Misfit Founders
Misfit Founders
Jess Bruno on Overcoming Health Challenges and Thriving in Business
In this episode, Jess Bruno, content marketer and coach, shares her powerful journey of overcoming health challenges while building a successful business. Jess opens up about her personal battles with illness and how she turned adversity into an opportunity to empower small business owners with authentic marketing strategies.
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Right, so I usually start with a bit of an introduction. So, if you don't mind, who on earth are you, jess, and what is it that you do? An elevator pitch of your business.
Speaker 2:Sure, my name is Jess Bruno and I am a content marketer and strategist and coach for small business owners.
Speaker 1:that's what we do well, to be honest, I've, you know I've um. I said that I don't really like to know much about my guests, um, but I did look at your website for a second. Yeah, let me not be completely ignorant of what my guest does. Let me check. Uh well, just let's start, because you said a couple of things when we came in here. You made me super, um, super curious. Let's start very early on. Let's start with you in uni, because you, you've done uni here in you're in brighton yeah, I did uni here, okay, so tell me a bit about what you need did you go to?
Speaker 1:why did you chose that and your life here in brighton before moving back to the big apple?
Speaker 2:big apple. Um, I moved here when I was just 18 I'm 32 now, so it was like a very long time ago and I went to bim. Do you? You know BIM Business?
Speaker 1:something I wish.
Speaker 2:It's Brighton Institute of Modern Music and I studied pop vocals.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:I have a BA in pop vocals and tell me a bit so you can sing. Yeah, yeah, I can sing.
Speaker 1:Okay, hold on, let me set up this, the test. Well, definitely, do you have any? Do you do you have any? Did you been part of any artistic initiative and so on? Have you practiced singing, basically?
Speaker 2:so the reason I stopped singing. So I I was like I'm gonna be a professional singer, I'm gonna tour, I'm gonna be like the next star and I was like fully focused on that. I went to musical theater school when I was a teenager. I did music in college and I did vocals in uni. Like you have to do like a singing, you have to sing to get in. So I was good.
Speaker 2:I had a band here in brighton and we were called mojo jojo. If you look on spotify you have to like really dig, but we're still there hold on.
Speaker 1:I need to, I, I need to. I'll put it on a notepad because I'm like I want to research this do you know who mojo jojo is?
Speaker 2:are you nerd?
Speaker 1:not really it sounds very familiar, but I'm not sure did you ever watch the power puff girls? Oh yes, mojo jojo. Okay, I was like where is that? Where is that so familiar?
Speaker 2:yeah, oh yes, okay so we I had a band and we were like just kicking off, we were gigging quite a lot in Brighton, like we had it. But when I turned 20, I was diagnosed with a condition called IBD, which is ulcerative colitis, and my health rapidly declined. My second and third year of uni were horrendous and I just I lost a huge part of me when I got sick and I didn't have the energy to perform anymore.
Speaker 1:So how does that talk me? Talk to me a bit about that um condition, how does it? What is it? What does it? How does it manifest?
Speaker 2:so I was diagnosed with IBD it's called inflammatory bowel disease and I was so young and I didn't know what was wrong with me. My just, I just thought I had really, really bad hangovers, like I would go out drinking and then I'd be hung over for two weeks, but my hangover was like extreme tiredness and like extreme vomiting extreme. Okay, it's gross, but I would. It opened my bowels like 40 times a day and it wouldn't be shit.
Speaker 2:It would be blood and mucus and I just I was like like 19 so that must be been terrifying well, I wish it was more terrifying because were you like that's? Normal. I just started drinking so I was like I just get really bad hangovers and I really did think.
Speaker 1:Did you talk to someone about this? Because I feel that if you will tell your friends, your friends will be like I don't have that kind of hangovers.
Speaker 2:No, I didn't tell anyone until I told my housemate my one friend left in Brighton, ben, and he was like, jess, that's not normal, you need to go to the GP, you need to go to the doctor. And I was like, oh, maybe I do. But then it started manifesting in my body outside of alcohol. It started happening every day. It was horrificous, horrific. The pain, the, the going to the toilet I lost, I I became disabled when I was 19 and it it's, it really has dripped into every aspect of my life. I had to change completely. It took a year to be diagnosed, so for from 19 to 20, I was left in this awful state. I lost so much weight I couldn't do anything, but I also had to, like, try and keep going to work and just trying to push through it and I was self-medicating a lot.
Speaker 1:Um, yeah a year to diagnose? Is it? Why is that? Is that? Is that because it's hard to identify? Or is it because you know the health system in UK is rubbish?
Speaker 2:to really help you, I think because I was so young. I kept taking what the GP said at face value. So they'd tell me oh, you've got IBS, here's a pill, try this. Go away, wait a month, it doesn't work, come back. Oh, here's a pill, try this. And it went round and round like that and I was so frustrated I just stopped going. And then I did a blood test with them, finally, after, like I think, nine months or ten months, and they said you have, you have to see a specialist. You've got very high inflammatory markers. And I was like I don't know what the fuck that means, like I've got an exam, like I can't go. And I missed the specialist appointment. I just didn't go because I was fed up by that point and I thought, well, my mum had a really awful stomach, like a really weak stomach, so I just thought I had what she had, but no, and then I had to go to A&E because I was so poorly.
Speaker 1:And that's when I got into the system here at sussex and that's when I was diagnosed. Did that, did that period? Um, oh, and, by the way, did you? So you got a treatment right, so, and, and that healed it, or kind of like um helped you? Are you free of this condition or does it just help, control, control it well, when you're first diagnosed, they start testing to see what will fix you.
Speaker 2:But it's an incurable disease that is degenerative, so it just gets worse the longer you have it. Um, when I, the treatment that fix gives it like an overnight fix is steroids. So over the last 10 years I'd been on and off of steroids and I was also self-medicating a lot with codeine. So codeine, yeah, codeine, cocodamol that's quite strong yeah, I got.
Speaker 2:I have really I had a really bad relationship with codeine. But what it does to you if you've ever taken it, it binds everything up. So taking codeine was not only making me feel amazing but also made me stop going to the toilet because it was giving me constipation, and so I actually managed to look after to sort myself out with the help of my specialist and steroid treatment. But over the last I'd say eight years I have I had a very bad relationship with codeine and, as in you were, addicted yeah, but not only to the high, but because it made me feel like a human.
Speaker 2:But it got to like a breaking point when I actually had to be hospitalized for the side effects of coding yeah, and did that that period affected your?
Speaker 1:Did that period affect your uni, your education and stuff?
Speaker 2:So I had to retake a lot of my uni. I got through it, but I hardly remember it, and I did have to repeat a lot in my third year. The biggest thing for me is that I stopped performing and I just had to work out what I wanted to do again.
Speaker 1:So that sounds like that was the biggest impact that I stopped performing and I just had to, like, work out what I wanted to do again so that I so that sounds like that was the biggest impact which was do you, do you ever? Do you think back and think, oh man, if this, I would have really loved to be a performer if this didn't happen, or you're, you're over it, you're like now I'm doing. I still stuff here that's more interesting. What's your current state?
Speaker 2:only in the last year I've felt the same high from my current work that I did from performing. I'm getting the same dopamine hit from it, which is wonderful. Like I was crying on the way here, like I can't believe how amazing everything is.
Speaker 1:That's awesome it really has.
Speaker 2:But that's only been in the last year, because in 20, 20, 2022, I had a massive surgery that has enabled me to start living again yeah um, I had my large bowel removed, like the whole thing just taken out, and can you live without that?
Speaker 1:I don't know anything about um anatomy like so this is my bag oh, wow this is where I poo okay
Speaker 2:it's called uh ostomy and basically I was misdiagnosed 10 years ago here in brighton and it's called it caused me that 10 years of suffering. Two years ago, when I stopped taking the codeine, my body started breaking down, my disease became really active, but that because now I'm sober, but that meant everything started falling apart for me in lockdown, everything it just got horrific. It was also when I started my business, um, but from lockdown my body got worse and worse and worse, to breaking point when I had to have emergency surgery to remove my entire large colon, um, and live with a bag that is I told you we're gonna have fun that is a natural reaction, because I wasn't aware of it, I didn't know, I didn't, I didn't know what.
Speaker 1:So okay, so that must have been. How much time does it did it took to recover from such a surgery?
Speaker 2:Four months. Four months, three months, and then I'd say my fourth month. I was just like and was it?
Speaker 1:I must have taken a mental toll as well, knowing that you're getting your large colon removed and you need to literally poop in a bag.
Speaker 2:I love it.
Speaker 1:You do, I absolutely love it. Well, I mean, compared to the, I was dying, I literally was living on death's door.
Speaker 2:Every day was pain and suffering and bleeding, and I was taking about 40 tablets a day to just survive and be in a normal state when, yes, I had to have emergency surgery. Yes, my whole life had paused. But as soon as I took it out, when I woke up after surgery in the ICU, I said my body feels like I'm 16 again oh wow, I was like it's incredible because 10 years ago I was misdiagnosed with so ibd has got two sides of it crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis.
Speaker 2:I was initially diagnosed with crohn's disease, which affects your entire gastro system, so that's your mouth to your anus. Ulcerative colitis only affects your large bowel. If you remove the large bowel, you're cured right.
Speaker 1:So that's, that is the. That's the only remedy of this. What would you the the condition that you have?
Speaker 2:you can take tablets. Some people have ulcerative colitis and do very well on medication. Unfortunately, mine was so aggressive that they we got to the end and there was like there's nothing more we can do, let's, we have to take out. We have to take out now yeah and I'm so happy they did. I recommend it to everyone.
Speaker 1:Highly recommend it interesting it's the best thing that's ever happened to me in my mind is like shocking, just just hearing, like saying that you don't have a body part I know a whole organ and basically, the way you relieve yourself is through, uh, through the bag and so on.
Speaker 2:When I go to the toilet now I say I need to go and empty.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's my new word so so you you check the bathroom earlier. I need to do a recce, okay building.
Speaker 2:When I come into a new building, I always make sure I know where the bathroom is. Just think, because it can leak right it can pop, it can burst and shit will be everywhere. Okay, I need to know how to get to the bathroom when I'm in a new space and I want to look at it, so I need to know where your sink is, because in my bag over there I've got another stoma bag and all my okay supplies.
Speaker 1:So I like to know what I'm dealing with when I'm in a new room, so it it sounds like it's still as in. It's not, it regained. It gave you a lot of your life back and you're you being you, but you, you have to deal with the certain kind of like cons of it, of the situation so the cons of it?
Speaker 2:are it combust? Yeah and I'll just be here with shit all over me um that would be something on camera, wouldn't it be? I mean um I get. I still suffer with fatigue yeah I still have. I can get dehydrated very quickly because here's the water thing remember downstairs I said I can't.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you said, you can't drink water your large bowel absorbs water.
Speaker 2:No other organ does that. The small bowel can absorb water when it's got a salt in it, so when I drink. I need to make sure my water is fortified with some kind of salts or so it could be easy as sprinkling a little bit of salt or just making sure my water's got squash in it.
Speaker 2:So when I get sick like I had the flu a couple months ago and I was vomiting, but it's so dangerous for me to vomit because I get extremely dehydrated um, what else is a con? No, I love it, honestly. It's.
Speaker 1:I'm a human, but I mean yeah, compared like this is, this is it sounds like a massive upgrade to where you were. And in those 10 years of it was 10 years you said, yeah, 10 years of suffering and challenges. Yeah, what were you doing at that point? What was your life like, do you? Because I know you said you'd launch your business, like recently, in 2020, in lockdown. What were you doing over that period after you left uni?
Speaker 2:um, I left uni. I was too sick to work anymore and I wasn't getting any government funding. Nor did I know exactly like how to do that, because I was like what?
Speaker 2:21, 22 so I moved back home and I started working just like doing like little jobs and taking my codeine and taking my tablets and kind of I was cruising for the last for those like seven, eight years I worked in. I still worked in marketing and I worked in events. That's kind of something I fell into and learned that I was quite good at it. Um, but I was employed by people doing it. I didn't have my own business and I was just cruising, cruising, cruising, until one day my mum calls me and she says I've got stage four cancer and I said I'm going to have to be awake for this.
Speaker 2:So I stopped taking codeine so I could be there for my mum and really quickly after it's a pandemic now and so I moved in with her, I left everything and I stopped taking codeine. And so it was me, my mum and my 90 year old grandma all in one flat and I wanted to be as present for her with the life she had left as possible, which is why I stopped taking codeine. But my body was just breaking down rapidly because I wasn't self-soothing with it anymore.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so with you said you've had a period where you know doctors just thought there was something else, and so on. What, what helped with? With basically saying no, actually hold on, you have this and we need to get rid of your um so large intestine when I was living my mom and my grandma.
Speaker 2:I couldn't stop cold turkey, so I was reducing my. I was tapering off, taking self-medicating with the codeine, yeah, but unfortunately I had caused so much damage over the years from doing that I had to be hospitalized because of complications and a specialist came over to me and said who's your doctor here in london? I said I don't have one. He said right, I'm calling up Brighton. You're gonna have to stay with us for two weeks. We need to put you on steroids and I had all the drips in me and you need to stop taking. You have to stop taking codeine unless you need it. We need to start you on a medical regime and I was with them for two years of them trying things with me. I was doing, uh, like intravenal therapies and I was on all these incredible medicines, but nothing worked. Until one day I had I'd had numerous days in A&E in a hospital in London from just my body breaking down and they said there's nothing left we can do.
Speaker 1:Let's take it out now so it was like the the last resort, last resort yeah, last resort for them.
Speaker 2:But for the last like three months I'd been saying, like, is there a surgery I can do? What shall I do? And they said, well, yeah, we can, but we want to avoid that because it's a huge, it's a massive surgery and it has it has to be done in two parts. Haven't had the second part done yet. I've got you've got. Give your body three years to recover fully and get strong again, and then you have the other one so what's the second part?
Speaker 2:oh, the second one's a fun one. It's a I'm gonna get a barbie butt a what a barbie butt. So the reason why I'm still suffering with fatigue and pain is because they can't take your entire colon out. It's too much right. So they they leave your a little stump in your bum of the rectum, but for me that's still full of disease, full of inflammation. So they go in, open me up, remove that part and then they sew up my butt, that's.
Speaker 1:That's. What do you mean by barbie butt?
Speaker 2:so I'm not gonna have a butthole anymore, I'm gonna have a barbie butt that's it, honestly it's.
Speaker 1:It's surprising your attitude towards it. To be honest, I love it.
Speaker 2:I love it so much. My life has always been mental, but also I was with my partner and we were sat talking about the Barbie butt and the specialist was like do you want to have kids? I've been with my partner for like five years but we haven't really. Yes, we do, but not yet. And he was. He was like if you want to have a baby, you need to have one before you have the second surgery, because your fertility will go down really it was like side effects.
Speaker 2:I'm like great, let's do it I can have a tiny me, tiny him, but he was like okay okay, maybe yeah okay sure?
Speaker 1:um well, yeah, sorry, I've dived deep into um, into your situation, your condition and stuff I love talking about it, no one well, I was just cute, naturally curious about that.
Speaker 1:Um, let's talk about your also, your entrepreneurship, um journey. So you, you started a business over the pandemic. So you were, you stopped taking, uh, you wind down on codeine because you wanted to be with your and take care of, take care of your mom. Yeah, so you couldn't work anymore, so you had to be at home, and was that the catalyst for your business? Yeah, so tell me, tell me a bit about that. How did you come up with the idea of your business? Why did you even decide to become an entrepreneur?
Speaker 2:my background from before I quit the job was in marketing and these big events in london when lockdown happened, all of my friends and their friends and their friends were starting their own businesses, from like post-book brownie deliveries to like little crafts, and everyone suddenly was becoming a coach or whatever, and I would get inundated with messages from them being like can you check this post for me? Can you look at this caption? Oh, jess, what hashtag should I use on this? Because they knew what I was doing in my job job before and I was just like giving them advice. And my mum said to me I reckon you could charge for that. I said you're having a laugh. I said you must be mad and she said no, I think you could do this as a consultant.
Speaker 2:I didn't even fathom, I didn't even know that could be a thing. I started like googling everything and I tried it with a friend of a friend who I didn't really know. Came to me and said, oh, I heard you do this, can you help me? And I said yeah, of course I'll book in a meeting and we can talk about my rates. I had no idea what my rates were. I was like mom, what do I do? And she said try 50 pound, try getting on the phone. It's hard to 50 pound to have a conversation with them. So I said, all right, I had the conversation. I said, okay, well, it's gonna be 50 pounds.
Speaker 1:She said, okay, great, I was like okay, maybe, maybe 50 pounds is too little. She said okay, great too fast.
Speaker 2:But, um, yeah, it all kind of like started there I. I then started using social media, like from my previous training, but I was searching for other people who were making businesses because I obviously have something I can offer them. I can teach them how to do marketing easily without having to worry about it and all that kind of stuff, and my business just grew from there.
Speaker 1:That was the beginning stage, but you also because you know marketing and you know how to reach and so on.
Speaker 2:That helps you distribute your business as well, yeah, it's given me a little bit of a.
Speaker 1:And's is it something that you're passionate about?
Speaker 2:fucking love it. It's my favorite thing in the whole world. I'm not like a. There's two types of marketers. There's like the data insights, seo.
Speaker 2:I'm the fun one okay, yeah even though that's, so fun like fun as well, that's so fun for like people who find it fun, but I'm very dyslexic I it just stresses me out. On the other side, I give small business owners like confidence and courage and to show up online and to know like they can do it themselves. Like I mainly work with businesses of one or like businesses of one with like maybe a VA or someone. They're very small teams and I give them the tools to make it work for them, work for their busy schedules and for them to have fun with it. I don't want them to be like, oh, it's another thing on the list. Like make them have fun with it, but also show them how to convert a small following into customers. That's the most important thing.
Speaker 1:That, yeah yeah it's so fun yeah, I know that's. That's awesome and the fact that you've and I love these kind of stories when it's like well, someone because this podcast exists because of a similar situation like you had with your mom, where actually nikki was like overheard a couple of conversations that I had and I was giving advice to people, or I was having a conversation with someone about business and she went like these conversations are really engaging and amazing, so you should be doing this, these should be public. So I was like, oh, okay, maybe, yeah, so it sounds like the same kind of approach, like where you didn't initially thought about it but you kind of bumped into. You had this challenge where you're not taking codeine anymore and you're suffering and so on.
Speaker 1:How was your business at that point? Were there any challenges, struggles At any point? Did you feel like man, if I didn't have this bloody thing, I could have skyrocketed? Did you feel like man, if I didn't have this bloody thing, I could have skyrocketed? Or did you start it slowly and organically kind of grew into something?
Speaker 2:I've always taken messy action, always like throwing spaghetti at the wall with everything I do. Um, unfortunately, I'm also like a massive workaholic. Once I hyper focus on something that I can do, I will go all in. So, laying in bed on my laptop, I'd be there for 14 hours, 18 hours a day, because that's all I had. My hands worked, my brain worked, my body didn't work, so I'd be on the laptop grinding all this time in running to toilet and on the outside.
Speaker 2:everything looked beautiful online yeah I could create this persona on the inside. Everything was falling apart. My mom was really sick, the world was falling apart, but I was positioning myself as this, as this dolly online, right?
Speaker 2:until I couldn't keep up with it anymore. I also was saying yes to a lot of things I should have said no to out of lack. Yes, I'll do that for no extra money. Yes, I'll do this, yes, I'll do that. And then I get sick again. I get really sick. I have to go to the hospital for two weeks, three weeks, and that would always be like a mini wake-up call, but I'd had to.
Speaker 2:I had to do that again and again and again to get out of this mindset and it one day I just thought fuck it, I'm gonna start talking about my health conditions online because that way, clients will instantly know like oh, okay, she can't do all these things that I'm asking her to do and I should respect her boundaries when she says that way.
Speaker 2:And it was great. Everything's got better from them. I remember I did an Instagram story and I think I probably had under a thousand followers at that point and I said to people just a really humble one to remember, they used to have the AB poll and I said would you still take me seriously if I started talking about my health journey more, because it's getting to a point where I I can't avoid it, yes or no, and it was a 50 50 split. I was like damn, oh, I shouldn't do this, oh, I shouldn't. But then I remembered like, oh, but the other side, there's 50, 50 of the other people said, yeah, I would still take you seriously and I would learn to work with your, with your boundaries, and you should set more boundaries yeah and so I was just like fuck it, I'm gonna start talking about it.
Speaker 2:And a lot of things changed. I've lost a lot of people in my life, like through my illness work relationships, personal relationships, friendships. It's why I said I've only got one friend left in brighton when you're sick. It's really hard to maintain relationships. When you're sick and you're running a small business, it's even harder.
Speaker 1:It's interesting because I have a podcast and I talk to a lot of people and I'm quite an extrovert when it comes to conversations and so on, but I have very little friends and running a business and being in your own madness can be a long, lonely place to be. I can only imagine. Also add to that an illness that kind of like prevents you to to do a lot of socials and so on. And I can like from what you told me telling me that the terrible period of you know, over the pandemic was really bad in any ways. Over the pandemic you couldn't meet that many people. Um, how's things after your, um your surgery? Did you still they? Do you do more socials? How, how is life now after all of that?
Speaker 2:as a, as a, you know, working prolific entrepreneur that also has, um, this condition that needs to, you need to take care of certain things I actually do less you do less yeah, like before I had the surgery done, I would overcompensate so much because I was so obviously disabled, so I would overcompensate so much by saying, yes, of course we can do three posts a day, not a problem. Oh, my God, no one. Do that, please. Nobody. Do that. Do not post three times a day. You're going mad. I was like, yeah, yeah, no problem, shouldn't have said yes to that. They kept saying yes to things where I shouldn't have, and that didn't change until I had my surgery, where, even though life has got a lot easier for me, I complete, I 360'd my offer. I 360'd how I'm working with people and I now I do so much less but I'm able to give so much more. I'm trying to be more specific, so I focus more on strategy and consulting rather than execution right, because they don't need that from me.
Speaker 1:Yeah they don't need that from me at all and strategy, and you know, consultancy usually pays more top dollar than execution. For some reason, people are like, oh, you do it for me, I'll pay you, but announce, uh, an hour or something like that. Um, but I mean, if like the thing that you also have to um something to show, um, so what's your current? Do you have? You have your own following for your, for your brand, for your company? Do you have a personal brand as well? Or is your company, is your?
Speaker 2:right. So I am at jessicasofiabruno on instagram. My website is jessicabrunocouk. I run everything underneath that page.
Speaker 1:Your personal brand.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I do everything from a personal brand and I recommend when I work with small businesses especially if they're usually people who work with me have a smaller following and I'm telling them how to monetize it and I always recommend they inject their personality into it. But for me, I have my one-to-one offer, a group program, and then I have a membership which is the Content Club by Jess Bruno and that is extremely accessible and even though it's the Content Club, it's still always going to be by Jess Bruno.
Speaker 2:And that is like an introductory way, that's kind of its own entity.
Speaker 1:That's really cool. You have a membership, so what do you provide for members? Is it like newsletters, advice and stuff like that?
Speaker 2:It's a copy and paste marketing hub.
Speaker 2:So, caption templates, email templates, launch sequence flows, everything that I've been working on with big businesses and over the last three years with the small business owners, grabbing the most engaging stuff and putting it in there Every month. They get a full daily post so they can know what to post every single day and we do group coaching as well every friday. It's templates and accountability and it's 30 pounds a month, so nice entry-level price and they get a lot of value out of it and for the business side of things, it's kind of like my top of funnel so.
Speaker 2:So someone will trust me enough to join the content club and then if that's not working for them they either jump away or they'll either go up to like a group program with me or a one-to-one. I've created this kind of ecosystem where people kind of revolve around the products that I do and it really bloody helps them yeah, and and honestly I've, I've seen this model and it really works.
Speaker 1:Like just the other day I was I registered for for a course and I like the course so much that I've reached out to the course creator for kind of like personal mentorship and stuff. So so you know, if you have this entry level product and so on, that's kind of like, although subscription is, you know it's not. I don't call a subscription of 30 an entry level product, because if you have, you know, if you have 100 people subscribe, you're getting quite a bit of money per month, right, um, in a sense, so, um, but but it is easier, more accessible for someone, rather than the spooky oh, I need to pay just this much money every single month for her advisory yeah, but once you get into that and you said if, if it's, you know, if they're, if it's not a good fit for them or if it's not enough and so on, I think it's, it's that, but it's also if they're super happy with the, with the content there, they'll be like well, just knows what she's talking about.
Speaker 1:Let me hire her um as a consultant yeah, exactly that's awesome. What? What's the part that you love the most when it comes to let's? Let's talk about I want to ask about your business, but let's talk about marketing this field. First, what's the most exciting thing that you like the most?
Speaker 2:I think it's when I get messages from my clients and they've just completed the launch strategy I've made for them and they've made like. One of my clients may have had a 35k launch she's got 4 000 subscribers, 4 000 followers on her page huge or they've made their first ever sale through content that all of this stuff lights me up so much because, just by making a sale, it can give them so much confidence to go.
Speaker 2:I can do it. I can do it. I can do it on any spectrum. I think I know like money, but it really lights me up when the content, the strategy, is working and they're able to implement it. Sometimes it can happen within a month of my journey with a client. Sometimes it happens after two years. It's really about them finding out how they want to show up online, where they want to show up online, how they want to represent themselves. And when you get all that shit, all your ducks in a row there, that's when the switch happens and it starts working for them and they're like oh yeah, it's really easy.
Speaker 1:Whenever someone tells me it's really easy, I'm like, yes, it is well, that's awesome, but that that also seems to be to me my mind, hearing you say that, well, that can be the thing that you like the most about your business as well. Not just about marketing in general, right, because I feel like that, even me, not in marketing, when I'm, when I'm, when I have a customer that comes in and says your solution, your product, your service saved my bum or my business's bum or really enhanced what I'm doing.
Speaker 2:that is so, that's the best bit Like marketing itself is like eh, it's boring as fuck. Like go make the content, post the thing, look at your analytics. Like that is boring to me. I'm really good at it, I'm really good at getting someone to post and tell them how it all works, but that's like not the thing that brings me joy so, but it's like actually having results and results and seeing customers um deliver and so on.
Speaker 1:That's, that's awesome. And your business um, it is it just you? Do you have people that are working with you or is it just you? Um your consultancy, your service business and such?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I do everything. I've got some freelancers that help me from time to time, so I work with freelancers on quite a long-term basis. Someone?
Speaker 2:that helps you making the website, someone that helps me create the templates. So I've got an expert copywriter with me. I'm great, but I'm severely dyslexic. So if I was to do all the copy for the templates, everyone would be texting me like so I've got someone there that helps me with that so if, if, um, if a customer says, well, jess, I love all of the strategy consultation sessions that we're having, but I need, uh, execution on this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, do you, do you have people that you can kind of like employ or or suggest to them to, to help with the execution?
Speaker 2:yeah, for sure, usually I'm like I know you can do the execution. I like there is so many robot armies you can add to your ether robot armies there's so many robots you can employ that would be much cheaper for you.
Speaker 2:Of course you can get a social media manager to look after all, but the people that I work with usually are not on a level where I think they actually need it. I'm always like I do you really not have time to schedule your own content or is there something else in the way? And usually it's the confidence. It's I don't have the confidence to actually hit post because I'm not ready to have another post flop on me. Someone else. Take that pain away from me.
Speaker 2:If they're like just, I genuinely I'm running this like seven figure because of course I don't have time to do that, yeah, no worries, let's invest all our money into getting social media managers. But it's usually a confidence thing and either we'll break through it and they could, they'll, they'll carve out the hour to schedule stuff, they'll start enjoying making content, or they can get a social media manager. Depends where they're at. But I will coach them through it in the beginning before I recommend. But there are some amazing, amazing social media managers out there. I've got loads. I do recommend, but with the people that I work with I'm always like do you really not have the time to press post, or is it something else?
Speaker 1:yeah, you make me, you're targeting me now stop it no, because I'm I'm the same like I'm I'm.
Speaker 1:You know, I've have um, people, professionals and friends and so on that are marketing gurus and so on, and tell me like I'm gonna make a social media strategy for you because your posts are getting a bit old and and and I and I'm like it's very nice to say I, I know, well, I mean, but they're right, right, so like, um like, and mainly because I do not focus on social media and I feel like I am such a I don't know, I'm it's, you know when it's not your thing, when you feel when you're, you're doing it, but it feels not natural what don't?
Speaker 2:what is it you don't like about?
Speaker 1:it, doing it as in like one. I know that I could have someone come up with ideas and concepts and topics and so on, but me just sitting down and dedicating time to say, okay, so this week I'm going to make a content calendar and talk about this, or for the next month and so on, like that is, is very unnatural to me, right? What's natural to me is this like kind of like chaos. Yeah, they're just like doing stuff and testing things and so on, like, like, and I used to be good at it. I used to like I started the project management company because I used to be good at managing and structuring and so on. I don't know what happened along the way, but nowadays maybe old, I'm getting green or something, but at this age I'm like I need chaos, like I love experimentation, I love trying things and and I think it's probably my add as well my head is in 10 10 places and when I need to laser focus is very hard for me do you need to laser focus, though?
Speaker 2:I love I love messy action. I love messy marketing. I think you can create something that works for you like you are. Just by being in the space. You seem like one of the most creative people like I've ever met and I you worked in project management. You have all the skills to do it, which is why I would challenge you if we were in a coaching session and I would be like I don't think hyper focusing on something and creating content plan is the actual problem. I think you could do that with your eyes closed. I think it's something else and we would like dig into that yeah, yeah, there is.
Speaker 1:There's a chance that that that's, that might be the, the challenge, um, it's. But again, I think, I think you know I am in a sense your target audience, your perfect customer in a sense, because there's so much potential there and so much value. But again, what keeps me most of the time not doing it is, you know, like not having the energy, being a bit not feeling natural for me to sit down and or even just posting, just like randomly, kind of like shit, posting like they call it Right, like it just feels, with all of the stuff that I I'm doing in parallel, it feels like just I don't think about it. That's like I just don't think about it. And then then I after a couple of weeks I'm like, hmm, this week I only posted shorts from my, from my podcast.
Speaker 2:I've not really posted anything of me yeah, so have you ever posted anything of you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I do sometimes, like I've Just the other day I posted, last week I posted on LinkedIn I was frustrated with the fact that I have two dogs, two Jack Russells oh, I love them. And all of the treats bags for some reason come in odd number. They won't Rather than even yeah. So when you're down to the last treat, you only have one right. Oh no, that to me is blasphemy.
Speaker 2:It is blasphemy.
Speaker 1:And I've posted on LinkedIn to all, not even Twitter. So I posted on LinkedIn and I said I want to make a petition to all of the kind of like dog treats companies to please make even numbers in their bags and so on. And I posted a picture of me and my two Jack Russells, which I call raccoons. So I said me and my raccoons, uh, want to make a petition. And so I post.
Speaker 1:Sometimes I'll post post like that more my myself and so on in front of the camera, or or just my own thoughts, but it's it's not often right, it's it. It's more like I'm in a really good place, really relaxed, and and I have this thought and I'm like let me post it. But then I have a billion other moments where I have thoughts and so on, but I don't think of posting it.
Speaker 2:When you posted on LinkedIn about dog treat gate.
Speaker 1:Dog treat gate. There you go.
Speaker 2:How did you feel afterwards?
Speaker 1:That's a good question. I felt good. I felt like you know, sometimes you can feel very rigid online, especially in this formal, corporate and so on. I felt good. I felt like I gave an actual piece of myself and my thoughts. And you know what I also have Nikki and I have been talking about.
Speaker 1:She wants to start a podcast which is kind of like a more I mean, this is laid back but in the same time, this is more. You know, you, you're the center, it's not me, in a sense. Right, so I don't go, I don't, I don't, I'm not polarizing, I don't go overboard with me and my character, because I don't want to take the spotlight, right, like that's not the purpose of it. Nikki was going to wants to start a podcast where her and I can riffraff around like companies and what they've done to grow and so on, and she wants to bring me in as not knowing anything and I'm like I'm going to be the goofiest person in your podcast for sure, and that excites me in a way. So I think it feels good. It feels good to just be yourself and natural, and not that I am on this podcast.
Speaker 1:But I also realized that not everyone watches the podcast end to end, right. To see here's a fragment of B. To see here's a fragment of bureau. Here's a fragment of bureau, right, um? So yeah, it feels good to me, um, but it feels in a sense unnatural. The posting act do you have? I'm curious, do you have a lot of customers that are kind of like that? They're like you know, I know that I need to post, but it's just not in me, it's like not my personality to post stuff online.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And so I always ask them what I just asked you, have you ever posted before? And they'll say yeah, and I'll say, oh, so you do post. Well, that was only a few times and it just doesn't come naturally to me. So when you did that post before, how did that go?
Speaker 2:and I'll walk them through it and then it usually comes out that they have all the tools and the skills and the will to post content. So then I asked them what I asked you how did you feel about it afterwards when you did that post? Yeah, it was good, I was being myself and I did this. My next question after that is do you feel like that was a waste of time? Because it didn't fill you up in some kind of way? And usually if it did feel like a waste of time, it's either actually I was put my heart and soul into that and the engagement wasn't there, like nobody liked it, like what's the point?
Speaker 2:I'm really busy as a business owner. My time needs to be productive if it's not giving you those business owner dopamine productive hits. Yeah, it's something that won't come naturally to you, as in sending out invoices or chasing clients or doing whatever you need to do to move the needle. If you put a little piece of you online and it didn't get the reaction you thought it might, or you wanted it to, or you're scared to say that you wanted it will not come naturally to you, which is where I can come in and, instead of telling you what you should post, what you can post. I will help you realize that or whatever it may be, and then we will come up with how you can have so much fun making content and how you can fill up your in your dopamine business hit from another place.
Speaker 2:So instead of seeing it as I posted, it only got 15 likes. No one cares about me. What's the point? You will make sure that you've got proper marketing things in place. So, yeah, I only got 15 likes, but we had a really good call to action and you got two new leads today. Yeah, or yeah, I only got 15 likes, but if we look back, we can see that you've been posting this thing consistently and you are becoming a thought leader, no matter how little it could be. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:So we start filling up that that hit in a different, in a different place, and then they enjoy it and it feels more productive, you know I think people also don't realize and this I've been having this conversation in the past as well people don't realize how, how powerful consistency is, even if the numbers don't show it. Like I post for misfit founders, like all of these I don't know if you've seen those like videos and so on, like almost every single day, and the amount of people that you know, I know that I have a chat after a while and so on. They say, man, you're smashing it with that.
Speaker 1:I saw, I see all of your posts. You, you're a misfit founder. This is growing. Oh my god, you're doing so great. I have so many people that I have a call with for the first time, but they're like, it's like talking to a celebrity. I feel that I see you in my timeline all the time. So it does have an impact, even if you don't see it, because the thing is, a lot of people won't engage that much like or, and so on.
Speaker 2:No, no, no.
Speaker 1:And fundamentally you have to have like I have almost 10,000 followers on LinkedIn and again, I get, in the grand scheme of things, of influencers on social media. I get very little engagement, like likes and comments and so on. But the reality is that in order to get a lot of engagement one, you have to have a lot more than that, or two, you have to post stuff that is either very controversial or very, very relatable, and the type of content that I make with Misfit Founders. You know there's going to be posts that some people relate there's and others don't, and there's gonna be posts that others relate and so on. So, but just posting and having that consistency and like people see it and perceive you in a certain way, um, so it is powerful. Um, I agree, I do feel like I need to share more of myself.
Speaker 2:Um, in a sense, I think that's my challenge, but I want you to have so much fun with it like keep talking about your raccoons, like just make it be so fun yeah, you know some people are not really, um, fans of posting personal content on LinkedIn, yeah, which I think.
Speaker 1:if you take it to an extreme and you make it your Snapchat in a sense, or whatever your Instagram, then yeah, I would say you're trying hard and it might not necessarily be the platform, but I love. That has been my ethos in a lot of marketing, brand building, community building activities that I've been doing is people need to relate to people. They're never going to relate to a symbol or a. You know they might align with certain things, but in order to create a deep connection, there has to be some humanity behind the stuff that you do yeah, I booked a client after posting an instagram story of my ham and pineapple pizza.
Speaker 2:I was like controversial, I love ham and pineapple and pizza. And then they were like, oh my god, I love it too. Actually, I was thinking about we need to book in a da-da-da-da, let's start a beautiful relationship. Whenever I on the flip side, whenever I post about my stoma or I talk about my health, I will lose followers every single time.
Speaker 1:Every single time. I was going to ask that because you seem a very genuine positive kind of attitude person and you talk with confidence about what happened to you health-wise and so on, and you embrace it totally. But is that you having this identity of, hey, I'm a business owner, I'm a founder, I help with marketing and so on, and actually this is who I am in totality? Right, I have this condition like this is my, this is the new me, in a sense, and I'm talking about this. Is that? Does that put people off? It sounds like when you say saying you're losing um followers, it sounds like it does I think because, uh, it's not that it's taboo, but it can give people the ick.
Speaker 2:I think, I don't know, I gotta ask one of them. I gotta, I gotta ask them. All I know is whenever I post about my stoma, it has the highest engagement of all of my content.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But I get the most unfollows. Now that's probably because when you have a high engaging post, the algorithm will send out to more people and that someone might be like, oh, I haven't seen her in ages, bye. Or they'll be like, oh, that's so gross and let it go. But being more personal and talking about I don't open my knicker drawer, I'm not using Instagram like OnlyFans, but I am personal on there and that's only helped me grow. That's only helped me get more clients. I don't have to think about how to be relatable because I'm just being myself and if they gravitate towards me and if they relate with me, they're probably going to have a beautiful business relationship yeah, true, so that hasn't put you off from from posting about your yourself and your health and your um, I mean it's scary.
Speaker 2:I I battle with it mentally like oh, are they gonna take me seriously? Like it is a bit weird, but I just haven't got the energy to not talk about it because it's so. It's like it is me. I can't not talk about it. It'll it'll be more difficult to avoid the conversation I'd. I'd feel like I'm someone else and do you?
Speaker 1:how do you get a lot of um questions from customers? Uh as in like a. I know that you have, uh, this are you a? How, how should I work with you? Do I need to work around certain things, or?
Speaker 2:before, when I was being a yes man to everything, I learned, like what my boundaries are and with my dyslexia, implementation was something I always thought I had to do but always struggled with. So as soon as I let that go, everything got a lot easier. Um, in terms of how I can show up for clients and if there's anything they need from me not really. I always say like I might cancel on you last minute before a call because my health might just go 360. It'll be very rare, but because I'm giving you that grace you can always.
Speaker 1:You could do it to me as well, we'll be fine right okay, but that's, that's it really that's good and and look, I do think it is. It is daunting. I can imagine that it's daunting. You know, posting these things and knowing that you know some people will be put off, but in my mind I think you should. You have to fully embrace it, not only because there's um, well, that's you and there's nothing else you can do, but but I think you, you do want the people that stick around, that that's who you want, because those are going to be the, the customers and the audience and the, the cheer leaders of of what you do the most. And you know, if someone's put off by you know, by your health condition or anything like that, then you know, do you even want them as a customer?
Speaker 1:no if someone comes and says I really like, um, the stuff that you do, but I like I'm not sure, because you know you have your own quirks with with your health and so on, and I'm I'm not sure if, um, that's something that I want to work with do you even want that person as a customer?
Speaker 2:yeah, like, like I'm kind of pre-qualifying people by talking about it yeah, exactly, yeah.
Speaker 2:I, when I first had my surgery, I actually started a TikTok page all about my stoma because I couldn't stop talking about it and I was like, okay, it's getting too much on my, my business page. Now let me just start like a secret stoma page. And I went viral on there all the time, so many times just talking about it. And then I it was kind of like my personal diary and it really really helped me didn't bring me any leads, didn't get me any new business, I didn't get like a penny from it. Millions and millions of views over there, but I kept it over there and it never converted into anything where, when I with my business, I think I talk about my stoma, probably like once a quarter. It's not a running theme, but people know it's there, it's there. It's a page on my website, like you will find me. I've got pictures in it, but it's just like my sprinkles.
Speaker 1:You know it's my flavor and I think there's so many people that think that in order to to be successful in business, to have a successful business, you need the craziest, widest reach possible and that's, oh my god.
Speaker 2:No, that's not true. No, all of my clients can say no yeah.
Speaker 1:And so for that reason, like for all of those reasons, I you know I understand why you're. You know, when you say yeah, when I post, I lose um, some subscribers and some, some people that are following me and so on. And you're not saying it with um, with fear and um, in a sense, uh, being demoralized about it or anything like that, because at the end of the, you don't need many people, you don't need a ton of people to be able to do good business.
Speaker 2:No, ma'am how's so?
Speaker 1:you got yourself fixed sort of halfway there. But I mean, you're, you're yourself, right, yeah, you're more yourself than you've ever been, um, up until now. And I can see that you're kind of like radiating with, with joy and um and bliss. Um, how's things, if I may ask, with your family, with your mom?
Speaker 2:My mom died. She did.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, when was that?
Speaker 2:My mom died on my 30th birthday.
Speaker 1:As in on your day.
Speaker 2:On my birthday.
Speaker 1:On your day.
Speaker 2:The cheek of it, the nerve. It was awful. It was awful she had lost her battle with cancer and I think it wasn't like a surprise she was in a like end of life home and, yeah, she passed on my birthday.
Speaker 1:Did you had to? At that point I suppose it was like a super big. You were expecting it, right, because it's like stage four cancer, like once you hear that it's, it's very hard. You know, I like I've lost people in in my life, not to cancer, but I've lost people when you hear that, I suppose it's like very, very hard and that was the reason why you wanted to be sober and be there for her and help her and so on. But I suppose when it happens it's also like kind of like you know, you know that that's going to happen, but when it happens it's still a very big moment. It's still a very big moment. Did you had to take a step back from certain things when that happened? And how was that period of time after your, your mom passing?
Speaker 2:she died before I had my surgery before so I was still like overcompensating with work and trying to say yes to everything. I would bring my laptop with me when I'd visit her in the end of life care home and I'd be there doing emails. And it's one of my biggest regrets I have and it's why, after I had my surgery, I changed my entire life and the way I work with people. But yeah, it was a. I just laid down for like two months after she died I didn't do anything. I paused. All my clients got so sent so many flowers. I've got so many vases. Everyone was just sending me stuff. I think if someone dies, don't don't send them flowers. Like, don't there's so many flowers, just going forward. A little bit of advice if you know someone who's a significant other, a parent, died, send them something other than flowers, because that's what they're getting, something thoughtful at least.
Speaker 2:Like I don't know, I feel like sending flowers are lovely and so thoughtful, but like send me, give me food, send me food yeah, something you need right keep me living like yeah we had so many flowers and I just I'd been grinding so much I had enough money to not move and I, I I felt like I was dead for two months as well.
Speaker 2:But I, I lost. I think I lost clients. I had my membership going so that that was helping, and the freelancer I work with came in and was really helping. My community was really, really understanding, especially because they knew how ill I was and they're like, oh my god, now my mum's died and my mum like, as I said, when you're a, when you're sick, you have, it's really hard to keep friends. When you're in a business, it's really hard to keep friends. I literally have one friend, I've got my best friend who's been with me since I was four, and then I've got my family and my mom was like my best friend, you know. So losing her it's horrendous losing a parent, but I think, because of my situation, it really hit me um and your, your sister.
Speaker 2:You have a sister she's so young she is 25, so she was 23 when she died yeah, and do you get?
Speaker 1:because you said your mom was your best friend. Is your sister your second best friend? My sister's like?
Speaker 2:my kid and she'll be right saying that like there's seven years between us. I've always been like her second mom, so she's like she is like my child. I love that. She was like oh, you're not my mom. But now she's like yeah, you kind of are my mom adoptive mom.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you said you've. Did you ever at any these stages struggle financially? Oh yeah, you did you didn't have any, any financial support, except for your you.
Speaker 2:You providing for yourself through your business yeah, so it's just, I provide for myself. I've never, I've never. I don't have any children, so I've not had to do that. Um, when I started the business, I was in debt.
Speaker 1:Well, not that in debt like well from school minus two or from from from life.
Speaker 2:I don't know how much I owe health care.
Speaker 1:Did you have to pay for any of the treatments and stuff?
Speaker 2:no, the nhs is wonderful, but I'd like calculator. You could look at online calculator. I think they've spent like over 70 grand on me or something like that, just like keeping me alive, um. But I just had no money. Like I'd work paycheck to paycheck and always be like minus to zero, minus zero. I had no idea how to manage money. Like when I moved in with my mum, that was for, like I was living with her in lockdown for I think like six months and I had I was charging people little bit, little bit money here and there, um, but I started business coaching. I started investing in business coaching very early into my business because I was like fuck, I'm gonna have to learn how to do this, and so I was making sure I made enough money to at least pay for this course I was doing wow.
Speaker 1:So you're basically leaving paycheck to paycheck and struggling financially, but yet still put money aside to take courses and educate yourself.
Speaker 2:Everything I made, thank god I was living with my mom and my grandma because they weren't charging me rent, so I had six months rent free and so I was like, right, I'm probably earning like my 500 pounds a month when I began and I just was moving that back into the business. And then I learned how much I should charge with the support of this business coaching, and I've just gone VAT registered.
Speaker 2:Oh wow, I know right, so I learned a lot. When my mum passed, I had a small inheritance, not a huge, but I took that and I put that back into business coaching again Into business coaching. Yeah, and I wanted to see, like, how can I further develop, how can I and it's it really has?
Speaker 1:it was incredible and yeah so congrats on being vat registered um for those business owners have a party when they go vat.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for those that might not be aware, that's not. They're not um uk um based vat register. Usually, when you start your business, um, you don't pay vat until you reach 80 000 pounds in uh in revenue, right, um, and only afterwards you have to register for vat and so on. So, because some people might be like, well, you, you were registered to pay extra taxes. Why are you happy? Well, the happiness is the fact that you reached a certain amount in revenue that's awesome. So so your business is booming now we're doing bits.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we me, me and my freelancers, my robot army as you grow.
Speaker 1:So if you so, what's your? If you want to talk about this, what's your year-on-year um growth for your business? Like, say, it can be a finger in the air kind of like, oh, I've doubled in in business.
Speaker 1:Or yeah you did yeah okay, how do you because you're you know, it's you, your business, it's you and only you with a couple of um kind of like helpers for certain very specific things, how do you scale from here Right Cause? Are you already reaching a point where it's like, well, you know, it's awesome, it's wonderful, I have all of these customers that are paying me for forancy and advice, but I, you know, are you reaching that point where you're like, um, there's not enough of me right now my the next two years.
Speaker 2:I want to stay where I am and I'm taking these two years to figure it out. It can either look like me getting investment to grow the membership and make that big and potentially sell that, or but I love it. I love the membership so much. I don't know. I don't know what I'm doing yet, but I'm very happy where I am because I between 80k and 120k, like there's not much difference when you're paying tax, like yeah so I want to stay where I am for now, for the next two years, and I'm still working out how to scale, but I'm very comfortable.
Speaker 1:That's good and that's. You know, that's. It sounds like you've had a crazy, crazy intense and not so positive period over the pandemic, not so positive um period over the pandemic. Um, and you know, just hearing you now, it sounds like things are changing for the better um well, I never got covid, so that's a good thing. Yes, out of it all yeah, true, um well, you were in house yeah, I was the one who got the text.
Speaker 1:Be like don't leave the house, stay inside forever um, and look, I think there's, there's these labels that we put on ourselves and society puts on us of oh, you have to be like this, you have to be like that, you have to have this amount of people around you, you have to um, you know, you have to not post about this, you have to do this.
Speaker 1:And it's like, and I honestly think you know, as long as because you know, sometimes I feel guilty that I don't have more friends, right, and and you know, and honestly, I feel so comfortable not having that many people around and actually like the stress of kind of like networking and social kind of like how should I put it? The stress of social relations kind of like, depletes me in a sense, right, so knowing, oh well, I have these friends and, oh, the birthdays are coming, so I need to, or, oh, I have these other friends and I haven't seen them in a month, well, if I want to maintain them as my friends, I need to reach out and let's go out and do stuff like that to me is putting myself out of my comfort zone. So I'm very comfortable with, you know, just not having that many friends around. Um, so I think, in general, whether being yourself and feeling comfortable in your skin and where you are is the most important thing. It is.
Speaker 1:So you know well, you said, after everything that happened, you have one true friend left Friend. You know, if you're okay with that, that's not even a thing. If you want more friends, then yeah, by all means. Now is the time to kind of like start making friends and getting more out there and so on, if you crave that. But it really depends on each individual right. So that's why I just wanted to make the point of it's not a positive or a negative a state that you're in. You make it positive or negative depending on your desires and your drives I had so much guilt around it, so much guilt around it.
Speaker 2:It's a difficult one for me, because when you get sick, you have to start saying no to going out and you have to cancel last minute and, unfortunately, after doing that for a significant amount of time, you stop getting invited to places because people will either feel like, oh, they're not going to come anyway, or I feel bad inviting her because she's just going to say no, and that's where I lost a lot of friends along the way and I also felt really guilty about not having not reaching out, not checking in.
Speaker 2:I tried putting like a friendship reach out time on my schedule but I was like fuck that. Like they should be calling me as well, like it's a two way street.
Speaker 1:Why am I putting so?
Speaker 2:much pressure on myself and I was just like, let me just see what happens, let me leave it. And yeah, I love, I love my clients so much. They really do fill me up. I don't see them as clients, I call them, I call myself, like their partner in crime, like we have so much fun together and that fills me up enough. Like I've got my family, I've got my sister, I've got my friend Tijan Tahir Name before she got married, I can't not say it. And like I've got her family. I've got my friend Tijan Tahir name before she got married. I can't not say it. And like I've got her family if I need them. You know it's really, really hard one, because that is something that I struggled with, with being feeling really guilty about it, but it it's cliche saying like running a business, it's lonely at the top but it doesn't have to be like it's all get comfortable in yourself, know what you want, you know so, but you have.
Speaker 1:You have the guilt in a sense, but do you feel that there's something missing, as in like there's, that there's an empty place, that you're like? You know, I'm not having that and I'm craving it?
Speaker 2:Not anymore.
Speaker 1:So then I think that's my point as well. It's like you shouldn't be feeling guilty at this point anymore, right? And I think when we're young, you know you said you're in your 30s now, yeah, 32. I'm 37 in a couple of months Like when you're at a certain age, you're like you don't feel the societal pressures anymore. You don't feel like, oh well, if I don't have friends, then I don't fit in, or whatever there's all of these pressures. No, at some point you're like I just need to feel fulfilled, and if these things fulfill me, I don't care about anything else yeah, 100 agreed what's the next couple of years, looking for you?
Speaker 2:well, I'm gonna have a baby. You have to have a baby yeah, that's so it's about me.
Speaker 2:That's why I want to keep my business where it is as well. I feel like doing a massive expansion right now. I'd want to pour all my energy in that, but I have to think about if I want to biologically have a child. The time is now and I do want that. So the next two years is going to be me nesting, probably moving house, having a child and, god willing, and and and just keeping my business where it is. Honestly, the next two years is me coaching one-to-one hosting, group programs and looking after my membership and just keeping that turning. I'm also in this because I'm more human. Now I'm in my like showing up unapologetically online stage. I feel like when I was sick, I played it really small and I played it really forgiving, and now I'm really like. I feel like I'm having my debutante ball. I'm like coming out with the white glove down the stairs like I'm having so much fun podcast and everything.
Speaker 2:This is what I'm saying like I'm having so much fun putting myself out there because I can and I've got the energy too, and whilst I, whilst I do have this energy, I want, I want to just do as much as possible and then you should see how bringing a tiny me into the universe plays into that.
Speaker 1:I think that's, I think you should, I think know you have to. You never know where the future takes you, right, and you know, having a mini you, it's going to be awesome and it's like probably the best, the best time of your life as well. So I hear I have kids, but there's going to be a period of kind of like, in a sense winding down, taking care of that's going to be the period of kind of like, in a sense, winding down, taking care of that's going to be the center of of your focus and so on, and I think you just spending the, you know, next year or so, just like being your best pre-kid self literally it's, it's something, because then you have something to look back and it's oh, I remember that period, oh, doing these crazy things, and so on.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I completely get plot, especially that you've kind of had your 20s in a sense stolen from you with um, with the health issues. So, by all means, do as as much and be as as you and as polarizing you as as you need to be. Okay, don't let anyone say you need to tone it down because you're a professional hell.
Speaker 1:No definitely not um, right, well, I want to get into the uh, so that. So, basically, that's how. That's how your next year is going to look. Like you, you want to make the full make, take full advantage of where you currently are. You want to have a kid in the next couple of years, and then there's going to be a period of that. So it makes sense sustaining what you currently have, rather than putting yourself in a position where things kind of like explode a bit too much and then you're like, well, I need to kind of like go on maternity leave now and take care of a kid, and what's going to happen with all of this. That's going to put a lot of stress on you. So that makes sense. Um, I have three flash questions. Um, do you know them already? You do?
Speaker 1:yeah, it's like I've practiced yeah, over here trying to look like you don't know what you're like you know, um, okay, so uh, quote yeah, so it's you can do anything, but you can't do everything yes, correct it's my favorite I think so many people don't actually realize that yeah yeah it's my absolute favorite because I am constantly like doing a million things and then if I, when I've got a crazy long list, I always come back to that yeah and it's.
Speaker 2:It was for my business coach when I before we were on a zoom call and she had it as a screensaver before she pulled up something and I was like what, what's that? And I was like that's what I need.
Speaker 1:That's a really good time really good one, yeah, and I think we should always come back to that, because sometimes you get lost and you're like, no, I can't, I should, then I can, and so on.
Speaker 2:When reality, um, awesome book that changed your life so I just started reading and doing it in the book club, in the content club, we've got a book club and it's called fuck being humble by stephanie sword williams all right it's so good, it is so what I need right now and it's really helping me like just just not be humble anymore yeah, I need to read it it's so good because I've been.
Speaker 1:I've been like I'm not, I'm not, I'm not good enough for this, like I'm not going to launch a course because this is that I don't. I don't have, I don't have the I I don't have the expertise to to teach people. I shouldn't be positioning myself. I think I need a cold shower like that yes, oh my god, yeah I need to get that book it's so good habit, good habit, that you advocate for okay, have a fun drink every day a fun drink.
Speaker 2:A fun drink, I'm sober but so every day I will go on a walk, I'll go to tesco's and I'll get myself a fun drink. So it could be like a peach iced tea or a lemonade. Like give yourself some a treat, give yourself like a little, like something a bit naughty, but like, yeah, I have a fun drink.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you, tell me, my terrible, terrible version of that tell me I have a fun drink every day as well, but my fun drink is a variation, a different version, different flavor of an energy drink I'm not.
Speaker 2:Why is that? Why is that terrible?
Speaker 1:because energy drinks are bad for you. They're not really help, they're not good. Well, you have one a day. Sometimes I have two a day, but you're so like when I you only said that, I kind of like in my head, I'm like hell yeah, like I'm addicted and and you can be addicted to what you just said because you have that expectation, like like, if you don't have that fun drink that day because you're too busy and or you can't, you're like, oh, I don't feel good, like I feel a bit miserable, like I need my fun drink. That's, that's an excitement, that's dopamine.
Speaker 1:It is you're like I go to to the corner shop and I'm like what kind of energy juice did I have today? Isn't it nice it is yeah, yeah, I'm enjoying it. It's not healthy. Some people might look at this like dude, you're addicted and of something that's not healthy, but you know, that's my guilty pleasure. What can I say?
Speaker 2:you're in shape. You obviously look after yourself, like I'm sure you counteract it with like broccoli or something.
Speaker 1:No, no, it's just like, it's my natural. Like I go to the gym, um, a bit like I've had a back injury, like three weeks ago, and I've stopped but I need to get back into the gym. I go to the gym and stuff, but I have, um, I have something that people are very envious and which is like a very fast metabolism, so like I can eat the biggest crap ever and and I don't eat greens that much. But like I, I don't gain crazy weight and and if I eat, if, if I don't watch and I don't eat properly, you get tiny like I, I get skinny again. And for me, that's because I grew up I'll show you some pictures afterwards like I was like 50 kgs, like super, super skinny and very hard gainer, so that.
Speaker 1:But that's that to me, that's my. I would rather be um plus size and extra than skinny. That's that's my. I would rather be plus size and extra than skinny. That's my worst nightmare. So I have to eat constantly. So some people would be like, oh, fuck you, you're so lucky. But for me it's like no, I'm like, I'm the opposite.
Speaker 1:Like I have a phobia of being skinny. So, yeah, well, thank you so much for that. And I agree, deeply agree, with the fun drink. But you know, for everyone that's listening, maybe have a healthy fun drink, maybe try some various smoothies every single day, or something like that. And thank you again for coming over.
Speaker 1:Honestly, your conversation, as for someone like me, can be heavy. Right, I think you're kind of embracing and you're seeing the positive side of things. Not even glass half full, it's just like you're in a way, better condition and state than you were and that's that brings you joy and happiness. Yeah, you know me, hearing it is, it's heavy, but seeing you, how, how, how much you radiate and how positive you take life right now, it just it just fills me with joy as well and empowers me and I go, okay, okay, that's. You know it's not, it's been a bad situation. But look, taking that and being in a positive state and living your life at its fullest although you've had these crazy challenges in the past, you know it kind of like inspires me and I'm hoping that it will inspire everyone that's watching this, this podcast, to say I can be who I want to be, I can be positive, I can overcome these things. Look, she was able to. Why should I not?
Speaker 2:yeah, honestly, like I've had so much turmoil and shit happen in my life, I haven't got time to like to soak soak.
Speaker 2:I have cried, I have been in pain, I have been there and I'm like if, if I have the body and I am feeling good, like I need to lean into it and I need to use all of this good energy, like when I work with my clients. We always like time block and plan out the time, but I always say shit can and will happen at any time and it will hit you every day if you want it to. But you have to choose how you deal with that and how you come out of it exactly very, very powerful words, especially coming from you, right?
Speaker 1:I feel that there's a lot of us that have haven't been that challenged um where you know, but coming from you, they're very powerful. So thank you so much for for accepting to come all the way from london and do this I really appreciate it and bring me back.
Speaker 1:Yes, I will definitely. I want. I want to see how things um um evolve from here and and where you get and I'm sure I'm going to see you a lot more online, because you seem like you're a force to be reckoned with at the moment. So, thank you so much.
