Creative Journeys: Story | Sound | Success

07 Part 2 - Authenticity, Mindset, and Networking: Lessons from Our Creative Journey

• Jo Day / Lucy Rennie • Season 1 • Episode 7

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Hey up, folks! In this episode of Creative Journeys, we’re diving into the challenges, lessons, and triumphs that have shaped our entrepreneurial paths. We’re sharing our stories about embracing authenticity, tackling mindset blocks, and practical strategies for growing personally and professionally.

Episode Summary:
This week, we take you through the importance of leveraging past experiences, conquering fears, and finding your unique voice in the business world. From Lucy’s humorous first networking event to Jo’s insights on using data and analytics, we’ve packed this episode with inspiration and actionable advice. Plus, we discuss why setting incremental goals, finding accountability partners, and showing up authentically are key to long-term success.

Key Takeaways:

  • How your past experiences shape your unique identity in business.
  • Why embracing authenticity is essential for networking and creating content.
  • The power of small, realistic goals to build momentum in your journey.
  • How data and analytics can help you make better decisions in your business.
  • Why accountability, community, and self-development are game-changers for growth.

Resources Mentioned:


Subscribe to Creative Journeys on your favorite podcast platform and check out our YouTube channel. Join us as we share our creative experiment, and let’s grow together! Don’t forget to like, comment, and share your thoughts on this week’s episode.

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Subscribe to our Youtube channel: @heyupfolks

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Connect with Lucy Rennie:

[00:00:00] Jo Day: Hey up folks, how are we all? Last week we were talking about, or we were going to talk about, podcasting and writing a book, but we had to give you the backstory and what a story that was shared, and in terms of Lucy becoming self employed, and then we dug in a little bit on The different things that we did when we first started out in business in terms of how that's how we supported ourselves in business.

[00:00:25] Jo Day: So Lucy, as we were wrapping up, you were going to talk about networking. You've got a story to share about networking. So welcome to this week's show. Give me what you've got. 

[00:00:39] Lucy Rennie: Thanks, Jo. It's so funny and it's, do you know what? It's just really nice. Going back over like the last 10 years. You forget, don't you?

[00:00:46] Lucy Rennie: What you're doing. But I think we were just talking about the fact that actually you should, I think you were saying weren't you, that you've got to bring what you've 

[00:00:54] Jo Day: bring that experience, those and techniques with you Exactly. 

[00:00:58] Lucy Rennie: From, because I think so many people don't and they go, I'm not gonna use that.

[00:01:01] Lucy Rennie: I'm gonna start fresh and this is who I am and this is my thing. And for me, the big thing a lot of the time is people don't. They almost box off all those years of experience that they've got. And, and go, I can't use that. Cause that's got nothing to do with running your own business.

[00:01:16] Lucy Rennie: And it's what, that's what makes you we were talking about USP, weren't we last time? And it's that's the thing that, anyway, networking. I remember it's because that's the other thing I think the biggest thing for me, and we'll get onto this because that I think feeds into podcasting and the book and everything.

[00:01:33] Lucy Rennie: But the biggest challenge I've had for the last 10 years running my own business has been me and my mindset. Okay. So I would go, I went from Literally organizing conferences for thousands of managers in Milan, Prague, wherever, getting on stage, hosting the, being the, whatever, what's it called when you host the conference?

[00:01:59] Lucy Rennie: I can't remember what the name is, but I would be doing that in English and then switching into French and do it, and loved it didn't bat an eye, I'd get nervous, but it didn't, it wasn't the same nerves. Yeah. Fast. Rewind. Is that a thing? Fast rewind. Rewind. My, so I set my business up in 2014, 2015.

[00:02:21] Lucy Rennie: I was like, I knew I needed to get out there. So I signed up to go to Glossop Cricket Club. So Glossop, if you've watched League of Gentlemen, that's Glossop, Hadfield. You can imagine women's network. My mum came over because Elia was literally, what, nine months, maybe a year? Still breastfeeding and I was like I'm gonna go, I'm gonna put myself out there.

[00:02:45] Lucy Rennie: I'd got my business card and I was right, and I got there and I'm, Mum's in the car so we go together because obviously Ellie's only tiny and whatever. I hadn't worn, I used to be known for high heels, I didn't have a pair of flats in previous life and then I'd literally spent the last year in flip flops because I was obviously carrying babies so I'd put these shoes on and I was in this suit that I'd not worn you know for a year that was like these big boobs for those who know what breastfeeding's like.

[00:03:13] Lucy Rennie: Anyway, mum sat in the car, In the cricket club, I go in and I'm like, women's networking, get in the lift, and as I'm going up the lift, the lift with like mirrors, I can just remember, I remember it now like it was yesterday, looked in the mirror and I had all baby sick, all down the side of me, I'm like this, doing this, anyway, get in and I'm like, Lovely people, lovely women and stuff, but I was so scared because it was me.

[00:03:39] Lucy Rennie: I was suddenly, this was me and I was selling me and they made like rows of like a theater set up. So we all had a coffee and you had to sit down in these rows. And I can remember, I still, I met some amazing people that I still know today from that. But we had a little guest speaker who came and talked about their things.

[00:03:59] Lucy Rennie: And it was like, Oh, I think it was a PR lady. And it was like, Oh, she's run this business. She's amazing. All these things. And then we all had to stand up for 30 seconds and go to the front and like present. Oh my God, Jo, I was shaking! And I stood up and I was like, explained a little bit of who it was and what I was doing and it was the scar I'll never forget the scariest thing ever.

[00:04:19] Lucy Rennie: But the funny thing was in the, in that audience was Edwina Curry. So if Edwina Curry, she lives in Whaley Bridge and I'm a great advocate of hers and that's a story for another day. We need to get her on here actually, that'd be really funny. But she came up to me and she went, oh Lucy! Brilliant.

[00:04:40] Lucy Rennie: Love you. Have you thought about being an mp? , we need to get you, we need someone like you in London. We need, and that was it. Then I was like, oh, I went home and I was laughing. 'cause for me that was such a big thing. I'd had a year of yeah, basically being a mum and I'm going on, my mom's laughing 'cause I'm like, oh yeah, first network in the gloss thing and I'm gonna be an MP now thing.

[00:05:01] Lucy Rennie: But those people at that. Network were women, obviously, but they were, it was, there's something about small business owners, isn't there, and that connection and that support and the championing of it. And yeah, it was incredible. There was every all sorts of different people, but everybody had a story.

[00:05:20] Lucy Rennie: Everybody was just brilliant. There was no, even though we're all scared, there was no like, Oh, what are you doing? It was all just really lovely. Yeah. And then again, that's the sort of thing you think back and you think, then I went on to do, other networking things, like you're saying about going to London and each time you go a bit bigger, don't you?

[00:05:37]

[00:05:37] Jo Day: When I was going the networking events, I was okay when people were walking up to me and I'd happily. engage in conversation with them. It didn't matter who it was if they came and spoke to me. My difficulty with networking was going and interrupting a conversation or saying, do you mind if I join you?

[00:05:59] Jo Day: And I don't know if I read or saw something once that you're comparing How you feel on the inside with what people are portraying on the outside. When people are there, you're just looking and thinking, oh, they're okay, they're speaking, they're confident. Everybody's okay apart from me. Nobody else looks nervous apart from me.

[00:06:19] Jo Day: But you're comparing your feelings on the inside with what they're projecting on the outside. Now, I was probably projecting confidence as well. But everybody in the room was feeling the same, probably. Everybody, or at least 90 percent of the people. And what I found in these events is, if I was a speaker, I'd get up on and I was like a lioness.

[00:06:43] Jo Day: I'd speak and I was so confident because I knew my subjects. I was a total expert in it. And then people come to me afterwards and everybody wanted to speak to me. And then I thought, if I'm that working. I have to be the speaker at the networking events, because I find networking really easy if I'm the speaker.

[00:07:05] Jo Day: And you mentioned this last week. Yeah. If it's your event and you're giving the audience something, it's so much easier. But going into a room and having to go and introduce yourself. I always remember that saying you're comparing how you're feeling on the inside with what they're projecting on the outside.

[00:07:24] Jo Day: You're not comparing apples with apples. 

[00:07:27] Lucy Rennie: Yeah, It's so true. It's almost, 

[00:07:29] Lucy Rennie: we were talking about this, weren't we? But it's, and it's always helped me now. I'm, I hate small talk but I think if we can make it not about you.

[00:07:39] Lucy Rennie: So either you're giving value in a workshop, you're the speaker, you're whatever it is you're doing, educating, informing, sharing, delivering, whatever. But I think also what helped me as well is in conversations and in small talk or when you've got to have those, how are those one to one things.

[00:07:55] Lucy Rennie: What you've, what I've realized is people's favorite conversations are themselves. And actually you're more memorable when Or you can make people feel valued by being interested and curious about them. So actually by shifting the focus away from, there's nothing where someone are coming up and going, hi, this is me, I don't know what I'm talking about.

[00:08:17] Lucy Rennie: But I think if you can ask, so I end up, or I just ask questions. So then it's not about me. And actually people love talking about themselves because most people don't ask questions. So actually somebody being curious is nice.

[00:08:33] Lucy Rennie: We like it, don't we? And it becomes more natural. And actually when we ask questions, people remember. You're interested in it. So you actually become more memorable for the person who was taking the time and listening Yeah. Than actually the person who's going and talking in your face. 

[00:08:47] Jo Day: And so my, if you watch my Facebook stories or if you watch my Instagram stories, I always start, and this is how my new company name Hey up folks and the channel name came about.

[00:09:00] Jo Day: So I realized that every time I go and do a, a. A story, I always go, Hey up folks, how are we all? So my first thing is I say hello to everybody as a community. Hey up folks, how are we all? And then I invite people to tell me how the week was, how the day's going, blah, blah, blah. And make it about the person that's watching.

[00:09:25] Jo Day: Luce, you'll be amazed how many people get in my DMs and say, thank you for asking and tell me about the day and, they might not have the confidence to come and share what they're doing. I've noticed somebody this morning, I want to get her on the podcast as well, but she's gone from corporate career to self employed small business.

[00:09:46] Jo Day: And this morning, she did it. Hello, beauts. Hello, everybody, from her van this morning, seven in the morning. I thought, brilliant. I want to get her on the podcast because I've known her since we were at school and I want to get her on to talk about her creative journey because this is about just normal people.

[00:10:08] Jo Day: We're not influencers. We're not anything. Normal, hard working people who are trying to find a path and the journey in life. 

[00:10:18] Lucy Rennie: And you've nailed it. You've hit the, what's the, mean expressions, hit the, whatever it is on the head. Cause I think that's the thing is actually when you can be real and you and just be own, own it, it happens on it.

[00:10:32] Lucy Rennie: That's when actually the magic happens. It's when you're trying to be something or trying to be cool or trying to be confident or, and putting on a, an extra thing that, People can, they go, that's not, you, that don't you, and you've got, you can, I've got that sense alert thing.

[00:10:46] Lucy Rennie: I can walk in and I know who's really, and you can know when someone's like not being real and it automatically puts you off, doesn't it? Cause actually the trust is on is, comes from that authenticity. So I think that one of the things as well, I always do, and it's I'll share with the audience or I'll share with, if I'm speaking or I'll say, do you know what, bloody hell, I was a bit nervous this morning or I've got butterflies in my tummy, so I need you to join in to help me feel better.

[00:11:12] Lucy Rennie: And then it takes the shine off it. You're making it suddenly you're real as well for the people in the audience. 

[00:11:17] Jo Day: You share your realness as well because you do stories the same. Usually when you're walking Kylo on the hill and it's that windy, we can't tell what you're saying sometimes, but you get out there and you're showing people the real Lucy.

[00:11:30] Jo Day: You're showing people the structure that you've got, so you're doing the kids run, you're working in the office during the day, then you're up on that hill walking Kylo, or you're taking a run but you're sharing the view, the scenery, and this is your mindfulness, this is your how you think, where your thoughts are, how you stay in control of everything, planning and all of that.

[00:11:54] Jo Day: It's so structured in in. But a lot of it is the mindset stuff, again, going back to that mindset. But I have a lot of brilliant thoughts when I'm disconnected from my computer. 

[00:12:06] Lucy Rennie: Yeah, definitely. It's interesting because I think that's what we'll come on to. And it's probably the learning from the whole 10 years, is Actually being me and being able to be me has been like, again, it goes back to what I was saying.

[00:12:22] Lucy Rennie: It's been the hardest thing to come to terms with or to accept or to actually to embrace. Now it's actually that I know that's the magic is when I can be me. And that's what happened in COVID on the zoom calls is w there was no outer armor because we were all in it together and it was just like, this is a safe space.

[00:12:42] Lucy Rennie: But again, I think, If you'd, if I'd been a, an another example of that is I think if I'd been a member of that, yes, of course it would have been lovely because it was, and I'm not, I think it's actually because I was the host and it was my thing, I wasn't as nervous as I would have been, and and I've realized I do, I've done this for parties with the kids, I'll have all the moms from school around here and it's not really because I'd necessarily. It's actually because I don't want to have to this, don't listen school. I'm sorry about this, but I don't want to necessarily have to sit and talk about myself or, make the small talk.

[00:13:15] Lucy Rennie: I'd much rather be looking after everybody and facilitating and doing, yeah. Yeah, I'm, I dunno where I'm going with all of this, but I think it's about that authentic team being able to come on with me. 

[00:13:26] Lucy Rennie: Where are we going 

[00:13:26] Jo Day: with this is. It has been a creative journey and there's a lot of learning and it's not just, we will get to it, I promise.

[00:13:34] Jo Day: We will talk about podcasting. 

[00:13:35] Lucy Rennie: But this has been a big thing, hasn't it? 

[00:13:38] Jo Day: It's a big thing. How do we get to that point? It is a journey. Yeah. So it would be unfair of us to just drop ourselves on the path of where we are now. We need to tell you how we got there. 

[00:13:51] Lucy Rennie: Yeah. A hundred percent. Elia was saying she came up, she's got this new girl bead box.

[00:13:56] Lucy Rennie: It's lovely. Really nice. But one of the quotes, was about, don't, you can't compare the moon. How the moon shines to how the sun shines kind of thing. And it was just a really lovely way of saying it.

[00:14:09] Lucy Rennie: And I think that's really important because I could not have done a podcast before COVID. There was no way I would have got on a podcast or even done this on YouTube, like even just video. 

[00:14:20] Jo Day: Maybe once I've done a I've done one or two, but with somebody else, and I think I've probably only done one. of my own, but hit live on Facebook. Do you know why? Because I can't go, Oh no, I sounded like a dickhead and stop that and start again. But you can do that with your Instagram story. You can record it and then watch it and go, No.

[00:14:44] Jo Day: I'll tell you what I do now. I don't even bother. I just record them. And if I've made a mistake, it don't matter. You're getting what you're getting. Exactly. Exactly. taking a period of time for me to get that confidence to just show up on Instagram and do a story. And at some point look We might do live streaming on YouTube.

[00:15:03] Jo Day: We may link the live stream to Facebook, in which case we'll be live streaming to Facebook. One day, Jo, we'll be at Wembley. You and me on that stage. With a load of bouncers. Saying, get off the stage! You're not meant to be Me running with me pint. 

[00:15:23] Lucy Rennie: Oh, please can we do that? Please. Yeah. But you're so true, it's so true.

[00:15:27] Lucy Rennie: I think that's the bit. Honestly, we'll It's taken me 10 years to, to be able to do this and it's probably an age thing as well, I'm 46 now, so I don't care, but honestly, that's been the biggest challenge and all of my business growing. 

[00:15:44] Jo Day: Its getting out of your own way. 

[00:15:45] Lucy Rennie: Yeah, 100%. Because I was scared of what people will think, who's she to say that, or your friends going, Oh, look at her.

[00:15:55] Lucy Rennie: What does she, what's she doing or making a mistake or looking stupid or, and it's the same with the book and we'll come on to that as well, but it's almost like you're baring your soul a little bit. Because it's you, it goes back to that critic club. It was suddenly, I wasn't going up going, Oh I'm head of communications for us, law, metal, here's my business card, and that kind of, it was suddenly a, hi, I'm Lucy Rennie.

[00:16:17] Lucy Rennie: This is my business is what I do. And it's suddenly that's me. So it becomes personal and I think, again, it's those, they call it, there's a book I want to share which I will pop in the link called The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks. And it's exactly that, it's that mindset. Leaps of going back to the little things that you think's really scary.

[00:16:39] Lucy Rennie: And then when you look back, you're like, Oh, actually I'm scared about 

[00:16:42] Jo Day: on that point. Then these mindset leaps, I'm changing the topic slightly, but this is what we do. On the mindset leaps. On social media, these people go in 10k days, 10k months and people who are in employment now, let's say they're on 30, 000 a year, I don't know what that would translate to, take home pay, I don't know, 2, 000, 2, 000, I'm out of touch with what that would convert to in terms of, but yeah, maybe 2k month, it would be take home. And then they say on social media, 10k day, 10k month, six figure business, seven figure business. Now we've even got people saying eight figures and I don't think they even know what an eight figure business would look like. Like people, Claiming that they've got this million dollar business, multi million seven figures and then they're claiming that they're now eight figures and I'm like, really?

[00:17:37] Jo Day: Check company's house, no duck. You're like, you made 60 grand last year, you're lying. But anyway, that's another topic. But try to get The majority of people in the 90 percent who are not self employed or might be self employed but not earning that kind of money and employed people who are on a 30k upwards salary or even less than that, getting them to look at 10k a month and believe that they can even take that leap and get there, there is some psychology in that.

[00:18:09] Jo Day: That people can't put themselves in that position. It's too big of a leap. So that's why they have to goal set incrementally. It's saying, when people go, I'm going to make a hundred thousand next month. How are you going to get there? And it's just. It's too big of a leap. That's what I've learned in my 15 years now, self employed.

[00:18:37] Jo Day: You can have these goals, but you've got to make them realistic. I can't say I'm going to make a million dollars in the next couple of weeks. Yeah how? With no audience, because I've told you, I've deleted my audience and I've started from scratch. It's up there now. It's growing. The audience is growing again.

[00:18:56] Jo Day: But, this is an experiment for us. I can tell you that the podcast's been running now for five weeks. We've done four weeks, the month of December, we're entering our fifth week, and we've already gone over 5, 000 views on this for a brand new channel with no audience, we've gone over 5, 000 views, our videos have been watched for more than 30 hours, which is just fantastic.

[00:19:23] Jo Day: And that's down to the content that's in there, how we're structuring the show notes, how visible we're making it. This YouTube channel gets more views than my Facebook, my social media. There's got 6, 000 connections on it, 6, 000 followers. The engagement rate, even though I'm posting on there every day, the engagement rate is really low.

[00:19:45] Jo Day: And if you share a link on Facebook, they don't show it to anybody. You can see the impressions is really low. 

[00:19:51] Lucy Rennie: All that, last night. 

[00:19:52] Jo Day: Yeah. Yeah, so if you share a link, it doesn't work. If you share, The link in the comments, it doesn't work. I think they've cottoned on to people are doing that now.

[00:20:02] Jo Day: Unless you're paying to promote something, Facebook isn't going to show your blog post links. It won't promote your website. It won't promote your YouTube channel. It's pretty useless at stuff now, Facebook, unless you're paying for ads. Starting on YouTube, and actually the impressions that it's getting, It takes me three months on Facebook with the same content to get the same amount of impressions as what we're now getting on YouTube on a brand new channel.

[00:20:31] Lucy Rennie: And we're going to talk about this, aren't we? A lot more. I think this is where it's what I love about you is this side of you, which is the analytics and the digging and the kind of the substance of, 

[00:20:41] Lucy Rennie: All of that, which I appreciate. 

[00:20:45] Jo Day: One thing that you need to know in business is your numbers.

[00:20:49] Jo Day: That's your financial numbers. You need to know your insights and analytics on where you're visible. You need to know what your cost of acquisition is. You need to know your total value of a customer. There's so many numbers that you need to know in business and you need to be tracking the right things.

[00:21:08] Jo Day: And like I said, last week, Luce, if you like the stop, start, do more off, how do you know that blog post that you are writing every week has been read and is reaching people and is adding value to your website, to your business, unless you're tracking it. You're not tracking it. You might be writing a blog post every week that nobody's reading.

[00:21:28] Lucy Rennie: You've just been a busy fool. 

[00:21:30] Jo Day: Two hours of your time and you've been a busy fool. And I promise people, we will get to podcasting. 

[00:21:37] Lucy Rennie: I think what's really important on this though, Jo, Because I think a lot of people will go, Oh God, but I hate numbers, or I'm not good at numbers, or I don't know all that.

[00:21:45] Lucy Rennie: And I think that's part of what I was trying to say with the YouTube, like your channel, what we're doing here, is that, and I'm going to use Paul as an example, my Paul. I think my background has always been, I'm curious. So I understand business and I get it and I can have those conversations and I've been in those rooms.

[00:22:03] Lucy Rennie: So I know it and I see the value of it. But if you asked me to actually go and create a P and L and a balance sheet and dah, or, make real, pull it together, I could do it, but it would take me hours and hours and stress and mither and, and the same with YouTube and go and look into all the analytics and stuff.

[00:22:21] Lucy Rennie: I could do it. But it wouldn't come easy. And I think going back to mindset, I'm going to use Paul as an example. So he's as his role as plant manager in in, he runs a big million pound business in Glossop and he completely understands all the finance and things, but was worrying about the fact that he couldn't create the Excel sheet or, do the calculations.

[00:22:46] Lucy Rennie: And I think. That's the bit is what I'm trying to say is we don't have to necessarily be the person doing it, but you need to appreciate and understand it. And you were talking last week, think about outsourcing to the right people. Yeah. To the right people. One of the key things I've done right from the beginning, which was scary as hell, I suppose as well in the beginning, was to invest in an accountant and somebody, not an accountant that's led once a year and dah.

[00:23:07] Lucy Rennie: But somebody who can, because I come from corporate know what, having a financial controller or somebody, what do you call it? Finance director or an accountant. Yeah, doing properly and even when I was making like, I don't know, 25 grand a year, she'd still do me these accounts and I could see all these charts and stuff because that was, again, that was my tool from corporate that I knew and I understood and I could see my gross margin and I could, I understand all that and I know what it means for my business, but I wouldn't be able to pull it off.

[00:23:34] Lucy Rennie: I couldn't do it myself and I think that's the bit I'm trying to say is the mindset bit is we don't have to do it all ourselves, but we need to surround ourselves with people that can help us. But you need that information and be able to translate it, don't you? And apply it. So I think yeah, the YouTube this experiment is, and we're going to do some.

[00:23:54] Lucy Rennie: Stuff about it aren't we? Like it because it's obviously it's your baby and it's showcasing what you do and it's so good to see keep getting these little snapshots from Jo going oh look at this I'm dead happy look at the number of followers or views or subscribers which is great isn't it to see?

[00:24:09] Lucy Rennie: Yeah. 

[00:24:10] Lucy Rennie: Anyway coming back. 

[00:24:10] Jo Day: So the subscriber numbers just on this because it is about creativity if anybody's thinking about starting a YouTube channel we've started from scratch with zero subscribers. We have only got 16 subscribers now, but with just 16 subscribers, over 5, 000 views in the last 28 days, absolutely phenomenal.

[00:24:33] Jo Day: I can tell you, Lucy, we've got a lot of people who are watching it who are 35 plus, so probably in this being in a career and looking to move to become self employed.

[00:24:48] Jo Day: And it shows me what time of day that they're watching, how long they're watching for, what the engagement rate is, all of that kind of thing. I know the numbers. I know the keywords that they've searched for to find our video and how long they're watching for, what they're engaging with. All of that detail is there.

[00:25:06] Jo Day: You've got the detail provided by YouTube for free, so use it. Facebook does the same and I think Instagram provides insights as well, but what I'm saying is You've got the data there. Use the data. The data will help you to make decisions in your business about what you're going to do. Are you going to write the blog post or are you going to optimize the blog post to make sure it's getting seen what the keywords that you need to put in there, all of that kind of thing.

[00:25:33] Jo Day: I've been on somebody's website recently. That when I've opened it up, every single page on their website is red, you have two different scores, the headline score, and then the content score. And it usually doesn't matter whether you're using Yoast, AIE, SEO, or whatever you're using to actually tell you about your SEO and how Google will rank you and other search engines.

[00:25:57] Jo Day: It's a traffic light system, red, amber, green. You want to see. A sea of green on your website, but all I can see on websites that I go into is a sea of red. So the pages are red. They're not even indexed on Google. The page is not even indexed on Google. The blog posts that they write, and this is why I keep on about it.

[00:26:18] Jo Day: They're writing, paying somebody to write them a blog post every week. So it's an operating cost. They're paying somebody to write the blog post, a marketing team. They're then actually having to review it. And then paying somebody to upload it for them and manage it them. Every single week they're paying.

[00:26:36] Jo Day: Probably a hundred pounds or more. 

[00:26:38] Lucy Rennie: More, I would imagine. 

[00:26:40] Jo Day: For a blog post and it's red. It's not even been seen on the traffic light scale. It's red. It's not been optimized. Nobody's reading it. You look at the insights, the traffic going to the website. It's really low because the pages aren't indexed. Why even have a website?

[00:26:59] Jo Day: So I guess if you're gonna do something, Do it and do it right, or don't do it at all. 

[00:27:07] Lucy Rennie: Same. Yeah, 100%. Yeah, I'd rather not do it, if you're not gonna do it properly. But yeah. I think there's a whole, because this is where I love, you and I like chalk and cheese. And that, I can, I'm almost like going, oh.

[00:27:20] Lucy Rennie: But, I get it. And it's really, like my 

[00:27:25] Lucy Rennie: website, let me have a look. 

[00:27:27] Lucy Rennie: I'm red. I bet I am that person. I was just thinking as you were saying that I bet I am that person. But I think again, it's the conversation to have because I think so many start off, I spent a fortune, I spent stupid money in the first few years on my brand and my website and this big chunky WordPress website.

[00:27:45] Lucy Rennie: I don't need it. I don't even need a website now, really. It's just a shop window for me. I actually don't need one yet. 

[00:27:51] Jo Day: Or a shop 

[00:27:51] Jo Day: window that Isn't the shop window that's not optimized and hasn't got people looking through it. 

[00:28:00] Lucy Rennie: I do need a website, especially now where I'm going and what I'm doing.

[00:28:03] Lucy Rennie: So I do, and that's not true. What I said, but I think capturing every, I want to help get. What you've got here and all this knowledge to help people start and get it going and optimize it to get the most out of it. 

[00:28:18] Jo Day: Yeah. At the same time of launching the podcast and the YouTube channel, I also launched my new website.

[00:28:24] Jo Day: So if you go to heyupfolks. com, it's a brand new website. I can tell you that website is getting a ton of hits on every blog post, on every thing that where I mention. The YouTube, there's backlinks to the YouTube channel, it's all backlinking everywhere. It gets a ton of hits because it's green all the way through.

[00:28:48] Jo Day: I've spent the time, I've invested time in, in doing the hits. Now, I'm gonna go and have a look at your website, right? You don't need to give me access, so here's a little bit of a trick. 

[00:29:00] Lucy Rennie: This makes me feel sick! 

[00:29:01] Jo Day: Because I'm so invested in SEO and the performance of SEO, I can put anybody's website into my SEO software and it will tell me how optimized and how their website scores and what they need to do, page by page, post by post.

[00:29:18] Jo Day: So I can go and have a look and I can tell you what you're scoring out of 100 in terms of is your, how Google is ranking you or your page is indexed. 

[00:29:29] Lucy Rennie: Why don't 

[00:29:29] Lucy Rennie: we do that and come back and we'll actually have an episode unpicking it completely and you can tell me and we'll put it up and you can say this is, because I think you're having a real example.

[00:29:39] Lucy Rennie: I'll bare my bones and this is mindset. Not to hate it, but it's like I, a hundred percent. I've, so yeah, why don't, I'd love you to do that. Come in and pick it, unpick it, but pointers. Cause there'll be things you'll go, that's not to worry about. First of all, that's, prioritize this or that, or with on that.

[00:29:58] Lucy Rennie: Do you think YouTube, because YouTube's Google, isn't it? I don't think many people know. Is YouTube not owned by Google and is that not helping? Is that also second biggest search engine then, isn't it, actually? YouTube Amazon's the third. So actually being strategic, why you've picked to do your YouTube channel with this is also really strategic, isn't it?

[00:30:23] Lucy Rennie: And I think that's the bit people don't see. And that's why Facebook don't want to share YouTube and cause it's not theirs and all those things. So it's so interesting because I think it fits then with. I'm always saying to people, like for me, if you're starting out, Facebook's great or social's great, but it's cold.

[00:30:40] Lucy Rennie: It goes back to, where you're putting your energy and your people and whatever, actually, is it better to prioritize you, again, 

[00:30:46] Jo Day: I put my energy when I first became self employed into LinkedIn. And we're talking, I Started my LinkedIn account in 2009 because I knew I was going to be leaving my job.

[00:30:59] Jo Day: So in 2009, I asked the contractors who were working with me, the consultants who were being brought in, I think I've said this before, the reason I became self employed is because I begrudged my job. Supporting people who were being paid 10 times more than me. And I had to train them. If you're a consultant coming into a business, why am I having to tell you what to do?

[00:31:22] Jo Day: Yeah. So that's how I ended up becoming self employed. I knew more than the people they were bringing in as experts. 

[00:31:28] Lucy Rennie: So it's not money. It's the fact that they were bringing in people who didn't know what they were taught. It's that, isn't it? It's the audacity of those people to go in and do something when they don't know what they're doing.

[00:31:38] Lucy Rennie: That's 

[00:31:39] Lucy Rennie: it. Yeah. 

[00:31:40] Jo Day: So yeah, so in 2009 I knew I was leaving and I, I'd asked the people who were consultants, how do you get known in the industry as a self-employed person? It was LinkedIn, so I joined LinkedIn back in then 2009, a long time ago.

[00:31:56] Jo Day: and started networking in a very, it was a very professional business only site. It's not it become a lot more like Facebook now, but it was, very business orientated, very focused on topics and experts were on there talking about it. And it was a little bit intimidating when I first joined it.

[00:32:13] Jo Day: Yeah. And I started sharing my experience. 

[00:32:16] Lucy Rennie: Yeah. Yeah. It's you, isn't it? Yeah. I've got that mindset. 

[00:32:19] Jo Day: And Facebook was what it was for. I was playing parking wars on Facebook was all family and friends. My business life, my professional life was all on LinkedIn. There was no sharing, no. Cross contamination of personal life and professional life is all linked in.

[00:32:38] Jo Day: And it worked brilliantly. I never had to go and ask. Once I'd got my first client under my belt, that was it. Same. People, my reputation followed me everywhere that Jo knows her stuff. If Jo becomes available, get Jo. And people would even, whilst I was in contract, contact me saying, Can I tempt you with this?

[00:33:02] Jo Day: The money, it was always monetary value, but tempted with this. Do you fancy coming and doing this? When's your contract end? In, in all of those years from 2010 I never had to go chasing. Work. It just came to me through recommendation. 

[00:33:14] Lucy Rennie: But that's what we're saying,

[00:33:16] Lucy Rennie: isn't it? About, and again, it's probably a whole conversation for another day, but it's that word of mouth marketing really, isn't it, is actually what we should be doing. And it's through trust and referrals and recommendations that we should, that's the best form of marketing is that, isn't it really?

[00:33:31] Lucy Rennie: You shouldn't, if you don't need to do advertising, you can build it that way. 

[00:33:34] Jo Day: Yeah. I think the point I want to make is. Not everybody has to do all of the things I'm not a big fan of Facebook at all. I'll post on there, but I'm not a massive fan of it. I'm not a massive fan of TikTok.

[00:33:50] Jo Day: I'm just not. Don't use Snapchat. I know a lot of people who use Snapchat. A lot of people who use threads. Twitter, X, I've never got to grips with. Just, I've got too much to say and it just didn't allow me when it first it didn't allow me to say what I needed to say because I've got too many words to come out.

[00:34:09] Lucy Rennie: Isn't that the thing? It's finding where you're 

[00:34:11] Lucy Rennie: comfy, isn't 

[00:34:11] Lucy Rennie: it? 

[00:34:11] Jo Day: Find where you're comfortable, yeah. Find, do what you do. But pick one or two things and do them brilliantly rather than Try to spread yourself so thin you do everything dilute it dilute and try and aim to be a solid 7 rather than a perfect 10 We've touched on this before.

[00:34:31] Lucy Rennie: And that brings us back then, doesn't it, to the whole thing, which is about mindset, because even when it's like, you talking about LinkedIn, I remember LinkedIn being, and even now I know that's where I should be hanging out and it's still a bit Oh because of this, it literally is just this and whether you, I think.

[00:34:52] Lucy Rennie: It's interesting because talking about the website, YouTube, whatever tool, wherever you're going, it's all very well saying we've got a plan and we can do it and this is what I'm going to be doing. 

[00:35:01] Lucy Rennie: It comes back to this. What we can have a perfect plan and the amount like talking about going up to 10k months or whatever. There's so much I want to say on all this, but you can have the perfect plan. The amount of times I've written a budget and I was going to smash it and do this and, half a million pound here or whatever.

[00:35:19] Lucy Rennie: If you can't do it. 

[00:35:21] Jo Day: If you can't internalize it, you'll never get there. Yeah, you can't. But I think it's can't, if you can't shut your eyes and visualize yourself being there and re not just visualize it, but if you can't see it and feel it, you've gotta really feel it and internalize it. And if you can't do that because it's too big of a leap, you gotta make, you've gotta make the leap smaller.

[00:35:43] Jo Day: The journey's got to be step by step in Six Sigma. And DMAIC, we always used to say, people use the phrase, don't try and swallow an elephant. Like, why anybody would swallow an elephant, I have no idea. I changed that to, imagine you bought a big gateaux. Now you want to eat this gateaux, you want to eat the cake.

[00:36:05] Jo Day: If you try and eat all of the cake, you'll end up like that young lad on Matilda, where he eats all the chocolate cake, Bruce. You'll end up like him. It physically made him ill, it made him sick, because 

[00:36:18] Jo Day: he tried to 

[00:36:21] Jo Day: eat all the cake in one sitting, he didn't have any choice, he was forced to.

[00:36:25] Jo Day: What I would say is, it's a delicious cake, slice it up, even if you slice it into 12 pieces, 24 pieces, whatever is a manageable chunk for you, that's the step that's the goal. Take that small slice of cake and eat that cake, eat that frog. And when you've finished eating that frog and that cake, come back to the gateaux and take the next slice.

[00:36:54] Jo Day: But don't look at the whole gateaux and go, oh god, I've got to eat that gateaux. I shall never get there. You'll feel sick and you'll end up hating cake and you'll hate your job. You'll hate the reason you started out in business in the first place. And you'll just want to go back and get another employee job.

[00:37:11] Jo Day: And those are the moments when you over face yourself with gateaux and cake, that it really will look and feel like an elephant and you'll want to quit. 

[00:37:20] Lucy Rennie: Yeah, 

[00:37:21] Lucy Rennie: it's, 

[00:37:22] Lucy Rennie: yeah, I completely agree with you. I was reading something actually last night. The stats, it's like lottery winners. The majority of lottery winners.

[00:37:32] Lucy Rennie: will eventually lose the money, frit all the money away and go back to being, because their mindset is set in that space of, they're not in that place where they can actually hold that money or that lifestyle or, whereas if you've made the money yourself, even if you lose it all, you'll come, you'll get it again, like they use examples like Trump or whoever.

[00:37:52] Lucy Rennie: You you know what you're doing. It's a mindset, isn't it? I think for me, yes, it's baby steps. The biggest thing is if you don't feel confident to eat the cake, you're not going to do anything. You can have the best plan in the world and you can have the best expertise and know exactly what you're going to do.

[00:38:12] Lucy Rennie: But if you can't, Get over yourself and get over the fear of judgment and all that. You, there's no point, you can't, you don't do anything. And I think that's the bit that's, for me, going back to it's 10 years of that's been my biggest barrier. I think if I'd started 10 years ago where I am now, we'd be in a completely different place now because I'd, but I think I needed to do the 10 years and the stories and the podcast and all the things that we've done to be able to be where I am now 

[00:38:45] Lucy Rennie: and own it.

[00:38:46] Jo Day: And I think the key to that for me is having the right colleagues around, having a coach, because all the best people in the world have got coaches. Reading lots of books, watching lots of podcasts, investing in my self development and investing in me. Yeah. And also the key one for me is having an accountability partner.

[00:39:10] Jo Day: Those are the kind of the things that I'd say you've got to have. a good morning routine. You've got to have that good morning routine and you're, as soon as your eyes open, your structure has to start. You need a coach. If you wanted to learn how to drive, you'd get a driving instructor. If you want to learn how to be in business, you need somebody that's been, that worn the t shirt.

[00:39:38] Jo Day: So you need a good coach. You need the right network of people around you, not necessarily that will convert into clients, but are supportive, that you may get work from and you can pass work to, so networking but definitely an accountability partner as well. 

[00:39:55] Lucy Rennie: Yeah, it's so true. And I think it's also your accountability partner and your people.

[00:40:02] Lucy Rennie: I think it's community, isn't it? And I think having, it's taking that, I don't know, it's it's those baby steps of, you talked about stories before. How you can stop it and start, people say to me, I had someone the other day Jay, if she's listening in France who listened to a podcast and had found me on a podcast and got in touch and she was like, it's she was like it was lovely because before we had then had a really lovely conversation, but she was Oh, it's so good what you're doing.

[00:40:30] Lucy Rennie: And, it that's she'd listened to my podcast and we're going to get onto that but for her the fact that I'm doing that podcast and putting it out there is like a huge thing and that's the bit I think it's taken some work we'll get onto the behind the scenes of it but it's that's what I think the Instagram stories are good for is because He baby steps with that as well, doesn't he?

[00:40:52] Lucy Rennie: Yeah. I think we also, I'm a perfectionist at heart. I want everything to be right. And it's you are a little bit, because you said before you went, if you're going to do it properly. And I think that's the thing, but then there's the other extreme of, Oh, it's not perfect. And I can't 

[00:41:05] Lucy Rennie: do it.

[00:41:05] Jo Day: And I'm not that worried at all. So I think so I used to, it was a big hangup of mine. So if I go back to My corporate days, when I first became like in project management, we used to do lots of design and solution documents. BRS, it was called business requirements specification when we were doing changes to software, like billing systems and different things.

[00:41:30] Jo Day: So I'd write a BRS or a business plan or whatever it was, all these different things in print to project management or agile, you need to write lots of documentation. So I'd write the business requirements spec, and I'd send it out to all of the key stakeholders for commentary. I didn't want commentary.

[00:41:52] Jo Day: I'd spent hours on this document and then people would come back. And go, yeah, can you change this? The grammar here is not quite right. Or can you say, structure the sentence this way? Or, on a bullet pointed list, you shouldn't put a full stop at the end of a bullet pointed list, but then somebody else would comment and say, can you make sure there's a full stop at the end of the bullet pointed list?

[00:42:16] Jo Day: It'd drive me mad. I'd be like, look at all of these hundreds of comments. And I used to strive. Every document I wrote, I used to strive for zero comments, and I'd be gutted when somebody had come back and not just say approved or no comment. I'd be absolutely, it used it to me and then I had to do a lot of work on myself with that.

[00:42:40] Jo Day: And this is how I got to the point of solid seven. Get it out there and other people commenting on it to get it to be a community document where everybody else has got a stake in it, in their owning it as better than. 100 percent perfect, and it never gets finalised, and we miss deadlines, and the project never gets started, and Yeah.

[00:43:01] Jo Day: That's where that in me comes from, the 7 out of 10, a solid 7, get it out there, done. Luce, when I put the green screen on behind us, sometimes I'm doing this, my hand might go grey, you might not see this part of my hand. I don't care! I don't care. 

[00:43:16] Lucy Rennie: I know and again that's what I'm saying is it's taken 10 years for me as well.

[00:43:22] Lucy Rennie: Yes I care in the sense of I want it to be good quality content like what we're talking about and you know I care but I think The biggest thing is actually just putting ourselves out there and being imperfectly perfect and actually sharing it and much, and that's been the biggest barrier is I've not done stuff.

[00:43:40] Lucy Rennie: I've had it already. Even my book, like we'll get onto this, but the biggest thing wasn't writing the book. It's actually talking about it. And when people send me pictures or this, reading it or it still makes me go, Oh, but actually I've written a book. It's not perfect, but it's a bloody brilliant book if you're starting a business and you need, you want to build the solid foundations and stuff, but it's taken me three years to be able to say that.

[00:44:05] Lucy Rennie: Four years, 

[00:44:06] Lucy Rennie: whatever. 

[00:44:06] Jo Day: Hold that thought. I want to wrap up because we're nearly at 50 minutes. I want to wrap up for today's episode and we are, I promise you this time we're going to go into book writing and podcasts. So we'll see you next week What up I'm going to delve a little bit deeper into what got us both to writing books and creating podcasts.

[00:44:31] Lucy Rennie: Before you go, can I just ask though, Jo said, how many subscribers have we got on you, on this? 

[00:44:36] Jo Day: We've only got 16. 

[00:44:37] Lucy Rennie: That's your action for this week, please If you're watching, you're listening, come over to YouTube and help us get this going and this experiment working. Come and subscribe and yeah, let us know, comment, share what you think and 

[00:44:51] Jo Day: The subscribe button, it's just there.

[00:44:53] Lucy Rennie: I've always wanted to do that. It's, 

[00:44:56] Jo Day: subscribe, but also click the notifications bell and then you'll get an email notifying you when we go in live when there's new videos being pushed out. But yeah, come and share the journey with us. Yeah. I would love for somebody to watch this and go if they can do it, I can do it.

[00:45:13] Lucy Rennie: Yes, exactly. 

[00:45:14] Jo Day: That's what I'd love the output to be.

[00:45:17] Lucy Rennie: This is why we're doing, this is it. It's if, yeah, we can't ask anybody else to do it if we're not doing it. So it's and especially kids and, we've got to, yeah, we've got to, let's just do 

[00:45:26] Lucy Rennie: it, 

[00:45:26] Jo Day: Unpolished, unperfect, but we're showing up, we're doing it and that's all that, this is my accountability partner now.

[00:45:34] Jo Day: The YouTube channel is holding me to account because I know we have to record something every week off the back of recording it. I then create all the social media clips, the sound bites, which then get shared across LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube Instagram. They're all over the place, and I spend the day scheduling everything and then for the next seven days they go out automatically.

[00:45:58] Jo Day: Don't have to think about them, but I can then engage in the comments and. It's working. So despite what anybody thinks, I can tell you it is working. It's holding me to account. I'm showing up and we'll just get better and better the more we do it. But anyway, we'll see you next week. Thank you for joining us.

[00:46:20] Jo Day: Yeah. Don't forget to subscribe. Bye for now.

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