Mumbition with Liz Kaelin

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Lucy (00:00)

Liz, welcome to Mumbition and the podcast by Mums & Co . We are delighted to have you here today. And we're gonna open our conversation with an invitation we give to all of our community. Please share with us your 30 second elevator pitch.

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Elizabeth (Liz) Kaelin (00:14)

Thank you so much for having me, Lucy and Carrie. I'm really excited to be here because I'm you know, I'm part of the Mums & Co team. So I've heard lots of these podcast episodes and it's really exciting. So I am a self-taught businesswoman and professional mentor. I started my career as a dietitian and nutritionist because I really loved helping people and I was really passionate about the experience of giving people information that I thought would really help to change their lives. And so I have pivoted now into the business world after building and selling my own business after seven years, having no prior business experience. I came out of that experience, very different person. And so I really use my hands-on experience and support to give entrepreneurs an opportunity to learn from someone who's done it before.

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And for the past five years, I've had several roles in the entrepreneurial tech and innovation space. I've been the head of product at a software development firm. I've been a lecturer in entrepreneurial finance at UTS. I've been an entrepreneur in residence, I think at all three major Sydney universities, and a venture principal at a government venture fund. So I've now found myself at Mums & Co because I'm really passionate about helping women in business. And yeah, that's me.

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Lucy (01:37)

Great.

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Carrie Kwan    (01:39)

And that's a very impressive journey so far and why we're so delighted to have you in Mums & Co helping other women now navigate that journey, that path of entrepreneurship. And Liz, you've had some, I guess from your original journey as a small business owner, if you can cast your mind back to that, I'm just trying to think of

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You know, what inspired you to go on, jump on this journey, like to become an entrepreneur? Could you cast your mind back and tell us a little bit about what made you take that leap?

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Elizabeth (Liz) Kaelin (02:16)

Yeah, sure. So I think I'm probably similar to a lot of entrepreneurs in that I always felt entrepreneurial, but being a clinician is a bit different when it comes to like what you have to offer. So I would do, you know, different sessions maybe with like private clients, but really like I was mostly the passion about helping people. And it wasn't really until I moved to Australia, because I don't know if you can tell from my accent, but I'm not originally from Australia. I came here 12 years ago. And I tell the story where I was walking around where I was staying at the time when I first arrived. And within like sort of a kilometer radius, I probably saw six or seven different skip bin companies. It was like Aussie Skip Bins, Skip Bins for you, Skip Bins are us, like Mr. Skip Bin Man. And I was just like, wow, if there is so much entrepreneurial opportunity in skip bins in a kilometer radius of where I'm staying, then there must be opportunity here to do my own thing. So that's when I really started to think about, you know, what is it that I could sell? At the time I was working for a large multinational corporation and I was a salesperson. So what they would do is they would find dietitians that they thought had the aptitude to sell and kind of, you know, imbue us with those skills to go out to other clinicians and to sell products.

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And so I started thinking about what I could sell and got really involved in the startup space, which at the time was quite new in Australia. And it really just opened my eyes to all the opportunity that was out there. Being a dietitian, I love food and I would go to these events and the food was always rubbish. It was pizza and party pies. And I just thought, I don't want to, my calories I want to spend wisely. They are my currency as a dietitian. And so I really want to try to bring better food into events. And so I went online and I didn't see anything and I thought, that's really interesting. Maybe that's something I can do. And it just kind of went from there.

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Carrie Kwan    (04:19)

Amazing. And I think it's always that you see things and you have this drive to create a solution. You see a problem, it's like, can fix this. Which is a brilliant quality and one that we're very lucky to have at Mums & Co because you always have that positiveness and that just you radiate this energy to want to help other small business owners. And you've had obviously experience across a broad range of players in the startup ecosystem and understanding sort of the intricacies to getting funding and ultimately maybe exiting a business, right? Selling a business. With all that experience under your belt at the moment, what do you think is the most important factor when it comes to success in business?

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Elizabeth (Liz) Kaelin (05:06)

Yeah, so I think I've approached this two ways because there's you and there's your business. So I'll start with your business. So the first thing is like your business fundamentals of your model. Like who's buying your product? How often are they buying it? How much are they buying it for? And what market do you operate? Do you know enough about that market so that you can expand? And hopefully if there's another market in which you can transfer your idea, because then it just kind of opens you up to the ability to sell more stuff. And so I think, you know, really keeping it to the business fundamentals is incredibly important. And even if, you know, you have done that research and you believe that you're like, you're not quite sure yet, or you don't have enough information, you know, like I would encourage you to keep going because the second thing that you need, like from a personal perspective, I think is persistence and patience. And I say both because I really do believe that they go hand in hand.

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I don't think, actually I know that I wouldn't be where I am now if I hadn't stuck it out when it got really hard. And it gets really, really hard sometimes. So I think the longer you are in it, the more skill you acquire, the more people you meet, and the more you kind of level up your business, like the more you scale, it the harder it gets, also like the more opportunities are available to you and the caliber of people that are willing to help you and the experience that they've had is just, you know, like really unparalleled. because business is so hard and lonely sometimes, I think that's why communities like Mums & Co . are so important because there's things that you probably can't tell your investors or your spouse or even your friends because they really might not understand. So having people that are around you that understand and empathize with your journey are really important and they will help you keep going when times get tough and they will get very tough but also great, but it's also gonna be great. You can totally do it and you can succeed because again, it comes down to persistence. I was really lucky and had a good idea. And even though it was hard, like fundamentally, my business never changed. And I got a lot of advice from a lot of really smart people and it wasn't until I sold it and could take a breath sort of seven years later that I was like, I was right about everything the whole time. I knew what I was doing and I had really good intuition but I lacked the skill. And the only way you really get that in business is to do it yourself. You can take the course, you can read all the blogs, you can read all the books, but ultimately, if you are persistent and you get that experience, nothing beats that.

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Carrie Kwan    (07:50)

You touch on so many themes there and I absolutely agree. It can get quite isolating even when you have people around you. Because you have this sort of drive and you have this responsibility to try and make it work, right? To get this venture going. And then when you talked about the people that you surround you, which is so, so important because

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We're all, you know, usually sole traders. We don't have large teams. And you need quite a lot of different business skills to run a business. So that's exactly what Mums & Co  is about. It's actually having that community around you, the experts that we have, which you're one of them, Liz, in our expert community. We've got 20 amazing business experts who understand the path that you're on and can provide sort of business guidance on particular areas.

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of running a business. And then last, I just want to touch on the, when you mentioned about showing up, right? Showing up is probably one of the things that is inherent in, I think, every entrepreneur that we work with and small business owner, they have the ability to show up even when it's hard, right? And to represent even when they don't feel like it.

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So we love celebrating that optimism and all that bravery, but we know that you need support along the way too.

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Lucy (09:17)

As Carrie mentioned, you're part of our wonderful expert team, Liz, and I wanted to touch a bit more on that. First of all, to say that last year you were nominated as the top 16 mentor in Australia by the Startup Master Report. So bravo and well done on that. Obviously we're very lucky to be able to share you with our greater community as well. I mean, you've just shared before, you know, what sort of involved and we've had some great feedback from our community already in their sessions with you about how much they enjoy, how quickly you seem to grasp what's going on for them. What's the secret here without giving away all your, you know, professional IP.

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Lucy (09:59)

But what is the secret there to connecting? a big, a mentoring is just like any other relationship, right? You've got to have that gel in the beginning for it actually to work. So how do you achieve that?

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Elizabeth (Liz) Kaelin (10:11)

Yeah, so first of all, I would say my professional IP is open source. you know, you can, the fundamentals don't change. What are people buying? How often are they buying it? How much are they buying for? And what market do you operate? And do you operate in another market? Like that doesn't change. So where my expertise lies, I think, is in your individual business and being able to take the opportunity that that individual has and just seeing it 360. So my business was a catering marketplace and we had customers on one side and caterers on the other. We did primarily office catering just because they ordered regularly and it was bigger orders. And if you turn 40, you really care about the catering. And if you are catering for a boardroom lunch, as long as it shows up kind of looking like the photo on time, you know, that's kind of enough.

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Right? So what I realized when I started that business is I thought I was running a food business and I was absolutely running an operations and logistics business. And I think what that taught me was to see everything, like how everything interacts with each other. And particularly, I think around like where the hidden costs are of business and like what motivates people to buy from you. So my business was, it was originally called You Choose. So Y-O-U-C-H-E-W-S, which was cutesy and fun. And because I was in startups, everyone wanted to support me. So, you know, they would, was feeding investors and accelerators and everyone would tell me like, you know, how I wanted to, it was so great that I was celebrating the stories of the people who were making the food. And then as I was growing, I realized, you know, who doesn't care about the stories? The women who are ordering food.

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They actually, you know, they are like, it's a nice to have. Is the food going to show up on time looking like the photo? Are the dietary requirements going to be catered for? Like when you're managing hundreds of deliveries all over Sydney and Melbourne, you learn pretty quickly like what affects everything. So I take that expertise in with me coupled with my commercialization experience and within a fairly short time.

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I think I can just see everything and I am extremely direct. So one of the things I do because all of my advice comes from a place of empathy and love is before I start my sessions, I say, how are you feeling today? Do you want advice today or are you just looking for someone to support you? Because I can do both. But if you are wanting advice, sometimes it is very difficult to hear.

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So I think that coupled with the experience that I now have as a mentor as well, I've probably mentored close to a thousand founders in the past five years. And so I think that it's really, really, you know, it just comes down to skill and expertise and nothing, I will repeat this, nothing replaces hands-on experience. There is no way to,

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Lucy (13:24)

Hmm. I love what you, yeah. I love what you just said there about when you sit down with someone, you say to them, do you want some advice or do you just want some support? Cause I think sometimes we don't know. We don't know what it is we want, but having that distinction and being offered that, that space to choose that is also really important. would carry. And I were just talking about that in a, previous discussion about, you know, even in your personal life.

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when you're talking about your business to your partner or whoever it is that you lean on for support, like having that distinction. So I think that is, that's crucial, especially when that mentoring relationship goes beyond one session, I think, because it's also creating that feeling of trust and transparency, because you can just be honest. I think a lot of the time for us, you know, we put on a face with our businesses and… to have somewhere you can let that down is vitally important. Even in a 30 minute chat, you can get lot off your chest in that time if someone's listening. So thank you for sharing that.

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Carrie Kwan    (14:27)

Can I just add to, I think you've hit on something really important as a founder and you know, on one hand, on one side, you know that you don't want to be the smartest person in the room, right? You can't possibly be the smartest person in the room all the time. And that's when you're, you know, reaching out for guidance or you're actually bringing in people, the smartest person that you know, that can help you maybe navigate that, that challenge.

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and then there's another thing which is fronting up and saying, okay, I don't know everything right now. and that's quite a act of self-awareness and it's quite an act of being, humble. And I know that that's actually a really powerful space because that's when, you know, you being, self-aware is something that not everyone's born with.

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you're meant to be showing up and meant to be, you know, talking about your business and how amazing it is. And then you have to jump into this other space and say, actually, right now, these are these things aren't working. So it puts you in quite a vulnerable space. How do you how do you encourage founders to do that? Like, is it, you know, is is there any anything that you think a founder who's going through that journey at the moment would like to hear to get them into that space? Because

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Elizabeth (Liz) Kaelin (15:26)

Mm-hmm.

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Mm.

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Carrie Kwan    (15:43)

You can only be coachable. Not every founder or small business owner is coachable. So what piece of advice do you think you give to that person at the moment?

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Elizabeth (Liz) Kaelin (15:52)

Yeah. So I think, so what I do in my mentoring sessions is I kind of do my little intro. Like I'll say, you know, do you want advice or support? I'll also say, I am here for you. Like your business is a piece of paper. It's a PTY LTD on a certificate. It can be shut down. It can be acquired. It is actually just a thing. You are a human being and I care about you as the person.

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So let's talk about what you want to do. Are you just here to replace your corporate income with something that is flexible? Do you want to build something that requires funding with venture capital? I think having these skilled conversations with someone who can help guide you through in a safe space where you can trust that this person is actually looking out for your own wellbeing and sees you as a holistic person versus like,

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Carrie Kwan    (16:23)

Okay.

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Elizabeth (Liz) Kaelin (16:49)

You know, and I'm commercial to my core, which is why I am almost ruthless in my advice, because I don't want you to waste your time, energy, and money on something that isn't going to work. And I have seen a lot of women and people in general come to me after they have spent an inordinate amount of money on an app that will never get used. And then I also say, like, don't listen to me. I could be wrong. You know, like we've had one session, you know, it's entirely up to you. And like you do want to back yourself, but I know a little bit.

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because of my background. like, I'm not precious. I'll be the first person to drink champagne on your yacht, tweet me, tell me how wrong I was. Like, that's fine. So I think like, you know, you can't do it on your own and it's okay to do that. Like even if you're a sole trader, like you can let certain things go and you can, you know, open yourself up to reality, but also, you know, like

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Lucy (17:27)

You

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Elizabeth (Liz) Kaelin (17:47)

If you bring it back to the business fundamentals and you have people around you who want to support you from a personal perspective, like they're going to give you advice that's going to help you as the individual grow your business. That's what I would say.

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Carrie Kwan    (18:00)

And what, okay, so what, let's go into a little bit of area around what keeps you in this space. So what do you love about the startup ecosystem right now, the small business space? What makes you so passionate about helping other women?

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Elizabeth (Liz) Kaelin (18:08)

Hmm.

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Yeah, so I think I've always, I always wanted to help. So even being a dietician, I just thought I love food and I love helping people. So like I wanted to marry it together and I did a lot of public health work because I wanted to be able to help a lot of people. So I think what really motivates me is that I have skill that is so hard won. Like it's just, it can't be bought. It can't be taught. Like I don't have an MBA, I didn't work for Bain, but I crawled through glass.

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to build a business over seven years with no experience and came out an absolute weapon. And so now I have all of these and then because I'm neurodiverse also, I believe like, you you can just kind of see things in a different way. So I'm passionate about being able to impart that experience and wisdom into people who are at an economic or a social disadvantage. So I'm passionate about women just because I believe that, you know,

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Carrie Kwan    (19:09)

Okay.

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Elizabeth (Liz) Kaelin (19:12)

Things like the patriarchy have kind of imbued beliefs in us that are really, really hard to shake, like that we're not good with numbers, which is absolutely crap. any, if you can balance a checkbook, like, you know, you're good with numbers. It's kind of why I push people to understand like, you know, who's buying from you, often they're buying and like what your costs are, because you can make a billion dollars, but if you spend $1.1 billion, you have $0. Like it really can't be that straightforward. It's not easy, but it's straightforward.

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Carrie Kwan    (19:23)

Thank you.

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Elizabeth (Liz) Kaelin (19:42)

So I think getting out of bed every morning and thinking about the people that I can help who are maybe at a disadvantage and helping them get a leg up, because I really do believe that business itself is the great equalizer. And I'm proof of that. So I came from, I wouldn't say humble beginnings. I have Caucasian privilege, I would say, growing up in a relatively affluent country.

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But like, you know, if I can help other people get a leg up, because if you have a good business idea, like I am living proof that you can make it happen if you have the right support around you. So I am very, very passionate about helping women in particular, because I know that they have unique challenges that I've also experienced that I've kind of come out the other side. And I know that it's possible for them to do it too.

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Carrie Kwan    (20:27)

Great message. And we love having, you know, your support, the more people that we can get in this corner. lot of women are underrepresented at the moment. A of women of cultural backgrounds or with disabilities or with diverse needs. So we love having your voice in this corner too, Liz. And speaking of that corner, so here at Mums & Co , you lead our partnerships strategy as our partnerships principle. It's a super exciting time.

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with lots, I think lots of things converging at the moment. So what do you see as a key skill for navigating it right now? And what sort of trends are you seeing?

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Elizabeth (Liz) Kaelin (21:03)

Yeah, so I think, so the first of all, I think like one of the things that I would always tell my mentees even before I started Mums & Co is find your channels. So, you know, whether or not you're B2B or you're B2C, you are going to grow infinitely faster if you are able to find a channel, a partner, for example, that has an extensive email list that you can access. So having that opportunity to

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like to grow something together with other organisations that can either help you or that you can help and benefit. Like it just, not only is it a smart business move, but it also is something that's really like personally rewarding and valuable because like not only are you not doing it yourself, but you're also helping to build someone else's business. So I think that was one of the things that really drew me to the business generally. I think two things that have, that I have learned is

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You know, I'm a saleswoman, right? So I'm used to a product. Like you go out there and you sell a product and you like you are curious about what it is that they, that a potential, you know, client or buyer is looking for. And then you can kind of tailor what it is that you want. Partnerships are not like that. You know, like you really, There is a certain amount of flexibility that's required because

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Carrie Kwan    (22:20)

Back to the.

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Elizabeth (Liz) Kaelin (22:22)

being from New Jersey, I'm all about the close. Someone will be like, this is interesting. I'm thinking this. And I'm like, great, here's the contract. You can sign on the dotted line. I'm going to have someone contact you and you can get it straight away. Partnerships are actually very nuanced. And there's a certain amount of flexibility and time that's required in order to build the relationship and partnership. I think particularly when

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Carrie Kwan    (22:38)

Okay.

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Elizabeth (Liz) Kaelin (22:46)

you're coming to brands that are very established. So Mums & Co is obviously backed by NRMA insurance. So we have a lot of credibility in that space, but you know, there is risk, social risk, like social capital risk to like putting your brand on the line if you're not aligning with the right organisations, particularly as those organisations get bigger. So I think having the flexibility and curiosity and again, the patience to be able to have conversations that you think might not be you know, relevant or useful or like, you know, a lot of the time, you know, you're just having a lot of conversations about what people are motivated by and like, you know, what they are and how you can help them and really growing that relationship so that, you know, when you get to a point where you can partner, you know, it is really mutually beneficial and you're really, really clear on what those outcomes are going to be like, you know, that person's going to have their outcomes, you're going to have your outcomes and being able to marry those together and having the patience to figure out what that might look like, that is like sort of the secret sauce. So yeah, it's a lot of fun.

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Carrie Kwan    (23:57)

It's definitely a process and some exciting things coming out in this space. and I think we've also got an signature event of ours, Be Empowered, that's on its way.

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And you will be hosting a partnerships panel there. So do you want to tell us a little bit about that, Liz?

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Elizabeth (Liz) Kaelin (24:20)

Yeah, sure. So what we decided to do was because, you know, we're saying like partnerships, the new black, like it is on everyone's mind. It is because again, it is one of the fastest paths when it comes to growth, both for and like for both organisations. So it's like, it's really a win-win. I think what we're going to see in future is it always used to be about like mergers and acquisitions, like, you know, how you can like, you know, a business fundamental is if you want to grow fast.

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whether buy someone that can help you grow faster or like, you know, raise more money so that you can spend more money on marketing, et cetera. So I think with partnerships, you know, it really is becoming more of a, like a mutually beneficial positioning for organisations to grow their bottom line or their, you know, customer list or whatever it is that, you know, whatever their angle is. So what we've decided to do is we've really taken an angle to kind of

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map that partnership journey. we have someone who is sitting on our panel who is an NRMA employee. She's worked with me very closely on partnerships and I approached her to join our panel because I was so impressed by the way that from a corporate perspective, she approaches partnerships and she has a really systematic way of doing that. I think that's really valuable for small businesses because

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There's some people that would say that there's a dream partnership out there for them. If I could only partner with Visa or ComBank or like Adore Beauty, like whoever it might be when it comes to your sector. And to have that inside knowledge I think is really, really valuable. But also to have an understanding of just like what the basics of partnerships are. We're to have a partnership expert on there called Katrina McCarter. She has her free partnership mastery.

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YouTube course which we're going to recommend everyone watch prior to the session so that they can come there with kind of the fundamentals and we can kind of walk you through like what a partnership might look like for you. What are the questions that you want to ask? And then the third is the commercial director at the Squiz. So it's really, really exciting for us to be there and to have her be there and she's going to walk us through kind of a negotiation because as a small business owner or a sole trader, you you often feel like the bigger

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The bigger guys are the ones that have all the power. But if you are in the room with them talking about a partnership, you have something to offer because you're not selling. You're not just saying like, I have a product. Do you want to buy it? Do you want to distribute it? Like there is clearly a mutual benefit to you being there. So how do you then negotiate something with like a larger organisation? But remember like the value that you have to offer and how you're going to marry those together so that there is a mutual benefit when you come out the other side.

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So we are really excited about that panel. We highly recommend that everyone attend, be empowered. If you miss it, unfortunately, we will be recording it. So all you have to do is be a member of Mums & Co in order to access it. And yeah, it'll be a lot of fun.

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Carrie Kwan    (27:18)

It's going to be an absolutely incredible panel and make sure you do register for the empowered. There should be nothing stopping you because it's free this year as well. So if you're a small business owner and you want to grow your business through partnerships, this is a big, big opportunity. And Liz, now I wanted to, I know we can go in so many different areas, but last question from our end before we give you an opportunity to, to, to, to share anything else.

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Commercialization, like this is a really interesting area and perhaps one of the most essential in a business woman's toolkit. But it's not something that is, like you said, you just have to get in and do the doing. Are there any patterns in terms of how this area is being faced by small business owning women? What are some of the simple ways that we can support or change this for women in our community?

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Elizabeth (Liz) Kaelin (28:10)

Yeah, great question. So I'm going to repeat it because it bears repeating. What are people buying? Like who are the people who are buying from you? How often are they buying? How much are they buying it for? In what market do you operate? And is there another market that you can transfer your idea into that market so that you can grow the amount of people that you can sell to? What are the costs that are in your business? like, are there hidden costs?

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Carrie Kwan    (28:35)

Okay.

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Elizabeth (Liz) Kaelin (28:36)

There's two different kinds of costs. There's fixed costs, which is like your rent, for example. And then there's variable costs and your variable costs are generally your sales and marketing budget, which is going to fluctuate through time. you know, they say if you think you're over communicating, you're probably communicating enough. So I cannot stress the business fundamentals because that is essentially commercialization. And then you come to what are your channels? How are you going to grow? What is your go to market strategy? And if you are looking to go through partnerships and newsflash, you should all be looking.

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Carrie Kwan    (28:55)

Okay.

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Elizabeth (Liz) Kaelin (29:06)

at growing through partnerships because channels are your fastest path to growth, you should come to Be MPowered. So I think like the commercialization aspects, they are not easy. It's really easy for me to sit here and talk about it because I used to say, when I used to sit on panels when I had my business, this is the easiest thing I've done all day. You know, like, cause it can be really hard. So I think like keeping that in mind around the commercialization, like, you know, and who's like, who is buying is also really important. Remember that woman who

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press that button to order 10 grand worth of catering, she is all I cared about. And if I was at an event that I was catering and someone came over to me and said, I don't like carrots, I would look at the woman if she was there who ordered the food and say, she likes carrots. So that is all I care about. And I care, like, you know, she cares about what other people think of her. You know, she just wants kudos from other people, but like, you know, in the scheme of my life, like all I really care about is that person who is like pushing that button. And then the challenge is the...

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Lucy (29:49)

Yeah.

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Elizabeth (Liz) Kaelin (30:02)

women in business are facing right now. Like obviously there's a cost of living crisis. And I think there's also some, there is also something that I don't think that we talk enough about in small business, which is that women are already systemically economic, like economically disadvantaged. So it is really easy to, you know, get a job and a startup or to, you know, draw on your professional network when you already have high net worths. Like there are a lot of women out there that if you are economically disadvantaged, like you have,

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Carrie Kwan    (30:21)

you

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Elizabeth (Liz) Kaelin (30:31)

stresses and pressure that are going to affect your performance. And I don't think that we talk about that enough. So there are a couple of things that we can do. The first is buy from women. Buy from them. Buy their stuff. Go online, like, you know, buy everything that you possibly can from small business owners that are doing it really hard. Like that is economic power. You have the, You have

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the choice as to where you're going to spend your money. And even if you are not, if you are fortunate enough to be in an economic position where you might not want to spend 20 extra dollars on something that you can get on Amazon, but you are in a position to do so, I highly encourage you to do that. And then it's also investing in women. So I'm not going to talk about the whole women investing thing that has been like talked about to death, but I would say that a majority of women that I speak to don't necessarily have venture back.

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Carrie Kwan    (31:00)

Okay.

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Elizabeth (Liz) Kaelin (31:23)

businesses. So the injection of capital from a friends and family perspective, like some women that I talked to only might need like 25 grand or 50 grand. And that for some people is an absolutely insurmountable number. And if you come from the commercialization world and the venture world like I do, it is a drop in the ocean for a lot of women. So if you are a friends and family member, we call that like a friends and family round. If you are looking for an injection of capital,

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and you have people around you that have a little bit of disposable income and can actually like invest in you from that perspective, like invest in women, invest in them, your own personal capital, if you have an opportunity to do so, because we've seen what happens in the venture capital world, like no matter how many breakfasts we're having, it's just not happening. So buying from them and investing in them directly, if you can afford it, would be like,

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It can be transformational for a lot of women there that are doing it really hard and have really good businesses, but through no fault of their own, are at economic disadvantages that are going to hinder their growth.

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Lucy (32:26)

Well said.

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Carrie Kwan    (32:27)

Amazing and well it's exciting, it is exciting times, the progress is slow but we're about to be part of the biggest wealth transfer that has been seen in terms of generations and a lot of money is going to be transferred to the next generation and to women. So

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Elizabeth (Liz) Kaelin (32:46)

Let's

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hope so, Let's hope so. Because what we are doing is basing that on whether or not the housing market stays the way that it is. Yeah? So I think that there is absolutely wealth transfer. And what we want to do is plant that in the minds of women everywhere. But they need help now. So I don't know. Maybe it's my cynical nature being in business for a really long time. You can never really bank on anything. Now is the time that we

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to help women. So if you do, if you are experiencing that wealth transfer now, like absolutely, like, you know, it's, really important. I just feel like, you know, let's see if the patriarchy allows that wealth transfer to come into the hands of women and economically empowering them. But it's like, what can you also do today? What can you do today? Because some small businesses can't wait.

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Carrie Kwan    (33:41)

Yeah, great message. I think we're almost at a wrap.

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Lucy (33:47)

We just need to do our final question, which we like to ask is, well, there's two, it's a two part. One, is there anything you feel that you would like to cover that you haven't? And how can we help you at the moment?

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Elizabeth (Liz) Kaelin (34:02)

Yeah. So anything that we could cover that we haven't like join Mums & Co. at the moment we are, you know, we have running a promotion that any new member gets a call with me like 30, 30 minutes of my time so that I can help you, you know, diagnose any problems in your business, identify any strengths that you might have that you want to lean into. would say maybe that's one thing that I would want to say that if you have a strength and something's working, like just

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put all of your attention on that. Like if you find a traction channel that works for you, if you have found a keyword on Google or whatever it might be and that's working, just do that. Lean into what I think is working, but you will need to join Mums & Co for me to give you that individualized experience. And then also reach out to me for partnership opportunities. One of the things that Mums & Co that we have

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in terms of our value proposition is customer intimacy. Like I said, like Lucy, I know you speak to every single member. Since you've been here for three years, you've spoken to almost every single member that's joined. I'm giving free sessions to every woman who is signing up. We really have a deep understanding of the women that are like small business owners in Australia. so anyone that is looking for partner opportunities to get close to those women or women who are moms, 80 % of women are mothers.

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approximately. So, you know, like there's a real opportunity for your brand to partner with us. And then the last thing, how can we help you? I love this question. think I again recommend to every woman after they have any kind of meeting with any kind of mentor, no matter how like, you know, high level you think they might be asking people how you can help them is a transformational question. It's not something that people normally get.

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when they are mentoring or if you are just a person that's starting out and you're speaking to someone who you think is above you, I would absolutely always ask how you can help. So I would say, now that I've been in, I've mentored thousands of founders and being rated as a top mentor, I would love my own mentor. I just realized, I was like, actually, I need a mentor. What's the next evolution of my career?

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Lucy (36:15)

Yeah.

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Elizabeth (Liz) Kaelin (36:19)

Like how am I going to like reach another level and how am I going to continue to upskill? Cause I'm really, really good at the like, you know, zero dollars to a million dollars, like annual recurring revenue. Like that's my thing. But like a million dollars to $10 million. I'm like, Hey, I could use a mentor that might be able to help me to upskill. maybe when, you know, I do another startup someday, which I may very well do if I can emotionally handle the.

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the challenges, but with newfound skill. So I would say if anyone's interested in mentoring me, I would be very happy to have a conversation with you. Yeah, reach out as well.

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