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Produced & Edited by - Morgan Brown
Interviewers - Carrie Kwan and Lucy Kippist
Guest - Melissa Daniels
Loved this episode of Mumbition The Podcast? Find out more from our special guest.
00:03:42:14 - 00:04:12:07
Carrie Kwan
Mel, we're so excited to have you on Mumbition the podcast. I'm thinking back to how long you have actually been part of the Mums and Co community. I'm pretty sure it's since our inception and I believe it was a beautiful link where your father actually saw an article in, I think Sydney Morning Herald, or one of the news publications, and he shared that with you. So super excited to be chatting today!
00:04:13:00 - 00:04:24:06
Mel Daniels
Thanks so much for having me, Carrie and Lucy. It's such an honor to be here with you today because like you said, I have been around the Mums and Co community for such a long time, so yeah, it's such an honor for me to be here. Thank you.
00:04:24:20 - 00:04:39:01
Carrie Kwan
Now we are big, passionate supporters of women in business. We love educating women and giving them the confidence to pitch and share their stories. So we'd love to share with our listeners your story.
00:04:39:11 - 00:05:08:13
Mel Daniels
Awesome! So hi, I'm Mel Daniels and I call myself a content strategist. I empower women to build a business that they absolutely love with powerful content that connects, nurtures and converts their ideal clients. Now, I do this through working with my clients one on one and helping them build their soulful sales funnels and content strategies. I also have beautiful memberships where I love to serve my beautiful members as well.
00:05:08:21 - 00:05:34:09
Carrie Kwan
Gorgeous. Now I know that your journey we just mentioned started about five years ago, and you were one of the regulars at our coffee meet ups in Sydney's inner west. I'd love to hear what you think, over that course of five years, your business has obviously changed as well. What does the mums and go community bring to your experience as a business woman?
00:05:34:21 - 00:07:11:01
Mel Daniels
Yeah, so like I said in the introduction, well you said in the introduction, Carrie, that I have been around for a little while and it was actually part of my Co, my father, that introduced me to Mums and Co as an avid reader of the Sydney Morning Herald. He sent me a link to an article he read, which featured an amazing woman who was a mum like me and who was building a community of like minded mums in business.
So obviously that was, that was you, Carrie, and he really encouraged me to be part of that community and join that community because we've been part of communities all of our life as well. So at that time I had only just started my own business, which like you said, has changed over the years. I started as a virtual assistant and I was immediately hooked with this story about building a community and being surrounded by women.
I was really, really excited when the first coffee meet up started and I was there as well. So for me, Mums and Co really brings that community. Community is one of my top three values and something that I've built my life and my business around, so to be able to walk into a room or a cafe and be surrounded by women who just get it was absolutely priceless and I really, really appreciated that.
I've made so many amazing friends as a result of Mums and Co and for that I'm truly grateful as well. So I guess the answer to your question is really that Mums and Co brings the support, the support through community and I think that that's so important as mums in business.
00:07:11:13 - 00:07:54:16
Lucy Kippist
Mel, thank you so much for that fabulous testimonial. We love having you as a member and it's wonderful to hear someone's experience and the full trajectory of all the things that we've done over the years. I'm really hoping to bring back those coffee meet ups within the new year as well.
So back to your business. As you've shared, it's evolved over the last couple of years and recently expanded to include your own weekly podcast that Carrie and I were lucky enough to be guests on recently. What's something you’ve had to stop doing in order to make all of these pieces now fit together in terms of buying the business and obviously caring for the family?
00:07:54:16 - 00:09:56:19
Mel Daniels
Thank you and thank you so much for being my guest as well. My podcast is a relatively new content channel for me, but something that I really, really love. I get to connect with so many brilliant, insightful women and it's something that I'm really, really grateful for.
It was actually another part of my Co, my beautiful hubby, who has been pestering me for ages to start a podcast. My daughter actually created a season of a podcast a couple of years ago. So I knew the work that entailed creating a podcast and putting it out into the world. But my hubby kind of kept pestering me and I kept putting him off because I felt like a podcast was too much work and it is a lot of work, I'm not going to lie about that.
However, I haven't actually stopped by anything in order to fit this into my life, and I'm just going to explain that in a couple of ways, if I can. Firstly, when you are so absolutely connected to an idea or a vision that you have, you tend to move mountains to make it happen. You prioritise it and you find ways for it to fit into your life, so that's probably the first thing. This podcast is such an important part of what I'm here to do, so it's a real priority to me.
I think the second thing is that I have amazing team members. I was actually lucky enough to bring both of them along to the most recent Empowered conference, which was a truly special moment because we worked virtually and I actually rely on them to do all the bits. So I record it, I edit it, and then they just work their magic and bring it to the world. So whilst I haven't given anything up per se, to be able to bring the podcast to the world, I realised that I can't do it myself and I really rely on them and I understand how the podcast fits in my bigger vision as well.
00:09:59:00 - 00:10:17:10
Lucy Kippist
Fantastic answer again. I love the point that you made about when you really want to do something, it's like you are compelled to just make it work and sometimes, most of the time, fingers crossed, all the things align so that you're able to plan. Thank you for sharing.
00:10:17:23 - 00:10:39:00
Carrie Kwan
I have a sneaking suspicion that you also have some amazing processes which support you to do this. Your workflow, I think they're firing probably pretty smoothly and a well-oiled process to allow you to have the capacity to do that and fuel all the amazing ideas that you have.
00:10:39:07 - 00:11:03:01
Mel Daniels
You are absolutely correct, Carrie. It is absolutely so important to have these in place. I think, especially when you're working with team members as well and outsourcing things to other people, to be able to have that process in place, that support, that framework, that foundation of what you do can really make your life easier in the doing, as well as your team’s life easier as well. So yeah, you're correct.
00:11:04:12 - 00:11:51:16
Carrie Kwan
Leading on to that, I'm sure you use those amazing processes because you are an expert in content creation. I heard recently from an SEO expert that content is literally, I think almost 20 years, I heard the phrase content is king, so I'm not sure what is above king, maybe it's queen, I don't know. But, you know, content is absolutely front and center.
We know that marketing can be one of the biggest challenges for our community with conversion and viability being some of the most important goals and areas of business focus. We can't be everywhere and when we try, it's not that effective. So what's the solution here? What's your one tip to boosting visibility?
00:11:53:06 - 00:15:04:12
Mel Daniels
There's so many different ways I can answer this question, but what I'm going to say is high level visibility really relies on consistency. I know that's such a boring word and your listeners are probably rolling their eyes at me right now and getting ready to tune out, but I really want them to hang in there and hear me out, because content is the way that we take our ideal client from not knowing anything about us, all the way through to becoming that raving fan of ours.
So content is such a powerful tool that we have at our disposal, and in many circumstances it's free. It's free to put it out there. So we're really moving our ideal client through this journey with us solely with our content. It's how they connect with us, it’s how they get on our email list, it's how we nurture them and how we actually finally make them see that purchasing from us will actually solve their problem.
So if you're my ideal client, say in the beginning, in that connected phase of the client journey, and you see me on Instagram and you think, “wow, yes, I really love Mel’s message and I love the way she talks about content.” And I'm there every day. I'm posting in stories as well, and you're getting to know me and then I disappear for like a few weeks, perhaps.
What do you think is going to happen? It's going to be really hard for you to pick up where you left off with me. So instead of being ready to perhaps go on that next stage of the client journey and join my email list, our relationship has really gone back to the very beginning because you've got to get used to me again and trust me all over again.
So the question here then really becomes if I know that visibility gets me clients and consistency is the key to visibility, how can I actually support myself to be consistent? I know that not many people really love the word consistency and there's probably a lot of pushback to that consistency. So some people like to create content when they're in the flow, or they might think that they just don't have time.
But the really the best way to think about consistency and create consistency is building that framework around you that supports your personality and your style. So that really includes things like being prepared, having a plan in place, actually producing the content and something that we just spoke about having that process around us.
Being prepared is about knowing all the things you could possibly talk about. A plan is having those ideas and turning it into powerful content because it takes your ideal client on that journey with you. Producing is about creating that content and a process is knowing those moving parts, which not only makes you really confident in what you're doing and creating, but it helps you outsource as well, which we also mentioned.
So I guess that's a really long way to answer your original question, but I really think to increase that visibility, you just need a beautiful framework that suits you and your individual style to support your own consistency.
00:15:04:12 - 00:15:33:24
Lucy Kippist
With regard to the consistency piece, if you are still experimenting, for want of a better word, with the content that resonates best with your audience, are you still turning up consistently with one way? Likely you're trying that way, and that's working because if you're going on every day and doing something that's not resonating, what's the first step there? Do you keep it up?
00:15:34:24 - 00:16:19:03
Mel Daniels
I would say that consistency is more about how often you are showing up and how often you are giving your ideal client that opportunity to get to know you, to like you and to trust you.
In terms of the content itself, yes, everything is an experiment, 100% is an experiment. I'm testing things all of the time. I'm testing different times of day, I'm testing different types of content, I'm testing whether people like emails better than social media, so everything is always a test. But yes, you definitely have to stick with it for a little while. But consistency is more to do with how often you are giving your ideal client that opportunity to get to know you.
00:16:19:19 - 00:16:36:16
Carrie Kwan
Looking at these frameworks that you set up, what is part of that? Do you use any particular tools to help you with that? Do you use a cadence? Can you just give us a little bit of detail there?
00:16:37:03 - 00:18:23:06
Mel Daniels
Yeah, sure! That framework really relies on those four Ps that I just mentioned before. So that's about being prepared, having a plan, producing and a process. So, the prepared side of things is just about mind mapping, that's the way that I teach my clients to really get all of those ideas out of their head. Some people are very visual and they love that mind map kind of process, some people are very logical and prefer a list instead. Either way, they are great ways to get those ideas out of your head.
In terms of the plan, I really encourage people once again to be consistent, but to think about the 90 day plan before you even get into the daily content or the weekly content that you're producing. What are those really big overarching ideas that you want to achieve or the things that you want to promote this quarter? It's really important to have that 90 day plan and then have a content calendar supporting that on a day to day or weekly basis.
Producing the content is around having a certain structure. That's like if you have a blog, then it's about coming up with the main heading, the 3 to 5 points that people need a call to action and then just getting in and doing it.
The process side of things, for me, I love using Asana as my tool. I have standard operating procedures that I document. But the day to day actual doing of those tasks are put into Asana, so my team and I can actually stay on track. There's lots of different tools out there, there's so many different tools out there. But once again, it's about testing and trying and seeing what really resonates and works for you.
00:18:24:21 - 00:19:26:05
Carrie Kwan
That is really timely advice, especially as I think small businesses often do some planning at the end of the year or beginning of the year. So we're kind of at that really great stage, so great advice, thank you Mel.
Shifting our view to a little bit about business risk, I'm always fascinated with this question and this area. Whilst I think a lot of women think they're risk averse, the fact is they actually do step into the unknown and they actually work a way out of it. They are actually quite measured at taking risks and that’s probably the definition of an entrepreneur, actually taking that risk.
Now, how would you describe your relationship to that aspect of business? What do you need to be mindful of when you're creating content?
00:19:49:24 - 00:20:48:21
Mel Daniels
So it's funny that you mentioned risk averse. I am a chronic risk averse person and I'm exceptionally cautious by nature, which obviously has its pros and cons, but obviously I've got the relevant insurances to cover me and I think that that's really important. As small business owners, we forget about that element of our business and kind of take it to take a chance on it and I don't think that it's something that you can really take a chance on.
Then as mums, we generally work by ourselves, don't we? We may have a small team, but having some sort of back up plan is really important for me in particular, if I'm too unwell to perhaps create content for my membership or to actually serve my clients. It's really important to have some sort of back up plan in that respect.
In relation to content, you had a guest on your podcast some time ago and he said something that I 100% agree with, and that is that the biggest risk to your business success is to remain invisible. We just had a whole discussion around visibility and content, and I just think that visibility is such a key factor to our success and anything that we can do to support these and amplify our visibility is a good thing.
00:20:48:21 - 00:21:12:02
Lucy Kippist
Great answer. So now the final question is, taking it a little bit back to the more personal level, you mentioned before that you've now got some staff on your team, which is fantastic. But can you share with us a bit more about the other co in your life that supports you and obviously the business to grow and develop the way that it has?
00:21:13:05 - 00:23:30:24
Mel Daniels
I am so lucky I have such a big co surrounding me and I could probably talk about them for an hour.
First and foremost is my family. They are 100% such an important part of my life. I mentioned already that my dad sent me that link to introduce me to the Mums and Co and my mum is on my email list and reads every single email that I create and constantly tells me how clever and inspirational she thinks that I am. So to have them on my side is super beautiful.
My hubby is my greatest cheerleader without a doubt. He takes over family life when I'm in launch mode or when I'm particularly busy. Then my kids as well, who are just so beautifully supportive and love to help me in my business wherever they can, so things like creating graphics or uploading videos and transcribing them, all of these little things, they really, really love to participate in that as well, which I think is a beautiful thing as well, because they know now that it's normal to own a business, it's something natural and they can think about how they can use their skills in other ways than being an employee, which I think is such a beautiful thing as well.
There's my team, which you mentioned, beautiful Donna and Christine, who without them, my business wouldn't be what it is today. They just do all the back end stuff for me and a lot of the back end client work, the types of things that, if I did, would just take up so much of my valuable time that I wouldn't have time to be strategic, to be able to think about all those amazing things and where my business could actually go to.
Then there's my biz buddies, so I couldn't do it without them. A lot of them I actually have met through Mums and Co. They’re my sounding board and they're there when I just need to have a few tears or to help me celebrate a win.
Last but not least, the beautiful women inside my own membership and communities, I just think that they are the bee's knees. They're just so supportive of each other and just so determined to become more visible and consistent with their own content, it’s just so inspiring, I love it so much.
00:23:30:24 - 00:23:35:20
Lucy Kippist
Thank you so much for sharing all that and thank you for joining us on Mumbition today.
00:23:36:07 - 00:23:39:09
Mel Daniels
Thank you so much for having me.
00:23:39:09 - 00:23:42:21
Lucy Kippist
What type of content most resonates with you? Can you answer that one?
00:23:43:21 - 00:24:05:15
Mel Daniels
So I would have to say that I love listening to podcasts. I think that podcasts are the most amazing way to get lots of different information and to be entertained whilst you're doing something else. Because Mum life is all about multitasking. So to be able to listen to a podcast and be entertained and inspired, I just think is fabulous.
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