Ep 122: You’re Playing Small. You Know It
By Charlotte Cummings | Feel Better Podcast
Backing Yourself, Even When It Feels Messy
There are some conversations that stay with you long after they’re finished.
This was one of them.
I sat down recently with Georgia () because she’s someone who has this really clear ability to back herself. There’s a boldness to how she moves through the world that I think a lot of women quietly admire, but don’t always feel they have access to themselves.
And I found myself really curious about that.
Not in a “how do you do it perfectly” kind of way, but in a “what’s actually going on under the surface that allows you to make those kinds of decisions” kind of way.
Because from the outside, it can look like confidence. But when you start unpacking it, it’s often something a bit more layered than that.
You don’t have to follow the expected path
One of the things that stood out early in our conversation was how naturally Georgia seems to question the idea that there’s a “right” way to do things.
Whether it was her upbringing, becoming a mum, or how she’s built her business, there was this consistent thread of making decisions based on what actually made sense for her — not what would look right to other people.
That sounds simple when you say it like that, but in reality, it’s not.
Because most of us are constantly navigating the noise of what we think we should be doing. What other people expect. What feels acceptable.
And stepping outside of that doesn’t feel comfortable. It often comes with judgement, or at the very least, the fear of it.
She spoke about going back to work when her baby was four months old, and the thing that struck me wasn’t just the decision itself, but the response around it. The judgement didn’t come from where you might expect. It came from people in a similar stage of life.
And I think that’s something many women will recognise.
There’s often this quiet pressure to do things a certain way, and when you don’t, it can feel like you’re constantly explaining yourself — or worse, feeling like you’re letting someone down, no matter what you choose.
You can love your life and still feel overwhelmed in it
What I appreciated about this conversation was how honest it was about the messier parts of building a life that actually fits you.
Because it’s easy to look at someone who is running a business, growing a team, raising a child, and think they’ve somehow figured it out in a way that feels smooth or contained.
But that wasn’t the reality she described.
Last year, for her, was a lot. A new baby. Business growth. A team expanding. Renovations that went far longer than expected. Personal stress layered on top of all of that.
It wasn’t neat. It wasn’t balanced. It was a lot of moving parts, all at once.
And I think that’s important to say out loud, because sometimes we assume that if something feels hard, we must be doing it wrong.
But often, it’s just that we’re in a season that is hard.
The piece that really stayed with me was how often she felt like she was letting someone down. That no matter which direction she turned, there was always a sense that something — or someone — wasn’t getting her full attention.
That’s such a familiar experience for so many women, especially when you’re holding multiple roles at once.
And there isn’t a perfect solution to that.
There’s just the ongoing practice of making choices, adjusting, and learning to live with the fact that you can’t do everything, all at the same time, perfectly.
Letting people help is part of how this works
One of the things that allowed her to navigate that season was being willing to bring other people in.
Her partner stepping in. Her mum helping. Hiring a nanny. Growing her team.
And she spoke about that quite practically, but I think there’s something deeper in it too.
Because for a lot of women, that’s the part that feels hardest.
We’ll keep pushing ourselves. We’ll keep trying to do more, be more, hold more. And asking for help — or even accepting it — can feel uncomfortable in a way that’s hard to explain.
There can be guilt. There can be judgement. There can be this sense that we should be able to manage it all ourselves.
But there’s also a point where continuing to do that just isn’t sustainable.
And I think there’s something powerful in recognising that bringing people in doesn’t mean you’re failing. It’s often the thing that allows everything else to keep working.
Backing yourself doesn’t mean it feels easy
Another thread that ran through the conversation was this idea of making “brave calls.”
The kinds of decisions that move your life forward, but don’t necessarily feel comfortable at the time.
Encouraging her partner to leave his job and start his own business. Continuing to invest in her own business during a year that already felt stretched. Putting herself out there more publicly, even when that didn’t come naturally.
These aren’t small decisions.
And they don’t come without risk.
But what stood out to me was that she wasn’t describing someone who never doubts herself or never feels discomfort. It was more a willingness to sit alongside that discomfort and keep moving anyway.
There was also this really grounded approach to it — looking at the numbers, thinking things through, being realistic about what’s required.
It wasn’t reckless. It was intentional.
And I think that’s an important distinction, because “backing yourself” can sometimes be interpreted as just jumping without thinking.
But what she described was much more considered than that.
You don’t need permission to want more
We also talked about ambition, and I think this is an area where many women still hold themselves back.
There can be this quiet hesitation around wanting more. More income, more growth, more impact.
Almost like it needs to be justified.
But what came through really clearly was that you are allowed to want a big life. You’re allowed to design something that actually excites you.
The part that often gets missed is that wanting those things also comes with trade-offs.
You don’t get everything, all at once, without cost.
Sometimes it means missing things. Sometimes it means investing money or time in ways that feel uncomfortable. Sometimes it means doing things that other people don’t understand.
But that doesn’t make it wrong.
It just makes it yours.
It’s okay to not have it all figured out
One of the most grounding parts of the conversation was hearing her reflect on those early weeks of motherhood and how alone she felt in trying to do things differently.
Wanting both — a business and a family — but not seeing many people around her doing it in the same way.
And I think that’s something that so many women carry quietly.
The sense that they’re figuring it out as they go, without a clear roadmap.
What she said she would have needed in that moment was simply hearing someone say, “it’s going to be okay.”
Not perfectly managed. Not beautifully balanced. But okay.
And I think that’s something worth holding onto.
Because most of the time, we’re not doing it wrong.
We’re just doing it in real time.
A different way to think about what’s possible
If there was one idea that really anchored this conversation, it was this:
What if you spent more time thinking about what could go right?
Not in a naïve or unrealistic way, but as a counterbalance to how naturally we tend to focus on what could go wrong.
Because most of us are very good at planning for worst case scenarios.
But we don’t always give the same attention to what might actually work out.
And sometimes, shifting that lens — even slightly — is enough to change the kinds of decisions we’re willing to make.
This felt like one of those conversations that gives you something subtle but important to take away.
Not a big, dramatic shift.
Just a slightly different way of thinking about how you move through your life, your work, and the decisions in front of you.
And sometimes, that’s exactly what’s needed.
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One of the key reasons why I wanted to sit down and have a chat with you today is you are really inspiring for the extent to which you back yourself. And you talk about how you're a fan of brave calls and there is a boldness to you that is really admirable.
And I think there are a lot of women that need to have a little kind of dose of that in their lives and to be encouraged to make their bold steps and back themselves and believe in themselves. So I think every now and then you come across someone and you think, oh, I want to understand how they work. What's going on in their mind that allows them to bring themselves forward in the world the way they do? So dangerous.
Yes, but we need more dangerous women and we need people to back themselves in this world. So I'm excited to have a chat about the inner workings of Georgia. Excellent.
Yeah. How cool. My best friend through school was a George as well.
So I'm used to having a girl George in my life. So tell us the Georgia backstory. I grew up on a lifestyle block just outside of Christchurch, just north of the city.
And we grew up, me and my sister, with motorbikes, horses. My dad ran a tourism business, so he did jet boat rides. So we were very much sort of, I guess, forced into being top boys.
Yeah. We learned how to drive when we were really little and just, I think, being dad's extra set of hands, we had no other option but learn how to back a trailer and change a tire and all that good stuff, which was cool. Yeah.
That makes me so excited raising a girl on a 10 acre block. I know she's going to know how to do some things. Yeah.
Yeah. No, it's good. And what did you learn from your upbringing? You're seeing your dad backing you in things and also seeing your mum, who was a working mum too.
Yes. Yep. So mum, she was full-time working and I also grew up, my Nana had always worked right through, but they were so encouraging and, quick, get up, get dressed, on we go, and this is what we're doing.
And even though you're nine, you can come to the shop and you can be doing all the ticketing and you can wrap the presents and, yep, pop that through the till and upsell. So learning how to sell in a retail environment from a young age was great because it really got to, I guess, hone my people skills and selling, and selling is so much fun, especially when you're selling cool products. So I do miss being on the shop floor and any of our retail clients now, I'm like, oh, do you need me to come into store for a few hours? Oh, you love it.
I do. It's really, really good. Really good.
I grew up with a dad who had a pharmacy and I totally think that that sense of customer service and getting to know people, being able to kind of look after people is so helpful in life, hey? I think so. And I think really learning about the whole user experience from start to finish and that you, I mean, in a shop, it's such a cool, small environment where you can completely control that user experience. And I think from a brand perspective, a lot of brands think, oh, we've done our branding, we've got our four colours and our logo and, yeah, but your brand is everything.
It's the way you make people feel, the music, all the little small touch points that you have. And I think learning that from a really young age, it just feels like it's just hardwired into me that, you know, brand and retail. Yeah.
And also important for learning to be a nice human, because if you're a terrible person to people in shops, that is a bad indicator. Oh, it's real bad. I feel like you can tell people who never worked in retail.
And I feel like at Christmas time, if you've ever worked in retail, you show up quite differently when you're shopping. You definitely do. So Georgia, tell me, what is your current coffee order and how consistent is that with your personality? My coffee order has always been a small flat white, half a sugar, but very tiny.
I just can't handle a big milky flat white when they come out. It's got to be a teeny tiny little six ounce cup. So efficient, milky, sweet.
Just a bit like a half sugar. So it's just like a little wee wink. Take the edge off.
So good. And are you a fan of summer or winter? I actually like winter. Yeah, winter, winter girly, like Shiraz, sit by the fire, some record on.
So good. And if you had a plane ticket to anywhere, where would you be going? Oh, it's really hard. Probably, probably back to Copenhagen.
I love Denmark. Oh, favorite place. It's very cool.
I mean, it's actually Copenhagen sort of feels similar to Christchurch. It's not huge, but everyone is just so effortless and stylish and cool. And yeah, it's a good place.
I haven't been. It's very cool. And if you lived somewhere else in the world, where would you live? Honestly, this sounds so cliche, but I could not imagine living anywhere else.
I really couldn't. I love Christchurch. I love New Zealand.
And I just couldn't imagine living, not living here. Wow. Good answer.
And current best thing about motherhood? Uh, Fred this morning put his little arms up when I was giving him breakfast and said like mama for the first time, like really fully intentionally, which was so cute. So I'm really enjoying now, like how playful and, and sort of engaged. And yeah, it's just really cool.
Oh, you're about to get so much back. That's a such a cool stage when they can tell you what they're thinking, what they want. Yeah.
So not as good. Yeah. It's good.
That's good. Oh, fun era. Mum and dad had me when they were young.
So I was a plot twist from day one. I wasn't, I had planned, um, which sort of, I think it's actually quite fitting for a lot of the decisions I make is just, yeah, be the plot twist. You don't have to follow rules or a plan or anything rigid.
Just go with it. And yeah. What you've shared there makes me think about how the voice that we use with our children becomes the internalized voice and the importance as parents of really backing our children's moves and being that kind of encouraging what's the worst that could happen voice.
Definitely. And I also like to think about asking yourself the question, well, what's the best that could happen? Because I think we always default to what if it doesn't work out, but what if it does? Yeah. What if it's more amazing than you could ever possibly imagine? And I think that's really important to, to focus on the positive.
So now you've found yourself leading a team of women and with this great wee business and cool team of ladies with you, how has that mindset shift kind of happened into actually I'm someone who can lead other people and not only can I do this, but I can bring other people into this too. Somewhat accidentally, if I'm completely honest, I never sort of set out to have like this many staff and this is exactly what my business would look like. But in saying that I've been intentional that I knew I wanted to grow the team.
I knew I couldn't be profitable. A mom have time for life outside of work if it was just me. Yeah.
And, but I also knew I didn't want to have this huge mammoth, big business. So I've been very intentional in the way that I've only wanted to have probably maybe a team of six, maybe eight would be probably the biggest that I'd want to go and instead work with really, really great people that are just fun, good humans. I think you can teach skill.
You can't teach attitude. Yeah. I mean, maybe to some degree you can, but I think having people that want to be there and have like a like-minded attitude is really good.
So yeah. Nice. And so one of the things that you really specialize in is brand and helping people get really clear about that.
And this whole concept of brand and particularly personal brand is only growing. I'm really keen to hear what your thoughts are on the importance of personal brand and what people might be thinking about when they consider how they're putting themselves out there in the world. I think it's really important, but ironically, I hated the idea of putting myself out there for a really long time.
George Design only has had social media for, I think, like the last three years. Yeah. I just didn't, I don't know what it was.
I just sort of thought, oh, I just want to sort of sling under the radar and do the work. And then I realized, stop being such an egg. You are such a big asset in your business.
You need to show up and share your ideas. And I think too, I felt sort of hard to connect with other people online. And then I realized, well, there's probably a lot of other women out there that are reluctantly, you know, like holding back and don't want to put themselves out there either.
And just have to put a big girl pants on. And then you realize it's actually not that scary. And there's a lot of people that resonate with what you have to say and connect with people.
And then I think too, the more you put yourself out there, the more you find who is really right to work with you and who's not. And I think it's just as important when you put yourself out there in a brand perspective to actually turn people away. And then it's really clear, okay, no, that's not the person for me.
Good. That's cool. You couldn't possibly work with everybody.
So I think it's important to not show up for everybody and try and be everything to everybody either in your brand. But from a mental health perspective, that one gets kind of funky really quickly, doesn't it? Because we don't want to be rejected. We don't want to fail at something.
We don't want to offend people. We don't want to disappoint other people. So there's a real mental health element that comes into that of actually if we are to be our true selves, not everyone is going to like us.
How do you see that impacting women who are trying to start businesses? I think if you have actually done some strategy work before you get online and you're actually really clear on what your business stands for, what you stand for, what you're here to do in the market, it's far easier to then deal with that rejection because you actually know and you're solid and that's actually okay. I'm okay for that person to comment because you've done that work up front. And I think too, if you do get comments or if people disagree with what you have to say, like good, that's another opportunity where you can even like double down on why you believe what you believe.
And look, if you get a really spicy comment, just block and delete them. Don't actually let it get to you. It's not worth the brainpower.
Yeah, but there's a sense where we want the right people to reject us, where we actually want to be for these people and not those people. Definitely. Yeah.
Yes. A hundred percent. And yeah.
I was talking to one of my kids about brand on the weekend. So, you know, for reference, my kids are six, eight and ten. Yes.
And I think that young people now have to be so much more aware of how they're presenting themselves because that follows them around in a way that, you know, my ten-year-old's got a YouTube channel. I'm like, you already have to start to be really aware of what you do and say and how you present yourself. And, you know, that those people that you are meeting who are currently your sports coaches or your, you know, people, you know, in this context are going to be the same people that you might go looking for a job from in six, seven, eight years time.
So that significance of brand for this next generation is going to be so important, hey? I think so. But I also think for younger people, don't hold back on being who you are. I think it's really important to have the different opinion and don't be afraid to think outside the box a little bit.
And which I think, you know, even pre-social media when you're at school, everyone wanted to fit in and you didn't want to be the outsider. But I actually think that's going to be a really powerful thing for people that actually are different. They will be the ones, especially with AI and yeah, things have been able to be replicated really quickly.
I think those who will succeed are the ones that aren't afraid to be different, think differently. And everyone goes left, go right, straight upside down. Well that bodes well for one of my kids.
That's good news. Yeah, I think so. Yeah.
One of the things that is interesting about you is that you didn't take maternity leave. You were really clear on actually, I've got business goals right now and absolutely, yes, I want to become a mum and I'm going to love my child and be there for my child. Also, there's going to be some business in the mix.
I went back to work when my little one was four months old and actually like role switch with my husband. He stayed home for that first kind of chapter of time and we actually found the judgment of our own generation the worst. The older generation, like, you know, you were talking about your grandmother, your mum, they backed and respected us.
And, you know, they had often had to have jobs of some description in the mix too. But our generation was super judgy about it. How have you found becoming a mum and the judgment of others? I sort of agree with that.
I hated going to mother's groups. I quit really quickly. Yeah, yeah.
I think, you know, I would agree. I think it was the probably people my age or sort of within like a 10 or 15 year age bracket, definitely questioning or just judging. And then too, there's so many other elements on top of breastfeeding and what you're feeding them.
And it's just it's very judgy, very quickly, very, very judgy. And also, I just couldn't handle talking about, you know, your sleep regression cycle. I mean, I'm probably getting all that all back to front.
And I mean, I knew I always wanted to have babies. I knew I always wanted to be a mum. But I don't think I've ever been like a super maternal, not the person that sort of rushes up to all the babies if there is an event.
Yeah. Isn't that terrible to say? No, not at all. Not at all.
And I love my little boy so much. He brings so much joy. But I know that work is such a big part of who I am.
It's not it's not everything, but I get so much enjoyment and it really fills my cup up that I just knew I couldn't I couldn't be a stay at home mum. I had to keep going in some capacity. Did I think the last year would roll how it did? Absolutely not.
It was mental. Yeah. But it was it was good.
And I think if someone had put down on a piece of paper in front of me and said, right, this is everything that's going to happen in twenty twenty five, I would have said absolutely not. That's just that's mental. But yeah, just tell me about twenty twenty five.
So I had my wee boy at the end of twenty four. He was born basically right before Christmas. So I had a couple of weeks off while we shut the shut the studio over Christmas break and then started back in January a few days a week.
My husband was also doing a lot of freelance work outside of his nine to five job. And I just said to him, you can't keep. This is so unsustainable.
We're just burning the candle at both ends. Look, I think you should just quit your job and start your own thing. Yeah.
So now I've got two people with their own thing going on. He's like, really? I was like, yes, come on. It'll be great.
Yeah. Off we go. You just hand in your resignation letter and then we'll be away.
Wow. So he did that and he got really busy, which was great. But it definitely gave us more flexibility that we weren't rigid.
We had a nanny helping us. My mom was also helping us as well. So we had a sort of a Tetris system of who was where, when, which was good.
I love it that so often when you ask a busy woman how her life works, the answer is grandma. Like God bless the grandmas. I know.
God bless. So yeah, we had a very sort of systematic process happening. Then at the same time, I was also dealing with a sort of like personal family situation, which was quite stressful at the same time as renovating our office.
So I sort of thought we'd be out of the office for maybe three or four months. While that reno took place, it was 13 months that we were out. So we were sort of displaced.
We'd signed a couple of big clients, which was amazing. I hired another team member in April and then another one in August and September. So we had a lot of growth happening.
Fred was a delicious baby, but he was very hard at the start. Very, very tricky. So I mean, it's all good stuff.
It was just a very messy year of trying to balance, I guess, all the little lives that I had at work and trying to be the best boss that I could possibly be, continue to deliver client work at a really high standard while we were growing. And then we didn't really have a home base. And I was so conscious of that too, that the girls felt they were still really enjoying coming to work.
So it was just lots, lots of spinning plates last year. And I think everything's sort of landed now, which is a really nice feeling. What do you do when you get overwhelmed? Cry in the shower for a minute, let it all out.
Yeah. I think it's really important. I mean, I just know I'll blow if I don't let off some steam.
Reformer Pilates is really good because I can't think about anything else other than don't fall off. Yes, yes. That's a really good way to completely shut off.
But last year I was terrible. I did not prioritize me at all. I wasn't exercising.
I know I wasn't eating right. I had very minimal sleep. It was just full survival mode.
So this year I've tried to be a lot more intentional about making time to look after me because I just knew if I had another year of running on empty, it would be real bad. Yeah, yeah. And I think so often those surviving seasons we actually have to give ourselves permission for because they're totally okay.
You've set the foundation for this year that can look different where you can introduce some of your own goals again. And how good is that? So good. Yeah, so good.
Yeah. I think in motherhood, one of the skills we have to practice is forgiving ourselves that we can actually go like that was okay because that was for that time or I was just doing my best there. Have you already hit a bit of that? Yes, and but last year was hard because I think I was always thinking I was letting someone down.
Yeah. Like no matter what choice I made. Yeah.
Yeah, there was always someone that was the loser in the situation. And I'm so grateful. I have a, I can't even say the word husband.
I feel way too young. No. My boyfriend.
Yeah. He is amazing. And he was really great last year and picked up a lot of the slack and there was a lot.
So that was good. So one of the things clearly there is that you let other people help you. And that is something I hear so often from women they really struggle with.
They'll just keep trying to over function or pedal harder to get more done. But letting your husband, your mom help you bringing on more team members to help you. That's obviously been something that you've been good at doing over the last period of time.
Yes. And I think because I always preach to GSI, get someone in, don't DIY. And, you know, from, I guess, a work perspective, get someone in to help you do your marketing and upgrade your website.
And, you know, you have got talents in this area. Don't try and do every single thing. And I thought, well, I have to live and breathe that in my own life as well.
So I'm going to hire people that are better at me in certain areas. I'm going to get a cleaner. I'm going to have a nanny to help us.
And because I knew I would have just combusted if I thought there was absolutely no way I could do everything. And the guilt though, feeling like I've got all these people in to help do all these different things and have to get in the car, put Missy Elliott on and have a good same session. Be like, just don't worry about what anyone else thinks, which is so, so hard to do.
Yeah. What do you tell yourself when you do kind of find yourself in that, like worried about people thinking things about you state? I probably let it get to me for a little bit. And then I just, I honestly, I don't know what it is.
I just don't worry about it. And they're not here at four o'clock in the morning and seeing you get up and feed your wee baby. And they're not seeing that all the things that you're doing, they're judging you on such a small part that they're seeing.
And also if they want to spend their time and energy worrying about me. Well, that's a bit sad for you. One of the things I love about this chat though, Georgia, is that something that happens for women, especially all the time is that they go, oh, this is nothing special.
Like, oh, well, you just, you know, you just do this or I just believe this. And then other women hear it and they go, oh, that's so inspiring. I'm not like that.
I can grab that. But it feels natural for you because you've got some great ways of thinking there and some really good beliefs about, well, if I want to grow, then I have to do this. This is actually like a discomfort that I have to sit with, that I can sit with, that is going to allow me the growth I want and the life that I want.
And I've always wanted to have and do have a fantastic life. Like that is a non-negotiable. I want to live big and fast and slow.
And I bought a wonderful book called The Art of Joy by Jen Severs, I think is how you pronounce her last name. And honestly, I read that whole thing cover to cover in like a day. It was just so cool.
And she talked about you being really intentional and having in designing your life. And I think a lot of people don't do that. They think I've got the life I've got and that's all I've got.
And that's all I'll ever have. No, you can have whatever life you want, but you have to be prepared that there'll be sacrifices and you can't do everything. And that might mean that you have to miss some occasions or it's going to, you know, it's expensive, some decisions that you have to make.
And I think last year was a very expensive year. I invested a lot back into the business and I don't know why, but I think sometimes women can be really scared of investing into their own personal growth and their businesses. And I think you can't possibly do it all if you don't invest and then also think about, what's the best that could happen and not always be thinking, yeah, have a growth mindset.
Yeah. Nice. Yeah.
And one thing that you talk about lots is brave calls and you tend to work, at least from what I've seen with a lot of women, a lot of female clients, there's some really interesting research that I quote all the time about women's self-concept and how we have this professional lag of five years, that we actually sit five years behind in terms of estimating what we're capable of. So I know that you sit across the table often from women who are sitting on the edge of businesses or trying to make their businesses really flourish, who need to back themselves, need to make those brave calls. What's your advice to women in those spaces? One question I've been asking recently is, what are the problems that you'd like to have in five years? Because we're always going to have, there's always going to be a challenge and a problem.
And I think, let's think big and think about, well, what are the problems that you'd want to face down the track? And is that, I've got so much work on, do I get a VA or hire someone? Do I change my services? So that's one. I would also say, reverse engineer what you want out of your business. Like how much do you want to be paying yourself? If you've left a job, what's the number? Is it 50,000, 80, 100, 200? How do we make sure that we can pay you first? Profit First is a great book for anybody that wants to think about how to structure all their accounting and back into their business.
Because I think a lot of women too, haven't run those numbers and thought about, okay, well, if I need to be bringing in this amount of month to pay myself this, this is the revenue I need to be making. Let's factor in marketing or your overheads or your costs. And yeah, like you can have some big, audacious, juicy goals.
Let's just plan out and see how we can make it work. Move towards those things backwards. Backwards, yes.
And don't be like afraid or embarrassed to have a lot of ambition and want to go after things. I think sometimes, I mean, I don't know if it's just New Zealand and tall poppy syndrome that if you want too much, you've sort of cut down and, or if you start to succeed, oh, she only got that because of this and this. But actually, no, it's okay to have big juicy goals and let's make them happen.
Cool. I know that you listened to the podcast episode I did with Cara. Yes.
About the balance of masculine and feminine energy. Well, that was one of the things that we talked about. Yes.
And I think that my reflection on that is so often when we see women who are doing well, they're actually doing that balance. They've got a bit of the ambition and the hustle and the business mindedness, that kind of masculine side of things. And then they've also got a feminine like desire for flourishing and creativity and soft skills and lots of those other kind of things that we would characterize as feminine skills.
I think you're doing quite a bit of that blend. I'd like to think so now. I definitely, I think, yeah, I think right at the start, it was definitely more masculine energy of hustling and, but then balancing with a lot of imposter syndrome.
And I think that's probably why I didn't want to put myself out there for a very long time. I think I only joined up to LinkedIn maybe six months ago. I hate LinkedIn.
Oh, it's just, yeah. I mean, I'm still a little bit allergic to LinkedIn, but I think also knowing that you can kind of ride the wave of going between the two of masculine and feminine energy. And yeah, it's important to have that balance, but I think, you know, when you are too far leaning into that masculine energy.
And I think one of the things that's happened that I see a lot amongst people around me is they've built like side hustles and actually the side hustle is where they want to be. And sometimes for women in a certain kind of stage of life, there is a, okay, well I'll build this side hustle and I'll hope and pray that it comes to become something else that I can kind of move and leap towards. But often there's a need to really back yourself in that side hustle space, get help from other people and kind of, you know, really bet on yourself with that.
What's your advice for people trying to make a side hustle flourish? I think again, the first thing I'd start with is the numbers and be really realistic and go, I'm about to leave a job that pays me a hundred thousand dollars. And as a minimum, I want to replace my income. What does that look like? How many, you know, if I'm selling something for $29 or a thousand dollars, like what's the revenue I need to be making, especially when I take out all my costs of operating and whatever you think your costs are, I'd add like a 30% buffer and make sure that it's, you've got that sort of like realistic, well, this is how many clients I need to be working with or how much I need to sell.
And then I think also be really prepared to put yourself out there because if you don't have a huge advertising budget, the best thing you can do is grow your organic social channels and nurture your audience. And it's really time consuming. And I think the best analogy is, again, just taking it back to retail.
Yeah. If you had a shop, you might be paying 35, 40, $50,000 a year in rent to have the privilege to have that shop. And then you've got to pay someone to staff it, maybe seven days a week, standing there eight, nine hours a day.
You've got to change the windows around. You've got to make sure that you've got lots of stock in that shop. And then, you know, through, depending on where you choose to rent your shop, you get good foot traffic, people come in and buy.
Sometimes people go, oh, I have an e-commerce business, so I'm going to do something online and think, oh, it's great. Like it's sort of free. I can, you know, I might have my website, it's a fixed cost.
And then, but you don't have that foot traffic like you do with a physical location. You need to get those eyeballs. And how are you going to get those eyeballs? Well, if it's through ads that cost money, you've got to be prepared to put in a lot of time and like rinse and repeat a lot.
Again, sort of like weight loss or getting fit. You can't just go for one run and then one Pilates session and go, I tried running, didn't work. I did Pilates that failed.
Yeah. You have to really hustle and stick with it. So I think being really honest with yourself and saying, you know, am I prepared to really go all in and put myself out there, commit, you know, 15 or 20 weeks, 15 to 20 hours a week on top of your full time job to really get that momentum and get going.
The best thing you can do is build your email database because your followers on Instagram or Facebook or TikTok, you don't own them. And social media can just poof and go. So, yeah, building your email database and just getting into it.
Yeah. Do you ever feel imposter syndrome? I really try hard not to anymore. I definitely did.
Yeah. Big time. And I think also, it's funny, I actually went to a Design Institute event maybe 12 months ago and it was a lot of other studio owners in Christchurch and they were all owned by men.
And I definitely, that was probably the first time in a while I definitely felt like a complete fish out of water. And like, you're just the little girl that does social media posts. That is a service we offer.
That is not the full suite of what we do, which, I don't know, that really annoyed me that I felt like that, which I guess I just turned into determination to, well, I'll show you. Yeah. We'll just run our own race and do business how we want to do business.
Yeah. Very good. You talked recently about how you had to get your head around showing up actually as yourself on social media, particularly that you found that you were still kind of trying to fit the mould, that there were some things about you like the, I can back a trailer really well and drive your boat and I'm happy to drive a fast car.
And there was some kind of quirks and cool personality things that actually make you make sense and make how you support other people's businesses also make sense. But it was a little bit of a struggle and you held back on sharing some of that side of yourself. How did you get through that? I think too, just reflecting of how I show up in person and I thought there's just a bit of a disconnect between how I know I have conversations with people on the phone or when they come into the studio and I'm being really vanilla and boring online.
And I'm trying to sound, I think it probably goes back to the imposter syndrome. I'm trying to sound like this corporate male dominated agency and this is important. Like how boring just because I think also in the design space and an agency space, there's this sort of idea that if you have to market yourself, you're not busy and you're not good at what you do.
Yeah. And it's interesting, like having had more people join the team who've worked at other big agencies. Yeah.
There's definitely this old school boys club feel that you don't market yourself because if you're marketing yourself, you're not busy and you're not good at what you do. And so I sort of thought, okay, I'm just going to flip all of this on its head and I'm going to show up on social to just show off the cool work that we do, but also our personality and beliefs so that we can attract more cool people. Yeah.
Because it's not always, we don't want to work with people that have huge, huge budgets that are soulless and have, excuse my French sort of shitty product or service. I would way rather work with people that are just epic, that are doing cool things. And there's no way or no better way to attract those types of people than just being fully authentically yourself.
Yeah. Nice. Why do you do what you do? I have always loved design and creating things.
I know I definitely have a spicy dyslexic brain. Yeah. And I, well, I struggled at school in the beginning doing like rope learning.
I'm still shocking at times tables do not get me to spell something, but I worked out strategies to, yeah, to, to deal with it. And I think I it's funny. I often laugh with mom that I'm actually really great with numbers.
If there's a dollar sign in front. I like that. So I think, yeah, through just like, just not fitting the mold at school, I had an amazing teacher who said to me, I want to teach you this design program on the computer.
And I want you to put together like a full campaign for some skipping. Wow. Skip a thon.
I don't know. It was for the heart foundation or something. And you can design all the posters and you're going to emcee the event and you're going to sell the tickets.
I think I was 10 and I, it was like the first moment I was like, Oh yeah, this is so fantastic. So sort of from then on, I just really leaned into all the design and yeah. Any, any opportunity at school to organize things and be creative.
I just leaned right into it and just love it. It honestly doesn't feel like, doesn't feel like work, which is great. How good.
Really good. And I think these kind of chats where we're talking about business and motherhood and mental health, like these chats for me, where it's at for women and we need to have more of them where we understand the mental blocks that stop us from pursuing our goals and passions and, you know, doing that radical thing with our lives and understanding how is it working for people who are actually doing what they want to do in the world, who are making businesses that fit around them, who are making their creative ideas flourish. And then how does all that work with motherhood? This is a conversation that so many women have inside their own minds and we need to have more of them out loud.
No, I totally agree. And I think right after I had Fred, I felt so alone that there was not, I mean, apart from like mom, yes, she had me and was doing her thing. But I think in terms of having another person to talk to that was actually sort of choosing the same path as me, there was really no one.
And I felt, then I go back to that whole guilt and then I was always sort of letting someone down. So I think it's really great to do things how you want to do them. And I knew I was choosing a tough path at the time to enable more balance long term.
So just reminding myself of that as well. But I mean, I think it would be, I would have loved when I was like two, three, four weeks postpartum to listen to a podcast and hear someone say, yeah, it's going to be OK. Yeah, you're going to get through this and you are a great mom and you are a great boss and it's all going to be, the world's not tumbling in.
And you are going to feel overwhelmed and then you're going to have a cry in the shower and then you're going to get someone to help you and then it's going to be OK. And it's going to be OK, yeah. And it's actually, yeah, it's totally OK to get people to help you.
You don't have to do everything on your own. Yeah. So cool.
Tell me, what do you do to look after yourself? What's that look like in this chapter of life? Well, I have just signed up to the 10K at the Christchurch Marathon. Yay. Put my running shoes back on.
So cool. So I'm working with Alan from EP Coaching to get back into running, which is great. I have got myself a reformer at home so that I can just nip into the garage and do some Pilates at home, which is great.
I paint in my spare time. Do you? Wow. I'm an arty.
When's that going on social media, Georgia? Oh, well, when I've got something really good. So anyway, I do watercolour and acrylic painting, which is fun. And just, I mean, I think probably my one downfall is I try and turn everything into a business and monetize everything I do.
And I'm like, no, I'm just going to do a few things because I enjoy it and not try and, you know, have an art division of George design. Yeah. Put that up on the website.
Yeah. So yeah, I mean, definitely health and fitness is my big goal this year. I want to make sure that I'm really fit and strong and you have strength in my body.
That's really important this year. You've got a lot to need energy for. So it makes sense.
Yeah. I think that a lot of women, you know, kind of owning that entrepreneurial part of themselves is something that they need to give themselves permission to do that. Actually, we're allowed to have ideas.
We're allowed to go. I don't want my life to fit this mold and I want to make this thing flourish. So parting advice to women listening to this episode about the next little steps.
What are the micro steps you'd suggest? I think just focus on, as I've mentioned before, but just all the good things that could happen. And rather than planning worst case scenario and everything. And I think also thinking about when challenges do arise, how do you handle those challenges? Because I think, I mean, there's work challenges, but then there's also big gnarly things that happen in everybody's life all the time.
And a lot of those things we've got absolutely no control over. But controlling how we show up and deal with those situations and just having that positive delusional optimism that everything is going to work out, I think is really important. Yeah.
And sometimes I think borrowing other people's delusional optimism. Yes. If you can't do that for yourself, go find someone who can talk into your ear and say those things.
Yes, definitely. Yeah. And yeah, find one or two, yeah, exactly.
Some really good people and sounding boards to sort of pump you up, but just give you a pat on the back and... Keep cheerleading. Yeah, exactly. And also if you have a friend that is trying something new or trying to get something off the ground, be a cheerleader for them.
You know, engage with their social media or comment on their posts or even send them a wee text and say, you know, I saw this or that was great. And I think we celebrate a lot of really traditional things that women do. Yeah.
But not so much the out of the box. Yeah. She's started a business or she's doing this, but if you get pregnant or get married, it's like a massive deal.
So I think... You had a business baby is a great thing to celebrate. Yeah, I think it's even just a micro step to just be a cheerleader for your friends. Wow.
I hope that there are people listening to this episode who are able to kind of just pick up a bit of that delusional optimism from you, the boldness and the bravery that you have, the creativity, the permission that you've given yourself to have ambitions and go for them. Even while knowing that you had this dream to be a mum and making that happen and loving your little guy as well along the way. I hope you have an amazing year.
And I know that there'll be people who are listening to this who think I need a little slice of that encouragement and strategy and marketing now in my business or thinking about getting something off the ground. So how can people find you if they want to work with you? If they head to our website, georgedesign.co.nz, you can see a brief overview of all the different services that we offer. But the best service that I offer for maybe a new business or a business at a bit of a fork roads is a strategic consulting session with me.
And we can unpack where you're at, where you want to go. And the value of that session is then redeemable on a project, should you wish to go ahead with getting us to help you implement that. But also follow us at georgedesign.nz on Instagram if you do want to see some fun content, V8 engines and spicy marketing and brand.
And you've helped me out heaps. And well, like my disclaimer is that you cannot be held responsible for everything that's on my website because there are a few quirky things I've done myself since you built it. But I'm so grateful for your assistance and your encouragement in my business too.
You've done my website. You've helped me out with a whole lot of things around digital marketing. So people can see, yeah, a little bit of George Design sprinkled across my things too.
Yes. So cool. Thank you so much for having me on.
