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Welcome to the Loner Club. This is so exciting. This podcast is dedicated to aspiring entrepreneurs

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and digital marketers. It's to create an experience that helps you learn, optimize, retain your

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resilience, nurture any concepts and really accept. Accept yourself. Accept where you

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are. Hi, my name is Tasha and I am a founder. I'm an independent consultant in digital transformation

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and a digital marketer. So as you can tell, I'm here by myself. I'm being the audio engineer,

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the videographer, the podcast host, you know, the jack of all trades, because I think the

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day I just wanted to start in this pilot episode, we're going to really discuss what is the

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Loner Club and how did I come up with this. And then we're going to go into why a podcast,

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wants to come in the future, my career and the aim of this podcast. And then we're just

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going to conclude. So if you know me, you know I am very impulsive. So this is kind

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of how this all started. I have had the most incredible creative three days. It's also

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been, it's also been amplified with very much a low mood. Now, that's very ironic, I know,

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but to be honest with you, it's something that's just really taken over me to do this

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podcast, I wanted to do a podcast. So I have my own, I've, this year, I launched Tasha

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J. Cole, which is me, my personal brand, as a founder, independent consultant, and digital

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marketer. We'll go into my career path a little bit late in the podcast, but I really just

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wanted to launch something that, you know, in the back of my mind, I've always been like,

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we need to, we need something more relatable to aspiring entrepreneurs. We need, you know,

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I've listened to so many podcasts that I've been like, I can't really relate, especially

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when you're in your early days of entrepreneurship. And, you know, my audience, my clients are

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entrepreneurs, have just finished, last year I finished a master's in strategic digital

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marketing. And a lot of upcoming digital marketers have been coming to me for, you know, they

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kind of look up to me. And to be honest with you, it made me go, where do we have this?

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So that's been a little bit at the back of my mind. And now, I sat here this morning

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and I was like, I need a name for my podcast. And every idea I went into, it was taken.

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Like I was like, I do not do patience and I do not do, like I get bored very easily.

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So for me, I was like, oh my goodness, I need to, like I idea generate like right now. Like

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I don't want to waste any more time because to be honest with you, I'm so creative, I'm

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so productive that I don't want to waste my time. So then, then I Googled entrepreneur

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podcast. I was like, right, let me just maybe see what's out there, you know, get some ideas.

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And what was funny, the reason why all the names were taken is because we've got 1.6,

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1.67 million entrepreneurs podcasts. Wow. Wow. So I was kind of like, well, I need to

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come up with something a little bit more personal. So Lorna, why Lorna? Lorna is my mother. She

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passed away last year. And if it wasn't for her selflessness, I don't think my career

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would have taken off as much as it did in the last year. I could, you could basically

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say that she sacrificed her life for my career. I, my mom had a heart attack last year and

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she had a heart attack in 2020. And then she has another one last year, which took her

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life at the end of the day. And when I was stuck in South Africa, I asked my mom, I'm

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like, I've got an option. I've got a job offer as a sales and marketing assistant.

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Yeah, in South Africa, it doesn't pay much. It's like, I think it was 600 pounds. And

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it will get to me. It will pay the balls enough for me to get to you once, once a month, if

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that. And I can only come on a weekend, like three days, not even. And then I said to my

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mom, well, I have an opportunity to go to Wales to study a master's in strategic digital

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marketing. And I can try to get you over to the UK. My mom was in South Africa, by the

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way. So I remember that clearly. She's like, no, Tasha, just go, just go. Because she knew.

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She absolutely knew. So when I was, I want to talk about my mom, because her essence

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is the Lawn Club. And when I was writing her eulogy, I was like, to be honest with you,

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first of all, the fact that I had to write my mom's eulogy, my mom and I weren't, you

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weren't like my sister, my mom were a lot closer than me and my mom. But my mom and

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I shared a lot of the same qualities, which I basically remind, like, the only person

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like me is my mom. That's where I get it from. And it took me until writing her eulogy to

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realize, wait a second, I completely understand it now. This is so weird. So my mom was, my

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mom actually had some hardship. Like she grew up in a very challenging childhood. And she

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grew up in apartheid too. And she met my dad, he's British white, my mom's South African

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colored. And they got together in apartheid, which was, you know, you could, yeah, they

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didn't even allow marriages back in South Africa for mixed race marriages. So they had

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to fly over to the UK, got married, etc, etc. My mom landed up being in a full time mom.

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So she didn't really have a career until I think I was about nine. I don't, I can't actually

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remember to be honest, but it was quite, I remember I think I was in primary school when

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my mom started a career and she started as a direct marketer, a field marketer for Tiger

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Brands in South Africa. And she, you know, this is all about like beacon, it's kind of

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beacon sweets and chocolates where you setting up displays, you're stocking up shelves, you

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need to make sure that you've, the specific sweets and chocolates are targeted at specific

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times of the year. And she used to have these massive file cabinets, like boxes and boxes

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and boxes of files that you just, I used to like help her file. It used to be like, I

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loved it, helped her file. And she grew up, she made her way up into an area marketer.

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She got herself a company car. She was managing a team. And her team were people, you know,

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like the color community in South Africa where they came from. Didn't have this was like

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kind of a pinnacle career change for them. And she grew a team. She was very accepting.

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She didn't care about your background. She just saw your potential. And she then slowly

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started to grow her team. Her team became like her extended family, where she would

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party with them, have a good time. Like everybody was welcome at her house. Like we literally

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had people around her house all the time, all weekend. And it used to, sometimes it

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used to be fun, but sometimes she's a drama crazy. But what I will say is she became so

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well known by her peers and industry professionals. Everybody wanted to know Laura. Like she stepped

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into the room, she would just light it up. And when I reflected on this, I was like her

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essence, you know, the Lorna vibe, the Lorna expression. She stood in her authentic truth

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and just was the woman that advocated for that. It doesn't matter where you come from.

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It matters about like how much do you want it. And she was so particular about her job

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as well. She took her job so seriously. And she would tell you off. Like my mom was, did

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not, she was the perfect person to not hold back, which I love. So I was like, when I

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was sat here this morning, I was like, wait a second. I remember when I wrote a eulogy,

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I was like, oh my goodness, I need to extend my mom's legacy somehow. Whether I do like

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a Lorna foundation, a Lorna something, at least to be Lorna something. This morning,

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it just came to me, you know, the Lorna club. And that's why I use it as like an acronym,

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because this is targeted to aspiring entrepreneurs and marketers. And that is to, you know, continue

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learning because we never ever stop learning. Optimization, make sure that you're optimizing

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your skill set, your time. Also, just your value, optimizing your value within yourself.

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Resilience, we need to, you know, the resilience to keep on going. You know, my mom, she had

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that resilience, I have that resilience. And I feel like if you want to become especially

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a marketer and a entrepreneur, you need resilience. There's no other way. Then to nurture, like

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it's that family mom taking care of you, you know, consider this is, you know, me helping

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to nurture your concept, holding your hand through it. I know that I love to nurture.

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My mom loves to nurture. My sister loves to nurture. My family love to nurture. The woman

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in our family are just fierce. Shout out to my family in South Africa. I love you so much.

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And then acceptance. My mom never judged anyone. And that made me and my sister so open to

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people. We meet everybody. Like honestly, I'm the type of person who, you know, someone

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could say a bad, bad thing about a certain person. And I would be like, well, no, I'm

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going to take you. Like I have never met you and I want to get to know you. So therefore,

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I will make my own opinion about you. And, you know, people come from different backgrounds.

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So it's very important to accept, but not only to accept other people, but accept yourself.

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Like do you accept where you are in life right now? That for me was a big step to overcome

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myself, to accept. Do I accept my life right now? Like this is it, doesn't it? And my life

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was like I had no job back in South Africa. I was broke. I was back at my dad's at the

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age of 30. Like my life was wow. And I had to accept that. But through my loneliness,

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I got myself out of that situation, which this is how it goes. Okay. So yeah, that's

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kind of the introduction to the Lawner Club. So why a podcast? And obviously, like I'm

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ridiculously into podcasts. Like, I just love listening to it while somebody's doing work

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or you know, I just want something else. And I've listened to a lot of self help podcasts,

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I've learned listen to van life podcast, I've listened to entrepreneurial mindset, all these

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good stuff. I love clubhouse at the time, when I was into it. But I think podcasts can

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become a little bit more topic focused and a lot more conversational. I love talking.

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My mom loves talking. It just you just love to talk. Okay. But not just that. I think

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for me, my vision. And this is just kind of jumping ahead a little bit. But my vision

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is, like I said, in the beginning, people have come to me for certain things. And it

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seems to be like a recurring pattern. Okay. What's great about a podcast is that you can

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interview other people. So my vision is to get other learners up in the seat and have

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a conversation and talk about journeys. And especially with marketing, it's you know,

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marketing such a, it's such a subjective term right now. And I feel like for us to just

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explore that a little bit further, especially when the transformation of the industry is

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growing. But for me, particularly business and marketing go hand in hand right now. And

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that's why I took on digital transformation, where business and marketing is hand in hand.

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Therefore, as entrepreneur, you kind of need to know the concepts behind marketing and

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what you're getting yourself into too. That's why I've combined it because this is why like

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all my clients come to me, my social media is broken, your communication is broken, your

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your your audience, are you connecting to your audience is broken. So there's a lot

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that we can go into. I didn't realize that I was going to be a marketer to be honest.

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However, I definitely saw this coming. I should have seen this coming in my career.

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So when I was younger, funny enough, my parents had a divorce when I was 1516. And I used to

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escape to like psychedelic psytrance parties, living my best life on the weekends, whilst

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trying to be on the student council at school, you know what I mean? Like, the polarity of

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it was bizarre. However, these festivals, I started to network, engage, meet different

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people. And that was like my superpower. I felt one, two, three, I knew lots of DJs,

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promoters. I was really connected. I landed then taking a one way ticket to London. And

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I was again wanting to find the scene. Same thing tried to replicate what I did in South

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Africa, in the UK, specifically London. At the time I was not in as a pair, but I landed

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up working my way through the industry. And I landed up working at different parties and

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DJ'd. I landed up starting my own promotions company. It didn't profit at all. It was kind

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of like, I got paid here and there, but most of it, to be honest with you, I did it for

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the love of it. To try to navigate how do I make this into a monetary factor. I didn't

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have the knowledge or skill set. I just saw the gap in the market, wanted to do something

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and about it. So I just decided to do it myself and got paid for it. And then I remember there

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was someone, Robin Triskilly, she asked me if I wanted to kind of join forces with her.

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I'm very, I'm reluctant to join forces with people because I'm a very special human. I'm

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a very, I'm a very limitless person. So I also wanted to pursue something by myself. I didn't

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want to jump on someone's business that they already have to help them grow their business.

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I wanted to start my own. So I kindly declined, Robin. I really appreciate you. She's amazing.

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She's also DJ and promoter and she has her own herbalist business as well. Yeah, then

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through the scene, I'll end up being with Sci Sisters too. I helped for two years, volunteered.

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We did, we sold out in London, our event, and I got on boarded as head of marketing.

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And that was all volunteer for like two years. And I soon left that because I wanted to pursue

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my own thing. At the time, I was DJing a lot, playing out a lot. And then for me,

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Sci Infusions, one of the things was to help untied artists to become, to get gigs,

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because at the time you had to be part of a record label to get a gig. So I was like, hell no. I

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landed up hustling my own gigs without a label. So why not do the same for others through a different

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promotion company? Again, you couldn't, I couldn't monetize it. I didn't know how to. So I did get,

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I ended up getting a gig for myself and Man Stopping Monkey in Portugal for Freedom Festival.

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I didn't take any commission, even though I should have, but I was just kind of like,

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you've got a gig getting paid. It's amazing. Go. So yeah, that was really, really cool.

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So that's what I mean. My, my marketing career was very much music, the music industry,

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the underground music industry specifically in London. And I remember for my 18th birthday,

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I hosted my own event. So it's kind of was a naturally a part of me. And I also, my ex and I,

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my ex got asked to do a party, join party for Noetic Flux, him and Jonas from Antares in Germany.

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They did a party together. And then I remember being three months party and I was kind of like,

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wait a second, don't you think you guys should have an event page up on ready with these ticket

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sales? And then I remember in less than like 12 hours, I got the, the Instagram going, I got their

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I got their ticket sales up. I remember making a few sales already. And it just again, we, we,

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we all made a profit that night. And I got on boarded to be part of it. And then I landed up

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actually being an equal part at the end of it, which I thought was pretty cool of the guys.

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They recognize my value. Again, I didn't do it for the money. I did it because I saw they needed

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help. And that's usually me. I do it because I'm a value based person. I don't tend to do things just

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for money. If I could see it puts a smile on someone's face. That's why I would do something.

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My ex and I parted ways, I developed my own yoga business, I was in hospitality,

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whilst I was doing all of this stuff as well. So I landed moving back to London and getting into

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my first degree. So this was at the age of 27. I decided to enroll in a BA in audio production.

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Because I was like, if I'm going to do degree, I'm going to learn a skill that I don't know,

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like I'm not going to go into something that I already know. It's just that makes no sense.

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So but this was this was a degree and a half. This was challenging. Well, do not have a,

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do not have a boyfriend whilst or girlfriend whilst you're going into a degree. It's just

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you don't have the time for it. You don't have the time and it's it's a dick. So I landed up,

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again, I had, I always have these concepts, but I don't know how to execute it. I remember developing

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like this, Kif 110, kind of I wanted to put on like an event where it says creatives artists,

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like again, it's kind of like future telling for the trends. That's why that's what our idea

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generate, which is quite intriguing. Anyway, roll forward to 2020. 2020 was a difficult year

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because obviously my degree was kind of like worth nothing at this point because the industry

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crushed because of the pandemic. So I had to kind of look at other skill sets, right. And I dived

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into marketing again, I decided I got a call from my friend, Andrew. Andrew is a key person in my

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life, to be honest. And I met him on the first like on a dance floor while I was teaching, I

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actually told him about a party. So that's pretty cool. I'll kind of journeys really,

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it's so cool. So but we'll get into I definitely want to bring Andrew on this podcast. Anyway,

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so what was really great is he asked me, Tasha, there is this group in South Africa that's doing

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a female entrepreneurs course, I really want to get you on it. Are you interested? I think it will

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be so your vibe. And I'm like, actually, that'll be great. So I'll end up teaching branding and

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social media. And to female entrepreneurs, it was so cool. I loved it. I loved it so much. And then

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we they went on to develop explore protect, which they still are today. And this is basically a

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global entrepreneurs group. And this is where that kind of entrepreneurial journey started for me.

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And like more just getting hands on within entrepreneurship, I've always been an entrepreneur

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myself having my own business with marketing and with my yoga business. And these are the

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with my yoga business and DJing. But I've never really pursued being a coach for somebody.

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I met Stephen Westwood, I met so many incredible people. And I started to then pivot into

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starting my own personal brand at the time. And I tried to do be Miss Kiff. And at this stage,

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you must just remember, we're in a pandemic, I need to find what skills can I go into that

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I already have that enough to relearn again, I've just come out of a degree that I can't really use.

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Because you need you I needed to be an assistant or I needed to be in the studio some way to learn

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more. I started to hustle online of how can I I started to figure out how to make money on the

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blog, how do I make money on for live marketing, influencer marketing, all these all these SEO,

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I was learning incubating and just grinding. Whilst all all of this is happening, my mom's

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just had a heart attack. I'm in South Africa, I'm jobless, I'm almost exiled in life. So this

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entrepreneurs global entrepreneurs groups was like a little bit of a it brightened up my day,

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got me looking forward to something. Then I decided I needed more hands on deck. So I started a

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digital intern to learn program called the Kifton program. And this was to onboard South Africans

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give them more skill set and work experience so that they can go on to other companies and these

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entrepreneurs these interns right. So you could apply if you were interested in digital marketing

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or if you wanted to be an entrepreneur. See, it's a trend. And it was so cool. The experience was

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great. But I soon realized that I needed a little bit more myself I wasn't I wasn't stable. I needed

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to learn more. How could I be? How could I be? I think imposter syndrome stepped in there. And I

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feel like it was necessary. You know, the imposter syndrome where you almost think you're not good

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enough. But this point, I was a little bit too chaotic in my life. My mindset was bad. I would

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like I feel secure now in comparison. So it was great. I got a 85% feedback positive review.

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I do understand why the other part wasn't positive because I was I was changing my mind too much.

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But it was great because I got to teach them about you know, all the hacks that I self taught

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myself, Pinterest SEO, Google SEO, all these skill sets that you need and time to put in the

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graph as a marketer. It's time consuming, you know how to build a website, you spend four hours

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figuring out how to put in a plugin, or how to do this, you know, if you're not taught something,

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the time you consume learning it yourself is unreal. Okay, however, it was empowering. And

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I learned from that experience, I definitely want to start that again sometime. However,

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at this point, I kind of needed a step back. And I found this co working space in a Monis,

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which her Monis is my hometown in South Africa. It was awesome. Can I tell you, this is my first

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introduction to co working spaces. And co working spaces is incredible. Like the fact that you can

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come in to a place and just make it your home for the day and then leave. You don't have to

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worry, you just pay once done. I love that. And the people so lovely. And in my hometown,

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not a lot goes on. It's a town, right. But what really alarmed me is that the children in the

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high school is kind of learning the same stuff as I learned 10 years ago, which was shocking.

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They needed digital transformation, they needed transformation completely. And I was like,

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imagine if I could do like a course here to teach these youngsters, give them a little bit more of

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a oomph, you know, something cool, because, you know, the world's changed now where we should

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start to inspire aspiring entrepreneurs at such a young age, you know, the, the old society

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tradition of, oh, you got to go get a degree, you got to go do this, you got to go do that.

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A lot of the time, you know, if I had the support that I needed at the age of 18, to come up with

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something creative, cool, ambitious, exciting, 100%, I would thrive. You just need the structure,

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the learning, the support, kind of this, the Lawn Mower Club vibe, you know what I mean? So

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I, sometimes my ideas are so ambitious. And I think to myself, Tasha, oh my gosh, like,

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here we go again. And this was a moment I remember telling my mama, like, mommy, I've got this idea.

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She's like, just go for it. It sounds really great. You know, she told me a lot of people will

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find use of it. That's why I find like a lot of this time, this, this is this, whatever I'm

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doing now is very close. This is the bond that my mom and I had was that intellectual,

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we get each other level. Anyway, and my mom also had like tough love, she always be like,

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if I come home with 95% mass tissue, go, where was the other 5%? Why couldn't you get 100?

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And I used to go like, you're so mean, but it wasn't because she knew I was intelligent. That's

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why. Anyway, so South Africa, I was like, man, I need to go back to the drawing board. The one

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thing with marketing that I, I started to realize social media is not really for me, like, I'm good

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at it, but I'm better at the mind and the thinking and the strategy and the analytics and the

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analytics and that drives me. And there's so many parts of marketing that was like, how much more

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must I learn? Like, how much more must I learn? So I decided to look at strategic. Strategic was the

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keyword. Yeah, I Google should, before I Googled this, sorry, I looked at a document. I don't know

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I got here, but I'm a researcher by heart. I opened this document was about UK's digital economy for

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the next five years or something. And it was showing me different brackets of how much you're

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going to get paid with different education levels. So this is where kind of tradition does play key

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here. So we've got someone who doesn't have a degree will get, I think up to 20, 25,000 pounds.

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Then you've got someone with a BA will be like 25 to about 35. Someone with a master's, you're

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almost guaranteed to have about 40k plus as a career path. And then you know, your PhDs, etc.

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professors, etc. And I was like, wait a second here. I've got my BA, I can go into a master's.

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How much is funding for a master's? I can get this, I can do this. So then I had to go into

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what type of master's I'm going to study. So then I looked at strategic marketing, like digital

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marketing, because like I need to know digital marketing. And I need to know strategy.

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Because strategy is what I love. And then the first thing appeared was the master's in strategic

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and digital marketing at University of South Wales, clicked it, looked at the requirements,

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applied, that's it. I didn't apply to any other university. This was like, you're it. Otherwise,

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I'm not doing anything else. Anyway, months go on. My mom, you know, she went through her troubles,

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and then I landed up actually going for job searches. And I got offered this

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sales and marketing assistant role full time amazing winery like it was it was it was amazing

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winery in South Africa, and in my hometown, but I just when I got the job, I accepted it.

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And then I got the email saying I got accepted into my master's. I was like,

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oh my goodness, what am I going to do? This was in August, right August 2021.

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I was stranded in South Africa, by the way. And I refused to get a job because their minimum wage

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is 20 around an hour, which is about less than a pound an hour. And I decided to make more money.

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I just I had that conversation with my mom. And my mom said, just go Tasha, just go get out of here

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as I was supposed to come to the UK, I got COVID, which sucked. So it delayed my time and I got here

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in November. And at the time I was doing my master's. So I was doing my master's in

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the UK. And I was doing my master's. So I was doing remote learning. Luckily, they could

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accommodate that but it was hard because I came to Wales with no home, no money, no nothing. I used

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my my university money to get me out of South Africa to pay for my accommodation. And I don't

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know why I'm here. I know I'm meant to be here. So then my master's in strategic digital marketing

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started in Treforest, Wales and it was beautiful, especially coming from South Africa. I needed

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light nature. This was the most intense year of my life. Can I tell you? Every time I do a degree,

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life is like turmoil. I don't know if I'm cursed, but it's raucously difficult.

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Meaning my life balancing my educational life with my like you need to focus and concentrate.

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My personal life is so hectic. My mom was going through like I remember in January,

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she went through this episode and I was like crying on my bed alone. And I was just like,

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you know, just visualizing helping her sending us a positive energy. I'm alone. It's difficult.

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And then I've got assignment due and it's just yeah, it was hectic. Anyway, this concept of so

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there's two lecturers on the course, who is Dr. Jackie Harris and Professor Jonathan Deacon. These

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two humans are like my savior for the year. I just love them both. I love Jackie for the research

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element. She's very, very research based. And then Jonathan's very much the contemporary marketer,

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the consultant. I love that. Like both sides of the coin. I love it both. I remember Jackie saying

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to me, Tasha, you're very confusing. You want a job, but you want to work for yourself. Like I

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just don't get it. I thought I needed to I thought I needed to actually go into a digital marketing

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executive role to learn from other companies to before I could start my own business. To be

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honest, this is what I thought, knowing the backstory. And she said she's like, Tasha,

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you're confusing. And I'm like, I know. I confuse myself all the time. Jonathan is just like super

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laid back. It goes, don't worry, wait until my modules, you'll find out. And I had because I

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had a meeting with him in the January with my concept idea, you know, I kind of brought them

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like Kif Media Hub. When I was trying to start Kif Media Hub, I brought them back in that vibe.

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I did the contemporary marketing module, I got 92 and 95% for masters, like, can we just and that

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was the best because that was understanding your that was the business model, finding your value

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proposition. And I was still trying to find a house at this time, way to love. And I think I

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did that assignment in like 24 hours or 48 hours even and I got that mark because obviously it's

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something that I love that comes natural to me. And it's something that kind of was a pinnacle

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moment for me to bring into my consultancy later. Then we did the consultancy module and we got to

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work with Monmouthshire Council. And we got to tackle the cost of living crisis, which is also

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really awesome to do. And there's a there's a lot going on in Wales. And I think the reason also why

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I decided to pick Wales is because, again, in the back of my mind, I'm like, I need to develop

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something to bring it back to my hometown, which is a rural area. So I need something that's similar.

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Then during my degree, my mum passed away straight off the consultancy module.

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And that was tough. I don't even know when drew went as a month. I had to move out of my place.

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I was going to be homeless. So I moved into a van full time. I'm still living in my van.

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One year later, I converted it and built it myself, the resilience, as you can see.

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And I just started a job as well as a digital marketing executive at a big brand hotel

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in Cardiff. So life was hectic, to say the least. And I just put that like focus on. I just thought

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to myself like, what will my mum tell me right now? You know, like that mindset. And we're going to

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talk about mindset in this podcast for sure, because it's a must, honestly. Mindset is

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mindset is everything. And you know, people talk about it and you go, whatever, no, no, no, no, no,

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they are talking about it and it works. Just to back up, I landed up doing,

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whilst I was doing my masters, I think in the February to beginning of May, I did the five to

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nine club, which is like a nine week series where every Tuesday after, you know, after work, you do

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the five to nine club for four hours and you learn it's kind of like an accelerator program into

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entrepreneurship. And I was the first part of the first female founders in Ronde Sinon Taf in Wales.

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And it was funded by the government. And I was like, this is awesome. And obviously,

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some of the stuff I did know, but other stuff, it was amazing. And this was run by Welsh ice

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in Caerphilly, and that's also in Wales. So I was just like, this is awesome. And Welsh ice

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is another co-working space as well, by the way. And I will, I will, I'll do show notes and I'll

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link it and got my YouTube channel, which is Tasha J Cole. I have so much unseen and edited footage

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that I have to shift. So you definitely check it out anyway. So basically got accelerated back into

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Kifmedehub because they actually gave me that like nudge. And I was like, oh my goodness,

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am I ready for this? So whilst I'm busy trying to finish my dissertation, I'm doing my, whilst I'm

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finishing my dissertation and I'm busy, whilst I'm finishing my dissertation, and I'm doing this

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part-time digital marketing executive job, I have also Kifmedehub to start to, you know, develop.

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And because I really like the freedom of working for myself, to be honest. So I knew this was always

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a long-term goal and that I needed like the money now. And through, just before my mom passed away,

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I got introduced to the startup studio, which is part of USW graduate. Like once you graduate,

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once you are USW graduate, you've got access to the startup studio for like, I think, three years

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and to help nurture and incubate your ideas to develop a business. And you get this all for free.

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So the fact that things started to align for me, I was just like, firstly, this is unreal.

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Secondly, obviously, this is meant to be because like, you know, I had, you know, if I travel back

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to how I was in South Africa, and I was like, oh my goodness, I've got this idea, I don't know how to

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go about it. I don't have all the resources. I need to go find my resources. Wow, was Wales my

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resources? Wow, was Wales my resources? And the fact that I did a master's that gave me that insight

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and the knowledge of digital transformation and thanks to Professor Deacon, of course. And then

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you've got, and then obviously my mom passed away and I kind of like, I had to tell Richie, which is

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the startup studio manager, I was like, Richie, I'm here, but my mom passed away. So please just

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be with me. I'm going to be a bit, I don't know. I don't know how I'm going to be. He was very, very,

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very understanding. I just, I'm so grateful for him. Anyway, and then this was rough.

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And I'm converting my band as well at the same time. So when the going gets tough, I get going,

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clearly. I don't know, it all kind of fast tracked to then I had to extend the time of my dissertation

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because I was just, I don't know, there was no time for life. I think I wrote my dissertation in

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like 10 days or something crazy. I only had two meetings, one with Dr. Jackie Harris, and then one

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with Professor Deacon. And then I just wrote, I didn't complete it to my full potential. I just

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completed to finish because I didn't want to see myself prolong this. I needed to just finish my

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van escape and just sort out my mental health. So crazy through all this intensity, I really realized

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that my digital marketing executive role, I really wasn't starting to like the expectations versus

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reality was completely different. And this is this particularly has really driven me into this is

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why I want to do this podcast too. Because I personally believe that the industry at the moment

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is so like the awareness needs to be brought, like we need to bring up the awareness to companies

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because they expect you to be five special skilled person to be paid a really, really low salary.

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Like I remember I was getting like 27,000 pounds in London for being a reception supervisor.

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And the salary that I'm getting now that we have to be, I need to be a copy professional

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copyright. I have to be a professional strategist. I have to be a film maker. I have to be

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I have to be a film photographer. I have to be a graphic designer. I need to be an audio specialist.

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I need to be a design specialist. It's just like, whoa, and I'm getting paid under 30,000 pounds.

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So this is what I'm talking about is we need to discuss that. So that's going to be some of the

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hot topics in this podcast for sure. However, I realized I needed to just hassle myself like

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I needed to start my own business. And obviously, John, Professor Deacon, he showed me that the

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value of your time and money and this is where consultancy came in. Because I feel like I'm not

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going to be an imposter now because I've got a master's behind my name. So I got my first client

375
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who was an entrepreneur who wanted to transition his career from where he is full time into

376
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something a little bit more what he loves to do with his hobbies. And he, he wanted to learn

377
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himself, but he just wanted me to help him kind of understand, you know, like that digital

378
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transformation is, you know, we know social media exists, but we don't know how to optimize it.

379
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He gave me a budget to work with, and we got to do a content strategy for him. I got to show him

380
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exactly how to use Instagram, and Facebook and Google, my business. And we did a few one to one

381
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mentor sessions, which was amazing. If I'm honest, he was like my ideal client, I want to be able to,

382
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I don't want to do the work for you. I want to give you the knowledge and advocate for you so

383
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that you can do it yourself. And then I got my second client, which was actually a job interview.

384
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But they end up loving my pitching so much that they asked me to come in and do some consultant

385
00:44:52,320 --> 00:44:58,720
work, which is amazing. It was for music organization in Wales. And I did some market research for them.

386
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I did, I hosted a group for like a group in depth research interview survey. And I landed up writing

387
00:45:10,640 --> 00:45:18,160
a in, I wrote an in depth analysis report as well, 30 pages, and the feedback came back as excellent.

388
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So through this journey, I started to understand the concept of dating in the world of entrepreneurship.

389
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And the soon to my surprise, freelance life came into play. And my business, my business was like,

390
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it needed it needed help. So I pitched for some funding at the end of my dissertation,

391
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because I my dissertation was understanding the value proposition of independent music

392
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artists of Southeast Wales, because of my background, of course. And I just, I got so

393
00:45:56,560 --> 00:46:02,400
much information, I was so excited that I pitched and I realized from that pitch, I was like,

394
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I was so in dissertation mode and not in pitch mode. I didn't even pitch myself. I also have

395
00:46:07,760 --> 00:46:12,640
mentally I wasn't in the right space. And then the guy said, Oh, so you're like Spotify,

396
00:46:12,640 --> 00:46:18,960
disrupting the model. I was like, Yeah, I am. I am like Spotify. But I soon realized that the project

397
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was too big for me to undertake. I needed his face to and I needed a team. I couldn't do it alone.

398
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So this is where Kiff Media Hub was more focused on entrepreneurs and organizations and transformation.

399
00:46:32,800 --> 00:46:38,160
And I kind of really didn't know what was like I knew it was getting there, but it was still not

400
00:46:38,160 --> 00:46:45,280
quite there. And I'm someone who I need to know. I can't be unauthentic, I need to be authentic.

401
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And when I'm authentic, I know when I don't know, that's I won't be authentic. And that's not me.

402
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That's unintegrated to me. So as you can imagine, this was like, just kind of like, okay, okay,

403
00:46:57,920 --> 00:47:02,320
okay, just I'm just going with my gut. I need to find the answer. I need to find the answer. I need

404
00:47:02,320 --> 00:47:09,280
to find the answer. What was frustrating is that I tried to pitch again, and they were kind of like,

405
00:47:09,280 --> 00:47:15,600
well, you moved from entrepreneurship, like you went from music now into entrepreneurship. And

406
00:47:16,160 --> 00:47:24,160
to be honest with you, I took their advice. And I also knew myself is that I needed to

407
00:47:25,120 --> 00:47:30,960
find a team and funny enough, Andrew, you know, our friend Andrew, he popped back up. And he said,

408
00:47:30,960 --> 00:47:37,360
Tasha, there's this organization called Able Music, and I think you're going to be perfect for it.

409
00:47:37,360 --> 00:47:44,560
We need your help. They we had an interview together with Jay, and it was so cool because

410
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now they said, Yes, we want you on board. You're the head of our marketing. And I was like, awesome.

411
00:47:52,720 --> 00:48:00,400
So this kind of, like just to fast forward a little bit now, I where am I now in business?

412
00:48:00,400 --> 00:48:08,080
I have dated in business at the moment with freelance life. And I'm the only one client

413
00:48:08,080 --> 00:48:14,880
to have at the moment is the startup studio because that is more sort of consultant, but mostly

414
00:48:14,880 --> 00:48:24,880
freelance. And well, I think I only do work for them because they align with my values and where

415
00:48:24,880 --> 00:48:33,840
I'm going within my business. They are entrepreneurs group. It's great because now I've been on boarded

416
00:48:33,840 --> 00:48:43,120
to help the social media communications for a creative industries networking project that's

417
00:48:43,120 --> 00:48:52,400
happening in in Cardiff and in Newport and RCT and Mamashir. So for me to help that give back to the

418
00:48:52,400 --> 00:48:59,600
community. Definitely I'm in. And that's what I'm saying is that I will only specifically freelance

419
00:48:59,600 --> 00:49:12,480
for specific reasons and working with Richie is a must. He's just the best for me. And he's so well

420
00:49:12,480 --> 00:49:18,480
networked in the industry. I really would love to get him on the passcards too. And there was just

421
00:49:18,480 --> 00:49:27,280
there was just my my level from 2021 2022 and 23. It's just been like a vroom vroom vroom. It's like

422
00:49:27,280 --> 00:49:35,200
growth growth growth. And when I talk about dating in the industry, honestly dating and really

423
00:49:35,200 --> 00:49:39,440
navigating like try a bit of this. If it doesn't work, move on. Try a bit of that. Oh, you like

424
00:49:39,440 --> 00:49:45,920
that. Write it down. You know, so for me, the whole my whole journey at the moment has been

425
00:49:45,920 --> 00:49:54,080
like testing the waters. I just step away from Cardiff into Tombridge Wells, which I'm so happy

426
00:49:54,080 --> 00:50:00,400
for because I'm now in this beautiful co working space. Shout out to office tribe for I've hired

427
00:50:01,120 --> 00:50:08,560
co working for the day. And it's the evening. No one's using this room. So I'm here. I like it.

428
00:50:08,560 --> 00:50:14,560
So I definitely going to come back and do some more episodes here for sure. And it's nice being

429
00:50:14,560 --> 00:50:22,800
in the evening as well. It's nice and quiet. And I'm very nocturnal. Anyway, so it's through the

430
00:50:22,800 --> 00:50:30,240
through the summer, I wanted to work on where am I going? What am I doing? And I know, I had

431
00:50:30,240 --> 00:50:36,960
another client come to me, which is another ideal client, an entrepreneur shifting their career path,

432
00:50:37,600 --> 00:50:43,840
wanting to work for themselves and doesn't know there's also social media malarkey. And I was

433
00:50:43,840 --> 00:50:49,520
like, hold on a minute here, I can help you do do do do do because guess what, I failed.

434
00:50:50,560 --> 00:50:56,960
I wanted a change of career. I wanted to advocate I wanted but I didn't have that business skill

435
00:50:56,960 --> 00:51:02,560
set the marketing skill set, I did have a little bit but I was missing gaps. So I've done the due

436
00:51:02,560 --> 00:51:10,720
diligence for you. So I feel that I've got two perspectives as entrepreneur and as a marketer,

437
00:51:10,720 --> 00:51:17,360
because I know now what it's like to be a marketer and what type of marketing I like.

438
00:51:17,360 --> 00:51:25,440
I know now entrepreneurship and actually, sometimes you will fail to step back, reflect,

439
00:51:25,440 --> 00:51:32,640
go okay, put your hands up, learn from your mistakes and move forward and grow,

440
00:51:32,640 --> 00:51:38,800
because you're always going to fail. There's gonna be minimal failures for me. I test out a lot all

441
00:51:38,800 --> 00:51:45,360
the time. And the thing is, it's just to keep going and keep surrounding yourself with like minded

442
00:51:45,360 --> 00:51:53,760
individuals. You want to be surround yourself by those individuals that are, you know, just so

443
00:51:54,800 --> 00:52:01,760
you look up to them. I want to be like for me, I've got my friends and their salaries are,

444
00:52:01,760 --> 00:52:08,400
honestly, if I can tell you, which I won't just be doing me and my friends, but my friends are

445
00:52:08,400 --> 00:52:15,760
awesome. Okay, these people are elite in my eyes. And I that that is my aspiration is,

446
00:52:16,880 --> 00:52:24,240
why are they doing what they do? And I feel like there's a lot. So that's, this is the part of

447
00:52:24,240 --> 00:52:32,720
the Lawners Club I want to show you. There is creating community. And with me in my career,

448
00:52:32,720 --> 00:52:37,280
I am now wanting to create a community of aspiring entrepreneurs and marketers,

449
00:52:37,280 --> 00:52:46,640
where I can help. I can show them my journey, help develop programs and services to help,

450
00:52:47,440 --> 00:52:54,080
but also to give the experience and knowledge of others in the industry, and what's really helped

451
00:52:54,080 --> 00:53:03,280
them and helped me to give back. Because when I realized my two ideal clients, which is the

452
00:53:03,280 --> 00:53:12,880
entrepreneurs part of it, they, they, they need ongoing nurturing, ongoing motivation, right? So

453
00:53:12,880 --> 00:53:20,720
this is why I'm here. I want to now that's my operation to my next quarter. I've already

454
00:53:20,720 --> 00:53:27,280
planned that. But I will definitely this is just kind of like a highlights moment for me. This is

455
00:53:27,280 --> 00:53:36,800
off the script just talking now. Okay. And the second part of this is I've had so I had a

456
00:53:36,800 --> 00:53:47,280
freelancer opportunity for a music organization, and they were government Arts Council Wales funded.

457
00:53:47,280 --> 00:53:59,360
And I had the masters students from my like from this year in USW, which is what I did last year,

458
00:53:59,840 --> 00:54:07,440
I on boarded them to help me. They were great. Two of them, Alvin and Lamy, they came back to me,

459
00:54:07,440 --> 00:54:11,280
and they were like asking me all the questions. And they were kind of like, especially Alvin,

460
00:54:11,280 --> 00:54:18,880
I remember meeting him, he was, you know, he, it was so crazy. If you think about the perception

461
00:54:18,880 --> 00:54:24,720
with people, and you don't realize how far you've come until you meet someone else who was in your

462
00:54:24,720 --> 00:54:29,760
position before you started, like you go, Whoa, actually, imposter syndrome just leaves the room

463
00:54:29,760 --> 00:54:34,880
and you go, I have a knowledge to share. They've reached out to me. And because of one of my YouTube

464
00:54:34,880 --> 00:54:40,160
videos talking about USW, because you know, I'm a content creators, well, I love that side of me.

465
00:54:40,160 --> 00:54:47,120
I love that life. I've had about four people reach out from social media to ask me about what,

466
00:54:48,080 --> 00:54:55,760
what this masters was like. And one of the one of them is actually come from America and is

467
00:54:55,760 --> 00:55:01,040
starting next month, because she also wants to start a business. Nora shout out to you.

468
00:55:01,680 --> 00:55:06,480
And I'm going to meet her next month, which is really exciting. And this is what I love. Honestly,

469
00:55:06,480 --> 00:55:13,040
I love this. This is like what gives me energy and joy and just makes me want to just go,

470
00:55:14,080 --> 00:55:19,120
you know, this is why I've started this podcast. And this is why the Lawnless Club is basically

471
00:55:19,120 --> 00:55:25,920
this it's helping aspiring entrepreneurs, helping aspiring marketers, digital marketers,

472
00:55:26,640 --> 00:55:32,560
and having a little bit of more transparency. There's a loads of people that I've met have been

473
00:55:32,560 --> 00:55:36,160
have been so transparent with me. And I've been like so grateful because I'm telling you,

474
00:55:36,160 --> 00:55:40,880
when you go into these industries, the most difficult thing is Google can teach you what

475
00:55:40,880 --> 00:55:47,680
people know and how they do it. And like I was always like, how would you start? What do you do?

476
00:55:47,680 --> 00:55:54,160
Where do you go? How do I achieve this? And I remember just navigating and navigating from

477
00:55:54,160 --> 00:56:00,640
2020 or 2021 more like because my hustle was more than and look at two years later, I have

478
00:56:00,640 --> 00:56:07,520
my own business, I have now a ongoing client, I am working remotely, I'm working for myself.

479
00:56:08,320 --> 00:56:15,680
I have my YouTube channel, Miss Kiff is really good now. It's really growing the

480
00:56:15,680 --> 00:56:20,400
fan life stuff is on there. So you can check that out. And I've also got another podcast,

481
00:56:20,400 --> 00:56:25,760
my van life perspective podcast, that is my career journey. And that's, if I'm honest,

482
00:56:25,760 --> 00:56:31,440
my career journey is my motivation. My mother is my motivation. So we've got the essence,

483
00:56:31,440 --> 00:56:37,280
we've got my career, we've got my struggle, which is my motivation. But then there is the positive

484
00:56:37,280 --> 00:56:42,720
is it just shows if you just change your mind and surround yourself with the right people

485
00:56:43,440 --> 00:56:50,640
and surround yourself with knowledge, optimize your time, your value, accept where you are,

486
00:56:50,640 --> 00:56:55,360
but just go, that's it. If you want to be in life, you've got to just go for it. Right. And

487
00:56:55,360 --> 00:57:02,400
they're being limitless, isn't what's important. And learning and just being like that sponge to

488
00:57:02,400 --> 00:57:10,800
nurture all the concepts that you have. No idea is stupid. Okay. And that's why I just want to

489
00:57:11,760 --> 00:57:17,200
the aim of this podcast is just to be a bit more relatable. I'm sitting here with bringing in loads

490
00:57:17,200 --> 00:57:26,480
of figures, right? I'm being honest. I am, I have stable income, but my journey is still going. And

491
00:57:26,480 --> 00:57:34,560
I accept that. I admire that. And I value that. I know that every like, look how far I've come in

492
00:57:34,560 --> 00:57:38,800
the last two years. Imagine where I'm going to be next year this time, the year after that,

493
00:57:38,800 --> 00:57:47,600
if I just keep nurturing, learning, optimizing, being resilient and accepting every simple way,

494
00:57:48,160 --> 00:57:55,280
the Lawner Club way, then I can achieve whatever I want. And so can you. And that's what I want. I

495
00:57:55,280 --> 00:58:02,960
want to build this type of community. So having said that, I would like to invite you to join,

496
00:58:02,960 --> 00:58:09,360
I'm setting up a free Facebook group. It's going to be private just for the listeners. This is just,

497
00:58:10,400 --> 00:58:20,080
we can share at this stage. I will later on be introducing Patreon, but I feel like just having

498
00:58:21,120 --> 00:58:27,040
the Lawner Club on Facebook group would be ideal for now. I know a lot of people don't have the

499
00:58:27,040 --> 00:58:33,600
Lawner Club. I mean, don't have Facebook. So that's fine. I would invite you to an email,

500
00:58:34,640 --> 00:58:41,520
which could be found on my website. So if you look at Tasha J, the letter J Cole, C-O-L-E,

501
00:58:41,520 --> 00:58:46,880
then you will have the show notes and about the Lawner Club, the link to the Facebook group there,

502
00:58:46,880 --> 00:58:53,840
the link to my social media. So everything will be on YouTube. All I ask you is,

503
00:58:53,840 --> 00:59:00,560
if you are listening, please do follow me on Instagram and YouTube and TikTok. Please join

504
00:59:00,560 --> 00:59:06,000
the Facebook group. I'd love to hear from you, introduce yourself if you're aspiring digital

505
00:59:06,000 --> 00:59:12,000
marketer or aspiring entrepreneur. And the way this podcast will grow will grow with you. Yeah,

506
00:59:12,000 --> 00:59:17,360
I'm just excited because, you know, there's so many industry professionals that have that value

507
00:59:17,360 --> 00:59:22,960
that I want to share. There's also entrepreneurs that are going through their journey that can

508
00:59:22,960 --> 00:59:29,280
relate. You can, you know, have relatable stories. I also want aspiring digital marketers to kind of

509
00:59:29,280 --> 00:59:38,640
share what they want as well. It's creating this kind of ecosystem of community here. And yeah,

510
00:59:38,640 --> 00:59:45,440
so the only way to support me is to follow all my social media at the moment. And I will

511
00:59:45,440 --> 00:59:52,960
see you in episode two, I suppose, as if I did it. Sometimes you just got to start. I love it.

512
00:59:52,960 --> 00:59:58,400
Thank you so much for listening. I really appreciate you and know that if you continue to learn,

513
00:59:58,960 --> 01:00:05,840
optimize your time, keep resilient in what you do, nurture what you do with love and

514
01:00:05,840 --> 01:00:16,160
accept where you are, you can achieve whatever you want. See you in the next one. Bye bye.