15 Years of Business

#91 -15 years of Businessv (EDITED)

Thu, Sep 12, 2024 7:59AM • 22:04

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

book, emma, business, love, lovell, years, august, retreat, changed, people, pleasure, work, september, life, learned, talk, journey, launch, freedom, lovely

SPEAKERS

Emma Lovell

Emma Lovell 00:00

Emma, do you want to live a life of freedom and adventure? Are you wanting more than the daily grind? Me too. Welcome to the Emma Lovell, show a place where we talk about living a life you love. Now I'm your host, Emma Lovell, and my number one value is freedom. I've spent the last 14 years running a business and traveling the world, and now I take my husband and toddler along for the adventure too. It's possible, and I know you can create a life doing what you truly love as well. This podcast will inspire, motivate and encourage you to go after your dreams, to create a life you love and to live it now, not wait for a time and or someday in the future, I'll be sharing episodes weekly about how I harmonize business travel and self care. I'll also bring on incredible guests to share their journeys, the wins, the challenges, and how they're creating a life they love. Let's jump in and get dreaming. This is a space for you to manifest a life you love. I would like to acknowledge and recognize Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first peoples of this place, now known as Australia. I am grateful for the continuing care of the land, waterways and skies where I work, live, listen, learn and play from here on Yugambeh country and from wherever you are listening, I pay my respects to the elders past and present. Hello and welcome to the Emma Lovell show. Don't know why that sounds funny to Jackie. I think I'm so used to at the moment saying the art of pleasure, talking about my new book, The Art of pleasure, which is now out. I've got a little bookmark here, which is so fabulous that I'm holding and books over my shoulder in the corner, because that is my life now, being an author, which is wild, and sending out books and studying books and getting out good muscles carrying these boxes. We live on the third floor, and I'm off to Sydney today, so I'm taking three boxes of books in a suitcase with me. I'm learning how to pack. Gonna take my machine and my earrings, which I'm wearing as well, that I sell now as well. Yeah, lots of, lots of things to learn. But I wanted to talk today about this year, this month is 15 years in business for me, and I've been saying that for a little while. And last year was saying 14 years. But 15 years, apparently when you get to 20, you just say more than 20. You don't say 20, however many. But 15 years, I feel too young, in a way, to be saying that. But also, I started my business when I was 22 so that makes sense. Um, started in uni. And what was really special about doing this year in the book coming out, and the reason I chose the time I did was because it was the anniversary of my 15 years. It was really september 2009 that I when I broke my back as you do that, I thought, well, I've wanted to start a business. And, you know, life might might look different to what I think it will. So why not start? And I did, and I've kept going. And that's quite remarkable, to be honest. Because most a lot of businesses, well, the statistics 60% Oh, I've gotta now look think of it. I have to look it up. It's in my book. I don't want to get it wrong, but I do believe let's just look it up. Let's look it up while I'm here. But there, you know, a lot of businesses struggle those first few years, and it is challenging, and it is, I don't know. It's just, I think the good thing for me was I was so delusional, I didn't know. So, yeah, I that's probably why I'm still going and I also, I don't know I am, I'm determined, but also it's, it's just a staying game, and it's a pivoting game. And so we saw that through encoded. And my business has definitely changed and evolved over the years. What I've offered has changed and evolved, and then how I've presented the business. So I went from being a business name, lovely communications to me, Emma Lovell. And so the statistic I wanted to share with you is 20% of new businesses in Australia fail in their first year, and up to 60% of businesses will not survive beyond five years, according to the ASB FeO, which is the Australian small business and family ombudsman. So I am proud of my longevity. And you know what I see people having, like, you know, their first birthday party for their business, or a second birthday party, or at least a cake. And one of my friends, she has a cake every year, and I sort of was like, Oh, well, whatever. And good for you. That's. Writing, and I thought I didn't do that. I didn't know what I knew what was going on in the year, first year after my business started. But I've never had a celebration for my business. So when I was choosing the book launch dates, it felt really, I mean, there's a whole many, so many dates in a year. Where do you start? And so I needed a deadline. I set the intention in 2023, August, to write the book. So I thought, Alright, well, give myself a year, which I know it was lots of time. To be honest, I didn't really get started cracking till really seriously January, and then I think really, really seriously in April, May, just because there's also a lot of investment that goes into a book and everything. So once I'd sold my investment property, which I'd sort of attached to the goal of writing the book, by then, I was able to really just get stuck in it doesn't have to cost a lot to write a book, but I think you're looking at minimum $10,000 that's on top of all your other business expenses and life expenses and all the things. And then if you want to write a quality book and get the best people around you, you are looking at 2020, maybe to 30 plus. There's the investment in the launches. There's investment in I decided to make sure that the brand was all aligned at the time. So we're going to be releasing a new website soon, and things are going to a little bit different around here, because, you know, I changed to Emma Lovell last year, and I didn't really, we did a bit of a shift, but not a huge shift, in a way, I'm glad I didn't do that, because everything's evolved so quickly since then. It took me 11 months after deciding, yep, I'm going to change the name to 10 months. So November 2022 and I was like, Okay, I really, I want to work in my own name. And then it was August, and thankfully, I needed that time to kind of marinate. And then that's when my direction changed, and I really stepped into the pleasure which is now me the pleasure coach. And, you know, but even then I was saying business travel, self business travel, life coach. So I like to complicate things. So now, you know, I'm really owning this pleasure word and having a term for what I'm doing. And yeah, so then, yeah, I just think when I set that date, I was like, Alright, I'm going to celebrate this time. Also August is my birthday, so then I had 23rd of August and the first of September as my launch dates. It just felt like the right time. So it was amazing to have those. I even forgot at my first launch that it was still my birthday celebration as I'd marketed it, but we'd actually been on holiday, and I thought I'd kind of had my celebration already. I was like, oh well. And the people bought me a few gifts and things like that, which is very sweet and very unexpected. And I was like, oh yes, happy birthday. Yes. That was three days ago. Oh my gosh. The time is just expanding at the moment. Every so much is happening every day. So it's not that it's going slow or fast, it's just that there's so much happening in such a short space of time that I think it's been months and months or weeks and weeks, and it's like, oh, that was only last week. But in the meantime, all of these things have happened. And you know, reality I am. I got back to Australia on the 21st of August from being overseas for three weeks. And on the 19th of August, the books arrived to my dad's house and to my father in law's house. I only got to open the books for the very, very first time on the 21st of August. And then I got to have the launch on the 23rd and then I had my second launch in Sydney on the first of September, which is my business anniversary date. So I just made it clean and simple. It's also another special date for me. It's the first day date that I had with my husband. So we had our first ever date on the first of September, and that was 10 years ago. Hey, lovely. I want to open the doors to incredible opportunities for you on an all inclusive luxury retreat, exclusively for people who are ready to live a life they love. I invite you to join me for five inspiring nights in sensational Sri Lanka for the rest and receive retreat hosted from second to seventh of November 2024 by yours truly, Emma Lovell, I ask you to disconnect your senses and immerse in this exotic culture while you reconnect with yourself, you get to share this luxurious experience with 12 incredible people while forming. Sections that last a lifetime. I really cannot undersell or overestimate this incredible retreat and the magic of going to a place to give yourself space and time. I want to share it with you, and if you are interested, then please head to my website. Emma lovell.au/sri Lanka retreat. I'd love to see you there, and I'm happy to chat. If you have any questions whatsoever, please take this opportunity to come along and join me in stunning Sri Lanka. So it happened to also be Father's Day this year, and I think it's quite rude of Father's Day to fall on my special date, but I'll allow it. So unfortunately, people couldn't come because of that. But then I also think whoever's meant to be there is meant to be there. And for me to have a celebration, for the business, to have this milestone of the book coming out on their day, I'll always remember that, like first of September, forever be that that, well, that period will forever be like etched in stone for me. And so what's changed? I guess I share a lot of the business story in the book, but I've got to, I don't want to get into the habit of going read the book. Read the book. I would love you to read the book. You can get it at Emma lovell.au forward slash book, and you'll hear my business story in the introduction chapter as well as in so chapter one and also in chapter two, about my business journey so far. But yeah, I mean, what one of the biggest changes is that I don't do it alone anymore. I think really, the first 10 years, I did a lot of things alone. I sought out mentors, and I talked to people, and I'm very good at connecting and networking, and that really helped me. But there was no one who's really in my corner, no one who's really in my business. Have family and friends who care and that they don't understand and they're not in it the way you are as an owner. And I wasn't part. I didn't go to I would go to the audit, I would go to events and things, but I wasn't really part of like a community or a network. Whenever I was it really helped. I found small communities like travel massive the Melbourne Writers group run by Sandy Seeger. I found ways to have little communities and groups, but nothing that I was kind of more formally a part of. And then I would get support in my business, but I would get support when I was busier. I'm trying to think when the earliest time that I had subcontractors. I want to say I was subcontracting in my first year of business to the wonderful, wonderful Joanna Baker Dowdle from strawberry communications. It's how I kind of learned the ropes in PR, which was fantastic, like in a small business, because I knew it through study. But it's very different when you're applying it in, in a nutshell, business. And then I, yeah, and then I was, I was doing some subcontracting, writing in 2012 I want to say, or 11 and 12. So a couple years into my business, actually 2009 I was working with Joe, 2009 and 10, and then again in 2011 12. But I think I've started to take subcontractors, maybe not till, like, 2014 or 2015 and even then I would take somebody on, and I'd be like, yep, yep, yep. We're going to have you. You can do this and get you, like, this many hours a week. But then the project would finish, or the client would finish, and money would like slow. And I would go, Okay, I can't have you anymore. And keep going back to myself. So I would grow a little bit, and then I go back to being me, and I grow a bit, and then I go back to being me. I also would go away at the time, and I would just go away for a couple months, and I would just shut everything down, you know, tell my clients I was completely away, and it created this feast or famine. And the wonderful Kate toon said that that's kind of how all businesses start and have that journey and have it for a few years. Probably didn't need to have it quite so much for 10 but there's still an element of feast or famine, I think. And I'm just kind of getting to understand that and be kind to myself about it, where I was like, Why do you have no money? Why can't you do this? And why is it all or nothing? And that's, that's the type of personality I am, though. So it's learning to find ways to have some consistency. And part of that is having consistent help, being consistently in communities, consistently showing up, which was the thing that I practiced and then taught with personal branding. And so that's where I took my business in 2019 and then it was five years of that. And then last. Year, 2020 23 I went, Okay, I'm ready to I've got the personal brand. I'm doing the personal brand myself. I am a personal brand. I'll always be able to help people with that. And I even have a course ready to go. And I still do coaching calls to support people if they need it. I'll always be able to support with that. But I've now broadened but narrowed my focus in that I'm now focusing on the combination of you what? Why do we do this work? Why do we run these businesses? Because we want a life, and that's what I've done. My business was to support my life, and it's changed with and, you know, I had a pet sitting business for a while. It's changed to suit the season of my life, and so no doubt at some point it will shift and change again. What I'm offering, the way I'm working the book, changes things a lot. I'm looking forward to doing more speaking. I love speaking in audiences, in food communities. I love speaking online, presenting to groups. I love doing workshop days or facilitation. But, yeah, I look forward to talking, speaking and speaking in organizations and on stages about how pleasure is a movement and how we need to, you know, embrace it. Embrace this work life, harmony, not balance. Um, because if we don't have this freedom, if we don't have things that we love, that we're doing, you're going to burn out and you're going to leave and you're going to do the feast of famine, because I've done that too, and I just don't want to see that. I want to see people living a life they love. And so I'm living my mission, and I'm helping others to do the same. And so yeah, 15 years, it's a wild journey. The book is really. The book is for people who are seeking that freedom. The book is for people who are seeking to live a life they love, to increase their leisure or travel, to find other ways to make money, so it's not so reliant upon their job. But it's also for people who, like me, were told they can't. They're told that the way they were doing things they can't. And entrepreneurs will always show you that they can double down and prove you wrong. But it's also this book is for the younger me. It's for 2009 me, or 2010 me, 2004 me, when in school, to show that there is a path, an alternative path, there is a different way that you can structure your your life, that business and work can work in with what you love and what you want to do, and then it's not work, work, work, and then rest and work, work, work, and then play, um, you know, I fought for that, and I forged this path, for myself. I just would love to have told young Emma and any young, younger person than me, and only the book for anyone. I think anyone can take some takeaways, no matter the stage of life, but certainly when there's that little bit more freedom, and that path is just about to open. And you know, the world is your oyster, coming out of school, coming out of uni 20s, when you don't have quite so many responsibilities and you are a bit lost. And what do I do now, just to know that you get to choose and that you can try things and figure it out. And this young man at the young man as I'm so old, this graduate at the UTA at UTSC, came up and talked to me after my speech in March, which really was March 2024. Was really the foundation for the book. Writing that speech really laid out what the contents would be. So I sort of knew it was there, but writing it out, I knew I got to test it on an audience, and I knew that it was wanted, which was fantastic. But this boy came up. Guy came up to me and said, You know what I took away from your talk was that you give things a go, that you you try, and you don't always know if it's going to work out, but you give it a go anyway, and and if you know it does work out, you keep going and it doesn't, you don't do it anymore. And I was like, Wow, what a great reflection. I don't think I've even had that reflection. And it was true. My dad was there with me, and it was like, yeah, just give it a go, try. Because if you know, try, I love this song, try everything by from the movie Zootopia, because it's like, just give it a crack. Don't wonder, don't don't regret, don't say I wish. Because if you tried, then you know, and you gave it a shot, and then sometimes you get what you want, or you do what you want and you don't want it anymore. And that's okay too. It's okay to change your mind. I've learned that, um, it's safe to change your mind. Denise duffel Thomas would say, Alright, I gotta run. Gotta get to the airport, so I'm gonna let you go. Thank you. Everyone for the support. This has just been such a huge journey. Been a long time coming, 15 years in business, I want to thank every single person who's coming the journey along the way, the lessons I've learned, for good or for bad, they're all lessons I wouldn't be here today without the steps I've taken. And, you know, it's just, it's all part of it. And I'm so grateful. I'm so grateful to still be here. I'm so grateful to do what I love and to get to help people to do what they love. So now the subtle plug. Get the book, Emma lovell.au forward slash book. You can also get it on Amazon. Barnes and Noble, which is wild. QBD, Nile, there's all these different places. You can see them all on the website, my website, Emma lovell.au, forward slash book. You can search Emma Lovell or the art of pleasure, and hopefully you'll be getting to see that pop up. Alright. Thank you, lovely listeners. I'd love to hear from you about how long you've been in business and or celebrating that milestones. I'd love to hear about that. So you know, if you've been in a job as well, I think fantastic that longevity and finding ways to keep enjoying or finding purpose in what you do, it's really powerful. So shoot me a message, and I'd love to hear from you. Okay, bye. Thank you for listening, lovely one. I hope this has inspired you to dream big and start creating a life you love today. If you love what you're hearing, don't forget to follow and rate on Spotify and rate review and subscribe on iTunes. It helps other awesome people to find this podcast and get motivated and inspired as well. Want to stay connected. Come and join the live a life you love. Group on Facebook or connect with me on Instagram. Emma lovell.au the same as my website, but all the details are in the show notes. Lovely. I'll see you next episode for more inspiration, motivation and freedom seeking. Now, go out there and live a life you love, you.