ļ»æTranscription
00:00:02
Hello and welcome to the Champagne Lounge.
00:00:07
Welcome. Welcome to the Sydney launch of the Champagne Lounge. And welcome to Gallon. Isn't it a beautiful bar? They've brought all the champagne bottles in just for us.
00:00:20
No, I'm kidding. It's here all the time and I love it. So welcome, welcome. I want to do a quick intro in what the Champagne Lounge is all about. Then we'll jump into our beautiful panel discussion.
00:00:30
I'm going to have to get used to this microphone. Sorry about that. And then we'll continue mingling and networking. But I know a number of you in the room all know each other from so many different walks of life, from different communities over the years. And it's beautiful to see that the Champagne Lounge ethos has come to life.
00:00:52
Like, my vision for the Champagne Lounge is to connect all different types of women, all different women networks, all different women's communities, whether it's education platforms, networking, business stuff, life stuff. Regardless of what groups we're in, we've moved over the years through different groups. We all know each other from varying different places. As I've said, it's been beautiful to see people connect together and I want it to be a place of connection, community, collaboration and celebration. So cheers to you all for coming to the first lodge.
00:01:28
Thank you very much. And supporting me in being here and doing that. I have some beautiful founding members of the Champagne Lounge that I wanted a shout out to and I wrote them all down so I didn't miss anybody. So where's Justine? Right here.
00:01:42
Justine was number one to jump into the Champagne Lounge, so thank you for believing in me. Beth was number two, my beautiful friend and neighbor. She was decorated at the door, giving you all the drink tags for the important job of the night. And then my other people that were here, top 20 members that came in. Where's Ruth?
00:02:05
Just here. Mags. Mags is somewhere. Number four, babe. See, I got a number four.
00:02:10
Jen. Jen's at the back somewhere. Bright pink hair. There she is. Beautiful Kylie.
00:02:17
Where's Kylie? I've seen her. I haven't said hello yet. Hello, babe. Catherine.
00:02:22
Jennifer. I haven't seen Jennifer in the room yet, although I think she's been ticked off. There we go, my love. And Debbie. So these are the women that believed in me when I started it and the two women on the panel.
00:02:33
Jean and Tina have been with me the whole way through the journey. And Kate said yes to jumping in as well, which I'm super excited about doing that, because Kate and I have just been instagram buddies up until today. So whilst all of you have met different people in real life, this has been one of those internet friendships that have come to life on the stage. We've never met. Oh, and Jenny and Tina have never met.
00:02:57
So there you go, bringing together all of these wonderful people and I know from conversations with half a dozen of you, if not most of you, in the room. You came because I talked about loneliness as a business owner and talked about being connected in certain communities, but not really connected when it came to actually being seen and heard and having someone to talk to when you needed it. And so today I want to talk on the panel discussion about community, like the community of the people that you need around you that's not just work related, not just home related, and not just about a different particular education topic or a particular business subject, but all of those things that we have that's called life as a business owner. Right? All those things, all those problems, all those conversations, all those high five moments and all those here's the tissues, babe.
00:03:48
So, without further ado, I would like to introduce our beautiful panel. Janine Saunders has been my mentor for the last seven years. Is it? Oh, that's a long time. Maybe eight.
00:03:59
Janine and I actually met through Kara and she surprised me by putting in her ticket at about 02:00 this afternoon.
00:04:08
Kara and I met through another networking group and she said to me, come to dinner, babe. I was like, all right, I'll come to dinner. And I was a dinner hosted by Janine at the time. That was little Black Dress group. And after that dinner, there was the obligatory sales pitch that came in the email afterwards that said, do you want to become a member?
00:04:26
And I was like, Cara, do I want to become a member? What level are you at? She goes in a circle. I don't know. I didn't look at the price, I didn't look at what was involved.
00:04:35
I was like, I love this. I love these people. The community's been great, the conversation's been fab. And then I ended up on retreat, like, three weeks later. So we've been besties ever since.
00:04:45
Janine has helped me go from video sort of crumbling, when at the beginning of COVID I was ready to give it up and try this beginning of COVID I've had the phone calls going, I think I'm going to go get a job. No, you're not. Yeah, you've all had those moments, right? I'm going to chuck it in, I'm going to get a job. We'd be crap at that.
00:05:03
So Janine has said yes to jumping on the panel today. The beautiful Tina Tower. She's been in my world longer than she knows it. We actually met a long time ago. Oh, there we go.
00:05:16
You're whole enough to do.
00:05:21
Tina and I met a long time ago at Women in Focus, actually, in Noosa, which was wonderful, and we've just been up again to North Queensland for a retreat. So Tina has been instrumental in me growing what was the video academy that's still there as part of the video business has been instrumental in me dreaming big and making things happen. And her travel inspires me, and I've done a lot because you inspire me for that. So thank you very much. And Kate.
00:05:46
Kate and I have been instagram buddies and firing on each other for a very long time. And I'm so excited that she came here and she picked my color pink today and not her usual teal. So thank you very much for coming on the panel. I want to kick things off the three of you. I gave you a very personal introduction.
00:06:05
I know some of you know one or two or possibly three, but definitely one. Give me a quick intro who you are and what you do now. What I do now? Oh my goodness me. I'm quite accidental in terms of where I've got to.
00:06:25
I'm a former corporate, 20 OD years in corporate running brands, building brands. I used to be my proper job, used to be group Marketing Director looking after Oritan and Ralph Lauren. I then had one of those come to Jesus moments where I literally came home and my daughter questioned why I was so unhappy. And she was five years old at the time, and I realized I had to take some control if I was going to become a piece of inspiration for the next generation. I had to start living it.
00:06:59
And so I packed in my six figure job and started on The Smell of an Oily Rag the first business over the last twelve years built and sold a business, written three best selling books, often pulled into organizations to help them unleash the brilliance of their teams. But what I'm really passionate about is women like you. There are too many women that are running businesses on the smell of an oily rag. There are too many women running businesses with no profit in their businesses. And there are too many women that are building a business on a dream, and that business is shackled around their ankles or it's negatively impacting their lifestyles.
00:07:35
So I'm all about helping you step into your power, helping women really unleash their brilliance to become somebody that other people know. It's about commercializing your IP and ultimately unlocking a lot of profit in your business. Because when women make money, everybody benefits. Our children benefit, our community benefits, the industry benefits. And women, as we know, the more money they make, they don't necessarily acquire stuff, they actually put it back into community.
00:08:09
So that's my passion. It's about really helping women run commercially smart businesses and building businesses on their terms. Quit building a business that is somebody else's dream. You've got decades of experience. You're amazing.
00:08:23
And why on earth are we building a business based on a 50 year old white Caucasian male view of running a business, working nine to five, if not longer, when many of us are juggling other things? So it's about building your business. I do that through my Elevate community and my inner circle community. And as you can tell, I have a strong opinion about this stuff. So I hang another amazing is just phenomenal at what she does.
00:08:48
Thank you, my love agree. Except I want stuff and the community, both those things. Hello, everybody. I'm tina tower. I know a lot of people in this room, which is so lovely.
00:09:03
It's always nice to see people in real life. I was thinking as I pulled into the city today, I live up on the central coast about 2 hours north of here, and I went in the tunnel instead of the bridge. And so it took me another 40 minutes to then cross, and I'm like, gosh, why do I come into the city? I should just stay on my farm. And then I walked in, I went, oh, this is why this is nice is the community.
00:09:24
So congratulations, Beck, on building this and launching the champagne lounge. I'm so proud of you.
00:09:32
And so what do I do? I've been a business owner my entire life. This is my 20 year anniversary in business. So I started when I was 20. I was super spun out just before because I saw a young girl that I used to tutor when she was six years old and she's 21.
00:09:50
So I started with tutoring centers, so I've always been in education. I sold my last company in 2016 and had a bit of a midlife cris in not knowing who I wanted to be when I grew up. So I went around the world for a year with my family, which was fabulous, and then accidentally tripped and fell into this wonderful world of online courses. So I believe probably everybody here has great expertise and doesn't know how to create it, sell it, scale it, and so that's what I do with her empire build up is help people be able to do that. Okay, hello.
00:10:28
I would like to point out that three of the panel are British.
00:10:38
I can do one. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So my name is Kate Toon, and I guess my example is that I've done a bit of everything.
00:10:47
So I have three podcasts, big courses, two memberships, big communities. I speak. I've written four books. What can you guess from all of that? Massive overachiever, massively insecure, trying to prove myself to everybody.
00:11:03
And I've just written a book. I don't know if you've noticed. I may have talked about it once or twice on social media. I'm a big believer in honesty. I think a lot of what we see online is fake.
00:11:15
I think a lot of instagram posts, people laughing at salads. When did that start happening? Blowing confetti and presenting business as an easy thing that's done in a perfectly white kitchen with clean children. It's not the reality for a lot of us, and it sets ourselves up for guess. I feel like I'm a bit of a truth teller sometimes.
00:11:41
Maybe too much of a truth teller. I've been told I'm brutally honest. But I love my communities. My communities were the foundation. I set up my first online community on Google Plus.
00:11:52
Does anyone remember that? Old school man. And my clever copywriting community is now coming into its 9th year and we still have our 1st 62 founding members. Love those founding members. Nine years I've been running that community.
00:12:08
I set up another and I have free communities which are a whole different cattle of fish. So, yeah, bringing people together. I remember I went to speak at an event and I think I'm good at writing and I think I'm good at SEO. But my friend Kelly expert said, no, you're really good at bringing people together and making everyone feel normal. And I think that's what ReRebecca's doing here tonight.
00:12:29
Does everyone feel normal ish maybe. Anyway, I wear prowess all the sparkly shoes. Anyway, that's me. Thank you.
00:12:42
Thank you. I think I took away from that. I need to write some books, ladies. So we've all got now amazing thriving businesses, but we never all had it that way, like the whole time, right? We've said we've had tears, we've had probably tantrums behind the scenes.
00:12:58
We've had nice pretty photos on Instagram and all the all. You've all built your own communities. Where do you go now? Or where have you looked for in the past? That space of I'm ready to move to find someone that gets me where over the time have you done that?
00:13:15
You've been through several communities over your careers. Tina, I'm going to throw to you first, like going from tutoring centers into completely different space in work wise, where did you look for support? Everywhere. So I am a learning junkie. I was talking to someone the other day about business coach because I was talking about my business coach and they're like, do you still have a private business coach?
00:13:38
I am in my 20th year. Like I said, I have a private business coach. I have a psychologist that I talk to who's a higher performance psychologist who mainly works with sports people, but he was the only one that I could talk to that I would when you go in, been into a psychologist's office and you give your download and I would go into a normal psychologist and they'd sit back on the couch and go, oh, that's a lot. Yeah, but I want to know how I can do more. And so he works really well with me and I'm part of two masterminds as well.
00:14:13
So I have never had a year in business where I haven't been part of a community and some I've been part of for years and years and years. Some are just one year things, but I'm always going to that next level. I got back two days ago from Nashville from probably one of the most exciting two days of my life. Like when you get to go somewhere and learn so many things and you're just geeking out and you're like, this is so fabulous, and you feel like, high as a kite on dreams and aspirations and all of those things, and that's a peer to peer mastermind. So it was a few people got together and just I mean, in a way, it's super elitist and super clicky because you get tapped on the shoulder and then voted in, which is freaking brutal, because if you don't get voted in, like you'd feel anyway, I was voted in, which I'm lucky for, but it's sitting at those tables and going, I was the smallest fish there by a long shot and it's the first room I've been in for a long time where I was the smallest fish.
00:15:09
And it was just so awesome in hearing people's big dreams and reimagining a future for myself that was so much bigger than the one that I have now and getting out of any sort of hi, Liz. And getting out of any sort of we get stuck in our reality and for a lot of people in normal life, like, I remember even I used to go to my kids'soccer games and you talk to the mums on the sidelines and they all thought I was a little crazy. And I am a little crazy, and most of us probably are, that it's really nice to be in groups of people that have your own the same sort of special blend of crazy.
00:15:45
Where do you find your special blend, Janine? Oh, my God. I mean, similarly, I think my well, when I left corporate, it was bloody know, suddenly going from this paid job where your super is paid, where there's an It man on call person sorry, where someone will empty your bin, building your own business and not actually having a clue what you're going to do, it's really lonely. And so, from the get go, I agree with Tina, it's about finding those right communities or the right people that are going to push you further than you can ever go yourself, that are really going to challenge your thinking. There's too many yes people, there's too many people agreeing with you just because you're giving them money.
00:16:33
And I think it's about making sure you go into communities where you're going to be challenged, you're going to learn something. I'm equally a learning junkie. I took myself off to Harvard a couple of years ago because I was like, I just want to learn. I'm happy in my happy place in a library. That's how boring I am.
00:16:50
But it's like, I just want to learn, I just want to keep challenging my brain. And so, for me, I tend to have this figure of around 20% of whatever I'm earning. I invest in other people, I pay people to challenge me and it has to be but it's bloody hard to find, if I'm really honest. It's been really hard to find over the years because a bit like Tina was talking about her therapist, I tend to do the same with coaches. And so many times over the years, I've gone into the wrong community and I've ended up helping them, coaching them, giving more and not actually getting anything in return.
00:17:24
And then going, I've just spent 30 grand, 40 grand, and nothing's changed here. So for me, I'm constantly looking. I want to be the dumbest person in the room. I want to be the person that doesn't know stuff because I want to learn. And the reason I do it, yes, I'm a learning junkie, but actually, it's also because I want to teach my clients.
00:17:45
I want to be able to give my clients the best thinking, the latest thinking, the current thinking, and I want to challenge them to be able to build what it is that they want. But I also think the risk when we talk about community is we put so much effort into building our businesses and spending money on communities that we fail to invest in friendships. And I know, I don't know if you were saying Tina or Kate, but for many years I was so busy chasing my dream, so busy doing the work, you could give me a spreadsheet, a Slack board, a Trello board, and I could tell you exactly where I was on that project plan. I was writing books, I was doing everything, I was ticking boxes, but I wasn't nurturing my relationships in terms of my friendships. And I think it's really important that particularly as women, that and it comes back to this.
00:18:41
We don't have to build businesses in the same way as our male counterparts, that it can be lonely and it's okay to have friendships. It's okay to cry, it's okay to whinge, it's okay to rant, it's okay to I'm going to what am I going to tapak on Sunday with one of my clients? Because none of my family are interested in it. But it's this friendship thing that has longevity. And there's a reason Beck and I have known each other for as long as we have because you've got to care about each other and it's already lonely going out for business, in business, on your own, in organisations.
00:19:23
We've got team dates, we've got away dates, we've got blue sky meetings, we've got things that we do because we're forced to as a result of the company in which we work. When you're on your own, we don't have any of that. And so what I love about what Rebecca's creating is this piece around the celebration, this piece around friendship, this piece around asking for help. But here's the thing, we talked about this in a circle the other week. We can supply all that, but we ourselves have got to get over our own bullshit.
00:20:00
And our own bullshit is, I've got to look good. I must always have my shit sorted, I must know exactly what my answers are. It's really hard to be vulnerable. It's really hard as women to open up. It's really hard to ask for help.
00:20:15
It's really hard, not just to celebrate the wins, but to go, this is really fucked right now. This isn't working. And I think when it comes to investing in yourself, I'd really make sure you get that balance right between the people that are going to push you and teach you and give you the smarts to build the business. But don't let the heart go to make sure you build those friendships. There's a reason we're all here.
00:20:40
It's because of Beck, because we're here to support her, because it is about support and collaboration. There's a reason that through COVID, we connected. Tina's been on my podcast. We've never met in person, but it's like, as you said, best friends, because you've got to get over that first. Friendship will see you through the tough times.
00:21:00
Not frameworks, not seven easy steps to not this spreadsheet, not this task list. It's friendships that will see you through the tough times. And tough times come with running your own business. The Champagne Lounge isn't just a podcast, 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.
00:21:39
Kate, you're really good at the vulnerable and the being. You online. Even today's post was about not being in the sun and this is who I am and I don't do a lot of makeup all the time and it was fabulous. Like, your posts are really refreshing. You're running three communities, though.
00:21:54
Where do you fill your cup? How are you filling it? Well, I'm wondering why I've been invited tonight. Because unlike my two co conspirators, I've never been in a Mastermind, I've never had a business coach, I've never been in anybody else's community. I don't reach up to people who I think can teach me.
00:22:21
I reach across, I think, and I reach down. It's a slightly different approach, right? I'm not saying it's better, maybe I'd have got somewhere faster. But my communities are all about friendship. So I'm a weirdo, right?
00:22:35
So I meet someone and they join my community. I immediately think they're my friend, right? They're just my friend. Like, if you've joined my thing, where we're a gang, we're like a Viking gang going out, battling for each other. We're incredibly vulnerable and stupid.
00:22:49
My communities are not particularly serious. I take my business very seriously, but I don't take business seriously. I think it's ridiculous, all of it. The seven steps, the six figures to whatever. It's ridiculous.
00:23:02
And I also I'm just not sure, like, I've met some smart people. I think we both know clint Salter and I met him and I spoke to him at conference. We're at a conference all day. He's an incredibly funny man. And sitting next to him at a conference for a day, I probably got $40,000 worth of coaching just by being a mate.
00:23:21
Do you know what I mean? Leanne Shelton's here, we went on a little retreat together. She came supposedly to absorb knowledge from me because I'm an orb of knowledge. Pay me $5,000 to come to my retreat. I learned as much from Leanne as she learned from me.
00:23:35
So I am very much peer to peer. My communities are as much very selfish, they're as much for me as they are for the people within. Yeah, I love that. And that's exactly why you're here. When I went to click the button on the Champagne Lounge, I'd had a conversation with my husband.
00:23:56
Well, it wasn't really much a conversation. He'd come out to the garden to me, just sitting, bawling my eyes out, and he was like, what's wrong? Feeling really lonely. He's like, but you know, everyone I know, it's different, though. And he could not get his head around it at all.
00:24:13
And it's that reaching out, reaching over, up or down, it doesn't matter which way you reach. He was very much just like, oh, I don't know what to do with that. And I was like, well, I'll figure it out myself. And so here we all are.
00:24:25
But it happens to all of us, right? We learn from which way in no way is right or wrong. One of the big things that I love to do is to celebrate, right? The postit notes and the champagne notes. The champagne and the postit notes is one of the things that I've been doing for a really long time.
00:24:41
Which is why I chose this bar as the first place to come on the roadshow. Because the Verve bottles I'm like. Surprising. I drank all of those with some gold. That would be great.
00:24:52
I celebrate all the time. I've got post it notes that say, get this goal, drink that bottle. Get this goal, drink that bottle. My fridge actually looks like that. Janine posted something on LinkedIn the other day and if you go find her on LinkedIn, there's a picture of my fridge in the comments.
00:25:05
This is what my fridge looks like. What do you do to celebrate the goals? And do you mark them? Like, do you set yourself targets and do you mark them and how do you celebrate them? I was rubbish.
00:25:19
I never celebrated my goals. I'm probably one of the few people that's written books and never done a book launch. Never done a book launch, never celebrated hitting. I know. My husband says to me, Janine, what are you doing?
00:25:36
You've achieved got an honorary doctorate for science. I never celebrated that. I don't even call myself are you Dr Janine? I am.
00:25:47
Why? And you'll get this, Kate. It's a you know, I grew up in chips and scraps. I literally grew up where my dad was a farmer. I grew up in a mining community during the Thatcher years, which, if any of you yet.
00:26:06
So we literally had power cuts and had to cook our food on the coal fire. And very much told, whatever you do, Janine, don't stick your neck out. Don't show off, because someone will come and take it off. Yeah, that's what I was told. And so, honestly, for probably the first well, I'm now 52, so I reckon for the first 40 years, just kept going because my unconscious learning was, you just keep striving.
00:26:37
You just keep striving. Just keep striving, proving striving, proving, striving, proving get but don't tell anyone what you're doing. Whatever you do, don't. And so this one well, my husband, first of all, went, what the hell is going on? I'd go to events and people say, what do you do?
00:26:52
I'm looking after my kids. I'm not doing very much at the moment, going, what the hell? Why were you telling yourself? I don't need people talking about me. And so, obviously, social media was a massive wake up call for me, because, like, fuck, the only way to do this now is you got to talk on social media.
00:27:09
And then champagne lounge and champagne. And literally, I do little celebrations along the way. So my big thing is family experiences, creating memories with the kids. I'm taking my 20 year old son to New York at the end of August. Do realize I've had to bribe him to come with me because he probably wouldn't do it otherwise.
00:27:32
But I'm happy, I'm cool. I'm like, yeah, this is as much my trip as yours, but this exercise that Rebecca has been doing for years has been a massive wake up call for me. And so I actually do do the champagne approach. I've got five. We were talking about it on my coaching call this morning.
00:27:52
I cracked two bottles last week. I've got five to go before the end of the year and that's it. And I think that we have to celebrate the small steps. I talk to everyone in my community about this. It's like, we've got to do the small steps because we're all on our own journey.
00:28:10
There is no definition of success. There is no, you must do it in this way. And I think every single one of us is doing remarkable stuff. The majority of people are in paid jobs. Majority of people you're out there on your own.
00:28:26
It's not easy. It's not easy following your dream. It's not easy finding the cash to invest in your dream. It's not easy finding cash to pay suppliers. It's not easy selling yourself.
00:28:36
And so I've learned the hard way of being smashed around by my own clients to do it. And this one making me buy bottles of champagne, which I. Might just regularly drink. She doesn't keep them in the fridge, though. She keeps them on the because I've got teenage boys that are literally I can't so they're on my desk, and then when I cracked it, it goes in the fridge to chill for that night.
00:29:00
But I am a bit naughty now because I've become so addicted to the celebration now. I've got little goals on there.
00:29:11
I agree with Dr. Saunders about the need for celebration. I mean, I operate my business probably the opposite of winging it. Like, as far opposite of winging it that you can get. So I have always I still remember when I started my first business and I created my strategy and my business plan, and I had a ten year plan, five year plan, three year plan, one year plans broken into 90 day action steps, broken into weekly.
00:29:37
And then when I got really crazy, like five years into business, I went into 15 minutes increments. Oh, God. Yeah. Hi, I'm Anal and I'm type A. And, yes, it served me very, very well.
00:29:51
I've now come to discover my control issues and my need for safety. And this is the thing that we create with our businesses a lot of the time, is how we can heal the wounds that we have as humans and also what we think we need in order to feel safe and whole and worthy. And with my previous business that I sold in 2016, I sold that because I created a beast that everybody told me was the right thing to go for. Every time I went into any sort of business coach meeting or anything, people were one impressed. I ran a franchise system, and I was the youngest Australian woman to ever run a franchise, so I was 27 when I started that.
00:30:32
And when I met people, people were impressed. They were like, you do what? That's amazing. And so I got all puffed up and was all excited to be able to do that and kept going until I created a business that I hated. And I think that that's something that we need to be really conscious of as we go about creating our businesses, is creating your ideal.
00:30:51
And I kind of now, like, before, you were saying we've got to be vulnerable and we've got to be real. I know some people will like, at me when I say this, but my life is better, way better than what it looks like on social media, because I have so intentionally created something that is awesome. And the game that I play every day, even the problems that I have, I have consciously chosen that level of problem. And when you're around lots of other business people, do you know any business person that doesn't have problems? Like, they're everywhere.
00:31:23
Everyone does have problems. I look at employees and I go, I'd rather my problems than those problems any day. But my point is, in that we all have the problems, but you've got to choose the game that you want to play and then celebrate the shit out of it. Because we deserve to feel good about our choices. And sometimes I think social media goes too far in going we can't be proud of the things that we have achieved because of what your dad said, be careful, you'll get too big and you'll get knocked on the head.
00:31:51
So I celebrate the shit out of everything in terms of yeah, I have a celebration bell that whenever anyone joins her Empire Builder, my program, I give them a bell and I go like, when you celebrate, ring it. I want your nervous system to know you had a goal and you did something good because what gets celebrated gets repeated. I'm also very sentimental. So, like, I bought a necklace when I hit my 1st 10,000 copies of my book sold. I bought a ring when I sold my company.
00:32:20
So my ring here over my office desk, I used to have a chart that said, I can, I will. Watch me. And then underneath the ring it says I did. And that to me was such a moment. And I think while we have so many beautiful friendships and communities, the person that keeps you going in your business year after year is you.
00:32:41
And you need to be your biggest cheerleader and find out what motivates you to do the things that you know you need to do, but you don't necessarily want to do. I was talking to someone today in one of our calls about going live on Instagram. I know I need to do it, but I don't want to do it. It's been on Goals list for like four months. I'm like, get out of you, get out your phone and let's go live now.
00:32:59
Like, just do it. So whatever it is that you know you need to do, go do that thing and then celebrate the shit out of yourself because you did the thing that you wanted to do. Yay, me.
00:33:11
Maybe next time I can go first. I'll throw it back to you then like two beautiful monologues and then me. So I'll be honest, I don't celebrate anything. Can I go first next time? Seriously.
00:33:30
I have been doing this now for 15 years, which I celebrate my longevity. Having your own business for 15 years is a long time. Thank you.
00:33:41
I have launched my course 27 times. I have launched my membership 24. Nine years, blah, blah, blah. And after a while, I guess I don't celebrate the highs, but I equally don't worry about the lows. Okay.
00:33:58
So I am a bit different, I think, to the other panelists in that generally I just want a level of contentment. I want to turn up every day at my desk and there'd be no fucking drama.
00:34:13
Yeah, every day. Every day. I've eradicated drama. I don't deal with people who are drama queens. I don't have problems, really, day to day, once in a while.
00:34:26
90% of my business is pretty boring and I love that. I love the continuity. I enjoy the fact that I work all day with brilliant, clever people. I have a laugh, I make really good money, I finish at three, go to the shops and I make dinner and watch a bit of Netflix and long may that last. And occasionally I'll do a sexy book launch or fly off to the Netherlands.
00:34:49
But that's not the reality of my business. A lot of my business is pretty much Excel spreadsheets and plotting around in my knickers in my office. And I love that because I think for a long time I mistook stress for excitement and for a long time I mistook contentment for boredom. And now I just want to be generally pretty happy, as happy as I can be. And that means possibly fewer highs, but it means very, very few lows.
00:35:20
Yes. I love that. I love it. One of the things that I really wanted to achieve with changing my business was to not feel the like, roller coaster ride all the time. Don't get me wrong, changing your business model after ten years and starting something brand new is really fucking scary.
00:35:42
But I don't take it lightly that all of you are here tonight and all of you have said yes for coming on today's panel and being part of it and seeing my vision and what I'm wanting to create and going, yeah. I can see the benefit of connecting different communities and different people. Kate, I'm going to throw to you first, so get ready.
00:36:05
This is by no way an ego boosting question for me, but for the benefit of everyone in the room. What made you say yes to coming today? Like, you and I only spoke on Instagram, right? You guys know we know each other well, but I still want to know why you said yes to driving down the central coast and going through the bridge and all things, and she still came in with a smile. Why did you say yes?
00:36:25
And why did you believe so much in what I'm trying to achieve to come today and spend the evening here with us? Great question. I love that you've had the balls to ask that, the lavier to ask that question. I've followed you for a long time and I reckon there's lots of people in this room who followed other people for a long time but never admitted it. The lurkers, you know, the people you see watching your stories and they never leave a heart, but they're there.
00:36:55
I've watched you for a long time and you're very pink, which is I'm not pink. I'm more oppenheimer than Barbie. But I made the effort tonight. I just like the cut of your think, I don't know. And then I found out you're British, which is always a bonus.
00:37:11
You're funny, you're nice, you just seem like a decent, decent human. And honestly, there's a lot of wankers out there. And I'm not just talking about the blokes, because women can be wankers too. So I just thought, what a cool thing to do. And also, I know how bloody hard events are and how you make no money and no one comes, so I just wanted to support you.
00:37:33
I think I've shared your event about 47 times. I shared it more than my own conference.
00:37:41
Just help another human out. That was it, really. Thank you.
00:37:51
Well, why did I come? Well, I love you is probably the number one reason. We've known each other for a very long time and I'm so excited for what you're creating with the Champagne Lounge. I think there is a genuine gap in this sort of community that can come together without the pressure of, like Janine and I have. Communities know we've got to perform for people and get big results for people, whereas it feels so fun to go.
00:38:19
The whole point is to just come and celebrate one another and connect and have fun and cheer each other on. And I love that pretense and I love that for everybody here. So hopefully you jump into the Champagne Lounge tonight as well, if you're not ditto ditto. I agree, there's a lot of wankers. I did.
00:38:40
Our Yorkshire accent is probably getting strong. You're more Lancashire. There's a lot of people out there that say one thing and behave differently. I've been around the block way too many times and I reckon I'm going to end up becoming one of those crazy women with purple hair that doesn't give a fuck anymore. Why don't you do purple hair now?
00:38:59
I might do pink, but there she is, her brand. But the point is to what Kate says, there's a lot of people that say one thing and behave differently. It starts in the playground, starts in the workplace, where people say one thing and then they kick you down. I think as women, we have been taught to compete, we've been taught to protect ourselves and we have been taught not to ask for help, necessarily. So I think amongst all our three communities, we're trying to change the face of that.
00:39:32
And then to answer Beck's question, I go, Why not? Why the hell not? I mean, this is just why would you not support someone that has a goal and a dream? Why would you not do what you can with your own community, your own platform, your own resources, to help somebody else shine? And I really do believe that the only way we're all going to fly higher is if we do it together.
00:40:02
It's not going to change. Nothing's going to change if we keep competing. Nothing's going to change if we keep comparing. Nothing's going to change if we keep chopping each other off at the knees and nothing's going to change if we don't start celebrating each other. Nothing.
00:40:17
And the Blokes love the fact that we compete. The Blokes love the fact that we chop each other off at the knees. The Blokes love the fact that we're struggling with self doubt and we don't believe we're good enough. It's like bullshit. We are.
00:40:32
I mean, who here has got ten years of experience, not just in your own business, but forever? 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, 50 years.
00:40:46
We've probably got thousands of decades of experience in this one room. In this one room. Thousands of years of influencing, of learning, of growing, of winning, of failing, of transitioning. As women, we transition, what, every five years, probably from the day we're born? We've spent our entire existence learning this stuff.
00:41:11
So why the hell are we doubting ourselves? And why can't we celebrate and let someone else stand in the spotlight? So I'm here because of you, because I believe in you. And if there's only one thing I can do, which is support you, help you share your staff to enable amazing women that are in this room to achieve their dreams, then that's friggin awesome. And as Tina said, this doesn't exist, so just do it.
00:41:50
Thank you. Well, that's the way to get testimonials, ladies. It's all on camera and request.
00:41:57
No, you're right. And I appreciate every single one of you coming tonight and you guys coming on the panel, I don't take it lightly that you've driven and spent your time here, so there's some beautiful, goodie bags for you guys behind there. I don't have a Glamorous assistant here to give them to you, but I'll give them to you in a second. You can be on my Glamorous. Go on then, Em, because I know Tina wants to show off what's inside because I let out this morning what's inside.
00:42:18
But when I was doing the Champagne Lounge roadshow and thinking, I want to get all these people together and everyone from different walks of life and as I said earlier, it was the whole seeing people across the room go, oh, my God, that's so and so. I haven't seen them in so long, was phenomenal. The whole premise for me was connecting women from different walks of life, as I said, from different areas, from different communities that all just want to have a chat and smile and be okay with who each other is and what each other is doing and celebrate it and inspire it and cheer it on. And so here we go, Marie. I'm going to do it.
00:42:51
Are you ready? The Champagne Lounge. Doors are open, babe. They're open. They're always open.
00:42:55
Because I don't want to do a membership like any of these ladies have, with agendas and masterclasses and all of the things. Because I think we all have enough stuff in our lives that we have to tick boxes for and make sure we show up on time and make sure we remember to turn up to a thing. Otherwise we beat ourselves up about not showing up to the master class or the event or the meeting or whatever we said we'd do. So the Champagne Lounge doesn't have any of that. I've made it really simple.
00:43:23
It's a dollar a day because there's 365 days in the year and we should celebrate every single one of them as women, as business owners. And so, in true champagne style, I dug around and found champagne candles that are made from old champagne bottles and Emma's going to pass them down because there's three different ones and I'm very excited, but just don't drop them. And I love them because not only does it mean that these champagne bottles get another life and we can light candles and do fancy things, but it also means that people that don't drink champagne can also enjoy the champagne bottles. Because it wasn't until I did these roadshow and saw people tonight going, oh, alcohol free stuff. I'm like, oh, that's not normally in my wheelhouse.
00:44:13
But you don't have to drink champagne or drink alcohol to be part of it. Seven months. There we go. Congratulations. That's a really good milestone.
00:44:24
I don't have that. The champagne is ready to go, the wine is here, it's probably warm now. We need to top that up. But I would love my vision for the Champagne Lounge is to get 1000 women at least inside the community. My goal for the end of July was to get to 50 women and I need 21 more.
00:44:42
There's like 49 of you in this room. So anyone that signs up for the day gets one of these three little candles as a gift. Because I absolutely love what she's done in terms of making the candles. I love lighting them, gifting them, bringing people into my community. So Tina helped me this morning with doing a short link.
00:45:04
You can go to Jointcl.com right now and join the Champagne Lounge for a dollar a day, babe. So I'd love, love you to do that to support it. Thank you so much for coming along. The bars open till 830. We won't kick you out.
00:45:17
I'll just stop the bar tab being on me and then it can be on you. So thank you. Thank you for coming. I hope to see many of you in the Champagne Lounge. Thank you again, again for coming to the panel.
00:45:27
And I have two more things, so that's my Champagne Lounge things, but where's Amy? Amy beautiful. Amy waving there. I absolutely love Amy. Amy runs confetti rebel.
00:45:40
Yeah. You ben. No. It's you, Ben. She's also going to give us a little promo code to get some fun.
00:45:47
Discount 15%, I think, on her website. She's not wearing one. And I'm not wearing my skirt because it's in Mudgy. Everyone knows Amy's beautiful T shirts and her beautiful skirts that'll be in your inbox tomorrow morning. Kate has her amazing books because, as she allured to, she does book launches.
00:46:05
Janine, she is on tour for her book, so she has her book here. And I've even got Sharpies, so she can sign them for you in whichever color you fancy, because I'm that person and has them in multiple colours. And she also sprung on me this afternoon. She's got a lucky Bill brand. I don't know where I put it.
00:46:20
Yeah, she's lost it, though. So I will make sure I tag and share tina's book, Janine's book. We'll do her a private virtual book launch, maybe in the lounge. It's been out for a while, though, hasn't it, Jeanine? Is there a new one coming out?
00:46:36
Not yet. Not yet. Maybe mine next. So we'll do the road show and then my book next year. There's accountability for all of us that's in there.
00:46:45
So while Kate is doing Is, you can model it for me. It's a beautiful bee, bangles, bangle. So what we'll do is we'll pick someone who came tonight, ReRebecca will pick someone and I'll post it out to them. Beautiful. Yeah.
00:47:00
Even if you're not going to join the Champagne Lounge tonight, can you please take a moment to share on social media? What's your hashtag? I don't have a hashtag, but I now have a social media account at the Champagne Lounge.
00:47:15
Where's the underscore? At the beginning? At the end. All right, share the photos. Thank you, my love.
00:47:27
Thank you. See, I got halfway there in my sales pitch. They have photos. I love the fact that I've been that person, that people wanted to come take photos with us tonight. I'm so excited.
00:47:35
So, thank you. Thank you again for coming. Join Tcl.com is to get yourselves on this little candle thing. Whether you join weekly or yearly, still a dollar a day, it doesn't matter which one you do, that's the candle. Thank you.
00:47:47
Enjoy. All right, one final thing. I think we need to give ReRebecca Saunders a massive high five and celebration. It takes a lot of courage to essentially close down a seven figure business and start again, which is what she's done brave. Courage help.
00:48:05
I mean, what she's created is phenomenal. So if we can all give a massive round of applause.
00:48:16
Thank you. Thank you, you. 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.
