Uplevel your social media with Stevie Says Social

Stevie’s Bio

Stevie is an ex-lawyer turned social media marketer.

Her mission? To educate and inspire passionate business owners to lift their social media game and build the profitable business [and life!] they want.

She currently does this through online social media and digital marketing programs, the Social Shop (done-for-you social media templates and resources) and through her regular free content. Her signature online program, Hashtags Aren’t The Answer, is a step-by-step, here’s-exactly-how-you-do-it social media membership that helps small businesses DIY their socials to build their followers, business and bank account.

Stevie is also the host of the Stevie Says Social Podcast, which debuted at no. 2 on Apple Podcasts. It is a regular in the top 10 Business Charts and has been downloaded more than 200,000 times.

Stevie has been featured in the likes of Social Media Examiner, Business Chicks, League of Extraordinary Women, SmartCompany and on Channel 7, where she has written and spoken extensively on all things social media. She was recently named one of the top 150 most influential female founders in Australia by Scrunch.

She lives by the beach on the sunny Gold Coast, Australia.

Transcript

CLARE:

If you’re looking to take your social media to the next level, well, today’s episode is for you! Today, I’m chatting to Stevie Says Social, who is a queen on social media, and she shares all of her social media hacks including the latest trends, and how she has used social media to create six figure launches in her business. I hope you enjoy today’s episode.

You’re listening to the Clare Wood podcast, where we talk all things business, finance, marketing, and mindset for entrepreneurs, sharing practical tips, and actionable advice to help you take your business to the next level. Introducing your host: me! I’m Clare Wood, I’m a numbers geek, a travel lover, and a reality tv addict, and I’m here to empower you to create an extraordinary business and an amazing life, because I believe you don’t have to choose between the two. Now let’s dive right in to today’s episode.

Well, today’s guest you may already know who she is – This is Stevie from Stevie Says Social –

STEVIE

Hey Clare, how are you?

CLARE

I’m great, thank you so much for asking! Now anybody who’s listening who doesn’t know who Stevie is, can you please tell us about yourself and your business?

STEVIE

Sure, so my name is Stevie, and I am the owner of Stevie Says Social, funnily enough! I essentially help small businesses lift their social media games. So I do that through online courses, my signature the Social Shop, and my podcast.

CLARE

What’s your podcast called, for anyone who doesn’t know?

STEVIE

Look, its really getting invented with the name, but it’s Stevie Says Social Podcast.

CLARE

Love it!

STEVIE

Funny story, it was called something else but I had a trademark; so for the new players, make sure you check your trademarks before you rebrand your entire podcast.

CLARE

Excellent! Well, today what I want to do, I want to pick your brain, get lots of great information for anyone who’s listening about social media, and I also want to get a little bit personal with you if that’s okay, and  find out a bit about your journey –

STEVIE

Sure! Definitely!

CLARE

So, first thing’s first: being the queen of social media, what are your top hacks for social media success?

STEVIE

Okay, so this is probably going to be the most boring answer ever, but I’m going to start with it and then we can maybe get into the sexy stuff as well, but what I find pretty much with every social media person out there, is that they talk about the tactics, right? So they’ll talk about, the latest trip on Instagram, or the fact that Chat has just come out on Instagram, which is quite a cool thing; all the little tactical things, but what I would say is the biggest hack when it comes to social media is actually sitting down and spending the time putting together a strategy that is actually going to reach your business objectives, which is why you’re on social media in the first place.

So, biggest tip for people out there is not to get bogged down by the different tactics, not to get bogged down with the latest platforms, the latest things that you can be  doing, and actually think about strategy; so what are my business objectives, what are my top three social media goals that are going to help me to reach my business objectives, and then what am I going to do on social media that are going to help me reach those social media goals?

And then the other boring thing is actually doing those things consistently for a ninety day period, seeing how it goes, and continuing with the stuff that’s working, and then maybe changing it up with the things that aren’t.

CLARE

Those are awesome tips! And if anyone’s listening and they have no idea how to even go about creating a social media strategy, what would you suggest, how do they get started, who do they talk to?

STEVIE

So, it depends, so there’s two different ways you can go about it as a small business, it obviously depends on your time, your resources, things like that, but you can go down the route of DIY’ing your socials, in which case, it’s really important that you put in the work in that sort of thing, or you can look at outsourcing it, and you can outsource it to a social media manager that can help you with these sorts of things.

If you go down the DIY route, basically this is the framework that I teach my membership: starting with business objectives and what your actual business objectives are, then actually diving into before you even open a social media account, getting your branding sorted, so making sure that why you’re different, what your brand personality is. So what it is that kind of really makes you and your business you, and you’re applying that across your visuals, and all of the words and things that you’d use on social media, and that’s really important, because a lot of the time, when you kind of go into it, an Instagram account, or whatever, and you really resonate with it, often it’s got nothing to do with what hash tags they’re using, or anything along those lines, which is great for people discovering you, but the way people either connect with you or they don’t, is the branding piece, right?

They love your visuals, they love your brand personality, they love the way that you write your captions, in a way that it’s a little bit sassy, and that’s the sort of stuff that people miss, before they get into the social media side.. so it’s branding and social media and content, so having a really strong content plan that doesn’t have to be rocket science, but it’s getting people to know, like, and trust you, and then it’s the business end, so once you’ve kind of, got your socials up and running, and your branding all sorted, then all of that sort of thing, it is actually having a way for leading people off of social media into your email list or whatever it is, and then actually having people find out about you because you can be posting on your own social media accounts, all day everyday, but if you’re not getting new eye balls there, and that’s called traffic; so having a traffic strategy, then you’re going to struggle. So, there’s a lot in that, but essentially a strategy for those five things; it’s business objectives, it’s branding, social media, and content, a funnel, and traffic.

CLARE

That is amazing, and I think you’ve summed it up really perfectly! I think that people quite often just get started, and get posting, and oftentimes when I look at new accounts, a big thing I think is what do you do? What are you trying to get me to do? What are you doing to get me off social media and working with your business? So, so good that you think about it holistically as well.

STEVIE

I know right, to just jump onto social and start posting; I’m sure you’ve seen it as well Clare, but it’s one of the biggest mistakes that I’ve seen with new businesses, understandable, right? You think well I’ll start getting on social media and start plugging my thing, that’s not how it works, you actually need to lead with value and make sure that everything you’re doing is content that people want to see, rather than going straight into the queue which doesn’t get engagement, as we know it’s the life spot of your social media account.

CLARE

Absolutely! And a big thing I’m finding, even now, when I do a sales post, or when I have like, a call to action, that the engagement massively drops on that, so you definitely wouldn’t want to be doing that all the time.

STEVIE

No, your engagement will bomb, and people just don’t connect with it, right? Queensland Police Service actually really do an excellent job of mixing up their content that’s not going to get engagement ie. The latest crime that’s happened in Fortitude Valley or whatever, but they actually mix that up with their content strategy for example, Justin Bieber is playing at some cop’s stadium, they’ll say, it’s a crime against music.. And they’ll get a whole heap of engagement, because everyone’s like, “That’s hilarious!” I can’t believe that a police force is putting out this sort of content! But it’s that sort of content that’ll lift up your promotional posts when you do decide to do them every now and again.

CLARE

Great tip there! Now, I want to take a bit of a sideward step from Instagram, and have a chat about Facebook. This is just something I want to know for myself, I’m finding it super hard to get traction on Facebook these days, so I would love to know, what are your hacks for nailing engagement on Facebook?

STEVIE

So, the key with Facebook.. Facebook is tough, right? The reason why everybody loves Instagram more than Facebook, is because you get that instant engagement. Even though yes, there’s algorithm issues and people will whine about that when it comes to Instagram, you do get that engagement. What a lot of businesses find on Facebook, and maybe this is what you’re talking about Clare, is that your post something, and its crickets, literally, there’s no engagement, there’s no interaction, it’s like you may as well not have posted at all, and so basically what that is coming down to is the fact that Facebook really values what is called meaningful interactions, so if you don’t have people commenting and interacting with your content on Facebook, you will get absolutely no traction. So the way it works is you’ll put a post up, the Facebook algorithm will look at whether there’s any early engagement, if there is, it’ll feed it out to a few more people, and that’s why, like, even on your personal page, if somebody gets married or engaged or any of those things, it goes wild because people start liking and engaging right away and they start commenting and it gets shown to more people and it just goes from there.

So it’s simple and it’s hard to do, but you need to get meaningful interactions, and so a few ways that I’d seen that being done really well; Social Media Examiner are doing a really great job at the moment of literally just text only posts, so they’ll put up a post that says, “what are your thoughts on the latest social media app Tik Tok,” and people want to give their two cents, right? So it goes against everything that you hear about social media; you hear that you’re supposed to use video, and you’re supposed to have captivating images and whatever but none of that matters if it’s not going to get people to interact, so they’re literally just putting these text posts up, people are wanting to leave their two sense and it’s really kind of helping them out with these meaningful interactions, which means that organically, these sorts of posts do really well.

Now, if you want to do something that Facebook doesn’t want you to do, which is to lead people off the platform essentially, so if you want to put links in your posts and things, you really need to pay to do that these days. So there’s two different kinds of posts, there’s organic posts, and you can definitely still get organic engagement through meaningful interaction, but if you want to lead people off Facebook and do something that’s in your interest, like buy something or go to your blog page or whatever, that’s when I would say that you can have all the tricks in the book, but ultimately, you’re going to have to pay.

CLARE

That’s so interesting, and I’ve had a few posts lately that did get good traction, but your point, a few people commented early on and then it just.. But a lot of the time, even when I ask questions, sometimes it’s just crickets out there

STEVIE

With the right questions, and I know all of this stuff – it’s easy to say but it’s hard to do, right? But asking the right questions, then people will interact. That’s a big one, like Social Media Examiner, they know their ideal audience so well, it’s asking the right questions, I know all of this stuff, it’s simple to say but it’s hard to do, right? But if you’re asking the right questions, then people will interact!

CLARE

Knowing your audience!

STEVIE

That’s a big one! So Social Media Examiner, they know their audience so well

CLARE

Cool! With that, do you think that Facebook is here to stay or, what are your thoughts? 

STEVIE

I think that Facebook is at the most interesting juncture in its history. So, they had a whole heap of issues last year, obviously with language analytica, and privacy, and a whole heap of things, and I think what that did, like my perception of it is that, and I literally take this, for example, I was at my mum’s house the other day, it was awhile ago, it was when all the Cambridge Analytica stuff was going down, she was like “oh my god, Facebook is stealing everybody’s privacy,” and all this sort of thing, she’d never even mentioned Facebook before, it was a good indicator for me that the general public now has a little bit of mistrust with Facebook, and I think that the tide’s really turning; I definitely am, I think it’s across the board, people aren’t as openly sharing, on platforms like Facebook in terms of their personal feed, where as people would share everything awhile ago, my perception of it is that Facebook is needing to adapt, and they are, so they really kind of now, are deprioritizing massively, the newsfeed, another reason for that is that they’re completely sold out of ad inventory, but that’s a different story.

Community is a huge one for them, because they can see that people congregating around common niche topics is beneficial for the community, so that makes them a good corporate citizen, it’s what is working, but also it’s giving them opportunities because they’re a business at the end of the day, right, to eventually monetize. And I’m seeing that in a lot of groups at the moment, they’re actually bringing in the ability to advertise and things like that, so I don’t think Facebook’s going away, I think there’s two billion, is it one billion, three billion, I might be off by a billion, but there’s billions of people on Facebook and the power of that isn’t going away, but what I do think is the traditional kind of thing you think of with Facebook, the business page and your newsfeed that is very, very much changing.

CLARE

Really interesting, so it’s not going anywhere but it is changing. And this is something interesting that you said to me another time Stevie, is that social media is always changing, and I think that you need to, to your point, what is going on, what are the latest trends, whats happening, and make sure you adapt your social strategy to align to the changes that are happening in any platform.

STEVIE

Totally, and it doesn’t take a social media expert to work out what those changes are, right? Like if you log onto Facebook at the moment, I don’t know if you say this Clare, but groups are even overtaking the family and friend posts in terms of the kind of content they’re putting out there, so, they’re not making a secret of any of this stuff. Facebook stories is front and center, where as there was awhile there where Facebook stories, every time someone posted them, I was getting a notification.

They’re the sorts of things to look out for because everyone is trying to fight for space organically in the newsfeed, that’s a race to the bottom, you’re never going to win, right? You need to look for what are the new things that they are prioritizing are, and when they prioritize it, they give you more reach. It’s like when live video first came out, I think that was over a year ago, but I remember doing a live video and the engagement was off the richter, because they were showing it to pretty much everyone, because they were prioritizing it. They don’t do that anymore but there’s always something that they’re always trying to push, so it’s knowing what that is, and being there when no one else is.

CLARE

That’s excellent, and it leads me to my next question, which is, what role do you think video does play in a strong social strategy?

STEVIE

So I think the problem or the confusion around video is that two years ago, basically, especially on Facebook, Facebook’s goal was to keep people on the platform for as long as possible, that was their public outward goal. So watch time, all of that sort of thing was like, yes, that is what we want, so they were actually actively prioritizing video as a format, so if you posted video, regardless of the type of video, it would get priority.

The difference now is that they have completely done a 180 on that. They’ve done the opposite. So basically what they’re saying now is that it’s all about meaningful interactions and community, right? Because they don’t want to be seen as a platform where they’re encouraging people to watch hours and hours of video and that forces social issues, the thing that works with video, interacting on a post, that is where video is really, really powerful, right?

So I guess that’s a distinction – I see a lot of people when they try to batch their social media do this, they’ll put up video that gets absolutely no engagement, and its crickets, so that’s bad content, right? So Facebook and Instagram aren’t going to prioritize it, because it’s bad content whether it’s video or not, so that’s the point I want to make around it because I think that’s a big confusion around people; they think video for video sake on social will work, it doesn’t, you still have to make sure it’s good content.

CLARE

Awesome, awesome advice, yes! I think that’s the thing underpinning all of the changes across socials really, is that the platforms are trying to give people what they want, so if you have that in the back of your mind, if I’m producing great information or great content, ultimately that’s what the people driving social media channels are trying to do, is deliver that to people that are interested in it.

STEVIE

Yeah, the thing is they are a business, and they want eyeballs on the platform so that they have people to advertise to, and so people love great content, and it’s the easiest thing in the world to say, but that is your goal; don’t be promotional, don’t be spammy, people add value, give them what they want, give them behind the scenes – video content is great for that sort of thing, I know you Clare are so great with Instagram stories and showing that behind the scenes, and I bet that content does that really, really well, because that’s what people want, right?

CLARE

Know your customer, and provide them with things that are entertaining or interesting to them. So let’s just wrap up talking about social media; what are your predictions for the next two years of social media?

STEVIE

Oh my god! The next two years is like saying the next twenty years of social media!

Okay, let me have a think.. One of the big things that I know is coming is check-out for Instagram; basically what it’s going to do – at the moment you’ve got Instagram shoppable, right? So there’s tap, and you can kind of click through and click on different things on Instagram.

Instagram is literally changing the game in terms of e-commerce, and they’re going to make themselves an e-commerce platform in themselves basically, so what they’re introducing is the ability for you to shop directly from the Instagram platform, so you would click on something, it would literally show you the options, so say it’s colours or sizes, you can then actually put your payment details into Instagram, check out and make the purchase, and then once you’ve made the purchase it would keep your credit card details on file so that any time you want to make a purchase on Instagram in the future, it literally has your details there.

When you think about it, that is going to completely change e-commerce as a whole! Like, the entire e-commerce industry; if I was an e-commerce person, I would see benefits to that, so obviously you don’t own the Instagram platform and there are things to consider around that, but you’re gonna have to embrace it, because that is coming and that is going to be huge. I don’t think that’s two years away, I think that’s a lot sooner than that.

CLARE

That sounds quite dangerous to me if I’m honest with you, at least now if you want to do one of those spur of the moment purchases, you kind of have to go through the whole process; if I just have to push a button, it could get quite dangerous.

STEVIE

Tell me about it! I am the worst online shopper at the best of times anyway! If I’m just scrolling through Instagram, they have my details – I don’t know!

But the other thing I think is really going to change, is Facebook ads! So I think, they’re getting more expensive, it’s been the glory days for a really long time, up until a year ago it was the glory days in terms of what you could get for your spend, that’s really changing at the moment, you can still get great return on ad spend; you have to be a lot more strategic on your ads, and I think that is going to continue to get – not necessarily harder – but people and businesses are going to have to get a lot more strategic with their ads.

What I mean by that is if you try to put up a really sales-y Facebook ad, advertising your products or your services, they just won’t work anymore. You’ve really got to have a two-tiered strategy where you’re providing value to cold audiences, and then you’re remarketing to warm audiences with your offer, so that’s a couple of things.

CLARE

Yeah, wow! And I am hearing a few whispers at the moment, people are hearing that Linked In is going to be the new place to be, what are your thoughts on that?

STEVIE

Well, it already is the place to be – you know?

CLARE

For my business, I just am not making any meaningful connections at this stage, it’s interesting, through Linked In.

STEVIE

I’ve found, through doing my research around it, that it’s a really interesting platform, they’re getting smarter with their algorithm, it’s very similar to Facebook and Instagram, in that it comes back to value, so if you’re providing value with your content, then you have a really good chance of getting traction. The difference with Linked In though; where as people are logging onto Facebook and Instagram five times a day, sometimes less, sometimes more in my case, it’s very different with Linked In; so they might be on there once a week, also there’s a lot to do on the platform, so there’s about five hundred million people on the Linked In platform, so it’s really in terms of the strategy around content, yes it’s the same, but there’s so many things that make it different to Facebook and Instagram, and in terms of getting it right, I don’t think there’s a lot of people on the platform at the moment, using it the right way.

What I mean by that is, it’s known as a spammy platform for a reason, because people are super spammy there, right? You could really adapt your strategy to providing a whole heap of value to proactively connecting with the right people, I think there’s a lot of opportunity on the platform!

CLARE

Interesting! I’ll definitely have to check out these episodes! And learn a little bit more about it!

STEVIE

Like if you have, because the thing is, all the marketing managers are on there, and you can actually search and find those people; so you can search in Linked In for marketing managers based in Brisbane, and it would bring you up a list of every marketing manager that has listed themselves on Linked In, which is like extremely powerful, right?

So yeah, if that’s your ideal client, if you’re trying to get into, not so much small business, I actually think Instagram is like the ultimate platform for small businesses, because it just is, that’s what I’ve found. But if you’re trying to get into that medium to large organisation, they’re absolutely there.

I’m really excited by Linked In, after doing all this work on it, because its something I’m looking forward to doing more with, so “watch this space!”

CLARE

Exciting! I’m going to have to come follow you on Linked In!

So, wrapping up social media, what I’d love to do, is learn a little bit more about you and your business journey if you don’t mind. So, can you tell me how you came to start your business?

STEVIE

Yes, I can! So, where do I start? I was born in – no! I studied law actually when I was at uni, and I worked as a solicitor for a few years, and worked both for big corporate firms in Australia and also London, and never loved it, so it was never really my passion but kind of did it because I got good marks at school and you just kind of go down this path so

CLARE

And that’s what lawyers do, isn’t it?

STEVIE

Totally! That’s exactly what it was for me, I ended up getting a scholarship and then you kind of do the five years at uni, then you get offered these really attractive offers from the top-tier law firm, and for me I just looked back seven or eight years down the track and was just like, wow how did I end up here doing this thing that doesn’t really light me up?

And so that’s what it was for me and funny story when I was in London, I had two girls that were living just down the road from me, and they both worked at ad agencies, I had met them when I was travelling around South America and we all moved to London at the same time, so we would go for Friday drinks and we’d all go to their ad agency and there was a slip and slide in one of the ad agencies, and I was like, Okay I need to get out of law and I need to find a job in marketing because if this is what it’s like, it sounds amazing!

CLARE

Is that how your marketing business is these days?

STEVIE

I wish! The slippery slide is coming into the home office; watch this space! I don’t know, I was like, Look marketing sounds like something I could want to do because it sounds like fun. So when I got back to Australia, to cut a long story short, I basically applied for a whole heap of marketing jobs I was told I was overqualified for because I had been a lawyer.

I wanted to do my own thing – I make it sound easy, it was actually the most torturous decision ever; to leave a nice, safe job and go out on my own, but I did it – just decided one day to walk into the boss’ office and resign, and yeah that was almost two years ago now!

CLARE

And you’ve done so much in such a short period of time! You must be really proud of yourself, and glad that you made that brave decision!

STEVIE

It’s the best decision I’ve ever made! I wish I had of had the courage to do it earlier!

CLARE

Oh definitely! I am the same as you, as you know I only started my business later in life, and I wish I’d done it younger and without the responsibilities of things that I do have now, but it’s better late than never, is what I say! Everything kind of happens for a reason, in my opinion it happens at the time it’s meant to happen as well!

STEVIE

Yeah! I totally agree with that as well!

CLARE

Something that I found interesting, as my business is evolving, is the impact that its having on my relationships outside of business, specifically with family and friends. I’d love to hear in your situation, how your family and friends have reacted to you starting your business, then as you were going through the growth period, and as you went through your launch, obviously that was a whole different level of pressure and time commitment. How have you found that your friends have reacted to your business journey?

STEVIE

I think it’s really interesting, because, I don’t know if you’ve found this Clare, I don’t know what your experience has been, but for me, my friends and family do not ask and know literally pretty much nothing about what I do with my business, and where it’s at, all of that sort of thing, its actually quite interesting, even my best friends, if we catch up for wine, they don’t ask about it.. it’s such a big difference when you go from working corporate to in your own business, for me, it’s that it becomes your little baby, right? Your so passionate about it, and you do want to talk about it, for me I’ve really found that there’s been no reaction or interest, which I think is a really interesting thing in itself as well, it’s just not something we really talk about.. With my close family obviously, and my partner and things like that, it’s been a huge time commitment, so in terms of the amount of work that I’ve had to pour into my business the past couple of years, I’ve never ever worked so hard in my life, so there’s that side of it. When I have a success with a launch or whatever, they’re really happy for me because they know how much work I put into it, but I don’t know, that’s been the most interesting thing I’ve found from my side. What have you found from your family and friends, I’m actually really curious.

CLARE

Well, obviously I talk to clients a lot about this as well, it seems that that’s a really common thing, that people perhaps, and for me its such an integral part, my business, of who I am now, it is your baby and you can’t understand why other people aren’t so into it as you are.

I have to say, I’ve had amazing support, so many of my friends like and comment on things on social media or say to me that they’re watching and I’m doing a great job, which is really special; I have had some funny like – I hope she doesn’t listen to this but – my mum made a comment to me one day about being an accountant, and I was like “oh mum, I’m not an accountant anymore,” and then another time she said, “do people actually pay you for your coaching?” I’m not joking! So, there’s definitely interesting, and again, clients always just want to catch up at any random time, and it’s like, yes I’m self-employed but I’ve got an awful lot that I’ve got to get done, doesn’t mean I’m free range for coffees.

STEVIE

Yeah, I find that really hard, from my end, literally in the last five years, I’ve probably seen less of anyone than I have because, something has to give, right? And unfortunately for the short term, I’ve had to pour so much time and energy into the business and I don’t know, that is something that sometimes I feel really guilty about, because there are relationships that you value, and you don’t see people as much, I often have in the back of mind whether that is something that is affecting relationships and things like that, so that’s a tough one.

The other one, funnily enough, the other thing that comes to mind, talking about mums, just like the complete lack of understanding, just like you Clare, in terms of exactly what I do. I find that really hard, it’s not really the work that she wants me to do, and so it’s constantly dealing with that as well.

CLARE

No, I think that definitely people outside the business world struggle to understand it, and perhaps struggle to understand too the amount of energy and effort you need to put it, and for me, I say, at stages, if I’m launching something, or up levelling, then yeah, you have to do that. I also don’t want to spend my life working all the time. You do this thing, it’s to be able to have an amazing life as well, I kind of am always conscious of that as well, but to your point, I have never worked so hard in my life as I have when working for myself.

STEVIE

Yeah, it’s full on isn’t it, and I’m finally, and when I say finally, I mean literally in the last month or so, starting to get to the point where I am more organized and streamlining the business and having people help me with things that I’ve never had them help me with before, I can actually start to see the light at the end of the tunnel and there’s actually a future ahead of me where it’s not going to be like that all the time, which is amazing because it’s not sustainable, that’s one thing that family and friends do not understand, is how much work you need to put in, like there’s no getting around it in the early days to set yourself up to get to the point you can actually have that sort of help.

CLARE

Oh absolutely! And I do think that laying the foundations, like investing the time does mean that you’re setting yourself up for success in the longer term –

STEVIE

For sure!

CLARE

So yeah, interesting to hear about your experience behind that journey as well. Now, final question, what advice would you give to Stevie, if you could look back now and have a chat to Stevie of two years ago, what would you say to her? What would be your piece of advice?

STEVIE

Oh my god! My advice is actually around the pre-business Stevie! I will answer your question – but like, a lot of my advice is around Just Start, and just do it! I’m one of those people that just loves things to be perfect, and so I literally probably spent three to four years where I would look at the Marie Forleo’s of the world, and be extremely frustrated that I couldn’t be at that level when I was starting out, so I just didn’t start at all, and not having the courage to do things like leave a full time job that was a great job, that just deep down I needed to satisfy me, and the biggest piece of advice that I probably have is for that person, rather than for the girl that finally did it – for her I’m like “Go girl! You finally did it!” If I knew what was ahead of me, like I remember the week that I finished my job and driving home and just being like “Oh my gosh this is so exciting!” If I actually knew the level of work, and everything that was ahead of me, and the challenges, and obviously the good times as well, but my gosh, there’s been a lot in there, I definitely would have done it, but god I’m glad I didn’t know about it at the time, you know what I mean?

CLARE

Yeah, its one of those things, I mean, I can totally relate to what you’re saying, it’s like of course I would do it again, but I guess I just never really knew just how much work it would be. And similar to you, I so wished that I had done it when I younger, I only launched my business at the age of thirty five, with a less than one year old child, and my whole business journey has been when I’ve got mortgages, and children, and I’ve gone through a pregnancy and the birth of my second child as well – yeah, it’s been tough, I’m not gonna lie to you, I just wished that I’d done it when I was a little bit younger.

STEVIE

I actually find that a lot of my friends are in the same boat as you Clare, having that time when you have maternity leave, really forces you to put in respect what you value and really push to do things differently, but like for me, and it’s so funny to say this – I’ve always been so driven, and probably the reason I didn’t do this earlier is I was having so much fun travelling and going out with my friends, I wouldn’t take any of that back earlier, because like that was really good times, and that was a season, and now I’m in a completely different season, and there’s a lot to be said for that as well, right?

CLARE

Oh, absolutely! Look where you’ve ended up, it’s all led you to where you’re meant to be! Well, thank you so much for joining us, you have shared just so much wisdom, both about social media and about your business journey, and I appreciate your vulnerability and transparency with us today, just for anyone who’s listening and wants to know a little bit more about you, do you have anything that you want to share with the listeners or do you want to share how they can get in touch with you?

So I’ll be sharing all of Stevie’s links in the show notes, which is at clarewood.com.au/podcast. Thank you so much for joining us, Stevie!

Thank you so much for joining me today, if you enjoyed this episode, please make sure you subscribe to receive future episodes, and I’d be so grateful for a review on apple podcast! If you’d like a copy of the show notes or any of the links mentioned today, please jump over to clarewood.com.au/podcast and remember that Clare is spelled CLARE, have a wonderful week and look forward to chatting to you again soon!