Episode Transcript

(AI Generated)

Carrie Kwan (Host): Hi Jo, a big welcome to Mumbition the podcast. We always start our conversations with a question about you. Could you please share your 30-second elevator pitch with our listeners?

Joanna Downer (02:56): Sure, thank you. It's great to be here and chatting with you today. My story and business are all about startups and the journey of being a female entrepreneur. I started my own business several years ago and had my own startup journey. Now, I'm building a platform called Monday Mojo, where I work with female entrepreneurs to help them launch and grow their businesses, particularly through collaborations, partnerships, and organic growth marketing channels.

Carrie Kwan (03:33): Amazing. We've known each other for a while, so I know 30 seconds is really hard to fit your whole life story in. Monday Mojo is actually your second business, and you're also working full-time with teenage kids in the mix. What would be your first piece of advice for any woman sitting on the fence about starting a business?

Joanna Downer (03:59): 100%. Your comment takes me back to something a friend said to me when I was running my own startup. That was a seven-year journey from idea to exit, with a couple of rounds of capital along the way. She said, "My gosh, you're so brave to start a business." The word "brave" hadn't even occurred to me. I just had an idea I thought had potential and ran with it. But when she said that, I realized not everyone has the confidence to back themselves and go for it. They might not have the right network of people to support them. If you have an idea you're passionate about and think it's a great opportunity, whether you see a gap in the market or it's something you want to bring to life, it's important to validate it and find a network of people to give you the confidence to take that step forward. Communities like yours are perfect for that, providing the experience and mentorship of like-minded people. So, it takes a great idea, bravery, and a supportive network to take those steps.

Carrie Kwan (06:01): I love that reference to bravery. Many female founders may not see themselves as brave, but they absolutely are. They're focused on the next step rather than acknowledging their courage. You've been a massive advocate for small business owners, and we celebrate the optimism and bravery of starting something new. It's about venturing into the unknown, doing hard things, and showing up every day, often as sole traders without big teams behind them. They are absolutely brave, and we see that every single day.

Joanna Downer (07:01): Yes, and to your point, juggling kids, families, and other commitments while bringing an idea to life is really hard. I take my hat off to anyone who has a go.

Carrie Kwan (07:22): You've had your own experience in startup land and understand the intricacies of getting funding. With all that experience, what are some important factors in achieving success in your business?

Joanna Downer (07:56): The journey with my own business, and a couple of smaller businesses before that, taught me a lot about myself and the business I want to have. In startup land, we looked at investment as a strategy for growth. There's a lot of noise about raising capital, but I want to acknowledge other paths to growth that aren't as celebrated. Investment is one path, but it's important to remember the customer and the reason you started your business. Continually filling your cup on that side will reinforce your value proposition and make you more attractive to investors if that's the path you choose. It's about finding balance and not falling into just the investment mindset. Emphasize the customer as well.

Carrie Kwan (10:11): That's a really interesting viewpoint and the benefit of hindsight, right? Raising funding is absolutely all-encompassing; it's like a job on top of the job. It takes a lot of energy and time away from the business. What you're saying is the best path is actually to grow your customers. Getting your next 100 customers or your first 1000 customers is...

Joanna Downer (10:25): Yeah, 100%.

Carrie Kwan (10:40): ...is perhaps where we need to focus. Maybe that's just a timing thing.

Joanna Downer (10:46): Yeah. We were successful in raising capital and had great investors, both angel and venture. But I absolutely think the most rewarding growth injection you can have is with customers who love and value your product or service.

Lucy (11:09): Just thinking about what you're saying, Jo, about bringing it back to your customer, which is also about bringing it back to your why—why you started the business in the first place. At Mums & Co, we hold a space for women like you, and we're privileged to have you as part of our expert team. Women who are ambitious but also want to provide for their families, often while having children. I'm really interested—you're a mum to two teenagers, and as Carrie mentioned, you're working full-time as well as running Monday Mojo. What is your best parenting hack?

Carrie Kwan (12:30): And I just want to jump in quickly, Lucy. When you said teenagers, I thought, wow, that's another phase, right? Your children go through key phases and milestones just like your business. So, you've got teenagers now. How is that different from when they were in primary school?

Joanna Downer (12:56): I started my own startup when the kids were little in primary school. It was spun out of an opportunity I saw in the market. I had no idea what I was doing—I'm not a tech founder. I cobbled together the first iteration of a startup on my own in the corner of my son's bedroom. He was in Kindy, and my daughter was in year one or two. It was about carving out time to have a go at something. Everyone starts with an idea and tries to work it out. I was juggling school drop-offs and pick-ups. Now, my kids are 15 and 17, learning to drive and navigating high school. Throughout it all, it's about being present with your family when it's family time. It's easy to get drawn into building and creating, but when I spend time with my family, I give them my full attention. They've seen me work hard and experience the highs and lows of entrepreneurial life. They admire my passion and drive, but when I'm in my mom role, I give them my proper attention.

Lucy (15:06): 100%. I love that tip. Emily Rosiates, another one of our experts, talks about the mother's health and wellbeing as the guiding light for the rest of the family. If your kids see you happy and fulfilled in your work, it's inspiring to them and allows you to be present with them during downtime. Not enough women talk about that.

Joanna Downer (15:41): Mm.

Lucy (15:44): It's an essential part of our overall wellbeing. For you, it's your work that inspires you. Are there any tech tools that help you balance everything at home and work?

Joanna Downer (16:07): 100%. For me, the Notes app is invaluable. I can jot down ideas on the go. For work, I enjoy using Notion as a planning tool for everything from social media to content structuring. For family, if it's not in WhatsApp or the shared calendar, it's not on our radar. My daughter is learning to drive, and we coordinate everything through these tools.

Carrie Kwan (16:57): You...

Joanna Downer (17:04): She's playing high-level soccer, so she trains three to four nights a week. That's a lot of pick-ups and drop-offs. If we're not all in that WhatsApp channel talking about who's got to be where and when, things can fall through the cracks.

Lucy (17:24): Thank you for sharing.

Carrie Kwan (17:26): We have a few things in common outside the business sphere as well, Joanna. I never thought I'd be a soccer mum, but here I am. It's all-encompassing.

Joanna Downer (17:31): I know, right? It really is. I'm enjoying this lull between seasons at the moment. My husband coaches my son's team, so I've got a coach, a soccer player, and my daughter who plays rep. It's a lot of soccer.

Lucy (17:44): Yeah.

Carrie Kwan (17:47): Alissia's too with her voice, so...

Lucy (18:03): A lot.

Carrie Kwan (18:04): Amazing. I completely agree that if it's not in the joint family calendar, it doesn't happen. Great tech tools there. I want to take our conversation back to some areas you're passionate about, particularly with Monday Mojo. You're passionate about supporting small business owners to grow outside the traditional funding model, like angel or VC investment. You're advocating for more organic, low-cost growth models. Can you dive into that and share an example of how this has worked for you?

Joanna Downer (18:50): Sure. Not every business or startup is the right fit for venture capital or external investment. So, how can you grow your business through collaborations? When I was running my startup, we had amazing low-cost collaborations that unlocked great conversations with other business owners, increased customers, brand visibility, and social proof. Another business advocating for you is like 10xing a testimonial. Many business owners don't leverage collaborations or partnerships to unlock new audiences and visibility. I'm passionate about enabling business owners to think about the types of collaborations they can do, understand the different types, and execute them safely. This is the space I'm leaning into, working with other brands and businesses to collaborate.

Carrie Kwan (22:30): We know that firsthand, Jo. It's a fascinating space. Collaborations go through different stages, just like parenting and business. When you're a small business, you might collaborate with another small business. As you grow, you'll collaborate with other growing businesses. You might not attract someone with a community of 25,000 at first, but you can start with someone who has a community of 1,000. It's about finding that fit as you go. Collaboration has been fundamental to Mums & Co since day one. We've had partnerships that didn't work out, but it's about finding that special combination. It's great you have a framework to offer other small business owners.

Joanna Downer (23:28): Mm.

Carrie Kwan (23:34): A framework to consider what to look for in a partnership. It takes trial and error, but you have to start and test a few.

Joanna Downer (23:49): Yeah, 100%. Different partners are right for you at different stages. In the beginning, if you have an idea or concept, you might have years of industry experience to lend your voice or opinion. As your customer base grows, you can have shared collaborations with cross-promotion to audiences. It will go through a life cycle, just as you've described.

Lucy (24:37): I think opening it up like that prevents getting too overwhelmed and not taking any action. If you can think naturally about it, you feel like there are more opportunities, which puts you in a better mindset and makes your conversations more energetic. I love that tip, Jo, thank you.

Joanna Downer (24:49): Mm.

Carrie Kwan (24:51): So...

Joanna Downer (24:54): Mm.

Lucy (25:00): Sorry, Carrie, you're next.

Carrie Kwan (25:01): Good, good. We can always go down a rabbit hole with collaborations and partnerships. Let's shift our attention to the concept of risk. It's an inherent part of the business journey. Surprisingly, or unsurprisingly, women are great at navigating this process. It might have something to do with our parenting hazard lights—we can hear risk from 100 paces away. What processes do you use to navigate risk in your business?

Joanna Downer (25:42): Definitely. In the corporate environment, risk means different things, like cybersecurity, brand identity, and reputational risk. In smaller businesses and my own startup journey, some risks I had to consider included ensuring my business structure was sound for investment. We had to do a lot of due diligence to de-risk the business for investors. Holistically, there's also the risk of not going fast enough in business. If you take your eye off the ball in one area, something might drop. Many founders put all their energy into raising capital and neglect building customers and cash flow, which is the lifeblood of the business. So, it's about setting up your business structure to shore it up against external forces, de-risking the entity for capital, and as the owner, focusing on all the right things to move the business forward.

Carrie Kwan (27:47): There are lots of different layers. It's not something we should shy away from. At the end of the day, it helps you be more resilient. You work through potential risks and put measures in place to protect yourself or minimize them. My journey with risk has been interesting. As an entrepreneur, you need to jump in and figure things out without having time or resources to cover every eventuality. As you go through different phases, you start to think about processes that make it better for the customer and ensure a great onboarding experience. Automation helps cover all your bases. No matter what we do in business, we are exposed to risk and need to take steps to mitigate it at different phases.

Joanna Downer (29:01): Mm. But I think you're right. At the beginning, if you thought about all the risks, you might not start. You don't have T's and C's, privacy policies, MOUs, service agreements—you just jump in with an idea and give it a go. You have to put your blinkers on and run. But as your business grows, you need to start adding those legal pieces, insurances, and ensure you're safe and compliant.

Carrie Kwan (29:09): You wouldn't do it. Which ones?

Joanna Downer (29:31): Exactly. As your business becomes bigger and more established, you need to bolt on those legal pieces and insurances to stay safe and compliant.

Carrie Kwan (29:35): Policies and processes. You need the right response because you don't want your growth to suffer at the expense of controls or focus.

Joanna Downer (30:00): Exactly.

Lucy (30:09): Now, Jo, you are part of our Mums and Co expert team, which means anyone listening today who joins the membership can book a call with you and have a 30-minute chat to ask anything with your incredible expertise. But our question for you as we wrap up the podcast is, how can we help you and Monday Mojo as you build it up? How can we best support you at the moment?

Joanna Downer (30:39): Absolutely. I'm happy to speak to any Mums and Co member about their business, whatever stage they're at. If anything has resonated, I would love for more female business owners to feel empowered when it comes to collaborations. We've recently launched a platform that helps you do three things: find a collaboration partner, understand what types of collaborations might be right-sized for your business, and put together the templates and tools to structure it. For me, it's about building that platform and encouraging people to check it out. It's tailored to collaborations and how to safely grow your business through them.

Lucy (31:46): Great question. Thank you for sharing that. Is there anything else you'd like to add before we wrap up today?

Joanna Downer (31:52): I'm more than happy to offer a special membership to Mums and Co members if they want to use the platform. I'm happy to share that with you to link in the show notes. If anyone has an idea, keep going with it. Find the right people around you to have the conversation and ask the right questions. It's not always family and friends because they might not have the spark of an idea. Communities like Mums & Co provide encouragement, support, and conversations with people who have been on that journey. It might help you bring something to life and give you the confidence to be brave and take that first step.

Lucy (32:45): Thank you so much, Jo. That was great.

Joanna Downer (32:49): No way, thanks for having me.

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