Perls of Wisdom

I Woke Up & Made £40k in 3 Days

• Isobel Perl • Season 1 • Episode 3

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This episode is one of those conversations that feels very real, very quickly.

I sat down with Lucy, founder of Partner in Wine, and what stood out instantly was just how candid she was about everything that comes with building a business behind the scenes.

Because from the outside, it can look like things are stable.

But this conversation tells a very different story.

We talk about what it feels like to lose multiple clients in a short space of time, and the pressure that comes with having to rebuild quickly when your business relies on other people’s decisions. The uncertainty, the constant adapting, and the moments where you are forced to figure things out without a clear plan.

What makes this episode different is how openly Lucy shares it.

There is no glossing over the difficult parts, no pretending it is all working perfectly. She speaks honestly about the instability, the reliance on social media, and what it really takes to keep going when things feel unpredictable.

At the same time, we go deeper than just the practical side of business.

We talk about the mindset behind navigating that uncertainty, and how growth is not always linear, even when it might look that way from the outside. There is a real honesty in this episode about resilience and the reality of building something while still figuring it out.

One of the most relatable parts of this conversation is around consistency, not in results, but in showing up.

Because what happens when things slow down, or fall apart slightly? Can you keep going anyway, even when it feels uncertain?

This episode is a reminder that building a business is not just about getting to the next level. It is about learning how to handle the in between, the moments where nothing feels guaranteed, but you keep building regardless.

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure you follow Perls of Wisdom, so you never miss a conversation about what it really takes to build a business.

This podcast is all about the messy middle. The part nobody talks about. The lessons, mistakes, and breakthroughs that happen while you are still figuring it out.

If this episode helped you, I would love it if you could share it with a founder friend or tag me on social media so I can see you are listening.

You can find me here:
 Instagram: @itsisobelperl
LinkedIn: Isobel Perl
YouTube: Isobel Perl
Website: perlsinbusiness.com

If there is a founder you would love me to interview, or a topic you want covered, send me a message. I read more than you would think.

And remember:

You do not need to feel ready; you just need to decide to start.

Love Isobel x

Intro / Teaser

SPEAKER_02

I had a month where three of my social media clients cancelled at the same time and I was like, shit. Yeah. Okay, what do we do now? That's the only mistake I think I've ever made. This is gonna blow up.

SPEAKER_00

Welcome to Pells of Wisdom, the podcast all about the messy middle of starting a business. Today I have on Lucy, the founder of Partner in Wine. Honestly, she has been so candid about her business journey, and I think you are gonna find this episode incredibly interesting. We could have spoken for hours, um, but we did have to wrap it up at the end because otherwise we would have been speaking for hours. So enjoy the episode. Don't forget to like and subscribe, drop us a follow, and let us know in the comments any other founders that you want me to have on an interview.

Welcome & Introducing Lucy

SPEAKER_00

Hello, welcome to the podcast. Today I am here with Lucy from Partner in Wine. Lucy, thank you so much for being here today. Thanks for having me. Of Love Podcast. I am really excited to unpick your brain as to everything that has been going on in your businesses. But first off, I want to ask you, um, what's the most chaotic thing that's happened this week? And I know it's Monday. No, it's Tuesday. So we can go to last week as well.

SPEAKER_02

Um, I the most probably the most chaotic well, no, the past week has just been terribly chaotic in the way that I've done no work. Slay. Um I feel a bit stressed about it because I have so much to do and there's just very few chaotic months coming up. Um, but I've been to Cornwall, I've been to a funeral. I've been up and down. Um up and down the motorway, sorry, not up and down emotionally. Um although I'm sure there has been moments of that too. Um I just live a chaotic life.

SPEAKER_00

I feel like every founder does. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Sorry, I can't pinpoint one moment.

SPEAKER_00

I just my brain is chaos. Does that count? It's just life. That does count, that absolutely counts.

Lucy's Elevator Pitch: Sassy Digital & Partner in Wine

SPEAKER_00

Um, can you please give us the elevator pitch to your brands, yourself, your life?

SPEAKER_02

Oh gosh, okay. Well, we were talking about this earlier, and I feel like I've got many strings to my bows, but I'll explain it as best I can. My name's Lucy Hitchcock. I'm the founder of Partner in Wine, which is probably what I'm best known for. I started Partner in Wine five years ago um in July, and previous to that, I am the founder of Sassy Digital, which is a uh, well, was, which maybe we'll come on to later, um, is and was an e-commerce uh branding and marketing agency um which I set up 10 years ago. That's and I would probably describe myself best aside from being the founder of Partner in Wine, wine content creator, business content creator, and all the other chaotic things I have going on, I would probably best describe myself as an e-commerce or e-commerce marketing consultant.

SPEAKER_00

Nice.

SPEAKER_02

Um, yeah, because that's what I do best.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that's that's what you do. I love

Life Before Sassy Digital

SPEAKER_00

it. So take me back to the Lucy before Sassy Digital. What was she like and what led you to start an e-comm branding agency?

SPEAKER_02

Uh Lucy pre-Sassy Digital was like super young, naive. I was 22 at the time. Weren't we all? Yeah. Um I'm now 33 for context.

SPEAKER_00

Did y'all know you were 33? Yeah, that's the basic. Girl, you look incredible. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02

Um, very young, naive, conflict avoider. Um living, was I what was I doing? Where was I living? Living with my parents at the time. And I was working in London. I'd graduated from Bournemouth University, did communication and media, find it, found it quite hard to get a job at the time. Ten years ago, when we were coming out of uni, like there was this whole narrative like it's super hard to get a job, the market's really competitive, everyone wants to get the same kind of jobs. Um, I ended up getting a job actually through a family friend, worked at his office, uh, temping for a little bit, and then one of the people that worked there, his girlfriend, had just left an internship and they were looking to fill the position.

SPEAKER_01

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02

So I went in to fill the position uh at a what is now I think a healthcare marketing agency. Um, but I ended up running the social media for the Portland Hospital, which is a really high-end uh maternity hospital where celebrities have their babies. That's so cool. So yeah, that's what I was doing at the time, as well as the RAF club. Random. Yeah, very random. So I was like a social media manager. Yeah. One thing I learned on the job is um don't I'm not plain geek, obviously. And I would get like one letter or of a a style of plain wrong, and oh my gosh, they the plain geeks would go in on me and be like, This is actually a 21.6, not a 21.4. I can't believe it. Rage bait though.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, you were rage baiting before it was cool, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

But at the time, people were like, oh my god, no, we need to remove that, delete it.

SPEAKER_00

I was like, but it's doing so well. Honestly, I feel like people are so precious about social media. And I get it because I guess we're we're probably quite precious about our socials, but I'm kind of just like, well, let's just see what happens, and if it does well, it does well. If it doesn't, it does.

SPEAKER_02

It's all about the experimentation.

SPEAKER_00

Exactly,

Starting Sassy Digital: Pivoting & Finding Her Niche

SPEAKER_00

it is. And so, what led you to start Sassy Digital?

SPEAKER_02

Got made redundant from that job.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

Um, because all of their social media clients cancelled at once.

SPEAKER_01

Wow.

SPEAKER_02

Um, just because times were tough, budgets were being cut, what's the first thing to go? Social media, which as we know now is very important.

unknown

It's very important.

SPEAKER_02

Um yeah, at the time it was like a new, it was, it was like an up and coming new thing. People didn't know necessarily how to like work it for their business. So got made redundant from that job. Then that was at the beginning of the summer, and then I had a couple of months searching for another job. So I like to say I just had a very long summer holiday, which a year after uni, I was like, great. So I just like tagged along with my parents' holidays, went tagged along with my friend's family holiday as well. And then I was like, right, okay, I do actually need to get a job. So I started working at a corporate comms agency, which was like dry and dull as it sounds, let me tell you, doing annual reports for um very certain people, Kingfisher who owned Screwfix and BQ. Fun fact. Nice, and uh the Netherlands Telecom Agency. So niche. Yeah, so niche. But it was sold to me as something I wasn't. I thought I was going in to do social media and I wasn't, but this is like a key sort of part to well, which did actually lead me to where I am today, even though I hated the job. I ended up working a lot on these FTSE100 corporate websites. So building the websites, learning um about like sort of very basic SEO in terms of building it, not just the copy and the things that people think about initially when they think about SEO, it's how it's built correctly to make sure that the you know, the site map, the site structure, everything is working in your favour. Accessibility that adds towards SEO, so like alt tags and stuff like that. Um, font size, la la la la, readability, all of that kind of th stuff. So I was doing that, working with clients and essentially I basically I didn't like the job. I got pulled into a meeting after being on holiday with like four men who basically shouted at me and told me I had the attitude of an aughty schoolgirl, which is a little bit weird.

SPEAKER_00

That is such a weird reference.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, I was uh like sexually harassed on a daily basis, as in like the men would come over to my desk and like 50-year-old men like curl their hair and you know, all of that, and I was like, I'm getting out of here. Yeah, and I ended up finding a freelance job with a lady called Madeline Shaw, who was um who is kind of like a delicious Liella back in the day. Obviously, Delicious Liella now has a huge food business and you know whatever else, but um so I started working for her three days a week and it slowly kind of built up to four, but I was trying to uh get social media clients on the side so that I could build up Sassy to be a kind of social media management agency, which what I know now is a terrible idea because I had a month where three of my social media clients cancelled at the same time, and I was like, shit, yeah, okay, what do we do now? One thing I do really well is in those situations, I have a day where I panic. I'm like, oh my gosh, and then I'm like, okay, right, not feeling sorry for myself anymore. What am I doing now? And I was like, I'm good at branding, I've got loads of freelancers that work for me. I'm amazing at building websites. I did it myself for myself. Other people would always always ask me to build their websites, and so then I started to build up those that side of the business.

Diversifying Revenue Through Covid

SPEAKER_02

Um I also had like templates, which I still do, yeah. Um a template shop. I had a logo shop where they were pre-designed, and then we could just drop in people's like company name, all of those sorts of things to kind of diversify my revenue stream, yeah, and then from there kind of slowly built it up, and then come COVID. I got so busy that I had to hire two full-time team members. Um, so yeah, but I'm sure we'll come to that later.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Oh, I'm excited. I feel like it's such an important skill to have as a founder to pivot to like because you could have been like, oh no, I'm just gonna double down on doing social media and find more social media clients. But actually, you were like, this seems quite risky. Let's pivot, add more, add more strings to my bow. And actually, then we won't hopefully go through this problem next time. But I feel like many agency owners will resonate. I've spoken to so many people who have been like, yeah, like overnight my business just collapsed because everyone cancelled on me.

SPEAKER_02

Stress, yeah, it's hard. But I I actually feel nowadays, I feel like it's a lot easier to um I guess protect yourself against those things happening with different kinds of software. So I'll give an example. Um, my accountants, I pay on direct debit, I pay the month up front, they collect it automatically. Part of the, you know, the contract to actually uh sign with them is you have to sign up for that. Yeah. And that's totally fair enough.

SPEAKER_01

That makes sense. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

It's I think back then it was a confidence thing.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And also uh, oh, people will really care. They don't care. If they want to work with you, they'll do it. So it's I think if I was starting that business again, that's what I would have set up initially, but there wasn't the infrastructure at the time to do so.

SPEAKER_00

So and also like it's one of those looking back and being like I should have, but like at the time it's almost like I didn't know it. So yeah, exactly. So true. And then in terms of like sassy digital, like what problem were you solving? Like what clients were coming to you? Like, were they of like a certain niche or like small business?

SPEAKER_02

When I started, there wasn't actually, and I know this is something that people you know when people say, like, oh, there weren't many influencers when I started Lemma, there wasn't many people running social media accounts. And nowadays, if you like social media, it's very, very easy to become a social media manager by simply just setting up a TikTok account, sharing your wisdom, and then getting clients that way. Yeah, at the time, not many people were helping small businesses to promote their business on social media, businesses didn't understand it. It's like I'll give you an example. One of my uh first clients was my hairdresser. He's a hairdresser, he's not a marketeer. Yeah, I'm a marketeer, I understand these things. Yeah, and I think marketing is one of those things that people either get or they don't get, and if they don't get it, it's so hard to get your head around. It really is. So I initially started helping small businesses, startup businesses with their social media and with their content. Um, even at one point I was like making food videos for an aloe vera drinks company, you know. Love that. All of these different things that were kind of happening in the background. Um, and then sorry, what was the question again? Did you have like a problem you were solving? Yes. Yeah, yeah. So I guess the problem I was solving was that there wasn't that many people around to actually help with that kind of thing, and then it slowly developed into the the kind of self-building website space where Shopify at the time you did have to code about pages, you know, other pages, the the build of the store isn't how it is now. And even now, if you want a level of um difference, you still have to code it. Yeah, so that's where we sort of came in in the way that we were able to to code all these different things because I can code. Yeah. Um, so and then obviously I outs well didn't outsource it, but uh Becky, who works for me, learnt to code. And so we we did did all the things.

SPEAKER_00

So amazing, and then I guess in 2020

Launching Partner in Wine: The Lockdown Lightbulb Moment

SPEAKER_00

you put it all into practice and started your own product-based brand. So, can you tell me more about that?

SPEAKER_02

My dad would always say to me, Why do you do this for other people when you could do it for yourself? And I was like, Yeah, you're so right, but I don't have something that I want to do. I don't have something that I feel passionate enough about to actually see it through. And that's I wasn't waiting for a light bulb moment, I just stumbled across it during a socially distanced drink in the park. I was like, Why is there not an insulated wine bottle that I can put my wine into to keep it cold rather than the sad little bag that my mum had given me? Yeah, and so I kind of went off, did a little research. Um, this was literally, this was literally like at the very beginning height of COVID. I think we'd just come out of lockdown where you could see one person but socially distanced.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So, and in the park, not in your garden or whatever. Um, so I decided to give it a go. I had all the tools that I needed, did my own branding, website, you know, working with my team on those things to make it a success. And I had a very clear vision from the beginning of what my content would be, what I felt was missing. I'm not I'm it's really funny because whenever I speak to like my family and friends about it, I'm like, I've not invented something. I'm I'm just reinventing the wheel. Insulated bottles exist, and I say this all the time. I I used to say this um in SASI to clients, I'd be like, you can go and build your own website, but you can. I'm telling you, you can. But if you don't have the time or the knowledge, I can help you with that. Exactly. But that's kind of what a brand is. There's so many different makeup brands out there, there's so many different hairbrushes out there, there's so many different, you know, there's a variety of things. You just need to find a brand that you resonate with and something that works for you. Yeah, and so I was very keen to build my whole brand basically around wine, yeah, wine knowledge, wine drinking, and that was going to be my educational piece on social media.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Um, and that was kind of what I wanted to get into as well, because I didn't know much about wine at the time. So I kind of used that as an opportunity to go down that route, which now is obviously a huge part of my business, my income, um, and everything else. So I'm not only using my social media to promote my business, but I'm using it to promote wine brands as well.

SPEAKER_00

And I think that's so important. Like I always think about with Pearl, like how obviously it's different because we're skincare, so it's like we can't, I'm not gonna be promoting other people's skincare brands. Yeah. But I think what you've done so well is that like you have a product and it has such a natural complementary other product, e.g., like wine, or like you know, wine goes with everything and pairings and things like that. It's such a nice complementary thing to talk about on socials in an education piece. Yeah. That I'm always like, I'm the same to you. It's like whenever people talk about their brands, I'm like, well, what else can you talk about that's not just the product that fits around that like narrative? And for you, you're literally like you're like the educator in the wine space. Like if I drank wine, I would literally be watching your videos. And I have in the past, when I did drink wine, you'd recommend something, and I would go to Aldi and buy it. And I was like, Lucy's recommended this wine, I'd send it to my photo.

SPEAKER_02

You always comment below my videos. I'm like, as well doesn't even bring. I'm not gonna try it.

SPEAKER_00

Oh my god, biggest supporter. I'm like, Slate Queen, this one's so good. And I'm like, I haven't tried it, I haven't tried it. No one needs

Going Viral on TikTok Overnight

SPEAKER_00

to know. Um when you started partner in wine, did you obviously like when did you think it would have the the legs to grow outside of lockdown? Because obviously lockdown was a big part of the brand and the story.

SPEAKER_02

I always laugh at this question because I'm one I think you know, sometimes people can be really humble and be like, oh my god, like no, I had no idea. I'm like, yeah, I did, like I back myself 100%. I'm like, it as she should. When I got the idea, I was like, this is gonna blow up. I I just it's a matter of time. And I knew it was launched in July, did my first 10k month in November 2020.

SPEAKER_00

Amazing.

SPEAKER_02

December 2020.

SPEAKER_00

I don't actually think I quite hit 10k then, but obviously because November's like but also like it's not it's not cold wine season in December, is it? So it's not, but Christmas gifts, like so.

SPEAKER_02

Christmas is one of my biggest times of year, obviously, as well as summer. Yeah. Um, but then January, February, obviously a bit of dive for all businesses, and then March. I March was when I had my first like viral moment. Yes, I remember that. I literally remember it. Can we talk about it?

SPEAKER_00

Tell me more.

SPEAKER_02

So I posted a video. I think I'd do you know what? I actually think I'd even watched your videos before I posted mine. I think I was watching yours. There was like, you know, some of the OG, like um the powder puff. Yeah, Trigwell Cosmetics.

SPEAKER_00

Um Vet H or Um Clomana. Yes. Can't say her old brand name, don't want to get in trouble.

SPEAKER_02

Yes. There was loads of like I just kept seeing these business stories, even like American ones. Do you remember Hody's? Oh my god, the candle guy.

SPEAKER_00

He's British. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Yeah. Sorry, he is British, but um I saw his video as well. I was like, everyone's telling stories. Yes. I need to work out how to do this. Also, I had at the time I wasn't editing any videos at all. It took me maybe like, well, it must have taken me the whole day to edit. A literature to like I remember you telling me, you're like, I have spent a day doing this. Honestly, also, like the the frustration and that pure anger in me. I was like, I can't do this. And I was already throwing my phone out the window. I was like, do you know what? I was like, it's messy, but whatever. If people like it, they'll like it. Press post, totally forgot. And this was maybe like the 12th thing that I posted on TikTok ever, and I'd only started that month, and all of my posts before that were pure trash. Yeah, I love that. And just not something that anyone would ever care about. And um, I press post. I remember that day I had my um my best friend round for dinner because she used to live down the road from me, and so we were like in this uh, I think by then we were back in another lockdown, but we were like bubbled together. So she would come to my house one day and I would go to her house the next day, and uh, we just basically spent all our time together. So she was around mine for dinner, had a few bottles of wine, woke up the next morning, opened my phone, and because at the time I was working with um some uh influencer influencers on their fashion brand. So um I was working with uh Sarah Ashcroft on SLA, so I managed her website, um RAP SLA. I love that brand, RAP. Um, and I was like, this must be her sales, then she must be doing some kind of flash sale or whatever. But each of the amounts was $38.95, and that was the well, some of them obviously were more than that, and tumblers and whatever, but the amounts of each order equated to like what I would usually expect for a partner in wine order, and I was like, no, no, this must be my business. And so I went through to check, but obviously at the time, every single second, notifications were pinging it, like sales notifications, and I just got this like massive burst of adrenaline. I was in bed literally shaking. I was like, I don't know what's going on, and clicked on my Shopify, and I'd already turned over like, I don't know, three or four thousand pounds or something, and I was ch just had to double triple check that it was my store and it was, and I was like, something weird is happening here. There's hundreds of people on my web uh checking out, there's thousands of people on the website. So I was like looking around, I was like, so some maybe someone's supposed to, you know, shared something on Instagram that I didn't know about, I don't know, and I couldn't find a thing. And I was maybe searching around for 10 minutes. I was texting my mum, I was like, something really weird's happening. Like I I feel like some like I've gone viral or something, but I don't understand why. I don't know where. And I was like, ah I did post that TikTok.

unknown

Obsessed.

SPEAKER_02

And so I went onto TikTok. I had like over 7,000 followers literally in like a day. Whereas before I maybe had like eight or something.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I it had hundreds of thousands of views, and every time I refreshed the video, it would jump up by like 20, 30,000 views. At a time in my over on WhatsApp, my friends were texting, like in other groups that they had. They were like, People are talking about you in my WhatsApp group, sending screenshots. It just like as in they were like, Hey, don't you know this girl? And my friend Ellie was like, Yeah, I know her. That's my friend. Um, and that happened like multiple times throughout the day. You know, family friends of mine would text me and be like, People in my office are talking about you. I can't believe this is happening to you. And it is, it was kind of like quite a nice moment because not only was it happening to me, and this is the kind of thing that you always dream will happen to you, right? But it never, you never in your wildest dreams actually think that kind of thing is going to happen to you. But it's also quite fun for my friends and my family because it kind of was also happening to them too. Yeah, because they would hear from other people that they'd seen this and that and la la la, and it just was like a real nice moment.

The Aftermath: Press, Retail & Liberty London

SPEAKER_02

But I was like extremely overwhelmed that day. I was like, I'd only moved into a fulfilment centre three months before, and I was like, Thank God.

SPEAKER_00

Imagine your poor parents having to pack all those orders.

SPEAKER_02

My parents my parents didn't well, my parents would bring me cups of tea. They I rarely was I rarely trust them to help me pack all those. Yeah, actually, that's true.

SPEAKER_00

Imagine your poor parents being like, what the hell's going on whilst you're frantically packing orders?

SPEAKER_02

It's more like my best friend actually, she'd come over and whip me into shape and be like, the way you're doing this is stressing me out. I'm like, I'm not a logistics person, I'm a creative, I'm a creative. Yeah, so thank God. And my um my fulfillment manager is such a baby, and she messaged me and she was like, We are so buzzing about this. Oh my god, this is just so cool. Oh, I love it. Um so yeah, it just like it was a real nice moment. Yeah. But it I find it really weird, and I I always say this. I obviously I do have quite a lot of followers, but I always think for the amount of people that know what partner of mine is, have seen my story, have read it somewhere in the press or whatever, because so much press came off the back of that, you know. As yeah, as you do when your business goes viral, you'll know all about this. But you, you know, all of the newspapers want your story, and they'll write your story even if you don't give it to them, the son. Oh, yeah, and they'll make up fake fake titles. That story up, yeah. Uh, I think my son headline was I was skinned to living with my parents. So I was like, right, I didn't say I was not quite, but okay. Great, you go for that headline as long as I make social, I don't care. And I basically it just everything that came off the back of that totally took partner in wine to just like a different uh ball game. But what I was gonna say is I deserve more followers for the amount of for the sheer amount of people that know about partner and wine. It's true. Um I feel like I should have millions of followers. I I mean, I regularly get people come up to me in the pub on the street. I'm obsessed, like everywhere I go. And like it's always at like not the most inconvenient times as well. It's like when I'm like holding hands with my um fiance, just like walk walking through Cornwall, and I'll get a message like, I just saw you holding hands with a man. I'm like, Yes, that's my boyfriend of the obviously I have a landleck. Outside of partner and mine and I'm like, oh my god, someone saw Mr. Partner and mine to be in the wild.

SPEAKER_00

That's so sweet.

SPEAKER_02

So yeah, and yeah, it just it's it's really nice, and actually I love when people come up to me because everyone's always so friendly and nice. Um so but everything that came off the back of that obviously got stocked and selfages, all the bonus, urban outfitters, liberty. Yeah, it's epic. Got Mestroy posted absolutely everywhere. Um even the opportunities I get now. Um I'm on like I don't I've honestly also I don't know why I'm on this list, but I'm on Stephen Bartlett's 100 CEOs thing. Epic. But there's people on there like the the founder of Pret. And like everyone, and I'm just

Redefining Success: Freedom Over Scale

SPEAKER_02

deserve to be there. I'm just like over here on my own, just like, you know, winging it, that'll be fine.

SPEAKER_00

I love that though, because I feel like any founder that you talk to is just like not like feels perhaps a tiny bit, not like undeserving, but like you absolutely deserve to be on that list. Like you've done such cool things.

SPEAKER_02

I guess it's just I feel that my business is and and my probably my what I think is success for me personally is very, very different from the general consensus of success. I've I've done the whole having staff full-time thing. It's not for me. I'm not a good manager, and actually I don't think I need to have all these things, a team, and okay, I probably could build partner in wine to uh X mount million pound business and churn out products left, right, and centre and you know, do different lines of things, have I don't know, spin-offs like my own wine, wine subscriptions, law which are all things okay, in the future, yeah, I probably want, but I don't I don't care to have a massive team behind me making those things happen. I'm quite happy doing my own thing, living to my own rules, not having to be anywhere specific at any point because I need to help someone do something. I get quite overwhelmed and stressed by that, and so the way that I've set my business up is perfect for me and what I want from my life. Yeah, I want to go off to South America and Australia for three months in January and not care. Like, sorry, but like, well, actually not even apologising. I just want to have kids and be working from home but on my own schedule. I want to do a couple of hours work in the morning and then I want to go to the park, or like I want I I don't know, well, I don't know necessarily know what I want at the time, but like those are the things that I want. I want to have a work-life balance, yeah, and I know that that I know now that I can have that. Yes. Um, and that's perfect for me. I mean, who knows what I'll be doing in the future?

SPEAKER_00

Who knows? The world is your oyster. That's the exciting thing as well, is about starting a brand, is that the opportunities that can just land like in your inbox is so such an exciting thought.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um, but one thing I want to speak about on what you just said is I think it's I think a lot of founders think about starting a business and they're like, oh, I want to scale it to seven figures, I want a huge team, like that's what success is. But actually, you've hit the nail on the head, like, success, like to you and to me as well, is literally like managing my own schedule, like being able to take time off whenever I want, however, I want. Like, that to me is success versus a brand that is. I mean, I'd also love to have a brand that's turning over millions and is profitable, like that would be great. But like, it's I think it's so true that your brand is successful and it's what you deem as success, and you don't need to have all the bells and all the whistles and a huge team and you know, offices and things like that to actually have a successful brand because ultimately it's it you've created this for you to like be free from a nine to five. So why are you then tying yourself down to like you know, sign off meeting? Like Grace Beverly, for example, listened to a podcast by hers the other day, and she was like, I was literally signing off like every single social media post for like a big launch, and it's like what you've built your team so that you shouldn't need to be doing that by this point, like, and it's just kind of like one of those things where it's yeah, I just feel like your brand is what you want it to be, and I think for me, and it sounds like for you as well, like that freedom is what is most important, freedom of time and to have time off, to have kids, to have a family, like that's that's what's important.

SPEAKER_02

I think if you would have asked me this, if if I was describing the same scenario in my 20s, things would look very different because in my 20s I was very materialistic. Yes, I enjoyed having designer handbags. I used to buy myself a designer handbag every business birthday. As you should. They don't even come out of the cupboard now. Yeah, it's I actually like I look at them and I'm like, that's embarrassing. Those are the ones going unvinted. I'm gonna I'm saving them because I I actually think my parents um this sounds really silly, but do you remember when wayfarers came back into fashion?

SPEAKER_03

Yes.

SPEAKER_02

My dad was like, Oh, I had a pair of those back in the day. And at the time I was like 18 and they were like £100 and obviously £100 back then. Uh it's a lot of money. Yeah. Well, actually comparatively, it's not that much now, is it? But um As an 18-year-old, it was a lot of money. Oh, where are they? And he was like, I don't know, got rid of the majors ago. So anything that I'm like is a key staple piece. I'm like, that's staying in the wardrobe, I'm not getting out, but in the future, one day hopefully I'll have a daughter and I can give it to them. Not when she's 18, though, because I, for my 18th birthday, bought myself a Chanel handbag, which by the way did not cost as much as they do now. I have the receipt, it cost me 1600 pounds, which is wild. I used to take it clubbing Oceano on a Wednesday. Oh my god, obsessed. Regrets. It it's it looks like a vintage bag.

SPEAKER_00

At least you still have it, at least it didn't get lost.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it didn't, but it does look vintage now because it is battered.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, that is so, so funny. No, I like that. I think it's it's so true as well. I feel like my mum threw away so much stuff, and I'm like, why did you do that? Like, I would have worn that. So you never know though. You just don't know. You don't know what's gonna come.

SPEAKER_02

I know, so yeah, anyway, even though I'm not materialistic to an extent right now, uh, yeah, I think that that answer would have been very different in my 20s. I would have been like, yeah, I want to be like uh what's her name? Whitney Wolf Heard. Is that her name?

SPEAKER_01

Bumble, Bumble, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, billionaire, mum of two, smashing it. That's what I would have been like, goals. Now I'm just like, I just want the house with

Virality: Luck vs. Skill

SPEAKER_02

a garden, babies actually. Yes.

SPEAKER_00

And a white picket fence. Yeah, basically. And so going back to the TikTok viral moment, what I know you said you felt quite overwhelmed on that day. Like, what did what did that actually look like? I mean, you had a fulfillment centre, like, what was the almost like stress that came out the other side of having like a huge viral moment?

SPEAKER_02

Um probably that I was totally out of stock of everything after three days, which like at the time I was like, well, this is a nice problem to have because I turned over I think I turned over like 30 or 40,000 pounds within the space of three days. Um and like by the end of that month I turned over like 60 grand or something, but I had no stock.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So I was like, well, this will carry on. I'm gonna order thousands of everything. And I spent £70,000 on stock forgetting that I had a VAT bill coming in.

SPEAKER_00

Oh no. Tell me more, what happened? Actually, you know what?

SPEAKER_02

I actually can't remember. I think I restocked and then was like, I kind of need to just defer this payment, or I don't know, whatever I did. Find something to hold on. Well, there's a will, there's a way. I didn't I don't remember feeling particularly stressed about it at the time though, so I'm not quite sure what happened there, but found a way out of it. I found a way out of it, and I did, but probably one of my only regrets was ordering that much stock.

SPEAKER_00

Um you sold it all though? I have now, yeah. Yeah, good, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

By now bloody have geez, four years ago. Um actually, I think I still have some of the turquoise left, so no way, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, do you know what ordering stock is definitely not my forte, as everyone knows? We're always out of stock of stuff. So hard to forecast, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02

It is, but I do think there is a level of like desirability to being out of stock because it kind of does create demand. Yes, it's annoying because maybe you feel like you don't have much to talk about, but yeah, it is true, it is true.

SPEAKER_00

And then on the sort of like viral moment, um, I feel like I don't know what the answer is gonna be, but do you think it's luck, skill, bit of both? Like, what is what have you found it to be for you?

SPEAKER_02

It's a really funny question because I made a video last week about uh a new Audi uh sparkling wine and it's a I know this isn't a business story, but it's a creme on. And with my wine videos, I know when they're gonna go viral. I know the recipe. I've got I've got it down to a tier. Yeah, copy and paste. But I'm I'm very analytical. So when I consume social media, I don't consume it like a normal person. My brain goes, Why do I why am I still watching this? Why do I find it captivating? I'll often scroll back up and down because I'm like, what in that first three seconds made me continue watching? Is it the suspense of not knowing what's going to happen next? Is it a good hook? Is it uh, I don't know, the writing over the screen? So I think there's there is a variety of different ways of doing it. I think everyone just needs to experiment to see what works for them. But in terms of business story, I think for a couple of years, certainly, that kind of same recipe continued to work. The um and I don't think that recipe works now because back then I would go, My name's Lucy, and I started a business in lockdown, and people are like, Oh, what's this? Whereas now you have to say something outrageous like, I sold all of my clothes.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yes, literally, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So I don't know, but it needs to be, I think hooks also need to be authentic as well. So I can't remember what I said in this Cremant video now. The hook, but anyway, it was a good hook.

SPEAKER_00

I I I watched it, I can't remember what the hook was, but I do remember watching it.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, so that got like just for context. Normally my wine videos, unlike a bad one, will get like 15,000 views after like a week, it'll still be set on 15,000 views. This had 50,000 views like eight hours after I posted it. So like I know I know the recipe, and it's so funny because um my husband to me will be like, I'll make a video, and he'll hear me in the other room going, I'm so good. And he's like, Have you just made another viral video? I'm like, Yeah, don't you worry about it.

SPEAKER_00

Check back tomorrow, see what those views are on. I'm obsessed. Yeah, I do definitely feel like you sometimes know when something's gonna go well, you're like, that was a good one. And but then also sometimes the algorithm is like, no.

SPEAKER_02

Do you know what? TikTok does that to me nowadays. It's like, no, yeah, tick to it. Whereas on Instagram, they just they fly.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. I think there's um I think it's it's so like because obviously back when Reels came out on Instagram, you could just post your TikToks to Instagram because obviously before 2021, Instagram was just photos, right? They didn't have video, and then for a long time, you could just reshare TikTok to Instagram, and and I was a TikTok first brand, like every video was for TikTok. Whereas now it's almost switched, and we're now like we create for Instagram, and then TikTok gets Do you know what my theory is on TikTok?

SPEAKER_02

But I just don't have the time, energy, or patience to do it. You've got to be on there every day, yeah, recording and then posting. It's got to be like, it's none of this edited flashy stuff. It's if it for me, if I was gonna post a wine video on there that was gonna go viral, I would have to appear to set up my camera and just be like, I've just got back from Awny, I've just bought this wine, let's just try it together quickly and be like, oh, um, apples, pears, whatever, nice acidity, um, $7.99. Is that a good deal for the taste? Yeah, I'd say so. Like if you like, if you like this kind of style of wine. The reason I can't do that, and this isn't product related now, the reason I can't do that is because and I don't pretend to be. I am not, I am still learning wine, and I am not well versed enough, and I don't feel comfortable enough to do it off the cuff. Do it off the cuff. So I spend a lot of time researching, and um that helps me with my own learning as well. Yeah, um, so I I mean there is that side of things, but then also the other side of things is if I was to post, you know, daily business updates to make those interesting, I just don't like right now, I just don't have the headspace to sit down and be like, oh my god, this thing that happened to me. Whereas some people it comes very, very naturally to them, but it doesn't because my brain is so busy right now, it doesn't come very

Building a Content Strategy Around Wine

SPEAKER_02

naturally to me.

SPEAKER_00

And it's like an it's another full-time job, isn't it? To manage a personal social media business one. It's it's a lot, it is a lot. Um I think I think going viral is it's a mix, I think, of the two. Like I feel like you have to have, like you said, you have to have the skill, you have to know what the hook's gonna be, you have to, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think you also have to be like a bit like charismatic, and then also maybe a bit of luck in there as well. Yeah, at the right time.

SPEAKER_02

But do you know what? I think it's the perfect storm because I actually think you can post some of the funniest videos I see on TikTok are just people that have filmed something funny in their living room, yeah, but they're not using it for business. So you might get a video that gets five million views, but they they don't get any followers off the back of that because most of their videos are is of them having fun with their friends, for example. Um, so I think it's something that I don't know if someone's listening and they want to go viral. It is something you have to work hard at. Yeah, before I posted that initial video, I spent a lot of time analysing and trying to work it out. And then I got to a point where I was like, right, I've sat on this for too long. It was maybe over a three-month period that I was watching stuff. I was like, right, I just need to rip the plaster off, give it a go, see what happens, and learn over time.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that's what it is, isn't it? It's literally we touched on it earlier, where you just have to try it, and if it doesn't work, you've learned from it. And if it does work, you double down on it. Like, do you know what I mean? Exactly, and and then you double down on it until it doesn't work anymore. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02

So and and that's that's why when I'm editing my wine videos, for example, I know the text I have on screen, I know the way to edit it, I know what to say in order to get people to listen.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And that is that is the culmination of many years of making videos. My first wine videos are like embarrassingly bad, but you've got to start somewhere.

SPEAKER_00

And also I remember when you first started posting those videos, and I speak about it a lot because it's like people give up too soon. And I remember I remember your wine videos, and I was like, these are so good. Like I always like, no one used to watch them, probably except you. Just me in the comments, like, woo. Um, but like, and I remember you saying that, like, you've been posting them for like months, years maybe.

SPEAKER_02

I posted them for I've been posting them for two to three years. Yeah. I actually I'm gonna say three years because I didn't actually start getting paid to post any of them until a couple of years ago. Um, and now uh you know it's something that brands have really caught an onto.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Um and so there's a lot more money to sort of be made in it now. But um yeah, I would I'd uh I I knew that at some point people would care. But equally, even if I got one follower from that video who then saw my wine bottle and then bought it, that to me was worth it, worth it. So my whole strategy for and I don't think I've said this yet on this podcast, but my whole reason for posting these videos was to attract my ideal customer for my brand. Yeah. And once I had people watching my videos who like wine, and as now I've discovered there is a lot of people out there who are very interested in wine education versus me before partnering wine, where I buy the same bottle of rose, drink the same bottle of rose on a Wednesday with my pals, and never pick up anything different. And that's kind of where it started for me because it was kind of a journey of me getting outside of my comfort zone, learning a bit more about wine. I was like, well, if I'm doing it, everyone else must as well. And actually, there's a huge community of people out there who know a lot about wine, and if they don't, they're interested in learning. So yeah, it's really interesting, but that's the way that I suck my customers in. And so it maybe it maybe it only worked for my product stuff for a while, I don't know. But it was Christmas of 20. I want to say it was Christmas of 2022. Okay, so maybe it is coming up to three years. Christmas of 22, I posted a champagne dupe series, and that went cray cray. Love that. And then actually, no, it must have been 23. It was Christmas of 23. And then last year I started posting

The Reality of Retail Margins

SPEAKER_02

Rose dupes.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, I remember the whispering angel worm.

SPEAKER_02

The the video that got me the most followers has 5.1 million views on Instagram, and I got 35,000 followers just from that one post.

SPEAKER_00

That's wild. Is that the one that got reshared by who was it? Someone wrote pink, yeah. No, that was the soup season video. That was the soup video. Okay, yeah, I stalk you far too much. Um, okay, so talking all about um that viral video, and off the back of it, you had the retail stockists come knocking at the door. One, that's really freaking cool. But two, did you have to change anything about your business in order to like be stocked in retail? Because it's very different, yeah, to my knowledge, because I'm yet to do it, but it's very different to D to C.

SPEAKER_02

I was very much sort of pricing wise beforehand. I was like very much finger in the wind looking at competitors like well, they price theirs at that, so that's what I'll do. And when you go into retail, you don't realise that actually your pricing is extremely important. So if I was to if I was to create a product from scratch again, I would be looking at what my retail margins would be if that was a goal of mine. Now actually I've taken everything back, so you can only get partner in wine online.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, interesting.

SPEAKER_02

And the reason for that is because you don't make any money. Well, I certainly didn't make any money from it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that is cool.

SPEAKER_02

On top of that, there's a lot of weird rules that go on. So, for example, Selfridges, I had to pay for a one-hour delivery time slot. So I had to pay for a courier to deliver their stock to them. And if they're ordering less than a thousand pounds worth, I actually lose money on that. So it's a marketing thing. Yeah. And it was really cool to talk about it. And you know, um, Oliver Bonus actually only went online, right? And then they were like, it's not doing that well. I was like, Yeah, because you ordered turquoise, which is my worst-selling colour, and you put it online. I go into Oliver Bonus to buy people gifts that when it's like last minute, I've not really thought about it. And I was like, this is perfect. And so anyway, that didn't end up going in store, so that didn't work out. Um, Liberty, London worked really well, they were really, really great to work with. Um, in fact, do you know what that's unfair? Mo all of them were really, really lovely people to work with. Um, I just think you've really got to have your pricing nailed down. And a very good friend of mine used to be a buyer, and so she sort of swooped in and was like, let me help you. And her husband is still a beauty buyer and they do lots of different kinds of things. But um, so they help me a lot with my forecasting, my spreadsheets. They created this whole massive thing for me, and that helped me get my head around things. So now when I'm pricing my products, that's what I refer to, and I refer to all these different like algorithms and spreadsheets, which if you'd have asked me this before, I would have been like, this is so boring, and I hate this kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_00

But now I'm like, oh yeah, like let's let's talk about margins, let's look at the numbers, let's look at the numbers. It's it's so interesting because I feel like being stocked in retail is such a goal of so many brands. But the more and more I talk to business owners about it, the more I'm just like, it actually sounds like amazing for marketing, amazing to talk about, amazing for like almost clout, but potentially not so amazing in terms of like revenue generating and yeah, yeah, interesting. Okay, no, that's good to know. That's all I've got to say. It's good to know, it's all you'll say. Can't can't tell anymore. Um, and so just as like an overall, or maybe even actually like looking back, was there a decision that you made at the time of throughout the business of partner in wine that at the in the moment you were like, This is this is so important, this is the right thing to do, and and now actually looking back, you're like, that was so stupid.

SPEAKER_02

Buying £20,000 worth of stock. That's that's yeah, that's it. That's the only mistake I think I've ever made. It is, and actually, but even even then, is it really a mistake? I don't know. No, it's it's not. I don't tend to dwell on the past.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, no, that's a good place to be, that's a very good place to be. Um,

Running Two Businesses & The Influencer Income Shift

SPEAKER_00

and I guess also at the time of running Partner in Wine up until recently, you were also running Sassy. Yes. How did you what did that look like? How did you manage the two?

SPEAKER_02

Um, so Becky, who used to work for me full-time, actually moved to Australia and she took a sabbatical. Yes. Um, Annie, who was working for Partner in Wine at the time, um love my gals, just love these two gals. Uh really ambitious, go-getting gals. Becky wanted to take a sabbatical, so off she went. I was like, follow your dreams. If that was me, I'd be like, I I always wanted to be the type of boss that if people came to me being like, please can I do this or please can I do that, I'd be like, Yeah, that's absolutely fine. Communication is key here, but you know, yeah, um, I just want people to do the things that they want to do. I never want to get in the way of letting people progress their career or do the things they want to do. Um, and then uh yeah, Annie who worked for a partner of mine at the time went off and worked in um PR, and actually she's got some really cool jobs right now, which is cool. Um, so yeah, I still keep in touch with them, but Becky was working for me part-time uh with Sassy because I was kind of picking and choosing which clients I took on, right? Um, but not specifically marketing the business. Obviously, when you build people's websites at the bottom it says yeah, made by yeah, made by Sassy Digital. Um and I do still have some clients, but I'm I'm not phasing them out, yeah, I'm keeping the people that I currently work with and I do help them out, but um I just I spend most of my time making content and it's really really hard. And I don't know if people talk about this, and you know, I'm a very open book. I don't know if this is the right thing to say, but and I said this to you earlier, it's really difficult when brands start paying you to post on social media, the amount of money that you can get paid to create content is is not comparable to the amount of time that you spend with clients built well that I spend with clients building a website. And don't get me wrong, I get satisfaction from helping people. So it was for me the building the website stuff, yes, okay, it it paid my bills and my mortgage, but I I got the satisfaction from working with really lovely people who are very, very thankful for the work that you know we did for them, and I felt like a part of their business journey, and that was really satisfying for me. Yeah, but now it's very hard for me to especially I've got a wedding to pay for. Yeah, they're not cheap. I want to buy a house, like all of these opportunities that get thrown at you, yeah. It's not making a reel and getting paid to post it when you can get paid the same amount for building a website that you could potentially spend months on, yeah, days, hours, weeks. It's I don't want to say it's easy money because creating content is not everyone can do it. And I don't and I don't I don't for a minute think that you know people are like oh influencers, it's so easy. I can't believe they're doing this, that, and the other, I can't believe they get paid for this, that and the other. It's a very time-consuming job. Yeah, it's you've got to know how to edit your videos, you've got to know perfect storm, everything we spoke about earlier, yeah, but it's for me right now, it's working for me better, putting my energy into that. Yeah. Um and I don't know if anyone will find this interesting, but so the year before last, I think I made I made what my salary was when I first started my uh my career. I made my salary in one year, and I was like, oh my god, this is really cool. Yeah. Last year I made triple that. Stunning, and this year I've already made double what I made last year. Yeah, and when you put it like that, you can kind of see the appeal of taking a step back. But the reason I've also done that is because it allows me to spend more time on partner in wine rather than more time with clients. So it's it that this is paying my bills a little bit more. Yeah, but it's allowing me to spend more time on partnering wine, which is what I'm most known for. Yeah. It's what is going to help me with whatever the next step in my career is, whether that's building partner in wine, um doing whatever whatever else I want to do, or I don't know, I might start another company. I might, who knows? Who knows what I'll do in five to ten years' time. But that to me, right now, makes the most sense for my personal career development.

SPEAKER_00

Definitely. And it's almost like you said, like, it's like hard to justify spending the amount of time building websites versus you know, creating content that you love doing, talking about something that you love doing. It's almost like it makes it make sense. And I I feel like it's yeah, like you say, it's easy to look at influencers and think they've got it easy, but actually it's you know, this is five years plus of like hard craft and work that that's what you're getting paid for.

SPEAKER_02

I feel, I mean, right now I'm like I have a lot to do, but I did spend August doing the bare minimum, just sat at my desk twiddling my thumbs, and I probably should have been doing stuff. But I kind of thrive on deadlines, yeah. So I don't know. Do I manage it? Who knows? As long as I've got stuff to release next year, I don't really care.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Can you tell me what you're releasing next year?

SPEAKER_02

Are we allowed to know? Sneak peek. Just more stuff, really. More stuff. Nothing new, new forms of old things.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, we're not we're not reinventing the wheel here. Not reinventing the wheel. No, as we shouldn't, as we shouldn't. I love that. I feel like your brain is very similar to mine. I manage things in the same way. I'm just like, well, I know what needs to get done, and it'll get done when it needs to get done. When it gets done. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02

There's things that have been on my list that just like on a sauna, I put next day, next day, next day, I've been doing it for months, and I'm like, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And the next day will come at some point. But as long as I do something small to get where I need to be.

SPEAKER_02

So, for example, I'll give you um, I need to open up my shipping for Europe again because it has actually affected my sales over the summer. Not dramatically, but I'd like to get that moving. The reason it's turned off is because of IAOSS and GSPR. Yeah. G SPR being the biggest one. Yeah. So I've just hired a um, I've just instructed a representative to deal with that, but I need to do the onboarding.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So I I finalised that yesterday. The onboarding will happen over the next few days, and then next week it means I can open

Advice for Founders: The Someday Shelf

SPEAKER_02

it up again. Whereas I've been like, oh, I need to set up European shipping. I'm like, wait, actually, I can't do that until I've done these things. So just if you pick away at things, it makes them way easier than going, I've got this huge task that ha involves loads of different things. Actually, don't think about the end task, think about one little thing you can do today that will get you to where you need to be whenever you need to.

SPEAKER_00

It and like honestly, like, I need to remind myself of this all the time. Like, for example, like moving to Dubai and I'm literally like losing my marbles. I'm like to my dad, I can't do this. This is like there's so much to think about. And my dad's like, you are trying to eat the entire mammoth, just start small, and I'm like, okay, yeah, I know that like you say, it's just like little bit by little bit you kind of start like, yeah, eating away at it. And yeah, it's just sometimes it's easy to get overwhelmed by the bigger picture. And I feel like also as well, like just as a business owner, it's like everything runs smoothly, and then something happens, like you know, the US removed the $800 diminished shipping, and I'm just like can't be bothered to think about what I have to do. Like, it's so frustrating. Do you know what I mean? It's like what?

SPEAKER_02

I don't know whether this is just me, but like you know how people are like being a business owner is putting fires out on a daily basis. I'm like, I don't know whether I'm just super chilled or whether I'm like don't care, or whether I'm just like nothing that bad really happens to me. I don't know. Is that just is that just me being as chilled as a cucumber?

SPEAKER_00

I think you are at one chill dude, yeah. I think well, I guess also as well, it's the way you look at it. Like it's you can let these things rile you, or like you say, you can be like I can be annoyed at it for like you know an hour and then be like, right, let's figure out what we need to do. Like, let's look at it like pragmatically. Whereas I think sometimes I can let things dwell on me, where it's like actually nothing we can do about this. How do we fix it? How do we solve it? Or like whatever. But yeah, I don't know. I need to be more chilled like you, I think.

SPEAKER_02

Do you think you're like a type A or a type B? 100% type B, but I think I have type A tendencies. Okay, because I just don't really care. Like anything that's not out of my control, I'm like, yes, out of my control.

SPEAKER_00

Nothing I can do, nothing I do. Best way to be though, because like, why are we worrying about things that we can't change? Do you know what I mean? It's just a waste of our headspace. So yeah, no, you've got it right. You've got it right. Um, okay, so I starting partner in wine, and also I guess sassy digital, you had a lot of experience already to like get you to that point. If you had to start again from scratch with no contacts and no money, but with all the skill and knowledge you have now, what would you do first? Well It's a big question, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02

The thing is, I often have the same answer to this question. I and I don't think I think this could either be a really annoying answer or quite a good one, which is that I wouldn't change anything that I've done. Yeah, apart from the £70,000 stock. Even then, do I care that much? Probably not. No. Um I wouldn't change anything that I've done because the way that I've done everything has led me to be where I am. If I'd done it differently, would I be somewhere else? Would I be further along in my journey? Would I be turning over millions and have a different mindset from the one that I described earlier? Dunno. Would I have shut down the business already? I can't answer that question. So for me, where I am right now is as I said earlier, is perfect for me. So I wouldn't do anything differently. I if if I was to turn that into practical advice, I would say that if someone is listening who is at that stage of they've got an idea they can't stop thinking about. I've had many ideas that I can't stop thinking about, and I think we've all heard the phrase the someday shelf. You've got to decide which of your ideas stays on the someday shelf for now, and which of those ideas you really back. And I think a lot of women, particularly female business owners, have and I've worked with countless over the years, and I know when someone's business is going to be a success, and I know when it's not, and actually I feel quite bad, I have felt in the past quite bad working with people, and I'm like, they don't have what it takes, sorry to say, yeah, to be candid.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

The confidence is a huge barrier issue. And if you the the confidence within yourself and the confidence within your products, they unfortunately go hand in hand. If you don't believe in yourself, there's you are no way in hell going to be able to convince anyone that your products are worth buying. Yeah. Because you're not really even convinced. So there's I think there's a lot of work for people to do if they they want to be a business owner and want to make it a success.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

You need to make sure you're not holding yourself back.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. It's as much a mindset piece as it is physical, do you know, if you know what I mean? Yeah, it really is. No, I think that's it's sometimes hard to take on board, but I think it's important. And I think people listening will hopefully, if it resonates with them, if they know they're listening and they're like, I like confidence. Hopefully, what would you say they could they could do to go away and improve it? Like what what's made you more confident as a person?

SPEAKER_02

Oh god.

Building Confidence by Facing Your Fears

SPEAKER_02

I just think I think probably I got to a point in my adult life where I had to back myself and I had to make a change because even like the early days of sassy, really like I wasn't I wasn't making much money, I wasn't comfortably living. Um I got to a point where I was sick of it and I just thought, actually, do you know what? Screw this. And I started asking with payment up front, I started putting people on direct debits, I started trying not to avoid the conflict that I was so afraid of.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And in doing those tiny, tiny little things that terrify you, you suddenly start to become more confident and more comfortable with yourself. Not to say that I wasn't ever unconfident, but those things that scare you about yourself, you do need to face up to. And again, it's like picking away a task. And it's true what they say, it's cliche, but doing one thing that scares you every day, don't put it off. Do it because you will find out what is

Quickfire Questions

SPEAKER_02

the worst that will happen. Yeah. And usually it's not a bad thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So there's literally this um graph, and it's like the amount you fuck about and the amount you find out. And it that there's literally this guy just being like, fuck about and find out. And it's like, it's so true. It's just like you need to just try it and see what the hell happens. And if it's good, great. If it's bad, well, now you know. So no, iconic. I love it. Um, and so to kind of round off this podcast, I have a couple of quick fire um questions for you. Ah, they're really easy. What's your favourite wine at the moment?

SPEAKER_02

Oh, I'm well into my sparkling wines right now. I mean, we're coming at so I like all wines. That's a good question. That's a good answer. Sorry, it's not quick fire. Okay, but I will give you a quick fire answer, which is uh MCC, which is uh Cap Classique. It's a South African sparkling, punches well above its price tag, and I'm going to South Africa next month, which is why I've given that answer.

SPEAKER_00

Perfect. Okay, I can't wait, can't wait to talk more about it. It's £10. Well, it's £9.99 actually right now. So okay, get to know, get to know. Um, what's the most underrated tool for running your business?

SPEAKER_02

Oh, oh yeah, this is a a calculator at your desk. A little punchy one.

SPEAKER_00

It's really satisfying, iconic. You you are loving your numbers.

SPEAKER_02

Tell me the figures. But also, I don't like the calculator on my phone because I get distracted and I like to hear the and it's so funny. Every time I'm on a call, and I'm like, oh, let me just bring my calculator out. And I'm like, everyone's like, is that have you got a manual calculator? I'm like, yeah, hon, get to know. If you don't have a manual calculator, you're missing out. Well, we'll add the affiliate link.

SPEAKER_00

And you need one with really big numbers as well. Oh yeah, the satisfaction of like punching them. Um, and is there a founder that you would love to swap lives with for the day? Oh. Uh gosh.

SPEAKER_02

Never really thought about it.

SPEAKER_00

No, neither had I actually.

SPEAKER_02

I'd quite like to swap. I'd quite like to walk in a man's shoes just to see how easy they have it. Mm-hmm. Um But I can't think of anyone specific I would love to swap shoes with. Is that really boring?

SPEAKER_00

No, I we can leave it as that. We can leave it as just a man, a successful man.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Cool. Like that. Nice. And finally, where can people find you if they want wine recommendations,

Where to Find Lucy & Outro

SPEAKER_00

if they want to buy partner in wine, what are your where can they find you at?

SPEAKER_02

At Partnerin Wine UK. I've got all the links on there. Stunning, including a link to my own profile, which is Lucy Hitchcock underscore.

SPEAKER_00

Love that. Well, thank you so much for your time for me. Of course, genuinely loved that. So thank you so much for telling us all of your insights. I'm also being so candid, thank you. I really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02

Oh god, well, the thing is, you don't quite know what you can get with me because whatever comes out of my mouth, that's what honestly, it's all been epic.

SPEAKER_00

So I really appreciate it. Thanks. Thank you so much.

Head Shot

Isobel Perl

Host