From Facebook Group to Empire: How TradieWives Revolutionised Trade Support
Meet Verity Hare, the powerhouse behind Trady Wives - a thriving community of nearly 30,000 members supporting partners in the trades industry. From starting a Facebook group to help with her husband's landscaping business to building a comprehensive business academy and directory, Verity shares her journey of creating Australia's largest trade support network. Learn how she transformed a personal need into an empire while maintaining authenticity and fostering genuine connections.
Website/Social Media:
Services Mentioned:
Business Academy
Monthly masterclasses
Training with professional service partners
Online educational resources
Directory Service
Vetted professional service providers
Industry-specific support services
Trusted business connections
Events:
Annual Conference (commenced 2023)
Local networking events (mentioned Northern Beaches event)
Online coffee catchups
Key Business Development Stages:
Started as Facebook group (2015)
Developed business directory
Created partnerships with service providers
Launched Business Academy
Expanded into in-person events
Notable Quote: "It was never meant to be a business - I just tried my best to solve the problems that I was seeing."
You can also listen on your favourite podcast apps, including Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Episode Transcript
Christine: welcome to Collective Conversations, the Women in Business podcast. I'm Chris.
Emily: And I am Emily, and we're here today with a wonderful guest that we've been very excited to talk to, the very incredible verity from treaty wives.
Christine: Woo.
Emily: Welcome, welcome, welcome, Verity.
Verity: you so much for having me. I'm really excited to be here.
Christine: Yes.
Emily: because we've been such a big fan
Verity: Oh.
Emily: lowkey lurking in your, I think it's the public group at least
Christine: Yeah.
Emily: long time. And I would, it gobs smacks me because like personally I do, I do social media marketing, digital marketing for people, that's my specialty. And Facebook groups are a motherfucker of a bitch to manage.
Verity: Yes.
Emily: is gobs, smackingly, humongous and
Christine: 29,400 members and raising,
Verity: Yeah. Counting and
Christine: yeah.
Emily: Like, so I am really fascinated to hear your story and how you started and, and how you got there and how you, how you managed the group, let alone all the
Verity: Uh,
Emily: 'cause that is a feat in itself.
Verity: hard to be honest. It is hard. It's very, very rewarding. Um, but it is very time consuming as well. Um, I'm very lucky in that there for a sizeable community, is. So nice to each other. Um,
Emily: Yeah, that is
Verity: very, very rarely have to remove or, you know, remove comments or people or anything like that. Very, very rarely.
Verity: So I'm so lucky because everybody's just so, equally supportive of each other and wanting to help each other succeed and understanding their, their, uh, issues. So, bit of the background is I, um. In 2015, I, um, was sort of watching my, uh, now husband who's a landscaper. Um, and he was, he's very, very good at what he does, but when it comes to the business side of things, he has no idea.
Emily: Yeah.
Christine: Yep.
Emily: not co not uncommon, you
Verity: no idea. so he. I could sort of see him, um, know, being on the tools all day, especially in summer, you know, walking out on the tools in 40 degrees, coming home, all these people calling him, having to invoice, quote, do all his bookkeeping, all that sort of stuff. Like, he was exhausted and I was like, it got to a point where he wasn't really even answering the phone
Christine: Yeah.
Verity: didn't have the capacity. And I was like, you're missing out here because. People obviously want you to work for them. Um, and you're just missing a lot of opportunity, um, because you're just so and understandably you're so burnt out. And, um, so anyway, so I kind of said to him, why don't I help you, you know, one day a week and just kind of do the back end of the business, try and get you on social media, fix your website, help you with the quoting and invoicing and that sort of stuff. Did that went really well. He felt much better. And then I ended up going full-time.
Christine: Yeah.
Verity: I had not a clue about trades, the trades industry at all, like no idea. Um, I have a background in marketing and advertising, but I. When it came to like hiring an apprentice or that kind of trade specific stuff I didn't know to do. we needed a new accountant. It is really, it's really, just, and there's, there's a lot of rules and regulations in trades as well
Christine: Yeah.
Verity: to, um, adhere to, and especially like safety and all that sort of stuff when it comes to hiring.
Emily: And there's so many trades as
Verity: There is,
Emily: so many of them.
Verity: and everyone has different rules and every state has different rules, which is really hard.
Emily: So complicated.
Christine: Yeah.
Emily: So
Verity: I, um,
Emily: um,
Verity: yeah, ended up doing that, but then I was like, oh, I, I feel lonely. Like I'm used to being in hospitality and talking to people and I'm not talking to you, and I'm just sitting by myself in an office. And, um. So I was like, there's gotta be women doing this whether they want to or not, you know,
Christine: Yeah, absolutely.
Verity: how do I find them?
Verity: And so I started a Facebook group to try and help me, you know, learn how to do things and it grew very, very quickly and thinking no one would join. We've got ended up having, like you said, almost 30,000 people now, um, in the community who were all feeling exactly like I was.
Christine: Yeah, my, um, my sister's husband, um, has a, um, painting business up on the central coast, and I actually spoke to her this morning and said, Hey, what's, you know, the benefit? 'cause she often mentioned Trady wives, oh, I've got this and that, blah, blah. And um, yeah, Jen was just mentioning that. It's been so helpful to her.
Christine: Um, just the conversations and some things about marketing all the rules, and so she's absorbing, absorbing the learning in the Facebook group. It's been great for her.
Verity: Awesome. That's so nice to hear.
Christine: Yeah.
Emily: it's the beauty of a community,
Christine: Mm.
Emily: that's, that's one of the best parts about it. You get lived experiences from other people and especially when it's all so different too. Like my husband was a mechanic for a long time before he went corporate, and even just like hearing the backend of that and watching how. Like bigger dealerships and smaller dealerships run, like it's, it's a bit, it's manic. Like
Verity: Yeah.
Emily: it's so
Verity: Yeah. So many different things.
Emily: understand very well too the need to have a community being very remote in how we, we work as well. It can be very, very lonely. Especially coming from marketing and hos background.
Verity: Yeah.
Emily: It's exactly my background as
Verity: Is it okay? Yeah.
Emily: different. Yeah, it's very different to just suddenly be alone.
Verity: Yeah. It's hard, especially when you.
Emily: to.
Christine: Yeah,
Emily: Oh
Christine: yeah.
Emily: God. Yeah. That's
Christine: Yeah.
Emily: Oh, never shut me up. I was like,
Verity: I'm the same. I'm the same. This podcast is gonna go for,
Emily: we're basically twins. Yeah. Yep. I love it. But that's, I mean, how did you find initially, so you started off with the Facebook group, right? That was, that was the first, the first one. Were you originally called Trady wives? Like did you manage to get that? So you've hit that beautiful branding on the.
Emily: On the head.
Christine: Right at the start.
Emily: like, as Chris says, everyone knows of trade wives. Like you can talk to so many people, people who may not even be trade related, but they will be aware of this group
Verity: Yeah,
Emily: 'cause people talk about it. And that's like the kind of like. like the equivalent of Apple. You've got your branding to the level of everyone knows who you are. So it's amazing that you haven't like rebranded that at all.
Verity: yeah.
Emily: you've done like soft rebrands with colors and
Verity: Yeah.
Emily: whatever. But the naming of that is like, you've obviously, how cool is it? You hit the nail on the head immediately.
Verity: I, and
Emily: cool.
Verity: honest, I was quite, um, conscious of that from, even from the very, very beginning. Um, I wanted the name to be very, like, obvious as to what it was.
Christine: Yes.
Verity: and also recognizable, like even the way that we put Trady wives is one word with a capital T, capital W and I just, I always wanted it to be found and to like, for no one to have any. Question about what it was.
Christine: Yeah.
Emily: Yeah,
Verity: and while it was sort of like, oh, trade wise, I don't know, I don't know if that's, you know, a, a good name. It, it, everyone just knows what it is, you
Christine: Yeah, they do.
Verity: no
Emily: yeah.
Verity: guessing as to what, what the group is, is. Um, so yeah, it was just kind of like, I thought about what I thought about the whole idea in the shower. Um, and in the shower I was like, oh,
Christine: I.
Verity: try wives,
Emily: Yeah.
Verity: um.
Emily: great because it's also takes a. I mean, you know, most people think of trades. You think of it as a reasonably masculine industry and you've taken a beautiful, and I think there's power in that alone. The fact that you've taken this male industry and the male word and then smooshed it with wives and women and, and of course everyone knows who are, 'cause let's be honest, all the women run the end of all the
Verity: They're,
Christine: Oh.
Verity: boss really, at the end of the day, like, they're like, they're making the decision and you know what? They're behind the scenes like, and this is kind of what I, I set to achieve is to elevate women in these roles and, and make them a really respected part of the industry because they're the ones in the back end making all the big decisions and, and supporting the tradie and, um, encouraging them and trying to work out the best way to do things that.
Verity: Find that work life balance, um, and do all of the things. So I, I really set out for them to be a really like, valuable, equal partner kind of role, rather than just the narrative of the wife in the office. You know, just the little wife in the office doing the bookkeeping.
Christine: Yeah.
Emily: is more like, it's a bigger role than
Verity: Yeah,
Emily: I feel like you don't wanna be in the corner
Verity: yeah, exactly.
Christine: Yeah. No, it needs to be recognized and, um, and it's a good, um, you know, you've provided a great space, um, through your Facebook group and obviously you've got a membership, but a really good supportive space, um, because I'm sure, yeah. Can it? Yes, it can get lonely and it's a hard lot of work. It's a lot because you are, like you say, the work life balance because 95, if not more, percentage of these trady wives are managing the family and everything behind that.
Christine: In addition to being the, you know, the business manager for the business.
Emily: It is
Verity: A hundred percent.
Emily: multiple hats that you have to wear
Verity: Yeah.
Emily: like you can suddenly produce a marketing team, a finance bookkeeper, like you're doing all of the things.
Verity: Yeah,
Emily: like I'd imagine the community becomes so important that in that instance, so you can. Work with other people to pick their brains on it.
Emily: Well, how do you guys do it? What
Verity: yeah.
Emily: use? What, what's your processes like? Can we improve our processes by seeing what other people do? And the same
Verity: Yeah.
Emily: how do you, like how do you, people who, if you've not got a marketing background or social media or digital marketing, no one, it's really hard. And I think like when they dive into that and realize it's more than just throwing a post up on a platform, then it's like, oh God, I need to learn how to do this as well.
Verity: Yeah. Yeah.
Emily: whole piece.
Verity: Yeah, that's, and I think that that's sort of why, um, so from, from the community I identified a need for further education in the industry and with the roles that we were doing. And, um, so I sort of, it started with like a, um, uh, business directory where I was like, I need to have businesses that I. Trust when people are coming into the community, so vulnerable and needing support that I can refer them to, to get that right support
Christine: Mm.
Verity: and in a way that is, um. Also understanding the vulnerability of the person coming to them.
Christine: Yeah.
Verity: so I started a business directory, got partners on board who I trusted to direct all the questions, the common questions to, and then the partners would sort of come to me going, you know, this is really great.
Verity: How can we we do more with your community to help you achieve what you wanna achieve? Um, and so we've got kind of bigger partnerships now, which is really great. And, um, off the back of that, started a, um, like a business academy where. Um, we do monthly master classes and trainings. Um, our professional services partners come in and kind of lead the way for the education pieces in the academy.
Verity: So it's, it turned into sort of a, a membership, um, that. So that's been really helpful as well.
Emily: Mm.
Christine: And do you with your academy, um, and I noticed you, you know, you do coffee, catch, uh, catch ups, is it, and it's all online? Or do you do a certain, some stuff that is in person? Because I mean, obviously you are national, but um, you know, and New South Wales based, so is it all virtual?
Verity: Yeah, the Academy is all virtual at the moment. Um, we had our first conference last year, which is great. The first time in, uh, the six years of having the business I've ever done an in-person event
Christine: Yep.
Verity: we went through COVID also. It overwhelmed me. I was so nervous to do it, so I put it off for a really long time. Um, and it was great. It was really like, because of all the years of people building connections online. To see run in person. They already knew each other. So
Christine: Yeah.
Verity: gosh, you are this person, you're this person, you're this person. And they, everyone was hugging and like they'd known each other for such a long time.
Verity: And um, so we did that, which is going to be an annual thing. And then we just had a local one on the northern beaches a couple of weeks ago, um, in collaboration with one of our partners. And we got a lot of the local, uh, northern beaches trade wives on, which is great for me
Christine: Great.
Verity: it originated as
Christine: Yep.
Verity: about before.
Verity: But, um. It's, yeah, it was nice to kind of have an event where it all kind of began. So,
Christine: Yeah.
Verity: but with the academy, yeah, that's, we definitely hope to start taking it offline a little more.
Christine: Yeah. Yeah. Well, let's, but also you've,
Emily: in that.
Christine: yeah, well there is power in doing things in person, but obviously, um, doing online, you've got a greater reach. And, but also it's not just for you as the business, it's people as the academy members or attendees that, you know, it's like, I can do that because that's two hours there, but I don't have to travel an extra two hours there and back or whatever.
Christine: Yes.
Emily: Mm.
Verity: exactly.
Emily: so much power too in that very first event when you get everyone together like you, the buzz of that would last for so
Verity: Oh,
Emily: Just riding on that high.
Verity: Yeah, it was, it was so nice. 'cause like I said, you felt like you already knew them all and
Christine: Yeah.
Verity: were just old friends, you know, that you
Christine: Yeah.
Verity: meeting for the first time, which is really weird. So, um, yeah. Many champagnes had that day, that's for sure.
Emily: data. Yeah.
Christine: Love it.
Emily: need
Verity: Yeah.
Emily: to after that long. Yeah. did you ever envision that this, the size of, and the variety of what you do now is, did you ever think that you'd end up there when you first started this?
Verity: No, never. Um, I, like I said, I never thought anyone would join. I was actually really embarrassed to start the group because I was like, as if anyone's gonna join this. Um, and I used to like, um, when I'd have, like before I thought about doing the group, to email other, like, local tradies and like be like, oh, hi, I've just started like working with my husband.
Verity: Um, we need to hire an apprentice. Like, just wondering, how do you do that?
Emily: Yeah, what do you do?
Verity: Yeah. And no one would ever write back to me. Um, and I was like, fine, I'll start a Facebook group. So I started the Facebook group and I was like, no one will join this. This is so stupid. And then I remember getting to, I think it was like 137 people.
Verity: I still remember the number. I was talking to my dad about it, and I showed dad and I was like, oh, look, I've started this group. And I, and he goes, oh, let me have a look. And he was reading some of the posts and he was like. you're onto something now. And I was like, you reckon? He was like, yeah, you're onto something. Um, and then it just continued to grow, like quite rapidly. So it was nice to see that I wasn't the only one.
Christine: Yes.
Emily: Did you have to do much, um, like marketing of the group or was it mostly organic
Verity: Um, mostly organic growth. Um, I, to get the, to get it started, I used to just like promote the group in like other groups that would allow like business advertising and it, it wasn't really business advertising, it was just kind of like, Hey, I'm a trade wife. I. I've started this group to help me if,
Christine: Yep.
Verity: might help you, feel free to join.
Christine: Yeah.
Verity: and that's kind of how it started. There was no, it wasn't a business, it was just like a, I, this is what I've started, like I. You're welcome to join if you think it might help you
Christine: Yep.
Verity: Um, and so yeah, I used to just post about it on other groups. Um, and even now, like I'll, I, I try and do it probably once a year around Christmas time when everyone's kind of off is, I'll go, oh, I might post on some like, business groups and, you know, that allow the advertising and just about what it is.
Verity: And, um, we usually get probably about a thousand people each time. I
Christine: Wow.
Verity: the couple of posts in the group, um, and it just seems to take off. So it's, it's, it's really great 'cause everyone goes, oh my gosh, I need this. You know?
Christine: Yes.
Emily: Yeah, but you've also got, like, I know you've, you do stuff in the group around, like, I feel like I haven't done it in a little while, but I feel like it was, there was nights where it would be like, okay guys, Instagram night, like, put your
Verity: Yeah.
Emily: I mean, I've jumped on that when I've happened to see
Verity: Yeah.
Emily: Like pop up. And it is actually like, out of all the things I've tried, I've tried over the time. Your group is the one that actually has results. Like, I've had that and gone, well, shit, now I've got 30 new followers. Like is cool.
Verity: great.
Emily: like people actually do it.
Verity: Yeah.
Emily: and it's like legitimate and not crazy bots that are following us, but
Verity: Yeah.
Emily: I, I'm always gobsmacked at the strength that your Facebook group has like, and it is so, it's so hard to get to that strength to build it to that, but it's so amazing. You clearly just came in at the exact right
Verity: Yeah.
Emily: right thing that was missing.
Verity: and don't get me wrong, it is, it's hard. Like
Christine: Oh no. Oh
Emily: Yeah, it would
Verity: as
Christine: no.
Verity: like there is, um, I've sort of seen other communities pop up that are a little bit similar or, you know, that sort of see the idea and then they'll go, oh, I might create something as well. But the time that it takes, um. To manage it is, it's really like, it's, like I said, it's very rewarding, but it is very time consuming.
Christine: Hmm.
Emily: Yeah.
Verity: and. just, yeah, it's just lucky that everyone is, so, if there's anything wrong in the community, um, people always will like tag me or notify me about it. So I can pick up on things quite quickly. But like, there's sometimes now, even now, when I'll be up at like three in the morning still moderating the
Christine: Oh my
Verity: I'll
Christine: goodness.
Verity: the other day I was saying to someone that I, it was like three in the morning and I'm a night owl anyway, so isn't, this isn't. Bad for me, but I, I'm just a night person. Um, and it was like three in the morning whenever it was. And I was moderating the group and I was replying to someone, but I was like nodding off as I was, as I was replying and I was, I started typing my dream into the,
Christine: Oh my heavens,
Emily: That's awesome. That's so good.
Verity: I was like, I was like, all right, go to bed. It's time to pull the pin.
Emily: Yeah. We'll
Christine: that that person's going.
Emily: Yeah. That would've been so funny.
Verity: The cat flew over the moon and they just asked for an accountant recommendation.
Emily: They start Googling cat over
Christine: Yeah. Yeah,
Emily: like We'll take a word for it. It's fine.
Verity: She recommends them. They must be good.
Christine: that's right. Oh my gosh.
Emily: It's the power of recommendation. We don't even think twice. We just go for it. Oh, that's great. I mean, and that's the thing too, right? I think people forget, um, you know, Facebook groups too, they work with their algorithm, like the rest of social media. So you could have a group through full of like. As you've got almost 30,000 people, but only 25% of them naturally get to view the posts that go up every day based on their engagement as well. So people forget that like that happens and that that is what it does.
Verity: Yeah.
Emily: so to be able to foster and create that engagement, it can be really time
Verity: Yeah. It, it, it is.
Emily: I reckon you could run a master class in Facebook groups for people
Christine: Yes.
Verity: Absolutely. And engagement, because, yeah. Yeah. And it, there haven't, and it's, it's interesting 'cause
Emily: You, you could.
Verity: engagement is really difficult. Um.
Emily: Oh my God. You sh I mean, oh, I, you could c come do it through
Christine: Oh my God. Oh
Emily: idea.
Verity: Yeah.
Christine: Mm-hmm.
Emily: We'll circle back on
Christine: Yes, we will.
Verity: Okay.
Emily: Mm.
Verity: All right. I'm in.
Emily: Yeah. Yeah.
Christine: 'cause so were, we, uh, yeah,
Emily: it.
Christine: so you were talking about how like, you know, people were seeking education and you started doing that and, you know, and then that's how the, the membership was kind of born. So it was just like a very organic thing against the, uh, for the, the membership as well.
Verity: Yeah.
Christine: yeah. Yeah. And
Verity: Um, it just, it was never meant to be a business and I just tried my best to solve the problems that I was seeing in the
Christine: Yeah.
Verity: and realizing that it, at large, these people are all having the same problems.
Christine: Yes.
Verity: how can I use my power in numbers, I suppose to
Christine: Yep.
Verity: I also really want to use that sort of power in numbers to make positive changes in the trade industry.
Verity: Um. There's still a lot of things that need to be worked on in the trades
Christine: Yep.
Verity: um, especially when it comes to things like, you know, safety and that sort of stuff on site. Like that's still really lacking. and so I kind of think about ways to kind of shift that tr trajectory of, um, how can we make this industry safer, more respected,
Christine: Yep.
Verity: A better place to be in for us and the people that we'll come after, and especially when it comes to mental health, because that is huge
Christine: Oh.
Verity: industry.
Emily: I was gonna say, I, I do know someone who has started doing like mental health coaching
Verity: Yep.
Emily: and
Verity: Yep.
Emily: but it, it, I would imagine it would be a huge thing. And, and for men, I. As well, but also important as a wife or or a partner of someone who is in a trade to be able to understand how men emote differently to
Verity: Um,
Emily: and to that ways to have conversations that might be, they might be willing to open up to, given that men obviously don't talk as much as
Verity: yeah.
Emily: well.
Verity: Yeah.
Emily: would be a whole, a lot of interesting education I would imagine
Verity: Yeah, for sure. And I think as well the, the wives, the trady wives, they often bear the brunt of that mental
Christine: Yeah.
Verity: their tradie as well. And
Emily: Yeah.
Verity: I think. I've done it too with us, like my husband Craig, you know, whenever things are off with him, I'm always in the background trying to like, fix it and,
Christine: Yes. Yeah.
Verity: I help?
Verity: How can I support, like, how can I make this better? And I think the wives often take that on, and internalize it. So I wanna have a place where people can go, all right, this is what's happening with my train. What can I do? Where can I seek the right support? And um, you know, we've had, I get a lot of private messages behind the scenes of people. feel very, very privileged that people feel they can do this with me to
Christine: Yep.
Verity: um, my husband is really struggling. I dunno what to do. And I
Emily: Yeah.
Verity: lucky that I have the connections to direct them to the support that
Christine: We are fantastic. Yeah. Yes.
Emily: but it also scrapes volumes to how you've created this business because you've created such an immensely safe space for people to feel that. But not only that, the authenticity of who you are has obviously come through so strongly as well that people feel comfortable to do that. And like, honestly, hats off.
Emily: 'cause that is no, no easy feat by any means, shape or form to build this incredible empire that you've got. Now as well. Like that's, you're literally who we wanna be when we grow up.
Verity: Oh my God.
Emily: like, you know, so I, I hope, I hope you know that
Christine: Yeah.
Emily: like Gobsmacking to even hear
Verity: Oh my gosh.
Emily: sitting here thinking, gosh, you do online coffee catchups, you've got people messaging you, you're at monitor, God, do you sleep?
Verity: Hi.
Christine: Yeah. Yeah.
Emily: work
Christine: know, how much do you outsource? How much do you do yourself? Like, you know, and seriously, like, you know, you hear at 3:00 AM in the morning, you know, engaging in your community.
Verity: but, but I have a great team. I'm very, very lucky that I have a really great team behind me, um, who are just as passionate about what I'm doing as I am. And I feel very, very lucky with that. But there is just a lot of work. Um. And it's basically Dan Murphy's that keeps us together.
Emily: It's got that effect on some people.
Christine: You know, uncle Dan is just so handy.
Emily: Uh, honestly, they probably would. That's it. You know, they probably would.
Verity: Um,
Christine: I love that.
Verity: and it's interesting 'cause I also do, I, so I'm still doing the backend of my husband's business as well, so he's still got his landscaping business
Christine: Wow.
Verity: So all the time he'll be like, um, hey, remember before you started Trading Wise and you were helping me? And I'm like, yeah. He goes, I still need that help. He's like,
Emily: Yeah,
Verity: on your own,
Emily: is priority
Verity: on your own.
Emily: I'm still
Verity: Don't talk to me. Yeah, that's it.
Emily: before you built your empire it was just me. I need some help.
Verity: yeah. Like wash a dish, Craig, and then we'll talk.
Christine: Yes,
Emily: I know. Well put, give a little, get a
Verity: Yeah,
Emily: how
Verity: exactly. Um, so yeah, so that's, that's, but it's good because it helps it be relevant all the time because
Christine: of course.
Verity: in the industry and I'm seeing that. Yeah, exactly. So it compliments, which is good.
Emily: where, do you have a moment where you went, fuck, I need to turn this into a business. Like, do you remember that moment of like, oh God,
Verity: Yeah,
Emily: to, we need to put big girl pants on now.
Verity: kind of. And I, I, it really scared me to be honest, like. 'cause it was, it was very organic. The need was there. It was very organic. But before I had a team of people helping. I like would have to jump on a Zoom. I swore I would never get on Zoom in my life. I was like, I'm not getting on Zoom. There
Christine: Yep. Yep.
Verity: would be like, Hey, let's have a Zoom meeting. I'm like, no, let's talk over the.
Emily: Fast forward like however many years, and she now owns shares in Zoom.
Verity: I know that's it. And I'm like, no, I'm not doing it. I, I'm so embarrassed to go on Zoom, like I'm not doing it. Um, and then like the awkward conversations about like, well, we're coming onto the directory, like how much? And I'm like, oh God.
Emily: much?
Christine: Yeah, that's a hard one. Yep.
Emily: like pricing is forever.
Verity: Yeah.
Emily: Everyone's
Christine: Yep.
Emily: you know,
Verity: Um, and it was like I, in the beginning I felt like, oh, I don't, I feel awful asking people for money to be on this directory, but it's gonna cost me to build it. Yeah.
Christine: Exactly. And you know, de decent website platforms aren't cheap either, so Yeah.
Emily: know and I was, I was laughing 'cause I was, I looked at your side and, and like I, I do web development,
Verity: Yeah.
Emily: of what I do as well. And I have these little tools set up to tell me where people host through.
Verity: Yeah.
Emily: 'cause I always get curious like where they, and I was like, Ooh, I wonder why she didn't use this platform. I was like, I don't know if that's valid podcast conversation or if people would be interested or not, but I'm interested
Verity: I've got
Christine: Yeah.
Emily: because I'd imagine you trial and errored a few things too.
Verity: Well, the thing is, is that I, when it, when it came to that point of me going, well, this is gonna be a business, I'm gonna actually start having a no, sorry, bef Yeah. Uh, before the directory was even born, I was like, this is something that I really want to build and get the professional support.
Verity: And so I, one night at probably one o'clock in the morning went on Fiverr. And I was like, can you build me a website? This is my thing, you know, whatever it was, it cost me $200 to get this like basic, basic website built. And then I wanted to build the directory. So I got in touch with the local developer and was like, can you build a directory onto this?
Verity: And he was like, oh yeah, okay. And then it passed through so many hands, this same website just was like built and built and built to a point where the web web, um, guy that I use now. About a year ago, he said to me, I said, oh, can I add this onto the website? He's like, Betty, your website is about to blow up like
Christine: Yep.
Verity: I'm not doing anymore because, and his words, this is like putting lipstick on a pig. Um,
Christine: That's awesome, but so true.
Emily: Yep.
Verity: Yeah. He's like, I'm not touching this until you do a new website. And I was like, Hmm,
Emily: mm
Verity: okay. So
Emily: Damn
Verity: yeah, so we're, that's what I'm doing now. I'm in the process of, um, rebuilding the website. So it's, it's been a work in progress. So it's just been, it's just been one thing that we go, oh, we kind of move on it and then we kind of get distracted.
Verity: We put it off and then we start again. So
Christine: Yep.
Verity: hopefully in the next couple months.
Emily: like yours, like it can be an expensive exercise.
Verity: is,
Emily: are
Verity: yeah, it is really expensive. Um, and so just having the cashflow to make sure that we can do it is always something at the back of my mind too. But the value
Christine: Oh yeah.
Verity: bring is, you know,
Christine: Oh
Emily: And that's, and that's the hard trade off, right? And there's so many, um, platforms that can tick so many boxes, but none of them quite tick. All the
Christine: yes.
Emily: has just become astronomical past a certain point of people as
Verity: Yeah, that's right. Um, so it's, yeah, it's finding that balance between like, okay, what do I need? Like what do I
Christine: Yep.
Verity: right now? And then what do I want to do?
Christine: Yeah. Yeah. And you know, and yes, how easy it is it to maintain and also the user experience is so important, um, as well. Yeah.
Verity: Yeah.
Christine: Oh, goodness me. Oh God, I love this.
Emily: this
Christine: Oh
Emily: everything you've
Christine: yeah, yeah. Sorry. We said we were fangirling and we really, we really are.
Emily: Like, let just process this information.
Christine: We've, we've had a couple, we've had a couple of, um, podcast guests where, you know, um, one that went out this week was with, um, recently it was, um, with this awesome lady, Rebecca Lamberton. And it's like, you know, that moment of imposter syndrome, you know, you're good at what you're doing and you, there's always that room for improvement and lifelong learning and everything, but you go, oh, it feels.
Christine: So dumb compared to this person or something, you know? It's like, oh my God. So we've had a few like this where it's like, oh, I'm really, really admiring what you do, how you're doing, and you are one of them. It's great. Yeah. Yeah.
Verity: Thank
Christine: Yeah.
Verity: But it, it, it is, it is definitely, yeah. It's not without its downsides as
Christine: Oh. Oh gosh, no. And you know what I, when I started my business, um, in 2020, and, you know, my sister's been in business, um, for my younger sister in business for, you know, a long time, and her, she married a husband who owned his own business. And I knew they worked really, really hard. I really did. But it's not till.
Christine: You actually get in your own business that you realize I had no fucking idea how hard you work in your businesses because it is, it's not, no. Or Monday to Friday, um, kind thing. Um, so yes.
Emily: sleep.
Christine: the importance is really that to the people on the outside, the people having a look at your website, in your Facebook group, it looks lovely and easy.
Christine: You've got a service and, and a community, um, an education that you're offering. You don't want them to know how hard you work behind the scenes. Um. But it pays off when they're, yeah, they're in your community and they're getting your memberships and, and telling people about it, but obviously we know that not many people have to talk about you because everyone knows trade wise.
Christine: Like seriously. Yeah.
Verity: I'm just happy that it helps you know.
Christine: Yeah. Yeah.
Emily: like you could give, um, presentations on quite literally the power of branding and how you came up with your branding and how well that is, is trended for you since you started. And even the fact like building a community and I'm sitting here being like, there's so many things you could just lecture us
Christine: Mm-hmm.
Emily: all take so
Christine: Mm. Yeah.
Emily: from your experience,
Verity: Honestly, if you ever wanna know anything, I'm so always happy to share my experience
Christine: No.
Verity: it's, it's, uh, it's, and, and that's goes with saying like we were talking about before, like that journey of doing things on your own a lot of the time. And, um, also, like for me, it was sort of doing something that no one had done before.
Christine: Yeah.
Verity: there was no one else that had done this. Um, so I couldn't really follow anyone and what they've done, you know.
Emily: nice though, but you also trusted yourself enough. To not like, yes, you probably were afraid and
Verity: Yeah.
Emily: said, thought about like, oh God, what am I doing? No
Verity: Yeah,
Emily: But you did it
Verity: yeah.
Emily: You, you walked through your own imposter syndrome and your own fear at it all. And look at this absolute amazing thing you have created
Verity: Yeah.
Emily: a ricochet effect for trusting yourself. that's, you know, people need to do more of that. I think.
Verity: Yeah. I think as well, that is, that's something to be said, like just believing in the vision, um, is what stops me from just, yeah, like the days when it's hard and packing it all in, I go, no, I, I really believe this. And I was actually talking to someone who's got a really big, well-known business, um, but he. was saying that he sold his house because he believed in this business so much that he literally sold his house to use the money to reinvest back into the business. Now the business is listed on the stock exchange. It's like, uh, turning over, you know, millions and millions and millions of
Christine: Oh my God.
Verity: was like, he said to me, you know, you just, gotta back yourself. You know,
Christine: Yep.
Verity: think that, if you really believe in what you're doing in the vision. No matter what setbacks you have and who all the knockdowns you get, because you'll get a lot of them, you've just gotta keep backing yourself if you really believe in it.
Christine: Yep. True. Yep.
Emily: uh, you know, I believe that so strongly. And it's crazy hearing stories like that too, like being at a, the thought of being able to throw in all your financial security. Like, it's such a huge gamble and I feel like nowadays people are a bit more risk adverse to
Christine: Mm.
Emily: But it's so important to definitely, um, to definitely back, back yourself, which, and it made me think as you grow, as you grew, did you, um. Find yourself going, I need like a business coach, or I need someone to help. Give me some guidance along the way with how to structure this.
Verity: I did. I did and I did it. And I, I, I think that, um. I'm relatively intuitive and I think I did some business coaching and, well, I did some business coaching and it was hard because I, I think the business coaches never really understood. What it was and what
Christine: Yep.
Verity: that sometimes they'd offer advice and I'd go, that's not right.
Verity: That's not right,
Christine: Yeah.
Verity: work.
Emily: yeah, yeah,
Christine: And you gotta trust your gut.
Verity: Yeah.
Christine: Yeah.
Verity: this is our model. And they'd sort of talk to me like, this is the way I do my business. This is my model.
Christine: Mm.
Verity: I do. This is what you have to replicate. And I'd be like. No, it's not
Christine: Yeah. No, no, no.
Verity: I'd get the advice and I'd take on board their advice and what they did on their end, but I was like, I know that that won't work for me.
Christine: Yeah.
Verity: Um,
Emily: yeah,
Verity: so it, it sort of, it, it was good. Like, and I did learn a few things, but it just wasn't, it didn't fit. um, I have done another, um, course just recently, um, in sales because that's sort of something that we don't have a lot of confidence even now. We still
Christine: Yeah.
Verity: a lot of confidence in. Um, but that she was actually, she got to, trady wise, she was like, yeah, I get it.
Verity: I understand what you're coming from. So that was a lot easier to, um, get her advice on a lot of things. But I think that it is, um. is really good to look to professional support, especially when outsourcing things. I think that having those people that have, you know, you as an entrepreneur, we know that we can spend hours and hours and hours trying to do things on our own, if you, that would be an hour for somebody else who, you know, is skilled and knows what they're doing.
Christine: Oh, a,
Verity: that,
Christine: a, absolutely. And it's so important, but also not being afraid to, you know, if you, if you don't get the vibe with someone, um, it doesn't, you know, they're fine. It doesn't take away from their skillset, but it's a vibe thing, isn't it? So,
Verity: Yeah.
Christine: uh, we have a client who is a, um, in the business coach in the not-for-profit sector, and I, she's often like somebody says, oh, can I try another one of the coaches?
Christine: It's absolutely, yeah. 'cause you, you, you know, when you are doing. Mentoring and coaching. There is a certain, there's vulnerability in that, both personally and professionally. And so you have to be very comfortable. But also, you know your business more than the coach. And so, you know, and if they don't get it,
Verity: yeah,
Christine: not going to be a value add.
Verity: yeah.
Christine: and that's even with someone offering, you know, you're outsourcing for another service, they've still gotta get your business. Yeah.
Verity: And this is why with the directory, I didn't just want person
Christine: Mm-hmm.
Verity: the directory. I wanted people to be able to choose from multiple
Christine: Yes.
Verity: I know as well, like I had an old accountant and like. Lovely, lovely, lovely man. Very old school, older, um, and I'd call him about, you know, questions about my tax and I'd end up being more confused than I was before I called
Christine: Yeah.
Verity: off the phone,
Christine: Yep.
Verity: stressful and so,
Emily: And finance is a big one
Verity: yeah.
Emily: wanna make sure you are comfortable understanding
Verity: Yes.
Emily: like it's so, it's so important,
Verity: right. And now I have an accountant that I call up and I'll be like, you know, I'm not afraid to ask silly questions. Or
Christine: Yeah.
Verity: him and I go, Hey, this, this, and this. And he goes, Verde, that calculation doesn't even make any sense. And I'm like, oh
Emily: It's Gibb.
Verity: yeah.
Emily: Yeah.
Verity: He's like, how did you work that out? And I'm like,
Emily: Yeah. You so need that. And we've had the same experience with our business around, especially with accountants, and we've, we're lucky to have someone that's exactly the same as that, that can like
Christine: Talk English to us.
Emily: Yeah. And answer any like dumb question that we
Christine: Yeah.
Emily: all the millions of
Christine: Yeah.
Emily: have as well.
Emily: But he helps us understand what, you know, what is the, the bare truth in front of
Verity: Yeah.
Emily: Um, and yeah, so important and having that ability to be able to match people together with, with the right services is, is so
Verity: Yeah. And it's gotta be the right fit. And like you said, Chris, if they're not. Move on. You know,
Christine: Yeah.
Emily: yeah.
Verity: Okay.
Emily: in
Verity: They're
Christine: Yep.
Verity: great at what they do, but not quite for me. Let's
Christine: Yep,
Verity: else.
Christine: yep, yep. Absolutely.
Emily: Chris and my, my main business is exactly that. We provide services to small businesses to help them with all, like from a range of services that we can provide. And it's exactly that. Like we're very straight up with that. You need to fit, it needs to
Verity: Yeah.
Emily: and we need to work the same way.
Emily: Not everyone
Verity: Yeah.
Emily: way and not everyone, you know, speaks the same language. And some people click, some people don't. And that's super fine. You gotta find the right fit for you.
Christine: Yeah.
Emily: need your, you need this. What we provide as a service shouldn't be a stress.
Verity: Yeah,
Emily: It shouldn't be a stressor. We're here to take the pressure off
Verity: exactly.
Emily: and not make you feel worse
Verity: Exactly.
Emily: it's so
Christine: Yes.
Emily: Mm,
Christine: Yeah. Oh, goodness me. Well, I'm watching our recording clock disappear very, very quickly, um, kind of thing. And I'm feeling like we could, you know, we always end this verity by saying, oh gosh, we could talk forever and we can,
Verity: we,
Christine: you know, recording, you know, dis. Appears very quickly, and I mean, luckily we haven't gone on too many tangents today, which is very unusual for us.
Christine: But that's, that's just because we want to, um, absorb a lot of you, um, in, in all of this.
Emily: normally me that tangents
Christine: That's right.
Verity: We're, we're all practicing still for strength.
Christine: That's right. Absolutely. Um, but I wanted to ask you, um, a final question, um, for today, and it's a question that I ask all of our wonderful podcast guests, and that is, what is your, um, bucket list travel destination?
Verity: Gosh, that's a hard question.
Emily: I know because, I mean, I have 50 million places I'd go
Christine: Yes.
Verity: Oh my gosh. Um.
Emily: gave you a blank, a blank check, that was like travel, go anywhere. Where would be like anywhere? Pop into your head immediately?
Verity: Oh, so many places. But the one, like, I have never been to Greece and I would love to do the Greek Islands.
Christine: Yep.
Verity: to sail around them. Love to go to Greece. but I, I always think about the, um, you know, the bucket list, the movie,
Christine: Yes.
Verity: and he is like, He says one of his bucket list things is, I really wanna see something majestic.
Christine: Yeah,
Verity: And I'm like that, I've always thought about that. I dunno where that place is yet, but something that really just, you know, like takes your breath away. Um,
Christine: Gets into your soul. Yeah.
Verity: yeah. That, and I dunno, I dunno where that is yet, but, um, but I'm on a mission, so if that blank check could hurry up, that would be great.
Emily: it
Christine: Yeah. I know. I'm waiting for mine.
Emily: Yeah, I know. It's,
Christine: Oh.
Emily: great way of thinking about it. And as you said that, we actually interviewed someone the other day who, um, immediately answered with Copenhagen
Verity: Oh
Emily: said that she wanted to live there because she's been there before, but she's just loves it so much.
Emily: She could imagine living there and I would imagine she'd say it's somewhere majestic. 'cause it's clearly gotten to her enough that she'd live there
Christine: Mm-hmm.
Emily: if she could.
Verity: Yeah,
Christine: Yeah,
Verity: that.
Christine: yeah. No, me too. Um,
Emily: answer.
Christine: Ty, thank you so, so much for joining Emily and I today.
Emily: Thank you so
Verity: Thank you for having me. It's such a pleasure.
Emily: Pleasure. We were so excited to talk
Verity: Oh,
Emily: so
Verity: I'm equal. I was equally as excited, honestly. Like, I, I'm just, it's just, yeah. It so awesome to, to chat to people who, you know, also just get it, you know.
Christine: Yeah. Yeah, abs absolutely. And we've made it in time because my son's just come home from school and so now the dog's getting up and moving.
Verity: fluffy
Christine: Yes, yes, yes. I do have a fluffy tail there. Uh, so my house is now very noisy, so. Whew. Thank God we got through.
Verity: just in time.
Christine: Absolutely. Yes. We can probably stop recording. Yes.
Emily: if, um, for people to wanna find you, we'll obviously link all
Christine: Yes.
Emily: through the show notes, but what, what is your best, I mean, obviously the Facebook group, is this the big one on
Verity: Yeah, probably, probably even the website because the website's got every single link in there, um, you can find. So it's just trady wives.com
Christine: Great.
Emily: Yeah.
Christine: Fantastic.
Emily: right, well thank you so much. I will, uh, we'll bid you a farewell, but I'll stop the recording so we can talk
Verity: Okay, cool.
Emily: that. Yeah. Thanks to everyone who's listening. Uh, check out the show notes and we'll be back again. Thanks.
Christine: bye.
Verity: bye.
