Magdaleen Kelly (00:00.926)
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Champagne Lounge podcast. Today I'm joined by one of our very first members of the Champagne Lounge to jump in and say yes when we launched back in 2023. Welcome to the show, Magdalene Kelly.
Magdaleen (00:17.217)
Hello Bec, thanks for having me. It's so exciting to see how this community has grown. It just blows my mind. You're an amazing connector, that's for sure.
Magdaleen Kelly (00:26.334)
Thank you, my love. Yeah, it blows my mind that we've hit the hundred member mark in just over a year. It's been pretty incredible to collect members from all over the country and connect them and support them in that way. But today's not about me. Today's about you on today's episode. And now you've been in business for over 25 years. That's a long time to be in business. Has it been the same business that whole time or have you had different iterations of business along the way?
Magdaleen (00:49.633)
Yes!
Magdaleen (00:58.785)
Different iterations of the world started off with my ex -husband. We were both super yacht crew in our previous lives and worked on the boats for many moons and then got set up a business for the year 2000 Olympics for all the super yachts that were coming into the area and we had and so we were all into logistics. I'm really into food and so my whole journey was
for that particular business is to work with the chefs and import amazing produce and restock the boats when they come in empty because our quarantine is so strict and make sure that they know what not to bring in so that when they finally hit Australian waters that they don't get confiscated all their very expensive produce that they carry on board and so on. So it was a very exciting.
because my husband could do what ex -husband could do what he liked and I could do what I loved and Learned to do the books in it and and set up systems and procedures Kind of gigged out and all that stuff loved it. But back then it was all very manual and on my OB And then unfortunately, you know, the marriage is kind of broke down and I knew I had to do something else and I had two little kids so
I went to do bookkeeping for an accountant and then just knowing that it was flexibility and all of that sort of stuff. And then I ran a few accounting practices for a few years and then sort of thought, no, I'm ready. I'm now ready and found my mojo and found my confidence and found my energy again after a long journey and started aquavantage and never looked back, zero automation, streamlining, it's my thing.
Magdaleen Kelly (02:48.83)
process and automation, you totally geek out on it. And I can see the look. Anyone watching the video replay of this will see how Max's face lit up when she's like automation. I love that. So going from going from those superguts, was it as glamorous as it sounds? Or, you know, when we talk about businesses and doing us, was it as glamorous as it as it sounds like I got in my head?
Magdaleen (02:55.489)
Magdaleen (03:07.713)
Yes.
Bye.
Magdaleen (03:14.785)
Yes, yes, it was fantastic. It was amazing. It was very, and I think this is also where my organization had to come in and where I realized that when you've got suppliers or people that you rely on in your business, whether that is people to edit things for you or to produce things for you or publish things for you, whatever it might be, in my case it was logistics. So in that particular example was logistics. So you really need to make sure that the people that's in your camp
and your core people trust you and can work with you and respect you because if you've got that mutual respect, you know, we had to get things done like ASAP and we spent a lot of money, a lot of things when flowed all over the South Pacific, you know, to Palau and different countries and do parties and things like it was glamorous by all means, but there was also a massive risk involved with
you know, produce that can with the pesticides and things that they've got to put on it by the time it gets to Palau its destination might already have been rotten and you've spent all this money by the time it gets there. So my suppliers were my were very close to my heart and I thought still till today like they are like brothers to me and we worked very close Vicks from Vicks Meat like I don't know if you know he still supplies all the top restaurants with meat in Australia. So, you know, I met him when he started out.
Magdaleen Kelly (04:32.926)
amazing, I know him. Yeah.
Magdaleen (04:40.225)
like sleeping on the couch with three staff members. He was with his brother, his sister, and his brother's sister and cousin many years ago. So yeah, no, like so, well, he got lucky, you know, like, okay, it's not about talking about him, but meat is a produce that you can freeze. And so he quickly realized that with fish you can't. So.
Magdaleen Kelly (04:48.67)
Amazing. Don't we just love those overnight success stories?
Magdaleen (05:07.393)
My two guys, my fish guy and my meat guy, the fish guy wasn't as successful, but the meat guy got into the Chinese market and he just did so well because he could freeze the commodity and build big houses and blah blah blah. It was very exciting.
Magdaleen Kelly (05:20.35)
Yeah, yeah, there's always well, there's opportunities in different places, right, which I think is a phenomenal thing. And if you take the opportunities and, you know, sleep on that couch a little bit or eat that tin of beans and make it work and put those hours in. We've been talking about a lot in the recent episodes about the grind you have to put in to make a business a reality. And not everyone understands the amount of work that goes into building one from scratch.
Magdaleen (05:47.457)
Well, I can tell you, like, I mean, and this is something I talk to Vic all the time, to Anthony all the time. It's like, just remembering, like I used to get there at 5 a with my chefs, my international chefs, and he literally have not gone home. He literally slept on the couch. Like, he probably would have finished work at 2 a and had a quick two hours and 5 a client facing again. So yeah, it's hard work. But you don't get success unless, and I tell you one secret that he's taught me in my life.
And this is something I really try and instill in everything I do for my clients is that no matter what is always available to talk to. So what he had done is he surrounded himself with all the right people. So he had his marketing guy, he had his sales guy, he had his face -to -face guy, like five or six people that was his entourage. But it meant that every time I needed to speak to Anthony, he was available for me to talk to.
And it's such a valuable lesson in maybe making sure that we enable all those things in the background that has to happen for other people to do so we can still deliver that service to our clients.
Magdaleen Kelly (06:56.286)
Yeah, that's a big lesson to learn, isn't it? And team is one of the things that people really struggle to bring on. But when you find the right team members, they can alleviate so much pressure and open up so many more doors of opportunity.
Magdaleen (07:10.529)
100 % and then you can focus on what you need to do and your energy on where it needs to be.
Magdaleen Kelly (07:18.11)
Yeah. So, so you went from co -running that business with your ex -husband, then you said you went into running and more bookkeeping and doing things for other people. So were you kind of burnt out and done with running the business at full steam? Were you trying to find your feet a bit more solo? Was it the fact you had small kids? Like most, most entrepreneurs aren't very employable people, Mags. We're not very good at being under other people's rules and regulations.
Magdaleen (07:43.393)
No, so no, that's exactly right. So that was so it was really tricky. It was really hard for me, but it was a essential part of my journey. At that point in time, I was just surviving. I'm sure a lot of women watching or listening to your podcast will resonate with that when you go through a divorce and you've got little kids.
and you still want to work and you want to engage, you want to be part of communities and whatever and not lose your skills or retrain or whatever you have to do. Things had to change and I just had to put my head down and do stuff that I don't necessarily wanted to do just to feed my kids and being able to put a house roof over their head. So, but from that came a lot of gold because I had to be patient. I wasn't emotionally ready.
to be an entrepreneur again or to start a new business again. My energy was drained with stuff that I didn't have control over. So by the time I sort of stepped out and then started running accounting firms for this guy on the Northern Beaches, Michael Harding, and he was 100 % zero at the time when he introduced me to zero. So that was a good 12 years ago. I sort of found confidence and I was ready to...
to client face. I was just doing that background bookkeeping grind, boring work, because I wasn't ready to see people. I didn't have energy for people. And then once I've sort of slowly built up my confidence and, and found my mojo and found my beautiful new husband, Anthony, you know, and lived on the beach, started surfing, you know, my life was sort of fulfilled and like, it changed. And then my energy got back, my creativity came back, my energy came back. And I took the leap.
and was ready. But there was that time where I had to just sit with what I had because of circumstances. You know, you just can't always control that.
Magdaleen Kelly (09:32.446)
Yeah.
Magdaleen Kelly (09:38.942)
You can't always control your circumstances, but I also think there, there is a lot of power in leaning into the times that you don't, you energetically, physically, emotionally, all of the above, can't keep going at the same speed at the same rate. You need that time to rest and recover and work out what the next phase is. I think a lot of people tend to beat themselves up when they're in that space and try and go again and again and again. And ultimately, you know, that's not a good place to be in or a good place to start a business. So
giving yourself permission and grace to be able to sit in that, whatever that looks like for you, helps rebuild those foundations for a stronger thing coming forward.
Magdaleen (10:20.705)
And I'm grateful for those times because in that period I could stop and I could learn. I learned other things and I didn't have to consistently find new clients and you know being on the marketing and the social radar and which is also very taxing. So I was grateful for that time.
Magdaleen Kelly (10:45.542)
And so Acro, Acro, Acro, advantage, isn't it? Is that right? I got that right. I have. Yeah. I grew advantage. Where did the name come from? And what, what does Acro Vonage do that? What have you, what have you built from that, from those amazing foundations? What have you created in running today?
Magdaleen (10:52.097)
Aquaventage yes.
Magdaleen (11:05.505)
So aqua vantages because mainly because I love the color aqua. But at the same time, if anybody has looked at my, yes, at my website or my socials or whatever, it's very much ocean driven. So for me, the ocean gives me clarity and that clear blue, beautiful aqua water. And when you dive into it and wash over your face, and it just to me is like the most peaceful, clear moment.
Magdaleen Kelly (11:10.302)
Like I like pink.
Magdaleen (11:35.617)
in my mind. So what I wanted to bring to businesses is that I want to bring them clarity. I want to wash that aqua water over their face so that they can feel refreshed and rejuvenated and have visibility over their figures and their numbers because, you know, not having that visibility over your numbers or it puts a huge strain on a business and relationships and on individuals. And unfortunately, you know, yeah, like I'm
also part counselor to a lot of my clients because it's such a finance is such a personal thing. And if I can give them that clarity and if I can give them that visibility, that's where the aqua vantage came from. It's that it means a lot to me and it gives that feeling to me. So if I can give that to my clients and feel like a weight's lifted off their shoulders and they've got visibility, that's my ultimate goal.
Magdaleen Kelly (12:19.71)
I love that.
Magdaleen Kelly (12:30.718)
Yeah, I think that's it's so important to have that visibility on numbers. As you said, the pressure that finance brings when you're not having those conversations and you haven't got the clarity of numbers and where you're going and what decisions you can and can't make can be really detrimental to businesses and family life.
Magdaleen (12:48.801)
yes. And I think that's partly why I'm so passionate about what I do, because I can see the difference it makes. So when you can take away that overwhelm and when you can put a system in place that's easy to run, not everything is going to work for everybody. So I can throw a lot of automations at a client that's not tech savvy and it's going to overwhelm them more. So about really hearing them, listening to it, seeing what's going to work for them and their team.
You know, a lot of tradies out there, you know, you can give them all this fancy things to use and keep time at on the job and blah, blah, blah. And they just don't do it. And then it creates more work. So for me, my, my niche, I feel as more really listening to what my client needs and being able to implement that and, and make, make it work for them to get the right outcome. So I think it's just, yeah, about really listening and, and exploring what's available for them.
Magdaleen Kelly (13:47.038)
And so in saying that and what you've just explained in terms of the different types of automations for different clients. So it's not a one size fits all sort of solution out of the box. Here you go. Here's an automatic, bam, golden bullet. You're working individually with clients, which for a lot of people in their building businesses, particularly wanting to scale businesses up that one -on -one time, a lot of people miss that. And that's a really important thing to really listen and understand.
what the client needs. So how often do you revisit that or what would that look like for someone who has got absolutely no automation whatsoever, but really wants to get started.
Magdaleen (14:29.697)
Well, getting started, I think you start simple. You start with what they've already got. So I never introduce anything new unless I know what they've got isn't actually working or they're not using it to its capacity. So I always try and look at what they've already got in place, whether it's just if they only have zero and they've got a paper trial, well, immediately there's going to be document management software being introduced, which is just like Hubdoc or Dext.
so you can get all that manual paperwork in and automated and even that proposes sometimes hiccups because you've got to get the guys in the field to download the app, they forgot their login, they forgot to log in, there's all this problem solving along the way. So you very quickly realize, okay, well that app's not gonna be for them, we're gonna have to find an alternative or whatever that looks like. So we start simple. We start simple, I see how the team responds and then
Magdaleen Kelly (15:21.213)
Yeah.
Magdaleen (15:27.905)
I just try and communicate. And then once it's implemented, if it's not working for us, because I'm implementing it as well, if my team is having to run the files, we're also running a business, it's gotta be economical, it's gotta make sense, it's gotta be saving us time so we can do the more important things for the client. I have to go back and go, this is not working. Okay, these are the rules. This is what you have to do.
This is when X, Y, and Z is working on your file. If we can't work like that, your fee is going to have to go up because it's creating a lot more hours because this is what we've implemented. This is your process. This is your procedure. These are the days. If those days don't work for you, let's look at other days. But if the system is in place and we've handed that over and this is how we work and they're not sticking to it, we have to...
It's a bit like a toddler, you know, like these are the rules and if we can't stick to it, it's not going to work because it's not economical for you or for us. So, yeah, I'm kind of very, I guess, not strict, but upfront and open when it comes to things like that.
Magdaleen Kelly (16:36.926)
I think that's a good thing, right? I think every business can learn from that in terms of the way it's client management as much as it is around the management of a project. It's putting those boundaries in place, letting people know how it works and having penalties in place if it doesn't work or you miss the agreement deadlines or you're not following the process that you agreed to follow and having those conversations quickly nipped in the bud before they start turning into resentments and ultimately problems.
Magdaleen (16:56.705)
Mm.
Magdaleen (17:05.281)
That's it. And I think the client also, you know, nobody likes being hassled by their accountant and their bookkeeper for bloody stupid paperwork and the insurance papers and the lease papers and all the stuff that just annoys us as business owners. Like we don't want to deal with things like that. You know, why do they need that? Like, can't they just do it without the source document? Well, no, because then we're not going to claim your interest on the payments that you're making on your leases and you're missing out on a deduction. So there's always a reason for it. So,
Magdaleen Kelly (17:19.358)
Yeah.
Magdaleen (17:33.569)
Ultimate goal is not to be a pain in the butt or ass, as I would have wanted to say, but anyway, a pain in the bum, but to have this real beautiful synergy between communication, process, system, procedure, and automation. And then hopefully have the sweet spot where your client feels they do understand their numbers and then they can make decisions easily, not sleep at night.
Magdaleen Kelly (17:38.27)
You
Magdaleen Kelly (17:59.075)
Yeah, so you know what, what I'm hearing there is clear communication, like it's had the ability to have the conversation both ways so that you've got that clarity, that confidence, you know, you've got no judgment there when you're asking questions, if things aren't quite right, you know, there's a power in that conversation piece and having that open channel for both parties to talk and talk through what's working, what's not, how do we get to a better solution?
Magdaleen (18:03.425)
Mmm.
Magdaleen (18:13.505)
No, no, no.
Magdaleen (18:25.249)
And I think that comes from trust as well. So I think like, you know, from the onboarding process to the cleaning up to the zero health checks that we do to then communicating what we can do and where we can take it and how comfortable they feel with that change, what that change is going to look like. I think in that whole process, and this is why we do charge for our zero health checks, a lot of accountants and bookkeepers would do that check for free upfront.
But for me, it's such a valuable part of building trust and communication and setting a foundation in place of what they can expect from me and how I deliver and how my team delivers and how, you know, what they receive on their end. So for me, it's just a very valuable part of building trust because, yeah, finances are personal and a lot of people shame, like, you know, by the time they get to me, honestly, like I think I've had people like,
suicidal, like not, not, not knowing how to break it to their partner or whatever that they've got an ADK, ADO debt, like that, you know, that they don't know how to get on top of or whatever that looks like. And it's like you say, it's like trust, no judgment, and just having a safe place to unpack that. And then let's do solution. So, okay, little things, right? It's not a short journey.
Magdaleen Kelly (19:24.99)
Not in a good place.
Magdaleen Kelly (19:42.718)
Mm.
Magdaleen Kelly (19:50.622)
No, it little things in place and it's consistent, right? It's those consistent little things, the regular conversation. And as you've just said, safe place, no judgment to be able to ask those questions and get those solutions, which is funny because you know, a funny ironic, I'm not sure because my last question of all podcast guests is what they love about the champagne lounge. And so what I've created inside the champagne lounge is very similar.
Magdaleen (19:50.625)
You gotta put the little things in place.
Magdaleen (19:57.281)
Yeah.
Magdaleen Kelly (20:18.462)
to what you've created for your clients in the finance world, right? We talk about it being a safe space, open conversations. You've been a member now, Max, for the whole time, 18 months now, it's been amazing. What do you love about it and what's got you sticking around?
Magdaleen (20:22.849)
Yeah.
Magdaleen (20:29.953)
Hahaha!
Well, firstly, I love everything about you, Bec, and I love the fact that you are so community driven and wanting to create this for women in business, in even rural and country places. So that was the attraction to me. And I mean, we've got mutual friend, gorgeous Justine, and we've been talking about that for years and years and years and years. And it's about being able to, you know, that imposter syndrome, which we all feel from time to time, no matter how resistant
how confident we are in what we're doing, we all feel it. maybe I should be doing that. my God, I'm not doing that. what's that? What? I haven't heard from that. And then all of a sudden the anxiety is just so big. So being able to tip in and out, dip in and out, I'm not the most consistent to turn up every week, but every time I do my cup is full, I feel listened to, I feel valued, I feel like sometimes I dip in because I need an answer.
on something that I know somebody in the group specializes in. So it's almost like the safe place where you can go and go, guys, I know I'm calling myself the expert, but what app do you use? What do you do to solve this problem? So it's being able to be vulnerable, being able to be honest. The Champagne Lounge feels like a safe place and you've created a beautiful community there.
Magdaleen Kelly (21:48.254)
you
Magdaleen (22:04.641)
And I think the number one thing that makes me stick around is that I don't feel like I'm consistently being sold to. You know, all the ladies that are in there, it's not about making more business or me. I'm not certainly not there to gain more business from it. I'm there to have a collaboration with women in different industries and being able to help and support. And at the same time,
also receive help and support. Where a lot of other communities are being part of, it feels very much like sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, and you know, use me, use me, use me. And I feel very, very overwhelmed when it's like that, a community like that. Where the Champagne Lounge to me is definitely doesn't feel like that. But there is a component that if you wanted to promote your business and you wanted to get more business,
that you provide that platform, which is awesome.
Magdaleen Kelly (23:05.31)
Yeah, thank you. I love that. There's a big key part for me was not to have it to be too salesy or too rigid. And so I'm glad that that's coming through and what we're doing. And the thing there is support. It's the support when you need it, how you need it and whenever you need it really, which I think is the foundations of being able to build a successful business is being able to ask questions and have support in a judgment free safe space. So.
Cheers to us for building that in our relevant industries.
Magdaleen (23:35.169)
And thanks to you, thanks to you for being such a trailblazer around it because you work with so many people and have done and you just consistently reinventing new things and but everything you do is inclusive. There's not one thing that you do that's not inclusive and that's what warms my heart back. You can be very proud and I'm very proud to be one of the
Magdaleen Kelly (24:00.798)
Thank you.
Magdaleen (24:03.073)
first members of the Champagne Lounge.
Magdaleen Kelly (24:05.31)
Thank you very much. And I'm proud to have you in my inner circle too. I think it's been fabulous. And I'm glad you could jump on today and share your story because I had, despite knowing you for years, I had no idea about the super yachts and all the cool stuff there. So I'm sure that'll be conversations over many wines in many years to come.
Magdaleen (24:10.081)
Thank you.
Magdaleen (24:18.721)
Many wines. And I'm coming to one of your dinners. Moons have not a line, but I will be at one of your dinners very soon.
Magdaleen Kelly (24:30.43)
They will, they keep cropping up. So I'll be sure to keep sending you the dates and I'll make sure that I put all your social links and your website into the show notes for people to come and find you. So thank you so much for coming on the show Max.
Magdaleen (24:41.473)
really appreciate this conversation and just forever grateful Bec, thank you for providing a safe space for women in business. It's mind blowing.
Magdaleen Kelly (24:51.87)
Thank you. My pleasure.
All right.
