Episode 23 Transcript
00:01:10:15 - 00:01:24:15
Lucy Kippist
Let's work magic is the catchphrase that jumps out at you from the Can Do Content website. As a copywriter for female entrepreneurs, she promises that no matter where you are on your business journey, making changes is all about your attitude.
Hence, the name of her business Can Do Content. It's a compelling sell, right? So when resources are tight, you need to make sound decisions about where you'll invest your money in your business to protect your livelihood. Meeting your financial plan and family obligations.
00:01:40:01 - 00:01:55:22
Carrie Kwan
Livelihood is a key pillar of our ambitious quest, and we can speak from direct experience in working with the impact of words on ambition, livelihood and well-being. Nadine Nethery has been a member of Mums and Co for many years, even creating some of our brilliant copy on our website and communications. We love her energy share a belief that the right emotional and financial support can boost your impact success in all aspects of business-owning mother. Nadine, welcome to the Mumbition Podcast.
00:02:08:22 - 00:02:12:04
Nadine Nethery
Hi ladies, thank you so much for having me. It's such an honour to be here.
00:02:12:11 - 00:02:32:16
Carrie Kwan
Likewise, now I know we share a love of words and respect for how mighty the pen or keyboard or a keypad nowadays can be. And sharing your story is such an essential skill for business owners, especially in the first pitch, as it's your chance to make introductions and connect with more customers. So, Nadine, we invite you to practice your pitch?
00:02:36:18 - 00:02:59:22
Nadine Nethery
Let's give it a go. Hi, I'm Nadine Nethery, the founder of Can Do Content and a strategic copywriter for women-led brands who want to strategically attract, delight and retain their dream customers. Over the past five years, I've given global e-commerce success stories, game-changing startups and industry-disrupting service-based businesses, the words to build genuine connections, each of them at different points of their business journey. I'm also a mum of three cheeky munchkins who keep me on my toes when I'm not wearing my Can Do Content hat.
00:03:12:17 - 00:03:30:21
Carrie Kwan
Amazing. I have had the privilege of working with you on different projects, and I know that the way that you dance with words is amazing. So I'd love to hear a bit more about how long have you run your business? And what would you consider to be the most important transferable skills between business and motherhood?
00:03:37:07 - 00:03:56:04
Nadine Nethery
I have been in my business full time only since December 2020, so not too long ago, but I actually looked it up today to make sure I get it right. I registered my business back in June 2017, so I'm just coming up on five years in business.
And it honestly has been a steep learning curve that started with working a side hustle while working full time in corporate and raising my three tiny humans to nowadays being four days a week, which I call full time, in my business and having my mum days with my tiny CEO, two-year-old toddler Jet.
Everything really started out of a desire to have more flexibility in my life and get out of bed every day loving what I'm doing. And back in the corporate days, the work that I was doing at the time really didn't light me up. And I had been disillusioned by the corporate world for a while after being made redundant while on Mat Leave with number two. Which unfortunately is a far too familiar story in the female world. So starting my own business really has been on the radar for years. I just had to find that something that was worth pursuing. And for me, that was copywriting.
A transferable skill? There are probably too many to list because us mums are amazing. But the number one would be problem-solving and being nimble because both business and motherhood are all curveballs. Cancelled meetings, kids homeschooling most recently extra after school activities, shifting deadlines, you name it.
And as business-owning mums, nothing really seems to phase us. I know I get anxious sometimes, but ultimately we take everything in our stride, and that's what I really admire about this community and the Mums & Co community, as well as female business owners.
Nothing is ever too much. And there's a general acceptance I almost would call it of moving goalposts. And we simply somehow deal with it and take them as they shift on us.
00:06:04:00 - 00:06:18:14
Carrie Kwan
We just get on with the job and just do it. I'm sorry to hear that all too unwelcome story in terms of being made redundant on your maternity leave. We know the three out of ten business-owning mums in Australia actually start their business whilst on Mat Leave. So while some are actually doing it because they're can, they've got an idea and they want to pursue that. Others are actually perhaps forced into that situation.
But whatever it is, you're taking control of what's important to you and having the flexibility that you need to get the job done. And I look forward to celebrating your five-year milestone with you as well.
00:06:54:02 - 00:06:54:13
Nadine Nethery
Thank you.
00:06:56:15 - 00:07:14:09
Lucy Kippist
It definitely is a milestone. I was just thinking that you're in a unique position in that you are a business-owning mum yourself. But obviously, the work that you do in your business also supports plenty of other women in the exact same position as you.
So reflecting on your own experience of the last couple of years and also your clients' experience, what do you think would be your number one tip for anyone listening today who wants to start a business themselves?
00:07:26:21 - 00:07:52:20
Nadine Nethery
Ultimately, I think it comes down to being kind to yourself and being gentle with your goals and celebrating every small win. As mums, we're all juggling so many things that come into the picture on top of our business, and it's often not realistic to expect overnight success and exponential growth within the first year that you so often see on social media.
So give yourself the space to gradually grow with your business at your own pace, which I've done over the years. Obviously, when the time is right to go full time into your business, quit your job. But follow your gut feeling, listen to your instinct and follow the pace that feels achievable in the picture and feels good to you.
00:08:21:09 - 00:08:37:07
Lucy Kippist
I love that the last one, follow the pace that it feels good to you. So important and certainly an advantage of running your own business. We've had a lot of posts on our Instagram page recently asking women to tell us what they love about their job, and that one came up a lot. I love it because that is the gift, we can give ourselves as business-owning mums to celebrate those small wins, that's so important.
Actually, that's something that Carrie only just recently reminded us of all to do when our kids return to school. And it's very impactful. Just that tiny little moment that you can say, you know what I did a great job.
So thank you for sharing those Nadine at Mums & Co. As you know, we talk about striving for a sense of harmony and that harmony being a shape of a triangle, so our ambition, our livelihood and our wellbeing. How would you describe the shape of a good life for you?
00:09:27:14 - 00:09:51:15
Nadine Nethery
Mine doesn't come in a geometrical shape, but it’s hard to describe. So to begin with, I love how at Mums & Co you use the word harmony instead of balance. Just because I think balance is somewhat of a myth because at different times in our lives, each of our important components of a family business, friends, ourselves, our own wellbeing must take priority. And it's really down to finding a fair split. Doesn’t that mean that each of them get attention at different times.
And life as a mum and a business owner for me, often feels like facing never-ending waves. They come at you and you're holding on for dear life. And what I love about running my own business is that it gives me the freedom to decide which of the waves I'm going to catch, which I'm going to let pass.
And ultimately, I know which areas of my life I'm going to prioritise. Prioritise right now. So sometimes my business needs more attention. Sometimes the kids really need to take first place. And sometimes it's my husband needs some time, sometimes I need some time.
So it's all about working out the one thing that's important for me right now and making sure everything I do has a positive impact. So no matter what that is, but making sure that it has the biggest impact on the people around me, on my family and friends, on the women I get to support them support on their business journey.
And then also on my fellow business buddies, because I've got a few within my support network sites. It's about leaving my mark, a positive mark on anything that I do and when I choose to do it.
00:11:18:10 - 00:11:37:19
Carrie Kwan
I've got some very strong imagery conjuring in my mind of Nadine riding the crest of a very high wave with her fellow girlfriends side. Speaking of these friends, tell us about your Co. Who are the partners, the friends, the family and clients around you? And how do they support you?
00:11:45:00 - 00:12:07:12
Nadine Nethery
Ultimately, most important to me are my kids and my husband who are the official cheer squad and who I couldn't do this business without. So my husband, Mick, he's actually the one that encouraged me in late 2020 to take the leap because I was holding on to that safety blanket and the corporate gig and going, What if it doesn't work? And he goes, what's not going to work? Because you've done it for years and you know you're good at what you do and you've got your clients. So I just give it a go.
And if it doesn't work out, there's always something else. He's also the one that puts kids to bed and looks after them. Clears and cleans the dinner table when I've got those time zone issues where client briefings have to happen after hours.
So he's amazing. Then there are the kids, especially my daughter, my ten-year-old daughter, Belle. She loves getting really involved in my client's projects and finding out everything about the brands that I get to work with and playing with the samples.
And most recently, she's taken on the role of Client Gift Manager. So she loves packing all my client gift boxes, with bits and pieces. So I wrote the cards and then she lovingly packs it all up, ready for me to take the pot to the post office.
So I think it's important to show your daughter that she can be anything she wants to be. And that she doesn't have to think within those traditional gender roles and traditional careers that women and girls often aspire to, that there are really no limits to what her career can look like.
And then there are also my incredible clients. So many of them have been with me for years. Actually my first client that I've worked with back in the early days. She's still a regular and I've loved seeing her grow over the years and thrive.
So they become like my business family and we support each other on social media with little shout outs. And it's really beautiful how I could see my service make an impact on so many levels.
00:14:02:22 - 00:14:18:19
Lucy Kippist
Nadine, there's so much to unpack in what you've said. Thank you so much. But the thing that jumped out to me is what you mentioned there about your husband Mick and how he takes the reins for you when things get busy and how pivotal his support is to the business.
This is something we do here a little bit, and thank goodness it's such a wonderful thing to hear. I'm also wondering in among all of this action that's going on for you in terms of building up the business and looking after your three children, what have you had to stop doing in order to make it all work the way that you want it to?
00:14:40:24 - 00:15:01:17
Nadine Nethery
It's a guilty pleasure of mine that I had to rein in quite early on because it was damaging to my mental health, which I'm sure many, many of your listeners can relate to. So I, in the early days got really sucked into the Insta bubble again of overnight successes and skyrocketing profits without any effort.
So everything looks so easy. But I realised that what you don't see often is the support team behind those brands that are killing it online and all the struggles and the downsides that don't get shared on Instagram.
So nowadays I stay in my own lane and I really limit how much I consume online and who I follow. Ultimately it came down to having the confidence in myself to take on business at my own pace and the way I do things and the goals that I set for myself and not having to follow what others have decided is right for them. And that has really taken a lot of unnecessary anxiety and pressure out of my life and freed up a lot of my time too.
00:15:56:10 - 00:16:08:15
Lucy Kippist
Wouldn't it be interesting if someone said on Instagram of the downsides? I'm sure that would be popular.
00:16:10:21 - 00:16:25:24
Carrie Kwan
So Nadine, can I ask about how do you approach your professional development as a business-owning mother and how much investment do you make into that side of the business at the moment?
There are so many competing priorities, and I know that when you're in the corporate world, you perhaps had certain professional development quotas and that investment was kind of placed on top of you. So what would you say has been the most impactful?
00:16:43:09 - 00:17:01:23
Nadine Nethery
I am a huge believer in continuous learning, both on a professional and personal level. So I actually early this year have restructured how I do business, and I have set aside half a day each week for personal development.
Time to commit to any program or any course that I'm currently doing or general research, new trends in my field. I do put aside a considerable amount of my business budget each year to upskill, and that's a mix of professional skills, business skills and also, picking expert brains to fast track my transformation.
Because ultimately I can spend months trying to learn it myself and Googling without actually knowing whether it's working or I can piggyback off someone who's done it before. Spend money for it, but that is money well spent because I can invest my time that I free up in finding new clients and actually completing projects. Some of the best investments I've done over the year include the Automation program with Charlotte Isaac, which helped me immensely free up time in my business by automating my client, onboarding and onboarding. So that was incredible.
I've also taken I consumer psychology course with fellow copywriter and psychologist Kirsty Fenton called Brain Cam, which has been transformational for my approach to copywriting. I just completed Kate Toon’s course the Recipe for Success, which is super relevant for any business who wants to be found online without having to pay for, social media ads, Google ads and who wants to organically attract the right traffic to their website.
00:18:50:06 - 00:19:14:02
Carrie Kwan
What a black book of useful training and professional development courses. II believe we do actually have to invest in our continuous learning. And absolutely if you can spend 15 minutes or half an hour with an expert that can save you almost weeks of your time to help you move through your specific challenge. Learning what to watch out for and learning how to fast track it.
00:19:23:13 - 00:19:25:18
Nadine Nethery
So worth it.
00:19:26:21 - 00:19:39:05
Carrie Kwan
Now, creativity is obviously a huge part of your business. So I'm curious about how you balance this with protecting your business from risk?
00:19:40:04 - 00:19:58:01
Nadine Nethery
So copywriting actually, funnily enough, isn’t so much about creativity. It's like 80% research and strategy, and then 20% is that creativity to make it sound right and flow and bring it in line with the brand voice.
Ultimately, how I protect myself is to work with the right clients to make sure we're resonating before we even start work working together. I believe that the women who come to me regard me as an expert in my field, and that's why they're coming to me.
So they come with a level of trust to begin with that I make the right decisions for their business. But of course, before we start, there is a session to align our vision and get to know each other intimately when it comes to their brand, their goals. So we can make sure we're working towards the same outcomes. Another big one is defining boundaries and expectations so that I'm very particular on how I work with clients and as a mum, particularly I have said now is that I work and then I am shutting down the computer for the day to be there for my kids.
So defining those boundaries and setting expectations before the project kicks off is super important not only to prevent misunderstandings from happening down the track, but also to reassure people that I have my processes in place and they are there for a reason.
But because I work with fellow mums, there's that level of mutual respect and appreciation for each other that usually ends up being more like a friendship than a business relationship. And even if the deadline moves slightly and shifts because daycare doesn't happen or childcare has fallen through or the kid is home with us, we sort of make do just because we understand what it's like and we get the juggle.
And that's why I have picked this particular group of clients just because we are on the same page and we really appreciate each other for what we do.
00:22:07:04 - 00:22:21:14
Carrie Kwan
What I'm hearing actually is communication. You're actually managing expectations because you're actually sharing how you work with them. It’s very much like, this is how I work, and this is how I'll deliver. And this is when I'm going to be available and having that sort of upfront understanding for you to actually deliver the job with the flexibility that you perhaps need sometimes.
00:22:35:23 - 00:22:48:15
Nadine Nethery
Yeah, exactly. People hire me to be there to guide them and tell them what they need. And you know how it's going to unfold just because they often don't have any idea how to even approach the project.
So it's part of my responsibility, I believe, as the service provider to set the ground rules and make sure everything happens in the right way that supports the ultimate outcome.
00:23:01:20 - 00:23:16:11
Lucy Kippist
The thing we touched on at Mums & Co value of harmony before, and as you know, we've talked about it being a combination of upskilling and networking. So we heard your beautiful pitching skills at the top of the interview.
So let's do some networking now because we love making business introductions here at Mums & Co. So if you could ask for anything right now in terms of helping you out in terms of your business or your life, what would it be?
00:23:29:21 - 00:23:48:23
Nadine Nethery
I'd have to say this one has been at the top of my to-do list for far too long. I am looking for a cleaner on a personal level to just free up that headspace. I’ve been talking about it for months and I just need to get that off my to-do list. So I can enjoy the weekends rather than mopping floors and cleaning toilets. So that's on a personal level.
On a business level, I am always on the search for new face to face networking events. I'm keen to get out there again and meet other business owners face to face just because I think face to face is still so impactful. I'm dying to get out there and meet with other business owners face to face rather than behind a mobile screen.
00:24:40:06 - 00:24:48:06
Lucy Kippist
Well, we have good news for you in that regard because we do have another BeEmpowered event coming out in October.
00:24:53:00 - 00:25:04:08
Carrie Kwan
In the spirit of women supporting women, who are the ambitious women that you would like to say hello to?
00:25:05:06 - 00:25:30:16
Nadine Nethery
So I've got one lady in particular at the top of my list, Kasey from Thrive Society, who is a virtual CFO and responsible for finally kicking my business numbers into gear. I hate that stuff, and she's helped me make sense of it and finally take control of that side of the business. And if anyone's looking for a CFO, she's amazing.
Another one is a book recommendation. I don't know if that probably is in line with the two because it's really impacted me. The book Do Lists Really has made a huge difference to how I approach life and business and align it with my female cycle but also bring it in line with time and energy management.
If anyone is looking for new ways to approach their life in line with the female cycle, that is a huge one and will make a massive difference to the flow of your day.
00:26:16:20 - 00:26:34:06
Carrie Kwan
We just had this conversation virtually on our Team Slack Channel. It is fascinating because I obviously run a Confident Pitching for Business Women Course too.
As part of that, Lisa Lockland-Bell talks about how hormones actually affect our voice and its delivery. So when you want to be heard or use the inflections and the tones it’s all connected. And what we came out of that was if you're actually trying to run a deliver a presentation, an important client meeting, a board meeting, if possible, not to schedule it on the day that your period lands because it actually does affect.
And there were ways to actually manage it. I've had plenty of board meetings where it has fallen on that date. But it's just something that we may not be aware of or conscious of and wondering what's going on. So it's just a really interesting area that I think I certainly haven't paid attention to. I'm in my forties now and kind of going, Oh, wow.
00:27:49:14 - 00:28:06:09
Nadine Nethery
It's funny. No one tells you about it. But as you say, it's since I've paid attention to my cycle. And, the particular signs and how it impacts the way I show up and the tasks I tackle, it's made a huge difference.
So obviously, as you said again, it's not always possible to schedule everything around your period, but I aim to make appointments in certain weeks. Like podcast recordings or photoshoots, things like that where you need to feel confident and show up with confidence. I wouldn't schedule that in the week that you know my period. So it's just being mindful of how your body supports the way you show up.
00:28:32:16 - 00:28:45:23
Carrie Kwan
Just to be clear I actually don’t think my board meeting attendees would ever know. It's actually just something that I need to be aware of, and I may actually warm up my voice differently. So prior to that meeting, I might spend some time warming up my voice because I know that things are going on internally that you need to be mindful of.
00:29:02:20 - 00:29:04:06
Nadine Nethery
Yeah, it's fascinating.
00:29:04:14 - 00:29:23:10
Lucy Kippist
Nadine, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today and thank you to everyone listening for your company. As Carrie mentioned just before, we are running our Confident Pitching for Business Women course all throughout the year, but kicking off the next cohort on March 31.
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