Start Before You Feel Ready: Why Confidence Comes After Action

In this episode of the Work It Like a Mum podcast, we’re joined by returning guest Daniela Wainwright, Founder of Wainwright Consulting.

Daniela has built a successful business as a bootstrapped founder and now leads a growing team of fractional finance directors. In this honest and practical conversation, she shares what it really takes to step away from corporate, build confidence, and create a business on your own terms. 

What We Cover:

• Daniela’s journey from corporate to founder
• The reality of starting and growing a business
• Why confidence holds so many people back
• Overcoming fear, imposter syndrome and mindset blocks
• Building a personal brand and showing up (even when it feels uncomfortable)
• The rise of fractional working and flexible careers
• Tools and strategies to strengthen mindset and resilience

Key Takeaways:

• Confidence grows through action, not before it
• Fear is normal, but it shouldn’t stop you taking the next step
•  You don’t need to follow the “traditional” path to build a successful business
• Mindset is a skill you can actively work on and improve
• Small steps forward build momentum and belief
• You can design a career that fits your life, not the other way around

Why Listen:

If you’re thinking about starting something new, taking the next step in your career, or simply feeling stuck, this episode is a powerful reminder that confidence doesn’t come first; action does.

Show Links:

Connect with  Elizabeth Willetts on LinkedIn here

Connect with Daniella on LinkedIn here

Visit Daniella’s website here

Boost your career with Investing in Women's Career Coaching! Get expert CV, interview, and LinkedIn guidance tailored for all career stages. Navigate transitions, discover strengths, and reach goals with our personalised approach. Book now for your dream job! Use 'workitlikeamum' for a 10% discount.

Transcript

Welcome And What To Expect

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey, I'm Elizabeth Willis, and I'm obsessed with helping as many women as possible achieve their boldest dreams after kids and helping you to navigate this messy and magical season of life. I'm a working mum with over 17 years of equipment experience, and I'm the founder of the Investing in Women Job Board and Community. In this show, I'm honoured to be chatting with remarkable women, redefining our working world across all areas of business. They'll share their secrets on how they've achieved extraordinary success after children, their boundaries and balance, the challenges they faced, and how they've overcome them to find their own versions of success. Shy away from the real talk. No way! Money, struggles, growth, loss, boundaries and balance. We cover it all. Think of this as coffee with your mates, mixed with an inspiring TED Talk, sprinkled with the career advice you wish you'd really had at school. So grab a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, make sure you're cozy, and get ready to get inspired and chase your boldest dreams or just survive Mondays. This is the Work It Like a Mum podcast. This episode is brought to you by Investing in Women. Investing in Women is a job board and recruitment agency helping you find your dream part-time or flexible job with the UK's most family-friendly and forward-thinking employers. Their site can help you find a professional and rewarding job that works for you. They're proud to partner with the UK's most family-friendly employers across a range of professional industries. Ready to find your perfect job? Search their website at investinginwomen.co.uk to find your next part-time or flexible job opportunity. Now back to the show. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the Work It Like a Month podcast. Today we have a brilliant guest. She's back on the podcast after a couple of years to talk a little bit about her business, but also about mindset and confidence. Because Daniela Wainwright, who is our guest today, she's the founder of Wainwright Consulting. She's been on a bit of a journey. Her business has grown. She is a bootstrapped founder, and she is going to be talking all about mindset confidence and all the tools and the tricks and the toolkit that worked for her when she was first starting her business. Because we know it's not easy, but this this podcast is aimed at anybody that maybe is feeling a little bit unsure, a bit tentative about the next steps. Um, whether you're wanting to start a business or take the next step in your career, what you can do to just improve your mindset and improve your confidence. But thanks so much, Daniela, for joining us.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

Oh, it's a pleasure. Thank you for having me back.

SPEAKER_01 2:48

All right. I said you're a bootstrapped bootstrapped founder. Is that right?

SPEAKER_00 2:53

Yeah, yeah, I haven't taken any funding now. And actually, you know, you come on to what I do in a minute, maybe, but um, I really have a bit of a beam up on it about the kind of narrative that's out there around, you know, you must take funding, you must be raising. That's just not always the case. It's not always a thing that's a right for the business. So don't buy into that. Just make it profitable.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

Good. I like that because I feel that that seems to be the narrative as well. It's like, you know, I've done a lot of networking events. It's I've raised this, I've raised that, and then you always feel I'm a bootstrap founder as well, and you feel a little bit inferior. Yeah, you mustn't.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

It's much better if you don't have to divert all your attention into building decks and pitching. You can just get on with putting your energy into the strategy for your business. There's uh a lot to be said for that, I think. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 3:38

I think people as well, I don't know, this is this might be controversial. Um go down the found the the um the raise fundraising route because they they want to avoid the sales, they don't actually like sales, and that was another way to raise money for your business is to learn how to sell it. And a lot of people don't like think or think they don't like sales.

SPEAKER_00 4:03

They certainly do. We talk about a lot uh about that in my uh training courses because it's people coming out of finance who are having to go out and sell and find their own work. It's daunting, super daunting. And I bet people that do that they don't really intentionally know that that's what they're doing. But um, yeah, certainly it can be a bit of a distraction, can't it, that can take you away from needing to do that for a while.

What Fractional Finance Directors Do

SPEAKER_01 4:25

Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. So before we dive into this mindset and confidence, tell us um what Wainwright Consulting do and why you set up the business.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

Okay, so we are a team of what we call fractional finance directors, and you can read part-time finance director into that. Essentially, we work with businesses, usually between around a million and ten million turnover. We've got a few outliers that are basically needing strategic and commercial finance support. So that's things around pricing, fundraising, how you're going to grow, um, you know, all the things that are maybe like board-level finance advice. Um, but they don't need a full-time hire. And so traditionally there would just be in a void in the business where they couldn't have that type of support for a long time. But now obviously you can access that through fractional professionals like us. There's plenty more, um, on a sort of uh almost like a day-rate basis. So we work with most businesses, say a day, a week, something like that. And it's really, really impactful. Um, I set that business up really because I loved my work, but didn't necessarily love all elements of the culture in really big corporates. Um, and I wanted to get back to having more control over who I worked with, a little bit around when I worked, although I still I probably work harder now, and I really did work long hours before, but it doesn't feel stressful at all because of that control and balance that's that's back in my hands. Um, and I've grown that to a team of 10 other fractional FDs working in our practice, Yorkshire in the Northeast in the main. And I also run something called Power Up Your Portfolio, which is a course really niche specifically for people making the leap out of corporate into becoming a fractional finance director. There'll be a bona fide EFD or CFO within industry now, but they want to set up that business for themselves. So I help them through sales, marketing, using LinkedIn and networking to win the work because that's the really crucial part of getting established.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

What do you think holds people back from taking the leap? Because obviously you're speaking to people, you know, we're speaking of people that have taken the leap, and there'll be people that haven't taken the leap. What separates those two groups of people?

SPEAKER_00 6:36

I think they are separated by a hair's breadth or a piece of paper, you know, like they're the same people, they've maybe just found some way to overcome that fear. Um, it's a confidence thing, isn't it? There's a really nice um phrase that I heard a few years ago and it stayed with me around fear. It's fear is a mile wide and an inch deep, and I think that's it. If I ever encourage people, it's just take that next little step, that next little commitment, um, because it very quickly you realize you're in it, you can do it. But some of the things that are, as you've alluded to, things like sales, marketing, putting yourself on LinkedIn, that's petrifying for a lot of people. Um, I don't know if it's particularly in finance or just a lot of people generally, but it's petrifying. Um, and I must admit, I remember sitting at my laptop and typing out a post on LinkedIn, and there was no alternative then as well, because it were in lockdown. So I had no way of building a business other than throwing myself into LinkedIn, which is why I did so with uh with such relish. But um typing out something and then literally having to close my eyes, probably utter an expletive, hit the button, and then go make a call. Run away. When I came back, someone had been nice and it was like this is this is fine, but yeah, it's it's hard. Yeah, there's a lot of jumping out of a plane, isn't it? Really? It is a bit, yeah. And now you post so much, I post so much, that sounds silly to say, but it's not like that at the time. And I know it is, I get that. It's a bit like that with video, if I'm really honest. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:11

I think we all still have fears, don't we? Like I'm alright posting on LinkedIn, but I think, oh, if I was going on a big stage and you know, yeah, you know, I don't think you ever can get over fear, do you?

SPEAKER_00 8:24

No, you can learn to manage it, you know, you can learn to breathe properly for it, and you can kind of uh I guess kind of um you build stories, don't you? So once you've done it a few times, you're you've got a memory, you've got a page in your book that says, Yeah, I've done that, it worked out fine last time, I can do it again. But yeah, it's it it a fear it is diminished by taking those steps and taking the actions, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 8:48

Basically, do you think there's something though that people actually do take they feel the fear, they do it anyway, like you did. You closed your eyes, you posted. I'm sure you were anxious before you posted, but there's some people that will just never post.

SPEAKER_00 9:01

There are, yeah. It's it's an interesting one because um I speak to loads and loads of people who are looking to do the fractional reading, and there are there's a few who are not daunted, they're just not daunted by the networking, the marketing, LinkedIn, whatever, and and and they will smash it. Then there's the vast majority, I'd say, who are very daunted, but are prepared to push through it. Yeah, and then there are some people who are so daunted that at this point in in their journey they're not prepared to push through that. And I mean, there's still options. I always talk to people about the fact you can join sort of a collective where a lot of the marketing and the sort of um networking leads essentially will be kind of found for you, probably not everything, but a lot of that work will be done. But you know, it's quick quick pro quo. You lose some of your day rate by having that assistance. And for some people, that's a you know, for my FDs, that's a fair exchange. Some of them just do not want to do that, and they're amazing FDs. And as long as I find them the work, they'll go and service those clients wonderfully, and that that's an option. But um, I mean, I guess I set up my course to say I just wanted to open that avenue to more and more people and say, look at this, it's a properly viable alternative to your corporate career, and it's amazing to deliver. And I just wanted to open that up now. Everyone pretty much knows about it now, but four or five years ago, it was a bit more niche still, and I just wanted those people who feel like they could do it with that bit of encouragement and that bit of mindset and confidence work and a bit of a blueprint to show them the way. Just wanted them to have the tools and feel empowered to do that, and we do do loads on confidence in the course because I think you know, there's imposter syndrome to get past, you're making a massive leap from being an employee, probably spending most of your days finance to finance. Well, it's quite an identity shift, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 10:52

To go from being an employee, I work for X Company, and you know, if you work coming, especially from a big corporate, I remember working for Deloitte and feeling really proud that I could say I work for Deloitte, and then to not be able to say that and then say I work for some random little company I've set up from my dining room table that no one's ever heard from. A lots of company, yeah. You know, it's a really like it's such an identity shift, isn't it? You're like, and it's like owning that, standing, you know, taking a step forward and owning that. And I think we within under society, we're always so used to saying, Oh, what do you do? Who do you work for? And to leave that for a bit, it's hard.

SPEAKER_00 11:33

One of our slides is like accountant is what you do, not who you are, or you know, finance director is not who you are. Um yeah, it's it's such a shift, and I think confidence comes from lots of different things, doesn't it? But one of the things we always try and recommend is having that little bit of you know, a financial runway, because even that is good confidence and is all playing into what you need ideally to be ready to sort of back yourself and and and take that leap and do so with confidence, and you know, there's nothing worse than trying to sell or and looking a bit desperate for the work, you know, you've got to be in a really good headspace.

SPEAKER_01 12:11

Yeah. So in your business, so who like if I was an FD working for you, who finds me the work? Is it you or do I find the work? And you know, how does that the commercial sort of work?

Mindset Toolkit And Identity Shift

SPEAKER_00 12:23

So when somebody comes on board to be one of our FDs, and we've kind of narrowed that down in terms of how we do that, they're quite hand-picked by me. They're usually people that I I know and know the reputation of, we're keeping it local. So um, it's a bit of a joint effort at first. I would say probably the bulk of the work's on on me. I am the sort of business development person, the the salesperson for the business. Having started doing, you know, all my days were um work consulting as an FD. I'm probably more like 50-50 now, and I've I've got plans to move a little bit further away. I still want to keep some client work because I love it and I want to be able to say I'm still a fractional FD. Yeah, but I um I need more time, otherwise, I'm getting in my own way really for the business. But yeah, we team up at the beginning. So um, I would expect our new guys to because what once you're starting, when you're starting, you've got a bit more free time as well. So I want them to get out there to do some of the networking and things like that. But yeah, the bulk of it's the bulk of it's on me, really. Nice.

SPEAKER_01 13:21

So you obviously set up this business, and you'll have had to do lots of like soul searching, identity shifts. I know how much it takes to set up a business, how much of you it takes. How and what were the steps that's when you know you did that first place, you've you know closed your eyes, ran away. I'm sure there were lots of other like wobbly steps when you first started. How did you build the confidence to take them?

SPEAKER_00 14:39

It's a good one, it's an interesting one. I think I've always felt a little bit entrepreneurial, like I've dabbled in a few things before, like I dabbled in baby photography, realized it was never ever gonna pay the bills in the way that you know being an FD does. Um I never really saw how I could make my experience, my skill set into a business until Fractional came along, if you like. And I'd actually seen somebody else do that from my peer group when I was um uh very senior team at a big corporate. And um I actually got made redundant ultimately, but it was something that I had my eye on, and I never know to this day, would I have definitely done it if I hadn't been made redundant? I don't know. I like to think I would because I was in the planning of it, but um, you don't know, dear. So I don't like to be all oh, I just did it because I'm so confident, not like that at all. But yeah, obviously that meant I had some money, I had that bit of Satan to set things up. Um, but then I just got cracking, really. And one of the reasons we're making the course was I think there's some very specific bits you need to go through. Obviously, the setup in the terms of legalities, you know, in our course we just give you a checklist for that because yeah, it needs doing and there's lots to do, but it's just a list of tasks. We can all do that. The really hard bit, I think, is in thinking about the positioning and how you want to show up and how you're gonna uh attract the type of clients that you want to work with because a lot of people go into this for a little bit of a lifestyle change in terms of it's not necessarily that they're wanting to work any less hard, but they're certainly wanting to work with a little bit more flexibility often and a lot more control about the sort of type of people that they're working with, potentially values match, that sort of thing. So putting some good thought into that upfront about who you want to actually work with and what what the ideal version of success looks like to you is just so important and so key. Um, and it kind of then influences everything you do from that point forward. So the font you choose, the name you choose, the the colours you choose, the way you show up on LinkedIn, the language you use, I'm very colloquial because I don't want to come across as that sort of corporate um FD. I'm very keen on being jargon-free and things like that. And I think you need to weave all that in to come up with a kind of personal brand that's really sort of authentic and it and it resonates and you feel trust in it. I think sometimes if you're trying to, if you don't quite get all those things right, there can be a reason why people look at you in the dirt, it just doesn't all quite hang together, and they'd never really be able to put their finger on why it doesn't quite feel right. Um, so yeah, that's important. But I think in terms of getting the actual confidence to do those things, I know I was working through loads of stuff at the time, like we've talked about it before. Like I'm a really big fan of like hypnotherapy, for example. Yeah, um, I think just you know, we've all got little stories and you know things that don't serve us anymore written into our psyche, into our subconscious, around things that have happened to us in the past and how we've been brought up. And I think things like hypnotherapy can really kind of shortcut that and kind of eradicate some of those things and kind of give you a little bit more belief, um, get rid of some of the things that might hold you back. Um, I don't know if that's is that the sort of thing you meant. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:06

And I was also thinking a lot of this would apply as well when you were if you were just looking for a job as well. It's like who do you think?

SPEAKER_00 18:12

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, it would, for sure. Yeah, um, but I like I have a whole toolkit of things that I talk people through. Um, like I have an app, for example, that's called I Am, and it's a bit like having a really nice friend in your pocket. And when you get notifications, they're all like, you know, like affirmations, really nice affirmations to keep you in a really good um place, you know, just kind, nice, positive things. Um, and listening to meditation, I did a lot of that as well. I think anything you can do to kind of keep yourself in a really positive mindset. My hypnotherapist used to call it being on the yellow brittroad. And you'll you'll get a knock, you will. But if you can get yourself up and dust yourself off and get yourself back on the yellow brick road quickly, you know, everything feels easier. The other thing we talked about, I think previously, was um the book called Mindset, didn't we? By George. And there's so much gold in there. If anyone's struggling with mindset or imposter syndrome, don't know about you, but I would massively recommend that book. Yeah, um, there's loads in there about the power of yeah, just putting the word yet on the end of things, like I can't do that yet. There's loads about exactly what a growth mindset is, and just reinforcing to yourself that just because you can't do something now, like you know, showing up on LinkedIn feels incredibly painful, or you don't know how to sell right now, you know, doesn't mean you can't learn it. The the brain is has got plasticity, it can you know forge new pathways and um you know doesn't mean that you're you know to have a fixed mindset means that you don't think you can do those ever, essentially. Well, rationally, probably most of us don't really think that we we know we can learn and we can get better at things, so yeah, just some really interesting ways of phrasing things, and a lot of it's about catching how you talk to yourself, you know.

SPEAKER_01 19:57

Yeah, yeah. I think so, because obviously this is the biggest relationship we ever have, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 20:02

When we have ourselves, and like you can be so mean, that voice in your head can be so mean.

Health Reset Through Yoga And Wellness

SPEAKER_01 20:08

Yeah, something that's helped me while you're finding what you're looking for, and also is a gratitude diary. I don't know if you have one of those. Oh, yeah, evening and it prompts you to write like nice things that happened today, and you know how you felt and what your energy was like, and consulting family and friends.

SPEAKER_00 20:26

We actually have um we actually have um these things which we give to our new clients. It's like it's called a five and prosper journal, and basically it's exactly what you're saying. It's like it has your morning plan, so it's a bit like a productivity journal in some first part, and then the second part is all like reflections in the evening and like what are you grateful for and stuff like that. And again, it's all just about like you know, being on a journey, being an entrepreneur, working really hard, trying to build your business, but remembering why you're doing it and what's important to you, and keeping your health and well-being in a good place as well, because ultimately, as soon as you don't have your health, you don't have much to you.

SPEAKER_01 21:06

I know your health's really important to you because you're training to be a yoga teacher, is that right?

SPEAKER_00 21:11

I am, yeah. Um, that's quite a new thing. So I think probably a lot of those things I've just talked about with the hypnotherapy and um stuff led to that really. So going back to when I was incorporate, I'd had a bit of a rough health patch. Um, I was kind of collapsed one day in pain and went to get my appendix out and ultimately had my appendix out and it didn't relieve the pain, and I had like nerve pain going all down the right hand side of my body. Um and the doctors gave me really strong painkillers, which worked, special nerve painkillers, but I couldn't do my job because I was like off on cloud nine somewhere. And um, the only other thing they could do was to go in through your spinal cord and to do something called nerve ablation, which is uh it puts an electric current through the nerve and essentially burns it so it can't produce pain. And that used to work for about six months, and then it would re regenerate the nerve and it would come back again. So I was kind of looking into ways to fix myself really because the medical profession couldn't tell me why this pain was there, and you know, I don't want to go too deep on this because it's not what we're here for today. But um, you know, there's there's a lot of um, you know, if you've ever heard of the book called The Body Keeps the Score, there's a lot of evidence that actually, you know, if your soul's unhappy, basically, your body's gonna let you know about it. So I think ultimately it was really that. Um, so I solved it through things like um yoga, which I've never really got into before. For me, I wanted to do hit exercise, I wanted it to be as fast and as impactful as possible. Um, but it was all I could do, and then I suddenly found the sort of uh you know, the mental as well as the health, health, uh physical. Benefits of it, and I was just hooked. And things like cold water therapy and uh the hypnosis, loads of different things I was trying all at once, and ultimately I managed to get that pain to go away. So that's led me on a bit of a journey that's now. I don't know that I necessarily want to be a yoga teacher. I'm not going to run away from this lovely business and this fractional work I absolutely love. But um, it was more about exploring more about the wellness and the spirituality side of things, and it's it's just brilliant.

SPEAKER_01 23:21

Were you worried what people would think if you like did said I'm becoming a yoga teacher as well as running remark consulting, or did that never crush your mind?

Why Fractional Work Is Growing

SPEAKER_00 23:31

I think a little bit, but I I mean a lot of people know that one of my like sort of soapbox subjects is that you shouldn't have to sort of burn yourself out and ruin your own health to have a successful business. You know, if you're kind of working smarter, not harder, and you're getting experts around you, you shouldn't have to do that. So I think I've kind of signalled it was coming for a while. There's a lot of pictures of me on LinkedIn up a mountain doing yoga and stuff like that. So I think there'll be some people where I'm not for them, but that's probably okay because they're probably not for me either. So yeah, it's not it's not an either-or for me, it's very much part of what I do. And I I think I probably will end up doing some yoga for entrepreneurs. We do a lot about breathing, which is called um pranayama in the yoga um course, and you know, to be able to kind of control and regulate your own nervous system and you know, be calm in the moment is really quite impactful. And I think we could do some really nice kind of founder or busy business people um yoga that could give them quite a lot, give them a little glimpse into the calmness that is possible.

SPEAKER_01 25:39

Well, you're sort of live in your values, really, aren't you, about portfolio careers and fractional work and how you don't have to choose, really.

SPEAKER_00 25:47

Yeah, exactly. I suppose I am. I thought of that, but yeah, you can do that with everything, right?

SPEAKER_01 25:50

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Um, why do you think fractional work is becoming so popular with both individuals and with employers?

NI Pressures And Business Headwinds

AI Skills And The Future Of Work

SPEAKER_00 26:01

So I think ultimately the uh surge in this started in COVID, didn't it? As a lot of people through COVID were having a really good think about what is this thing called life? What do I want out of it? And it probably just coincided for me and my kind of peers, it coincided with you maybe getting to the point where the kids are a little bit older, you know, you might be getting near the end of your mortgage if you've had a good run, and like, you know, it just it's a time when you might make slightly different decisions. Um, and I think a lot of people did a lot of soul searching through that time. So I think that's one reason, and I think that's probably the reason more from the individual's perspective. Um, from a business perspective, I think I just don't think there was really a way to kind of get that board level expertise, um, really, before. And I think that's the reason why there's so much market unlocked and there's so much space for people in, you know, to be doing this work. People, you know, the businesses I I work with or we work with, they just didn't have this support before. They weren't able to get that board-level commercial and strategic finance support. Um they'd have their bookkeeper, their internal person who probably is reasonably junior, then they'd have their year-end accountant doing their compliance and doing their um year-end accounts and things, but there's just been a huge void in the middle in a lot of businesses. Um, it's actually quite exciting. And in the way you talked about uh, you know, feeling a bit of a fraud if you um are feeling a bit inferior not to be on that fundraising journey, you know, for the reasons you've said, you know, around there's interested parties, aren't there? If you're going to raise finance, there's people who can help you with that, generate fees from that, maybe invest in you. And therefore, there's loads and loads of like accelerator programs and support if you if that's the route you're taking. I really think our fractional support can kind of um help the lay person's business, if you like. You know, it doesn't have to be um something that you you're raising funding for to be successful, to be profitable, to give you the lifestyle that you want. And I think just a little bit of I mean, I only taught for fractional finance people, but I'm sure you could say the same for fractional salespeople, etc. A little bit of that real expert advice with someone who's regularly there and regularly on your team, feels like they're really part of the team, and can just unlock so much for these businesses.

SPEAKER_01 28:34

Do you think of you know, because obviously you work with employers all the time looking at their finances? I'm interested from a recruitment perspective. What was the impact of like the employer and I increase last year? Did you notice an impact on the year?

SPEAKER_00 28:49

Yeah, really big. Um there's a lot of headwinds from a cost perspective for businesses these days. It is it is a tough environment, it's it's not great. Um, I don't want to get too political, but um, I don't think there's been much good news as there since the government changed. And I don't think before we thought it could be much worse, but turns out it's harder in the business anyway. Um a lot of people started to try and look at you know salary sacrifice and can we actually do things where we're saving some NI that way. I mean, the size of businesses we work with in most of them, it wasn't really worth it. Um, you know, by the time you paid the professional fees of the uh accountants of pension advisors that would help you do that, there wasn't lots in it. I think for a bigger workforce, it can work. Um, but even then, I think now the government have said they're going to limit that salary sacrifice amount to£2,000 per person. And so I think that will be kind of closed down as a as a way of um paying less than I for the employer. Um yeah, there's there's lots of of structural sort of headwinds and all the inflation obviously that we've been suffering for a good few years now. It's not easy, it's not an easy time to have a business.

SPEAKER_01 29:59

No, and therefore it's not an easy time I see to be a job seeker either. Because a lot of employees are nervous. What about AI? Because obviously you're seeing you're coming in from such a high strategic level. What's do you think is gonna be the impact on businesses and therefore individuals on the business?

SPEAKER_00 30:16

I was gonna come in the glasses. I wrote this down actually. Oh, good. I really hope that a lot of people are doing a lot with AI right now because it's really moving on at a heck of a pace, and um there are gonna be a lot of businesses that get left behind, I think. Um you know, I'm a finance director, but yesterday evening I was spending some time building some software with Claude because I can now. I don't know how to code, but you know, the the the possibilities of what you can do now for yourself are huge, and only getting better um, you know, month on month, really. I think the difference I've seen since I first looked at Claude, and then I picked it up again another couple of months ago, mainly because there was some stuff coming down the track with Excel. So, you know, playing right into the finance people's house, um, you know, the that capability in that area is really, really coming on quickly. Um, the time's now, really, I think, to try and kind of if you you know, if you are a person who's doing well in business and you've got a little bit ahead, stay ahead. It's easier to catch up now, it's quicker if you if you're not, um, but just don't get completely left behind. There's lots of bad ways to use AI, as I'm sure you've seen, you know, all over LinkedIn you can spot it a mile off. But if you use it, you know, in a smart way, if you've kind of helped that AI platform to understand you and your business and your tone of voice, etc., it can just be a really smart way of saving time, saving money, but also you know, moving things on really quickly.

SPEAKER_01 31:50

What do you use AI for in your business?

SPEAKER_00 31:53

We don't use it for client work at the moment. Um, we are keeping a good eye on what's been developed, but there isn't a great deal at the moment that um we would hang our hat on and say it's kind of safe and accurate. I do think that will come on. I'm kind of envisaging a time where, but most but most of the bookkeeping will be done um by AI, and we don't do bookkeeping, we do that strategic level on top. But I can see a time where we might kind of as a business sweep up the bookkeeping on the FD work because actually we don't really need to do the bookkeeping, we just sit in our strategic service on top of that. It's not there yet, but I think it's a good thing.

SPEAKER_01 32:33

That's someone's job though, isn't it? Those bookkeepers.

SPEAKER_00 32:36

Ultimately, yeah. Yeah, but I mean they they can do that service, they just need to, I guess, be doing it for more people, and they need to be the human that's overseeing the AI and making sure it's it's accurate and it's been done done correctly. Um what else would I say? Sorry, what was the original question?

SPEAKER_01 32:54

What yeah, what tools do you use with your AI in your business?

SPEAKER_00 32:58

So we we we've just set up, I've obviously got a couple of members of staff in my team, aside from the FDs who are out in the field, um, one on ops and one on marketing, and we've used it a lot recently to sort of slick up our internal processes. So things like how we pass things through our sales pipeline from having a meeting with a client to summarising the notes. You know, the notes are done on AI, those go into a briefing document for our FDs. Um it allows us to kind of get the potential client details out to the FDs quickly, engage interests, set up a meeting more quickly, and things like that. Um, and like I say, we are looking at a couple of our softwares that we pay quite a lot of money for and seeing if we can build something in-house that will take some cost out. So things like that. We use it to build marketing assets. Um yeah, there's quite a lot, a lot that can be done with it. I mean, it knows enough about me now that it could write all our LinkedIn posts, probably. But you know, I have I have Claire's help with that. I don't need that help at the moment, and she does definitely write better than Claude. Um, but yeah, it's all about like most systems. Can I swear? It's like shitting shit out, isn't it? You've got to put the time into setting these things up well and prompting well as well. That's a real skill, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 34:15

Do you think that's what we're all gonna be in the end? Because you mentioned we mentioned obviously about the bookkeepers and how eventually maybe the bookkeepers that are here are gonna be managing the bookkeeper bots. Do you think that's what we're all gonna eventually be? Is just bot managers. And is that the best case scenario?

SPEAKER_00 34:30

It's a bit sad to think about, isn't it? But um I think there's definitely more entry-level jobs or data level jobs that you know will go. I mean, a lot of people think that you know what I do as a fractional lefty will will go. I definitely think there's a fair few years left in that yet, um, because that nuance and that real personal human understanding of a business owner and what they want and you know what's actually going to work in the real world is is is not there in the AI capability yet. But will it be? Well, probably. Um, it's a it's a scary time to think about what your children might do in the future, I think.

Practical Confidence Habits And Wins

SPEAKER_01 35:11

So, yeah, I definitely agree on that. And I think just looping this back to the confidence thing, yeah. Sometimes, and this is a really it sounds a bit pessimistic, but I couldn't my friend see she works in AI, and she's like in five years' time, we won't recognise the job landscape. And I agree with you on that. So that's why I think sometimes I'm like with everybody, we've kind of just got to go for it while we've all sort of got a bit of a run left and take it as far as we can in the next five, ten years.

SPEAKER_00 35:38

Yeah, I wouldn't want to try and predict the future there, but yeah, I think um things are certainly going to be done differently, aren't they? But it's an exciting time if you flip it on its head, because like you know, I'm I'm quite a big um Daniel Priestley fan, and like he's always said, you know, you can do things these days, and this is going back three or four years before the big um increase in the use of AI. Um, you know, you can set up global businesses now from your home office, and that's totally true, and that's just been expediated, really, with AI. Like the the build time is is much more quickly. So it's a daunting time to be in business, but it's also quite an exciting time to be in business. I think just to put my usual sort of glass half full spin on it.

SPEAKER_01 36:19

Yeah, I agree, and I think as well, uh the learning new things always builds confidence, even if you sort of don't end up using it, but like you know, with you being doing your yoga, you get that sense of accomplishment, I guess, every time you do a lesson and you've learned something new. Yeah, it's just stroking that you know that you can learn something new.

SPEAKER_00 36:39

Yeah, I'm a total lifelong learner, I've always got loads out of that. Um, I think that curiosity um goes a long way, doesn't it? And the the government's actually just released loads and loads of free AI training that anyone can access.

SPEAKER_01 36:52

So it's all there. Where is that? Do you know where that is?

SPEAKER_00 36:56

Why don't I send you it and then you can put it in there in the in the links? Um, but yeah, it's available to everybody, it's free. Um, so yeah, don't get left behind. No, um, I think it's interesting to think about jobs that only humans can do as well, isn't it? Like, you know, there's never been a better time to be in the trades, I'd say.

SPEAKER_01 37:17

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:18

Because that's not going anywhere.

SPEAKER_01 37:20

No, no, absolutely. So any final tips really on building this confidence is you know, in in a quite an uncertain world as well, when there's lots going on that aren't under our control. But actually, I think I think probably the one thing you can control is you, isn't it, and how you approach things.

SPEAKER_00 37:36

So I think that's it. I think stress comes from trying to control the uncontrollable. So if you just control what you can, you know, that's a much more peaceful way to live your life. Um, things like imposter syndrome, you know, there's there's there's lots of ways to control that out there.

SPEAKER_01 37:52

But um what work to be thinking about?

SPEAKER_00 37:56

Um so I've I've got a little guy here that somebody bought me who beat who went on my course, and this guy's um this is corporate collin. Yeah, so it's the Lego piece. It's a Lego piece, yeah. So you know, in the book Mindset, it talks about almost ridiculing your voice in your in your brain that's a bit nasty and says, Oh, you know, my mine used to say to me, Oh, you're not as smart as you used to be, and all this, and oh, you've reached your level and all this. You just wouldn't ever say that to anybody in the real world, but you'll say it to yourself inside your own brain. So it talks about like naming that person. So that's why I call this guy corporate collin. And um, almost you know, ridiculing it a little bit. Um, you can almost like if you've got a colleague or a partner at home and you're sort of setting each other off, you can say, Oh, well, don't say that to me, because when you say that, my corporate collin starts chirping up, and you're I don't know, angstyani does it's almost like really just taking a mick out of it, taking their power away from it, really. Um, but yeah, things like that. And you know, it sounds basic, but writing a list of the things that you've accomplished and having a chat with a friend or your partner about, you know, just all the brilliant things you have done and and remembering that you used to have as well on the journey just creating the gap to gain.

SPEAKER_01 39:20

Oh, yeah, that's a really good book. That's a good one for that, isn't it? Yeah. Well, you've accomplished.

SPEAKER_00 39:26

Yes. And one thing I used to do when I started out, and I always recommend to people who are going through our power-up course, is um uh a little book of wins. There's a coach local to me who used to always talk about this, and I've tried to widen out the reach of his idea, which is having like a notepad, and in the back, just writing down all the sort of like good things that have happened because actually, you know, you're not gonna land the sale on day one, it is gonna take some time. But if you can write down that great conversation you had with someone who might be a great referral partner, and you can write down that ace of coffee you had with someone who thinks their friend needs an FD and those kind of things, you know, you've on a bad day when you get a knock, you've got something to look at and say, actually, it's not all that bad. All these things are happening, and you know, you can be touching distance to getting a client and not knowing that you are because there's lurkers on LinkedIn, people only want an FD when the timing is spot on. You know, like people come on my course, they can chat with us, and then we don't see them for two years, and then they come back two years later and go, All right, I'm ready, I'm ready, I want to sign up. And you just don't know how much you've already put in motion that is out there making that.

Where To Find Daniela And Closing

SPEAKER_01 40:31

Yeah, you've and you've just got to wait for it to come back to you. Yeah, yeah, keep the faith. Absolutely. I think so many people give up just just too early before they've really I I was listening, uh I went to a really good talk, and it was about I forgot what the person's name is about the best violinist in the world, and he played in um he plays like sell out, he's got a million pound or million dollar violin, and he plays sell out concerts and things like that. And then he did an experiment where he played in the subway and nobody watched, nobody clapped. It was in a Washington subway or somewhere, it's somewhere in America. Well I'm the same person, yeah, and nobody and everyone walked past and things like that, and then and then he went back and he publicized it then, and obviously, then he got a massive crowd in the subway station. It was like he just obviously had years and years of practice, a bit like what he showed in the subway station where nobody claps, and like it's just imagine if he'd have given up while he was still rehearsing.

SPEAKER_00 41:27

That's a very powerful uh idea, is that yeah, yeah, yeah. And also, there's a maybe a little bit in there about faking it so you make it, isn't there?

SPEAKER_01 41:37

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, you've got to. I think that's so true. I know people don't like that thing, but I'm like, I think we all have I think that's the only way you build confidence is to keep going, even if you don't feel confident.

SPEAKER_00 41:49

And I think you do have to show up with that confidence and look like you've got it, even if inside you might be having a wobble, and that's what I mean by faking it till you make it. I wouldn't I wouldn't fake being an SD, that's gonna only lead to trouble. But um you know, I think it it grows with time, does the confidence, but you know, and that's why I think having some cash runway behind you is important because if you need something to be happening by a certain point of time, you put in an extreme amount of pressure on yourself, right, to deliver, and yeah, yeah, it might work, but you ideally, and it's not always possible, but you want to try and look at ways to, you know, are there ways to make a step in the direction? So we we get people on our course who are maybe they've been med redundant, so they have got money, and we get all the way through to I'm in a full-time role, I can't let my salary go. And I'm having to do this course around being in full-time, and and and that's much more stressful because you haven't got as much time and you haven't got as much um you haven't got breathing state, have you? Safety, yeah, so it's much harder. So there's quite a few people who will have a good think about that and think, actually, with my current employer, can I sell them that I go to three days? Do they need less of me really? Because I make it so they need less of me. I free up the time that way. I've got this part security of having a three-day job, and I've also got this ability, if I agree it with them, to be able to build in the background. And I've seen a lot of people do it that way, and it really takes the pressure off. So it's different horses for courses, but there's there's usually a way.

SPEAKER_01 43:20

Yeah, brilliant. So, how can people contact you and find you if they're an FD? How can they learn more about becoming a member of um Wayne Right Consulting?

SPEAKER_00 43:31

Well, because we're just in Yorkshire, it's not always possible to join us as one of our FDs. Definitely welcome conversations on that. But um, what I can help people with, um anybody in the UK, is um if they wanted to do our power-up programme and get them, you know, get that knowledge around the blueprint to get the client working as quickly as possible. That is a cohort course run three times a year, and it's essentially part uh learning online at your own pace, but within bands. So we we we don't need you to do it on Tuesday at eight o'clock, but we need you to do a certain piece of learning in a week because a few weeks later we'll all catch up again as a cohort and go through things and it keeps people moving forward and accountable. Um so you can find out more about that at our website, it's wainwrightconsulting.co.uk. I'm on LinkedIn a lot, so it'd be brilliant to connect there. Um, and what I do have if people want to drop me a message on there if they're interested, I have a series of um three free webinars which really help you work out if it's even the right path for you. So it's like, what's a day in the in the life of like? You know, um what does it actually entail? Am I gonna actually like it? Yeah, and it's a bit about is it for you in terms of the things you need to do? And those things around kind of developing um business, etc. And then there's a one that's about well, do I want to go solo or would I prefer this route if I went through a collective? So it's just a bit of an intro into us and how we advise and uh lots of free advice if people want to take a look at that.

SPEAKER_01 44:58

Brilliant, lovely. We'll put all the links in the show notes. And if you want to send us through the AI firm um course as well, the government runs that session as well. Thank you so much for joining me.

SPEAKER_00 45:08

It's a pleasure, as always. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01 45:12

Thank you for listening to another episode of the Work It Like a Mum podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe. And don't forget to share the link with a friend. If you're on LinkedIn, please send me a connection request at Elizabeth Willett and let me know your thoughts on this week's episode. You can also follow my recruitment site, Investing in Women, on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. Until next time, keep on chasing your biggest dreams.