137: From Corporate Life to Full-time Entrepreneur: a journey of harnessing intuition with Michelle Smith from Aussie Biz Chic
It is time to be inspired…
This episode of The Essential Shift Podcast is about more than just numbers; it's about the power of intention, intuition, and community.
You'll hear about Michelle Smith’s (Founder of Aussie Biz Chic) entrepreneurial journey from the challenges of starting a business during COVID to building a thriving community of female entrepreneurs.
You'll discover how she transformed setbacks into opportunities, navigated cash flow issues, and leveraged the power of intuition to grow her business.
Plus, we'll discuss the pivotal moments that tested her resolve and the strategies she used to push through and achieve her own definition of success.
If you LOVED the episode, make sure you share this on your Instagram stories and tag me @essential.shift and @aussiebizchic.
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KEY EPISODE TAKEAWAYS
Harness intuition to grow in business
How to overcome setbacks in business
Inside building a thriving community of female entrepreneurs
SHOW RESOURCES
LEARN how to create your own subscription box - HERE
FOLLOW Michelle on Instagram - HERE
GET your copy of Light It - HERE
Join our female entrepreneur community in The Circle Membership - HERE
FOLLOW me on INSTAGRAM - HERE
Find out more about how to WORK WITH ME - HERE
If you like this episode, don't forget to share it to your Instagram stories and tag me @essential.shift.
ABOUT THE GUEST
Michelle supports female business owners through her Subscription Box Business, Aussie Biz Chic. In just 2 years, Aussie Biz Chic has grown to 1000 members, delivering helpful tools & resources to women in business each month. Michelle also teaches aspiring entrepreneurs how to launch their very own subscription box through her Subscription Box Launch Course. She loves sharing all the behind the scenes of running a business and is an avid book reader. You’ll most likely find her with an iced coffee and book in hand.
Bless it be.
With love, Laetitia!
PODCAST TRANSRIPTION
Laetitia Andrac 0:09
Hello, Michelle, thank you so much for being on the essential shift podcasts. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited. Our energies are already allied. I feel I feel we're really connected already. I'm so excited. Me too and we both wearing a green T shirts. So we are already matchI of the day of the green vibrancy of the heart chakra is definitely here. So Michelle, I've introduced you in the introduction, but I always love to give the opportunity for the guests to introduce themselves and who you are. What's your upbringing, giving us any information that you'd like to share with our listeners about who you are?
Michelle Smith
Yeah, well, I started the business as Aussie Biz Chic back in COVID times which is so still weird to say right now because it's like such a big part of history. I feel that the Bible is going to read all this books and stuff when people learn about this stuff. But anyway, I'm going to attach it but during that time, I just felt like the corporate job I had at the time was not my vibes. It wasn't aligning with my goals in life. And I definitely felt that was a huge shift to the thinking and not just the day by partner as well because we were in this together and so that's why we decided to start a Aussie Biz Chic which is a monthly subscription box for female entrepreneurs in Australia and New Zealand. So we provide women books and fun resources to upskill a business but I keep motivated. And then through that I've been able to then become a subscription box coach teaching others to start and launch their own subscription boxes because I love a recurring revenue bottle and building those relationships with customers and community. Add a big big actually like the last two years is kind of feeding into that intuition and working with your intuition and I'm so excited to have your book I've got to get in touch with the back to organize it all the T shirts that don't wear we are having the book from Laetitia. A sneak peek here.
So that is something I've been like trying to get into a lot just to give you a bit of my headspace of that kind of area is because the definitely the first two years of running the business. I was so go go go hustle, hustle, hustle, like stay up till three. Yeah, my health was declining, like Uber Eats all the time, not drinking water and so kind of shifting my mental space today or the last year and a half is kind of worth my energy because I'm a very creative person. So I will have ebbs and flows with all that. So definitely. It's been a really interesting entrepreneurial journey myself. I get used to all these new kinds of spaces when it comes to entrepreneurship because there's so many I love that.
Laetitia Andrac
So first of all, this is a big reveal a big Sneak Peek for lighted to be included.
And then I was you know looking at how you were growing your business and looking at you, you know you've always been sort of authentic in the way you share with your audience how it has been a hustle and grind kind of approach in the early years and how you pivoted now into a new way of growing your business. And this is so beautiful. And why did you started Aussie Biz Chic because you started in the middle of it but what was the ignition part? Part of you know, what was the vision behind it because it's such a beautiful box it's such you know, inspiring so many you have over 1000 subscribers now. So how does that come to life?
Michelle Smith
Yeah, you know, it's funny because in the beginning, we knew we wanted to start some sort of business and I've said this on many podcasts before but you know, I had two failed businesses before as your biz check that I tried to get off the ground. And what I realized about those businesses was it wasn't something that I could probably like myself or get behind or feel motivated to launch and grow. And so with Aussie Biz Chic, as everybody knows, I love to read whether it be fiction or nonfiction, you'll always see me with a book or reading a book and I absolutely enjoy stationery. And when I first got into that entrepreneurship space, I couldn't believe how community driven it all was I was like new to it as well coming into trying to start a business and I just wanted something that was a bit fun, but also teaching me something that I could keep motivated and grow my business and so that's kind of where I was the best shake originated from from that idea. Of me kind of going through that phase of trying to start launch your business. And especially doing it alone is hard. I feel launching a business. So I feel like that was the basic idea kind of was everything I needed at that time. And so that's kind of how it came about and I just love reading a book the same time as everybody else. I don't know, even if we like it, don't even share anything because just knowing that we're all reading this book at the same time and implementing these strategies in our business. I just absolutely love that. So that was kind of the thought process behind that and also the failures when it came to starting other tubers before that Aussie Biz Chic was the one because I was aligned to that I knew I could stay motivated and be inspired by myself by my members.
Laetitia Andrac:
Hmm. I love that and same reason you know, I've launched a few businesses before essential shift and they all failed. And I think they always fail for a reason for us to acknowledge this season and learn the lesson and then put those lessons into the ventures actually take off failure really.
Michelle Smith
Yeah, like you grew from that actually. So they will sort of fail. It's just like you grew as a person from it. That kind of led you into that next year. You have your life. Exactly.
Laetitia Andrac:
And that's why I love this acronym FAIL which is a faceful attempt in learning.
Michelle Smith
So we fail because we try this new thing and we learn right? Yeah, it's like flipping that mindset. So you actually don't feel dejected by it. It's like it motivates you to
Laetitia Andrac
Okay, let's keep going. What did I learn from this? What am I going to do next? Completely and was it this chick is really infused with your energy as you said, you're very creative, colorful and fun and the communities is really striving. What is you know, apart from this beautiful success story? What has been any fucked up moments in the business journey, what I call the lightbulb moment in my book, but many people call it the fucked up moments. But what were those moments were like, Oh my gosh, I'm gonna stop Aussie Biz Chic it's too hard but actually you push through and it was a blessing in disguise because you kind of pack so many boxes. I'm always impressed when I witness you're doing this work, but you can you know what I feel like?
Michelle Smith
With a subscription box and what at any product based business if you do on a product based business or you gotta invest in something that has quite a lot of overhead, your cash flow is so incredibly important. And so when we started the business, we had so many cashflow issues, because it's like we need to spend all this money or products but then we haven't gotten the renewals even for the members or new members in to kind of sublet that that offset of the cash flow. So that was a big one and especially when you know what, there's been a three times has happened where something's broken in the box for a mass amount and then you've got to reshape, find a new product like I lost a lot of buddy when there was a big leakage in the boxes when I had a drink kid in there that kind of nicked the book at the wrong time and that leads over like 100 boxes and so that is quite a lot of money to offset and then just recently I had this beautiful tumbler in the box and it broke in a lot of ladies boxes. Obviously I replace them as quick as I can I get the new product out of there but definitely feels like it's a setback because you've got to pay that buddy upfront that Okay, now we have to get more money to pay for our marketing for our ads like that. We've just used that there. So the cashflow was very, very difficult. I'm really grateful for Luke who does a lot of all the finances that he's been able to learn and keep on top of it and the cash flow. Hopefully nothing bad else happens but our cash flow is really really strong. And so I think that's super, super important. I think any other effed up Barbets I've, I've had I probably have that. I just can't remember that those were the big ones like just the right boxes and
Laetitia Andrac 14:09
that is so beautiful to speak about cash flow because I know many business owners are just looking at their revenue. Like okay, this is my revenue, yes, I'm earning this much and so on. But actually what will make or break a business is definitely the cash flow. Do you have enough cash flow for the next six months? Do you have enough cash flow for anything that may happen and that is beautiful to know that you've learned your lesson and you're still here through the ebbs and flow of COVID and post COVID and all of that. Do you notice any shift that happened in 2023? As you know, we came really out of the pandemic. And what are you foreseeing for 2020 for anything that you've noticed in your business because many business have been created during COVID But a lot of those unfortunately, exist existing anymore, because it was really surfing a wave. Whereas for your business, I see a beautiful continuity after COVID and beyond. So what are you feeling?
Michelle Smith:
That is such an interesting question. I will definitely say 2023 was definitely the biggest learning curve for our business because you are totally right through COVID There was just this huge boost of like, people buying things online, people are at home, but also 2023 as well what we shifted into that was a rate hikes like people had to put food on the table, right and people had to pay more for their houses and so there was less disposable income. So I was really lucky in the way that because of the subscription, I built the community. So I had that like community already there and once you have that, you know, it's very, very hard to just go to zero, right? built that community. And the thing is, that was a big shift in 2023, where I was like, Oh, I'm gonna keep scaling really, really quickly and I want to get to 2000 or something like that. But that was not going to be possible in this economic climate. So what I did was to offset that revenue goal we had was okay, how can we make it better for our customers so that's where we beefed up our shop. So it's much easier to sell into an existing customer base because community trust you already they know you've got good stuff, alright, so we always have to think about them also. Introducing my rewards program, looking more into referrals. So getting customers to refer other members into the business instead of relying on advertising because as we know, in 2023, as well, advertising were shot up so my cost per acquisition for advertising was a lot higher than it was two three years ago. So it seems like shifts that you have to do. But I think as we come out of this kind of economic theory going on at the barbell, I feel there will be another shift but that's just the economy in general it will go up but then it has to come down but then it will go up again and it's like your business has to make those shifts in that time. And I think that's why with entrepreneurship, it's so important to be like really making decisions. Quick, quick, but also you should be able to pivot when you see something's not working. Okay, what else can I do? Instead? But it was definitely an interesting, three, four years and I'm so grateful that Ozzie Bishkek is still here and that we still have this community and even there these first two months have been one of the best two months we've had actually it was the best check. So I definitely think there's a huge shift happening again, so I feel like it's really really interesting. What have you like, have you found that as well as your business? Yes.
Laetitia Andrac 17:46
Yeah. So I've what I've really witnessed, it's not just in my business in my clients business in the product space for the E commerce was booming during the COVID was like easy people were at home on their phone, buying anything online, if we speak about product based businesses, whereas in 2022 was still okay towards the end of 2020 to shifting into 2023 A real slowdown and as you've said, the cost per acquisition through ads was really higher, but also the difficulty to build up loyalty. So that's where you know, your subscription and your community is brilliant, because then you create this kind of recurring revenue that helps us navigate through the wave. Mine's a service based business where I personally play I really have seen in 2023 a challenge around Are you for real? Because you are a lot of bullshit be as we do, you know, during 2020 2021 We're like and it was working at that time because he was easy to sell, as it were, you know, kind of having success in that field in 2023. I really see like, a new level of if you're a real expert, which I'm so grateful I am based on my 15 years of experience in strategy and business and so on, where more due diligence is being done. And the clients being way more educating in the fact of making sure they trust the right person, but also the challenge of some of them having been burned before and being like Are you are you real? Like can you show me your credential? Can you share you know, some clients where I can speak with so we focus a lot on success story and sharing, building trust and making sure that the trust was there with our clients. And as you said, loyalty so I'm huge on offering ways to keep growing by my side for those who graduated one of my program and then coming back a bit later. So seeing of innovative ways to support them through their journey so and I think 2024 will be potentially even worse for businesses like me in services because unfortunately, what I call the gurus or the bullshitter I've done such big damage to that. I think people are more and more you know cautious about what they buy, but it's not really affecting my business because I've created it from a place of I have the knowledge so it's fine and also in 2024 in my field way more in person or a breed experiences. So I started in 2023 developing input more and more in person. So quarterly planning in person strategy session in person and retreat and things like that, and I see 2024 being even more you know, the community that we have online, moving more and more in person which says something potentially you have in mind with OCBs chick but why not creating you know, and Aussie Biz Chic event which you know, I think would be awesome. I would completely go for that on Aussie Biz Chic conference, you know something where people gather together I think there is this big shift in 2024 about okay, I'm creating for community in person rather than just online.
Michelle Smith
Yeah, and I've been to a few events now that definitely they're coming into more prominence definitely added credit. And I agree with you with the with the in person events because then it's like you can actually meet the people and know okay, they are not bullshitters right this is a real deal. And I agree with you with the Guru's I think there's more and more those finance brokers and even to that opposite fact I've definitely seen some finance goalies coming and you know promoting this kind of lifestyle that might not necessarily they, you know, hopefully true. Yeah, business can be, as you said, it's like you're shifting energies I feel when it's running a business. I don't think it's always going to be 100% Easy. No. Yeah, exactly. So I think I 100% agree, and I would love to do it in but I've keep saying this for ages. I need to do an in person as you wish I had rather than before. So that would be completely new for me. I might need to hire an event planner because I'd be completely newbie at that.
Laetitia Andrac 22:07
But you know, you don't need to do it yourself. For instance for me I get the expert. Exactly. I've always been you know, a visionary or general manager or leader having team member and that's what I do in my business. I delegate those tasks. So for my retreats and for my workshop and so on. I have shout out to you Dan, my beautiful Leanne was actually amazing. Details are Yeah, for my book launch and so on. It's just, it's not my zone of genius genius like detail and organizing and the list and dealing with the food, the catering and the place in the desert. Norway is a photographer, our Gosh, I'm overwhelmed whereas
for me, you know, the kind of the vision and looking at an expert and planning and all that I love that die like
Michelle Smith
it's like you have the ideas. You need somebody help you execute them. Exactly.
Laetitia Andrac 22:59
So I'll definitely share her detail with you. So that's where I think if you feel this invitation I didn't know you had it in mind, but it's an invitation to do more in person. And it's for anyone listening to that don't get fixated on Do I have the skill set you can definitely have someone who's a genius at this is actually creating even more so I really see I'm actually going to record a podcast around the 2024 trends. And I received the I braid in person online mix being a big thing even bigger in 2024 Because I personally crave for more in person so I truly believe that as I my ideal customer avatar they crave for it too.
Michelle Smith
Yeah love that.
Laetitia Andrac 23:40
Cool. So I had a question for you, which is around. How do you make sure that you're having space to connect with your intuition? Because the business that you're growing is really hands on right? So how do you make sure you have space to connect with your intuition?
Michelle Smith
So literally this past six months, I have been journaling every single day so after the day a Luke would do it too. So we both we both share the same journal. I don't know if that's like labeled odd but anyway, so yeah, I feel like Yeah, exactly right. And I have literally been doing that every day and it's been so good for me because I feel like I can understand where what I'm grateful for but also did I feel happy about what I did today and did I feel like I put the right energy into what I was doing that day. Like for example for something like this a podcast or what I'm doing a an event, like intuitively that takes like a lot of energy from me and sometimes I'm just like, ah, can I do this? Can I do this? But sometimes your intuition goes, yes you can and that's the right way forward even though you feel a little bit uncomfortable because every time after it, I write about DRAM like this was freakin awesome. I actually loved that. And another thing worth by intuition as well as like what I'm working on, I've just completely kind of going to go insane and I'm stressing it out. I used to I used to just push through. I did like just try and get it done. But then I feel like the next two three days I'm out like I literally don't do anything. So what I found is for me, if I'm feeling like this is not working right now, I'm just going to take a step back even doing something else that's not that particular task but still work but it's something else. I feel that works so much better than me to be more consistent because I think consistency is super key. And for me if I'm not like try to be consistent, I might have complete weeks where I don't do anything and I kind of feel bad about that and something I've working on myself when it comes to feeling bad about not doing it work. I'm working on it. I'm still working on my stuff right now. So I feel like for me, that intuition part is so good for me and that it's working so well what I do listen to it and take cues from it because if I don't I feel that's what I completely just clock out. What like what do you feel about that?
Laetitia Andrac 26:11
I think it's so wise to have this moment where you recognize when you're pushing through and many people don't recognize this moment, and they actually push through and this is where you go through burnout or falling out of love of your business or your life and things like that. So I think it's so wise to recognize this moment is tapping away. I love that and journaling. I am a huge fan of journaling. For me. It's really my connection. So every night I really journal and pull some Oracle Card and really connect within and meditation and so on. Some things that I do to really connect with my intuition is actually very often during the day, very simple putting one hand on my heart, one hand on my belly and taking a few deep breaths and being like why do I feel cold or aligned? Or what are the whispers that I need to listen to now, rather than being guided just by, you know, my brain and the neck thing and what I had written on my to do list that another moment of the day to really realign but I don't have yet this awareness of the moment where I'm pushing through and I need to step away like you're described. I'm more like making sure I have this regular moment. Why should he stop myself and connect and then decide what's next?
Michelle Smith 27:30
yeah, it's like also for me because I'm so creative sometimes I'll be doing something really important but I just get this oh my god I have this idea for a really cool piece of content. I just have to do it I'm like sorry look I can't do this as you asked me to do it. I've got to go fill this right now. Like I need a my creative that so I need to go do that. Whereas before I personally like would have just been like oh, I'll get to it later. But then it's not as good later for me you know so I feel your
Laetitia Andrac 28:02
love that this is so beautiful. And you mentioned a few times your partner Luke and I know I have a lot of clients or listener while running their business with their partner whether it is a vineyard for one of the listener. Hello you.
Michelle Smith 28:16
Oh, so cool.
Laetitia Andrac 28:18
She has a beautiful vineyard close to Brisbane. So whether it's a vineyard whether it is content marketing business, whether it is a product based business or a service based business I have actually a lot of clients or listener will run a business with their partner. What is your experience and do you have any tips for them to make it work with their partner because I'm not working with my partner and I think I will never be able to but I'm very good to listen for your advice because I'm not really able to help them with that.
Michelle Smith 28:49
You know what I think it really depends on both your personalities and your skill sets because I feel for Luke, we fill that gap between kind of either creative marketing sales thinking of what goes in the boxes, whereas Luke is very much financials he does a lot of the operational side. So just dealing with the suppliers and getting the products in. And so those complement the business quite well. Whereas if we had Irek in the same similar skill set I think that's when we would potentially clash and I think not that I'm saying we have it clash because we definitely have because you know sometimes I'll be like, especially with a creative person you want to baby put all this money into something or you've got this idea like we have to do it. We have to do this and then he will be like, Okay know how much it's gonna cost or what's this gonna do. But sometimes either way, it's kind of like you have to balance that because you don't want to be too safe, where you don't take risks, but then you don't want to be too risky where you don't have any fallback or plan or anything in place that is going to kind of offset that risk if something goes wrong. So I think that's good that we bail it out. But I will say you know, I always used to say like, Oh, Baby, don't talk about business. If you once you've clocked off for the day, don't talk about it, but we love for business and we love writing business and we actually find it really enjoyable to talk about it outside of work hours. That makes us happy. Like sometimes we'll be eating dinner go. This could be a really cool thing. It's like, oh, yeah, that would be cool. Let's put it out to do list for tomorrow. So I feel like when you're working with a partner, it's like yeah, those personalities have to align and your skill sets have to align I think as well for the business to thrive off of being in a partnership like that, because I've definitely heard of some pretty crazy horror stories, especially when you've got into business with friends as well. Like it can be hard if you you know, it's hard but it's something that is so personal to your life as well. Right? It's not just your business. It's your personal life. So I think it does, it's a delicate dance, but it's definitely achievable. Oh, why wouldn't you work with your partner though?