Good morning. And welcome to the Monday Morning Marketing Podcast this week. Our episode is slightly different. We hope you like it.
This is Simon Cocking and I'm the chief Ex to Irish Tech News. So actually, I'm going to be interviewing Melanie today, so we thought it would be interesting to chat to her and get a bit more of an idea of who Melania is and where she's coming from. So I guess first of all, Hi, Melanie.
Hi, Simon. Thanks for agreeing to do this.
Cool. So I guess the first question I would ask people anyway is for people who don't know who you are, who are you? And is it a logical progression to what you do now?
Yeah. Well, for those people who don't know me outside of the Monday Money Marketing podcast, I guess the same. I'm a bit one track, but a mum based in County West Mee, which is in the Republic of Ireland who started working from a tabletop in 2013 and just as a selfemployed person, just trying to work around my family. And yeah, I guess going from my first quit being a magician, he wants to be shown how to use Facebook to running this podcast eight and a half years later. It's a bit of a windy twisty turn, but yeah, I've pretty much accidentally fallen into a lot of roles, like working for you. That was kind of an accident as well, but now it's been an interesting twist and turn. And what I'm doing now, I suppose it's quite logical, considering all the accidental turns, but I think the greatest accident was actually how my business started when the magician said, I can see you posting everywhere on social media. All I usually use is traditional methods like putting signs up in clubs and community sensors and that sort of thing. And he said, I just love for you to show me how to do it. And after about four or five months, my husband said to me, you really have to start charging. And that's how my business started.
Yeah. Look, I mean, definitely. And it's been called to see the progression of what you do over the eight years that we've known you and definitely. But you are open to stuff. So that when we said, you know, would you go to Latvia? I think it was Latvia to the fintech one then you. Well, I'm not sure, but I'm willing to go. And I think that asked you takes you a long way.
Oh, well, it was talking about an area wasn't massively knowledge of. Well, moderating actually was moderating, wasn't it? That one about cryptocurrency. But, you know, it's been given these opportunities. You can't really say no to them. Can you Simon?
Well, I guess I guess it's better not to do it and to make a good go of it when you were a kid or going through school, what did you think you were going to be like, did you have a careers office to say what you want to do. And did you know what you wanted to do?
It's so different to what I'm doing now when I was at school and you have to make these choices so slipping early, don't you? And at the time I wanted to be a nurse. I wanted to work with children. And so I spent a few years going through my GCSE, doing child development courses and working on those lives. Biology. That sort of saying. And when I left, well, when I finished school at 16, I could have gone on longer. They actually had got rid of all the student nurses that were cutting back student nurses. So I'm not doing anything like I should be doing from my decision at the age of eleven or twelve. But many people are.
But I guess are you happy with where you are now or do you secretly yearn to be a nurse? I mean, for me, I think a small number of kids is plenty. I don't think I'd like to see kids every day.
It took me a long time to find what I wanted to do a very long time. Actually, I've had a lot of weird and wonderful jobs. Simon, I've worked for the police, as a custody system in the UK. I've worked as a Bale's officer. I've worked in women's refuge helping women escape from domestic violence. I've been an insurance agent. I've had some crazy jobs. I've done a lot of jobs that a lot of people wouldn't want to do. And then when I finally stopped and you know, met my husband, the person who was going to become my husband and we agreed that I would stay home with the kids for a few years. I guess I felt like the later being cleaned, I stopped working for long enough to actually give it a go and do something else. And like I said, this was entirely by accident. I was volunteering with the national charity here in Ireland at the time. And Melanie is not a traditional Irish name. And this magician had seen me, Melanie posting all over the place online. And I don't suppose you would be the lady that's working with this charity and that's how it started.
Cool, so look, I mean, I guess in doing that, you've kind of explained why you worked at what you didn't like doing. And when you speak, I could very much imagine you being a police woman. You sound like you have a police woman's voice. But I guess in doing the things that you do, what have been the highlights, like what's got on well or what are you pleased I
I would never thought when I was, you know, working from my kitchen table those years ago that I would be still, frankly, working, doing what I'm doing now. It was such a hard slog that is, for everybody who has a start up, isn't it initially, I only had one kid in school when I started my business, so I was essentially part time for the first couple of years until my youngest was in primary. But now I just can't believe what happened. You know, I think the biggest moments really would be in my professional career would be getting the job with you guys because that came out of nowhere, that was very left field and the opportunities that's given me with ours, techniques in the travel and everything else, winning awards, doing what I'm doing, which blows my mind when I think about it. And it's just nice to know that people out there are appreciating what I'm doing. But I guess the wildest thing for me is speaking. I never thought for a million years that something that I enjoy so passionately would be something that could actually get to talk about in front of lots of people and people listen, which is even crazier. So it's those would be my top things that's come out of being in Stomp and working with Esther and Monday Morning Marketing podcast.
Yeah, look, definitely. And like you say, I think it makes it more interesting because of that. If things go well for you, what will good look like over the next one to three years?
Oh, that's a big one. There's so many balls up in the air, though, isn't there? Because with Stomp I'm hoping eventually to get a small team working with me with the Monday Morning Marketing podcast myself and Esther can definitely see a growth in that. We've been so delighted with the uptake that we've had and the listens that just been going up and up and up, and we're going to be doing a conference and details about that or coming out later. So there's a huge amount of things in the pipe work. You know, maybe I could take over your job, Simon.
I'm going for anything at the moment. It takes time to understand what you're capable of, but it takes even more time, I think, to be confident with what you can already do. And once that confidence had kicked in, then my business and things, I'm working and have started to grow. So I think the world is open to us, myself and Ester and to my business now because people are ready to progress and push themselves
Cool, so as in any area that you were. And we to some degree, social media is very excited and very empowering, but equally has its downsides. And, you know, I think people realise and they have to manage notifications and not being always on. So how do you walk through that? It is both a blessing and a curse and that you make sure that the kids aren't going to places they shouldn't. So I guess it's we're talking about work, life balance, but also particularly with social media we're talking about even how do we just manage it in an appropriate way?
Yeah. This is one of the biggest questions that I know for a fact myself and Esther get asked. We can get so consumed by our own businesses that it can have an impact on our families. And sometimes if we don't get that consumed our business will never kick off. So for me and it's actually something myself and Esther before we even started working together, we established since that we were already doing it together. But separately, obviously, it's pretty much understanding that you can't do everything at once and understanding that there are things that you can hand off to other people. I am all for managing and coping with all the roles and responsibilities of your job, but I'm essentially numerically dyslexic, so I give my accounts to my accountant. I give fixing my car to the mechanic and the garage. So why should I be expected to try and do absolutely everything was in my business as well when there was somebody out there that I probably enjoyed it more and will be looking forward to it relishes doing admin, doing graphics, doing really, the only time that ballots really kicked in once I started getting busy is when I started outsourcing stuff. And once I started outsourcing stuff, then I felt less guilty like getting paid for platforms because I was figuring, well, if I'm going to be paying an accountant, then why shouldn't I get a scheduling platform for my social media and that sort of stuff? And now I've reached a point where I can actually take weekends off and to go on holiday for a few days. And it's purely because I started to trust that there are other people who can care and be as passionate about what I represent and what I do because they do such a good job. But it's so hard when you're starting a new business to let go of the reins. When you started, you probably have the same concerns.
Yeah, look, I think you're right. It's tricky, isn't it? Because it is your baby and particularly for self employed and people starting their own business. They know that it's up to them to keep the wheel spinning. Like you said, you still need to have the weekends and the family breaks and work out when you're down time is I think you're right. And I think by being aware of that enables you to help to kind of give that wisdom to insights to other people. So yeah, I hear you, so talking with you. It's great. It gives an idea of what you're good at. How can people learn more about you guys and what you're up to?
Well, absolutely. We are available separately. So I'm obviously stomp social media training and Esther at IPA Group, but you can find out collectively everything about us. Our future plans, this conference that I've now dropped into the podcast, and that will be coming out over the next few weeks. But yeah, so you can find it all on our website, which is themondayMorning Marketing.com and then on all of our social media platforms. And thank you so much for doing this, Simon. Really appreciated. And thanks to everybody for listening. I hope you found out something new about the person or one of the people behind the podcast.
Cool. So it's been good to talk to. And I guess then thanks for having me. And then also, is there something I should have asked you that I didn't ask? Or is there anything that you've always wanted to be asked in an interview but had never been asked?
Oh, gosh. No. I think I think we've actually managed to clear this all up, Simon, but I'm so grateful that you did this because it's you, Simon Cocking.
All right? Yes. Yes. Thank you very much.
Thank you so much to Simon for agreeing to come and interview Melanie today. He'll be back in a couple of weeks to interview me as well. So stay tuned for that. And we'll be back next week with another episode of the Monday Morning Marketing Podcast. Until then, bye bye.