[00:00:00] Fiona Johnston
We've made a lot of progress as a society in many of the areas that we needed to in the last few hundred years. But one thing that has not changed enough is money. If we want to be able to tip the scales towards the favor of marginalized people, we need to understand the secrets to making money in small business.
The more we talk about money and the secrets that usually stay at the golf club, the more likely we are to be able to make money. My mission is to get more money into the hands of good people, specifically good business people like you. This is Money Secrets, the place to learn about the money secrets of successful small business owners.
Because I believe small business can change the world. And in order to do that, we need to be making a lot of money. Let's go.
[00:00:51]
This podcast episode was recorded on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. And I'd like to acknowledge them as the traditional owners and custodians of this land and water that I live. work and play on. I'd like to pay respects to Elders both past and present and note that sovereignty has never been ceded.
This always was and always will be Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander land.
[00:01:24]
Hi there, it's Fi Johnston here from Money Secrets the podcast. Now, a little while ago, I did something that I've never done before. I created a documentary. I invited eight of my clients to a gorgeous Airbnb in Seddon, Melbourne, and I asked them some really spicy questions about money.
We turned that into a mini documentary called Lifting the Curtain. I had so much feedback about that documentary from small business owners, especially female small business owners. I thought that this would be the perfect place to kick off the Money Secrets podcast. In today's episode, you are going to hear from the incredible Jarrah Brailey.
[00:02:08] Jarrah
My name is Jarrah. I run a digital marketing agency, a social led digital marketing agency, and I'm social media obsessed. I always have been. My agency was born out of a love. An absolute love, borderline obsession for social media, marketing, strategy, and the potential that it unlocks for small businesses everywhere.
[00:02:27] Fi
Now, Jarrah first came to me when she was 19 and she was literally sitting on the end of her bed on Zoom while we did our first consult together. Fast forward seven years and Jarrah now has an incredible social media and digital marketing agency called Jam Pact. Jarrah and I have now worked together on and off for the last six or seven years and Jarrah is now one of my CFO retainer clients.
I think you're really going to enjoy hearing from Jarrah about her journey as a small business owner who's started her business at 19 and now as a 26 year old, she now employs a team and has clients all around Australia. I love working with Jarrah. She is an incredible founder. What I really love about Jarrah is how open she is to receiving training, advice, and support. Support from others. She's really great at looking for help from outside people, and I think that is one of the key markers of success that I've noticed in small business owners. The more likely a small business owner is to ask for help, the further they are going to get. Enjoy. I'm thrilled you are here.
[00:03:53] Fi
You know what you could share with us?
[00:03:55] Jarrah
what?
[00:03:56] Fi
what you used to do when you were 11 on session. would be fun.
[00:04:00] Jarrah
Yeah. Uh. A bit of an embarrassing slash funny story is that when I was in my early high school days, that was when Instagram and Facebook became a thing. I went against my parents and Got my first account in secret and I was obsessed with getting the most likes on my status updates and the most likes and comments on my photos that I'd post, that I actually would give my family and my friends tips on how to get the most engagement on their Facebook statuses and their profile photos and their family updates and I'd tell them when they should be posting, what kind of things they should be posting, uh, what kind of language to use.
And my cousins actually brought this up to me the other day saying that when you were 12 you had a social media strategy for yourself. And that's exactly what I've always had and I've always thought about social media in such a strategic way. So when small businesses came to me and they were surprised about the knowledge that I had about social media I was like, what? This is just common sense to me. And I love that, yeah, my job is now to make something that seems so complicated to these other business owners seem like common sense or something that they actually don't even need to worry about anymore because someone like me has it under control and they can focus on the things that they find common sense, like finance.
[00:05:13] Fi
I love it. You should be sharing that story all the time.
[00:05:16] Jarrah
Yeah, I love that story.
[00:05:19] Fi
What is the biggest lie that you were told about money?
[00:05:22] Jarrah
The biggest lie that I was told about money is that it's hard to make and that there's not much of it out there. I think growing up, I come from a poorer family, especially on my mum's side and And I watched her really struggle with, you know, it would be like, sorry, Joe, can't drive you to school today.
We've got 3 left until Thursday. And that was my reality for my entire childhood. So I definitely grew up thinking that it was really hard to come by money and that it was hard to be successful and that the world was really hard. And so when I started my business and started to make money, it was such a sense of pride for me and such a relief that you can actually life and money isn't actually that hard to earn if you, yeah, put your mind to it.
[00:06:02] Fi
Have you felt judged, silly or ashamed about money?
[00:06:07] Jarrah
I have definitely felt judged, ashamed and silly about money. You're very aware of this. I think I came into business very young. I was 19 when I started my business and all throughout high school, I had this belief about myself that I was dumb when it came to numbers.
I didn't, I dropped out of math. I never understood finance. So I came into business with this belief that I'm bad at finance. I'm bad at numbers. And so, when people would ask me questions that I didn't know the answers to, I felt very silly. I did feel ashamed that I didn't know what I didn't know, I didn't know what questions to ask and I couldn't answer questions that I thought business owners should be able to answer and I definitely felt ashamed about that.
I've also felt ashamed about numbers when they haven't been what they, what I think they should be. So when I see other seven figure founders or six figure founders online. I felt ashamed that I haven't had that yet, or I don't know how to get that.
[00:07:05] Fi
How do you manage your money and how much money is in your bank account right now?
[00:07:08] Jarrah
Uh, I manage my money, uh, well, I'm about to start using the profit first, as you know, uh, and I manage my money pretty much just through my bank accounts through, um, our zero, um, ledger. I have my bank. I'm so proud of that. So proud to have that much in my savings at this age, especially like what I said before, my mom would have 3 to her name at times. So I remember when my business saved its first 10 K and I bought a car and I was so, so proud of that. And yeah, I think having that money in my account makes me feel safe. It makes me feel proud. It makes me feel excited for what's to come and yeah, it makes me, it makes me feel motivated to keep going.
[00:07:55] Fi
What does it feel like to ask for money from a client?
[00:07:58] Jarrah
Uh, this has changed over the years. It's, it never feels amazing, but I've definitely built up my confidence around it and that has come with confidence in myself and confidence in the service that I know that I provide and the value that I know that I'm giving my clients and my customers.
[00:08:08] Jarrah
So. I don't feel as nervous that I, as I used to when I would ask for money, and I've definitely built up a lot of confidence around how much I think that service is actually worth thanks to you. And we've had this conversation before where you've said you need to be charging this much for what you're doing, and I'm thinking nobody's going to pay that. You don't get it, Fee. You don't get it. And then I'll quote someone that and they don't blink an eyelid. And I remember I've messaged you about that being like, Somebody accepted the proposal! And you're like, yeah. And it was such a surprise to me and I, that in itself has been such a confidence boost that, yeah, the right people who value you and who see your worth and who are, yeah, committed to their businesses, they will pay what you're worth.
And there's no shame in asking for that. So, yeah, I feel so much better about that now compared to this time five years ago.
[00:08:55] Fi
How much money did you expect to make in the first three years?
[00:09:00] Jarrah
I didn't expect to make much money in the first three years of business. I didn't expect my business to be a business still.
I didn't know what to expect. I was fresh to the workforce. I'd never really earned money before. And I think that was a, an advantage in ways that I wasn't sacrificing a big salary to start my business. And I wasn't, it didn't feel like a big leap. It just felt like getting started in life. So I definitely didn't expect to make this, this level of money. Uh, I think. Yeah and that probably again comes from coming from no money growing up is that I didn't actually know it was possible unless you were a big white male CEO somewhere. So in my first three years I think I made I think I would have made like 50k.
[00:09:41] Fi
What has been your biggest money mistake? Hmm.
[00:09:43] Jarrah
There's been lots of big money mistakes. I think my overarching biggest money mistake that has caused a lot of problems and a lot of minor mistakes is that I have been so scared of it that I have stepped back and hoped that it would either sort itself out or somebody else would sort it out. So I remember my first accountant.
I put so much faith in him and didn't even look at our profit and loss for, I'd say, 18 months, just because I, one, I didn't even know that was what you were supposed to do, and two, I just figured he'd let me know if something's not working, and then I started working with you, and we looked into the profit and loss, and we looked into lots of different things in my Xero, and it was so apparent that there were so many things that just shouldn't have gone unnoticed.
Yeah, my biggest mistake is definitely trusting that somebody's going to come and save me. Yeah. Yeah. When actually it's, it's the business owner and it's me that had to step in and take control of my finances and commit to learning about it. So I think no matter whether you eventually grow big enough to have an in house CFO or even work with someone like you, you need to, as a business owner, understand your foundations when it comes to finance.
Because nobody's going to care as much as you and nobody's going to know your business as much as you. And it's been a very empowering thing to
[00:11:08] Fi
Are you a successful business owner?
[00:11:11] Jarrah
I am a successful business owner.
[00:11:14] Fi
What is the best advice that you have been given about money?
[00:11:18] Jarrah
I think the best advice I've been given about money is probably the advice that I just gave in that you can't give the entirety of your finances to somebody and expect them to care as much as you do. And that's yeah, so that's something that I learned the hard way, but it's also something that I've learned through our coaching.
[00:11:35] Fi
Are you comfortable with money?
[00:11:36] Jarrah
I am to a certain extent. I feel it's been a long time since I felt like, how am I going to get through this week or how am I going to get through this year? I actually would say that ever since I started my business, I've never felt like that. I've felt stressed that maybe we weren't making enough at that time, or we weren't making enough profit.
But I've always felt comfortable that, you know, I've had enough of a security blanket there that I can support myself. If something does go wrong, I haven't always been comfortable with talking about money. And I think that's still an ongoing journey for me is to be comfortable talking about money, not because.
I feel private about it. I'm an open book. I'll talk about anything. But mainly because I don't want to seem dumb. And I don't know what I don't know. I don't know what questions to ask. I think that's my, my biggest struggle right now is that I, I don't know what I don't know. That can sometimes make me feel uncomfortable.
But in terms of money in general, I think I've come a long way in how comfortable I feel about it. Yep.
[00:12:33] Fi
What has helped you to take action in your business?
[00:12:39] Jarrah
Lots of things have helped me take action in my business, but I think some of the main things have been just how grateful I am for the business. And then when I came to you and the idea of that, I might not actually have this business forever if I don't do something about, about the finances that I might actually not.
Um, and I think that has always, you know, when I'm faced with that fear of what if this isn't a forever thing, that's what really kicks me into gear to take action. But in terms of helping me understand what action that needs to take, it's definitely been getting help with the things that I struggle with and Seeking advice from people who I respect and admire and who are professionals in their area.
That's always really inspired me to take action and implement ideas that aren't mine But from people who understand what I do and care about my business having a team I started out as a freelancer and I was a freelancer probably the first one to two years And then as soon as I had a team, I think I was so much more like yeah this i'm taking action because One, people were relying on me, but two, it was, I was inspired by what's around me.
And I think I work best when I'm getting different opinions from lots of amazing different people with different backgrounds and different expertise and different values. Yeah, for sure.
[00:13:47] Fi
How much money did your business make and how much did you pay yourself last year?
[00:13:53] Jarrah
I think we made. Okay, and I embarrassingly can't tell you the exact number that I paid myself out of that money Which is what you and I have been working on that we want to change from January 1st next year Which I'm very excited for and you know that that's been an ongoing issue for me because I want to know how much I'm earning And somebody asked me what my salary is. I actually don't know but if I had to Ballpark. Guess I'd say that I took K out of that. Yeah. How does it feel to be unclear about that? It feels nerve wracking. It feels like I'm stagnant. It feels like, I don't know if I'm growing. I dunno if I'm going backwards. I can see how much my team is earning and how much the business is earning, but I can't see how much I'm personally earning and it makes me feel, yeah, a bit stuck and a bit.
Like how, how can I set goals if I don't even know where I'm at right now? Also makes me feel stuck in terms of, say for, you know, I want to buy an apartment soon. It makes me feel stuck because I don't know what I can buy. So I'm very excited too. to fix that.
[00:14:52] Fi
This idea that working hard, that making money is hard, that the world and life is hard, is not true.
We, as women, and many other people, have been socialised our whole lives to think that the only way to make money is to work hard, and the only way to make more money is to work harder. But that is simply not true. And I love how Jarrah identified that this was something that was so thrilling and surprising.
It's surprising for her that when she built an incredible business, which was really focused on delivering incredible value to her ideal clients, making money was actually not as hard as she had imagined. This is a money secret that I want you to take on board as well. Working hard is not the way to make more money.
The way to make more money is to focus on providing as much value as possible with your products and services and finding the clients who value that the most. Because the clients, businesses or individuals who value or leverage what you do the most will be the ones that are able to pay the highest price.
Working smart, focusing on the right things, that is how to make more money in your business.
[00:16:11] Fi
Thank you so much for listening right up to the end. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Money Secrets, where we talk about the money secrets of successful small business owners. If you enjoyed the episode, I'd love it if you subscribe to the podcast, but leave us a review or share this episode with one of your friends.
I hope you learned something. I hope you got a new perspective and I really hope you enjoyed the listening experience.
