Welcome to the Innovation Conversation, a podcast
about innovators, both in business and real life.
Hosted by myself, Ricardo Rescual and Harry McCona.
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Hi, and welcome to another episode of the Innovation
Conversation. Now, today we are joined by Stephanie
Melodia. Stephanie, welcome to the podcast. Thank
you for having me. It's a pleasure. Now, Stephanie,
you do quite a lot of stuff, so would you like
to introduce yourself to the audience, please?
Yeah, let's get the hardest question out the
way first. I am indeed doing a lot of stuff at
the moment. So my intro is definitely need refining,
but basically I ran my own marketing consultancy
for about six years, award winning, working predominantly
with startups, entrepreneurs over the period
of five and a half years with my last business.
My team and I actually counted that we worked
with a hundred plus founders and their scaling
businesses. So that's kind of my world. We work
with some of the UK's top clients. sorry, clients
in the top UK startups in the country with work
featured in the likes of Forbes, Sifted, TechCrunch.
And basically since that chapter, I'm now embracing
the portfolio career and I'm loving it. So I
do some fractional consultancy work with a handful
of clients. I travel around the world doing some
public speaking, which is really exciting. I
host my own podcast called Strategy and Tragedy.
So maybe check that out after this one. And I
am a mentor to MBA students in entrepreneurship.
So I'm keeping out of trouble, but essentially
my whole world is entrepreneurship. So I'm really
excited to dive into conversation with you today,
Ricardo, and hopefully give your audience, your
listeners, some inspiration, piles of wisdom,
and more importantly, some practical tips that's
going to help them start and scale their business.
Yeah. I always love interviewing other podcasters
because they are always better hosts than I am.
To see the show, which is awesome. That being
said, how did you get started in this whole thing?
I mean, obviously you have a marketing background.
So what was that journey like to actually launching
your own business? With my own business, it was
definitely had that entrepreneurial it for a
while. I actually started my first business out
of art school when I was around, I don't know,
18. I can't remember exactly how old I was, but
I used to sneak into the basement of my art school
and screen print t -shirts and model them on
my little sister and then flog them via Facebook.
So this is like going back a little bit. This
is, I don't even think Instagram was invented
back then and Facebook was like the hottest news.
I think it had just taken over my space. So for
any of my other like elder millennials, you'll
know what I'm talking about. But that wasn't
really, that was kind of the first pancake as
we say, it wasn't really. a real business that
was literally just me screen printing my t -shirts
in art school. But I guess that was kind of the
initial kind of like, oh, I can create something,
I can produce. a thing, like a physical product
and I can leverage our internet age in which
we're in now to sell these items and actually
shift these products. Anyway, I didn't go off
into like pure entrepreneurship. I then started
out my career in the creative industries, worked
agency side for many years. I then transitioned
in house because I really wanted to see it from
both sides of the fence and it was kind of a
box check for me. It was kind of like, okay,
I have worked across various roles in agency
and for the best part of a decade. One of the
main roles that I actually had in those agencies
was business development. And so I think that
was where that sort of entrepreneurial spirit
kind of comes out as well. And then it was like,
okay, now I've seen it on the other side of the
fence. I've had this in -house role leading marketing
for, at the time there were top 10 global app
developers, so a tech company. And it was just
kind of like a number of different things coalesced
at the right time to make me say, let's just
go and do it. And what those specific things
were at the time as I kind of recall, turn my
mind back to that time was, was going back on
the interview bandwagon. I was looking for a
new job and I absolutely hated it. I really,
really hated interviewing. I really hated dealing
with recruiters. It was such a painful, horrible
experience. Yeah, exactly. What a surprise. Newsflash,
exactly. And look, I know that no one finds that
an enjoyable experience to begin with, but I
think there was something about that particular,
you know, stab at it again, like going back on
the interview circuit, I was like, ah, this is
just like, this is just even more painful than
like the previous times. And, and this was all
before I was about to turn 29. So for me, it
was also like turning 30, like the big 3 -0 was
such a milestone for me. We've obviously got
things like the Forbes 30 under 30. So that I
guess was sort of what created a little bit more
of that sense of urgency, which I think even
the most motivated and self -disciplined among
us, I think we still, we still need like a trigger.
We still need a catalyst. Like something still
has to happen to take us off the grind, to take
us. of the usual day to day and be like, no,
let's just go for it. Like the time is now, let's
do it. Interesting. I guess when you're born
an entrepreneur, you always have that itch, right?
You need to scratch the itch one way or the other.
And then whenever you're applying for a job,
you think, you know what? It's not really what
I want. I can do this with my eyes closed, but
at the same time, I need something else. It's
just not right. And I think just like doubling
down on a really key phrase you just mentioned
there, which was like, if you're born an entrepreneur
I think that opens up an interesting discussion
as well like I don't believe that like you're
a born entrepreneur you're not I believe that
actually all of us absolutely every single one
of us have these entrepreneurial traits I believe
that we're all creative in some way or another
I actually can't stand when people say like oh
I'm not a creative person it's like You are like
it's just a lie that either you or someone else
in your life has told you and I think that desire
to like be creative and have a purpose is something
that is so deeply human to each and every one
of us I think where the the the step into like
actual entrepreneurship happens I think is when
we go into the risk tolerance and part of that
risk like taking that leap and taking action
come a recognition that we don't have all the
time in the world. And so it goes back to what
I was saying around the urgency, either something
in your life happens to create that trigger,
whether it's in my instance, like the milestone
of turning 30 and wanting to start my business
before that arbitrary milestone, whether you
lose your job, whether you're made redundant,
whether like you just happen to meet a co -founder
that comes to you with an idea. tragically, and
I hope this doesn't happen to most of the listeners,
what I have also come across is something very
tragic that's happened to someone in their lives,
whether they've they've lost a loved one, for
example, and that's sort of given them a wake
up call to realize we do not have all the time
in the world. We do not have limitless like time,
we're not going to live forever. And not only
that, but also I don't know exactly, you know,
who's listening in on this, but if you're in
your 20s or 30s, it's such a blessing and a curse
where death feels like such a long way away.
But at the same time, your 20s and 30s are such
prime time. You know, these decades, they're
not, these are apples and oranges that we're
comparing against each other here. You know,
it's like someone in their 20s does not have
the energy and the risk tolerance. to someone
maybe in their 50s or 60s. Like, obviously, it's
a sweeping generalization here. Of course, if
you are in your 50s and 60s, you've got experience,
you've got everything else. But I would argue,
actually, the younger, the better, the younger,
the better, because you've got time on your side,
you've got energy on your side, and you're in
a position, usually more often than not, to take
more risk. So if you are in your 20s and 30s
listening to this, I'm here to tell you one thing,
and that is you're gonna die one day. So start
your business now. There's a whole thing about
the Stokes, was it Memento Mori? Yes, exactly.
Remember, you're going to die, right? And that's
very powerful, but also very scary. Exactly.
It's likely for everything. Might as well make
the good choices. It needs to be scary. We need
to have these deeper emotions to impact us enough
in order to take action. Because if it isn't
scary enough, you will stay in your comfort zone
and comfort is a killer. as much as nobody likes
to talk about it and it's obviously a taboo and
it's horrible and we're not gonna you know no
one wants to go there i'm going there within
the first five ten minutes of this conversation
because it's reality it's real it's one thing
that unites every single one of us we are not
here forever and so you know when we look at
things like money i don't i need to like raise
funds for my business or you know am i going
to bootstrap have i got enough savings whatever
it is it's like one thing you won't ever get
back is your time But that's the thing, is that
perception of we only realize how much time we
had and how much time we lost when it's too late.
Exactly. When we spend the whole weekend, for
example, you know, now is the time because it's
winter, obviously, and a lot of people spend
a lot of time binge watching whatever it is on
Netflix, right? What we don't realize is that
the pleasure we get from that is not even equivalent
to the pleasure we would get from being our own
bosses or from doing something we're actually
very passionate about. And that's, you're never
going to get that time back. But yeah, it's hard.
It's the difference between, look, I don't want
to condone hustle culture. Like I was Netflix
binging last night as well, right? So it's like,
right? So it's like, we still need to relax and
switch off and recharge 1000%. So I think it's
important to recognize, are we binging Netflix
for that relaxation? Or are we doing it to escape
a day -to -day grind that we don't like, that
we hate? Exactly, right? So I think that's the
thing is like, if there's something wrong with
your current situation, use that time productively
to get out of that situation instead of Netflix
binging. Or if you are in the grind and you are
in those early days, in the same breath, Don't
beat yourself up and don't feel guilty for taking
that time out because you're no good to anyone
if you're burnt out. It brings me to a very,
I always love asking this question, which is
I know you do a lot of stuff and how do you manage
to balance things out? Because we all have horrible
days, weeks, months where things are just too
much and there's like, you know, you keep on
having dodgeballs thrown at you. So how do you
manage that? How do you find that balance? That's
a great question. I love that question, Ricardo.
So one of my favorite sayings in the world of
entrepreneurship is startups don't die, they
drown. And what that forces overwhelmed entrepreneurs
to do is to learn the art of prioritization.
So going back to that phrase, startups don't
die, they drown. You will constantly have things
to do all the time. Like we are all chronically
busy. We never have enough time. We said this
before we started recording, like we're both
super busy. We're plate spinning. We're not getting
enough sleep. Like everyone relates to this.
So it forces you, like the reality is, is like,
you'll get to a point where you realize you can't
do everything. And they're just literally are
not the hours in the day. And what I talk about
more than time management is energy management.
So I do believe that if you have, if you set
yourself up for success, where you get a good
night's sleep, you're well nourished, you're
well rested. I know that's going to sound like
a distant dream to a lot of people. But if you
take care of those basics and those fundamentals
and you set yourself up for having like a very
highly productive one hour You're gonna get so
much more done You're gonna make so much more
progress than an eight -hour slog where you're
just trying to like get through the day, right?
So I think that's one thing is like energy management
versus time management zone neglect those fundamentals
of a good night's rest, of eating right, of getting
in the right headspace, so then when you're ready
to attack the day, you're there and you're operating
at your, at your most optimum, you know, in your
most optimum mode. Coming back to the art of
prioritisation, this is something that each of
us need to recognise is because there are limited
hours in the day and then to -do list is never
ending. You're never gonna get to the end of
it. You literally you're never gonna get to the
end of it a Revolutionary book for me that absolutely
Changed my whole view on this. I cannot recommend
this book highly enough four thousand weeks by
Oliver Berkman There was this one line in this
book that really switched on this light bulb
in my head Which was you are never gonna get
to the end of this to -do list Your inbox by
the way, your email inbox is everyone else's
to -do list. It's not your to -do list So recognizing
both the fact that there are limited hours in
the day and going more deeply what we're talking
about before, there's only limited life that
we've got on this planet with this limited time
that we have, whether it's your day, your week,
your month, or your lifetime, these are constraints
that are going to have to force us to master
the art of prioritization. So it's taking that
step back and recognizing, I'm not going to get
everything done today. So ask yourself. What
are going to be the biggest needle movers? What
if I managed to do one thing today? And that's
another book as well. I can't remember the name
of it, but that's another book which talks about
just like the one thing. I think that's that
is the title of it. I actually think I have it
somewhere. Yeah, right. It's one of the classics.
Exactly. Right. So what's one thing that you
can do today that is going to move the needle
in the direction that you want to take it? The
other great exercise that I discovered working
with an amazing business coach with my last company
was do a brain dump of all of the tasks, activities
that take up the time of your day, like everything,
like responding to emails, scheduling appointments,
being on podcasts, working on proposals, like
whatever it is, like write it all down. And next
to it, assign a value of that task. Like how
much is this task actually worth? And a good
way to actually, like, yeah, quantify how much
it is, is to think if you had to outsource that
particular task, how much would it cost them
to do on like an hourly rate, for example. So
is this an admin task that, for example, like
could be outsourced to a VA for 20 pounds an
hour, let's say, for example, right? You go through
that and the tasks that are high value that only
you can do yourself, whether that is building
your personal brand, being in the face of the
business, networking, pitching to customers,
pitching to investors. Those are things you cannot
outsource. Those are your top priority tasks
as the founder of the business. And so that also
provides you with that clarity to say, okay,
everything outside of that, what can I do to
either eliminate, delegate or automate? Eliminate,
delegate, automate. Can I just take this off
my plate entirely? Does it really need to be
done? Is it a valuable task? Or is it something
that, if I'm really honest with myself, is something
that I just like to do, or have just got into
the habit of doing? Do you really need to do
it? Delegate. Can I delegate? I said to a VA
before, is it a VA? Is it a social media manager?
Is it a strategist? Is it whatever? Like, are
there other people out there that maybe can even
do it better than I can do it myself? If it's
valuable enough and if there's going to be enough
of an ROI on that particular task, then it's
worth outsourcing it. So I think there's also
kind of a money mindset with this as well is
like, yes, it's going to cost to outsource to
somebody, but if it frees you up to do the more
valuable needle moving tasks and it's worth it.
And then finally, the automation, are there things
that you can automate in this day and age? Yes,
there is so much that we can do to automate.
So look at, in that instance, that would be looking
specifically at repeatable systems that you can.
that you can put some automation kind of tools
in to, again, take that off your plate. So in
summary, knowing that we're all so busy, we've
got never -ending to -do lists. Number one, recognize
you're never gonna get to the end of this to
-do list. It's never -ending. That needs to force
you to master the art of prioritization. So where
do you need to focus? What's the one thing that's
gonna be a needle mover for you today, tomorrow,
this week? and just understand that the rest
is going to have to slide. Within that is go
through that exercise of mapping out all of these
tasks and activities that take up your time and
look at what can you eliminate, automate, delegate
in the process because startups don't die, they
drown. Interesting. Very powerful. All right.
What do you do when you have a horrendous day?
You personally, like how do you get your mojo
back, so to speak? horrendous in terms of like
back to back calls or like something horrible
happening to me. No, no, as in you, you kind
of, you hit a wall. You hit a wall in your business.
You hit a wall in the way you're doing things.
What do you do then? Okay. All right. Love this.
I do. And I've learned this the hard way. It
is, it is a hard lesson to learn. I do the opposite
of what you feel you should do in those moments.
So in those moments where I've got a horrendous
day, all I want to do is like power through and
I'm just like I'm trying to do this, trying to
do that. Someone's asked me for a call. Okay,
yeah, what do you want? Like pick up the phone
and then more emails are coming in and I'm like,
yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm just trying to like get
through this. What's happening is not only are
you running yourself into the ground because
there's also this interesting research around
multitasking and how much that drains the brain
and how long it takes to like refocus when you're
just like spinning all these plates. I'm the
worst at this by the way, as much as I'm here
like preaching and giving advice, I am also the
worst at it. So I think that's also where...
i'm kind of weirdly the best person to give the
advice on that front because i'm such a like
multitasking plate spinner and i just want to
like crack on with it it's the worst thing you
can do because not only are you driving yourself
into the ground by mentally exhausting yourself
but also it creates a bit of a snowball effect
because the more that you are like yeah okay
and you get back to people quickly and you respond
to their emails and you pick up the phone and
slack messages are coming in and you respond
to that email guess what the quicker they're
coming back at you so When I say the best thing
to do is the opposite of what you instinctively
want to do in that moment It's taking a step
back. It's going outside It's taking a walk and
then coming back at it with fresh eyes Recharged
and with focus the great analogy here that I
always love to use is Ricardo have you ever been
skiing or snowboarding before any like winter
sports? I've been on the slopes. They taught
me how to break. And then I said, I want to go
up the hill. They said, no, because you're going
to kill yourself and 10 other people. So that
was it. That's my whole experience. So was this
skiing or snowboarding? Sorry. It was skiing,
and apparently I have a gigantic foot because
the boots were too tight. It was a horrible pain
for a good 45 minutes. I said, no, that's not
fun. So you discovered you've got a big foot
in the process. All right, that's hilarious.
What I discovered, so I haven't done skiing,
I've done snowboarding. I'm more of a board sports
type of person because I've got what's called
a low center of gravity, Ricardo. You've met
me in person, so you've seen how small I am.
So board sports work well for me, right? Like
I've got a low center of gravity. What I learned
with snowboarding is, and for any other snowboarders
here, you'll get what I mean, but I'll describe
it if you haven't anyway, right? As soon as you
start to turn the board down the slopes, it might
be similar with skiing as well, right? So you
can let me know. As soon as you start to turn,
you go faster and faster down the slope, right?
Because you're at that angle and you're going
down and you're going down that kind of precipice.
When you're in that moment, Every single cell
in your body instinctively wants to pull back.
Because like you want to slow down you want to
be like it's going too fast like I want to pull
back like hang on a minute like let me get it
that's the worst thing that you could do because
actually what happens is this is where there's
a really clear parallel in this analogy here
is as you're pulling yourself back you're straining
your body and it's just not a great angle for
you because you're like pulling down one side
and you're scrunching up down the other but also
by doing that you're going faster you're going
faster down the slope because you're actually
becoming more aerodynamic leaning back but like
you feel like you want to lean back because you
want to slow down and so it's the exact same
here with the emails and the messages and getting
back it's like you're snow you're making it go
faster down the slope and what you want to do
is you want to slow down and so with the snowboarding
what you want to do you want to go against that
instinct and you want to lean into it even more
to cut the curve to cut that like s shape to
make that curve so you go back to being like
at a perpendicular angle to the slope right I'm
trying to describe it verbally if people aren't
seeing all of my hand gestures and all my movements
with this so you want to lean into it to cut
and curve so that you make that s shape gradually
like down the slope I hope people are getting
that, are getting how I'm explaining it. So that's
the analogy here, right? Is instead of like leaning
away and wanting to slow down, you actually need
to kind of do the opposite to what you think
instinctively you need to do and just kind of
be like, right, I need to peace out for a sec.
I need to take a break. I need to go for some,
for a walk, get some fresh air, recharge, reenergize
and refocus. That's the key thing. So your advice
is don't go in a straight line down the slopes.
never go in a straight line. I don't think any
of the entrepreneurial listeners here would be
going in a straight line anyway. Yeah, and I
was trying to do the same thing in the ski slopes.
That's probably why they didn't let me. Oh, yeah,
no, I completely get that. No, tell me about
this podcast of yours, because obviously, it's
quite successful. You have, you know, quite a
lot of viewers and listeners. I know there's
a country in the Nordics, which has crazy viewership
numbers, which is always good. How do you get
started with the podcast? I mean, I know how
you get started with the podcast, but Tell the
audience how you got started. How you guys about
it? Yeah, absolutely. Well, it's called strategy
and tragedy. And as the name indicates, it is
very much shining a light on the realities of
what it takes to be an entrepreneur, you know,
similar to what you're doing here with this great
show to Ricardo. And where it was born from was
again, I mentioned in the intro, I ran my own
marketing consultancy for startups. And what
that did was it put me in a very privileged position
of being at the epicenter of all of these entrepreneurs.
Not only that, but something else I need to mention
to your listeners too, is that I'm also a VC
scout for an early stage venture capital firm
called Ada Ventures. And they focus on early
stage pre -launch, pre -seed startups. So if
anyone's interested, if anyone wants to check
them out and send me their pitch deck, I would
absolutely love to take a look at it. And so,
going back to the idea, this was the worst idea
you could have had like goodbye inbox. That's
going to be completely overflowing and stuff
right now. Send it to me, send it to me. If you're
interested, please send it, if you're listening
to this, please send it of course. My email is
Stephanie, S -T -E -P -H -A -N -I -E at bloom,
B -L -O -O L -T -D dot co dot UK. Stephanie at
bloom, L -T -D dot co dot UK. I would love to
see your pitch deck if you want to send it over
to me. So that was basically the context. So
I'm sat. at the epicenter of all of these founders,
some are fundraising, some are scaling, some
are venture backed, some are like on their way
to unicorn status. And I also have the VC hat
on as a scout for the venture capital firm that
I mentioned. And, you know, what I was seeing
is alongside this actual work that we were doing
behind closed doors, there was this really contrasted
dichotomy where you would then Go on to LinkedIn
or you would get like a sifted newsletter and
you would see the shiny veneer and entrepreneurship
has been so glamorized and It was just two completely
different worlds, right? Like you go on to LinkedIn
and you see the humble bragging You see that
someone has raised like 10 million pounds for
their business or someone's like doubled the
size of their team or whatever And I just think
it's so so easy to get that green -eyed monster
flared up to think that Everyone else has got
it figured out that everyone else is doing better
than you are. And it's not the case at all. It's
not the case whatsoever. So strategy and tragedy
was born from that, which is the highs, the lows,
the realities of what it actually takes to launch
and scale a business. And I'm very. Very happy.
I'm so incredibly like, I don't even believe
it. I'm very happy to say that the show is now
in the top 20 of business charts in the UK. It's
top five for female hosted shows because yet
again, it's another male dominated space for
some reason. So not hard for me to be in the
top five. Um, and I've had some. That's not entirely
true. I'm sorry. You're too kind, Ricardo, you're
lovely. And I'm really, really happy to say that
like one of the best things about the show is
the guests that I've been able to interview.
So I've had the likes of Simon Squibb is maybe
one of the more famous names, Nell Daly, Matt
Lerner, Lottie White, Maya Raichura, Maxine Laceby,
Simon Franks, Ranbir Aurora, just like the list
goes on and on and on, right? So I'm not sure
if any of these names are familiar to any of
our listeners. Maxine, I heard she's a collagen
lady, right? Yeah. Yeah, cool. You've heard of
her. So Maxine Laceby, she is about to be 60
years old. And so this is another thing that
I love to do. And great skin, by the way. That's
the most impressive thing. It really does actually
work. Yeah, it actually does work. So she is
a fantastic poster girl for her business. Absolutely.
And I'm really, you know, I'm really keen to
prioritize. diversity on the show as well. And
diversity doesn't just mean gender and race,
but it also means ability and neurodiversity
and age. So, you know, I've had someone as young
as, you know, in their early 20s, again, Forbes
30 under 30 founder to the likes of Maxine, she's
definitely not the oldest, you know, she's about
to be 60 years old, but I've also had like, Nigel
Morris, I think he's 67. So, you know, I want
to make sure that there is that breadth. and
that diversity of guests on there. But I mean,
yeah, you know, that's a great example. Like
Maxine Laisby, she started the business from
her kitchen, literally. She remortgaged her house.
She had kids. She was divorced. And so going
back to that risk tolerance, right? It's like
you, you know that saying of like, oh, go the
extra mile. It's never crowded there. Actually,
there's, there's a parallel here with like the
risk. Like the more risk you take, the less crowded
it's going to be because Not everyone can escape
that comfort zone. So the fact that she, you
know, was ballsy enough to remortgage her house,
I'm not saying everyone should do that. And I'm
also not saying that it's definitely going to
work out if you do that. Like it's a risk. It's
a risk for a reason, but you know, the bigger
the swing you take, you know, it's risk versus
reward, isn't it? That was a great episode, so
definitely listen to that interview if you're
interested. After this one, after you've already
subscribed to Ricardo's show first. No, but I
completely get what you're saying about when
you interview different people, the things you
get out of them is actually super powerful, super
insightful because you get to talk with them
and they actually tell you about their hopes,
their aspirations, their dreams, but also their
pain points, what they've been struggling with,
how they manage to overcome failures before that.
Yeah. And being able to listen to that. I mean,
there's tons of podcasts, you know, I think I'm
blessed to be able to do that. I'm pretty sure
you feel the same way, which is it's even better
than reading a book because you actually get
to talk to the author straight away. Right. Yeah.
So yeah, it's, it's, it's a lot of fun. I love
the podcast. I love that. And I think with the
diversity of the guests, it's important for obvious
reasons in representation, but also in terms
of my listeners, my listeners are also, they're
so diverse too. So one might resonate more with
Maxine. One might resonate more with Maya Ritura
or Simon Franks or Simon Squibb or whoever. So,
so there's that, but there's also who I am as
a person as well. Like I'm so, I'm so interested.
I have such a voracious appetite for hearing
these different stories and different walks of
life. And I think that if you have that mental
ability to take certain pieces of advice and
insights from different people, like of course,
you know, Nigel Morris's story, he's a, he's
a white guy born in the sixties. Like I'm not
going to completely relate to his journey, but
I'm going to I like open minded and flexible
enough to pick certain elements of what he's
done and what he's learned and apply that to
to myself. So I hope that my listeners can do
that as well. But what's interesting about, you
know, diversity is not not diversity per se.
But what's interesting when you interview a lot
of people is that regardless of where they're
coming from, and you know, whatever background
they have, they kind of always face the same
challenges. Yeah. So they still need to manage
risk. They still need to manage a lot of setbacks.
They still need to have a dream and an ambition.
And what they start off, you know, it's never
what they got to end up with. So it's, it's,
it's, that's a common thread. Yeah. I mean, what
I do feel compelled to set that point is the
race is not the same for everyone. Yes, we do
come up against adversity, but we have seen,
you know, only 2 % of VC funding went to went
to women last year, for example. And so there
are unconscious biases and there are, it is a
harder fight for some more than others. And I
think that's where stories of women, female founders
or people from different backgrounds and from
ethnic minorities or whatever, like anything
that kind of goes against that. is even more
inspirational, right? Because what we need to
be careful of, and this is why I always try and
toe this line between, yes, you're absolutely
right. Everyone has gone through their own challenges,
their own kind of squiggly journey. It has been
harder for some more than others just due to
the way that the world works and people's unconscious
bias and stuff. But what I want to make sure
I... end this note on is that they don't assume
victimhood in that process. So they don't allow
that to get in their way. So for the likes of
Maxine Laceby or Lottie White, they are proving
that they are, you know, their outliers for a
reason, and they are they're not letting that
story get in the way of their success. So as
much as so that's kind of the line I want to
toe here, which is recognize is like the recognition
that it's harder for some more than others, but
at the same time. don't let that stop you and
don't assume victimhood along the way. Yeah.
But that's, but that's, that's a powerful message,
isn't it? Just saying we all have our issues
and keep pushing forward. That's, that's quite
strong. Now when it comes to advice for startups,
you know, I'm sure you've seen many startups
doing something, many things, you know, immensely
wrong. What are the top tips you would give for
a start, just getting started, listening to the
podcast, saying, you know, let me get some insights.
What do you actually advise them on in the beginning?
Because we, we kind of heard your, your, um,
I guess your metaphor or your analogy between
you don't kind of, you kind of drown in problems.
So how do you, what are the top five things?
Yeah. Okay. Fantastic. All right. Well, I've
got different pearls of wisdom that I can give
entrepreneurs depending on where they're at exactly
in the journey. If you are starting out, if you're
kind of early days, actually, let me start, okay,
let me start from, if you're thinking, I'm going
to go even earlier, okay, I'm going to try and
give like one pearl of wisdom for like each stage.
If you are, like you haven't even started, you're
thinking about maybe doing something. You've
got an entrepreneurial itch. You think, cool,
like this is for me. I don't want the day job
anymore. I want to set up something. What I would
say is, is that people put way too much emphasis
on the idea. People think they need to have either
a great idea or they need to have something that
hasn't been done before, something that's really
unique. That's completely wrong. That is a myth
that I want to bust here on this show. a successful
business, the idea is almost the least to do
with it. The important thing that you want to
prioritize if you're trying to come up with a
business idea, solving somebody's problem. So
entrepreneurship is not about you. It's about
them. This is like newsflash. It's not about
you. It's about your customers. It's about the
market. So instead of asking yourself, what's
a good enough business idea for me to launch
my first company, instead ask yourself, what's
a problem that I'm solving and what's a problem
that I'm solving for somebody that's painful
enough that they're willing to pay money for
it. So that's kind of the piece of advice with
like just getting started. Linked to that I would
say like when you are sort of early days you
kind of launched is is continue along that vein
of market validation. So when people say like
talk to people It's not even talking to people,
talking to customers. It's listening. It's listening
to the market. It's listening to what you want.
We have got tools that enable us to do that more
easily these days with social media, with performance
marketing. There's ways you can go about testing
ideas. And what I would say is, is that to give
you a solid clear framework, to give that some
structure, because I'm sure you've got lots of
different... Ideas and things to test out. It's
like, okay, where do we even begin with that?
List out all the things that you want to test
with your business basically questions that you
have unanswered list them all out like Do we
know who our target audience is? Do we know how
much they want to pay? Do we know which element
of our core value proposition they're going to
resonate with the most? Put down all these questions
that you don't know, brain dump them into a sheet.
Then what you want to do is you want to give
that a score of how vital is this to my business
and what's my level of certainty against it.
And use that as a way to direct how we prioritize
what we go about testing. So I would say that
kind of piece of advice then is you're just getting
started is to have quite a methodical approach
to finding things out. And I think as an early
stage entrepreneur, you're more of a detective
than anything else. So like apply the scientific
method and outline a clear experimentation plan
for you to acquire. data and crucially answers
to those questions that you don't currently have
answered. So again, keeping that focus on the
market, on your customers, what do they need?
What do they want? And use this process to get
those answers, basically. The other thing I would
just say, let's just do kind of end it on a third
one to do the magic triangle of like three pieces
of advice. The last piece of advice that I would
give entrepreneurs is to, let me see how to phrase
this exactly, is to move fast and break things.
is to don't overanalyze as much as I'm sort of
saying, like have a plan, have some structure
to like go about it. But at the same time, hopefully
I'm not contradicting myself too much with that,
is also like move fast, like execute, execute.
Make sure that like any time that you are spending
that is on the planning and coming up with, okay,
what's our assumptions? What are our hypotheses?
What do we want to test out? What's the marketing
plan? Whatever. Make sure that you're at least
equally matching that in execution. Don't get
stuck in planning, in strategizing, in thinking,
in talking. Make sure it, at the very least,
equally 50 -50 matches in terms of execution.
Interesting. Very powerful. Now, I also know
you speak at a lot of events. You haven't spoken
at my event just yet. You will next week. But
how do you get started with that? Because that's
always something interesting. I'm always curious
how to get even started with the whole public
speaking thing, but also how to get invited for
more and more events. How does that work? Yeah,
sure. So I, for me, it was a very happy accident.
I kind of stumbled upon it marketing my last
business. So what I learned was as a bootstrapped,
self -funded founder, you know, constraints create...
creative solutions, right? And I do believe that
if you are overfunded, if you've got too much
money, it leads to wastage, and it leads to not
discovering some of these other like efficient
ways of working. And so for me, as a self funded
founder, I had to do as everything I could do
with my business. for free or next to nothing
as cheaply as possible. And so I kind of stumbled
upon my, this whole personal brand thing, right?
Like it was before this term even existed of
like personal brand that I saw that like posting
consistently on LinkedIn, adding value, demonstrating
my expertise that that was getting a lot of traction.
And that was proving to be one of the top. growth
channels for my business. And so part of that
was the public speaking was going to conferences.
I was already doing like pitching to new clients
anyway. So the whole kind of public speaking
game didn't feel like a million miles away from
what I was already doing. And then building on
that. So I'd say number one, depending on your
goals for any founders listening to this. So
number one is public speaking can be a powerful
marketing channel for your business. If you then
want to kind of graduate away from it, just being
a marketing channel and actually monetizing it
as a revenue stream in and of itself is a different
ball game. And so what I've learned the hard
way is that conferences do not pay you unless
you're Gary Vee, right? So conferences like they
do not have budgets for speakers. If you're lucky,
they will cover your travel and your expenses.
So that's a decision that you have to make if
financially it makes sense for you. If you want
to actually and turn it into a commercial business,
a revenue stream and earn money from it, then
you want to be offering it up more as workshops,
as training and... and go to places that do actually
have the budgets which aren't the conferences.
So they could be the likes of larger corporates,
bigger enterprises. What I've done is actually
I've delivered opening keynote speeches for innovation
centers that have actually got government funding
and they're kind of one -off, right? So it would
just be like an annual conference and they're
bringing everyone together like alumni and they
wanna... kind of motivate the troops and get
them all set up for a fun day together. So I'm
also figuring out, I'm also still learning like
who has the budget to pay to bring in a speaker
to deliver a talk. But that's kind of what I've
learned so far. Absolutely fascinating. Stephanie,
if people want to reach out to you, and I know
you already gave out your email, but what's the
best way of doing so? Either you'd be for being
on a podcast, having you as a speaker, or getting
your services as a consultant. I mean, what's
the best way of doing that? LinkedIn and Instagram
are my two top social media channels. Thankfully,
there is only one, Stephanie Melodia. So if you
just type in my name, hopefully it's not too
hard to find me. It's Stephanie with a P -H.
Melodia is like the word melody, but I -A at
the end of it. So if you just search my name
on LinkedIn, I'm Steph Melodia on Instagram.
I would love, love, love, love, love to hear
back from you. So I already gave out my email
address, Stephanie at. bloomltd .co .uk. I'd
love to hear from you too. So if you are fundraising,
I'd love to see your pitch deck. If you'd like
me to come and speak on your podcast, if you
want me to deliver a talk or give you some help
with your marketing, then yeah, I'd love to hear
from you. Stephanie, thank you so much for your
time. It's been an absolute pleasure. Likewise.
Thank you so much for having me, Ricardo. I appreciate
it. Thank you. Thank you. The podcast is also
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