Nicky Lowe [00:00:00]:
Hi, it’s Nicky Lowe and welcome to the Wisdom for Working Mums podcast show. I’m your host and for nearly two decades now I’ve been an executive coach and leadership development consultant. And on this show I share evidence based insights from my coaching, leadership and psychological expertise and inspiring interviews that help women like you to combine your work, life and motherhood in a more successful and sustainable way. Join me and my special guests as we delve into leadership and lifestyle topics for women, empowering you to thrive one conversation at a time. I’m so happy that you’re here. And let’s get on with today’s episode. Welcome.

Nicky Lowe [00:00:47]:
Today’s episode is a little different as I’m taking you behind the scenes with me and my dream team. A few years ago, after a really brutal year personally, I realized I couldn’t keep running my business as a one woman show. I was exhausted at capacity and the way I was working just wasn’t sustainable. Alongside being a mum and a leader, since then I’ve slowly built the team. You’re about to meet Lauren, my online business manager. Lauren, who we call Lozza so it’s not confusing. Who’s my executive assistant and Laura, my podcast manager. Together we’ve created what I genuinely call my dream team.

Nicky Lowe [00:01:26]:
And today we’re having a kitchen table conversation about how we actually work together. The good, the messy and the funny, using a high performing team framework that I use with my corporate clients. My hope is that this episode gives you a real honest glimpse behind the curtain of my business and inspires you to think differently about the support you deserve in your work and life and the building blocks you need to create and maintain a high performing team. So let’s introduce you to the incredible women who make all of this possible. So welcome. It is great to have you all here. Fatima together. So before we dive into this conversation, I just wanted to give a little bit of explanation about what we’re going to be talking about because we’re going to be using a framework called the High Performing Team Framework.

Nicky Lowe [00:02:17]:
And this framework came from some extensive research done by an organization called Lane4. And Lane4 I’ve had the privilege of working with for the last 15, 16 years. And it was started by Adrian Morehouse, so the name might be familiar to some people because he was an Olympic swimmer back in the 80s and won gold medals for Team GB. And when he retired from swimming, him and his Olympic sports psychologists set up this organization called Lane4. And it’s all about taking the kind of learnings from elite High performance sports into the business world. And Lane four did an extensive piece of research on what is a high performing team. Is they like a magic recipe? And they went out and interviewed teams from military teams, sports teams, business teams, medical teams, and try to find these kind of unique factors. And the high performing team model is these five core building blocks that makes up a high performing team.

Nicky Lowe [00:03:19]:
So I thought that would be a really great framework for us to have our conversation because we obviously call ourselves the dream team and it’s almost like dissecting it, like what is it we’re doing that I think makes this such. I know, I feel really proud of this team and I’m hoping you do too. So just to give you those core building blocks so you get a sense of it as we go into this conversation. We’ve got team mind, which is all about how teams think. So it could be kind of what are the goals we’re focused on? Are we all clear on our purpose? Are we all clear on how we think about what work we do? So there’s clarity around that. The second piece is around team emotion. So it’s like, how does it feel to be part of this team? And it’s built on things like trust, ability to have kind of constructive conflict. Because we do know that high performing teams, it’s not all sweet harmony.

Nicky Lowe [00:04:08]:
It’s although I love that song, Conflict does happen, but it happens in a really constructive way. The third piece is around team process. So it’s thinking about what’s the communication, what’s kind of the processes that underpin the work that we do and make all the moving parts come together. There’s then team leadership. And what we mean by that is it’s not necessarily about one person being the leader, but having this agility in the leadership that are different parts, different people can take leadership roles. So think of that as kind of a medical team. At one point you might have the anaesthetist who’s in charge and then the surgeon and then like the critical care nurse. They each take a leadership role and it kind of changes and can kind of flex.

Nicky Lowe [00:04:52]:
And then finally there’s team psychological edge, which is this ability to like, how do you have the resilience when times are tough, how do you bounce back from challenges? So I thought that might be a useful framework to kind of to use. But before we do that, I’d love for people to hear who you are. So maybe we start with you first, Lauren.

Lauren [00:05:16]:
So I’m the online business manager for Luminae and we’ve been working together just over four years. We’ve just celebrated our anniversary which is super exciting.

Nicky Lowe [00:05:25]:
It’s crazy, isn’t it? Four years. So I call you like my wing woman. You’re like my chief operating officer, aren’t you? You kind manage the behind the scenes so I can kind of be client facing second brain. I definitely need that. And we’ve also got another Lauren that to avoid confusing, we call Lozza. Would you mind introducing yourself? Lozza?

Lozza [00:05:48]:
Hi, I’m Lozza and I’ve been working with Luminae for I think just over 18 months. So I’m the last one in for this stream team and so yeah, I’m. Did I say I’m executive assistant? Is that what.

Nicky Lowe [00:06:03]:
Yeah, that’s my title.

Lozza [00:06:06]:
And yeah, I help manage her calendar and her inboxes and just keep.

Lauren [00:06:16]:
Yeah.

Nicky Lowe [00:06:16]:
So all of the detail that I’m not good at doing. You also help me with my like financial kind of bookkeeping behind the scenes, making sure we’ve all that’s in order. So all the really important stuff.

Lozza [00:06:29]:
Yeah.

Nicky Lowe [00:06:29]:
And then last but not least, we’ve got Laura.

Laura [00:06:32]:
Yeah. So I’m Laura and I’m the podcast manager for the team. And I think I started just a couple of months after you. So we’ll be coming up to four years as well. And it’s absolutely flown by.

Lozza [00:06:44]:
It has.

Nicky Lowe [00:06:45]:
So as I said in the introduction, how this came about was in 2021 I had this brutal kind of personal year with just lots going on in my personal life that meant that I couldn’t focus on my business. And I got to that point where I was like, I can’t do this on my own anymore. Either I decide that this isn’t the business model for me and I go and do something different or I start to invest in building a team that can just help the kind of the cogs moving. And it was a. It was a really big. And you’ll know this Lauren. We’ll probably touch on this.

Lauren [00:07:15]:
It was a.

Nicky Lowe [00:07:15]:
And we touched on it in our previous podcast interview. It was a really big step for me about A. Could I afford to build a team around me? And I think for a lot of women, investing in the resource and support you need is a difficult thing. And there are some commercial realities to that. A can you afford it? But I think also that well, I’ve got to tell people what to do so I might as well do it myself. Which I think again is another one of those common challenge. But also there was that vulnerability of oh my God, I’m exposing other people to my business, and half the time I have no idea what I’m doing. And I feel like I’m winging it.

Nicky Lowe [00:07:49]:
Now everybody’s going to see that I have no idea what I’m doing and just that it was such a vulnerable step to take. But as I think we’re going to explore on this podcast, you hear me say this a lot. It’s one of the things that I’m most proud of in my business is kind of the team that we’ve built, the relationship we’ve got, the work that we get to do together. And I now cannot imagine doing any of this without you. Like, you can’t leave. Literally, I can’t imagine kind of doing it without you. So I wanted to start first with this team mind thinking about how we think together, because for the people listening, we’re a remote team. Like, we meet up twice a year.

Nicky Lowe [00:08:30]:
So actually, it requires us to have a really clear mental model of how we work together. So we can do that absolutely remotely. And when we talk about remotely, there’s been times, Lauren, you’ve been halfway around the world kind of helping run the business.

Lauren [00:08:42]:
So we truly.

Nicky Lowe [00:08:44]:
Like, you’re in different time zones. Sometimes we truly do this remotely. So from your perspective, when did it first feel like, okay, we’re now a team? Like, it’s not just Nikki going out to these freelance contractors and bringing them together. And I wonder if you’ve got a perspective on that, Lauren, because you’ve been a big part in making that happen.

Lauren [00:09:04]:
Yeah, it’s an interesting question, because I don’t see myself as a freelancer, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen any of us as freelancers, so I don’t actually resonate with that title, but. And maybe it’s because of the role that I’m in, and whenever I come into any business, we’re a team from day one. So I’ve always felt like we’ve been a team. And like you said, you know, I found you within a couple of months and that was it. You were part of the team, and then it was US3 for quite some time. And I think just the way that we work, like I said, we’ll probably dive deeper into it, but we’ve just always been a team. And even though we’ve got other priorities, other businesses, other clients, it’s never felt like. It’s always felt like it’s one team and it’s the only business that we’re really working in.

Lauren [00:09:51]:
And I think that’s really unique.

Nicky Lowe [00:09:53]:
Is that the same for other businesses or do you think there’s something we did that made that happen?

Lauren [00:09:59]:
Good question. I think there’s some team members that might not integrate as much as we do. And I think it might be the emotional intelligence that we’ve got and we share and that vulnerability that we’ve got between us that really cements us together. Yeah.

Nicky Lowe [00:10:19]:
And it’s making me think, because I think we tweaked the team, didn’t we? We tweaked it in Those first, what, six 12 months only probably 18 months when you came on board Loza, because we, I think from my perspective, what, what you were really good at, helping me get clear on is what is it that is uniquely what I do in the business and only I can do. Everything else could be taken off my plate and fulfilled by somebody else. So it was making me really intentional about that. And then I think we were really intentional about what is it? Not only the technical, practical skills that somebody needs, but the personality and preferences that fit that role. And I think we have kind of tweaked that over time. So one of the things that I think is your greatest strength is your real extrovert, Laura. And in terms of doing anything client facing or front facing, like you’re in your zone of genius doing that. Like, I can trust you to email any of my clients on my behalf and know that you will represent the heart, the intention, the level of like just professionalism in that and the brand.

Lauren [00:11:32]:
And as a whole.

Nicky Lowe [00:11:33]:
Yeah, but we could move you elsewhere in the business and you could absolutely do it because you are somebody that is very flexible and adaptable, but you wouldn’t necessarily be in your design genius. Would that be fair to say?

Laura [00:11:46]:
Yeah. And I think for me it’s always been about that trust and it is rare what we’ve got. I’ve worked with so many businesses and we are virtual, we’re remote. So really, businesses don’t have to integrate us because they might think, I’m not getting an employee, I’m getting a remote person.

Lauren [00:12:02]:
It.

Laura [00:12:03]:
It doesn’t matter that we’ve not met face to face or that we don’t have regular updates. But for me, being the extrovert and I want to feel part of things and I don’t want to have to be finding out things from third parties. Like I want to know what our team goals are. And yeah, I think straight away that emotional side with you, I just felt free to be me and I knew that you trusted me to Bring my personality. And that means a lot because you don’t want to be feeling nervous about doing things. There’s just been that such a great level of support from the start.

Nicky Lowe [00:12:39]:
That’s really good to hear. And I think one of the things that you got me to do very early on, Lauren, which I remember doing it and going, oh, my God, I feel like a professional business. We had like an. We’ve got a piece of software that we use to kind of hold the business together that’s called Asana. And you got me to create an Asana board where you were like, I’d got a welcome video for anybody that explained what the business does. I’ve got a video that talks you through the strategy, that talks you through the brand voice. And it made me really intentional about, well, what is it? Somebody needs to know and how do I communicate that? So, one, I’d got clarity in my own mind. But then anybody that came into the business, they could watch those videos and go, okay, I get it.

Nicky Lowe [00:13:26]:
Obviously, I would have a conversation with them as well. But they could go back to their onboarding board. And I think I doing it going, oh, literally, I feel really professional doing this is like what a professional business does. But just that I suppose that that ritual or that that habit of doing it, I think was really, really important. And hopefully that then made you feel part of it when you came into the business.

Laura [00:13:49]:
It’s the prettiest dashboard was like, oh, well, I felt valued straight away. And all of you felt the same. It’s like, we’re not just a remote va. We are part of this team. And, yeah, it was a lovely feeling.

Lozza [00:14:04]:
Yeah, I like that word, valued. I just thought you came in, you’ve got that welcome board there, and you feel like, yeah, this is really intentional. You really want us to know about the business and about you.

Lauren [00:14:20]:
Yeah.

Nicky Lowe [00:14:21]:
And it’s just made me think if we expand the team, I perhaps need to go back and update.

Lauren [00:14:27]:
I think we’re definitely ready for an update. Yeah.

Nicky Lowe [00:14:31]:
So I suppose if somebody listening was to come and watch us as like a fly on the wall across a kind of an average week, what do you think they’d see us do?

Lauren [00:14:44]:
I think they’d come in and see us operationally, we’re properly set up and they might even look at it as like, okay, this is like a proper business, and it might look quite rigid to somebody else. But then I think they’d be quite surprised at the way that we organically work with each other, because we’re not Having Monday morning meetings, we’re not having Friday close off meetings. We’re not having meetings for the sake of having meetings. We already communicate with each other on a daily basis, but we don’t need to have those, you know, those additional things. So I think that that might surprise somebody.

Laura [00:15:16]:
Yeah, things are quite rigid in some respects, but then also we’ve got such a big amount of freedom as well. And for someone like me, like, I love boundaries and I work with boundaries, but to have that bit just to like be myself on flourish and suggest things, I think we’ve got that really unique mix.

Lauren [00:15:35]:
Yeah.

Lozza [00:15:36]:
As well.

Lauren [00:15:37]:
Yeah, yeah.

Lozza [00:15:38]:
And I love a process. The business behind the scenes is full of processes. So, yeah, yeah, it’s. It’s good to know that there’s a process for everything and you know what you’re doing. But also, if there’s an issue or a problem, send advice now.

Nicky Lowe [00:15:57]:
Well, I think that brings us beautifully on actually to team process, because I remember when we first started working together, I mean, like I said, it felt like you’re pulling back the covers, you know, like the Monica cupboard, where everything goes. Like you’re opening your Monica cupboard and go, come and have a look at her. What it’s really like behind the scenes. And, you know, I’d literally been doing it on a wing and a prayer, you know, like getting the podcast out, however, by hook or crook, I could, you know, everything was done and always, you know, I’ve always had really, really high standards and high professionalism, but, like, making it work behind the scenes was like, just get it done however I could. So I think when you came on board, Lauren, and you were like, okay, let’s put processes in. I’m not naturally process orientated, as you can probably tell, but I could absolutely see the value in that. And I think I’ve really learned so much from becoming more process orientated. And again, we talked on this on the last podcast about the power of a standard operating procedure, which I never even come across, so you might hear us use the term sop.

Nicky Lowe [00:17:10]:
So what Lauren did brilliantly was kind of go, what do you do in your business? So, for example, producing the podcast. Okay, what are the physical steps that have to happen for this to. And a lot of it I was holding in my head. So I’d never thought about it. When I kind of got it done on paper, I’m like, wow, like, no wonder, like, I got to the end of that year going, I can’t do this because I was holding so much. And it was all Invisible tasks. And you made it visible, you documented it. And it just means that we’ve had times when somebody might go on holiday or somebody’s off sick, and literally somebody else in the team can pick up that SOP and go, I.

Nicky Lowe [00:17:48]:
I can execute on this, knowing exactly what needs to happen. And it’s. So I don’t see it as rigid. I’ve never felt that your processes are rigid. I feel that the structure, which is almost like the scaffolding, which is really supportive. It’s like the foundations. But I’ve never felt, because I’m. I’m almost allergic to rigidity.

Nicky Lowe [00:18:07]:
So I’ve never felt that it is rigid in any way. So it’s interesting you. You’ve used that word, but it has definitely felt like I’m supported with that.

Lauren [00:18:16]:
Yeah. And that’s how we want to feel from these systems and processes. I think we’re all quite similar in the way that we do work. But I’ve come into businesses who are, like, highly creative people, and an SOP scares the hell out of them.

Nicky Lowe [00:18:30]:
Yeah.

Lauren [00:18:31]:
And they’re like, oh, so what’s. What it’s allowed for me is to challenge myself on, okay, well, how can I build this structure then? For people who are quite creative and, you know, this big written SOP or a video that they’ve got to watch is just too much. But the thing that I found, like, people who are quite creative is it’s a checklist. So it’s adapting these different things. So I know that if somebody came into the business who was highly creative, they might not adapt to the way that we have set that up. And that’s something that I would need to look at to be like, okay, well, how do we change that up? You know? And we’ve just done it with actually one of your processes, haven’t we? We’ve been like, oh, actually, let’s just do a nice checklist of, like, all the things. And it’s not too much information, because that’s the other thing with SOPs, we’ve got to be careful not to put too much information in. You want to get it done, get done as quickly as possible.

Lauren [00:19:18]:
So I think just trying different ways is.

Nicky Lowe [00:19:20]:
So would you mind sharing some insight into that? Like, you’ve got like a Friday afternoon, or it’s meant to be like the close of a week, sop. So somebody listening can go, actually, what does that mean? What does that mean? Practically? So, Loza, would you mind sharing, like, what might be part of your standard operating procedure that you do at the end of the week to kind of close off and update me for the following week. Because that just is such a game changer for me.

Lozza [00:19:43]:
Yeah, and it was for me actually too. So each week I do a weekly check in and it covers up just a summary of everything that I’ve done in your inbox expenses and with your clients. And it just summarises where we are with things. So from a client perspective, it’s who still needs to book in a session, have you done the follow up notes, that sort of thing. Where are we with this client? Where are we with these leads and then with the expenses just to say where we are and if there’s anything on that front. And then with the inbox, we like to have an inbox zero, which is perfect. No one ever achieves it, but we try and get there, don’t we? And sometimes I can see emails in your inbox that have been there for ages. So it’s a chance for me to say, what are we doing with these ones? I’ve mapped them, they need answering or can I file them away? And for me it’s a really good process because it keeps me on top of where we are and also updates you.

Lozza [00:20:49]:
And then it just gives me a chance then to ask questions that I need you to. Any questions that need answering straight away or what are you doing this? So, yeah, I tend to send that out at the end of the week. And when you get chance, you just feedback.

Lauren [00:21:04]:
Yeah.

Lozza [00:21:05]:
On any questions that I’ve put in there.

Nicky Lowe [00:21:07]:
I love that because you’re kind of managing me, but you’re doing it in a really constructive way because I know my inbox must be a nightmare to manage because some weeks I’m on it and like, I’m like, I feel like, yeah, I’m on the email queen and then there are weeks where I’m out delivering and I’m just. I don’t get the time to manage my inbox. So you’re having to kind of manage me. Like, what kind of week is she? What do I need to do? So it’s not consistent for you and I know that must be difficult, but you do this really great job of kind of playing back to me and flagging stuff to me and it’s our way of communicating. But you also, do you look ahead for the week ahead and go right, you’ve got these meetings, this is coming up, this is. And that’s really useful for me because I, I have a really interesting relationship with time, where I like to be future orientated and so looking ahead is really useful for me. But sometimes I’m so caught up in the minute of delivering that I don’t get chance to look ahead. And knowing that you’re doing that for me, you’re looking ahead in my diary going, have we got any clashes that you need to be aware of? So that kind of process is hugely useful for me.

Nicky Lowe [00:22:17]:
And again, I think it’s one of the things that we hear from podcast guests, like the process that you follow for managing the podcast.

Laura [00:22:25]:
Yeah, I’m so proud of that. And that was as I came in, you both presented me with that process. And then over the last four years, we’ve changed things, we’ve got rid of things, we’ve implemented new ideas. But I think the fact that every single guest gets that same level of, like, communication. They get the beautiful pack, they’re fully prepared, like, they know what to expect. I really do think that sets us apart.

Lozza [00:22:49]:
And.

Nicky Lowe [00:22:50]:
Yeah, and we’ve had feedback, haven’t we, from guests that have gone on, like, global podcasts, like big podcasts. And they’re like, we’ve never had this level of kind of service before because we treat it like a business, don’t we? We’re like, actually we want somebody, anybody touches the brand or kind of any interaction with us to have that just standard of this is. This is high quality. And I think all of the processes enable us to execute that.

Laura [00:23:14]:
Definitely. And like, we just recently worked on it as well because that, that onboarding in the past, it could take quite a bit of time, but we’ve worked together to kind of just change the template. So we’ maybe a podcast pack used to take half an hour to put together. It now takes 10 minutes. So we’re always trying to, like, automate as much as we can as well, but make sure that every guest still gets that same level of care.

Nicky Lowe [00:23:38]:
So I imagine there might be people listening going, that’s all great, but it sounds like a lot. What do you think that we do that enables us to have enough process in place that we’re not drowning in it, as you said. How do we manage that, do you feel?

Lauren [00:23:55]:
I think we just don’t put too many processes in place, you know, for, like, the smallest things. Like, there are some fiddly little processes and tasks in there, and it’s the fact that you don’t do them every day or every week, but sometimes you might just need to come back to that.

Nicky Lowe [00:24:12]:
Yeah.

Lauren [00:24:12]:
And be like, how do I do that again? So we do have, like, maybe just A short loom video. We’re not going to turn it into a written SOP just for the sake of it. We just link it into our SOP directory and it just lives there. So whenever anybody needs anything, you just, you just pop into there. You can just watch that two minute video instead of I need to read the whole SOP and then I watch the video. Like it just wants to be really quick and efficient and get that information as, as quick as you can.

Laura [00:24:37]:
I’m smiling to myself because I’m thinking we’ve got a SOP about tracking our cycles. Like we’ve got a SOP for this but it’s just like, like we remember now that because we obviously update in our vox so where we’re all up to in our cycles and it’s just something now that happens and I think once you’ve, you know, the process, you don’t have to then go and look at it every single time, do you? But yeah, we love a process.

Nicky Lowe [00:25:03]:
I think it comes back to we know that high performing teams have like rituals and processes that just support them to be in their best self. And I think we’ve absolutely done that and I think as you’re right, we’ve got a, like I’ve got a SOP directory, who am I? But like a director as you say that like depending on what task you need to carry out, if you’re unclear and what’s brilliant is you’re really good at writing SOPs. For me, Lauren, that’s like this is what I need you to do, please follow this because if you go off piste it has a ripple effect and I think that’s really good for kind of as a leader in a business because often, you know, we creating a shadow for other people and it’s just being aware that everything we do has an impact on other people. And it just keeps me in my lane of right. Don’t forget we need you to do this bit to enable us to do our bits and I think that’s really good holding myself to account because there are times when my natural personality is I’m highly conscientious and I have high standards, but if I can cut a corner I will. And I think it just means you’re stopping me cutting corners that are going to have a negative impact on something else in the business or other people. But I also think that the fact that we use our Asana platform. So for people that aren’t aware, it’s.

Nicky Lowe [00:26:23]:
How would you describe it, Lauren? I was going to describe it I was like, I’ve got no idea how I describe it.

Lauren [00:26:27]:
I would say, well, it’s our project management tool, but it’s just the hub of everything. So it’s our single source of truth, of, like, wherever you’re going to find anything. You would find it in Asana and it would link out there maybe to Airtable, it might link out to Google Drive, but it’s just where it houses everything, all the tasks, the strategy, the regular reoccurring, automated tasks, just absolutely everything just lives there. That’s the first place.

Nicky Lowe [00:26:51]:
And I suppose one of the things that I’ve had to, and I imagine has been a struggle for you is getting me to use it because I would go again off piece, like, I’d just drop a voicemail going, oh, we need. You’ve been really good at getting me into that. Best practice of put it in a sauna so we know that it won’t get missed and so that we can track it, we can see where each other’s at. It becomes the hub of, as you say, everything. And I think that also helps with running smoothly and not drowning in the comms, because we know that actually we all get too many whatsapps, we all get too many voicemails. We all get. But that’s that place where you can go in when you need it and know that it’s there. And I think that’s been a game changer for me.

Nicky Lowe [00:27:30]:
And I never thought I would be the person. I mean, you probably. It probably took me longer than I should have done to get with the program, but once I did, I’m like, I now know what Laura means. And, yeah, and I’m still not perfect. There are times. But I think what you’re really good at going is actually Nick is out delivering for three days. She’s probably not going to go in Asana, drop it into Voxer and we’ll pick it up and put it into. So there’s that flexibility around that structure.

Nicky Lowe [00:27:55]:
So. And I think that’s been a game changer for me as well, being able to go in there and just have the discipline of this is effective communication, this is effective process that can support everybody.

Lauren [00:28:08]:
I think that’s what we’ve actually got set up, actually, is that One of the SOPs is around communication because we’ve obviously got our Voxer that. I tried my best to get us out of Voxer and into Slack, but that just wasn’t happening. But we do have Slack. Me and you probably use Slack more than anything else, but that SOP is basically we communicate on tasks first and foremost in a sauna. Find the task, let’s keep the communication streamlined in there. And we use our Voxer for personal catch ups. And when we tried to move to Slack, we were like, it’s just not working. It’s like we’re missing that personal aspect and like checking in with each other.

Lauren [00:28:47]:
But then we agreed, okay, we’ll keep Voxer but no task communication kind of happens in there. We do a little bit, tiny, tiny bit, but nothing that’s like, you know, if there’s a seven minute voice note and there’s almost a million tasks that they need, like it’s just impossible then to kind of keep track of. So we’ve got a good streamlined way of communicating when it comes to like work and personal. And I think we found a really good balance with that.

Nicky Lowe [00:29:12]:
So for somebody that may not have heard of Voxer, so Voxer is almost like this walkie talkie app and it enables us to leave voice notes to each other and you can listen to them in your own time or real time. And that for me, I think if somebody was to listen to what we do, I think that’s quite a unique element to our team communication, as you say, you can communicate around all of the objectives, all of the goals, the targets, the processes. But Voxer to me feels a bit more like the heartbeat of the team, which probably moves me on to the team emotion piece. What do you, what, how does it feel for you to be in the team?

Laura [00:29:56]:
For me, because obviously we work with different clients and some clients just use Slack and it’s fine, you know, we get tasks done but you don’t feel like part of a team. Whereas with us, because we have that boxer and we could be talking about anything we like, is cheese okay on a hot dog? Or what we’ve done at the weekend or just how we’re feeling. To me that is what makes us feel like a team. Like I feel like we’re colleagues who work together even though we’re spread across, you know, the uk and I feel like I know you. You know, I do think, and obviously we don’t have to listen to voxes, we don’t have to reply, we do that because we want to. But, but it is definitely the heartbeat. I think that’s a lovely way to express it.

Nicky Lowe [00:30:46]:
Yeah. And it, and that’s again happened organically. I think there wasn’t like an intention around that. But it’s become one of my favorite kind of parts of the day is I’LL go on a dog walk and I might kind of go, right, good morning. This is how I’m feeling. How are you feeling? And it feels like it’s not transactional. So when we’re doing tasks that can be transactional if you’re not careful. But the voxer almost is that deep.

Nicky Lowe [00:31:16]:
Often we’re very vulnerable in there about how we’re feeling. We’ll talk about where we might be in our cycle, how that might be impacting, whether we’ve got energy today, whether we’ve not. So it’s very, very personal. And we obviously didn’t start at that place we’ve built up. But for me that feels a really important part of, Yeah, a sense of trust, connection, authenticity, all of the things that we talk about, you know, that whole. We know how important vulnerability is in teams to get kind of high performing teams. But to enable us to have. We talk about in business the importance of psychological safety.

Lozza [00:31:59]:
Yes.

Nicky Lowe [00:32:00]:
And it’s interesting because Google did a piece of research a number of years ago, I want to say, in the last kind of five years around, what was it that their best teams were doing? And it was called Project Aristotle where they went around all of their best teams internally, but also looked externally to say, is it that they’ve got the most talented people, is it that they’ve got the most resources? What is it? And nothing would correlate apart from this one factor across all teams. And it was psychological safety. And they were like. And so now it’s this massive buzzword in organizations because they were like, we want psychological safety. And then part of what I’m doing in these workshops, okay, that’s the output, but what are the components that lead to that? And I think the voxer is a component for us that leads us to go, do you know what? I’m not feeling great today. I know I’m not going to be on my best. So actually today I’m going to go easy and I’ll shift my work to tomorrow and know that that is completely. As long as the work gets done within the time frame, there is no expectation for you to show up and kind of have to put your mask on.

Nicky Lowe [00:33:04]:
But I think that has happened organically. I don’t think I’ve gone and done that intentionally.

Lauren [00:33:08]:
I think you’ll give us that permission though. I think the way that you’ve not approved, like you say you’ve not approved it, it’s just organically happened, but it’s you that’s kind of set that tone for the culture because there are businesses that you might go into and there’s an expectation. And I think you’re. Like you said, we’ve got that freedom to be able to complete as work when. When we need to. We’ve not got such rigid deadlines. Yes, we’ve got deadlines and we need to get things done. But I think having Voxer and being able to share where we are and how we’re feeling, especially for my role in the business, it allows me to be like, okay, I need to shift some of your workload.

Lauren [00:33:47]:
That’s not priority this week to next week, or if we end up getting on a call and it’s like, actually, I’ve just not got the capacity for all of this that’s on my plate. Right. It allows me to going to asana reorganize everything that still doesn’t allow that impact on the business and the rhythms that we’ve built.

Nicky Lowe [00:34:04]:
And that’s lovely for you to say, but I think that’s something we’ve co created as a culture though, because, you know, we both wear OURA rings. And one of the things that got me, I’d been interested in one for a while and then you got one and I was like, oh yeah, I really need to get one. And then you told me about the circles and literally we’ve done that this morning, haven’t we? As you come in, for anybody that’s not aware, an aura is, is a ring that you, you wear on your finger and it tracks kind of your key metrics. So heart rate variability, sleep, all kinds of different. And so what it will do on a daily basis, it’ll tell give you a sleep score, a readiness score, a stress score. And what Lauren was like, we can have a circle. So these circles are almost where it collaborates and shares your data. And Lauren was like, if I’ve got your data, I can shift your work depending on your readiness score.

Nicky Lowe [00:34:53]:
And I was like, oh my God, that is so what the brand is about. You know, we want to have success, but it’s got to be sustainable success, it’s got to be inbuilt. You know, wellbeing’s got to be a complete part of it. And like, literally we’ve turned it to record this podcast this morning. Have you seen myself? Those are the kind of conversations we’re having on kind of a daily weekly basis.

Lauren [00:35:16]:
There’s no hiding. There isn’t. Not that we do anyway. Like I said, quite vulnerable and transparent anyway. But even if you wanted to show up that day and be Like, I’m fine. Like, well, I’ve got some data that’s like, no, you’re not connected to your body today.

Nicky Lowe [00:35:32]:
But I think what you’ve done. And that’s why I would say I would never think of what we do as rigid, is I can become quite rigid in that if I’ve got something that I’ve committed to other people or to myself, I can. I can become overly stubborn in that I’ve just got to do it and I will push through. And that’s what got me into trouble with burnout in the past. But it’s my. It’s my shadow behavior. Behavior that when I’m in, When I’m feeling stressed, I go into over functioning. And so it means that I push through.

Nicky Lowe [00:35:59]:
And one of the things that you’ve done with the processes is to go, well, no, look, if we look across this, we can shift work. This doesn’t have to happen. So I think you’ve helped create that culture, I think, thank you. By pushing back. So it’s given me permission. And it’s almost somebody with another pair of eyes going, stop going into overachieve mode. We absolutely want to achieve, and we want to achieve to a high level. But there are.

Nicky Lowe [00:36:24]:
There’s not just one way of doing this. So I think that’s been really important. So anybody listening might go, oh, this team just has the perfect team. Fingers down the throat. No, but we, you know, it doesn’t always go perfectly. So can you think of any examples of where we’ve hit bumps either as a team or with tasks or situations?

Laura [00:36:50]:
Something that has always stuck in my mind was, I got a link wrong once on an email, and this was a couple of years ago, and my whole body, you know when you can just feel that panic because it was a podcast launch and I remember messaging you and going, nikki, the link doesn’t work. And you were just like, it’s fine. This is the first time it’s happened. Like, we’ve done 170 podcasts. This is one time we’ll just send an email and say we got the link wrong. And I could just feel, like my body relaxing. And it’s like, mistakes happen. Like, to think that we’re never going to get a link wrong, it’s just not realistic.

Laura [00:37:29]:
But the way that you dealt with me and you supported me in that moment, I thought, this is the culture that I want to be part of. Because if you’re worried about making mistakes, like someone, I’ll make more mistakes because you’re tense and but, yeah, straight away, I just thought, yeah, this is where I want to be.

Nicky Lowe [00:37:47]:
That’s really good, too. And as you were saying that, I was like, I can imagine being in your shoes and feeling that same anxiety, because I think we hold. And that’s what I love about our team. We each hold ourselves to such high standards. I know I haven’t got to. I haven’t got to be watching what you do, because you. You each kind of. You treat my business like it’s your business.

Nicky Lowe [00:38:06]:
You don’t. It’s not like, oh, it’s just Nikki’s business. You know, you. And I know you do that for all your clients. So that’s. That’s why I think hiring on kind of personality and preference is so important. People can learn skills, but you can’t teach somebody to have that kind of. Level of.

Nicky Lowe [00:38:24]:
Kind of conscientiousness. So it’s never in question that. And I know that if the shoe was on the other foot, I would feel like, oh, God, that anxiety. And I’m like. And just knowing. And you do that to me. You’re kind of, you know. And you each do that to me.

Nicky Lowe [00:38:41]:
It’s like, come on, don’t put so much pressure on yourself. You’re doing a great job.

Lauren [00:38:44]:
And it’d be easy.

Nicky Lowe [00:38:46]:
Yeah, Yeah. A couple of years ago, we started the year. I always try and come up with, like, a phrase or a mantra that represents the year. And a couple of years ago, it was, let it be easy. Because as high performers, I think we can put more pressure on ourselves and make things more complicated and difficult than they need to be. And that the only way we feel like we’ve done a good job is if we sacrificed ourselves at the altar of performance. And, you know, it’s, let’s work hard, but let’s work smart. You know, it doesn’t always have to be so hard.

Nicky Lowe [00:39:19]:
And I think we’re really good at reflecting that to each other. And so I know you’ve made me a better kind of person because of that one by helping me focus on my kind of, I suppose, owner genius and taking away everything that I’m not good at so that I can just focus there, but also keeping me in that sustainable success mode and not going into kind of overachiever. So what else do you notice about that team emotion? Because from the sounds of it, it sounds slightly more unique than other teams you may have been part of in the past. What else do you think contributes to that?

Laura [00:39:58]:
I think we’re all quite vulnerable. We all show up as ourselves. There’s no expectation. And yeah, I think, like, I always think with you, Lauren, like, you’re just so unflappable because, like, I can get quite anxious and panic, you know, and we sometimes can be like that and you’re always just like, it’s fine, we’ll fix it. So I think the different skill sets, although we’re quite similar in a lot of ways, I think our personalities can be quite different.

Nicky Lowe [00:40:28]:
Yeah. And I think that’s really important because often you think, oh, the teams that are going to get on the best have got to have. You got to be the same in a lot of ways. But I think we are very different and we bring different skill sets, but different personality styles and preferences. And I think that, yeah, knowing that one we can, when we come together, it’s some is greater than the parts because of that. But also I feel that there’s a. There’s a real respect of understanding for each other’s kind of view of the world and the way we may approach it. So we’ve got those processes that underpin it.

Nicky Lowe [00:41:04]:
But it’s not rigid of, well, I do it this way, therefore you need to do it this way.

Laura [00:41:09]:
You said something before about the SOPs. Like, if that sort of sops, I’ll say it’s a video that’s not working for one person. You changed it. So you changed it for loads of checklists. And I think it is just that, like, understanding that we’re all different but playing to each other’s strengths. I was thinking about, I always think you slow me down and I speed you up and that that’s a brilliant dynamic to have across the team as well.

Nicky Lowe [00:41:36]:
Yeah, I’ve not thought about it that way because, yeah, I tend to be more speed and I need to slow down. And I think that you brought the intentionality to my work with that.

Laura [00:41:44]:
Yeah, Luz is absolutely great at that. And that’s why we work together behind the scenes. Well, as well, because you need that person that’s going to be a million miles an hour, but you also need the person that’s going to be like, no, slow down, let’s think this through.

Lozza [00:41:57]:
And.

Laura [00:41:57]:
And yeah, it’s a good mix.

Nicky Lowe [00:42:02]:
So that brings me on then to team leadership. So kind of how the team’s led. And as I mentioned earlier, it’s not about me being the boss, but about how do we manage and lead the team. So I suppose what do you notice about how I lead?

Laura [00:42:22]:
I was going to say that obviously, you know, you’re the business owner, you’re the obm. We’ve all got our different roles, but I don’t feel like there’s a hierarchy. You’re often, if I like, I don’t want to say chase on something but remain. And you’re like, thank you so much for picking that up. There’s never like, you know, you shouldn’t be asking me for that. And it’s been like that for day one that, you know, we feel equal.

Nicky Lowe [00:42:48]:
That’s good to hear because yeah, I’d not admit I wouldn’t have done that thought about that intentionally. So, yeah.

Laura [00:42:57]:
And I think having that clear structure behind the scenes, you know, obviously you’re driving the objectives and the goals. We know that. So we don’t have to like be told that often because it’s just innate that we know where we’re heading. Like with the SOPs and the quarterly meetings that we do as well.

Lozza [00:43:17]:
Yeah, for me, a leader, and this is just my belief, but a leader I always put on a pedestal. And when I came into the business I thought, nick is on this pedestal. But just as you’ve just said, it doesn’t feel that way because you’re open and vulnerable on our boxes and I feel like I know you personally as well as, as a business owner. It just feels like I can be vulnerable and open as well. And yeah, as Laura said, we know what the strategy is and we know what direction we’re going in, but yeah, we can still have a day to day conversation. And I remember on my first call with you, Nikki, when we were talking about the inbox, as you said, I want you to manage me. And I was like, oh, that’s a strange way. I thought you’d be telling me what you want to do.

Lozza [00:44:12]:
But you were like, it’s my inbox, but you manage me, you tell me how you want to do it. I thought, oh, okay. And it just leveled that playing field for me. And that’s just, like I said, an internal belief for me that people are up here. But actually you don’t make us feel down here. We’re all on the same playing field. And that feels good.

Nicky Lowe [00:44:31]:
Yeah, that’s really good to hear. And I, and I genuinely meant that because I, for anybody listening, that can almost sound like an abdication of leadership about, oh no, you manage me, I’m not going to manage you. But I think what I was doing in that moment was you’d got so much expertise in managing other people’s inboxes and I know it’s not a Strength of mine. So I was like, you tell me what works because you gave me the.

Lozza [00:44:52]:
Autonomy to do how I wanted it to work.

Nicky Lowe [00:44:55]:
Yeah. And that, yeah, because I was again, it was, I was going to swear then. It was, I don’t want to be.

Laura [00:45:04]:
Having to put anyone’s fit for this time.

Nicky Lowe [00:45:07]:
My inbox was a little bit free flowing, should we say. And yeah, it needed some control and I wasn’t clear on what control or what processes would bring it back on track and that’s why I was kind of like, yeah, you manage me, you tell me what process is going to work. And we kind of co created it because we’ve tried, we’ve tweaked it a few times, haven’t we? And it still probably will tweak again. But I think you’re really good as you say of those Friday updates. Like this email is sat there and I’m not sure what you want me to do. So you picking that up, you’re really good at and you do it in such a beautiful way and it’s like, yes, I should have got onto that one.

Lauren [00:45:41]:
Thank you.

Nicky Lowe [00:45:44]:
So from your perspective, what do you notice?

Lauren [00:45:48]:
I think the two ways that come to my mind is just trust and respect and I think even from working together for four years now, that’s all I will ever look for. When I’m working with a client or a business, if that doesn’t exist, I’m actually not interested. And I think it’s like you said, we can all be quite different and we share so vulnerably and that’s allowed me to share vulnerably as well because we’ve all had such different experiences and we’ve all done different types of work on ourselves and I just think it’s really powerful that we get to share that. But we’re also super self sufficient. Like we’re so independent in I think we feel like we’ve got that responsibility of our roles and what we’re doing that we just get on with it. We just get on with it. Nobody really has to chase anybody for anything and we’ve just built that self sufficiency which I am just super passionate about building in businesses because I think that’s what makes business run smoothly without chaos.

Nicky Lowe [00:46:50]:
I’ll give you an amazing example of this. I was only reflecting on this the other week and I think I sent you a message to the same effect. We have been using a marketing piece of software. I was using it before any of you came into the business and it’s quite an expensive piece of software that I haven’t been getting the full functionality out of. And there’s always been a plan that I was going to do some more services in the business, which would mean I would get the benefit of that kind of high cost. And we had notification earlier this year that the cost is going to go up even higher. And so it’s been on my kind of radar that I need to do something with this, but haven’t had the capacity or the kind of headspace to think about it. And what I love is both Lauren and Laura behind the scenes looked at the plan, have put together a proposal to me to say, look, I think we need to migrate from this.

Nicky Lowe [00:47:45]:
This is the plan, this is the timeline. You came and presented it to me, I looked and it was like, wow, this is a no brainer. And it was all of the effort that I would struggle to do, like to sit down and go through that detail. You presented it to me without me asking you to. You had got the foresight to think ahead, look at it and went, I think we need to do this, we need to do it by this date. Here’s the plan. What do you think? Can you sign off of it? And I literally sat there and went, oh my God, how lucky am I? Because what would have happened is I would have been rolled into another annual cost that would have cost the business even more money than that we weren’t getting the value out of. And actually it gives us an even better strategy.

Nicky Lowe [00:48:28]:
But I didn’t even have to ask you to do that. But you took it upon yourselves and did all the work in the background and just came to me with it and I just sat there, was like, oh my God, this is like, yeah, I don’t even know what the word is. Like, this is off the scale of what I could have ever imagined. So yeah, feel very grateful. But that’s where I think there’s the agitation, the agility of the team leadership. You took that upon yourselves to lead that without me. Even like it wasn’t on my radar really.

Laura [00:48:59]:
I think it’s like genuinely caring about the business as well. Because when we saw it was shooting up, we were straight away just like, we need to look at this. Because I can think of things like in the middle of the night or in the morning about the business and it’s because we feel so involved, like we genuinely care and it makes it fun to do. Like we got on a call.

Lauren [00:49:24]:
Driving.

Laura [00:49:24]:
Yeah, but that’s a huge win. Like if we can save the business Money? Why not?

Nicky Lowe [00:49:31]:
And I think that goes back to that trust and respect piece, because I was trying to think, you know, from my leadership or just any leader’s perspective, are you giving that automatically? Is it kind of. Is it there? Because I can trust and respect you. Like, what are the building blocks? And it reminds me of Brene Brown talking about, like, it’s the marbles that go in a jar. It’s the little things that we’ve done over our time working together, where I can absolutely go, what part you need me for, I’m there. But if you don’t need me, I completely trust you to know what to do, to do the right thing without me having to kind of have my fingers all over it. But I think that’s come over those years of just seeing you do all of the things far better than me and knowing kind of where the business is going. But that’s where I’m like, oh, my God, how lucky am I? And where that, like, agility and in kind of leadership.

Lauren [00:50:32]:
It’s like that 80, 20 rule, isn’t it? It’s like we’ve taken that 80% off the view that you were somehow doing before we even came on, and we’ve put you in your 20%, and you’re just focusing on your zone of genius.

Nicky Lowe [00:50:47]:
Yeah.

Lauren [00:50:48]:
And we’re protecting your time and energy, and that’s what it is to have a team. We’re not waiting on your instruction. We’ve already got it covered. It was kind of just an obvious thing. I think we’ve held onto that platform for some time. Then it’s just come to a point where it’s like, actually, we need to migrate away from this. It’s just costing the business far too much if we’re not going to utilize all its features. So it was kind of an obvious move for us when we looked into it.

Nicky Lowe [00:51:12]:
Yeah. And I wonder, because obviously this podcast is for women who are working mums. And I wonder, what impact do you think me being a working mum’s had on the business? Because obviously not everybody on the team is a mum. But what impact do you see that, if any?

Lozza [00:51:33]:
I think it’s a positive from my perspective, because I’m a working mum as well. It’s just nice to know that we’re going through the same phases at similar times. And you understand if I’ve got childcare issues or anything like that, vice versa. So you know how important it is to be flexible when you’re working.

Nicky Lowe [00:52:00]:
Yeah. Yeah. And I think I would like to think I’VE always been that way, but I don’t think I was until I became a parent. But obviously, for somebody that hasn’t got children but appreciates flexibility, what impact? Because you obviously work with a number of different businesses, not all of them are kind of parents. I imagine some of them will have flexibility as a process. What do you notice?

Lauren [00:52:29]:
I think it’s those phases, like, obviously knowing your story before having children, and then as children have come along, you’ve gone through certain phases. And I’ve now had the privilege of watching the last four years and seeing how you’re going through motherhood, how the kids are going through childhood, but then looking at the business from a different perspective and how that’s maturing as well at the same time. And we’re making decisions and I think they align. So because like I said, there’s that maturity in motherhood, there’s maturity in the business. And I know that we’ve, you know, we switched the brand around slightly and I think that that could be the growth and the impact of you being a working mum.

Nicky Lowe [00:53:16]:
Yeah. And I think we’ve talked about before, me stepping up as a leader in my business, I think has made me step up as a leader in my personal life and to define success on my own terms, to put the processes in place that enable me to do that. But I also think, and I wonder, like, I love the fact that you were like, right, I’m going off to. Was it Central South America? You went to Central Central America and you were like, right, was it four months you were out there and the team didn’t bat an eyelid? And I think one that’s got to do a lot with you, and the fact that you just, as you say, you’re such a safe pair of hands, we knew that wherever you were in the world, you would still be that safe pair of hands. But I think there is something for me about how important that flexibility is to be able to do our best work, to flex our work around our lives. For me, it’s not about the time you’re sat at your desk, it’s about can we achieve the output that we need to. And however you do that and whenever you do that is totally up to you. And I think, I think I’ve become more.

Nicky Lowe [00:54:20]:
So much more passionate about that because that’s how I’ve had to work as a mum. That, of course, for anybody, that flexibility is important and so I hope it’s made the business better. And I think somebody listening that might be, because often we think about kind of. We talk about the disadvantage of being a mum because we’ve got to rush off and get nursery pickups or whatever we see as a disadvantage. But I think it’s really been a positive in, in the business and I hope you felt that each.

Lauren [00:54:54]:
I wonder if it’s also like, like you just mentioned there, you are switching into different roles. So within a business, I suppose that that can also help you adapt quite quickly and pivot when we need to pivot quite quickly as well. Yeah, that could be another.

Laura [00:55:09]:
I’ve learned so much from you as well. I was thinking about micro transitions which I learned from you and often, like with a mum and then with a business owner and then with a friend and, and we go into all these different, like, roles without stopping to think. And quite early on, because I’m quite lucky I get to listen to the podcast before they go out. And you talked about these micro transitions. I was like, yes, I’m not giving myself space in between, you know, so there’s been so much that I’ve learned from you for parents in. And leadership.

Nicky Lowe [00:55:41]:
Yeah, no, no, that’s good to hear because I think I’ve had to learn the hard way and, and I genuinely think those things have made me a better leader. I wish I hadn’t had to go through them, but I think it does and it’s just making me think. I listened to Brene Brown being interviewed on this and she’s got the really, really good analogy of she came over to the UK and got taught by a lady who does the locks on canals. Did you listen to this? And she was talking about, you know, to level up for a, you know, a canal barge to go from one level in the water to another. You have to go through this process. And Rene Brown’s quite fast paced and she was like, can we not just quicken this up? This is taking forever. And the lock woman was like, no, actually we need to do it at a certain speed because if not, we’re going to tip the boat over. And Brene had this kind of epiphany moment of, oh my God, that’s like the transition from going 100 miles an hour at work to coming home.

Nicky Lowe [00:56:37]:
If you come home in your work mode and say to your husband, right, I just need you to do this. And Da Da said, it’s not, not going to work. And so she now talks about, in her latest book, she uses this analogy of the locks on a canal and the water levels. And I thought that’s so powerful because it is it’s the transition and if we don’t get that transition right. And I still don’t think I’ve got my transitions nailed, but I am more, more intentional about them.

Laura [00:56:59]:
I don’t think we ever get them completely nailed. And this is another thing that we talk about, like we’re all work in progress, doing the best that we can. And there are going to be some days where like, I’m smashing it today and then other days where we’re not, and that’s okay. And that’s how I feel being in that team. This team.

Nicky Lowe [00:57:18]:
I’m going to say pause a second if that’s okay. So last but not least, we’ve got team psychological edge. And so we’ve talked about kind of psychological safety, but this is slightly different in that this is about how we cope when things don’t go according to plan, that we have setbacks or things feel really difficult. Can you think of an example about how we’ve managed as a team when we’ve experienced that?

Laura [00:57:52]:
The Friday was actually a really good example where we had quite an intense day planned. You were filming a couple of podcasts, weren’t you? I think Lauren, you were traveling and we had a lot going on with our other clients. Things and Nikki were unwell on the day and we just, I think you put on the group that you were really not feeling great. Did we think you should continue and still power through and record the podcast or should we cancel and like rearrange? And I think because we weren’t as available, you stepped in like straight away, didn’t you, on Voxer? And to be that reassurance, you came.

Lozza [00:58:32]:
In first and said, don’t worry about the podcast, everything’s rearrangeable. And then I came in with my knowledge of how to get something out of your eye.

Nicky Lowe [00:58:51]:
That context is really important, actually. So as you say, I’d got these podcasts, podcast interviews, we’ve had them lined up for months. They were quite high profile guests. And I woke up on the morning with what I thought was an eyelash in my eye. And as the morning went on, I couldn’t get this supposedly eyelash out my eye. And it was getting to the point where it was really, really uncomfortable and I couldn’t imagine being on camera. And I was like, don’t be silly, it’s just an eyelash in your eye. And so that’s when I’d messaged you guys to go, what do you think? Should I just power through? And my natural kind of style is I will make Something happen.

Nicky Lowe [00:59:29]:
I’ve got grit, I’ve got determination, so I have got that psychological edge. But I also know that it can trip me into like an unhelpful, dysfunctional space. So I think that was really powerful that you reflected it back to go, look, everything’s rearrangeable. This is not life or death. Take care of your health. And I was like, okay, no, I needed to hear that. And that’s the message I send to the people. I needed to have that reflected back.

Nicky Lowe [00:59:51]:
But then I also knew the ripple impact of that. And what was great, while I had to go off and have an emergency eye appointment and get this whole thing sorted. And it turned out to be quite a significant eye abrasion, that they were like, you are one step away from an ulcer here. So that was really important because I needed to prioritize my health. But you then, as a team, came together in the background, as you say, Everybody had got different things on that day. And is it fair to say that you each stepped into each other’s roles and kind of picked up each other’s work without me kind of having to think or pay attention to.

Lauren [01:00:27]:
Yeah, I think normally we’re not. Me and Laura aren’t working Fridays, really, I would just say. And I was on a train to London. I was just so grateful that Loza was in there, you know, with the ideas, with the reassurance, just with every weeks behind.

Lozza [01:00:44]:
I was right there and you were.

Lauren [01:00:46]:
Like cracking me up with some of the stuff that you were saying. I think I gave the worst by idea to get something out of your eye. And I was just. Yeah, but it was just nice to kind of see us all come in. And I think there’s a lot of business owners that sometimes they want that reassurance from the team and sometimes they don’t quite get it. And I think that we’re really, really good at doing that for each other.

Lozza [01:01:10]:
Yeah, Laura is the podcast manager. It was really a message for you, as in, what shall we do with the podcast? So I was waiting for your lead on it, and then you’d come in and said, don’t worry, come work around it. And then it went quiet. I was like, okay, is Laura still here? What are we going to do? So I messaged you separately and said, are you picking up those lockdowns? And then you were back on it, weren’t you? So, yeah, but I was there, ready to step in, say, okay, do you need me to? Because we manage the same inbox, don’t we? So I was ready to go in and be like, okay, who do I need to message? What do I need to say? But then you came in.

Laura [01:01:48]:
I was so grateful for that as well, because I was behind, because my head was somewhere else. And just having you, like, look, have you seen these messages? Like, you had my back as well as having Nikki’s, and we all had each other’s back. So, yeah, that was just one example of where we were all just on it and supporting each other.

Nicky Lowe [01:02:07]:
And I think there’s a couple of things in there. There’s the practical piece of, like, moving the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that needed to be moved. But I was really grateful for kind of the support of, like, the moral support, because I felt so terrible having to cancel those interviews. And every part of my body was like, no, don’t do it, because you’re not gonna be able to rearrange. You’re gonna let them down. They’re gonna think you’re flaky. All the stuff that my inner critic does when I don’t kind of deliver to the standard that I expect, and you just were like, no, this, this needs to happen. And I think we do that for each other a lot.

Nicky Lowe [01:02:43]:
And I really, really appreciate that because I think as a solo business owner, you can become in like a bubble that can be unhelpful because it can be lonely, but it can be really isolating. And you can be in your own head too much. And I think I really appreciate just bouncing ideas or bouncing thoughts or getting kind of out of that bubble and getting things reflected back and challenge and. Yeah, that challenge and support. So we’ve kind of covered those five building blocks of high performing team, and we call ourselves the dream team. And I just feel incredibly lucky that I have you each on my team. And as you know, it means the world to me. So if there’s somebody listening that’s like, I would like more support, but I struggle with it.

Nicky Lowe [01:03:34]:
What advice would you give them?

Lauren [01:03:38]:
Question. I think for me, everything starts with that Letting Go piece. So identifying first what is it that you think you think you need to be doing all the time, but then really looking at it being like, okay, maybe I don’t need to do these things. And just start with the idea of what would it feel like to actually let these things go. And in that process, when you then do decide to hire that support, there’s almost an identity shift that you need to make from being the business owner that wears all the hats and does everything. But then you step into that CEO role. And it takes time. You know, it’s not something that happens overnight or the second that you hire somebody into the business.

Lauren [01:04:23]:
There’s such a shedding process that, that goes, that goes with it, but I think it’s taking your time with it. And when you do bring somebody on, picking something that’s really, really small to hand off to them and just test it, but also making sure that we’ve got an SOP in place of how you would like this process, executing, what are your expectations, what looks good when this is actually completed. And usually 10 out of 10, it’s done, isn’t it? Yeah. I think it’s all that letting go process and shifting your identity.

Laura [01:05:02]:
Something that comes up a lot is worry about, what if people see the back end of my business and they think I’m failing or they think it’s a mess. And I’m talking as a business owner, but also as a virtual assistant as well. Everyone’s the same. Everyone is just so focused on the outward facing, money making, their zone of genius, that nine times out of ten, everyone’s back end of the business can be a bit chaotic, but we can quite easily start to bring some calm into that.

Nicky Lowe [01:05:37]:
I love that. I can really relate to that. It was like I talked about, it was like letting you into my Monica cupboard and going, are they gonna judge me for like, she calls herself a businesswoman. Oh my God, what is this? And I never ever felt that at all. But I think you’re absolutely right. I think there’s a practical element about like here, what’s something practically that I could delegate to somebody else and I identifying that. But I think there is a, there’s a mindset shift that absolutely had to go with it. And I remember when I first started working with you, Lauren and I know we talked about this on our previous podcast, you had a set number of hours that you tended to work with companies.

Nicky Lowe [01:06:14]:
And I was like, oh, it just feels too big. And you were great because you were like, I know you’re gonna need that. But you, you knew I needed to take like a smaller step to get there. So you were like, well, let’s try it on a, like a reduced program for like a month. And at the end of that month.

Lozza [01:06:30]:
No, I need more time.

Nicky Lowe [01:06:31]:
You knew that. But it was kind of, I had to shift my mindset to get to a place of I can let go. And I think I’d been holding it almost in survival mode that I’m like, I. I don’t know what will happen if I let go of stuff and just trusting that actually as you say, break it down into smaller chunks. But that mindset shift, and I think for me it was, and I’ll often talk to my clients about this, it was shifting from the mule to the magician mindset. So the mule is like, I’ve just got to put all the hours in and get it done. And that was the way that I’d run my business. Like I’ll just put whatever hours in it takes to do it and I’ll make it happen.

Nicky Lowe [01:07:08]:
But the magician mindset is transforming value and you can actually work less hours but have more impact and have a greater value that you’re adding to people. And I think the journey you’ve taken me on is going from that meal of me doing it and putting all the hours into. I absolutely work less hours. I still work incredibly hard, but in less hours. But I feel that I’ve added clearly business wise, my business is now more valuable. You know, my income has gone up significantly. But I think the value that I’m delivering for my clients, which ultimately is what this is about, has up leveled because of that as well. Thank you.

Lauren [01:07:50]:
Pleasure.

Nicky Lowe [01:07:51]:
So hopefully you’ve enjoyed getting an insight into the behind the scenes of the Luminate Dream Team. And you were saying the other day, Laura, that you’re son. I don’t know if you want to tell that story.

Laura [01:08:02]:
Yeah, I think he hears me all the time on Voxer and he’s like, hi, Dream team. So he sat at my desk and was, yeah, impersonating me. But I think that just shows. Even the teenager team know. Sorry, even my family know all your different names and the way we interact with each other.

Nicky Lowe [01:08:19]:
So I remember when I first started calling us that, I was like, does that sound cheesy? I’m like, no, this genuinely feels like the Dream Team. So thank you. And we’re now going to go off for our pre Christmas Dream Team lunch and you may have heard some stomachs rumbling because we are ready for lunch. So, yeah, I just hope you, anybody listening takes away the fact that we deserve support and actually we can be even better for reaching out and getting support. And it is, I talk so much about it’s not a weakness needing support, it’s a success strategy. So I hope this has inspired you to go and investigate the support that you might need for your work and life. If you’ve enjoyed this episode of Wisdom for Working Mums, I’d love for you to share it it on social media or with the amazing women in your life. I’d also love to connect with you.

Nicky Lowe [01:09:09]:
So head over to luminate group.co.uk where you’ll find ways to stay in touch. And if this episode resonated with you, one of the best ways to support the show is by subscribing and leaving a review on itunes. Your review helps other women discover this resource, so together we can lift each other up as we rise. So thanks for listening. Until next time. Take care.