Welcome to the Loner Club. This is so exciting. This podcast is dedicated to aspiring entrepreneurs
and digital marketers. It's to create an experience that helps you learn, optimize, retain your
resilience, nurture any concepts and really accept. Accept yourself. Accept where you
are. Hi, my name is Tasha and I am a founder. I'm an independent consultant in digital transformation
and a digital marketer. So as you can tell, I'm here by myself. I'm being the audio engineer,
the videographer, the podcast host, you know, the jack of all trades, because I think the
day I just wanted to start in this pilot episode, we're going to really discuss what is the
Loner Club and how did I come up with this. And then we're going to go into why a podcast,
wants to come in the future, my career and the aim of this podcast. And then we're just
going to conclude. So if you know me, you know I am very impulsive. So this is kind
of how this all started. I have had the most incredible creative three days. It's also
been, it's also been amplified with very much a low mood. Now, that's very ironic, I know,
but to be honest with you, it's something that's just really taken over me to do this
podcast, I wanted to do a podcast. So I have my own, I've, this year, I launched Tasha
J. Cole, which is me, my personal brand, as a founder, independent consultant, and digital
marketer. We'll go into my career path a little bit late in the podcast, but I really just
wanted to launch something that, you know, in the back of my mind, I've always been like,
we need to, we need something more relatable to aspiring entrepreneurs. We need, you know,
I've listened to so many podcasts that I've been like, I can't really relate, especially
when you're in your early days of entrepreneurship. And, you know, my audience, my clients are
entrepreneurs, have just finished, last year I finished a master's in strategic digital
marketing. And a lot of upcoming digital marketers have been coming to me for, you know, they
kind of look up to me. And to be honest with you, it made me go, where do we have this?
So that's been a little bit at the back of my mind. And now, I sat here this morning
and I was like, I need a name for my podcast. And every idea I went into, it was taken.
Like I was like, I do not do patience and I do not do, like I get bored very easily.
So for me, I was like, oh my goodness, I need to, like I idea generate like right now. Like
I don't want to waste any more time because to be honest with you, I'm so creative, I'm
so productive that I don't want to waste my time. So then, then I Googled entrepreneur
podcast. I was like, right, let me just maybe see what's out there, you know, get some ideas.
And what was funny, the reason why all the names were taken is because we've got 1.6,
1.67 million entrepreneurs podcasts. Wow. Wow. So I was kind of like, well, I need to
come up with something a little bit more personal. So Lorna, why Lorna? Lorna is my mother. She
passed away last year. And if it wasn't for her selflessness, I don't think my career
would have taken off as much as it did in the last year. I could, you could basically
say that she sacrificed her life for my career. I, my mom had a heart attack last year and
she had a heart attack in 2020. And then she has another one last year, which took her
life at the end of the day. And when I was stuck in South Africa, I asked my mom, I'm
like, I've got an option. I've got a job offer as a sales and marketing assistant.
Yeah, in South Africa, it doesn't pay much. It's like, I think it was 600 pounds. And
it will get to me. It will pay the balls enough for me to get to you once, once a month, if
that. And I can only come on a weekend, like three days, not even. And then I said to my
mom, well, I have an opportunity to go to Wales to study a master's in strategic digital
marketing. And I can try to get you over to the UK. My mom was in South Africa, by the
way. So I remember that clearly. She's like, no, Tasha, just go, just go. Because she knew.
She absolutely knew. So when I was, I want to talk about my mom, because her essence
is the Lawn Club. And when I was writing her eulogy, I was like, to be honest with you,
first of all, the fact that I had to write my mom's eulogy, my mom and I weren't, you
weren't like my sister, my mom were a lot closer than me and my mom. But my mom and
I shared a lot of the same qualities, which I basically remind, like, the only person
like me is my mom. That's where I get it from. And it took me until writing her eulogy to
realize, wait a second, I completely understand it now. This is so weird. So my mom was, my
mom actually had some hardship. Like she grew up in a very challenging childhood. And she
grew up in apartheid too. And she met my dad, he's British white, my mom's South African
colored. And they got together in apartheid, which was, you know, you could, yeah, they
didn't even allow marriages back in South Africa for mixed race marriages. So they had
to fly over to the UK, got married, etc, etc. My mom landed up being in a full time mom.
So she didn't really have a career until I think I was about nine. I don't, I can't actually
remember to be honest, but it was quite, I remember I think I was in primary school when
my mom started a career and she started as a direct marketer, a field marketer for Tiger
Brands in South Africa. And she, you know, this is all about like beacon, it's kind of
beacon sweets and chocolates where you setting up displays, you're stocking up shelves, you
need to make sure that you've, the specific sweets and chocolates are targeted at specific
times of the year. And she used to have these massive file cabinets, like boxes and boxes
and boxes of files that you just, I used to like help her file. It used to be like, I
loved it, helped her file. And she grew up, she made her way up into an area marketer.
She got herself a company car. She was managing a team. And her team were people, you know,
like the color community in South Africa where they came from. Didn't have this was like
kind of a pinnacle career change for them. And she grew a team. She was very accepting.
She didn't care about your background. She just saw your potential. And she then slowly
started to grow her team. Her team became like her extended family, where she would
party with them, have a good time. Like everybody was welcome at her house. Like we literally
had people around her house all the time, all weekend. And it used to, sometimes it
used to be fun, but sometimes she's a drama crazy. But what I will say is she became so
well known by her peers and industry professionals. Everybody wanted to know Laura. Like she stepped
into the room, she would just light it up. And when I reflected on this, I was like her
essence, you know, the Lorna vibe, the Lorna expression. She stood in her authentic truth
and just was the woman that advocated for that. It doesn't matter where you come from.
It matters about like how much do you want it. And she was so particular about her job
as well. She took her job so seriously. And she would tell you off. Like my mom was, did
not, she was the perfect person to not hold back, which I love. So I was like, when I
was sat here this morning, I was like, wait a second. I remember when I wrote a eulogy,
I was like, oh my goodness, I need to extend my mom's legacy somehow. Whether I do like
a Lorna foundation, a Lorna something, at least to be Lorna something. This morning,
it just came to me, you know, the Lorna club. And that's why I use it as like an acronym,
because this is targeted to aspiring entrepreneurs and marketers. And that is to, you know, continue
learning because we never ever stop learning. Optimization, make sure that you're optimizing
your skill set, your time. Also, just your value, optimizing your value within yourself.
Resilience, we need to, you know, the resilience to keep on going. You know, my mom, she had
that resilience, I have that resilience. And I feel like if you want to become especially
a marketer and a entrepreneur, you need resilience. There's no other way. Then to nurture, like
it's that family mom taking care of you, you know, consider this is, you know, me helping
to nurture your concept, holding your hand through it. I know that I love to nurture.
My mom loves to nurture. My sister loves to nurture. My family love to nurture. The woman
in our family are just fierce. Shout out to my family in South Africa. I love you so much.
And then acceptance. My mom never judged anyone. And that made me and my sister so open to
people. We meet everybody. Like honestly, I'm the type of person who, you know, someone
could say a bad, bad thing about a certain person. And I would be like, well, no, I'm
going to take you. Like I have never met you and I want to get to know you. So therefore,
I will make my own opinion about you. And, you know, people come from different backgrounds.
So it's very important to accept, but not only to accept other people, but accept yourself.
Like do you accept where you are in life right now? That for me was a big step to overcome
myself, to accept. Do I accept my life right now? Like this is it, doesn't it? And my life
was like I had no job back in South Africa. I was broke. I was back at my dad's at the
age of 30. Like my life was wow. And I had to accept that. But through my loneliness,
I got myself out of that situation, which this is how it goes. Okay. So yeah, that's
kind of the introduction to the Lawner Club. So why a podcast? And obviously, like I'm
ridiculously into podcasts. Like, I just love listening to it while somebody's doing work
or you know, I just want something else. And I've listened to a lot of self help podcasts,
I've learned listen to van life podcast, I've listened to entrepreneurial mindset, all these
good stuff. I love clubhouse at the time, when I was into it. But I think podcasts can
become a little bit more topic focused and a lot more conversational. I love talking.
My mom loves talking. It just you just love to talk. Okay. But not just that. I think
for me, my vision. And this is just kind of jumping ahead a little bit. But my vision
is, like I said, in the beginning, people have come to me for certain things. And it
seems to be like a recurring pattern. Okay. What's great about a podcast is that you can
interview other people. So my vision is to get other learners up in the seat and have
a conversation and talk about journeys. And especially with marketing, it's you know,
marketing such a, it's such a subjective term right now. And I feel like for us to just
explore that a little bit further, especially when the transformation of the industry is
growing. But for me, particularly business and marketing go hand in hand right now. And
that's why I took on digital transformation, where business and marketing is hand in hand.
Therefore, as entrepreneur, you kind of need to know the concepts behind marketing and
what you're getting yourself into too. That's why I've combined it because this is why like
all my clients come to me, my social media is broken, your communication is broken, your
your your audience, are you connecting to your audience is broken. So there's a lot
that we can go into. I didn't realize that I was going to be a marketer to be honest.
However, I definitely saw this coming. I should have seen this coming in my career.
So when I was younger, funny enough, my parents had a divorce when I was 1516. And I used to
escape to like psychedelic psytrance parties, living my best life on the weekends, whilst
trying to be on the student council at school, you know what I mean? Like, the polarity of
it was bizarre. However, these festivals, I started to network, engage, meet different
people. And that was like my superpower. I felt one, two, three, I knew lots of DJs,
promoters. I was really connected. I landed then taking a one way ticket to London. And
I was again wanting to find the scene. Same thing tried to replicate what I did in South
Africa, in the UK, specifically London. At the time I was not in as a pair, but I landed
up working my way through the industry. And I landed up working at different parties and
DJ'd. I landed up starting my own promotions company. It didn't profit at all. It was kind
of like, I got paid here and there, but most of it, to be honest with you, I did it for
the love of it. To try to navigate how do I make this into a monetary factor. I didn't
have the knowledge or skill set. I just saw the gap in the market, wanted to do something
and about it. So I just decided to do it myself and got paid for it. And then I remember there
was someone, Robin Triskilly, she asked me if I wanted to kind of join forces with her.
I'm very, I'm reluctant to join forces with people because I'm a very special human. I'm
a very, I'm a very limitless person. So I also wanted to pursue something by myself. I didn't
want to jump on someone's business that they already have to help them grow their business.
I wanted to start my own. So I kindly declined, Robin. I really appreciate you. She's amazing.
She's also DJ and promoter and she has her own herbalist business as well. Yeah, then
through the scene, I'll end up being with Sci Sisters too. I helped for two years, volunteered.
We did, we sold out in London, our event, and I got on boarded as head of marketing.
And that was all volunteer for like two years. And I soon left that because I wanted to pursue
my own thing. At the time, I was DJing a lot, playing out a lot. And then for me,
Sci Infusions, one of the things was to help untied artists to become, to get gigs,
because at the time you had to be part of a record label to get a gig. So I was like, hell no. I
landed up hustling my own gigs without a label. So why not do the same for others through a different
promotion company? Again, you couldn't, I couldn't monetize it. I didn't know how to. So I did get,
I ended up getting a gig for myself and Man Stopping Monkey in Portugal for Freedom Festival.
I didn't take any commission, even though I should have, but I was just kind of like,
you've got a gig getting paid. It's amazing. Go. So yeah, that was really, really cool.
So that's what I mean. My, my marketing career was very much music, the music industry,
the underground music industry specifically in London. And I remember for my 18th birthday,
I hosted my own event. So it's kind of was a naturally a part of me. And I also, my ex and I,
my ex got asked to do a party, join party for Noetic Flux, him and Jonas from Antares in Germany.
They did a party together. And then I remember being three months party and I was kind of like,
wait a second, don't you think you guys should have an event page up on ready with these ticket
sales? And then I remember in less than like 12 hours, I got the, the Instagram going, I got their
I got their ticket sales up. I remember making a few sales already. And it just again, we, we,
we all made a profit that night. And I got on boarded to be part of it. And then I landed up
actually being an equal part at the end of it, which I thought was pretty cool of the guys.
They recognize my value. Again, I didn't do it for the money. I did it because I saw they needed
help. And that's usually me. I do it because I'm a value based person. I don't tend to do things just
for money. If I could see it puts a smile on someone's face. That's why I would do something.
My ex and I parted ways, I developed my own yoga business, I was in hospitality,
whilst I was doing all of this stuff as well. So I landed moving back to London and getting into
my first degree. So this was at the age of 27. I decided to enroll in a BA in audio production.
Because I was like, if I'm going to do degree, I'm going to learn a skill that I don't know,
like I'm not going to go into something that I already know. It's just that makes no sense.
So but this was this was a degree and a half. This was challenging. Well, do not have a,
do not have a boyfriend whilst or girlfriend whilst you're going into a degree. It's just
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,
again, I had, I always have these concepts, but I don't know how to execute it. I remember developing
like this, Kif 110, kind of I wanted to put on like an event where it says creatives artists,
like again, it's kind of like future telling for the trends. That's why that's what our idea
generate, which is quite intriguing. Anyway, roll forward to 2020. 2020 was a difficult year
because obviously my degree was kind of like worth nothing at this point because the industry
crushed because of the pandemic. So I had to kind of look at other skill sets, right. And I dived
into marketing again, I decided I got a call from my friend, Andrew. Andrew is a key person in my
life, to be honest. And I met him on the first like on a dance floor while I was teaching, I
actually told him about a party. So that's pretty cool. I'll kind of journeys really,
it's so cool. So but we'll get into I definitely want to bring Andrew on this podcast. Anyway,
so what was really great is he asked me, Tasha, there is this group in South Africa that's doing
a female entrepreneurs course, I really want to get you on it. Are you interested? I think it will
be so your vibe. And I'm like, actually, that'll be great. So I'll end up teaching branding and
social media. And to female entrepreneurs, it was so cool. I loved it. I loved it so much. And then
we they went on to develop explore protect, which they still are today. And this is basically a
global entrepreneurs group. And this is where that kind of entrepreneurial journey started for me.
And like more just getting hands on within entrepreneurship, I've always been an entrepreneur
myself having my own business with marketing and with my yoga business. And these are the
with my yoga business and DJing. But I've never really pursued being a coach for somebody.
I met Stephen Westwood, I met so many incredible people. And I started to then pivot into
starting my own personal brand at the time. And I tried to do be Miss Kiff. And at this stage,
you must just remember, we're in a pandemic, I need to find what skills can I go into that
I already have that enough to relearn again, I've just come out of a degree that I can't really use.
Because you need you I needed to be an assistant or I needed to be in the studio some way to learn
more. I started to hustle online of how can I I started to figure out how to make money on the
blog, how do I make money on for live marketing, influencer marketing, all these all these SEO,
I was learning incubating and just grinding. Whilst all all of this is happening, my mom's
just had a heart attack. I'm in South Africa, I'm jobless, I'm almost exiled in life. So this
entrepreneurs global entrepreneurs groups was like a little bit of a it brightened up my day,
got me looking forward to something. Then I decided I needed more hands on deck. So I started a
digital intern to learn program called the Kifton program. And this was to onboard South Africans
give them more skill set and work experience so that they can go on to other companies and these
entrepreneurs these interns right. So you could apply if you were interested in digital marketing
or if you wanted to be an entrepreneur. See, it's a trend. And it was so cool. The experience was
great. But I soon realized that I needed a little bit more myself I wasn't I wasn't stable. I needed
to learn more. How could I be? How could I be? I think imposter syndrome stepped in there. And I
feel like it was necessary. You know, the imposter syndrome where you almost think you're not good
enough. But this point, I was a little bit too chaotic in my life. My mindset was bad. I would
like I feel secure now in comparison. So it was great. I got a 85% feedback positive review.
I do understand why the other part wasn't positive because I was I was changing my mind too much.
But it was great because I got to teach them about you know, all the hacks that I self taught
myself, Pinterest SEO, Google SEO, all these skill sets that you need and time to put in the
graph as a marketer. It's time consuming, you know how to build a website, you spend four hours
figuring out how to put in a plugin, or how to do this, you know, if you're not taught something,
the time you consume learning it yourself is unreal. Okay, however, it was empowering. And
I learned from that experience, I definitely want to start that again sometime. However,
at this point, I kind of needed a step back. And I found this co working space in a Monis,
which her Monis is my hometown in South Africa. It was awesome. Can I tell you, this is my first
introduction to co working spaces. And co working spaces is incredible. Like the fact that you can
come in to a place and just make it your home for the day and then leave. You don't have to
worry, you just pay once done. I love that. And the people so lovely. And in my hometown,
not a lot goes on. It's a town, right. But what really alarmed me is that the children in the
high school is kind of learning the same stuff as I learned 10 years ago, which was shocking.
They needed digital transformation, they needed transformation completely. And I was like,
imagine if I could do like a course here to teach these youngsters, give them a little bit more of
a oomph, you know, something cool, because, you know, the world's changed now where we should
start to inspire aspiring entrepreneurs at such a young age, you know, the, the old society
tradition of, oh, you got to go get a degree, you got to go do this, you got to go do that.
A lot of the time, you know, if I had the support that I needed at the age of 18, to come up with
something creative, cool, ambitious, exciting, 100%, I would thrive. You just need the structure,
the learning, the support, kind of this, the Lawn Mower Club vibe, you know what I mean? So
I, sometimes my ideas are so ambitious. And I think to myself, Tasha, oh my gosh, like,
here we go again. And this was a moment I remember telling my mama, like, mommy, I've got this idea.
She's like, just go for it. It sounds really great. You know, she told me a lot of people will
find use of it. That's why I find like a lot of this time, this, this is this, whatever I'm
doing now is very close. This is the bond that my mom and I had was that intellectual,
we get each other level. Anyway, and my mom also had like tough love, she always be like,
if I come home with 95% mass tissue, go, where was the other 5%? Why couldn't you get 100?
And I used to go like, you're so mean, but it wasn't because she knew I was intelligent. That's
why. Anyway, so South Africa, I was like, man, I need to go back to the drawing board. The one
thing with marketing that I, I started to realize social media is not really for me, like, I'm good
at it, but I'm better at the mind and the thinking and the strategy and the analytics and the
analytics and that drives me. And there's so many parts of marketing that was like, how much more
must I learn? Like, how much more must I learn? So I decided to look at strategic. Strategic was the
keyword. Yeah, I Google should, before I Googled this, sorry, I looked at a document. I don't know
I got here, but I'm a researcher by heart. I opened this document was about UK's digital economy for
the next five years or something. And it was showing me different brackets of how much you're
going to get paid with different education levels. So this is where kind of tradition does play key
here. So we've got someone who doesn't have a degree will get, I think up to 20, 25,000 pounds.
Then you've got someone with a BA will be like 25 to about 35. Someone with a master's, you're
almost guaranteed to have about 40k plus as a career path. And then you know, your PhDs, etc.
professors, etc. And I was like, wait a second here. I've got my BA, I can go into a master's.
How much is funding for a master's? I can get this, I can do this. So then I had to go into
what type of master's I'm going to study. So then I looked at strategic marketing, like digital
marketing, because like I need to know digital marketing. And I need to know strategy.
Because strategy is what I love. And then the first thing appeared was the master's in strategic
and digital marketing at University of South Wales, clicked it, looked at the requirements,
applied, that's it. I didn't apply to any other university. This was like, you're it. Otherwise,
I'm not doing anything else. Anyway, months go on. My mom, you know, she went through her troubles,
and then I landed up actually going for job searches. And I got offered this
sales and marketing assistant role full time amazing winery like it was it was it was amazing
winery in South Africa, and in my hometown, but I just when I got the job, I accepted it.
And then I got the email saying I got accepted into my master's. I was like,
oh my goodness, what am I going to do? This was in August, right August 2021.
I was stranded in South Africa, by the way. And I refused to get a job because their minimum wage
is 20 around an hour, which is about less than a pound an hour. And I decided to make more money.
I just I had that conversation with my mom. And my mom said, just go Tasha, just go get out of here
as I was supposed to come to the UK, I got COVID, which sucked. So it delayed my time and I got here
in November. And at the time I was doing my master's. So I was doing my master's in
the UK. And I was doing my master's. So I was doing remote learning. Luckily, they could
accommodate that but it was hard because I came to Wales with no home, no money, no nothing. I used
my my university money to get me out of South Africa to pay for my accommodation. And I don't
know why I'm here. I know I'm meant to be here. So then my master's in strategic digital marketing
started in Treforest, Wales and it was beautiful, especially coming from South Africa. I needed
light nature. This was the most intense year of my life. Can I tell you? Every time I do a degree,
life is like turmoil. I don't know if I'm cursed, but it's raucously difficult.
Meaning my life balancing my educational life with my like you need to focus and concentrate.
My personal life is so hectic. My mom was going through like I remember in January,
she went through this episode and I was like crying on my bed alone. And I was just like,
you know, just visualizing helping her sending us a positive energy. I'm alone. It's difficult.
And then I've got assignment due and it's just yeah, it was hectic. Anyway, this concept of so
there's two lecturers on the course, who is Dr. Jackie Harris and Professor Jonathan Deacon. These
two humans are like my savior for the year. I just love them both. I love Jackie for the research
element. She's very, very research based. And then Jonathan's very much the contemporary marketer,
the consultant. I love that. Like both sides of the coin. I love it both. I remember Jackie saying
to me, Tasha, you're very confusing. You want a job, but you want to work for yourself. Like I
just don't get it. I thought I needed to I thought I needed to actually go into a digital marketing
executive role to learn from other companies to before I could start my own business. To be
honest, this is what I thought, knowing the backstory. And she said she's like, Tasha,
you're confusing. And I'm like, I know. I confuse myself all the time. Jonathan is just like super
laid back. It goes, don't worry, wait until my modules, you'll find out. And I had because I
had a meeting with him in the January with my concept idea, you know, I kind of brought them
like Kif Media Hub. When I was trying to start Kif Media Hub, I brought them back in that vibe.
I did the contemporary marketing module, I got 92 and 95% for masters, like, can we just and that
was the best because that was understanding your that was the business model, finding your value
proposition. And I was still trying to find a house at this time, way to love. And I think I
did that assignment in like 24 hours or 48 hours even and I got that mark because obviously it's
something that I love that comes natural to me. And it's something that kind of was a pinnacle
moment for me to bring into my consultancy later. Then we did the consultancy module and we got to
work with Monmouthshire Council. And we got to tackle the cost of living crisis, which is also
really awesome to do. And there's a there's a lot going on in Wales. And I think the reason also why
I decided to pick Wales is because, again, in the back of my mind, I'm like, I need to develop
something to bring it back to my hometown, which is a rural area. So I need something that's similar.
Then during my degree, my mum passed away straight off the consultancy module.
And that was tough. I don't even know when drew went as a month. I had to move out of my place.
I was going to be homeless. So I moved into a van full time. I'm still living in my van.
One year later, I converted it and built it myself, the resilience, as you can see.
And I just started a job as well as a digital marketing executive at a big brand hotel
in Cardiff. So life was hectic, to say the least. And I just put that like focus on. I just thought
to myself like, what will my mum tell me right now? You know, like that mindset. And we're going to
talk about mindset in this podcast for sure, because it's a must, honestly. Mindset is
mindset is everything. And you know, people talk about it and you go, whatever, no, no, no, no, no,
they are talking about it and it works. Just to back up, I landed up doing,
whilst I was doing my masters, I think in the February to beginning of May, I did the five to
nine club, which is like a nine week series where every Tuesday after, you know, after work, you do
the five to nine club for four hours and you learn it's kind of like an accelerator program into
entrepreneurship. And I was the first part of the first female founders in Ronde Sinon Taf in Wales.
And it was funded by the government. And I was like, this is awesome. And obviously,
some of the stuff I did know, but other stuff, it was amazing. And this was run by Welsh ice
in Caerphilly, and that's also in Wales. So I was just like, this is awesome. And Welsh ice
is another co-working space as well, by the way. And I will, I will, I'll do show notes and I'll
link it and got my YouTube channel, which is Tasha J Cole. I have so much unseen and edited footage
that I have to shift. So you definitely check it out anyway. So basically got accelerated back into
Kifmedehub because they actually gave me that like nudge. And I was like, oh my goodness,
am I ready for this? So whilst I'm busy trying to finish my dissertation, I'm doing my, whilst I'm
finishing my dissertation and I'm busy, whilst I'm finishing my dissertation, and I'm doing this
part-time digital marketing executive job, I have also Kifmedehub to start to, you know, develop.
And because I really like the freedom of working for myself, to be honest. So I knew this was always
a long-term goal and that I needed like the money now. And through, just before my mom passed away,
I got introduced to the startup studio, which is part of USW graduate. Like once you graduate,
once you are USW graduate, you've got access to the startup studio for like, I think, three years
and to help nurture and incubate your ideas to develop a business. And you get this all for free.
So the fact that things started to align for me, I was just like, firstly, this is unreal.
Secondly, obviously, this is meant to be because like, you know, I had, you know, if I travel back
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
go about it. I don't have all the resources. I need to go find my resources. Wow, was Wales my
resources? Wow, was Wales my resources? And the fact that I did a master's that gave me that insight
and the knowledge of digital transformation and thanks to Professor Deacon, of course. And then
you've got, and then obviously my mom passed away and I kind of like, I had to tell Richie, which is
the startup studio manager, I was like, Richie, I'm here, but my mom passed away. So please just
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,
very understanding. I just, I'm so grateful for him. Anyway, and then this was rough.
And I'm converting my band as well at the same time. So when the going gets tough, I get going,
clearly. I don't know, it all kind of fast tracked to then I had to extend the time of my dissertation
because I was just, I don't know, there was no time for life. I think I wrote my dissertation in
like 10 days or something crazy. I only had two meetings, one with Dr. Jackie Harris, and then one
with Professor Deacon. And then I just wrote, I didn't complete it to my full potential. I just
completed to finish because I didn't want to see myself prolong this. I needed to just finish my
van escape and just sort out my mental health. So crazy through all this intensity, I really realized
that my digital marketing executive role, I really wasn't starting to like the expectations versus
reality was completely different. And this is this particularly has really driven me into this is
why I want to do this podcast too. Because I personally believe that the industry at the moment
is so like the awareness needs to be brought, like we need to bring up the awareness to companies
because they expect you to be five special skilled person to be paid a really, really low salary.
Like I remember I was getting like 27,000 pounds in London for being a reception supervisor.
And the salary that I'm getting now that we have to be, I need to be a copy professional
copyright. I have to be a professional strategist. I have to be a film maker. I have to be
I have to be a film photographer. I have to be a graphic designer. I need to be an audio specialist.
I need to be a design specialist. It's just like, whoa, and I'm getting paid under 30,000 pounds.
So this is what I'm talking about is we need to discuss that. So that's going to be some of the
hot topics in this podcast for sure. However, I realized I needed to just hassle myself like
I needed to start my own business. And obviously, John, Professor Deacon, he showed me that the
value of your time and money and this is where consultancy came in. Because I feel like I'm not
going to be an imposter now because I've got a master's behind my name. So I got my first client
who was an entrepreneur who wanted to transition his career from where he is full time into
something a little bit more what he loves to do with his hobbies. And he, he wanted to learn
himself, but he just wanted me to help him kind of understand, you know, like that digital
transformation is, you know, we know social media exists, but we don't know how to optimize it.
He gave me a budget to work with, and we got to do a content strategy for him. I got to show him
exactly how to use Instagram, and Facebook and Google, my business. And we did a few one to one
mentor sessions, which was amazing. If I'm honest, he was like my ideal client, I want to be able to,
I don't want to do the work for you. I want to give you the knowledge and advocate for you so
that you can do it yourself. And then I got my second client, which was actually a job interview.
But they end up loving my pitching so much that they asked me to come in and do some consultant
work, which is amazing. It was for music organization in Wales. And I did some market research for them.
I did, I hosted a group for like a group in depth research interview survey. And I landed up writing
a in, I wrote an in depth analysis report as well, 30 pages, and the feedback came back as excellent.
So through this journey, I started to understand the concept of dating in the world of entrepreneurship.
And the soon to my surprise, freelance life came into play. And my business, my business was like,
it needed it needed help. So I pitched for some funding at the end of my dissertation,
because I my dissertation was understanding the value proposition of independent music
artists of Southeast Wales, because of my background, of course. And I just, I got so
much information, I was so excited that I pitched and I realized from that pitch, I was like,
I was so in dissertation mode and not in pitch mode. I didn't even pitch myself. I also have
mentally I wasn't in the right space. And then the guy said, Oh, so you're like Spotify,
disrupting the model. I was like, Yeah, I am. I am like Spotify. But I soon realized that the project
was too big for me to undertake. I needed his face to and I needed a team. I couldn't do it alone.
So this is where Kiff Media Hub was more focused on entrepreneurs and organizations and transformation.
And I kind of really didn't know what was like I knew it was getting there, but it was still not
quite there. And I'm someone who I need to know. I can't be unauthentic, I need to be authentic.
And when I'm authentic, I know when I don't know, that's I won't be authentic. And that's not me.
That's unintegrated to me. So as you can imagine, this was like, just kind of like, okay, okay,
okay, just I'm just going with my gut. I need to find the answer. I need to find the answer. I need
to find the answer. What was frustrating is that I tried to pitch again, and they were kind of like,
well, you moved from entrepreneurship, like you went from music now into entrepreneurship. And
to be honest with you, I took their advice. And I also knew myself is that I needed to
find a team and funny enough, Andrew, you know, our friend Andrew, he popped back up. And he said,
Tasha, there's this organization called Able Music, and I think you're going to be perfect for it.
We need your help. They we had an interview together with Jay, and it was so cool because
now they said, Yes, we want you on board. You're the head of our marketing. And I was like, awesome.
So this kind of, like just to fast forward a little bit now, I where am I now in business?
I have dated in business at the moment with freelance life. And I'm the only one client
to have at the moment is the startup studio because that is more sort of consultant, but mostly
freelance. And well, I think I only do work for them because they align with my values and where
I'm going within my business. They are entrepreneurs group. It's great because now I've been on boarded
to help the social media communications for a creative industries networking project that's
happening in in Cardiff and in Newport and RCT and Mamashir. So for me to help that give back to the
community. Definitely I'm in. And that's what I'm saying is that I will only specifically freelance
for specific reasons and working with Richie is a must. He's just the best for me. And he's so well
networked in the industry. I really would love to get him on the passcards too. And there was just
there was just my my level from 2021 2022 and 23. It's just been like a vroom vroom vroom. It's like
growth growth growth. And when I talk about dating in the industry, honestly dating and really
navigating like try a bit of this. If it doesn't work, move on. Try a bit of that. Oh, you like
that. Write it down. You know, so for me, the whole my whole journey at the moment has been
like testing the waters. I just step away from Cardiff into Tombridge Wells, which I'm so happy
for because I'm now in this beautiful co working space. Shout out to office tribe for I've hired
co working for the day. And it's the evening. No one's using this room. So I'm here. I like it.
So I definitely going to come back and do some more episodes here for sure. And it's nice being
in the evening as well. It's nice and quiet. And I'm very nocturnal. Anyway, so it's through the
through the summer, I wanted to work on where am I going? What am I doing? And I know, I had
another client come to me, which is another ideal client, an entrepreneur shifting their career path,
wanting to work for themselves and doesn't know there's also social media malarkey. And I was
like, hold on a minute here, I can help you do do do do do because guess what, I failed.
I wanted a change of career. I wanted to advocate I wanted but I didn't have that business skill
set the marketing skill set, I did have a little bit but I was missing gaps. So I've done the due
diligence for you. So I feel that I've got two perspectives as entrepreneur and as a marketer,
because I know now what it's like to be a marketer and what type of marketing I like.
I know now entrepreneurship and actually, sometimes you will fail to step back, reflect,
go okay, put your hands up, learn from your mistakes and move forward and grow,
because you're always going to fail. There's gonna be minimal failures for me. I test out a lot all
the time. And the thing is, it's just to keep going and keep surrounding yourself with like minded
individuals. You want to be surround yourself by those individuals that are, you know, just so
you look up to them. I want to be like for me, I've got my friends and their salaries are,
honestly, if I can tell you, which I won't just be doing me and my friends, but my friends are
awesome. Okay, these people are elite in my eyes. And I that that is my aspiration is,
why are they doing what they do? And I feel like there's a lot. So that's, this is the part of
the Lawners Club I want to show you. There is creating community. And with me in my career,
I am now wanting to create a community of aspiring entrepreneurs and marketers,
where I can help. I can show them my journey, help develop programs and services to help,
but also to give the experience and knowledge of others in the industry, and what's really helped
them and helped me to give back. Because when I realized my two ideal clients, which is the
entrepreneurs part of it, they, they, they need ongoing nurturing, ongoing motivation, right? So
this is why I'm here. I want to now that's my operation to my next quarter. I've already
planned that. But I will definitely this is just kind of like a highlights moment for me. This is
off the script just talking now. Okay. And the second part of this is I've had so I had a
freelancer opportunity for a music organization, and they were government Arts Council Wales funded.
And I had the masters students from my like from this year in USW, which is what I did last year,
I on boarded them to help me. They were great. Two of them, Alvin and Lamy, they came back to me,
and they were like asking me all the questions. And they were kind of like, especially Alvin,
I remember meeting him, he was, you know, he, it was so crazy. If you think about the perception
with people, and you don't realize how far you've come until you meet someone else who was in your
position before you started, like you go, Whoa, actually, imposter syndrome just leaves the room
and you go, I have a knowledge to share. They've reached out to me. And because of one of my YouTube
videos talking about USW, because you know, I'm a content creators, well, I love that side of me.
I love that life. I've had about four people reach out from social media to ask me about what,
what this masters was like. And one of the one of them is actually come from America and is
starting next month, because she also wants to start a business. Nora shout out to you.
And I'm going to meet her next month, which is really exciting. And this is what I love. Honestly,
I love this. This is like what gives me energy and joy and just makes me want to just go,
you know, this is why I've started this podcast. And this is why the Lawnless Club is basically
this it's helping aspiring entrepreneurs, helping aspiring marketers, digital marketers,
and having a little bit of more transparency. There's a loads of people that I've met have been
have been so transparent with me. And I've been like so grateful because I'm telling you,
when you go into these industries, the most difficult thing is Google can teach you what
people know and how they do it. And like I was always like, how would you start? What do you do?
Where do you go? How do I achieve this? And I remember just navigating and navigating from
2020 or 2021 more like because my hustle was more than and look at two years later, I have
my own business, I have now a ongoing client, I am working remotely, I'm working for myself.
I have my YouTube channel, Miss Kiff is really good now. It's really growing the
fan life stuff is on there. So you can check that out. And I've also got another podcast,
my van life perspective podcast, that is my career journey. And that's, if I'm honest,
my career journey is my motivation. My mother is my motivation. So we've got the essence,
we've got my career, we've got my struggle, which is my motivation. But then there is the positive
is it just shows if you just change your mind and surround yourself with the right people
and surround yourself with knowledge, optimize your time, your value, accept where you are,
but just go, that's it. If you want to be in life, you've got to just go for it. Right. And
they're being limitless, isn't what's important. And learning and just being like that sponge to
nurture all the concepts that you have. No idea is stupid. Okay. And that's why I just want to
the aim of this podcast is just to be a bit more relatable. I'm sitting here with bringing in loads
of figures, right? I'm being honest. I am, I have stable income, but my journey is still going. And
I accept that. I admire that. And I value that. I know that every like, look how far I've come in
the last two years. Imagine where I'm going to be next year this time, the year after that,
if I just keep nurturing, learning, optimizing, being resilient and accepting every simple way,
the Lawner Club way, then I can achieve whatever I want. And so can you. And that's what I want. I
want to build this type of community. So having said that, I would like to invite you to join,
I'm setting up a free Facebook group. It's going to be private just for the listeners. This is just,
we can share at this stage. I will later on be introducing Patreon, but I feel like just having
the Lawner Club on Facebook group would be ideal for now. I know a lot of people don't have the
Lawner Club. I mean, don't have Facebook. So that's fine. I would invite you to an email,
which could be found on my website. So if you look at Tasha J, the letter J Cole, C-O-L-E,
then you will have the show notes and about the Lawner Club, the link to the Facebook group there,
the link to my social media. So everything will be on YouTube. All I ask you is,
if you are listening, please do follow me on Instagram and YouTube and TikTok. Please join
the Facebook group. I'd love to hear from you, introduce yourself if you're aspiring digital
marketer or aspiring entrepreneur. And the way this podcast will grow will grow with you. Yeah,
I'm just excited because, you know, there's so many industry professionals that have that value
that I want to share. There's also entrepreneurs that are going through their journey that can
relate. You can, you know, have relatable stories. I also want aspiring digital marketers to kind of
share what they want as well. It's creating this kind of ecosystem of community here. And yeah,
so the only way to support me is to follow all my social media at the moment. And I will
see you in episode two, I suppose, as if I did it. Sometimes you just got to start. I love it.
Thank you so much for listening. I really appreciate you and know that if you continue to learn,
optimize your time, keep resilient in what you do, nurture what you do with love and
accept where you are, you can achieve whatever you want. See you in the next one. Bye bye.