How to recover from breaking point and smash success | S2 EP1

The Go Far Fast Show is back!

In episode 1 of season 2, serial entrepreneur Lisa Laing talks all about what to do when business gets tough, how to bounce back, and how to strike a balance between running your business and being a mother!

Transcript

Merlie: Hello and welcome to season two, episode one of the #GoFarFast Show. I can't believe, Aaron, we're already into another season! We’re going global this season, so you will see guests coming at us from America, from Australia, and further afield too. We’re not quite at the moon yet, but we're gunning for it, so a wonderful lineup for you all. 

As ever, this is designed for our small business community and we are going to get you, once again, the answers to the burning questions of today. So, we're going to be looking at some very big themes in today's show. We've got a stellar guest who has achieved incredible success and we're going to be asking some fantastic questions, aren't we Aaron? 

Aaron: We certainly are. This is an absolute cracker. I think we've set the bar high now and so we’ll just keep pushing that bar even higher. 

Today we’ve managed to get an hour with the wonderful Lisa Laing. Lisa has been a successful entrepreneur for more than a decade. Lisa mixes practical business strategy with uncommon insights and delivers this in an engaging and charismatic story. She has built and sold two successful multi-million-dollar brands. We're going to use this time to go through what Lisa is doing today, how she decides to take on a new client, and any mentors that she can namedrop. 

Then we head over to the favourite part of our show, which is the legendary community questions. So Merlie, is there anything else the audience needs to know about? 

Merlie: Yes, folks, same format as always. Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe as we go through. We're going to start off today's session with some warmup questions for our wonderful guest. Then we'll be going straight into Aaron’s favourite part of the show, your legendary community questions. We’ll be getting to the bottom of these very practical, very deep, very searching and very key questions for business owners today. 

So, we've got a long list of questions. Are you ready? Do you want to get started on asking those questions to our guest, Aaron? 

Aaron: I certainly do. 

Lisa, welcome to the show! Thank you so much for giving your time up today and coming along for our little show. You've had incredible business success. You’ve launched and sold million-dollar, award-winning brands and now you’re using your amazing experience to help other women do the same thing. Can you briefly describe the business you've launched and sold and what you're doing today? 

Lisa: In the last 14 years I've had seven of my own companies. Two of them have been multi-million, award-winning brands which were exciting and wonderful and awful and dreary all at the same time! One of them was pretty successful. It is the world's most eco-friendly nappy brand or diaper brand depending on where in the world you are, and it’s something I'm immensely proud of. We won lots of awards and accolades with that brand and grew it to a few million dollars a year turnover on a subscription-based business model. It was in a fairly new e-commerce market because I launched that eight years ago. Two and a half years ago I left the business and I’m now a business coach. I specifically help people with growing their online brands.

Merlie: It's amazing. It's such a path to success and I know there's such an inspiring story behind it. But that path, Lisa, hasn't always been smooth or straightforward, has it? I mean, your success has come at immense personal cost. That particularly struck me in a blog that you posted recently in your Facebook group. Folks, if you're not part of Lisa’s group on Facebook then you need to be, it’s an extraordinary group. It’s also an extraordinary story. Lisa, would you mind sharing some of that journey and some of that personal experience with us? 

Lisa: Absolutely. Being a mum in businesses is a tough gig in my experience. About seven years ago I found myself running two companies with three little kids at home and I was stuck on the mouse wheel. I ended up having a bit of a breakdown. I was trying to work 60 hours a week and juggle the kids. There was also the pressure and the financial obligations of working in your own business. I simply buckled under the weight of it, and I think it's a very real thing, particularly for women. There’s adrenal fatigue and feeling unsupported as mums as well. I learned a lot from that point in my journey and I'm grateful for that experience now. It was where I drew a line in the sand and decided that there was an entirely different way to build a business. 

I wasn't prepared to give up my entrepreneurship and skills. I just needed to do it in a really different way that didn’t require 60-hour weeks and exhaustion. I needed to automate and systemise my businesses, and to have a cool team of staff that were able to run the businesses so that I could work on them and not in them. That was a very big change in my life.

Merlie: Absolutely. And it had a big impact on you and your partner too at the time, didn't it? 

Lisa: It did. Working with your partner in business is incredibly tricky, especially the complexity of having two incomes wound up in one business. When the business has a tough financial month or a couple of months that are a bit rough, that is huge pressure on a relationship. Juggling being parents at the same time is also a lot of pressure. I learned a huge amount about myself in that period. I’m not sure I'd work with a partner again in the future, but there you go! Lessons learned in business are tiger stripes and tears, and we learn from them, and we move on. 

Aaron: Thank you so much for your honesty and for sharing those experiences with us. I think it's important that we talk about the great success that you’ve had, but also to be brutally honest about what can go wrong and what those pitfalls can be. The story that you have just shared is so inspiring and I think that's mainly what people will see out of this. It doesn't matter how bad they seem to have it, there is that chance to get it all back again and turn it all around like you did. Then you can go there and take it to another level. That's really inspiring. You’ve already touched on your experience and how it's been for you, but can we just dive into that a little bit more? Given where you are, when you look back at that period how does it make you feel? What have you learned? What sort of bits have you been able to take from that period and been able to pass on to the people that you help? 

Lisa: I feel a measure of sadness really. One thing I've learned about life is that it never throws us the balls we expect. When I set out to create the nappy brand, I had big goals. I wanted a $20m brand. I wanted to expand globally and to sell in the US. They are all wonderful goals to aspire to. However, I also had the personal aspect that appeared while I was targeting that business goal, which was that my marriage dissolved. I was trying to find a way to the other side of that, while also dealing with investors and that becomes very complicated. I learned a lot about business and about myself in that journey and I have a huge amount of respect and time for other business owners that have been through a similar journey. 

It’s something that I do every day in my current business, which is mentoring and supporting other business owners on their journeys. I help them to find and make the decisions that work best for their families, but that still allows them to engage in their entrepreneurial desires and goals that they are wanting to achieve.

Merlie: I love that answer. Farillio has always been about smashing barriers and making things possible for people, even when they feel impossible. I think that what you're doing, particularly coming from that place of having hit rock bottom and then achieving tremendous success, is a powerful support to many other businesses around the world. 

Lisa, looking at your coaching skills and the coaching services that you offer now, how do you decide who to take on as a new client? I know that you're very much in demand. Where do you start with that new client relationship? 

Lisa: That's a great question. I think for me the main thing I'm looking for in a new client is the desire to achieve something. There's a huge number of people, particularly women, but certainly men as well, who are looking for an off-ramp from the corporate world. They have an idea for a product or service that they think could solve someone's problem out there in the world. It’s incredibly brave and courageous for people to leave an income and to back themselves. Often, they don't have the support of their friends, family or even their partners to do so, but they do it anyway. I really honour that bravery. It’s my greatest desire to help and support those people to find the strategies. The thing is, you can create a product and want to sell it but have no business skills to do so. They don't teach us this stuff in school, and there's an overwhelming amount of information online. Understanding how to solve problems inside your own business is very difficult for people who are on a granular level inside their businesses. I think working with people like that, with any business owners is a real honour for me. 

I think where I start with them is their ‘why’. Understanding their purpose and their goals for their business, and then understanding their customer ‘why’. What is the problem we solve for our customers? I believe that in this current era of e-commerce, which of course since COVID has gone mental, we're no longer selling on features and benefits. I believe that we’re selling on the solution that our product or service offers. For me, that's tied closely with the business owner’s ‘why’. If they know why they're building it, and often they are their own version of a customer, the transformation that they can deliver with their product is all tied in. It's a bigger purpose than just making money is what I'm trying to say. 

Aaron: I love the fact that you're experienced in it. You've seen the smaller clients and the bigger clients, and you've done it yourself. You’re not just giving advice that you've read in a book, you've been there, done that and got the T-shirt. I think it's so important what you’ve mentioned about firefighting because I think that's where most businesses are at. Especially because of what we're going through at the moment, where it seems like everyone is focused on trying to put fires out.

Having someone like yourself to steer them away from that and show them the bigger picture is important. You are showing them they can get so much more done in their business, how they can grow and how their business can expand if they just concentrate on the right things. You've shown us know how well you're able to convey a story and be a mentor to other people, let's give you a chance to name drop. Let's talk about which incredible mentors you’ve come across in your career. 

You've had some incredible mentors during your career. I've seen you give them shout outs on your website and you attribute a lot of your success to having great mentors. What's your advice to viewers who may be wondering whether a mentor is a good thing and how to get one?

Lisa: I couldn't have done what I've done in business without exceptional mentorship. I think every business owner needs to find people to support them with the correct strategies that can solve their problems. We shouldn't rely on our friends and family for that kind of support. I believe that we need to look for people who've already walked the road in front of us and who have already solved the problems we need to solve. Then we need to go to them and find out why. How did they solve that problem and how might their solution apply to our problem? For me, that constitutes a mixture of coaching with paid, exceptional coaches and mentorship. This is going to business leaders in the community who I know have solved a problem I'm trying to solve. I approach them with a very specific problem, and I ask them for ten minutes of their time. I explain why and I offer to ask them three questions and no more. I find that has allowed me to access some exceptional business mentors and leaders in the world, and I’ve combined that with exceptional coaches. 

I've personally invested more than AUD$150,000 in myself in the last 10 years. I know that without this investment I'm left to make all the mistakes, and take all the time, and let them steal my market, and I'm in too much of a hurry to get there quicker.

Merlie: I think that's an absolutely brilliant answer. You have some great examples, haven't you, that you can share with our viewers about how you've approached some of your rockstar mentors and how they've helped you previously. Can you share some of those examples with us? 

Lisa: Absolutely. In my nappy brand, there's probably two I'll share with you. We had an opportunity to pitch our nappies to big supermarket chains in Australia. It's probably the same in the UK – they're quite corporate. When you book an appointment, they don't really give you any information about what to pitch or how to prepare. You don't find that information readily available on the Internet in any useful format either. 

We reached out to a business leader in Australia who has a global muesli brand and Caroline kindly offered to speak to us when she was on her morning commute to work. It started with one conversation and evolved into support over a few months to the point where she shared with us her business IP for pitching to the supermarket chains. She shared their figures and how they worked out their margins and that support from Caroline allowed us to go quite confidently into the supermarkets. In the end, we decided that wasn't a route that we wanted to pursue because it's difficult for a small brand to successfully move into supermarkets. But that information she shared with us was very valuable. We would never have been able to find that information anywhere else.

We had another exceptional example of a mentor – here in Australia and Asia, we have a wine home delivery company called Vinomofo. We knew that our nappy boxes were bulky, but they were also low margin. When people want nappies, they want them in an hour or two, or certainly overnight. We have very big geography here in Australia. We’re very spread out and our delivery on e-commerce is quite slow. We knew that wine would be similar – bulky, low margin, and people want wine yesterday – so we reached out to them and said, ‘how did you solve your freight problem?’. Justin, who owns Vinomofo, was fantastic. He probably spent hours on the phone with us at no cost because we went to him and we explained who we were, how we had a very distinct problem, and we asked him if he would help us solve it. 

I think when you come from a place of honouring that their time is valuable and you're clear on the questions and the boundaries in play, I think it would be very unusual for somebody who has the experience to say no to that. I feel there's a real opportunity for business owners to clearly ask for that support from the business community. 

Merlie: Absolutely genius. Some real golden nuggets of wisdom and advice there for our viewers. I'm starting to rack my brains and I'm wishing I had a notebook! I could literally take notes as you were talking there. 

Lisa, can I talk about clients? Do you take on clients outside of Australia? I suspect many of our viewers will suddenly be thinking they should look up your Facebook group. They’re probably wondering if you are the right kind of mentor for them and their business. I know you're going to appeal to many of our viewers today, but how do we get hold of you? And do you take on clients outside of Australia? 

Lisa: Absolutely. The thing about the world right now is that we are a global platform, both from a business perspective and from a coaching perspective. From a staff perspective, I have a team all over the world and I absolutely look after clients all over the world. The only thing I will say is that the time zones don't always line up particularly well. I was on a call this morning at 8 am Sydney time and there were people from all over the world on that call in rather unfortunate time zones!

I would love to speak to any of your viewers. They can reach out to me through my Facebook group, private message on Facebook, or my website. I'd be more than happy to steer them in the direction of free resources or some people that may be able to support them. I'm quite specifically coaching for online brands, so it may not be me. My advice to anybody seeking a business coach would be to find somebody who's walked the path already. Who has experience in your industry or the niche that you are in? I think it’s risky to take advice from people who haven't got the experience. You should absolutely be looking for somebody who's already scaled and grown businesses. Proven success is a really big thing. 

Merlie: Yes, absolutely! There are a lot of theorists out there. Not many people have trodden the path themselves and got the scars to prove it, but also know the way to avoid some of the mistakes or challenges that they faced, or at least mitigate them for others. 

Lisa, we have tonnes more questions, haven't we, Aaron? I would love to keep asking you our questions, but the community will never forgive me. Sorry guys, I’m getting to your questions in a moment. 

For those of you interested in Lisa’s philanthropy, Lisa and her town recently did an incredible thing for a fellow town that was flooded out. Lisa, you managed to motivate an entire town to support a fellow town. There’s lots more that we could be talking about in relation to Lisa, but Aaron, do you want to kick us off with the first of those legendary community questions?

Aaron: Let's go straight for them. The question here is straightforward, but I know you're going to have some good insights into it. ‘Why do you think it's so much harder for women to be successful in business? I constantly feel like I'm judged for being female, rather than having a good business idea and a great work ethic?’. Now I know the question itself is not simple and the answer’s not simple, but it is a prevalent problem. Lisa, what's your take on it? 

Lisa: That’s a contentious question at this point. I know the female empowerment issue in politics and entertainment is a very common media talking point. It’s not really talked about in the female business sense. I can tell you the statistics show that less than 2% of female-owned businesses ever crack the $1m mark, which is shocking and awful. I don't know the stats for the male-owned businesses, but I know it's at least five times higher. I do believe that women struggle. I know that female-led businesses trying to raise capital struggle a lot more than male-led businesses do. In my instance, I had a male founder with me, and we did raise capital, but it was my male co-founder that the investor spent most of his time talking to. I had a million experiences of going to meetings with banks, investors, and suppliers, and everyone would just look at my ex-husband and not at me. I think that this absolutely happens in business. It's definitely a thing. I don't let it hold me back though. I don't let it intimidate me in any way. I feel the way that we need to approach things is to assume that there are no barriers for ourselves and to put our all into everything that we do and plan for success. 

Merlie: I think that is such a powerful answer. I relate to so many of those statements that you just made. I remember being told very early on,  Aaron you know this story well, when we were founding Farillio and we were fundraising for the first time, being told by a potential target investor that we'd identified that it would be a brilliant idea if I just had a male co-founder. Why? What changes the idea from being brilliant if I’m male or female or there are co-founders? It was extraordinary. There was a journalist who reached out recently who said you do realise that you're only one of a handful of women in legal tech, in law, who has raised over £1m? I tend to keep a very low profile over here because it's not about how much we've raised. It’s about the good that we're doing, the purpose, the impact, and frankly, selling. It really brought me up short though. This journalist was essentially saying you need to speak out more because if you don't other people will believe it's still not possible to do. That was quite an eye-opening conversation for me. I think we've got to refuse to be defined by this kind of statement and do it to prove them wrong. It is a hard challenge. 

I've got another question for you now, Lisa, from another community member. This is one that I'm sure we'll all relate to. I'm working long hours and trying everything I can think of. I've tried so many ways to make my business work. What was it that helped you to turn your business into a success? 

Lisa: For me, it was around knowing exactly who my customer was and what their problem was. Then when I created the relationship with the customer, I maintained it. I really worked hard at owning our customers. In business I often see people spending a lot of money on marketing and attracting new clients, meanwhile their existing clients quietly walk out the back door with no ceremony. It's crazy that we spend all this money, and we bombard all these people to get them to buy our products, but we don't make our current clients feel completely loved and compelled to stay.  So for me, there are different aspects to this topic, but there’s knowing who your customer, understanding what their problem is and how you can solve it, and finding out how they feel about your product and your pricing? Would they buy it? When they buy it, do they love it? Would they do a review and tell others? It’s about really understanding and owning your customer, their journey, and their experience, and keeping them as a customer. I feel that's probably the greatest gift that I learned from my businesses that I could share with others.

Aaron: Brilliant advice. I'm so glad that you've put it in that way and not just said that you’ve got to work more hours. I think there’s that danger that you get on the hamster wheel and you’re just running but unfortunately, you’re not getting anywhere. I think that advice about pivoting and making sure that you’re relevant is exactly what people need, and I think that's wonderful.

Now, on a similar line, this question is about work and making sure that we have the right kind of balance and time for family commitments. Do you think it's ever possible to find the balance between work and having a life away from it? I don't know anyone right now who seems to be successful and has time for friends, hobbies or other stuff. Have you got any advice for that? During this time, many of us have been working as much as possible trying to keep our business afloat. What advice have you got for that one? is there anything that you can bring to the table?

Lisa: I absolutely think it's possible. I think it's easy to fall back into the pattern of being addicted to business, but it is possible with clear strategies. I think we live in the most incredible time, with our ability to use software to automate our businesses. We have access to low cost and cheap software that can absolutely change how we run our businesses. We also have a global workforce that fits into any budget or any expertise category and we can find people who can help us inside of our businesses. I think there's never been a better time to be growing a brand than literally right now. Incorporating those kinds of activities will allow us, as business owners, to get off the mouse wheel and focus on building the business instead of running the business. That’s where we have the time to have lunch with friends, be there for our kids and be present. It absolutely can be done, but it does take a clear strategy and a lot of knowledge to help you to find those unique set of activities inside of your business that will allow you to be a little freer, and dedication to the cause.

Merlie: Absolutely. Again, that's probably where the mentor comes in, right? Somebody who can help you to see the wood for the trees when you're struggling a bit. 

Lisa, another question for you here. What did it feel like to sell your business and what made you decide to build another business afterwards? Some might say that's insane, but how would you answer that question? 

Lisa: I seem to be a bit of a serial entrepreneur because I'm about to launch my seventh business. I think that when you found work for yourself, it's quite difficult to conceive working for somebody else. I'm very passionate and empowered about being a high achiever and being an exceptional project manager, so I feel the best person to do that for is myself. Selling my nappy brand was incredibly difficult and I would never have done so if it weren’t for the mitigating circumstances of divorcing my co-founder. That was heart-wrenching if I'm honest. The only part in it that has given me some light is that the brand itself is still growing and has doubled since I left it. That is a legacy. It's an eco-product and it's solving problems and creating healthier babies around the world. I'm immensely proud of starting that movement. Anyone who's been in business will know that there are a multitude of emotions that go with being in business – grief, sadness, wonderment, and excitement. They all fill the same hour. 

Aaron: That’s good to hear. Thank you again for your honesty and for being able to explain and give inspiration to people. It’s the real-life stories. It's the fact that you've not had it easy. You’ve not just woken up one day and thought ‘let's create a multi-million-pound business’ and job done. You've experienced those stages through your life and your business, and you've been able to overcome them. I think that's really what people are going to get out of this chat today, is that inspiration and those words of wisdom. 

The next question that we've got is on that same pattern. It's about having that inspiration, feeling empowered, feeling like you’re doing everything right. Our community member here says ‘what do you do when it feels like nobody believes in your idea or your abilities? I'm scared about what to do next’. It's one of those things where you believe in what you're doing, you believe that you've got it all correct and you've got this multi-million pound idea that will help you and help your business push forward, but how do you get others to believe in that? And have you got any tips to help this particular questioner?

 Lisa: That's a that's a really good question and I would answer it in two parts. The first part is that being in business really is a grind and nobody talks about how much hard work you must do. It’s relentless, it's a long slog, and there's no such thing as an overnight success. In fact, with anybody who does have success, you haven't seen the hard slog over the ten years before they became become an overnight success. Part of it is believing in what you're doing, knowing that you're going to put the hard yards in, and sticking with it. Go the hard yards and make it happen. Do everything you need to do and believe in it completely. 

The second part is this thing that I call ‘proving the concept’. I feel a lot of businesses miss this part. We are not our customer, and this is a mistake a lot of business owners make when they launch, particularly with products. They think they have a great idea – ‘I'm going to order an entire container of that and then I'm going to sell it’. They forget to check that potential customers will buy it at a price point that makes a profit. 

I think that the answer to that question is in two parts. One, get in and do it. Two, before you get in and do it, make sure that there's enough of a market there for you to make a profit out of it. Make sure that you're not just going to sell six pieces a month and you're going to able to pay your own bills. Check on that before you put your all in. 

Merlie: That’s great advice. You are not your customer. How many times, Aaron, do we hear the opposite of that? Frequently? Thank you, Lisa. 

Another interesting question. I know you're going to like this one. What are your top tips for mums in business? Our viewer says ‘I had my daughter six months ago and I'm trying to decide whether to go back to work (if I still have a job), or whether to take a BIG risk and see if I can freelance instead. I work currently in a call centre, but I'd love to use my sales skills to coach others to sell better.

Lisa: I think that the world that we live in is an absolutely golden opportunity, particularly for women, but really for anybody to take the jump and work from home. It's funny because for years I've been talking about having a remote team working from home and I did it long before it was trendy. I was trying to teach people years ago to get their team to work remotely. You'll save on office costs, and you won't have watercooler talk. It’s a fantastic way to incorporate a hidden resource in the world – which is mums that can work from home. They are multitaskers and a fantastic workforce. Suddenly COVID arrived and all these teams are dismantling their offices and working from home. They’ve discovered that you can do your laundry while you're on Zoom calls, it's brilliant!

For mums, in particular, the freelance market is growing exponentially every month. I use a couple of freelance platforms to find staff all the time and the staff on one of my freelance platforms, Upwork, are all over the world. Geographic location is no longer a barrier. Wherever you are, if you have the skill set that might be needed by somebody else in the world, there's an opportunity. It’s particularly good if you have a baby and you want to be at home and present for your family, but also earn an income. There have never been more exciting times in our lives than now. I would say jump ship!

Merlie: Brilliant advice. If you are listening, go jump ship and the very best of luck to you! That's so exciting and really empowering. 

Aaron: I think both of those answers help one another. You talked about remote-working, and you talked about going part-time for making that jump. That's in the world we live in today, with the gig economy and everything we've got. If you've got the right skill set, you should be okay to find part-time work to subsidise taking that jump and when you are trying to build up your business. We have a benefit now that we've never had before in terms of that extra option to bring in that income. We've seen clients using that. People have been able to jump into business or consultancy because of the gig economy or however they are subsidising their income. I think it's a positive place for people to be able to make that jump at the moment which is great.

Merlie: Apologies if we haven't got to your question in today's show. Don't forget if you are listening to the extended podcast, we’ve got more to come, and you will be able to hear Lisa’s answers. Head off to the podcast channel if you're not there already and you can hear the extended version of today's show.

Aaron: Talking about talent and talking about costs and budgeting, the next question is ‘I know I need a coach to help grow my business, but I struggle to pay for things as they are. How can I get help to grow in this situation’? Have you got any advice for them on how to afford the right mentor at the right time?

 Lisa: I come across this one a lot. In my experience, there's over $150K to $200K that I've invested over the last 12 years in business coaching programmes. Every single time I had to pay for a mentor it hurt. There was a point when I had to use three credit cards to get to a conference, but that conference changed my life. I would perhaps turn the question around and say, can you afford not to get that information? That's the opportunity cost of not having a good mentor. Of course, you need to be financially responsible. However, if you've researched and you've found a mentor or coach that has the expertise you need, you can in almost every case pay back the cost of working with them within a month or two of working with me. I have the expertise to help people to tweak things, decrease expenses, and increase revenue. Where can we look for low hanging fruit? How can we tweak this and change that? I think that is a value that then extends. I had a coach at one point who I worked with for four years, so you can imagine how much incredible guidance I got every year of those four years. I would say, how can you afford not to have a good strategy person in your world? 

Merlie: That’s really made me think about wanting mentors in the past and worrying about the budget costs. Flipping it around in that way really does cast a different light on it. Can you afford not to have somebody who can help you power your business forward? Food for thought there. 

The final question, Lisa, for you from our community for today's show: I haven't got enough sales coming in and I really don't know whether it's because my business is missing the mark somewhere and people don't understand what my products are. How do I work that out? 

Lisa: That’s a great question. I think that people are scared sometimes to go out and talk to their potential customers, to run polls, do surveys and to door knock, to take their products to a market and ask people for feedback. I think that's perhaps a sign of our digital era, where we are so busy looking at our phones and our computers that we forget to sit up and talk to people. I think that if you're ever unsure why your product isn't selling or if there's a market for your product or service, you need to talk to people and find out. Then you need to test and measure. Everything that I teach is around, not risking everything, but taking massive imperfect action. This means trying to sell a few sample products, or order a small sample run and have them tested by your potential customers. Everything that we do in business is about test, measure, pivot, test, measure, pivot. It actually never stops. Surprisingly, you might think that when you hit success and your business is powering along, you can sit back Pina Coladas and read the financial review, but you don't! You constantly test, measure, pivot, tweak and make changes. That starts right at the very beginning. If you're feeling uncomfortable with the volume of sales that you've got, or you feel there aren't enough customers for your product or service, then make a change to your product and offer them something they do want. Go and talk to them. 

Merlie: Brilliant advice. Thank you, Lisa. Aaron, that was incredible, wasn't it? Such wonderful answers Lisa, thank you very much. 

Aaron: I think it's the perfect start to Season two, isn't it? This is exactly what we want. Thank you, Lisa, for being so honest. Thank you for telling us exactly how it is. We want to share stories from people who have been there and done it. The stories you shared today have been inspirational and there are little nuggets of inspiration in there. There are pearls of wisdom and I think everyone's going to go away with a lot to think about and be able to improve their business going forward, which is what it's all about. Thank you very much, Lisa. 

Lisa: My pleasure. Thank you for inviting me here. 

Merlie: Massive thanks again to Lisa for all the wisdom and for staying up on the other side of the world so that we can get those answers from her. Aaron, always a pleasure. Have a wonderful week, folks. We will see you again for episode two of season two. In the meantime, don't forget to #GoFarFast.