01: Why we started this podcast

It's episode one and Chris, Em and Rah bang on about the motivations for starting this podcast (in short: Empowering women entrepreneurs, maintaining integrity in business practices and calling out bullsh*t).

Number of f*cks given in this episode: 8

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Episode transcript

Christine: Why? Why want to do a podcast? Um, I think there is just, well, it is true. Aside from that, M said I had to do it. I'm the boss of the world. She is the boss. Uh, M made me a t shirt and a mug and, um, put it in my diary. So I am here. Um, but seriously, why there is so much misleading stuff out there. Um, And, you know, Oh, let me tell you how to make six figures in four months.

Oh, I hate that. Or, you know, I got handed a website and I didn't even know what to do with it and hence I never updated it. And, um, And being shut down because I have an opinion. Um, um, you know, I just think it's important to tell it like it is. And it's not all unicorns and rainbows and it's not full flowing piggy banks and what not.

It is just damn straight work but, and hard work and juggling. But it's important that anybody, it doesn't matter what the business is. It is just seriously important to gather as much information as you can if you're going to go out on this wild ride of being in business. Um, and unless women like us don't share the authentic truth of our journey, um, other people are going to start upon this journey.

Well, you know, whether we share information or not is not going to stop people going into business, women going into business. But you know what? You just need to. You need to tell it like it is sometimes and hard truth hurts, but at least you can then do something about it as a new business builder, owner or someone wanting to make some changes.

It's nice to go, Oh, that person did that to pivot away for whatever. Um, I'm going to give that a go. And that's important. Which is literally fucking around and finding out. Absolutely. And I must say, when I started, I wasn't a fuck around and find out kind of person, because I really needed to be told how to do something.

And, you know, I remember And this is the

Rah: correct way and the only

Christine: way you should be doing it. Oh, absolutely. And, you know, it used to come back to that thing about, oh, have an iPhone. It's intuitive. And it's, and this isn't about iPhones versus Samsung and all of that sort of stuff, but I was never an intuitive person as in, I didn't want to muck around and try and find out how to make something work.

You wanted the recipe so you could make the cake. I did. Absolutely. Which is so funny that you say that, Ra. Because, you know, my husband would say give me the recipe for, you know, your bolognese sauce and I can't tell him what it is. You know, it's the old Bernard King, and I'll show my age, but the old Bernard King splash of this and a glug of that, that was how my mother cooked.

So it's interesting that we talk about the analogy of just, you know, different recipes and just trial and error. I wasn't that kind of person. Outside of the kitchen. Um, but, um,

Rah: now m because you are much younger than us, Bernard King was one of the original TV chefs That's right. Back in the eighties.

Celebrity chef. Yeah.

Christine: So, um, yes, it is so much more, um, than that, but I'm, I must say, after, you know, the time. After a few years now, I do fuck around a little bit more, and I think I've, you know, I'm really lucky I've got him to help me and support me and stuff like that, but you know what? I set my laptop up all by myself.

It might have taken me a year, almost, to unbox it. And poking for me to actually unbox it. That's right, but I sorted it out. There were tears and swearing, but I sorted it out myself. And that was a, for me, that was a huge fuck around and find out if I could do it. Yep.

Rah: Technology makes people cry. You need to acknowledge this.

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And I say this is someone who works with technology. Yes. Yes. Mm-Hmm? . Yes. Cool at you. Technology. So my why. So a, any excuse to work with you two. Cause you two are amazing. She secretly means I

Emily: also forced her into it.

Rah: Well, I think it may have been because I said that I edit other people's podcasts and you're like, Ooh, podcasts. I've been wanting to do one and I'm going to

Emily: rip you into it right now.

Rah: Um, so yeah, so I've been editing other people's podcasts for. Eight ish kind of years now, I don't know if I've told you to, but I did have a podcast back in the day with one of my besties, Liz.

It was called the cat lady podcast. We had a theme song and it goes cat lady podcast. com and it was a little ukulele, like Phoebe buffet vibes. Yes. Yeah. It was a little bit. Yeah. A little bit. Um, yeah. Um, so yes, so very interested in the whole podcasting thing and it's some of the editing is what I do for a job.

Um, but also I love what podcasts do. in terms of you become audio besties with people who you've never met in real life. And I mean that in both ends of the relationship. So people who are listening, like I listen to podcasts a lot. I work with podcasters, um, listen to a lot of podcasts and the ones that I love listening to are the ones where it feels like I'm talking to a mate, but I'm just hanging around in the background and not talking because I'm too busy having a coffee or a wine depending on the time of day, you know, sort of that virtual community, which became really apparent during the COVID years of You need to create your own community in the ways that you can find them.

Christine: You

Rah: know, it's harder to get out and about and meet people, especially in business, networking, which obviously is how we met, but that's not always accessible. And having things, you know, that you can listen to when you're walking the dog, feeding the kids, hanging out the laundry, those sorts of things. For me, it's when I'm cleaning out the cat litter.

Why I actually started working for myself, specifically working with women, because that's what I do, is about. Um, helping women build their confidence in their business to make sure that they can do what they are naturally born to be doing, but doing it more efficiently and having more confidence to actually grow their business and build that tech confidence up and that marketing confidence up.

And to me, having, uh, a podcast that can do that as well. To me, it's like a win win. Oh, I love that. Win win, win win win. Yeah, can't agree more. So, you know, like the people that we've got lined up for the episodes, um, these are all women who are frigging amazing and they deserve their, their time in the sun.

And if we can help them, In that way, yeah, it's literally win, win, win, win, like it's more wins. Yeah, getting all the balls in all the holes. Is that how it works in some sports? Absolutely, you know,

Christine: and if you know, and we can, you know, give them coverage, we can share something. If somebody listening to us even just takes one little thing away from this, then that's one positive thing to help them.

Emily: And it's nice to be able to give everyone their. Shout out for the businesses and what they do. But also it's a very, it's a very diverse range of women too, in their businesses that we have lined up. It's fascinating. Some of them are absolutely incredible and really interesting and things you wouldn't really think to hear about as well.

Rah: And that's the part that I'm really enjoying about the conversations we've already had for people that we've got coming up and then the future conversations that we've got planned that, yeah, there's so much shit that we can be learning and being, um, a business owner, you need to be continuously learning.

Oh yeah, it's never ending. You can't sit still. So speaking of sitting still, Em, you're sitting next to me with a bit of a jiggle in your seat. Oh, I can't sit still. No, she

Christine: can't, can't at all. Small leg wiggler.

Rah: Yeah, spot the ADD kid. Oh yeah, 100%, that's me. So what's your why for the podcast? You are a rainbow girl today.

Emily: Yeah, my, my, I get wildly frustrated, like Chris said, hearing about people's business experiences that have been sold to them as something more than whatever the reality would be. And I get very irritated when I hear about people that have had experiences with, um, working for small businesses, and they have been mistreated, they have been paid peanuts and well, well below what they ever should, or have been.

thrown under the bus and, and just mishandled. And those businesses also tend to not be run correctly either. And, um, that makes me really, really. Pissy. I'm a very angry human being. Um, but it's,

Rah: you're an advocate as part of that, like that anger is in that position of wanting to

Emily: make it better and make people aware and make people more accountable for their behavior.

I think running a small business too, you can't sit on someone's invoice for six months. You know, people have mouths to feed and families to look after and you know, cats to feed and, and whatever. And you can't just, you can't not pay people and you can't not. Be accountable for your own behavior. If you're running a business, you're the one that's in charge and you have to be accountable for what you do.

And you can't blame. I hate the blame game. I'm a really big anti blame game. Cause I've had some very traumatic experiences in that throughout my corporate life. And I will always be that person that immediately diffuses the blame game too, by being like, yep, it's my fault. Put it on me because then it freaks them out a little bit as well.

But you can't blame other people for your business shortcomings and you can't blame other people for your business, you know, losing a client or anything like that. When you're the one that's actually running the business and you're the one responsible for that business, you need to be own it up and you need to be ahead of the curve.

And you need to be the face of your business. And that's something that obviously Chris and I do religiously is being very authentic and being, um, making sure integrity is like the top of the game for our business as well. Like it's literally, it's literally in our three motto words. Um, but it's also, you know, as a mom, the The way in which you change becoming a mum is very, um, intense sometimes for people and your sense of self changes drastically and you can sometimes feel a bit trapped and like you've lost yourself and you don't know who you are anymore and when the corporate world doesn't fit that mould anymore and you don't fit the mould for the corporate world, you know, having a business allows you another option.

To find a mode that you can create yourself that works perfectly for you and your family and your environment. And it's also really important. So they hear different experiences of people that have done exactly that and that it isn't, you know, it's scary, but it's not that scary and you can do it. And it's very, very achievable and to believe in yourself a little more, but also then he is a bunch of people who can, can help us walk through that just by listening to everyone's experiences.

I think that's, yeah, it's really, it's really, really important to Beata. Not being a bad situation.

Rah: Yeah, because you don't you can't do or fix what you don't know or don't know is broken

Emily: Exactly. Yeah, and it's also you know, I'm very big on Making people I liked people to be accountable for their behavior and me emotionally intelligent and bet in how they behave and You see I know we we've seen a lot of businesses that don't do that and how they run and it's really sad

Rah: yeah, and the almost power imbalance that happens because women, naturally, are sort of apologising for taking up space.

Oh God, yes. Especially when, um.

Emily: Constantly.

Rah: Yeah, especially when, and more so in business, um, and yeah, it's about showing what's possible and what is okay to push back on.

Emily: And I think it's also empowering too, like one of the things I always struggle with a little bit. Is, you know, if my mother ever hears this, she'll hopefully know what I'm talking about and know that I don't mean it in a bad way.

But, my mum, like, the, you know, my mum has had her own experiences with her own business, and when I was a child, a teenager, and for whatever reason, you know, they ended up not doing it. Going, like, continuing their business, they shut it down, but mum's trauma from her business experience she does send to AXS sometimes apply to me.

Even though it's different, completely different, very, very different, but mum's worried. She knows what she went through and she worries about what I will go through and so, you know, it's feeling, for me, it's like, I sometimes feel like I don't have that support. But when I know she does support me, but it's just her mindset and the way she kind of sometimes executes the section is not like, I, I hear it in a different way to what she means.

So that's, that's just our own dynamic coming through there. But yeah, um, it's, it's being at it, like feeling supported. And I think that was one of the big things for me joining forces with Chris, I doubted myself every second of every day when it was just me. Being like, I'm literally faking this till I make it, like I'm, I have no fucking clue what I'm doing kind of thing.

Even though I did, well you're so old, that's how you live life. That was the biggest learning I had. Yeah, you have to fake it till you make it. Cause you, you false, give yourself false confidence, which then will turn into real confidence. But you know, when Chris and I joined, one of the first things I said to her like a few, like a month or two down the track was like, I have not once freaked out.

Not once. Wow. And that tells me that this was exactly the right thing to do. Yeah, and we've come so far in our one year than I ever would have gone on my own as well. Like either of us possibly it would have gone on our own. And, but I just don't, I'm not worried anymore. Like I have faith that this is a hundred percent the right thing that we're doing.

That's awesome. And, you know, I don't want to, I don't want, like, I don't want other people to feel that same thing, like, and it's really hard sometimes when you're on your own, it's isolating on your own, if you're running a business on your own. I think she says looking at me a bit sad because I'm, I am my own business.

I know you are. But you do it really well because you get out on your network and you're out there all the time. So it's not like you're just sitting alone at home behind a computer. Like, yeah, this does need some energy from other people

Christine: to God. Yeah. I mean, you know, before I entered into business for myself, you know, besides the safety net of having a job, I was within a team and I was within a team of women.

It was just naturally the department we were in and it was just chock full of amazing, amazing women. And so to then be in my home. on my own. And okay, COVID hit. So everything changed. But even if we put aside COVID, I had an identity crisis because, you know, I didn't know who I was and I didn't have a team and people.

Um, very alone to try and sort out stuff and, you know, headset going all, head going all over the place. So you know, this kind of thing, if you know, like this message, this, any kind of information that we can share, or just to show that what you're feeling now is normal, um, Is just the best thing that we could do as like a pay it forward kind of activity.

Yep. Um, and yeah. Let's be honest, women are

Emily: really going to run the world one day, like.

Rah: Oh, well and this is the thing, the world is geared towards men. Oh yeah. And.

Emily: Yeah. Um,

Rah: I mean, we've all had our own experiences with corporate life and corporate life didn't work for us because it's been designed by men.

Absolutely. And they're the ones who can't cope that women have hormonal cycles generally, God, let alone when you have kids, like the discrimination I have witnessed as a childless person by choice, seeing how mothers get discriminated against. It's really bad. It's fucking awful and it's not right and it is literally illegal.

It doesn't

Emily: stop anyone.

Rah: No, it doesn't. And this is why so many women try to start their own businesses. Because they need to create what works for them. Because And a safe space. The corporate world can't cope with that.

Emily: No, and also like, I mean, nowadays it's a bit better because most places will do flexible working.

And in a way, thank

Rah: God for COVID because it made it really, yeah. Definitely, but like

Emily: when I had my son in, you know, back in 2017, They, like, I had to, I was thankfully had already negotiated a day from home, at least. But, who on earth can sit five days in an office? With a kid? Like, it, not only, it's literally unattainable because Centrelink covers a hundred hours.

That doesn't cover, um, two, over, sorry, a hundred hours a fortnight. So two, over two weeks, you're allowed up to 100 hours covered by Centrelink, but the daycares charge you 12 hours a day. So at minimum, you can, like, we only if I ever had four days, because that's the most we could handle without having, it just costs too much money to have five days.

Yep, but even like, Four days cost so much money. Daycare costs so much money. And so you're left with no alternative, but at least nowadays you can work from home a couple days. And it is hard. It's very hard to work with kids at home. You find something that works for you because you just can't afford otherwise.

Yeah, absolutely. And that's why people start businesses.

Christine: Oh, God, yes. I mean, I think of all the struggles I had with trying to sort out vacation care and everything, and, um, you know, I, if I had worked, if I had had my own business, I know that that would have been a completely different journey. Um, it doesn't necessarily mean my life would have been anything easier, but it was just a, you know, it was just hard, hard work,

Emily: um, type of thing.

Well, I'm lucky now that, you know, my son, when he needs vacation care. He doesn't really need it now, because I'm home and I'm able to be there and he's able to hang out with me and he's, you know, now very used to having me work while he's at home, so he's pretty good with it. But it saves me the money of having to worry where to put him.

Christine: Oh God, yes. Yeah.

Rah: Absolutely. It's the freedom and flexibility that I need. Yeah. Yeah. And so that is the short version as to why, thank you for being generous with that statement. No problem. Yes. So that's the short version as to why fuck around and find out the podcast exists, but also what we want to see in the business world, which is women supporting women and men supporting women.

Yes.

Christine: That would be nice. That would be awesome.

Emily: We are very much for women, by women. That's right.

Rah: Yeah. Exactly. And yeah, so over the next. Sort of 10 episodes as we kickstart this baby. We'll yeah. We talking to each other about different elements of having businesses. Um, but also we'll have amazing women come in and talk to us as well.

I know we're getting on our soapbox.

And yeah. So thanks for joining us for this little intro and yeah. Well, I hope you join us for the episodes as they come out.

Emily: It's going to be amazeballs. It's going to be so amazeballs. Like and subscribe. Yes. Oh my god,

Christine: with lots of exclamation marks. With all our

Rah: Riz, we have to start using the young lingo to make sure we're capturing the younger market.

Riz? Riz? Riz charisma. Oh my god. I was like, what does that mean? Oh my god, it was the word of the year 2023. Oh god. Which I hadn't heard of until it was the word of the year. Um, we're

Emily: young and cool, I swear. Yes. We're dressed as rainbow unicorns.

Rah: That's right. And so if you would like a special occasion in your ears, be sure to listen to the next episode of fuck around and find out.

Emily: And if you'd like to actually feature in one of our episodes, Yes! Oh my god, yes please! Please click the link and fill out our form and we'll be in touch because we'd love to hear from everyone.

Rah: So we'll put the links in the show notes, um, social media, websites, um, also the form if you wanted to come and join us and share your violent opinions on things because we are here for

Emily: it.

Rah: Love it. Bring it.

See you soon. Love you guys.