ļ»æTranscription
00:00:02
Hello and welcome to the Champagne Lounge. Welcome, welcome. Thank you so much for coming tonight. When I decided to do the launch of my online community, the Champagne Lounge, I decided I wanted to do it with a show. And Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Melbourne, all seemed like a really great place because I know people there, right?
00:00:25
But I live here, and here is home, and it has been here for ten months now. 7 September is when we moved. So I put Maggie on the map on my thing of I want to do a roadshow there and I want to meet other businesswomen in town because I didn't really know that many people. And so I am absolutely amazed at the turnout tonight. So thank you very much.
00:00:48
And thea where's thea hand up thea okay, she doesn't know this, but she was person number 50, and I was aiming for 50 today. So, like, she bought the ticket on the door. And I'm thank you so I could send a little message going, Hit my target. Hit my target. Which, as business owners, I'm sure we all do that high five.
00:01:09
And if you don't, you really should do the high five on the targets a little bit more. So for those of you that don't know who I am, my name is Rebecca. I have an online community called the Champagne Lounge. And my dream for the last few years, so this is pre COVID, was to start an online community for businessmen to just connect without an agenda. We've all got too much shit to do in our lives as business owners, wives, mothers, all the labels and all the things.
00:01:37
So I wanted to do something that had no agenda, no things to go learn, no master classes to attend but forget to attend. So then you get guilty that you spent the money on the thing that you didn't do. So this is what I wanted to create back in 2020. And COVID Hit and my video production company at the time, instead of me closing the doors and starting something new, went a little bit gangbusters because during COVID everyone wanted video. So I helped a lot of people do a lot of live virtual stuff.
00:02:09
A lot of corporate companies do conferences to hundreds of people around the world. And I actually filmed in more countries during lockdowns in COVID than I've ever filmed in my life. Using remote people in remote places. My favorite being the Scottish government opened their office for my two film crew and two members of their staff to do a video. Mind blowing.
00:02:31
Trying to get that now through all the red tape of people and sign offs. Have fun with that. So mind blown that I got to do such an incredible year. Two years during COVID took my business from, as I said, wanting to close the doors, to turning over seven figures in COVID times, which I still look at it and how, but Burnout was one of the biggest things that came out of that and I felt really bloody lonely. And so when I moved to Mudgie, I decided I'd start the Champagne Lounge.
00:03:01
And my husband had a bit of a connection. We had taken on a second mortgage on a big heritage house with a renovation required. And I said to him once everything had been signed, going to do something new. He's like, what? Do something new?
00:03:16
He goes, but we've just got a second mortgage. I'm like, it'll be fine, it'll be fine, be totally fine. Which it is fine, because as entrepreneurs and business owners in the room, we know that even if we don't think it's fine, it's going to be fine. Can see some of you going, yeah, ducks on water. So the women I have on tonight's panel are the three women who may or may not know this, were the three people I first met when I moved to town.
00:03:41
Ali, when I moved to town, I moved in September and I decided I was going to host Christmas in my house and I didn't have any furniture and any of the things I drive past your shop on the drive to my house, I was like, drive from bunnings past, perfectly sorted. And I'm like, that's got furniture in there, I'm going to go have a look. So you and your team were absolutely tremendous in me having actual stuff and seats for my whole family to sit on at Christmas time when I had nothing in the house but know. So that's how I met Ali. And we've been connected ever since.
00:04:14
Emma was just a ray of sunshine when I walked into her store and I still have to stop myself saying, go to Emma's shop because it's not called Emma's shop, it's called Good Day Life Delco. But when I walked around town and some of you I know have stores, so if I haven't done this in your store, I'm really sorry. But I did start to go around town and go, hi, is this your shop? Oh, cool. Awesome.
00:04:38
Tell me about it. And if people wanted to tell me about it, they'd tell me about it. And I'm like, oh, they're now my friend. That's it. Emma's going to be testament that I literally bring people to her shop as guests.
00:04:48
Come and stay with me. And I'm like, come here, come see my friend in her shop. This is all her fun things. Because as business owners, that's what we do, right? We go and do that.
00:04:56
Amanda is hiding somewhere. I haven't got eyes on her. My husband actually met Amanda and Anton first because when I moved to Mudgie and I got the house on the 7 September, I left my husband with a new job and a new house. A new puppy threw her, like, in the mix and I went on a six week work trip around the world and I left them there and I just left Alex to do what Alex was going to do, and that was pubs. Pubs and bars.
00:05:22
So Alex took our dog everywhere and he frequented small batch brewery on a regular basis. He also frequented here. Right, so this is why we come with here. And Johnny and the team have very kindly opened up tonight just for us. And I share all these stories because it's all about community, it's all about the people that, you know, the people that will say, yes, the smiles on the way down the street.
00:05:44
I've had a few conversations with people in the room today who go, it's actually quite nice for people to smile at me as I walk in the room. Or It's actually quite nice for someone to know who I am. Because running businesses can be really fucking lonely. And if we don't have that, it can be really quite hard. So I could talk about my business and my life for a long time, I do it for a living.
00:06:06
But I want to welcome the panelists to the stage because tonight isn't about me, it's about community, connection, the power of that, the power of business and celebration and doing it together. So can I have a round of applause for our beautiful panelists to come up? Come on up. Tonight's event actually couldn't have happened without these ladies in the room, their connections in the community and the connections of our beautiful sponsors and familiar faces that are mentioned towards the end of the conversation. But I do want to just start by asking each of you just to do a little bit of a brief intro.
00:06:38
Who you are, where you started and why you have your business today. And then I'll deep dive into a little bit more, but who you are and what you oh, that's not an easy question to answer. Okay. Who am I? Where I started?
00:06:51
So actually, I'm a clinical pharmacist. They will go, oh, really? Is she? Now, look at Pearl across from me and she's like a chemistry doctor in philosophy or all. Don't we might start somewhere, but we don't finish in that space.
00:07:08
So I started in the space of clinical pharmacy and I worked a long time in people's houses. And when somebody invites you into their private space, which is their home, which I did professionally, it's quite intimate, and then you realize the difference that you can make in people's lives with getting them organized and creating a really beautiful space. So that's where my passion started. I always love the way interiors make you feel and I also love the way that clinically, it has an impact on you. So that's where I started.
00:07:50
Today I run a business perfectly sorted with a team of eight and we offer property, staging and styling all over regional New South Wales. And on Thursday, I open a new business called Cloth and feather, which you might have seen a little bit of social. So it's taking the drapery, the upholstery, the soft touchy, beautiful stuff and moving it into town. So as of Thursday morning, I'm running two businesses, so don't even speak to me after that. Welcome to the club.
00:08:26
It's going to be fun. There's wine, you need lots of wine and lots of caffeine. It'd be fine. So I've just done dry July. It's the 1 August and I think this is my third wine or champagne or whatever, so I think I'll be getting a lift home.
00:08:46
Love that. I love that. Amanda, what's your background and what do you do? Okay, so my name is Amanda a little bit closer. I moved to Mudgie two years ago from Sydney, but grew up in the UK and my background is in media and advertising.
00:09:04
So big corporates, big global corporate businesses. And now I own a very small business here in Mudgie and I've never felt more content and happy and excited about what I'm doing.
00:09:26
More wine. I didn't do dry July because we have a brewery. I have to continually test the beers. How did we start? I guess it was basically we were unfulfilled after 20 years in our corporate job.
00:09:47
So Anton my husband and my partner in crime, and he's the brewer, we both used to have a passion for what we did and we really lost that along the way somewhere. And Anton would come up with a new business idea every day. And one day we were having coffee out on the veranda and I said, Anton, just pick one and I'll help you do it. So we both had a love of beer, food, whiskey and wine, as well as beer. So really we started off with no credentials other than a love of beer.
00:10:28
So it's been a long process. Small batch has existed as a brand since 2019 sorry, 2016. And we only opened our brewery this year in January, so it's been that many years in the making, but a lot of hard work. We started off phase one with how do we establish our beer credentials. So we started off ecommerce business, which was like HelloFresh, but for people who wanted to make their own craft beer at home, which became hugely successful.
00:11:05
Had lots of followers and engagement, but the plan was always to how do we build a dream of having a brewery one day, but like a winery? And that was our dream. I'd been coming to Mudgie for twelve years. I'd been in Australia once a year, so we'd always had a love for Mudgie. So we've started to grow our own hops.
00:11:31
Everything we do is in small batch. Lifestyle is really important to us. We didn't want to have a business that was open in the evening. We've now got a three year old, so that's even more important.
00:11:46
We're offering something different. We love coming here for a beer but equally, it's nice to be able to offer something unique in the mudgie community, which is a beer with a beautiful view that embraces the mudgie landscape. And it's small and it's intimate and it keeps that word community teal. Amazing. It's a beautiful spot.
00:12:12
We were almost going to be neighbors, but I didn't go for the property across the road. We moved to town. Emma, tell us about you and your so. I'm emma. I have.
00:12:22
Good day. Lifestyle Co. On Perry Street. Also known as Emma Shop.
00:12:29
So, my background, I was a fashion designer in Sydney and overseas, studied that, worked in the industry, worked my way up into being a designer and was at Camilla, my last kind of joint in the actual industry. And then me and my husband came out here for a weekend, ended up putting a offer on a property and moved because we just decided we were over Sydney, we were done, so we jumped. So when we first moved out here, I was working at a winery because I really needed a break from the fashion industry. I was burnt out. I'd been working at a fast fashion company before Camilla and I was just done and I said, not working in the industry anymore.
00:13:07
I'm going to go back into hospitality, I'm just going to talk to people all day. And then I had a baby and like most people went, oh, what do I want to do now? And the property on Perry Street came up for lease and I just got the keys and ran, really. So now we have fashion homewares and lifestyle boutique on Perry Street and I just keep adding to it every day and love it. Yeah, I love that.
00:13:33
So, ladies, there's three very fabulous businesses that you started. Well, you've now got two, but fabulous business that you start from scratch, right, that you go, all of you went, haven't done this before, let's just give it a crack. Particularly that storefront stores. When you're putting a lot of cash into things that you might not have the cash flow for yet, how did you navigate that in terms of meeting other people and keeping that momentum going through the fit outs, through the starting, particularly you, Amanda, with that five years of, okay, the brand now exists, but we haven't got a physical thing right. How do you keep the momentum going and who did you call upon to have those wines as bad times and good times?
00:14:17
Really? We had to take a massive, massive risk. So, yes, we were fortunate enough that I had a property in London and Anton had property in Balmain in Sydney. But we took the risk to not throw that away but take the money from that and put it all into something and not know whether it'd be successful or whether we'd be any good at it, to be honest. We can confirm that you are good at it.
00:14:52
The biggest risk. There was six months last year where we really struggled, really struggled, and there were tears and we were pretty overwhelmed with it. We knew we could do it, but could we sustain this financially?
00:15:13
But we just kept persevering. And like you said earlier, we know everything's all right in the end and everything is okay in the end. And so we haven't started making an income personally ourselves, but we've just this financial year, even though we've been open six months and with the ecommerce business, we've made a little tiny bit of profit within. Yay, that deserves a round of applause. That's amazing.
00:15:44
It's so different to when you're in a regular job, you know what your monthly income is, you know what your outgoings are, and it's much easier to manage. So cash flow for us is the biggest challenge ahead for us. There's so many things we need to do and we can't afford it all right now, but we're definitely on the right track. Amazing. And you work with your husband, which I'm sure has its challenges.
00:16:16
I couldn't work with mine and he'd say the same thing back. Who do you call upon when it's not each other in a support factor? How did you build that network in a new town? Do you know what? Having a brewery really helps mother.
00:16:35
So we moved here two years ago. We both have no family here, so having connections here has been so helpful. But we're also quite independent, so allowing yourself to go out there and make connections and creating the time to talk to each other is really, really important. Our local community, our neighbours, bar, one neighbour, have all been absolutely amazing and we couldn't ask for anything more. So we didn't really know our neighbors in Sydney very well, apart from the high.
00:17:18
And then the minute we moved in, people driving up the driveway brought you some brownies and it's so lovely that they're actually genuine connections rather than just a high. And I think we've got so much to learn moving from a we were in a terraced house in the inner city of Sydney and we're now on 40 acres with no fucking idea, to be honest.
00:17:57
So we had to asking those people who have connected with you and being able to reach out and ask for help is really important. And there's so many amazing people here with so many great talents that you don't know of until you talk to them.
00:18:18
And most people are genuinely positive, supportive and willing to share that knowledge with you. But we do need to make the time to connect with each other and that's difficult, especially if you have kids, grandkids, family, two businesses, throwing the dog on the cat, it's not got oodles, there's no oodles. Someone's got puppy grudles around. Yeah, I know. We might as well add to the mix, right?
00:19:02
One business is never enough. Let's throw in some puppies as well, I love that so much. It is all around community and people and vibe and you've got people coming out to you outside of town, which is phenomenal. And I've seen the struggles in getting the signage up right? So people know where you are.
00:19:22
So the word of mouth, we won't go there now matter, it's fine, but the word of mouth ripples and people come and we do a really good thing. So I love that you're finally making a profit in the business. That's a huge achievement. Huge. So if it's any consolation, in my first year of trading I made $94.
00:19:41
Yes. But you know what? You've got to start somewhere. So when I shared with people that I've closed the video business down and my husband's going, what the fuck, why are we slowing that down to start something new? Particularly when I told him it was going to be a dollar a day for people to be part of, he's like, this doesn't compute, babe, this does not compute.
00:20:04
I'm like, it'll be fine, it'll be fine. When I got my 1st $7 of recurring revenue, I was like, yes. So excited. So I've never had recurring revenue in my business before and I've been going for like eleven years. So that $7 meant the world to me.
00:20:20
Emma Storefront, you'd never run a shop before. How did you go with that?
00:20:28
Fail and try again. I was lucky enough that I had worked in hospitality for quite a few years while I was paying my way through fashion school. So I was pretty well versed in customer service and I knew I could design, so I just assumed I could run a shop.
00:20:48
I just had a really, really clear vision on what I wanted the shop to look like. And I know my personality type pretty well and I know I get a lot of my energy from other people. So I was in a job that I loved, but it wasn't direct customer service, it was more an event planning role and I knew that that's where I wanted to be. I wanted to talking to the customer every day, figuring out what they wanted in the shop as well. I had a clear idea of what I wanted but I needed to know if that was actually going to fit in a small town as well.
00:21:22
Like I wanted big and bold and bright and I needed to talk to them to figure out if they were going to support me in that journey, which they did, which was amazing. And you put a lot of investment in the stock and buying things. What was that? Because I know a few people in here have stores or are thinking about starting stores and business journey, starting a shop with inventory, that to me is like all the things. How did you navigate that from a starting point?
00:21:51
Starting point was bootstrap and a loan. Essentially we took out a big loan, a business loan and bootstrapped. The rest, we were lucky in the sense of we had a fair bit of savings in the bank because we had a wedding canceled three times and ended up just getting married in our backyard. So I essentially went, you know that cash that's sitting there? I'm a take that and put it towards clothes and yeah, a lot of all the Renault, actually, we got one builder to do one repair on the floor.
00:22:25
The rest was just me and my husband with a four month old rolling around the shop. So it was just kind of grit and bear it and hope that it worked with a lot of risk again, like jumping into that risk factor and going, look, if it doesn't work, we'll figure it out, but if someone else does it, I won't be able to forgive myself, so I might as well take the risk. Yeah, I love that attitude. I live by the hell. Yeah, fuck no environment.
00:22:55
If it feels right, I'm jumping in. Ali, you've opened Dubbo recently with your store as well. So not only have you had perfect sorted in mudgie, you've opened that in Dubbo in the last, what, two months? Last month? And then you're opening a third storefront.
00:23:10
Third storefront, new brand. Tell us more. How are you navigating that? And what's the transition going to be for you? Because you've been around in business for a while, perfectly sort of been on the outside of town, not centered walking distance.
00:23:24
What has that been for you, growing that?
00:23:28
Well, it's not always easy because there's nobody else to bounce your ideas from. I mean, I've spoken to this with a few friends and it's actually not always that easy to find somebody to go to say, well, what do you think? How am I going to manage that? How do I navigate that? Is that the right thing to do?
00:23:51
You've got to go with the gut feel, but at the end of the day, you just have to back yourself and go for it. I think that's my takeaway, is back yourself and go for it. I was just looking around the room here, sorry for going off script.
00:24:10
The people that I know in the room, all of them are running their own little businesses and they're all in probably the same sort of space where you have nobody else to bounce ideas from, and I think that's probably one of the hardest things. And you go, oh, this is a great idea. I'm going to open a second shop and a new business, and this is going to be the colors and the brand and that logo, and it's going to be great. But there's nobody to say, actually, what else are you going to think about? What's the other thing?
00:24:41
What's the downside? What's the upside? Are you okay? How many days a week are you going to work? There's only seven days in the week are you going to work?
00:24:49
Twelve. So, for me, it's a bit of a stepping stone for some other things that will happen down the track. Because I'm 55 and most of you look like you're 35, right? We're 55. We're in the same space, so we don't have as much we don't have as much energy and time as the people that are 20 years behind us.
00:25:17
I wish I was in the same space 20 years ago, but you actually have to plan it. But you also have to not only talk to your friends, but you have to talk to your colleagues. But often that's not quite so easy. And I find that my colleagues aren't necessarily here in my 2850 postcode. They might be friends of mine in Sydney or Melbourne or wherever, but most of them are still not running their own little businesses.
00:25:45
So it's really hard to get feedback, honest opinion, support someone that says, Jesus, that's a good idea, or that's a really bad idea, and the only other person you bounce it off is your kids, your husband, or people that don't really know. So I decide I'm going to launch this fancy new brand and shop. And I so excited. I got this new logo and colors, and this I show my husband. He goes, oh, that's shit.
00:26:16
I go, well, you are not my target market, so don't you worry about it. You just sell your bulls and heifers and I will just continue to do what I'm doing. But you know what? So the people closest to you can sometimes be the worst. I see you all nodding, right?
00:26:36
We're going, yes, it's the same, actually, we need somebody as your I know, your Tagline, your BFF in business, because sometimes you just need somebody that goes, actually, that's okay. That's good. Just go with your gut feel. It'll be all right. I don't know if I answered your question.
00:26:55
No, you're so right. Like, it's the close people I find talking to my dog helps because he doesn't answer me back with negative comments. He's always got the smiles. I have three sausage dogs. That's terrible.
00:27:06
Like, they all talk at me. There you go. Yeah.
00:27:13
The Champagne Lounge isn't just a podcast. It's an instant digital community for ambitious businessmen 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. So we've all started from scratch. I know most people in this room of starting businesses from scratch have been through the same ebbs and flows of everything's great.
00:27:47
Oh, it's really shit. And there's no one to talk to, and, oh, everything's great, and, oh, social media is, oh, I lost a follower. That's crap. All those little things. I'm a big believer of celebration.
00:27:59
There's a reason it's called the Champagne Lounge. If you come to my home, you will see bottles of champagne in my fridge with postit notes on them, with goals on those postit notes on the boxes. And the whole bottom of the fridge is boxes of champagne. And every time I nail the goal, the champagne's cold in my fridge. And I'm, like, can drink that.
00:28:20
It doesn't matter what time of day it is, because champagne can be a breakfast drink, a lunch drink, or an evening drink. Does not matter. I can do that. Yes, I can. It depends on who's there to share it with me, because if it's been a goal that my husband's been a bit like, okay, well, there's nobody's enthusiasm you don't get, so champagne.
00:28:40
No, but if he's all on board with that, I'll share. But that's one of my big things, is the postit notes and the champagne and the goal setting and constantly keeping at the front. And those goals can be really big goals, and they can be really little goals. Hitting that 50 people today, there'll be a little celebration when I get home to be like, I did it. I did it.
00:29:02
And so that's like, the goals I've got. I've got goals on my phone. How do you go about setting business goals, but most importantly, celebrating them? And what was the last goal that you celebrated?
00:29:17
Go on. Go on, Emma. How do you celebrate the goals and the winnings? So, setting wise, when we opened the business, I did a big butcher's sheet of paper out the back, and I wrote down a bunch of goals with checkboxes next to them because it's just so satisfying to tick one off. And celebrating wise, I'm just pretty like whoever walks in the shop next.
00:29:38
I'm like, hey, did you know this happened? Or if no one's in their instagram, I'm like, guys, guess what? Because I have no filter. And then definitely just, like, going home. Yeah.
00:29:51
Opening a bottle of wine and just having a moment to really be like, it might be tiny, but, God, that was awesome. Like, I got to do my little check on my box and feel satisfied. It's a huge thing to sit in the moment and go, I did that. Because otherwise you can jump to the next shiny thing and the next shiny thing and the next shiny thing and go, how'd I get here? While you're laughing, do you just jump to the next shiny thing a little bit?
00:30:27
I'm a shiny thing. No, I actually am not. It might look like that on the outside, but on the inside, there's a lot of planning and strategy and things that go on for me if I hit the goal. I'm planning a holiday. I love a walking holiday.
00:30:46
It doesn't matter where it is. With a few girlfriends. Put the backpack on. It's only ever a day pack because I do like the lushy walks where. You walk from one place to another and there's a three course dinner waiting.
00:30:57
I'm not going to carry thank you. I'm not going to carry a week's worth of supplies and dried food on my back. No, thank you. I walked with some girlfriends in Bhutan to celebrate my 50th birthday and we carried a bottle of gin each. I've done that, but I've learned you don't carry it in the glass.
00:31:17
You should put it into the plastic. No, we carried it in the glass and the sherpas put that tonic water on the back of those donkeys and there were like 10,000 cans of tonic. There was not a can of tonic left in Bhutan. They were going there are only five of them. But anyway, so coming back to that, no small goals, small celebrations.
00:31:39
And for me, the celebrations are probably more with friends and family than mind you, I do like our champagne, especially Sam's vinifera. Thank you. Or Esteen's. They're my two of choice. Good choice.
00:31:59
Amanda, how many Anton do you planning and celebrate? We celebrate every wing, whether it's small, medium or large. I love that. How do you celebrate? Generally?
00:32:12
Over an alcoholic drink and a nice meal. So we like to cook for each other. We like to open a nice bottle of wine. When Anton's not I've got to go to the brewery to turn the lights off because I've forgotten. So he goes into his man cave and has a beer on his own.
00:32:35
No, but we do have, like you said, there's so much planning, there's so many lists, there's so much prioritizing, always, every day. But you need to stay focused, you need to maintain your vision. So we do celebrate the small Windsor because we're so early in the we're not a startup of small batch of what it was, but we are of the brewery. So we've still got so much to do. The fact that we don't do takeaways yet, that we don't have distribution fully yet, so we celebrate those wins.
00:33:22
The fact that we collaborated with you guys and we have two beers, that was a celebration. And so we take no, seriously, we take, I would say more than twice a week, we celebrate. I love that. I love that. Well, you didn't do Dry July, did you?
00:33:45
Absolutely not. The diet always starts Monday, like always. Every time. Repeat. Repeat.
00:33:53
Thank you, ladies, for jumping in and sharing the stories. I did promise these lovely ladies that would go for 20 minutes and we've gone a little bit over because the conversation was so good. But I think my biggest takeaways, and I'm sure you can all relate, is got to keep going and keep the grit up, got to have someone to talk to or cry on the shoulder of. And the celebration thing is really important. So one of the things that I like to get people to do when they come to dinner at my home.
00:34:23
Because on a side note, I do host dinners in my house for business owners. When I told my husband, I'm lonely, I'm going to open the house for people and they can come to dinner, I give them a little bottle of bubbles and a postit note and I say, take it home, write a goal on it and make sure you look at that and reward yourself and celebrate it. So if you're not rewarding your goals, whether it's champagne or not, I'm not going to push the alcohol onto people. Make sure it's a big because it's a big thing. We work so hard and it's a hard thing.
00:34:52
We'd all be shit at regular jobs, let's be honest, but it's a hard thing doing what we're doing. So thank you so much for coming on the panel. Thank you all for being here and I have a long list of phenomenal things I want to say before I let us all raid the bar for some more drinks because we're all running dry. Sorry, Johnny and Scarlett, we're going to all run at you in a minute. Listen, I was absolutely blown away to receive a phone call from the beautiful Emma a few weeks ago saying, one of my clients has seen your event.
00:35:26
We'd like to be involved. How do we get involved? I'm like, oh, okay, I don't know, what does that look like? Because these events for me were a thing that I went, this is going to be really great. But the idea of finding sponsors or finding donations or doing this, that's not my wheelhouse.
00:35:42
I can ask for a lot of things, but I just didn't have the bandwidth to even entertain any form of sponsorship for my events. But some of you ladies love doing that and the support and Emma helped me, didn't help me. She did talk to a lot of people in town and drum up a lot of support for tonight and that's why you're all here. And there is a list of probably nine shops here, beautiful businesses, of people in this room who have kindly donated, goodies for you in gift bags. So don't tell the other road show events, but this might be the only one with gift bags.
00:36:18
It might be the best one. So I want to say I don't know what the vouchers are and I'm not going to spill it off, but I just want to say a huge thank you to Christy's Boutique, florence May Intimates, Willow Collective, Real, public relations, good Culture Club, the facial specialist, the Bliss Group, beauty, reclaimed vinifer, rewinds and gorgeous treats. Because there is some good stuff in those bags. And I am blown away by the generosity of the women in this room, the support factor, and we can all go and support their businesses by taking one of those and having a look at all the goodies. I'd also like to just point out that our beautiful panelists have also offered varying discounts at their store locations, including Ali's new store that she's opening up.
00:37:08
So it's for cloth and feather. Not necessarily perfectly sorted, but she wants you to go see her new store and instagram the shit out of it. Okay. No, I'm going to say there is champagne from four till six on Friday. Right?
00:37:22
So we're just moving this party down. If there's not a bait, that is the one. Right? So those beautiful codes will be in your inboxes tomorrow, so watch out for those. It wouldn't be the Champagne Lounge without me telling you that.
00:37:36
I would love for you to come and be a part of the Champagne Lounge. The Champagne Lounge, for me, is that business BFF you have on Speeddial. It's a virtual networking platform for female business owners without agenda, without master classes, without all the things that add to the burdens of our lives. It is a dollar a day to be a part of it. And so, as a part of a little exciting thing, I had candles made with champagne bottles, recycled champagne bottles into candles.
00:38:03
So anyone that would love to come and be a part of the Champagne Lounge, the virtual community locally as part of that, and also globally, nationally, anyone that signs up tonight gets the take home. A champagne candle. So easy to do. There's a QR code on the banner over there. Or you can just go to Jointcl.com, show me or sign up and then we'll help you take a candle home.
00:38:28
It's as simple as that. We will be stood here smiling sweetly at you as you collect your goodie bags. Final little things. Letitia you did an amazing job on the food, babe. You've worked so hard.
00:38:42
So thank you. Thank you. For those of you that didn't see the signage outside, she's opening a second food venue in here. So alongside Smoke and Bros, I wrote it down here. We're going to get Lewis Street kitchen.
00:38:54
So I'm super excited. That's a next week opening, isn't it? I'm holding you accountable now. Next week opening, hopefully, which should be amazing, there is a beautiful lucky door prize like this. Keeps on giving.
00:39:08
It's insane. The beautiful Kate Freestone has gifted us a 60 minutes photography session with 100 images as the take home, valued at $380, which is beautiful and incredible. And for business owners that need headshots and product shots and all the things, everyone's name goes in the draw. I wasn't drawing it today because I was going to get that 50th person and it worked. So on my Instagram tomorrow at the Rebecca Saunders, I'll be doing a spinny wheel.
00:39:39
So make sure you jump over and follow that because I'll tag you if you won. And so that will come up there. And then my final thank you is to Johnny and the team here at Three Tales. He absolutely phenomenal for opening tonight's venue. Just for us.
00:39:56
Johnny did you want to say a few words to all the ladies in the room? I know you said you wanted to.
00:40:03
This is sort of a change. The only guy in a room. Normally it's the opposite. It's all guys. Yeah.
00:40:07
Well, I love that. When I had the conversation with you and Mick about having the event here, it's one of my regular haunts because good beer, good food, good atmosphere, the dog can come. I love it. But you were saying that beer and smoked meats is kind of a blokey thing. But you've got cocktails now.
00:40:24
We are changing that. Changing it. You're inviting us all in and we're all here. We are. We have got a cocktail menu now.
00:40:29
We have always had one, but it's more expanded now. We are expanding, obviously. We got the second kitchen opening next week, apparently, or this week, actually, wasn't it? She's going to throw something at me.
00:40:45
Okay. They're the 9th. There we go. Yeah, I'll pop that in the emails to us all. But I mean, the whole purpose of opening this place was obviously to create a community space.
00:40:52
And I've been dreaming this for 15 years. So it finally came to fruition. I just happened to met Mick. I've had this idea for a long, long time. I've been Mudgy 20 years.
00:41:03
Mudgie manly Italy. A bit of a long story, but all three in one hit, and this has been a long term goal. And just introduced to Mick one night, and we decided he joined up with my idea. And I found that I love these doors, and it's to drive past these doors all the time and think that's an awesome venue. And when it became free, I was like, right, I want that venue.
00:41:25
Let's do it. So the whole idea here was to be an independent venue as well. So everything here is independent. There's nothing that is owned by a multinational, hence why you don't see a lot of the usual alcohol you normally see elsewhere, which costs a lot more to do. It's harder to source.
00:41:39
But it's important to me because I own another brewery as well, and that's independent. And my whole thing is about supporting independent local businesses, which you guys all are. It was really nice to hear the stories, too, because it's funny, there was a common thread here that everyone fell in love with. Mudgie. I fell in love with Mudgie 20 years ago when my wife was working at the Abattra as the Livestock Australia's OHNs coordinator.
00:42:03
So she came out here one weekend, faming, said, we're going to Mudgie this Saturday. Loved it. Okay, I'm going to drive there this Saturday. Sunday. We bought a property up the end of the street here 20 years ago and fell in love with it.
00:42:16
And then commute back and forth. Manly Sydney console. Manly Mudgie. And then yeah. So it's been a bit of a dream to have a business in town rather than having to work in manly all the time, which I love it here, so hence why I'm here, mainly.
00:42:29
But no, I'm really pleased to have you guys here. It's been phenomenal hosting this sort of event. We're going to be hosting a men's event shortly like this as well, because we've all got issues, we need to sort through those. I think we've got a business mudgie event and a business mud. We've got lots of events planned.
00:42:47
There's a lot of events. Can I do an advertisement? Of course, babe, go for it. You've got a microphone I can't turn off? If you're not a member of Business Mudgy and we've got a few committee members in the room, join it up.
00:42:58
Like, you get the best of both worlds today and I'm going to sign up tomorrow. Oh, sign up, yeah. But do the Champagne Lounge first. Do both. Right.
00:43:08
Do yourself a favor and do both. Mutually exclusive. It's so important to be part of multiple communities. Absolutely. When I did the Sydney Roadshow, we talked a lot about the different networks in the room and I'm sure the same conversations and things happened in this room.
00:43:24
But being in new to Sydney, ten years, growing my business, it was beautiful to watch the changes of communities and what people get in different places for different things, for different reasons. So I don't disagree mutually. We might even pop that in the newsletter tomorrow, too. There'll be lots of links. Star that one.
00:43:42
And the AGM is tomorrow night. If you don't like to come, I'm not quite sure it'll be quite so frivolous. And so, again, I just want to thank all of you. Johnny, thank you so much for opening the doors and working on a night that you would normally be at home, probably with your feet up. So appreciate you opening the doors for us tonight.
00:44:04
Thank you so much, ladies. The bars open for another half an hour, really. Let's get more wine. So thank you so much. I look forward to connecting with more of you and thank you for coming.
00:44:16
Lovely. 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.
