#awinewith Candice Burningham
MEET Candice
Candice is the Founder of Admin Avenues.
Find Candice here:
Admin Avenues website and on Instagram @adminavenues.
Transcript
Danielle Lewis (00:09):
Oh my God, I'm so excited. Candice, thank you for being here on the Spark Podcast. It is such an honor to have you and we're having a wine. I'm so excited. Cheers.
Candice Burningham (00:21):
Cheers. Thank you for having me.
Danielle Lewis (00:23):
Oh my gosh, absolutely. Anytime. I just forgot that it was bad after Cheersing, even after virtual. So good. So let's tell everyone about your backstory. Let's start from the start. So your business is admin avenues, but I want to take a step back first and give everyone the context on how you got here. Was there a career, first, other businesses? How did we get here?
Candice Burningham (00:52):
I was a career executive assistant. I've worked in admin for 20 years. Awesome. But I'm only 28, so I started really, really,
Danielle Lewis (01:04):
I believe you.
Candice Burningham (01:08):
So I'm one of those people that is literally an admin advocate because I did the, from reception all the way through to ea, to a president.
Danielle Lewis (01:20):
So
Candice Burningham (01:21):
I've done every step along the way. I understand every process. I understand how to get to where you are, every political part of it, every type of industry. I've done investment banking, I've done media, I've done design, I've done it all. I've know everyone in the industry. I feel like, yep, I've got a good scope of what this is all about. So I'm a huge advocate for the admin industry. So I started being a naughty kid in high school with zero idea of what I wanted to do. And so I was just kind of like, oh, well, I'll travel and figure it out. And obviously I needed money to travel. So I was like, well, what can I do? And I thought I could do reception, I can answer phones, I can do that. And so I got my first job in an architectural firm in Brisbane. Nice. And I was so chuffed. I was like, eyes am here. I've made it. I'm wearing heels. And they click when I walk, I've made it. That
Danielle Lewis (02:20):
Is the dream. Yes,
Candice Burningham (02:23):
I'm looking good in my back. Then there was no surprise. So there was, I think warehouse for fashion, which was like hide nylon clothes. You thought business people and what you could afford, and you're like,
Danielle Lewis (02:39):
Oh my God, I'm bringing back memories here.
Candice Burningham (02:42):
So that was my first gig. And then within three months they office manager left and they were like, do you want to take over that role? And I was like, sure. Fake team make it. Let's see.
Danielle Lewis (02:54):
Absolutely. Yes, absolutely I would.
Candice Burningham (02:58):
So I did that and then my bosses were like, oh, well do you mind taking on our diaries as well? And I was like This, they think that I can do
Danielle Lewis (03:08):
This. I think that I know what I'm doing. This is fabulous. And
Candice Burningham (03:11):
Then so I took on their diaries and I'm like, well, basically a pa now I'm office manager and I'm looking after the director's diary.
Danielle Lewis (03:19):
Wow,
Candice Burningham (03:20):
It's a good four meetings a week, so I
Danielle Lewis (03:24):
Bit z.
Candice Burningham (03:27):
So then I went traveling and again, didn't know what I could do apart from admin. So I just said, okay, I'll apply for admin jobs. And I got a job in Karda, which is one of the biggest fashion houses in Europe.
Danielle Lewis (03:40):
Wow, cool. And I was super
Candice Burningham (03:42):
Chuffed. I was like, they picked me again. Oh
Danielle Lewis (03:46):
My God, yes. And I
Candice Burningham (03:47):
Earned 16,000 pounds a year.
Danielle Lewis (03:51):
Killing it.
Candice Burningham (03:53):
Killing it. I think I could afford rent and two cans of beans. But I loved it. And I was just like, oh, this is so fun. I met so many fun people and I got to go to fashion shoots and launch parties and I was just like, wow, this is really
Danielle Lewis (04:09):
Cool. That's cool.
Candice Burningham (04:11):
And then when I came back to Australia, I was just like, well, I still dunno what I want to do. I'll just continue in with admin. Never thinking it was a career. I always just thought, oh, this is what you do till you find what you want to do.
Danielle Lewis (04:24):
Yeah, okay.
Candice Burningham (04:25):
And so I was like, okay, did that. And then I eventually landed in Sydney for an investment bank called Morgan Stanley, and I was their receptionist, and I was just like, I could see what everyone's doing here and I understand it and I think I can do this. And I was just like, yeah, I'm ready to step it up a bit. So the next role I took was a bit more senior, and then they just hired a COO and he was chief operating officer in case someone doesn't know, and he needed an ea and I was internal. So the right thing to do is to look at internal first. And he interviewed me and he's like, do you think that you can jump to C-suite level? And I'm like, yeah, I do. I really do. I think I'm that good.
Danielle Lewis (05:15):
That actually amazing.
Candice Burningham (05:20):
And we ended up working together through three companies and we still the best of mates.
Danielle Lewis (05:27):
Oh my God, that's awesome.
Candice Burningham (05:28):
The man that took a chance on me, his name's David Hampton, uncle Dave. He ended up being my pseudo uncle in Sydney because then I'd get a flat tire. I'd ring Uncle Dave and be like, what?
Danielle Lewis (05:42):
Save me. He
Candice Burningham (05:45):
Gave me my portal into c-suite, EA world, and I just knew this was me. This was my career. I felt important, felt like I knew everything. I felt like I could give back to the exec team. I felt like, no, I should be in this room because I'm able to tell you what you are all doing. I'm going to put together all of this for you. I'm going to help make your life so much easier. Totally. I was like, this is going to be my career.
Danielle Lewis (06:16):
Wow, that's so cool.
Candice Burningham (06:18):
Yeah. So then I did many years of being an ea. I worked for the head of Channel nine, the head of sbs, a world renowned interior designer slash author slash TV personality, Kelly Hopin in the uk. The uk. I worked for the president of News and the UK for NBCUniversal, who is now the CEO of BBC News. So I've worked with some big hitter people and I always kind of felt like, okay, once you've hit this level, where do you go?
Danielle Lewis (06:52):
That's interesting.
Candice Burningham (06:53):
So I kind of was thinking, I want to do something in admin, but I wasn't sure what. So I was like, oh. So then Covid obviously happened. I was like, I'm going to go home, have a think about it and take four months out, going to see everyone turn 40 and then head on back to London. And then two weeks in quarantine hotel, I was looking at temp jobs. I was like, when everyone's at work, what am I going to do? I was like, I'll just do a bit of temping and top up at my spendings instead of savings. And I was just like, where are all the jobs then? So I kind of spoke to my friends in admin, spoke to recruiters, and they were like, oh yeah, it's too expensive to put job ads out now. So we just kind of put some out here or we put them on our job board or we do this. And I'm like, what about us? Where do we go? That's just how we do it. And I'm like, we're the biggest industry ever name a business that doesn't have admin.
Danielle Lewis (07:58):
Yeah. Wow.
Candice Burningham (07:59):
And so I was just like, where is our place? And so I was like it, I'm going to build something. So idea for Admin Avenues was born from quarantine. I think
Danielle Lewis (08:11):
There were a lot of good ideas came out of quarantine. I think
Candice Burningham (08:15):
There was plenty of time to think,
Danielle Lewis (08:17):
Yeah, well that's it. I think it's the first time we as business owners or professionals or whatever actually took a minute to think
Candice Burningham (08:26):
And also just be like, well, where are there gaps in the market? Because the world changed after Covid taking everything online. And I remember one of my bosses would talk about being in the cloud, and I'm like, no. Well on the cloud, the systems are on the cloud, so how do we get in the cloud? I'm own not doing. You're like,
Danielle Lewis (08:47):
If you are not in a cloud right now, you are too late.
Candice Burningham (08:51):
Not. So it kind of just organically happened, the idea. And then when I did the research, I saw that there was a need for it, and then I started talking with web developers and then I was like, all right, I think I'm going to do this. And I said, mapped it all out and just went, yep, this is happening. And we built the MVP that went live on Friday the 6th of May, which was Admin Professionals day.
Danielle Lewis (09:26):
Oh my God. Could not have planned it better.
Candice Burningham (09:29):
So it was really, I just felt so chuffed and so proud to be able to go out to the world and say, not only are we going to create a place for you, but we're also going to create a place that lets you know that admin is a career.
Danielle Lewis (09:46):
This is
Candice Burningham (09:47):
All the way through. This is from your teens to your, whenever you want to kick it, you pick that this is a place for you. You can earn serious money. You have serious power in these roles. You travel all over the world in some of these companies. It's awesome. And it should be a selection as a career when you're doing career days and things like that. They should be having administration as a career option, but they don't.
Danielle Lewis (10:16):
Yeah, you are exactly right. As you explain it, I'm like, obviously, right? I even think of my partner has an EA and I'm like, it would be so hard working for you how organized and how you've got to know basically everything he knows, but be able to translate that and support him and manage calendars and do everything and be at their beck and call. I'm like, this is not an easy job. Why do people not think that this is actually huge?
Candice Burningham (10:47):
And it's been a slow burner for people to actually understand what an executive assistant does, because historically, of course, it's been the sexy secretary, mad Men, tight outfits, pen in the boobies and they got coffee or things like that. But they were never considered actual business strategists. They were never privy to team meetings. It was always when they came out, you were given the information you had to
(11:16):
What the rest was. Whereas for me personally, in my career, I didn't wait to be asked, would you like to join? I was like, I will be sitting at that table. I will be taking notes and I will be telling you what will come out of it. Because one, I had the confidence to, but two is because I knew that I could make that better. And that's my skillset. That's what I'm really good at, is being able to read people, being able to see, okay, that works with that. The timeline with that will be that, but he's actually going over the LA screening, so he'll be out for two weeks. We need to, and they're having a baby, so they're not be able to work on this project. This is all going through your mind. You are privy to everything and everyone else there focuses on one.
Danielle Lewis (12:00):
Yes.
Candice Burningham (12:01):
So having your, or having admins in the room able to do all of that thinking for you and mapping it out and saying, actually you think it's this is what it is, and here's a project timeline. This is who can work on it. This is just blows people's mind. Just like, how did you do that? And it's like, that's what we do. We see the world differently to you. We hear differently to you.
Danielle Lewis (12:27):
Yeah. Well, it's so interesting that you say that in terms of everyone in the room thinks about themselves and has that singular focus, what's on my agenda? What am I going to do? How am I progressing in my career? But you as the admin have to do that for everybody and piece the puzzle together.
Candice Burningham (12:44):
And then the second part of that is then having a meeting with the admins. So they've funneled down the information to them so that we're all on the same page because most of us have a priority executive, but there may be, I may not know they're actually going to be a way for this or they're going to be doing this, or So who's going to step up in their team to cover this? It's a real business partner strategy role
Danielle Lewis (13:11):
Admins
Candice Burningham (13:11):
Do not get the respect that they deserve. And so hopefully through admin avenues, through educating, through going around to corporations and doing talks on what an actual admin does for their corporation, we're going to start educating people about the role of an admin, but also the value of an admin and start looking at those salaries.
Danielle Lewis (13:33):
Yeah, totally. Well, I mean, I spoke to you a little while ago, and I think admins can actually make really decent money.
Candice Burningham (13:41):
They can make very decent money, they can make very decent money, decent money. S 10, which is a recruitment company in Sydney, released a salary survey, which is a guide that shows you, they interviewed thousands of admins and they were able to populate where you should be at and where things are at your industry. And so you can use that and go into your mid year review or whatever your review is and go, Hey, this is industry standard. This is where I am, or this is where I want to be. And then be able to work with your executive around that. There's certain industries where if you're not at that C-suite level, they're like, well, there's seven lined up behind you. If you want to work for the music industry or you want to work for fashion.
Danielle Lewis (14:31):
Oh yeah,
Candice Burningham (14:33):
They know that there's 50 people lined up at the door ready to take $60,000 salary.
Danielle Lewis (14:38):
That sucks
Candice Burningham (14:39):
Because it's a great experience, it's great exposure. It's great to have a new cv, but it's kind of like you kind of do it when you are young and get the okay, tick, they did that and then you can move up through it. But yeah, I'm really, really happy with what we're doing with admin and news. I really hope that we can get so many more people interested in the admin industry, get 'em to buy in and be like, you know what? These people are really, really critical to our businesses. Everyone's business, doesn't matter what industry you're in, but I just, yeah, at the moment it's just in Australia. So this is my focus. And then who knows where we'll go.
Danielle Lewis (15:24):
That's so cool. So tell me then how you went, because it's really interesting. So as you're talking about being the admin, so you think about that, that's a career, but it's like you've gotten all of this insight into the business world anyway before you actually started a business, which feels super cool. How did you go from being, I guess, an employee to a business owner? What was that shift like for you?
Candice Burningham (15:49):
I think you're always exposed to business, especially at c-suite level. You are part of budget planning, you're part of strategy. You're part of, especially, for instance, my last job with Kelly Hopin, who she owns her own business outright a hundred percent. So everything in her business was my business. So she's one person and she's an author TV interior design. Her stars has products. So designing product lines was on QV, ct, V selling stuff that there's only one of her. So guess who I had to be
Danielle Lewis (16:31):
Files
Candice Burningham (16:32):
People. So while she could do this, I had to do this. And by doing that, I had to be involved in every single part of her business. I had to see every negotiation. I had to talk with the lawyers. I had to be in everything so that she could focus on what was making her money and the business
Danielle Lewis (16:50):
Money.
Candice Burningham (16:51):
And she's a creative as well, so she doesn't want to deal with that. She's like, that's your job. My job is to make amazing products and houses and whatnot. But she trusted me implicitly to be like, you've got this, you just let me know what I need to do. So she was happy for me to sit with her accountants, her lawyers negotiate with people who want to do collaborations, things like that, where she was just like, I implicitly trust you to be able to tell me how to do what we're doing next steps. If there was a delay in marble being sent and all sorts of things. All of that had to be pushed into a project timeline. So it was like, okay, we need to push back the launch. Everything had a knock on effect.
Danielle Lewis (17:37):
So
Candice Burningham (17:37):
It was kind of my training to be like, shit, this is really what business is about. You have to constantly pivot. You are working with PR for a launch date. Covid happened. It blew up everything. All the design shows were canceled. Shanghai Design, Shanghai, the biggest design show in the world. She was meant to be keynote speaker. We had to make it online, had to all these things that are tangible things that you want to see touch, and it all had to go online. So everyone, all of us just had to be like, right, how are we going to make this work?
Danielle Lewis (18:11):
Yeah, wow. You all suddenly have to know how to do business differently.
Candice Burningham (18:16):
Yeah. It was like all these designers that need to touch fabrics that need to see it in a certain light that need to, this is critical stuff and huge money invested.
Danielle Lewis (18:31):
We
Candice Burningham (18:31):
Had to send them in Ubers home to people. The country locked properly locked down. So I was at the office, I live next door and I could send them deliveries of stuff, but I was just like, okay, this is what business is. It was my first kind of, all right, this is how you have to be able to pivot in business.
Danielle Lewis (18:52):
This is so true.
Candice Burningham (18:54):
So it really was teamwork in getting through that period. And Kelly wrote this lovely post on LinkedIn and tagged myself and the office director in on that and just saying, I couldn't have got through this without these guys. And I was, kudos to you for actually publicly recognizing that it was difficult, and without these people who work in admin, we wouldn't have been able to get through it. So I take my hat off to her for recognizing it, and also I take her hat off for trusting me and being able to be like, you've got this. And me being able to be like I do.
Danielle Lewis (19:34):
Yeah. Have you always had this confidence? Where did this confidence come from?
Candice Burningham (19:39):
I think the career journey.
Danielle Lewis (19:42):
You've
Candice Burningham (19:43):
Gone from here to here and you're like, I've got this. I'm really good at this. It's not many things that I'm very good at, and that's not putting myself down. That's just like, I'm not a good singer. I'm not a good dancer. I can't cook to save my life, but I'm really organized and I can whip up things like you wouldn't believe. I have contacts that you wouldn't believe. I can make chairs appear at restaurants that aren't there. I can make show people
Danielle Lewis (20:10):
Really well, I need to get in on something.
Candice Burningham (20:13):
Exactly. So that's my skillset and that's my confidence of knowing, yep, I've earned those contacts. I've done the favors back, we've all worked together, we do this, we do that. But also by proving my worth time and time again with these business owners or executives and them being like, great roll with it. Them saying to me, yep, got it is me, was me being able to be like, I do actually have this. I'm good at this. And then teaching people. So if people wanted to be mentored, I would teach them what I would do and people would laugh at me because I had colored coded this and I have Monday to Friday in my pigeonhole, which is because in my roles, if I got hit by a bus, that was an issue. So I had to have everything in Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday that if I got hit by a bus, someone else could take it.
Danielle Lewis (21:06):
Someone else
Candice Burningham (21:06):
Could just pick up and roll with my job because that's kind of where it's at. It's not like you can't just say, oh, sorry, I'm sick. It doesn't work like that at my level.
Danielle Lewis (21:18):
Wow. And look, you think about that as a business owner, that's the exact same thing. So when you are EA to a president of a bloody global international company, you do what you are dealing with is so important. If it is not done well, you'll get booted pretty quickly. But you're right, you can't take a day off. And I feel like that's kind of similar to the business owner space. You
Candice Burningham (21:46):
Totally,
Danielle Lewis (21:47):
You are like, well, if I'm not doing it, who is doing it? And yes, at some point we all have massive teams and help and blah, blah, blah, but not at the start. At the
Candice Burningham (21:55):
Start. It's all you. Yep. Everything is me, myself and I, we're a great team. One of us falls over, we all fall over. Yes.
Danielle Lewis (22:05):
Oh my God, that's such a good analogy.
Candice Burningham (22:09):
But I think that's what has helped me in business is being so incredibly organized, so structured. If I was to fall over who could pick up on this? If I had to do this, how would I do that? You are already thinking and planning for your plan, A, B, C, D. So I think that it set me up ready to be an entrepreneur, and I always knew I would have my own business. I thought I'd be a VA or something like that, which I do have another business that is, it's like a VA business. It's called the executive support, but it's very, very flexible. So bosses that went on to be on board levels, boards,
Danielle Lewis (22:55):
Yes,
Candice Burningham (22:56):
Board levels, boards. They don't need a full-time ea, but they still need someone to do their board packs, book their flights, book their dinner, make sure that they can meet Mike in town and that they've got somewhere to work if they fly in early or if they're delayed or anything like that, that they can just have someone who can handle that for them, but then they don't need you for the rest of the month. So it's having that kind of flexible support at that high level where they already trust you. You've already built that rapport. They know who you've worked for, so you've got the street cred. They can immediately trust you with their credit card details and things like that. So it is a very high level VA support, I guess. So
Danielle Lewis (23:43):
That's two completely different businesses. So being there for that kind of board level person, managing multiple of those. And then you've got this admin avenues, which is tech platform, marketplace acquiring customers. Yeah, that's really interesting. You would have to put on so many different hats. And I mean as business owners, we always put on different hats. How have you found the tech side of things? What was that like? Building a platform?
Candice Burningham (24:13):
I, I do not pretend to be tech. Great. I'm tech good. And I always had that ability when your parents' TV wouldn't work or the wifi wouldn't work, I could fix it. I was that kind of good, but I couldn't go into the backend and fix or code or anything like that. So working in a platform that actually needed to be built and had coding. I had a web developer, and at the time I had him to myself and it was amazing. So he was working solely on my product, but then he took a full-time job with the guy who actually introduced me to him. So I can't even be angry. Oh
Danielle Lewis (24:56):
No, that's h hilarious.
Candice Burningham (24:57):
He got me to launch stage. So he was just amazing. I would write him emails at two in the morning being like, ah, I'm freaking out. Why isn't this done? This isn't working. And he would just be like, Janice, it's fine. You just didn't put this in and you didn't log in in your admin one. You need to. And I'd just, okay, thank you. Thank you. Because to me, this is everything. I've put all my savings into this. There's no investor, there's no person behind the scenes. It's just me.
Danielle Lewis (25:29):
So I would
Candice Burningham (25:29):
Have these flip out attacks and he would be like, we're good, Matt. Thank you. Love you. You're when I get rich one day, we all
Danielle Lewis (25:40):
Have people everywhere.
Candice Burningham (25:41):
It would never be forgotten. And then when he couldn't take on my work after launch, he introduced me to another company that I could then work with to keep it going, but I needed someone to actually build it.
Danielle Lewis (25:58):
So
Candice Burningham (25:58):
He's just such a star. Such a star. Yeah. But I can do a bit here and there, but I can't pretend to be a tech expert. So when someone says, why don't you do a podcast in tech, women in tech, I'm like, I'm not a woman in tech. I'm a woman that owns tech.
Danielle Lewis (26:19):
That's hilarious. But it's so interesting though. I mean, I'm a non-tech person as well, and we built a software platform and I'm like, I did the sales bit. I went out and told people how amazing it was and then hoped that the developers would build it on time. So I totally resonate with that because
Candice Burningham (26:38):
You've project managed that.
Danielle Lewis (26:39):
Totally. Yeah. But I think it's a good lesson. You don't have to be a person in tech. You don't have to be a coder to be able to build a tech platform and bring something to market.
Candice Burningham (26:50):
Exactly. Exactly. And there's always help.
Danielle Lewis (26:55):
Yes. And I love how you said you project managed it. I'm like, you're right. Because you have the vision, you have the features, what value it needs to provide to the customer, and your ability to clearly communicate that to a tech developer is the make or break. I think
Candice Burningham (27:13):
It really is. My brother works for Microsoft, and his skill is that he speaks code and speaks customer
Danielle Lewis (27:22):
So
Candice Burningham (27:22):
He can talk to tech people how things need to be mapped out. And then he can talk to me and be like, this is what it is. This is the journey. This is what needs to happen to do that. And I'm just like, thank God for people like you.
Danielle Lewis (27:37):
I know. It is so true, isn't it? So whatever, airy fairy and very and too nice and
Candice Burningham (27:48):
Nice. And when you're dealing in tech, you need to be very specific. Oh my God, an arrow goes to there. You can't just be like, oh, the arrow will has to go to the site. Well, no, you have to say, it goes
Danielle Lewis (28:00):
Right there. And then when you click on it, it has to go right there.
Candice Burningham (28:04):
Yeah, exactly.
Danielle Lewis (28:07):
That's the best level.
(28:09):
So true. But I think too, it's yet another hat we wear as business owners, depending on the type of business you want, you kind of have to learn a few skills that you might not particularly have picked up. I mean, I love your admin experience because you've been able to be in the room with so many different people, pick up so many different skills. But I love that tech's completely new. But you have to have the discipline to just get it and really take the time to understand what you're trying to do and how you can best communicate it with people.
Candice Burningham (28:43):
Yeah, that's exactly right. And know your strengths. Don't try and be it all. Don't try and do it all. You need to hone in on what you are good at, and then trust the process that people that are experts in what they're doing, it's like you meeting you, I was like, I can't do what you do. I needed your help to guide me through to what I couldn't do myself. I was just like, I can't do it. I can't get to it. I have done it seven ways around and I can't get to the answer. And you were like here. And sometimes it just takes someone who's got those eyes that can be like, here it is. You have it. You just needed to put it out like this.
Danielle Lewis (29:22):
Yeah. Well, I appreciate you. Thank you. But it's so true because the interesting thing I think is that no one's inventing something super brand new. We can leverage all of these different information, all of these different experts. If you want to do something today, there's probably someone out there that can shortcut your success. And it doesn't have to cost a lot of money. You don't have to spend $10,000 on a consultant. There's probably a YouTube video that you can go to first and work your way up to
Candice Burningham (29:54):
That. And if not, we're both members of one roof and the amount of people that you can use as resources in there, you can just even do a call out on their Facebook group or in their LinkedIn or anywhere you want to do it and be like, Hey, guys need help with X. And about five people who are industry leaders in there will be like, yep, what do you need? Having those kind of communities and having that kind of help where people don't even want anything from it. So if I can just get you from here to here. There you go. And it makes life so much easier when you don't feel like you're doing it alone.
Danielle Lewis (30:34):
Oh, totally.
Candice Burningham (30:36):
Even though you're a sole business owner, you are doing it alone. You
Danielle Lewis (30:39):
Feel, and you haven't left your home office in three weeks. Yep.
Candice Burningham (30:43):
You've got the dirty hair, Manny, tell,
Danielle Lewis (30:48):
Yes. I finally washed my hair today. It was a big milestone. Well,
Candice Burningham (30:51):
Don't you to you.
Danielle Lewis (30:52):
Thank you. I appreciate that. You've got to celebrate the small wins.
Candice Burningham (30:56):
Exactly, exactly.
Danielle Lewis (30:58):
Exactly. Oh my God. It's so true though. It always surprises me how much people, A, don't ask for help and they spin their wheels and get overwhelmed and frustrated, but B, how much people are willing to help for nothing. Just to be like, now, look, I've done this before. I'm willing just to answer questions, whatever, to help you along your journey.
Candice Burningham (31:21):
I mean, for instance, I found you from watching a masterclass.
Danielle Lewis (31:25):
Oh yeah, that's right. I did a free sales masterclass in one roof.
Candice Burningham (31:29):
Yeah, that's what I did. I was like, I'm struggling with this. I'm going to watch this masterclass. And from that, I was able to connect with you. Having that ability to be able to do that in business is critical because we don't know where to go. This isn't our area. We are not in business with all these people. I've spent my career being invisible, and now I have to be right in front of the camera and being like, hi, I'm an expert in this. It doesn't feel natural to me. So having people that are like, no, no, no, you need to do this
Danielle Lewis (32:02):
Forward, amazing, and do this
Candice Burningham (32:04):
Come forward. And you just slowly there and then you're sitting along with peers and you're like, this is good. These are great people, and I feel like I belong at this table too.
Danielle Lewis (32:17):
Well, I love it too, because it kind of goes back to your career experience where you are like, oh, I'm not really sure I'll do this. Oh, I'm really good at this. Oh, now I've made an awesome career out of it. I kind of feel like that's the business owner journey too. It's like, I don't really know what I'm doing. I've got this idea, find some people and then all of a sudden you go, oh yeah, I'm
Candice Burningham (32:39):
Exactly. And it almost needs someone to be like, yeah, we want you, need you there. And you're like, yeah, that's right. I'm awesome. That's right. I have the answers, but it's predominantly a women's issue where we go, oh, I'll wait until I'm asked. And it's like, no, no, no, no, no. Absolutely not. Pop on in there. Sit on down, talk to everyone. Be part of the community. Don't wait to be asked. Otherwise, you'll be sitting on that bus stop for a very long time. That bus doesn't come.
Danielle Lewis (33:10):
No, that's it. The bus won't arrive to you. I love this so much. So let's leave the people with one last piece of advice. So if anyone was tuning in, female founder, and they were, or maybe they weren't female founder yet they were in a job and they have an idea and they're kind of struggling to take the leap. Do you have any advice for them?
Candice Burningham (33:35):
My advice is do your research because we all get overexcited with an idea. And you're like, your best friends have told you that it's a great idea. And of course they're going to say that, and your mom thinks you're great and your grandma thinks you're even better. But the fact is, if you're about to jump into something that's going to have a huge financial commitment, do your research, make sure that there's actually a market for it, that you're solving a problem or filling a gap, but also that you're financially able to take the leap because it's a huge burden. It's a huge, huge burden. And you may think, oh, I'm just putting up a website that doesn't cost a lot, or just doing this just just us not, it all adds up. And then it's just the website, it's just marketing. It's just working out the sales.
(34:22):
It's just getting the customer. You are pimping yourself out every which way possible, and there's only one of you. So make sure you know what you're doing. You've done the market research so you know what you're filling the gap for or that you're solving a problem. And make sure you have the financial backing to be able to support yourself during this journey. Otherwise it's really, really stressful. And have a support crew. Have people that are going to hold you accountable for one, not just be like, yeah, you. They're going to be like, well, where are you at with that? Why haven't you done that? Why haven't I gave you this contact for this? Why haven't you contacted them? Have those real people that are going to hold you accountable. But then also let your grandma and your mom tell you where amazing and pat your head and
Danielle Lewis (35:09):
Everything will be okay. I'll top up your wine.
Candice Burningham (35:12):
That's exactly right. And if you drink half the wine, have a glass at the end of the day, don't feel bad. It's okay. It's stressful. This journey. It's very, very stressful, but just know you are not doing it alone. If you ever need a community, there's so many amazing people out there that are willing to help, but just do what you can to minimize what's going to be a burden on your shoulders. That's all. Otherwise, why not? Take your shot. Take your shot. What's the worst that can happen?
Danielle Lewis (35:43):
Oh my God, I love that so much. And I agree with everything that you said. It is so important to make sure that someone's actually going to buy your thing. It's so important to, to take the pressure off by making sure you've got the financial backing and the support crew. Now. It's never been a better time to find people who have got your back and are on your side and can help make things happen for you faster. Like they are everywhere. You are absolutely incredible. Candace,
Candice Burningham (36:12):
You're absolutely incredible.
Danielle Lewis (36:16):
Thank you so much for
Candice Burningham (36:17):
Being here.
Danielle Lewis (36:18):
You're so good.
Candice Burningham (36:21):
It's so good to be able to connect and be able to hopefully help others that are on this journey and be able to say, Hey, if she did it, I can do it. Because that's how it should look. It should be like, Hey, she was a receptionist and now she owns two businesses. Why can't you do it? Why can't you get involved? Listen to people who have done it and get involved. Just go for it's, do your research, but go for it. Chase it. Get involved. We need more people that are excited about business.
Danielle Lewis (36:52):
Mike, mic drop. You are amazing.
