How to overcome founder loneliness, with Emmie Faust, founder of Female Founders Rise

In this episode I'm joined by Emmie Faust, serial entrepreneur, investor in over 30 women-founded businesses & founder of Female Founders Rise, the 11,000-strong UK community supporting female entrepreneurs. 

Emmie is also the author of the newly published RISE Report, the largest independent study of female entrepreneurship in the UK & this is the first time she's sharing its findings on a podcast.

We talk about why she built Female Founders Rise after a post-COVID breakdown, why she believes peer networks matter more than funding & why she is, very purposefully, a solo founder on her 11th business.

What we cover:

• Why Emmie started Female Founders Rise after a breakdown, and why she never intended it to become a business
• The four pillars of Female Founders Rise: community, funding, fundamentals and awareness
• Key findings from the RISE Report, including the £310 billion opportunity for the UK economy
• Why 80% of young people can't name a female entrepreneur, and what the ecosystem needs to do about it
• Loneliness as the single biggest challenge for one in seven female founders
• Why peer networks outperform family, friends and even funding as the most valuable founder support
• The case against co-founders, and how to build a support structure without one
• Why "networking" is a dirty word, and what to call it instead
• Emmie's advice for first-time female founders: build in public, stay curious, and launch before it's perfect

If you enjoyed this episode, please rate, review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. It genuinely helps other founders find the show.

How To Start Up is produced by Fallow, Field & Mason. 

If you'd like help launching your own podcast, or doing your own PR in-house, visit fallowfieldmason.com.

Transcript

FF&M - Emmie Faust Episode

Speaker 5: [00:00:00] It is been great chatting to Emmy.

If a single number stays with me from this conversation. It's the 310 billion. The UK economy is leaving on the table while under investing in female founders. That's worth a thought or two. Who doesn't love a stat to back up a really good reason to do something? If today's episode has helped you, we would love it

if a single number has stayed with me from this conversation. It's the 310 billion pounds. The UK economy is leaving on the table right now by not investing in female founders. So next week we welcome Thea B. We welcome Thea Brook who'll be answering Emmy's question. Thea is the founder of Calm. Her business is entirely geared to help founders manage their missing [00:01:00] C-suite and avoid burnout.

So tune in, so click follow in your podcast directory so you don't miss our next episode. And I know every podcast host says this, but please do rate and review and share because that is the way podcasters 'cause. That is the only way I know that you are listening. Or email us at hello@fallowfieldmason.com to say hi.

We'd love to hear from you.

Okay.

Emmie: I started Female Founders Rise because I had a breakdown and I was quite ill after COVID. one in seven female entrepreneurs said loneliness was their biggest challenge, I'm a solo founder and that is very purposeful that I'm doing this on my own 

Speaker 2: Emmie Faust is running her 11th business, so she knows quite a thing or two about entrepreneurship. She's the founder of Female Founders Rise and has recently published the RISE Report. I really wanted to chat to Emmy about why it is so important for the UK economy to benefit from female entrepreneurship and why [00:02:00] women should start businesses at the same rate as men.

If not more than, so tune in today's How to start Up to hear Emmy talk, all things entrepreneurship, how it can feel quite lonely, how to overcome that, , how to avoid burnout, how to manage having four children moving house, and the rest of it. 

Juliet: Hi, Emmie. I am absolutely thrilled to have you on how to start up. I have wanted you to come to the show for over three years because of what you're doing for female entrepreneurship. It is a beacon of light in what can feel like desolate plane sometimes when you're starting a business as a solo entrepreneur.

So before we get into everything that you are doing for female entrepreneurship, I'd love it if you could give listeners a bit of a background as. To who you are, the businesses that you've started, and what it is you're doing today.

Emmie: Yeah, I'll try and keep it very quick because there's a lot. so I'm a of four. I am an entrepreneur. I am a. In over 30 women co-founded businesses. [00:03:00] I am onto my 11th business. I realized the other day when I did a little, count up and eleven's my lucky number.

So that obviously is a good sign. and Female Founders Rise is a B Corp, an impact led business that supports female entrepreneurs in the uk. So we've got 11,000 members throughout the uk and we do various things to support them on their journey to building long-term, profitable, sustainable businesses.

Juliet: Why did you start Female Founders Rise?

Emmie: I started Female Founders Rise because I had a breakdown and I was quite ill after COVID.

It was a mixture of long COVID, perimenopause Just everything coming together, my husband had issues with his job. we'd all survived COVID with four kids. I then moved my whole family down to Wales and it didn't work out. I'd also had.

Clients that were struggling through COVID, which I was trying to sort of keep on track and I found the whole thing just incredibly stressful. and the doctor thinks I had, some kind of long [00:04:00] COVID as well. And then the perimenopause, so the culmination of all those three things, me meant that I had to change my life.

and I started on meds, I started therapy and I basically had to stop consulting 'cause that was causing me. A lot of stress. and basically Female Founders Rise was just a little passion project to keep me, ticking over until I was gonna be better. So I knew I had to have a little something becauseI just need something in my life. but something that would be totally stress free. I knew that there was a massive need to support women. I'd done a huge amount in the sort of consultancy space, and I tried to set up various networks in the past and various communities, and I thought, I'm just gonna do this because I know it's needed.

And I don't know if you've read the book, Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, 

Juliet: the idea is that there's all these ideas and they're like floating around in the world and they come and tap you on the shoulder if they think you are the right person to bring that idea to life.

Emmie: [00:05:00] And you'll often be tapped on the shoulder by these ideas, and you might not be in the right head space, or it might not be at the right point in your life, or maybe you're Not quite the right person, and then that idea goes and finds someone else. Well, this idea of Female Founders Rise had been tapping me on the shoulders for ages and ages, but I wasn't in a position to listen to that tap or to take that, bring that idea to life because I was doing various other things like.

And running businesses. And I was so focused on what I was doing previously that I wasn't going to be able to start this other little idea. And then actually it was the breakdown that made me totally restart my whole life. And in doing so, I could listen to that little idea that was tapping me on the shoulder and that wasn't gonna go away because it knew that.

That was what I was meant to be doing. And so finally it did come to life and I never set out for it to be a business.it was just something that was there to help me get better and for me to focus on, 

Juliet: what is it for listeners?

Emmie: Female Founders Rise is a community and [00:06:00] is more than a community.

We do, a huge amount of different initiatives for female founders to support 'em on their entrepreneurial journey. So we have community, and connection and collaboration and events that bring people together. We have, another pillar, which is all around fundraising, so getting more women funded because the stats around that are really bad.

we have another pillar, which is all around mastering the business fundamentals, so helping female founders with everything they know to build that profitable, sustainable business. and then the last pillar, the fourth one is all around raising awareness of female entrepreneurship. helping women share their stories, find their voices, and, celebrate more women in entrepreneurship.

So those are our four pillars and we've got different initiatives and different projects under each one.

Juliet: you and I both know the answer to this, but why is it so important to encourage more women's start businesses in 2026?

Emmie: entrepreneurship isn't for everyone. it can be very full on. It can also be absolutely amazing to see your idea come to life there's so many benefits of entrepreneurship and there's so many [00:07:00] challenges, so it's definitely not right for everyone. But for those people,

That are doing something that they love, and you are in charge and you've got your own autonomy. And there's so many amazing things. I mean, even just like the journey you go on of learning, it's like an MBA basically. You get in and setting up and running a business.

So I think even if you try entrepreneurship, and it doesn't work for you, you have. Gathered so many skills that you can use in the wider world. And I'd always say anyway, try entrepreneurship on the side. You don't need to go all in, 

Juliet: Why women in particular? Because I know you are really focused on supporting

Emmie: I'm really focused on supporting women just because at the moment entrepreneurship's not equitable. So, there's lots of inequalities in entrepreneurship and also for me personally, I've found financial freedom in entrepreneurship, which has meant that I'm financially free, which has meant that I'm able to invest in other founders.

and I do feel like that is a great way for women to find financial freedom. that's one of the things that I can do to help women make more money is to help them on their entrepreneurial journey. [00:08:00] so yeah, I think at the moment it is not an actionable playing field, so that's why I in particular, focus on supporting women.

And also I think when we bring women together, amazing things happen. They're so collaborative, they're so supportive, and, they can really, shine a light and support each other to make all those amazing things happen.

Juliet: Yeah, it was the NatWest review, I think in 2023 that says that is it 250 billion is missing from the UK economy because women are not empowered as much as men.

Emmie: And that figure's actually now being adjusted for inflation. the Women in Inequalities committee adjusted that to 310 billion, and that's what we reported in our RISE report. So there's a huge, Opportunity for the UK if we can unlock, that value.

Juliet: people don't realize is that everybody in the economy are gonna benefit men, women, everybody. 

Emmie: exactly. So, supporting female entrepreneurs is great for them, is also great for the economy. It is great for the ecosystem. they're employing more people, they're paying more taxes. [00:09:00] all of those kind of things.

there's power and value for the UK economy and for the ecosystem, and there's also amazing opportunities for women as well to, to gain like skills and financial freedom from entrepreneurship. So I think it's just a really important thing that, we give women the opportunity to do that and to try that out if they think that's something that, could potentially be interesting to them.

Juliet: This is so interesting 'cause our guest two weeks ago was Samantha Cusick, who, when she went to get her first lease on her first hair salon He looked at her business plan and said, oh, well you are just a silly little girl and you're dreaming far too big. And so she's just gone f you and look at me now.

And she has absolutely smashed it in her podcast. The silly little girls club is called that because of that reason. And there's nothing like telling a woman that you can't do something to fuel the 

fire 

Emmie: so I was talking to Joanna Jensen, she just exited her business to PJ Cousins for millions and millions. And she had, people saying similar things to her. I get it all the time. 

I think what I found really interesting when I was consulting actually, is, that people just assume, [00:10:00] oh, well, Emmie's Consulting, she's got her kids at home. It's just a little passion project on the side. She won't be charging, the same sort of rates as a guy. 

Juliet: so talk us through the RISE report. I'd love to know more of your key findings 

Emmie: This

is my first podcast actually on the Rise report. So all of the, information that I'm gonna be sharing I haven't actually shared this, publicly apart from obviously on LinkedIn, and a couple of events, but. I think what was really interesting is 2,225 founders, female and non-binary founders.

So that's like probably, I mean, we don't say it's the largest ever 'cause we don't need to claim it's the largest ever, but it would be one of the largest ever,surveys of female entrepreneurship in the uk, huge amount of qualitative data, over 400,000 words. the value, the creation, the sort of turnover over those businesseswas a billion and they were employing nearly.

10,000, employees. So like really robust. It was also a representative sample of the 1.6 million UK entrepreneurs. So we made sure that we had founders of all ethnicities, all locations, all ages, all [00:11:00] abilities. I mean literally like the quant data that we collected. One of the reasons for collecting so much quant data was to make sure that, Our sample, which was representative of the UK population. So first of all, it was way larger than it needed to be, but because, we had founders from Scotland and Northern Ireland and Wales in the uk and all kind of bases were covered. So I think that was really interesting. we used.

Nottingham Business School and an absolutely incredible, company called WholeSum, which is a female and male, founders. They're actually husband and wife. he's a doctor in, data science and one of the best data sciences globally. So the data was really robust and what everyone had been saying was they wanted a very robust and independent of the government report that was done regularly because

there's lots of little reports that are coming out. But,there's nothing that's been done like on a year by year basis or, every two years. So we're hoping to do. Something definitely every two years, hopefully maybe every year. I mean, it was a huge amount of [00:12:00] work.

so that's the kind of the background of it all in terms of it being very robust and statistically significant and representative, which to me was really important and what I thought was really interesting was of those 2,225 responses, only two of them have the same quant data, which tells us that even though female founders have, there's these kind of threads that like tie us together in some of our experiences or challenges.

We're actually all very unique. The fact that only two of those 2,225 had the same quant data tells us we're unique with unique experiences, unique businesses, unique ideas, and something that came from the report, which I've really been wanting to shout about, is the fact that we don't know those unique stories.

80% of young. people can't name a female entrepreneur according to a study by Santander. And actually what we need to do is get women sharing their stories, sharing their incredible, unique stories, and also as an ecosystem, we also [00:13:00] need to make sure that we're doing that to like hero these women and raise awareness of female entrepreneurship.

So that was one data point that I loved. another thing that came out was the power of human connection. So 78% of those respondents, which obviously represent 78% of the 1.6 million UK entrepreneurs, cited human connection as, critical to their, journey. And it kept coming up time and time again.

We didn't ask them this question, but it was in the qualitative data of all the other questions that we asked. and people would say the power of networks. The power of community, the importance of my board, the importance of strategic partners. So, it just goes to show how important human connection is and how important the networking and the communities and the peer networks and the coming together, is for entrepreneurship.

and I kind of think that sometimes that's a bit forgotten about. 

Juliet: Oh, good. Completely. And I think no one tells you this. When you start a business, you are exhausted. Probably very isolated. You're doing something you've never done before and probably the market hasn't necessarily seen much of [00:14:00] before. 'cause that's why you've seen a gap in the market. You are on your own and it can be so lonely.

And I always made a concerted effort to go to co-working offices and the gym more because I needed to see people. And I wouldn't even think just talk to anyone, but just being around other energy. And also people say that when you are at work and focused on your bits, the people you are next to kind of mirror you.

So is that kind of energy around being in an office. But people say to me, why don't you just work from home every day? It's like, I'd be really bored.

Emmie: Yeah, exactly. And so there's that. And then the other thing that came up, which was really sad, so like on the, I think like the bit that I love is like just saying to everyone, there are things that we can control. we do know that there's challenges for female entrepreneurs, but there's also a lot in our control.

And the one thing that is in our control is this power of human connection. And connecting with others and supporting each other and coming together and all of those things. So that's great and I love that stat. But on the other side of the connection, you've got one in seven female entrepreneurs said loneliness was their biggest challenge, and that didn't differ that much, [00:15:00] depending on like, what stage you are at.

So I think it's, it is slightly more for solopreneurs. but even we found that people with, big businesses and lots of employees, they were still often lonely because, you've got your investors to answer to and you've got your, your team and all of those things, and you can't always tell them exactly what's going on.

there's a lot of 

Juliet: No, 

you'll stretch both ways. And if you are a solopreneur, you are, you've got a team below you that you need to motivate and keep going and pay. And then you've got your board and your investors, you've got a lot of stakeholders that are all relying on you to fuel them.

And I remember I interviewed Joanna who was terrifying slash amazing, and I also interviewed Katherine Pooley who said, nobody asks me how I am or makes me a cup of tea. I'm the one that's constantly asking my team how they are. And it really resonated 'cause my team know the way to my heart is making me a cup of tea 

But it's that connection. it's, you are lonely.I've just moved to a new area and I met up someone who does something similar to me, and technically we are competitors, but we had a good [00:16:00] hour and a half chat and just dumped everything on our shoulders to each other, and it's like, oh, problem.

Shared a problem halved. And we didn't, might not have solved everything, but Yeah, exactly that. you're stretched in lots of different directions, but no one's kind of holding you as it were.

Emmie: Yeah, and I think what's so interesting is that, as a founder,I think all founders are,can struggle with loneliness. and actually I remember when I sold my business and I set up as a solo consultant telling my husband that I was lonely. And he said, you need to get out and meet people.

You need to get out and network. and actually then I joined. The first network ever. I was absolutely petrified going to my first, meeting, but I, and I came when I was buzzing. I loved it. And I think that's what sort of first made me realize the power of, networking and bringing people together.

And it's not just about getting new business off people. it's much more than that. 

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Emmie: It's about having people who are on that journey. that understand what you're going through and who can resonate with you and vice versa, because, our family and friends who aren't entrepreneurs,it's just a totally different breed.

So I thought that was interesting about the, about the loneliness and also when we asked founders what their most valuable, support for them was informal or formal. the highest by far was, community and peer networks, which was 39%, which was really high. friends and family was something like 13% I think.

It. Huge difference. So, so yeah. So family and close personal support. 13% of people said that was the most helpful and peer founder networks was 39% financial support and investment, which [00:18:00] whilst it is a massive challenge, only 11% of people said that was most helpful to them. So what we're seeing there is, even though it's a challenge to get finance and funding.

And we know that when it actually comes to what is most helpful peer and founder networks is like way above anything else. And then really interestingly, which I thought were closely followed actually by mentorship and coaching, which is 32%. and I thought that's interesting 'cause you always hear people say.

Female founders don't need any more mentorship. They need money. they do need money, but they also do need mentorship from people who are like shit hot, who know what they're doing, who are gonna open doors, who are gonna show them the way, who are going to, introduce 'em to that next big client or who are going to stop them from wasting loads of money.

we had an amazing mentor and, he helped us shortcut loads of things that would've cost us loads of time and money. So. the female founders themselves have said 32% of them have said that mentorship and coaching has been really supportive. and it [00:19:00] annoys me when people say, they just want money because they need money and 

Juliet: They 

Emmie: need 

both.

Juliet: Yeah. And 

 if women had investment at the same rate as men, we wouldn't be banging the drum about that. But it all needs to level up. 

Emmie: and I think, interestingly, when you speak to founders and ask them like, what was that one big thing that's moved something forward? It's not always funding. I was talking to a lady the other day and um, Glasgow went up there for a meetup and she was telling me about her business and she's won this massive hotel client.

And she'd done 600 rooms for them. She did bespoke, joinery And I said, wow. I mean, that's like a huge contract. you're probably talking like a million pound contract. And I said, how did you win that?

And she said, oh, I went to a networking event and I met a. it was probably an industry one, and she said, and I met a guy who then ended up working there he wasn't even the buyer there. He was like, he worked in engineering or something, but then introduced her and I was like, there you go.

Juliet: That shows us the power of human connection. It's the networking, it's just getting to know those people and they could open a door for you that is so big that you don't [00:20:00] then need funding or finance. we often say this in pr, that yes, you look at marketing funnels and you look at advertising, which is page pr, which is earned media, the best word of mouth. Is the actual word of mouth is people putting your name in rooms where you are not. And that is through connection. And for me, I did a lot of work on purpose last year.

'cause I thought if I'm gonna work this God damn hard, I need to make sure it's in the right place and I'm doing the right thing with the right people. And I had a kind of. Feeling I was on the right track, but not quite on the right track. And Hamish Mackay Lewis, he was on the podcast talking about imposter syndrome.

That it's an imposter experience, you can't be diagnosed with it. He and I did a lot of work on purpose and it really came down for me, the magic fairy dust of my day-to-day at work. Is that dot connecting? Because I have a problem with, not a problem with the word networking, has certain connotations, but it's that and that amazing satellite of people.

And if people like you and trust you and know you. They'll want to help you. And I think that's something that I learned coming out of a brand like [00:21:00] Chanel, where you never ask for help for anything. Suddenly you're on your own and you have to put your hand up and ask for help, but it's actually really liberating and exciting because then you help other people too.

Emmie: Yeah. And it's interesting about the word networking. So we don't call it networking really. I say meetups or celebrations. so someone was saying, because networking is like a dirty word, isn't it? And I think people make networking sound like it is an awful thing.

and it can be an awful thing, but actually if you're 

going to the right, right ones, it can be amazing. I just remember hearing someone saying, networking doesn't work. And I thought, I'm obviously doing the wrong thing 'cause I really enjoy it.

Like, and actually, like you said, you need to know, like, and trust someone before you buy from them, whether it's a personal brand. And especially I think for early stage founders or for people who service based businesses and things like that, you can, you can spend loads of time and money doing all these fancy marketing funnels, but actually a lot of the time it's just gonna be if someone knows you, likes you, and trust you, then it's kind of an easy sell.

Juliet: [00:22:00] For years I was working with a coach and a mentor and all sorts of different people about this at saying how my business has been built on referrals, which is wonderful, but it's not something I can control and I'd like a kind of mathematical tap that I can turn on and off. To grow. So we did some paid search work last year, which is really interesting.

Learned a lot from that. But I was like, I think I'm just at peace with the fact that as long as I'm working in the business, I have a business and I'm a service-based business. It's not gonna be scaled and sold. I haven't taken investment and I've sort of landed on that and been quite peaceful with that.

But other people in other situations, if they're listening, what would you advise them if they're coming into entrepreneurship to do first, especially if they're a female founder.

Emmie: I would say, 

 there's a lot of things, but.

That we've been talking about networking and building relationships. I mean, that's just like critical. That is the backbone of everything because it will help you find potentially investors, clients, strategic partners, and help you from being lonely.

So that would 

be a cool one, I'd say. Building in [00:23:00] public. and allowing yourself to have a curious mindset and not everything having to be perfect because you can learn much quicker, make mistakes fail. The faster you do that, the quicker you learn. I've seen a lot of people spend a lot of time.

Trying to create something that's perfect and going round and round in circles and then they launch it and then they realize there's not even a market for it, or no one's actually gonna buy it and they've wasted all this time and energy and money. so I would say just get out there, get speaking to people, andthere are exceptions to this, but generally

 learning and building as I do it. So, I always share this, story with people, but at Female Founders Rise, we set up a content challenge, which was gonna be a hundred quid, and it was a four week content challenge.

'cause I was like, I really wanna help. Women built their personal brand and I promoted it and I think I, I can't remember like 10 people signed up or something like that. And I thought, oh God, that's a disaster. I mean, it wasn't a massive launch, but it was a bit of a launch and I was like, oh, that's literally fallen flat on its face and then tweaked it.

so basically, and called it like a [00:24:00] personal branding challenge or something like that. and, did 30 days per personal branding challenge. And it was just that tweak of words and suddenly people were interested in it. And now we've had 800 people do our personal branding challenge and we charge, the first one we did, I think was free, then it was like, whatever.

Now it's 102 hundred quid, which is still very affordable. but the main thing is all these women have found their voice and they're sharing their stories and stuff like that. And if I'd listened to the feedback from the content challenge where only 10 people signed up, and I thought, gosh, that's a disaster.

I'm never gonna do that again. I wouldn't have got to where I'm at. So I think it's just being curious and being like, oh, okay, that didn't work. Why didn't that work? Was it the messaging? Was it the pricing? Was it something else? Should I tweak it? Should I test it? So I'd say the biggest thing for me is to have the growth mindset.

I think when I learn about the growth mindset and being curious, as to what is next, that really does allow you to just. constantly be testing and tweaking without getting yourself too upset or too wedded. I think a lot of people are [00:25:00] very wedded to their particular idea. and as we all know with entrepreneurship, you're gonna pivot many times.

Juliet: The market changes around you. I mean, look at what's happened in the last six, seven years, and my financial advisor said to me, Julie, the fact that you've even kept a business going in the last six years is mine miracle with the world way it is. And. Also be completely comfortable with failure. Every day you're gonna stub your toe on something and be like, okay, learn that.

Okay, move on. yeah,it's a good old rollercoaster as every single guest has mentioned. so something that we do is a question from our previous guest, and it was the founder, Charles Brun of Izipizi, the sunglasses eyewear brand in Paris.

Had a question for you, which is, what is the most important, the partner slash team or the business slash product when you're starting a business?

Emmie: Well, I mean, I'm a solo founder and that is very purposeful that I'm doing this on my own because I have seen a huge number of people, have issues with, their founders. so what I'm gonna say iswas the business idea because. 

[00:26:00] if you've got the right idea and the right product, then I bet you are going to attract an amazing team. And that won't be hard if you've got an amazing team and a terrible product, you just don't even have a business.

what I would say is. That the team is important, and that I've seen, if you make the wrong hires, it can really put your business back considerably. It can cost a huge amount of money and it can really create a huge amount of, for the

founder, 

Juliet: can be crippling. 

Emmie: it crippling. I also know. Significant number of people I've invested in, people I've supported who've fallen out with their co-founder.

And as a result, there's been a huge amount of stress. Quite often the business goes under. my, my first co-founder was great. I've tried to set up businesses with other people and it hasn't always worked out, so what I've actually decided with FFR is just, I've got my vision.

I know where I'm going, I know what needs to be done. I want to be able to control that myself, but I wanna be [00:27:00] surrounded by amazing people who support me. So that's what I've done is like put in experts and advisory board members and things like that who can support me on that journey. 

Juliet: I love that. I'm the same as you. And a lot of people are like, oh, surely you want a co-founder? I'm like, why? I can make quickest decisions if it's just me, and I'd rather pay people to be brilliant in the team, and then if it doesn't work and things change, things can change. Whereas if it's a co-founder and they're embedded in the business and there's a partnership agreement, it's a whole scary different thing.

So you are one of the few people I've met that thinks like I do on this, so thank you for that. 

Emmie:  I've done 11 businesses and I, having done a bit of all of them, I do still think it's. Incredibly important to have those people alongside you that can support you. But I don't think that has to come from having a co-founder. I think that can come, like you said, from advisors, from chairs, from non-execs, from paid team members.

Juliet: exactly. And what would your question be for our next guest? Anything about entrepreneurship?

Emmie: I think my question would be what's the one piece of advice you're You learned very early on [00:28:00] that meant that the rest of your entrepreneurial journey has been a success.,Mine was looking after the team actually. So I had this amazing woman, young woman, who was just insane and was making loads of money. And I remember she'd bring her little baby into the office and it would sort of sit on the floor. And so she was just like mega cool when I was like 21.

So this is. 20, 25 years ago or something. But she always paid us so well. She used to put us up in amazing hotels and takes out probably nice dinners. And also she gave me a huge amount of responsibility at a very early age, which I really appreciated. And I tried to do that with all the people. 

Like I always trying to give them the responsibility so that they can grow. I think it, it is weird 'cause it's kind of opposite to what I said from the question before, but the thing is like when you've got the right team, you must do everything to look after them because they're such a critical part of your business.

Juliet: And they're so [00:29:00] rare. So when you get the 

Emmie: And it's Exactly, 

 and then they're like so giving as well. I made that woman so much money because. She was so good to me. 

Juliet: It's not rocket science when you say it like that, but finding the good right people is probably the hardest part I found in business. But that's where community and connection come in, because people can advise and help and pass on names and it's a steep old learning curve, but a good one. 

Emmie: Yeah. 

Juliet: Thank you Emmie, so much for your time. As always, you're an inspiration, but this is a live inspiration for me, so I'm very grateful and thank you for everything you do for female entrepreneurship 

Emmie: Amazing. Thanks so much for inviting me to be part of this.

Juliet: 

Speaker 6: If a single stat stays with me for my conversation with Emmy, it's the 310 billion pounds. The UK economy is leaving quite literally on the table by under investing in female founders. That is worth a thought. If you're a woman and you're listening to this and you are thinking of starting a business, it is all for the win.

And if you'd like to hear our next guest's answer to her question then click follow in your podcast directory, [00:30:00] because then you will not miss Thea Brook answer her question. Thea founded a business called Calm, which is a brilliant solution for anybody lacking a C-suite

when you are early stage, you can't afford a full-time C-suite. However you can afford to do her free course,