Unintentionally building a 7 figure business with Emma Williams

Transcript

* Transcript created by AI – may contain errors or omissions from original podcast audio

CLARE: Can you imagine if your boss bought you a designer handbag as a thank you for all your hard work? Today’s guest on the podcast, Emma Williams, the founder of Maxx Marketing, did just that for her team. Even though she’s built a thriving seven figure business, she never set out to create that. She simply wanted to help people and create impact and that’s one of the reasons why she loves to invest back in the team that helped her to build her business. I love today’s episode as a breath of fresh air talking about money, and I hope you enjoy this episode too.

Hello and welcome to the podcast, Emma, it’s so wonderful to have you here and to be diving into a little bit about your business journey and specifically with the lens of money. So would you like to share a little bit about your business journey and, and a bit about your business?

EMMA: Yeah, thanks for having me, Clare. My business journey has been going for almost 5 years now in this business. So I had 2 businesses prior and this is my 3rd baby. I feel like it took me 3 goes to figure out exactly what I wanted to do. I started the business, $85, 000 in debt and used a $3, 000 tax return to start it. Which took a lot of convincing, from my husband but here we are now a multimillion dollar agency that is really heart led.

I built this business purely because I was a stay at home mom, FIFO wife and I really wanted to help other women to feel empowered in their business. And so came this agency which has other women in it who also work from home. Five years in and we’re still doing that.

CLARE: And so you, you’re a digital marketing, is it a full digital marketing agency?

EMMA: Yeah. So we specialise in particular in organic marketing. We have an approach where we either can teach you how to grow your business or we can do it for you. So I was always told at the very beginning of my business, you’re crazy if you build a business that does both. It’s too many offerings. You won’t succeed. And I was like, no, there is two types of people in this world. There’s two types of entrepreneurs. There’s people like me who are like, if I don’t know how to do something, I’m going to throw myself into it. And I’m going to learn everything there is, and I’m going to be a bloody wizard wizard. Or there’s people that are like, I cannot, like, don’t even try and talk to me about a bloody reel. I cannot like, I will just pay you to do it. And so there’s two types of business owners I feel in the entrepreneurial space. And so we built an agency around catering for both of those customers.

CLARE: And how do your live events fit into your, I guess, marketing offering funnel?

EMMA: Four years ago back before COVID, I found that, I guess I was one of the first in my industry five years ago to really start to spill the beans on how to grow a business. I got so much hate when I first started was like, basically, why are you giving away all of these free tips? Why are you telling people how to run their business? Or like, why are you giving this free advice? They should be paying you. I was the only one in that space five years ago doing that. That is how I built a wonderful community around that because they were like, Hey, this woman literally does care about us and wants to see us succeed. And I will always say, I mean, when I first started my second business, I was working for $1.50 an hour purely because I just loved what I did. And I will always say, I wish I could work for free, but unfortunately I have three children that I need to provide for.

So I started out giving free advice, helping women and that built a wonderful community. And then what I realised is every person who was building a business at home was so lonely, so isolated, wished that they had other people to talk to. And my first workshop that I did here in Perth, it was a 30 person workshop. And just watching these women come together and build these wonderful friendships and they’re still friends nearly four and a half years later. They’re all still friends. They all come to every event. They even come into the Gold Coast one. They’re all amazing women. And I left that and I went, well, I want to do this on a larger scale because I have a lot of Eastern States customers that they literally messaging being like, Oh my God, I wish we had something like this. I wish we could meet other like minded individuals. And there was no Instagram events. Like there was no events where people could come together and so that’s where Sip and Socials was formed. It was never a, about the business, it was just literally about the community I had built and bringing these women together so that for a night they could feel seen, heard by women that got them on that, that level.

CLARE: Yeah, let’s, let’s talk a little bit about the money side of events because we were chatting before we push the record about these. What’s one of the biggest myths about running live events?

EMMA: Oh, my God, Clare, I wish I was literally just saying to you, I wish people knew the amount of money that goes into this. I remember I did a Perth event a couple of years ago and we had Sophie Keisha and Emmylou Loves there. And that it got some attention from trolls and they were like, Oh my God, you know, 350 tickets at this amount, like $200 a ticket. This is how much money she’s making. What a rort. Hand on heart, this event, which is our 12th event is the first time we’re making any profit. And it’s again, anyone that works in events will tell you, you do not make money from events. You do not. It’s what you do with that event that you make money from. This event is costing us nearly $190, 000 and going out of 600 tickets at $269, because there’s nowhere near what it’s costing. What they see is a beautiful night and how much the tickets cost, but what they don’t see is 12 months worth of work and the staff wages to do that, the time, effort and all of the things that go into that and people assume that these events are money, huge, big money makers for the people that are hosting them. But really, for me, it’s again about my mission, and that’s to bring my community together, and it’s not about money making for me. And I know that’s the worst thing you can sort of do in business, but it’s again, how you make those people feel and bringing them together. That is a lifelong thing. That is, you know, they’re going to be, I’m going to be at the forefront of their mind when they need something for business. Events certainly are not money makers.

CLARE: I know. Well, you know, I’ve run you know, retreats and live events myself. And I remember my brother said to me so I was selling the tickets for $99. And I think quite frankly, that’s pretty cheap for a live event. You know, you get drinks, you get a copy of the book and I’m like, dude, I’m running at a massive loss on this. And he’s like at a hundred dollars a ticket. And I’m like, I swear to you, I am running at a massive, massive loss. And he’s like, why would you do that? And I was the same. I’m like, you have to understand it’s a different reason why you do these things like the buzz, the energy, the connections, bringing people together. And yes, also there are like profit activities that come off the back because people meet you in real life. They build that bond connection and then, you know, they will think of you when they are looking for their agency or coach or whatever.

It was something really interesting for me, I remember Emma Isaacs who runs business chicks said something similar that basically people were attacking her about the cost of tickets, specifically for the Richard Branson retreat that she runs. And they are super like, it’s like $50, 000 a head. And she said, we do not make any profit on that event. She’s like, hand on heart, we don’t. And it’s just interesting and I can imagine because it must cost you a bloody arm and a leg to hire Richard Branson’s Island, right? And you know, let alone catering. And if you, particularly if you want to do events well, which I know you’re really passionate about and I am as well, like we don’t want to run a, a low cost scrimpy event. You want it to be beautiful and you want people to have a really abundant and expansive experience.

 So let’s talk about where you do make money then. So which parts of your business are the most profitable for you?

EMMA: I would say our six figure course is probably, we run that twice a year is, is when we get the biggest cash injection in a quick 10 days. But that is then also spread, you know, the six figure course that we do twice a year is run over three to four months. So we run that behind the scenes. So while it’s on socials for 10 days, promoting it to get that intake, it’s then run behind the scenes for three months. And so for the last three years, I think we’ve had after this round finishes, we’ve had 3, 500 people do the course and grow to build six, six figure businesses from that course.

 And our digital products. So when I first started out, it was like, you are a great business coach. You, you’re great at this, but ultimately your money comes from digital products, things that people can download and do themselves in their own time. So the digital products. It’s also because it doesn’t take up any of our time or effort. It’s just there for people to purchase when they want to learn that particular topic. So one of the thing I would say is, is build something that sells in your sleep.

CLARE: Yes. Love that. The scalability, the scalability is where it’s at. So question then, if you’ve got these two arms of your business, have you ever been tempted to shut down the delivery arm and focus in on the digital side?

EMMA: Absolutely. I think with the change of the economy this year, that certainly has crossed my mind because the thing is digital products, you know, 12 months ago, sold so much more, people weren’t thinking about a $17 product, they’re like, yeah, that’s cool I need that answer. Whereas now the $17 product is where they do stop and think on that $17 product.

But then what we’ve found is like the other side of it, where it’s the done for you is picking up because their business owners are just so burnt out. They’re like, I don’t want to do it like, it sort of goes in waves based on where small businesses at for me, like my, my customer is that small business owner. So it goes in those waves of what the economy is doing. So yeah, the done for you is a lot of staff and staff time versus digital is a lot less. And so for a business advisor, they probably come in and be like, well, just do digital. But like, that doesn’t, isn’t what set my soul on fire, you know and I’m big believer in just because something makes money doesn’t mean you have to go all into that. You can do something that also makes you happy and both make me happy.

CLARE: Yeah. I love that. And it’s so true because, you know, even as a money person myself, I’m like, money isn’t going to make you happy if you’re doing something you hate. So you really do have to, and if you want to build a sustainable business, it has to be something that you enjoy and you know, that’s going to evolve over time as well. Like who you are when you start your business and the, you know, as your kids are growing, that the things that you enjoy doing will change over time as well. And that’s okay. But I love, love, love that you’re, you know, being heart led, which is what you said is important to you. And, and yeah, really living the truth around that.

So talk to me about your team. So do you have an office or is everyone working remotely?

EMMA: Everyone works remotely. It’s pretty wild to think that we’re a large agency, but none of us work together. I would absolutely love that, but I have Incredible women that I’ve worked with for the last few years. I couldn’t imagine being like, Hey, I’m going to open up an office in Perth and see you later. I just could never do that. The way I run my business is my staff, a family to me and We’ve become incredibly good friends and yeah, we are able to run the agency. It actually works really well because they’re 2 to 3 hours ahead, depending on daylight savings. So they’re sort of getting out way before us. So we’ve got like customer service that works around, you know, longer hours because I’m in WA but yeah, we run all remotely. We meet once a week on a Monday to go over everything we need to, but we also talk all day, every day. Sometimes we’ll sit in zooms and not say a word for two hours, but we’re just there, it works really well. I mean, who the hell do you need to go into to physically see somebody in an agency? Everything is done digitally now thanks to COVID. So, the overheads of not having offices and things like that just, Again, is why my business has worked the way it is.

CLARE: Yeah. I have to admit the accountant in me is always like, it’s not don’t do office spaces because sometimes, you know, that’s really important to people that excites them or that’s how they get their vibe and energy, but it absolutely is an overhead that, you know, I work with a lot of digital marketing agencies and I’m like, If you really want to do it, like you’ve got to do it, it’s your business, but I’m like, you really want to make that decision, like not, you know, with a lot of intent around it because it definitely can, can add up, but you’re right.

It’s funny because something I noticed I actually was speaking, we’re looking to renovate at the moment and I was speaking to a builder this morning and they said, Oh, you need to come into the office. And I’m like, Why? I mean, I work from home. I’ve got total flexibility, but I’m like, that means I’ve got to like put a bra on. I’m like, can’t we just do a zoom? And they were like sure. And I was like, that’s so old school. I don’t want to do that as a customer, I want ease. I want to be able to do things remotely. I just want to be able to send a message or an email and, and get things done. So I love that you also Running the digital team can agree with that.

Did you ever have plans that this is like, when you got started, were you like setting the vision and did you have dreams that you’d be running a multimillion dollar agency or has it just kind of happened?

EMMA: Definitely not. We all go into business being like, Oh, I want to build this successful business, but I certainly didn’t think I would build The community that I have, the relationships I’ve built, the experiences we’ve had, and most and foremost, the friendships that I’ve built in my team. I didn’t have the best childhood so to me, those, the women that work alongside of me and my sisters. So I absolutely did not, did not envision this for me.

I still have to pinch myself like, what the hell? But I remember getting to the point when I, when I left my second business and started this one within the first three months, I hit the six figure mark and I was at the point and again, I didn’t have a business coach. I didn’t know what the heck I was doing. I was just winging it. And I got to that three month mark and I was like, well, I can either be sold out like this, I’m at full capacity can’t do any more. And at that time, all I was doing was sort of social media management and business coaching. I was doing like 4 to 5 hours a day of Coaching on the phones and also managing, I think it was six accounts. The good thing was that those six accounts I literally got them from zero. They started from zero and are still going and a million dollar businesses now. And I was just managing their socials and I was like, well, I can either bring on a team and teach them my organic methods and how I do things. That is my point of difference and grow a team to expand and help more people, or I can stay doing what I’m doing. And I went, well, I want to make more of a difference. I want to help more people. And so that’s what we did. And here we are now.

CLARE: I love that. And what’s your vision? Like now that your business has grown, do you have a vision for what the future looks like? What gets you excited about the next level?

EMMA: Like, you know, I’ve really been toying with this over the last 12 months. It’s because it’s changed a little bit. But for me, when I first hit that million dollars, I was like, great, like 5 million. Let’s go. Like, my accountant was pumping out. He’s like, you can do it. Let’s get to it. And then what I realised this year, I went back to being like by the end of last year, I was so burnt out because it was just like hustled, like I had this, do this, do more of this, like grow there, do this. And actually this year, what we’ve done is gone, it’s okay to stay stagnant. And at that point at here, like instead of growing or down, we’re just staying here. And to me I’m okay with that because I’m not burning myself out. I’m building that work life balance. And to me that, and I think I’ve really taken this year being like, well, that doesn’t, isn’t what set my soul on fire.

So I’m not going to do that anymore and really got to a point. I feel like when you get to that five year mark in business, you’re like things and you’re like, no, not doing that. Like really rethink things. And so this is, that’s, we’ve set a lot of systems and structures in place. So for me right now, I’m okay with being okay and I know it sounds ridiculous, but I’m happy where I am.

CLARE: Yeah. I know. I love that. That’s fantastic. So is there any plans at all to change or to add new offerings or more events?

EMMA: Probably not more events. I started hosting retreats, which is something that I really love. They’re really more so like self development, I have this incredible way of making women come out of their shell and realise who they are and their worth. And so we’ve started doing retreats. Last year, yeah, we had two last year and one this year, and so I sort of really want to dive into that more because it is life changing. But yeah, going into more sort of that expanding on more social media avenues. So going into like Tik Tok and those sorts of things while we are there now, but just expanding on more of those offerings.

 I guess because the thing is social media makes you look at like you can look at other agencies and be like, oh, they’re doing all those things. But to me, I’m like, why, you know, this is our offering. So right now nurturing the community that we have and the things that we’re doing in terms of future definitely more retreats and more one on one sort of things.

CLARE: Yeah. Awesome. So let’s talk about the growth of your business. You know, you’ve built a really successful agency. What are some of the things that you’ve been able to enjoy or do differently now that you’ve got a bigger business? Like what are the things you love to spend money on?

EMMA: Well, I’m not a very traditional boss and the accountant in you is probably going to die over this. I remember at the very beginning of my business journey seeing, I can’t even remember who it was, but it was a very large company, and for Christmas, she brought all of her staff around the world trip. And gave them $10, 000 spending money and it was like 200 staff and it was this huge thing. And I remember looking at my husband and being like, that’ll be me one day. And this statement that I’m going to say, I don’t know if you’ll like this one, but for me is what’s the point in having profit if you don’t reward the ones that get you that profit.

So I like to reward my staff when we hit certain milestones or hit certain things. Like last Christmas I brought them a Louis Vuitton handbag each. And when we hit certain, like if we do a launch and it hits a certain thing, I’ll set, you know, I’ll buy them things like that. And everyone’s like, well, you could just give them a bonus or you could just, and I’m like, but the thing is, if they get money, where does that go? It goes into bills or mortgage, or it’s like, I want to reward the very person, the woman who has worked her fricking ass off to help me build this business, and she is never going to go and buy herself that handbag because she’s a mother and a wife, you prioritise your children in your family. First, if I can give her that and they look at that every time they walk into their wardrobe and be like, I worked hard for that. That to me is rewarding.

So I love to take them on holidays. Whenever I’m traveling, I seem to always have three to four sort of staff members with me. I’ll take them with me everywhere I go. I’m like, I don’t want to be alone. I’m not going to learn. You come with me. So yeah, I, I like to make my staff very much a part of the enjoyable things I get out of it.

I really love to travel. You love to be on planes and experiencing and going out for dinners with clients and things like that, that’s I love that part of my business. Whereas I couldn’t do that if I had to stay just doing social media management. Now I get to enjoy the luxuries of life, I guess you could say, which to me is food, food, travel.

CLARE: And it sounds like your love language is gift giving because it sounds like you get a lot of enjoyment out of that. That’s so beautiful. Sounds like such a cool place to work by the way. I’m sitting here going, wow, there you go. And again, maybe you saw a change in the future, but like for me, if someone gifted me a Louboutin bag, I’d be like, Oh my gosh, but I wouldn’t go and buy one for myself, even though I can. Yeah, so that’s a really cool methodology.

And I think the thing with money, like when I think about money and freedom and everything like that. It’s like, what’s important to you and your money values, like just because other people choose to do it in a different way, if that doesn’t feel good or aligned to you. Like, for example, for me, if I was like, okay, we’ll just never travel and put all the money aside and have a big bank account. I’m like, why? And then I die with a whole ton of money and I haven’t actually got to live my life. Like I’m I love to travel. And so for me, I’m like, That is me enjoying my money. And and yeah, food’s the other big thing for me as well. Probably not the wardrobe as you can see. You know, this, this shirt jumper that I’ve got on must be at least 10 years old.

So what tips would you have for someone who’s getting started in business, particularly in the space of digital marketing?

EMMA: Oh, gosh. Educate yourself is the most important. Educate yourself because a lot of people regardless of startup or where you’re at is you can always learn more. I always like to say you need to spend 10 minutes a day learning something you didn’t know yesterday. And that is how you will grow your business. You don’t know what you don’t know. Whereas, you know, yesterday I learned something about SEO and I was like, Holy shit I did not know that. And like, now I’m like, right, cool we’re going to action that we’re going to do that. You know? So it’s It’s educating yourself so that you can grow your business.

A lot of people spend their money on stock or building this big warehouse or they put it all in the wrong parts of the business when in actual fact, when you educate yourself that is how you can grow and scale your business.

CLARE: And what about the fear? Because the big thing that I hear, and I’m sure you do too, is like people are like, yeah, I know that I’ve got to do that thing. I know that I’ve got to learn that thing. But when it actually comes to spending the money, whether it’s joining the course or hiring the coach or hiring the digital marketing agency, that fear comes up.

So what advice would you have for someone Experiencing that when they’re looking at investing in their growth.

EMMA: The thing is, as women, for example, we’ll go and drop $250 bucks on a hairdresser, no dramas. Cause we know that we need our regrowth done every three months. But if you were to spend… you’ve got $250 to spend on your business, that’s also going to get you a return. They’re gonna, Essentially c**kblock themselves because they’re going to go, Oh no, I could probably put that towards, you know, the eynergy bill or the food shopping or this, what you’ve got to remember is that you only get out what you put into your business. Why do you pay for, you know, your child’s education, but yet you don’t pay for your own just because you’ve left school doesn’t mean you stop learning.

CLARE: Yeah, a hundred percent. I love that.

EMMA: And one way I like to look at it is break it down per day. You know, like if it’s $900 and they’re saying it’s going to take five months to sort of implement that, then break that $900 down per day. And what does that give you? Because then that to me is like, I’m like, when I see $900, I’m like, Oh, shit that’s expensive. Whereas if I’m like, it’s $10 bucks a day.

CLARE: Yeah.

EMMA: Like to me, I can make $10 bucks a day. That means selling one of this… Then cool, I’ll work, I’ll bust my ass to pay for that $10 that day to cover that.

CLARE: Yeah. Yeah. And I think so many people focus on the cost of something and not what it’s costing them to not invest if that makes sense.

I know that I’ve made that mistake so many times. I’m like, I can just Google this stuff. And then like five hours later, you’re like, how much was my time worth for all that time? And then you still don’t have clear answers or a clear framework. You’ve kind of got all this jumble mismatched instead of just having one cohesive solution that someone’s created for you. So I’m getting a lot better at. saying what’s the, what’s the return on this investment? Like if, what could this make me if I put the money in here? So I love that you think the same.

Well, there’s been so many nuggets of wisdom in here. Congratulations on building such an amazing and heart led business where you are honoring what feels good to you when it comes to building your business in an aligned way and spending your money in an aligned way. So that’s really fabulous. If people are loving your vibe and, and they want to connect with you, can you talk about how you can help people and how they can find you?

EMMA: Yeah, first of all, I would say pop into DMs because I love, love to have a conversation. You know, I might not be for you, but I can send you to the right person. Otherwise you can head to our social media. We’re always on maxx marketing, always gives away free tips every day. And then I’m at socially. So if you want to see sort of behind the scenes, what I got, get up to as a person, you can follow me there. Yeah, very raw mom, wife, I like to be funny, but otherwise you can head to our website and. Download any of our services there. We’re about to launch into our six figures course next month. So again, if you’re wanting to learn from start to finish how to grow successful business, jump in.

CLARE: Amazing. I’ll put all of the links in the show notes for today’s episode. Thank you so much for coming on and sharing your wisdom so openly. And I’m sure the listeners will appreciate this chat as well. Chat to you soon.

* Transcript created by AI – may contain errors or omissions from original podcast audio