Episode 506: Phoebe Simmonds of the memo
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Fiona Killackey: Hello and welcome to episode 506 of the My Daily Business Podcast. Today it's an interview episode and I'm thrilled to be speaking to somebody who has built not just one, but multiple successful businesses here in Australia, and they're going global as well. Before we dive in, I want to of course, acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians on the lands on which I meet.
These fabulous people and for me, that is the [00:02:00] Wang and RI people of the KU nation, and I pay my respects to their elders past and present and acknowledge that sovereignty has never been seeded. I also wanna let you know that marketing for your small business, my signature course, all about the key elements of marketing so you can be strategic rather than scatter gun is going to be having its course and coaching program.
Happening in May. So the course is always available just at marketing for your small business.com. However, twice a year we offer a live coaching component. So that is nine weeks live coaching with myself. So you do the module, you turn up, we talk about the module, and you get that one-on-one Really helpful advice as well as advice from everyone else who's in that group.
In that particular cohort, so that is happening in May. If you'd like to be part of that, you can go on over to marketing for your small business and choose the course and coaching option. If you already own the course, look out for an email where you can upgrade for a very small and affordable fee.
Alright, let's get [00:03:00] into today's interview episode.
Today I'm talking to an incredible co-founder of one of the businesses that is really shaking up its industry. Now I have to do a shout out for one of my beautiful clients, Sophie, from Australian Birth Stories, who recommended today's guest. So who is it? It is Phoebe Simmons, who is the co-founder of the Memo.
And as I said, it's become a really. Different type of business offering in an industry that has been kind of stale and stagnant for so long and it's really become Australia's go-to destination for parents. It is often called the net porter of the baby industry, and it's really revolutionized, I guess, the parenting retail space with a curated selection of products, very cool and sophisticated, and standing out branding.
And a hugely community focused approach, and we talk about that a lot in today's podcast. I think what makes Phoebe's journey, I guess, particularly [00:04:00] fascinating is that she co-founded this parenting business, and now it's kind of becoming this parenting empire with Kate Casey in 2019. And Kate had. A child, I think one at the time.
But Phoebe was single with no children, and since then, she has become a stepmom to her partner son, and welcomed her own child. Congratulations while growing the memo from an online only presence to one that now has multiple stores across Australia. The other thing that is really interesting about Phoebe is that this is not her first entrepreneurial venture.
She previously founded The Blow, which is a hair salon, and she's also sold that. Now she has worked with huge beauty and global brands, and she took all of that. Into what she has created with Kate with the memo and also their more recent business due. So we talk about all of these. We talk about why they focus on parents rather than babies, why they decided to go [00:05:00] into physical retail, what that has meant in today's climate, what offering or advice they would give to other people right now who may be listening to this, who are retailers themselves, and really, really feeling the pinch of what's happening and the uncertainty in the economy.
Yeah, there was so much in today's chat, and I just wanna say a massive thank you for Phoebe and all she shares. So here it is, my interview with Phoebe Simmons of the memo.
Welcome to the podcast, Phoebe. Thanks, Fiona. It's so nice to be here. Oh, I'm excited to get into this. I always like to start by asking people, how do you feel about life right now in this moment? That is such a good question. I will say great, but there's about 10,000 little nuances underneath the surface.
Oh, feel like there always is with like everyone's sort of a duck on water. What are they call like? You know? Yeah. There's always things going on behind the scenes, even if you're relaxed and on holidays, there's still a million things when you're a business owner. Oh yeah. [00:06:00] Speaking of a lot of people listening will see your name and be like, oh my God.
She's the founder of The Blow and she's the co-founder alongside Kate Casey with the memo. You started those businesses? From what I've looked at, and tell me if I'm wrong, around the end of, you know, the early teens of the twenties, so 2018, was that right? For the blow? Yeah. In 2019 for the memo. Why did you start them?
Did you come from a background of business? Do you come from a hair, beauty background? Why did you, and when did you start that stuff? Well, I'm an opportunist, so my background is in brand and marketing, and I was in cosmetics my whole life. So when I was at school, I worked at the Body shop and at uni, and then I went and worked at Mecca while I was at uni, and then I moved over to London and was with a skincare brand called Nude, which was acquired by LVMH.
And then moved to Singapore with Benefit Cosmetics, which is part of LVMH, and then ended up in Sydney as the marketing director for Benefit Cosmetics Australia. So beauty [00:07:00] has always been in my journey and it is a real passion of mine. I love that industry. And I started the blow because I was seeing obviously, the big success that Benefit had had with brow bars and making fast and effortless brow appointments really ubiquitous and convenient for um, women.
All over the world, and I had seen how this had been applied by brands in the US to blow dry when I was spending a lot of time in the US with benefit. And then I thought, gosh, as someone with really hard to manage hair, it would be. Amazing to be able to go to a place in the Sydney CBD, where I was living at the time, to get a fast, effortless, blow dry, a convenient location, a con, really competitive price, a consistent level of service, and to help me, I guess, feel more polished and powerful.
And I was surprised that that model hadn't been. Perfected and I thought the missing ingredient from what I'd [00:08:00] seen in Australia was just that really cool aesthetic and a community feel. And so I ended up finishing my time at Benefit, moving back to Melbourne and starting the blow we had and still do have, but I've since sold the business.
Uh. Blow dry bar in little Collin Street, and it's really a hub. It's a nail on light for women who wanna come in and get a fast and effortless, blow dry feel really, really great and ready to conquer their day with confidence. I guess the consistent thread there into the memo was to create a brand that would really mean something to women.
Mm-hmm. So the memo that Kate and I and our team have created is a parenting retailer. That is very cult really filling a gap in the market that had not been addressed until Kate had the idea. In 2019, the memo was created because we believed that parents deserved better. Traditionally in Australian baby retail, it was big [00:09:00] box.
Customers were very overwhelmed with choice and underwhelmed with service, and Kate had previously worked as a buyer at Mecca and David Jones and May, and when she was on her parental leave, she. Was, yeah, quite disillusioned with the experience that was being offered for parents, and she thought, gosh, why wouldn't there be a retailer that would be able to offer a curated assortment of just the best products with staff that.
Really, really invested and knowledgeable and care and a vibrant and a brand experience that feels elevated and exciting and you wanna be a part of. And so she shared this idea with me about six months into, since the blow had started. We went for a walk. She shared the idea halfway around the tan. I was like, yep, that makes total sense.
Let's do it. But I think what's funny about. That idea for me at the time was I was [00:10:00] single. My friends were only just starting to have kids. I'd never looked at the baby industry before and I was really shocked when I looked at it. I thought it was unsophisticated, it was infantile, and it wasn't really meeting the moment of where consumer's heads were at and what they were seeing in other industries like beauty and fashion and lifestyle and wellness.
And so we applied all of those. Special elements into this brand, and since we launched in 2019, we've been able to create something, as I said, that means something to women that adds value to the parenting experience and is quite disruptive and has shaken things up a bit, which we're really proud of.
Yeah. And so you should be, it's incredible and it looks incredible. It's so different. I've had my, I have a 5-year-old and a 12-year-old and yeah, the whole experience even I had my 12-year-old in London and just that had different baby stuff. But even then you still had had to like catch the train out to some big god awful place that was just, mm-hmm.
[00:11:00] So back in the 1980s and you know, with the whole concept, it sounds amazing, but were you already at full capacity? Like you just launched the blow and then. Did you think, yeah, I can take this on because I've learned all these lessons and I've, I don't know, got connections now with different people that this will be easier or did you just go, I have to be part of this 'cause I can see what a huge mom like moment it'll be for parenting in Australia?
It was the latter. Because I'm not a hairstylist. I wasn't spending 24 7 at the blow. I was creating a community. I was working as the receptionist. I was meeting with influencers. I was posting on social, I was building a brand, but I did have time to be able to invest in the memo and the right headspace.
And I think it was helpful in a way that it wasn't beauty. So it was something different where wires and ideas couldn't. Crossover and yeah, I, I guess. We always [00:12:00] thought that there was a big opportunity for the memo. I don't think we realized how big it could be. And you know, covid happened a couple of months after we launched and you know, we just launched with e-commerce.
So it was really a time where e-commerce, remember that boom around that time. And because we were an essential service, we were able to continue operating and. We invested really heavily in community and connection over that time, at a time where so many parents were feeling isolated, and I think it was kind of the perfect storm for the brand having relevance and really meeting the moment.
So on that, and I'm sort of putting you on the spot here, when did you decide, was it just we have so much demand that we now need to open bricks and mortar stores? Or did you go Well, the people need to have a full experience and especially with your first child, I feel like, like if you have like three children, I feel like the third one just gets whatever.
Whatever you've already bought. Absolutely. But the first one. You go in and you roll all the prams around and you wanna see what a baby seat actually looks like for [00:13:00] the car. And did you just feel like we need to do it, or was it at a point where you thought we need to bring the brand experience even more into people, so we need a bricks and mortar place?
Yeah, bricks and mortar is an important extension of our brand offering. It's never going to be able to support and service. Every single one of our customers around Australia, but there are key locations that we've identified where bricks and mortar makes a lot of sense for our brand. It's where the majority of our customers are, and if you can visit our stores.
We tend to find that there is a real demand for that because exactly as you said, people like to touch and feel. They like to spend time. It's a social event. We have people coming from interstate to come into our Melbourne stores or traveling like eight hours by car from rural New South Wales to get to our Bondi store, and it is.
An event, it is exciting. You could do it in one shop or you could do it over [00:14:00] like multiple, multiple visits as we see, but sometimes, you know, you could go in with your partner, you could go in with your friend, you could go in with your mom and dad who are excited to be grandparents for the first time.
And so because it's so emotional, it's important to create a service that is really exciting and it feels really elevated and joyful, and where all of your questions can be answered. We don't want parents to be Googling rampantly at 3:00 AM trying to figure something out. We wanna make information and products as accessible and clear as possible, um, to help our customers make informed decisions.
And bricks and mortar kind of, I guess, escalates that pretty quickly. Yeah. Speeds that up. Yeah. And so with your latest venture J, which is super smart, and you know, you just look at it, and again, the branding is so, like the visual branding, the voice, the tone, everything is just so spot on. At what point did you go, okay, we, we need [00:15:00] to create something that's our own.
And I'm gonna get into the data in a second, but at what point did that come, or was that always part of the journey from the start? We identified pretty early on the value of private label in terms of being able to control a brand with stock levels, with consistent messaging, and also the margins. Uh, highly helpful when you're running a a retail business.
We had championed the mom category since day one. We believe that it's a key differentiation for the memo versus other baby. Businesses because we speak about ourselves as a parenting brand, a parenting retailer. Whereas you would hear baby retailers, they're diff, they're a bit different to us. We believe it's important to say we're a parenting retailer because our customer is the parent, not the baby.
And we speak to them on their level. Because of that, we saw a really big opportunity and from I guess, Kate's own experience, and then [00:16:00] more and more the the parents, particularly the moms who came to work for us, that the mom category hadn't really been addressed by other retail businesses, and we saw the need for.
Beautiful maternity brass that feel really great, but also look great elevated nappy bags that aren't just only backpacks, self-care and postpartum care that was only previously only found in chemists and as line extensions from, for example, like incontinence brands, there was starting to be carved out.
Products and space and conversations just for mums. We weaved that together by bringing in some of the best brands on the planet that really catered to the mum. But one thing that we identified as missing in our assortment was a brand that could take the customer from trimester one through to two, three, and four with one consistent [00:17:00] brand that could really hold.
The customer's hand threw out, that would always be in stock. That would be available at the memo exclusively and accessible. The accessible price point was really, really key to us. So yeah, we created Due, it's a range of 20 pregnancy, postpartum, and parent and feeding products, and it's there to really stand out, break taboos, and help customers feel really.
Real and prepared and understood about what's gonna happen to their bodies during childbirth, and to provide them with products that will support them and help them feel, feel good. And how did you, I mean this like, and again, just the brand, I mean the way they visually look, I am not in that pregnancy space at all, or you know, very newborn, but I would happily buy some of your stuff.
Just, it looks super cool as well. But how did you narrow it down to just 20? And what did you decide? Did you go through data and be like, this sells really well, or was this just ideas that you had from your community of like, this absolutely is what people need [00:18:00] and I know that you have also become a mom.
You know, in the last few years as well. But yeah. How did you come up with the list and were there things that you left out of the 20 that you were like, ah, I can't wait to develop that at some point? Yeah, exactly. I think that this range is deliberately tight because we just wanted to address the basics and those products that we believe every woman should have in pregnancy, but also packed in her hospital bag and on hand during postpartum at home.
And so yeah, we've got. So much experience from understanding what our customer wants, and we thought it was important just to. Meet those needs. There's products like cesarean care products that we thought was really, really important to include. Cesareans are very, very common in Australia. 33% of women give birth via Cesarean, so it's important that those women and those births were represented.
But we still do see an opportunity to expand our care products [00:19:00] further for those moms. So yeah, there's still, still lots to be. Addressed by due, but we're really happy with how tight and deliberate this range is. Hmm. I love that you brought up the cesarean stuff because I had an emergency crash, one cesarean in the UK where either I'm gonna die or the baby's gonna die, and I'm sorry.
Yeah, it was, I mean, it was full on, but yeah. And then, you know, and then I chose to have an elective cesarean with my second because it took so long and I just didn't want anything to go wrong or anything else. But I love that you have the. Already thinking for other, you know, people. Because when you go into a chemist, and maybe like, I know I had a lot of guilt around having a cesarean the first time.
It was like, oh, I'm not a real woman, or I had all this stuff. It's very common. Yeah. And so then you have to go into a chemist and you have to explain it and you feel this sort of shame, which is ridiculous. But, and this is, you know, 13 years ago and things have slowly changing. But yeah, I think it's brilliant that you've got that four people front and center.
Because like you said, it's a third of people that are going through that in terms of. [00:20:00] The branding and I've mentioned a few times, it looks beautiful and you've got this incredible visual brand that stands out and really completely is so different to everything else that's out there. When you were creating due, did you think this has to be, you know, obviously one of the biggest retailers will be the memo, but did you think this has to always sit with the visual branding and the tone and everything else of what we have grown with the memo, or did you think this can be a standalone brand?
It can be both. It can be. So the due is linked to the memo for the memo's credibility. However, the brand has been created to be global and it needs to be able to stand on shelf anywhere in the world and communicate a very clear point of difference without needing to lean on the memo. And so it was very deliberate that the brand would work beautifully in our store, that it would be on shelf ready so that the customer could really easily identify.
The products and what they could do for them just by reading [00:21:00] the packaging. It's color coded, so really easy to navigate and it's very colorful. It's very bold, and that's deliberate as well, because this, the point of this brand is to break taboos and to bring. These things that happen to women's bodies, into the zeitgeist, into the common vernacular.
We talk about things that aren't too much information to share with your barista. For example, we should be talking about peri burn and nl. And what happens to your body after a cesarean. And so yeah, the, the brand needs to communicate all of that. And one way to do that is through the color and the boldness of the brand.
We deliberately weren't muted. Mm-hmm. And soft. And then obviously all of the other codes kind of flow through from there. And so did you, 'cause of your background, did you, when you're sitting down with Kate to originally talk about the memo, was it you [00:22:00] as the brand strategist, did you bring on other people?
Were you like, no, I'm, you know, I have this background and obviously we're gonna pour as much investment of our own time into this as possible. Yeah. How has that like literally worked from, we have this idea to, let's sit down, let's map it all out. Was that you and Kate doing that? Did you work with agencies?
Did you, yeah. No, no, we did not work with agencies. We were shoestring. We worked with an agency to help us with the logo because I'm not a visual person, but the brand took me an afternoon. Wow. It was very, very clear exactly what kind of voice it should have, how it was just crazy that it hadn't been thought of before because it was so obvious to me that there was a need for a sophisticated, elevated brand.
Like the memo, Kate and I. Hours and hours of strategy. And I had to really lean on her because I was new to this whole category. I had no idea what some of these products that she was 'cause, [00:23:00] 'cause Kate was in charge of everything, kind of business ops, merch, product related, and I did all the brand and marketing.
And yeah, like the kind of one of the light bulb moments for kind of part of that. The brand's personality came when I was asking Kate, 'cause we were launching these bottles. Do you remember Como Tomo bottles? Yes. I, I remember, yes. Yeah. So they're great and I didn't understand why I would need different flow teats on bottles.
Sorry, this is really specific, but basically I just couldn't understand it from all the product copy that I was seeing, you know, on, on links all around the world when I was trying to write. How we would sell that product to our customer with our brand voice. And Kate had to make me a video and literally spell it out step by step.
And I was like, why would I know this? Brands, retailers are assuming that I would understand what this means. So we really speak [00:24:00] about the memo as being all about no assumed knowledge. It's really breaking it down and making it really clear because there is no reason why I would understand what a slow flow nipple Tet is if I'd never been in this industry before.
You know, I think it's easy to explain a mascara versus another mascara because I've been using a mascara for 25 years, whereas. This industry is brand new to every single first time parent. And so that's how we choose to communicate everything. And yeah, so lots of back and forth on that. And then obviously, you know, since we were in a position to add headcount, we were able to lean on more and more experts.
We have an amazing creative director. We have an amazing head of content and head of design who have really. Build this brand and worked really well on. Yeah, everything that we do from store design to collateral to due. Hmm. And so even like [00:25:00] when you were saying Howard, you know, even between babies, like having two different babies and I had a big gap between them, your body changes and so maybe something that worked fine six years ago is actually different now.
Or that they're, they're just, there's new things that you're like, oh, 'cause it's changing all the time. Things are getting better and Yeah. You know, more comfortable, for example, with nipple shields, that's it. Or surprise, surprise, your babies are different, so they need different things. Yeah. Yeah. It's not a one size fits all.
Yeah. So you mentioned that Kate is very much, or you know, when you decided to start out, she was doing operations and you were doing the marketing and has it always been very clear cut and also how did you meet Kate? Where does Kate, like you said, we were walking around the town, but is she just a friend that you've had is like, how do you guys know each other?
We met through business. So when she was at Maya as a buyer, I was at benefit and so I knew her there and through friends, and I think because I'd started the blow, she thought of me to help with the branding [00:26:00] of the memo. And it's very, very clear cut what our roles and responsibilities are, because I definitely could not do what she does.
And I mean, she probably could do what I do, but maybe not as well. We both have our strengths and we really play into them, and yeah, and then, yeah, we've brought in other people to fill in the gaps from there. Have you got any advice for anyone who's listening, who's like about to go into a partnership or thinking, ah, maybe I, maybe I should do that with somebody else and not just do it by myself?
I don't like to give anyone advice, but I think, you know, in your gut, whether it's, I. The right partnership for you. I know that in some business relationships it's helpful where there's crossover of roles because you can really bounce off each other and both give different kind of perspectives. But for our relationship, I think it works really well that we've both got our strengths.
And you know, in my mind, Kate has the much harder part of the business because it's all the [00:27:00] hard stuff that someone like her can. Only solve because she's been so close to it for so long and has that side of the brain. So yeah, it just, it, I think it's really dependent on, on your relationship. Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Thank you. With your, the PR and getting this out here and the marketing and, you know, you're obviously incredibly knowledgeable at that stuff. Is there anything that you think is changing in that space that you are, you know, is it like, okay, yes, we should put more money into, I don't know, podcast advertising, or we should put more money into really understanding the right influences, or, you know, you guys do such a good job of, obviously you've got an incredible brand, incredible products, you've got incredible strategy.
It's also. So many people know about it, it's everywhere. And there's part of that, I imagine that is word of mouth. And of course with moms in particular, I feel like if they find something that's good, they wanna share it with other moms. But is there something in marketing or that you think is working really, really well, or that has worked [00:28:00] incredibly well for the memo and due?
That's a really great question because I don't think we've ever gotten it right. I think I, all I see is opportunities and unmet potential, but I'm really pleased to hear that the brand is resonating, you know, and reverberating around Australia. I believe that. There's lots of things that we do that our competitors do.
You know, those spaces that you just have to play, like, you know, paid performance, for example. But I think the thing that we do that no one else can do. As well as we do because of our brand, because of the way we invest in relationships, because of the way we look at the industry is community influencers, content creators, and experts.
So to use an example of community, it's world breastfeeding week. So what do we do? We don't just try and sell some. Breast pumps and some feeding chairs. What we do is we bring in lactation [00:29:00] consultants into all of our stores, and we invite our customers in to have free consultations. You know, at the same time, we lobby workplaces to create breastfeeding rooms so that more women can return to paid work and feed in comfort and with efficiency.
We always say that we are more than just a retailer. We're about creating a brand that really means something to parents and can add value to their life and joy to that experience, and to arm them with the support and the tools to feel more confident in such an overwhelming time. And so it's with that message that we have.
Worked really hard and invested really hard in creating content that educates and connects and inspires by hosting events that, yeah, really add value. You know, there's, there's just, there's a lot there in that world that I think only we can do with the, [00:30:00] the integrity and the connection that we do.
Mm-hmm. I'm just thinking through all of this. You're so. Obviously you're very intelligent, Phoebe, and you've got like a lot of ideas. And even when you've said, I can see the opportunities and what were you like growing up? Are you from a family of risk takers or business owners? Because even the idea when you said, you know, I could see what they were doing in benefit with the brow bars and I could see what they were doing in the US and I could see a gap.
There's a lot of people that see gaps all the time that don't ever take the risk to actually let's, let's actually open a salon. Let's actually do this. Where do you think that part comes from? Because there's a lot of knowledge that you have, but a lot of people don't take that knowledge and then implement it into a business.
Because of my experience in working all around the world and working with some of the best brands on the planet, I feel well placed to have. I have experience that I think can be [00:31:00] translated into these opportunities. That gives me confidence to back myself. I have very supportive, I have a very supportive family.
I. Yeah, I come from, you know, my dad's a lawyer and business owner, and I think my parents would probably call themselves risk takers. I'm one of three girls and we were always told that we can achieve anything and we can literally do anything. There were no limits on our potential, and I believe that definitely set me up for success.
So, yeah, I mean, I don't know, but I definitely think, you know. It was a really good move for me career-wise to move to London and then move to Singapore for sure, because it just made me, I think, so much more worldly and it gave me access to relationships and experiences that I could have never had in Australia, and I guess it made my [00:32:00] experience a lot more appealing when I came back to Australia.
Mm. Oh, I resonate so much with that. My mom used to always be like, you can do anything you put your mind to. Yeah. And it was like a mantra. And I feel like those conversations from, you know, the people in your life and as a child, it's your parents massively or any guardian. Yeah. Like it, it has such a huge impact on who you then become.
And so what a privilege to have those types of parents to raise very. So in terms of, I know you said I don't really like to give advice, but you are a very successful retailer and there's a lot of retailers I work with a lot of small retailers. A lot of people listen to this podcast and all over the world that have retail, small, little boutique sort of shops at the moment.
There is for many industries, but a lot of smaller retailers are really feeling the pinch at the moment and feeling like, my God, we like, how am I gonna afford my stock for the end of the year? And yeah, same. Yeah. Yeah. Is there anything that you would offer if someone's listening and thinking, well, I'm so far from where she is, you [00:33:00] know, they've got multiple stores, or I'm just trying to keep the lights on right now.
Is this anything that's helped you get through times when they're difficult or anything that has just kept you and Kate going? Yeah, for sure. I totally empathize with that, and I would say that first of all, Instagram is not helpful and comparison culture is not helpful when you're comparing yourselves to, you just shouldn't compare where you are at to other people.
You should only do it as inspiration. I. That's not gonna serve any purpose. You've just gotta do your own thing. My advice would be to take each day by day and not get overwhelmed by where you need to be in a year or two years, or three years. 'cause I can tell you now where we are right now is not where we thought we would be a year ago, let alone the year prior, or five years ago.
So it is day by day, obviously, you've got. A mission and you've got like yearly goals or whatever, but you know, with retail it changes [00:34:00] so much and so yeah, every day is a new day and just keep moving forward. And sometimes stepping away from it is helpful if you're a small business owner as well, which I know is easier said than done, that there's nothing like a walk by yourself at the end of the day to clear your head or a swim or.
Any form of exercise and don't talk about work at night. Yes, a great rule. A great rule, especially when you're a parent. So you know, you are surrounded by it and then you go home and you're like, I don't know, maybe thinking, oh, that could be a good thing or that could be a good idea. So we have a quick fire round, but I'm just gonna ask you questions.
Whatever comes first is the, is the right answer really. So what is your non-negotiable self-care practice? Exercise. And is there one particular type you prefer over another or just anything? No. Any, any. I love yoga with Amy Comedy, I have to do all my exercise at home because I've got young children and I just, I, I just can't do it.
My husband's a [00:35:00] tradie, so he's out really early. Yeah. So I need to carve out time for myself every day. And it has to be kind of first thing before the kids wake up. Yes. I've had a client actually mention her. She, she's just in Alpha War diet. Is that right? Warren Diet? Yeah. She changed my life. Wow. Yeah. I have heard really good things.
So we'll link to Amy in the show notes for this. Alright. Are you an early bird or night owl if you have to get things done? Uh, early bird. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yep. What does success look like to you beyond revenue freedom? Mm. Okay. I love that answer. I completely under like, completely resonate. Do you have anything particularly style wise or anything in your wardrobe that if you have to be like, okay, Phoebe needs to be ultra confident today, you pull it out?
I like to wear a lot of friends with Frank. I don't think it's too fashiony and it kind of lasts for years, but it always looks really professional. It looks very Melbourne, very chic, and you always feel a bit more, bit more [00:36:00] polished. Love that. Okay. What's your favorite way if, and maybe with Kate as well, but what's your favorite way to celebrate a win?
I think it's just really nice to be together with the team and to kind of acknowledge those moments together. Kate and I rarely would sit and have a champagne. I think it'd be nice too, but it's more about everybody else. Hey. Oh, well, sounds like good bosses best piece of advice, or not necessarily the best, but one piece of advice that stayed with you.
So I guess this is not as much advice, but something that I think about a lot. You know that documentary, the Last Dance? Mm-hmm. Um, which is about the Chicago Bulls that season that Yeah. That they won and I think it was Michael Jordan's last year, they were talking about him and they described his mentality is that other basketball players would stand on the three point line and they might think about how am I gonna.
I get this shot. I've never [00:37:00] taken this shot before. This is gonna be a hard shot. What's my technique? How am I gonna approach it? Whereas Michael Jordan would say, or think, why would I think about missing a shot I hadn't taken yet? Mm. So just go for it. Don't overthink it. Like back yourself in and you know, I think that can be applied really well to small business.
And I think it's a really good mantra to not, you know, there's no imposter syndrome there. There's no comparison culture there. It is. Just, am I gonna back myself or not? Mm. Oh, so powerful. My kids, my eldest, my 12-year-old, he's obsessed with basketball and plays in multiple teams. Loved that documentary. I don't know if it was great, like appropriate for his age, but I didn't watch it myself yet.
Bet my husband absolutely loved it. He loved it. Yeah. Watched so much and there's so much, you know, there's good and bad about sport, but I think one of the best parts of sport is how motivational it can be and how many incredible stories there are. One last thing I wanted to ask is, do you [00:38:00] have, or have you ever had business mentorship?
Have you, or has it been okay, I'm gonna go to my dad 'cause he's got a business, or I'm going to, you know, ask my friends who have a business or I'm just gonna lean on my own knowledge. Like what has or who has helped you or has there been a particular book that's really stood out to you? I don't have a mentor.
I know a lot of other, particularly women do. I have a really great network of friends who are business owners. And yeah, there's some, I just love to hear insights on and perspectives and then we can laugh about how hard it is or how funny it is or how weird it is, or you know, how painful it is. But yeah, I, uh, I guess I would, I do read books sometimes.
Podcasts are really good. I tend not to like reading too many business books because kind of like what I said, when you get home you just wanna escape from it and not be thinking about it all the time. But I did get a lot, and our business got a lot of value out of radical candor. I think it's by [00:39:00] Jill Scott that circulated a lot just in terms of how we communicate better as a team and how you can build strong, highly communicative teams.
So that one's a good one. Amazing. We'll link to it in the show notes. So before we finish up, what are you most proud of from your journey in business so far? Oh, I think it's about building a team. I mean, we've just got so many people in our business who really believe in the mission, and then that's translated into our customers, and that's, that's really special.
That's what matters. Okay. And so if people are listening to this and thinking, oh my goodness, I'd love to connect with her, or I need to know more about you, or, you know, anything, where is the best place for them to find all the information? And then what is next for you? What's next for the memo? What's next for you?
What's coming up? I. So if you'd like to connect with me, I'm on Instagram as Phoebe actually, and the memo is [00:40:00] the memo.com au. We would like to take Due Global this year. We would like to deliver a world class gift registry experience, which is in the works for us. That's a really important project and more stores like, we've got the four, we've got Armadale, we have Fitzroy, we have High Point all in Victoria, and then our most recent one is Bondi Junction in New South Wales.
But um, we think there's a lot of appetite for the MEO stores across Australia, so it's kind of like getting ready for that. Wow. Okay. Well thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule and you're a mom as well and just so much going on, but thank you for taking the time to share with us. It's a pleasure.
Thank you, Fiona. Thanks for your time. Bye. Bye.
Oh, so many ideas from that one conversation. Such an insightful conversation, and I have to say [00:41:00] again, thank you to Phoebe for coming on and sharing her journey, building the memo, and all the other ventures that she's been part of. I am going to highlight two things that stood out to me from our chat, as I always do.
I guess the first is, I just love how Phoebe emphasized the importance of building community around your brand. I think this is. And important and essential element of any business at any time in the history of businesses. However, I feel like right now, especially with the uncertainty with the. Abundance of competition that is out there, that differentiation.
When you have an attachment, you feel part of a community, you feel like you connect to a particular person or their brand or their business that is so crucial for ongoing success. And the men, the memo is not. Just selling products. They're creating these experiences, they're hosting events, they're bringing in experts, and they're truly trying to support parents beyond the transaction.
I mean, the tagline for my second book is moving from transaction to [00:42:00] transformation, and I feel like the memo does that very, very well. And so if you wanna have a look at a brand that is really. Walking the talk and really trying to transform the parenting experience rather than just transact and sell you more and more and more stuff, then this is one definitely to watch.
That community focused approach has clearly been absolutely instrumental in their rapid growth and their loyal customer base and people sharing their brand and referring other people to it, and. Particularly in that industry, I think that referrals and people loving something, they are going to share it with every other parent that they know.
So I think that focus on Community First has been so instrumental to their success. And it's such a important thing that even if you are a solo operator or your service base or something else where you think, well, I'm not having these in-person events, or I don't have a physical location to bring people to, you can still build that community and that connection through your online presence, through actual conversations, getting on the phone, doing Zoom calls, whatever it is.
That community element isn't just [00:43:00] something for product-based businesses. It's something that every one of us can learn from and grow within our own brands. The second thing that really. Stood out to me, I guess is Phoebe's point about finding the right people to work with. This is something that Joe Barry also brought up recently when we talked about the creation and manufacturing of her incredible Ray heat pad.
And if you haven't listened to that episode, go and check out the Ray Heat Pad and Scarlet Period, which is Joe Barry. But she also talked about that idea of finding the right people, and this is something that Phoebe is. So passionate about, and it was so powerful because when she talked about working with Kate and the fact that it worked so well, because they understand their own individual strengths, they're not trying to compete and do all of the same, you know, interesting, fun things, which sometimes can happen in a business partnership where everyone wants to do the fun part of the business and not the actual, you know, tedious or other parts of the business.
And I love that they both play to their strengths and then when they bring in other team members or collaborators. They look for people [00:44:00] who get them, who share the vision, trying to bring them and elevate the whole business rather than just. You know, getting somebody in who's like, oh, I can see what this big box retailer is doing.
We should just replicate it. I love that they focus so much on trying to get people that fully understand the vision and where they're going as a brand rather than just, I don't know, say somebody who's come from big box experience and can bring that in. It's like, what else are they bringing us? And can we all grow together?
And they talk so much about being passionate about their team as well. So if you have not checked out the memo, and maybe you have somebody in your life who needs parenting products, or maybe you're a parent, or maybe you wanna become a parent, then check out the memo. You can visit the memo, T-H-E-M-E-M o.com au or follow them on Instagram at the memo.
And of course, their new brand due can be found at due from the memo or one word as an at. At J from the memo, and we'll link to this in the show notes. And of course, if you are interested in following Phoebe's personal [00:45:00] journey, she's on Instagram with the tag at Phoebe actually. And we will link to all of those in the show notes.
But I wanna say thank you so, so much to Phoebe for taking the time to. You know, share her journey journeys with all the different things that she has done. And thank you for listening. If you have enjoyed this episode, please, please hit subscribe so you don't miss any. And also please leave a review. It just really helps other people find this, and maybe there's somebody out there who has a burning passion right now to do something and needs Phoebe's words to kind of get them there over the line.
