't work to know, like it's from what doesn't work that leads you to what you should be doing. So I feel like now, especially with my podcast, it's on a bit of a pause. I'm going to rebrand it and change it.
00:20:28
I've been listening to there's a term, it's Ed Sheeran, it's a thing called 10,000 hours. And he talks about how I definitely haven't done 10,000 hours. Even my podcast at the start, it's still got room for improvement, right? But it's about you don't get better until you do those 10,000 shit hours. I always find when people recommend a podcast to me, it's usually around episode 150.
00:20:57
I'm only up to episode 35 of mine. So back to that. No one knows who I am and no one might be listening, but I'm still doing it to get better for episode 150. And then when people find me like I do, I find a podcast. I'll listen to a few and then I go back to the start and I'm not there to judge the quality or the audio, I'm there for the content and it's usually pretty good, even if it's a bit rough at the start.
00:21:25
So I'm really that's right, got to start somewhere. And it's that grit and that determination just to keep going, keep trying, keep learning. And all of those things we do as entrepreneurs, and one of the things that you know, that I love to do, and I encourage you to do regularly is to celebrate the milestones in business and market and pat yourself on the back and cheer along. What are the things that in this new business for you have been the things that you've wanted to celebrate and what are you aiming to celebrate next? So I'm doing your champagne thing and I am following the profit first model as got.
00:22:08
I'm actually going on a retreat next week. I'm going away to Byron, so I've already marked out two or three retreats over the year to kind of unplug and do that stuff and then I do little rewards and I have little stretch goals. So I've got a project that I'm kind of waiting to find out about. I'm just waiting for the email, yes or no. So I think if we get that gig, you'll hear me scream.
00:22:43
If we're Sydney, you'll hear me, the whole world will hear me. So look forward to it. Definitely. Really taking the time now to actually what I'm going to say is today when I finish this and I go and get my daughter, I'm actually going to go and buy a bottle of champagne because the fact that this email even landed in my inbox is a win. So whether or not we get the gig doesn't matter.
00:23:06
So I'm really going to take time now to celebrate all those little things along the way because they all lead to the big things. And the fact that I feel like we're really making momentum and just having conversations with people and kind of having the awareness of who we are and what we do now is I get so many incredible emails and DMs from other parents and stuff, so I feel like I'm not going to take that for granted. I'm really trying to celebrate that every moment, even though nothing big or special is happening. I love that. I love that so much and I can't wait that email to land in your inbox.
00:23:43
I've got all the feels for you. I know it's going to happen. And one of the things that just cropped into my brain, which another one of our members mentioned in one of the calls from about a month ago now, was when you get those text messages and those emails that come through and have the really good feedback. She said she screenshots them and she takes photos of the little cards or the little notes that people leave her in terms of presents or at a retreat when you get those feedback forms and things. And she saves them all into an album so that if she's having a really low day, all the good positive vibes and all the impact that she's had in the work that she's done is all in one album.
00:24:17
So now's your chance to start that album on your phone and screenshot those things and have them there. Well, you've actually just reminded me of something else, beck so I can see your champagne behind you. So I've got a thing where and I'm going to start doing you. You do the Post it notes. But another thing I don't know, you told me about this, I've got a few.
00:24:42
When you take the cork and write on the cork and put it in like a little vase and then you collect all the cork. One of our mutual friends posted about that online. I think it was Elise. I think her name was Elise. And she posted I think we must be both connected.
00:24:59
But yes, I wish I had all the corks still to actually write. That's one of the things I regret not doing. I can probably tell you what all the bottles are for, but I've only just started keeping the bottles to make my own Champagne courtyard when I eventually get to doing the gardening outside, but collecting those corks and having that as a reminder and marking on the bottom. So I, too am going to start that. I think that's fabulous.
00:25:21
Yeah, I think with my kids, the collecting the bottles might be a bit how you're going, but definitely keeping the corks and having them in a beautiful like, I'll buy something beautiful and have it on my desk so it's there, so it's really present in my day to day work. So that's what I'm going to do. Yeah, I think that's fabulous. I love that. And I think, you know, I'm going to end the episode right on that note of pure celebration and joy and marking those moments and striving and keep you going in terms of in flow and just celebration and mark the micro moments along the mind.
00:25:57
Thank you so much for coming on the show. I'm going to link all of your things, the podcast, your website, all in the show notes. People can come and find you. I love that you're a beautiful, active member inside the Champagne Lounge and that you've jumped on to have a chat today. So thank you so much.
00:26:14
Thank you so much for having me. Have a great day. Thanks for listening to the Champagne Lounge podcast. If you'd love to be part of our thriving global community, head over to thechampainlounge.com to join us.
