Mia Mcgrath - The Frugal Creator making £80k a Month | Behind The Growth

0:00I distinctly remember hitting that first 10k month and thinking, this is serious. At the time, I did actually get a 10k pay rise and I was seriously considering staying at the job. I mean, I'm so glad I didn't. If I don't spend enough, then I'm too frugal. Then if I'm too frivolous, then that's also going against my brand. So how do I balance this?

0:19Laura Donadio: When I registered my first business, I bought myself a watch and I got it engraved with the date of the registration of my business. And it means so much to know that this is because I invested in myself. No makeup, hair in a bun, like big t-shirt Adam Sandler style. That's when I'm in flow state, not how I show up on camera. Hi, my name is Mia McGrath and my mission is to make the whole of the UK financially literate. This is Behind the Growth.

0:46Laura Donadio: Thank you so much for joining us. We're going to start with a little intro if you don't mind telling us who you are and what you are known for? My name is Mia McGrath, founder of the Frugal Chic movement and creator CEO with over 1 million followers. I predominantly make content, but I also do speaking and mostly focuses on financial literacy, intentional spending and financial transparency. Nice. Mia, you're super young. Were you always this entrepreneurial growing up? Did you always know you wanted to have your own business? Yeah. So for context, I'm 25 now and I feel like growing up, I was actually always a little bit entrepreneurial maybe not to the extent of other people I didn't like sell cakes or like lemonade or anything like that but I think when I was in my teens I experimented a lot with reselling um I'd go to like charity shops I actually volunteered at a charity shop and um they gave me a staff discount well I was obviously I was volunteering but yeah um and then I would go and like one time I found a coach bag I resold it um bought it for eight pounds sold it for 80 so I sort of always had that mindset um and then I think later on in my streetwear phase um I found like I don't know if you remember but like around the time of 2018 people were wearing like these kind of fishing fishing vests yeah yeah I like bought some of them on e-pay and like tried to resell them I sold a few of them so yeah I feel like I've dabbled in it in the past okay yeah that's that strong interest in fashion from what I hear is that something that you wanted to have a career in growing up or like did you have any different aspirations?

2:19Yeah I think I always had an interest in fashion like I always loved dressing up. I never thought I'd pursue a career in it even though like you know if I if I was asked as a kid what would you want to be it would probably be a fashion designer or artist but at A-level I did all the essay-based subjects. I did history, English lit and religious studies. I thought I was going to go down a super academic route but I was looking around all of these universities at ancient history courses or history courses and I don't know why my heart just felt like I wasn't in it I was like thinking this is the path I meant to go down because um all of my friends were sort of doing academic degrees and then my mom was like well you know you you don't know what to do but you always had this interest in fashion it seems like you should pursue a fashion degree and so she really helped me um like find that degree I had to choose between like staying in London and going to London College of Fashion or going to Nottingham Trent I decided to go to Nottingham Trent because I want to like have that uni experience being away from home and stuff and that was one of the best choices I made

3:19Laura Donadio: we would have been to the same uni because I was at London College of Communication that's funny how did you find uni life yeah it was good um I feel like Nottingham was a great city to be a student in but coming from London it obviously like when I first got there it felt massive because obviously it was a new place but then Covid hit like end of first year um we obviously went back home to live at home but then went back out to uni to for second year and when we were there like obviously uni wasn't happening in the same way we were doing it virtually even though we were living there um but that gave us a lot of time to like walk around the city and then that's when it started to feel smaller um during covid because there wasn't much else to do but yeah i studied fashion management at university that was the degree i chose um and then i ended up doing some fashion internships like as a in a sandwich course as a four-year course so yeah okay where did you your internship so the first one was at a fashion supplier okay it was like the supplier for asos or like never fully dressed a lot of dress brands um i also did another one that was like a merchandising role for a baby bag company which is quite random yeah so i got a bit of like experience supplier side of fashion and the like more numbers merchandising side which is quite good experience uh after that placement year i went back to uni to finish my final year and then i while i was still at uni there was like internal job postings in our emails and stuff i applied for a showroom assistant role i didn't know what a showroom was i didn't know what sales was like in our in our degree they mostly taught us about buying merchandising visual merchandising all the main components of the fashion, but never about showrooms or sales.

5:08Laura Donadio: It's very pressed. Yeah. Yeah. That's why I did my career in PR. Yeah. Um, so I didn't have a tutorial. I didn't know what it was going to entail, but I was like, okay, this sounds good. Had an interview. Um, and then, yeah, I was basically set to start as soon as I got back home from uni, which was great. Uh, so started off with that internship. It was like thrown in the deep end, steaming, and then you've got appointments till seven. And then, yeah, it's just, I was going to say it's very admin-y as like a completely different side. And it was very people facing, right? Because you have to be in with the editors pulling things for shoots and like, it's a very, it's completely different.

5:44Yeah. And you know, even though it's sales, like the, the sales managers would be doing that and you'd be like doing all sorts of things. Like, like you said, preparing for a photo shoot or like getting the samples ready. It was, it was all dressing the model like in Paris. So it was a lot. uh and then i got a full-time role there um i was on 30 000 pounds and then i started making content uh june 2024 so i'd been there for almost over two years and then or maybe it was a year in and then yeah from that i i don't know why i started making content i like i think back and i think it was one of those videos that was just like just post the content yeah i was like oh maybe i finally should um it was five things i did to get ahead financially in my 20s and it got like 50k views and from there i was like you know when your first video gets that you're gonna you're gonna continue right yeah you're like you're wondering you're like wait yeah am i onto something absolutely yeah so i unknowingly stumbled upon you know people were interested in it and i forgot to say but like at university i got interested in personal finance investing i had male friends that were talking about their stocks and that's sort of what set me down this path of self-education So in that time I was doing these internships, I was coming home and researching stocks and like, you know, becoming fascinated with it.

7:02And so I think when I finally came to post content, like seven years later, I was really passionate about it. So that's the correlation between my fashion degree in finance, what I talk about now.

7:12Laura Donadio: And how long did it take from that first piece of content going viral? I think we can call that viral to you deciding, OK, I'm going to quit my job and go at it full time. so yeah I'd been doing it for over a year and a half um because I started June 24 I left in September 2025 so last year and yeah in that time it was obviously a lot happened like I think in the first three to six months I was really doing everything I could to grow I was going live every night I don't know why like when I got home from work I just thought that would I was into all those hacks and stuff. I thought it would help me.

7:52And to be fair, I think it did. I think it built a close knit community of people that I remember following me from the start. Uh, but I was posting like maybe two or three times a day. Um, I was filming my videos like in the morning, editing on the tube and then posting in the evenings. And it kind of became my life in kind of an unhealthy way. Uh, I would say I was working like 60 plus hours a week. I, you know, my my business coach told me that recently who I actually met on the retreat um but yeah she told me that and then I was like oh I never thought about it that way because I was doing 40 hours at my job yeah and then um you know these 20 plus hours outside of work but it didn't feel like work no um so I never put two and two together but I was like actually I was I was doing a lot yeah yeah so I felt like in that time I sacrificed a lot of I don't know maybe comforts or luxuries or like you know living my best life because I was really in that grind mode not really knowing where it would go but yeah yeah just kind of like head down need to like explore this and like make it happen yeah there working in fashion did you have this um huge

8:59Laura Donadio: urge to buy expensive things and like because that was definitely when I started my career in fashion I was working for a luxury PR agency and it was just being surrounded by so many amazing designs all I wanted to do was spend very little money I was making on more clothes and you know just like buying more just because they were so cool so I definitely had the pressure to because I feel like when you're working in fashion you have to dress the part dressing well having taste is part of the job description and also to like get promoted and to be like present yeah yeah absolutely if you if you seem tasteful or like you've spent a lot of money it's like more it's a bit like art It's like, oh, you know, the right designers, you know, the right things to buy.

9:44So I definitely felt that pressure, but I'm very lucky that earlier on in my life, like when I was maybe 17 to 18, I had this interest in streetwear and fashion. And I think that's when I had my quote unquote shopaholic phase. That was when I was being a bit frivolous with money because obviously I was like, you know, still at sixth form, like I was, didn't really have many financial responsibilities. And so, yeah, of course I'm going to be a bit more frivolous then. But during that time, I got really interested in like more niche fashion at the time. It was like I was into brands like needles.

10:18I had this flannel that was cut up into like seven flannels like sewn together. So I thought it was really cool. I was like getting into that fashion space. And I wanted to be a fashion influence at the time that drove a lot of my purchases. And I like it's sad to say, but I don't own any of those clothes now. But I think because I had that experience of buying these like 200 pound tops and stuff, I was like, when I entered into this luxury fashion space, I knew that I kind of could see through the illusion. I was like, oh, that used to be me like wanting those things. And because I like was on a low salary, I was living at home.

10:51So I had a bit more disposable income. But I was like, again, really into this personal finance and investing. I wanted to build financial freedom. So I was like, I'm not going to let it tempt me. If anything, I'm going to get the free samples. Like this is a sample from one of the brands. And I still wear the clothes today. So in a way, like I'm glad I had that shopaholic phase because it gave me almost like immunity to that world.

11:13Laura Donadio: I wish I went through that same phase. I didn't. I still have the same problem as before, unfortunately for me. That's really cool. Obviously, so you had this like you've been added for a year now where you've been working for yourself. When was it that you made your first five figure deal through content? It was maybe a few months before I left my job in September. I distinctly remember hitting that first 10k month and thinking, this is serious. And I think that's when my mindset started to shift because when I went to work events with other creators, they'd ask me like, would you ever do this full time?

11:49And I'd say, no, how could I? I don't even make enough. It's not sustainable. It was up and down. And I didn't see how someone could do it full time because I didn't know how much people made. And then over time, I'd see other creators maybe sharing their income. And I distinctly remember one creator making 30K in a month. And I thought, whoa, that's like, that's where I want to be one day. That's so aspirational. And like thinking back now, I hit that a few months ago and that feels incredible. But it was just exposing myself to different ceilings of possibility. But yeah, when I hit that first five figure month, I, that's when I started to think, well, I'm dedicating 40 hours a week to my job and I'm making that money in my spare time.

12:37Imagine what would happen if I gave full 40 hours to this.

12:42Laura Donadio: And then I started. All your efforts will suddenly be focused on that, to growing that stream, to growing. Yeah, yeah, of course. Yeah. And I think at the time I was a little bit uncertain with my job. I started applying for other roles to like see what my value was in the market, to get leverage, to ask for a pay rise. And at the time I did actually get a 10K pay rise and I was seriously considering either staying at the job or finding or going to another job at 40k a year and I mean I'm so glad I didn't but at the time you just you can't foresee those things I was making 10k a month in this side hustle but I was thinking well 40k a year is is like a good salary in the UK so let me just do it um but I think it came to a point where I was saying no to work events saying no to jobs because I physically couldn't do them and taking briefing calls in the toilets and stuff like that so I was like this has to give at some point so that's when I and when I told my parents and friends like they were obviously really excited for me but you could see the nervousness yeah of course they were unsure of how this is going to pan out because even though you know I've been marginally successful since that's happened like it's still very new yeah absolutely and so I was going to ask what your parents thought because anyone leaving employment and insecurity of employment to go into you know their own career find like founding their own businesses like all of that is always super scary because you actually don't know what's going to happen and you can have all the signals that it's going to do well but there's still this huge amount of uncertainty especially in a career like social media that is still growing as you grow yourself right yeah fair um when you hit that first um 10k month did you like because obviously you're super savvy with money and you know you've been super vocal about it do you ever have like very intrusive thoughts about what you could do with that money if you were a bit more frivolous with it and think oh you know like i could do this and then you're like no no no we're gonna we're gonna save we're gonna you know be smart about it if you'd given that money to my 18 year old self yeah like she would have i don't know those ideas yeah but um strangely enough it's actually my partner that's a bit more like, okay, likes more of a luxury lifestyle.

14:54And he's like, Oh, we should, uh, we should go on this like expensive holiday. I'm like, why? When we enjoyed a nice holiday and moderate budget last year, maybe I I'm just too sensible, I guess. Um, there are things that I do splurge on, but overall, I think my, my best advice to anyone that is self-employed or like maybe starts to make a big amount of money out of nowhere. It's like, just remain with what you're doing for now, like don't give into lifestyle creep very sharply because you see this a lot with influencers, with footballers, like anyone that has this drastic change in income, they think, well, now I'm rich.

15:31Now I can buy all the things I want, but that could lead to people not counting for taxes, for VAT, for paying staff, like all of these different things. So I think I was just very cautious around that. And also because of the way I'm structuring things, it's all in my limited company. So it can only be spent on work stuff anyway.

15:48Laura Donadio: Like if you take it out, you have extra taxes and then it's like it's a lot less fun yeah yeah you've now built your business for a year um when did you think it was time to get an agent and what motivated you to get representation what did you think it was going to change in the way that you saw what you were doing so yeah i think most creators will relate to this there's a real skepticism when it comes to management when you first think about it you're like oh they're just taking 20 for nothing um and also i was quite frugal i was thinking well well, if I can keep as much money as I can, then I'll do that.

16:21And so I'd heard a few horror stories of like some people being poorly managed or the manager, like saying no to jobs they wanted to do, hiding stuff. Like I'd heard the worst. So I just wasn't into it. And it's almost like when I was just leading up, sharing my income transparently, because I had done from the start when I made that first 10K month, I think a lot of the talent management agencies with like that is peaked. And then I had had a few offers before that, but I just ignored them. But like got an influx of maybe like 30 plus requests in that space of time. But that's the one thing that I want to stress to creators or anyone looking for management is the agency itself is they have to have good morals, good whatever.

17:05But it's more about the person who's going to be managing you. Have they literally sort you out and they're really interested in your content and they want to build a roster of people that are like you? Because that's another key thing. some management, I think just take on creators based on income or popularity. But I think, um, sky, my manager, she's really trying to build a roster of like female founders, women in business so that it's all aligned. I think that's quite interesting. And yeah, we love sky.

17:32Laura Donadio: Yes. She's great. Shout out to sky. Yeah. Did you envision that it would grow this big? No, I think it's evident in my actions. So for example, I didn't set up a limited company until October last year. because I just didn't think I would make enough for it to be justified. To make sense. Yeah, yeah, yeah. For the admin and everything. Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. So I think I made like 60K as a sole trader. I thought, I don't want to earn more than that. Like, I don't even need that to live off. So I need to open this limited company. And since then, I've made like over 350K in the limited company.

18:04So in total, more than 400K. It's just insane. But I never, I mean, that's before tax, but I never thought that was possible. But yeah. Yeah.

18:14Laura Donadio: And for that last job offer. Yeah. I know. Yeah. It's just, it's so strange to think that my old nine to five salary was like one of my monthly earnings for one month. It's just crazy. Yeah. A big trait in entrepreneurs is that you are never satisfied with where you are because you constantly raise the bar. Right. So obviously it's been well over a year now. Where do you raised a bar like what what what still drives you and where do you want to get to eventually I think a lot of creators can relate to the feeling that you don't feel respected because a create a creator is in the UK it's like you know you tell someone you're a creator and they're like oh you just make videos you know it's not a prestigious career absolutely but I think being a creatorpreneur like Grace Beverly or Emma Greed obviously she was an entrepreneur firstly but then And now she also makes content.

19:09I think through that lens, it's much more respected. So I guess anyone in that industry is trying to get to there, whether it's starting a business, having equity in businesses or just diversifying their income streams. I think that's the smartest thing you can do. I think the worst thing you can do is just solely be tracked on brand deals. Even though a lot of people want to be where I am, I feel like I'm just at the start. What are your next five year goals? So I've spoken about it publicly on my channel that I want to hit this 1 million goal by the end of next year. And I want to do that because I know 1 million, especially even in a business, it's not a lot to live off forever.

19:50But for me, I've always had that as my number one financial goal that I think once I get there, I'll be able to ease off the gas a little bit, being sounding American. But like, yeah, I just think once I reach that goal, I know that, OK, if this all, you know, went away tomorrow, I'd be able to just work things out, maybe take a career break and I'd be able to live off that for a while. So for me, that's like my financial independence number. However, I get there through the business or personally, but I want to get to one million. I'm also writing a book that comes out in January. So that's really exciting.

20:25um and also I'd like to start a couple of businesses here and there or be part of businesses I think that would be some of my goals any non-career related goals that's a tricky one um I actually don't have any I know that's really really bad but I feel like I'm quite content with my confidence my social life my relationship there's nothing there's nothing to add like even with family like I've got such a good relationship I couldn't think of couldn't really think of anything do you have any theme like I could

21:00Laura Donadio: be inspired by um I wish I'm absolutely obsessed with my career so I'm probably in the same bucket as you I think like I think it's it's always it's always an interesting topic right because I know that um a lot of my friends would see me as someone that is like super career driven to probably an extent that scares a lot of people off and I can see why, but I don't see work as work. And so for me, it's always been something that I enjoy so much that if you enjoy it, I don't see the issue with it. Obviously, as long as it doesn't become an unhealthy obsession, right? But if you're happy with where the rest of your life is, as in like, you know, your relationships, your family, you feel like you get, you know, you look after yourself from like a health perspective, from nutrition perspective like you travel you know you get to discover the world if you're happy with everything who am I to judge that you know you don't have any other personal goals like if your career is like the center of your personal goals that's all that matters as long as you're happy with it I would like to buy a home one day I feel like that's a goal um maybe like a proper house yeah with actual multiple rooms and stuff like a full-on house in London would be crazy because that's very out of reach even for me right now getting a mortgage and stuff like I still can't afford to do that yet so that would be really cool I'm quickly gonna interrupt this episode to remind you to please hit subscribe if you're listening on YouTube and for those listening on Apple or Spotify to not forget to hit the follow button it only takes a second it's free but it will mean the world to us I feel like growing up like our generation like maybe my generation as a millennial was always about like oh you reached like a successful point in your life in your career when you could buy a house and i feel like in the last couple of years like i bought a flat a couple years back and i'm now selling it because it's such a poor investment and like it's not because of where it was or anything like that but it's just not turned around to be something that with interest rates and all of that feels that tactical anymore with all the research that you've done do you still feel like that's something that you actually want to do or is it more because you want to build a home and you would want to live in it yeah so that's why i put it under personal rather than financial career because i see it as a huge cost rather than investment if i was going to do it it would be completely for vanity metrics i would just want a big home that i could renovate have like my partner makes furniture so bespoke furniture like it would be ultimately when i've made it yeah but i don't wouldn't see it as an investment like if I do a renovation, I'm not thinking it's adding value to the property.

23:37I'm thinking like, oh, I just want a nice bathroom. Like for me, I don't know if it's just growing up Gen Z or growing up through the financial crisis or COVID or all of these different events that have made Gen Z a bit more nihilistic in that sense. And also seeing like our boomer parents like be able to buy it so easily and then their investments go up. And for us, it's just not really the same. for me I just it doesn't have the same appeal um I think like you said I've seen so many examples where people have felt it's a burden like a financial burden and so I'd it's just me but I'd rather have my money in the stock market it's not as liquid as it would be in cash but if I

24:17Laura Donadio: wanted to equally if you need to sell a house like it's not that liquid either right like it takes a bit of time and you have to be lucky with it so I get it yeah no that's super fair um you obviously you talk super openly about money and I respect that so much. I think it takes balls. And I think honestly it takes courage because it's a, it's a topic that's always very sort of like stigmatized and sort of like tabooed around, right? How do you balance obviously what your community knows you for versus like whenever you want to do something, maybe like a little bit more extravagant with your money, because you've reached an amazing level of income and you're still so frugal with it and obviously I know it's your whole brand um even from sitting across the table and knowing you I know that you do really live by that you know um but that lifestyle but is there you know obviously as you were saying your partner wants potentially to go on like a bit more of a luxurious trip like is there anything else that you're ever like oh can I buy this uh I don't usually have it about material things but it I mean occasionally but it's more like experiences or lifestyle stuff um but there was an occasion where my friend wanted to go to soho farmhouse for her birthday and i'd never like done anything that expensive like we each paid like three seven five to stay in a room for a night but it was like this big suite and i think those experiences are important because they're a reward for your hard work and also because they raise your ceiling for what you think is possible and what you want too it's aspirational but i remember sharing it on socials because I wanted to show my followers a bit more behind the scenes.

25:57And it was something that like, I would usually share something like that. So I think my followers would know if it was a norm and it wasn't a norm because it was a special thing. And I remember someone made like a video and this also isn't like me still being salty about it. It's just like retelling how I felt. But they were like, I don't get Mia McGrath. She's not frugal anymore because she went to did this. And I think after that, I got so in my head about it. And it wasn't about this person because they deleted the video and I kind of felt bad for making a reaction. Anyway, either way, like it was more about how I felt about it.

26:30I was like, oh, well, if I don't spend enough, then I'm too frugal and I'm maybe setting a bad example for people, putting people in a scarcity mindset. But then if I'm too frivolous, then that's also going against my brand. So how do I balance this? I think it's definitely been challenging because at the start, when I started to earn more I was like I fell into that influencer trap of not being relatable anymore and I just really didn't want to do that so yeah there was a there was a phase where I was policing everything like if I went to the shop and I was picked something up I'd be like oh well that's not very frugal chic or what are my followers going to think of that even though I wasn't filming anything and you can as an influencer or content creator you get in your head about what your audience thinks but at the end of the day it is your social media and you're making it about your life and you you could in theory be the kind of information creator that only shares news or things that isn't related to your life but I felt the most sustainable thing would to be to bring in my own passions and interests and what I do day to day so in the end I feel like I've become a bit more thick-skinned from that experience and I've just thought people are going to say something anyway so yeah there's some things I do that are a bit maybe not frugal but I justify them because they make sense for my life.

27:44Laura Donadio: Also at the end of the day, no one gets to have an opinion about your life. And as long as it makes sense to you, I think that's all that matters, right? Yeah. Speaking of that, how do you manage time management versus outsourcing things in your life? Because you could argue both ways, right? Sometimes outsourcing is more frugal chic because it gives you time to refocus on more important things, whereas sometimes improving some of your time management might actually help you more. Yeah, I've, I've definitely found that outsourcing in my business to be more effective than outsourcing in my personal life.

28:21When things started to reach capacity and I was growing, I didn't, I was just literally doing it all myself, editing, filming, scripting, everything. Um, I reached capacity and I decided to do a meal prep service. It was called SimEats. Um, I tried it for a bit. I didn't stay consistent with it or I stopped getting them because I would forget to pick out the meals and then they'd send me something random. So it wasn't their fault. It was more like me. Um, so I found that to, to be effective when I was in those really busy periods, but then maybe not for the longterm. So I could argue things like a cleaner, uh, getting your clothes ironed and stuff.

28:57It's obviously helpful for some people, but I just personally, I don't find them that useful, that side of things, but outsourcing in my business. So, um, I hired my boyfriend as an assistant and that's been really useful because um having someone that i knew personally that could manage sensitive information or or could plan my day-to-day yeah for trust um also hiring like a select group of freelancers to be my editors that took a lot of vetting process to find people who are really good but when it got to the point where i was outsourcing all of my editing and i was like halfway into the day and i was like why am i not doing as much like what's going on here and i was like oh I've outsourced that so that's now done and I felt this weird like a lot more time back yeah I had some time so I think that was a lot more effective I could see that lasting longer outsourcing in my business as opposed to those conveniences that I might do in my day-to-day but I would say what my followers don't see is sometimes I do get like you know you you could imagine being frugal chic I might be making every single meal from scratch but I'm not because I'm running a business.

30:02So, you know, before this, I didn't start chopping onions. I had to like get something while I was out. So I feel like people don't maybe don't see that side of things, which is maybe not authentic of me, but I feel like I can't show everything, right? No.

30:16Laura Donadio: Also, you need to have some form of privacy in your life. I think that's acceptable. I think we will all agree on that. How'd you find working with your partner? Yeah, it's good. We, I think it strengthened our relationship because, I mean, obviously most people wouldn't work with their partner or mix personal and business. But I found like it's been a real sign of strength or trust because it was like he was willing to put that energy that he was, you know, putting into this job into me. So he studied product design, but ended up, you know, after not finding a job, working in kitchen fitting.

30:48And so that wasn't really what he loved doing or wanting to do. So I said, come work for me. I'll match your salary. And then And I think, yeah, even though he's now building out his business on the side and it's given him more time, which is exactly what I wanted. It's still really like lovely to know that he would actually want to work for me because I don't think most boyfriends would work for their girlfriends. So, yeah, that's amazing.

31:11Laura Donadio: How do you celebrate the wins along the way? Because obviously we know it's not going to be with money. um do you still take the time to celebrate you know everything that you've built and all of the milestones that you're achieving along the way I think it's hard I think the last time I like celebrated myself as my birthday like I don't do that much to celebrate these milestones I think I forget as well because everything happens so quickly like you finish one thing you post a LinkedIn post you get a bit of praise for it but then like the next thing happens and then it's just one thing after another so I actually need to do definitely stop and like have a little party or something but I don't know a lot of people I'm just not into milestone gifts for myself because if I was going to buy those things I would just buy them like I wouldn't I don't know I just wouldn't wait until I'm just like that so yeah fair enough I feel like I should challenge you and you should find a way to make actually those things matter because you will look back and remember those moments where you took just a second to stop and appreciate what you've built because I used to be really bad at doing that myself right but um when I registered my first business I bought myself a watch and I got it engraved with the date of the registration of my business and when I wear it and I look at it like I know why I have it and like it means so much to know that this is because I invested in myself if that makes sense and you're achieving so much I would challenge you I think you need to celebrate yourself a little more um I've got one more question and we'll move on to our quick fire what led you to pick one million pound as like the like you know the goal like obviously I know you said a little bit about like it's something that would give you a bit of runway you know if everything went to shit sorry excuse my English but birthing went to shit you would have a couple of years that you could see from there but was there a lot more reasoning behind the like is there significant significance behind the number or yeah I think being a bit nerdy about the personal finance side it's my fire number so it's my financial independence retire early number but a lot of people freak out when they hear retire early I'm not you know if I hit this number I'm not going to be like sitting on a beach doing nothing.

33:33It's more just being work optional. So I worked this out by timesing my annual expenses. So like what I typically spend in a year by 25. And that brought me to 750K. So that was, yeah, 30K times 25. And then I decided to increase it obviously for inflation because it won't be worth the same in the future. And that's how I got to 1 million. And it's Kind of based on this 4 % rule, whether you withdraw 4 % of your portfolio and it grows by 4 % too, it's not guaranteed. It's not an exact science because obviously the stock market average is an average for a reason. And also, if I started withdrawing it earlier, I would probably need a more conservative drawdown number.

34:20There's all this nuance to it. People get very, you know, up in arms about it, but it's just there as a rough goal. And I know that it'd be better than not caring about it at all. Like I'm still going to be better off by having the goal. So for me, it's 1 million. And I'm sure once I get there, I probably will set a bigger goal because that's just how humans work. But I know that for me, it's always been like, okay, my first 10 ,000 pounds, my first 100 ,000 pounds. And then I knew that 1 million was like the final setting stone. And after that, I could start a business. I could do a lot of things.

34:54You can invest in yourself. Yeah, I can. It's a huge starting point. um so yeah i just see it as like this end goal for me fair enough any idea once you reach it

35:05Laura Donadio: because i think i i have a feeling you'll reach it before next year um do you know what's like obviously you mentioned building several businesses if you've got ideas like is that that's something already in the works yeah i and i'm one of those people i'm happy to share i don't believe in evil eye or anything so i would really love to start a clothing brand because of my experience in fashion and also my experience in business, just merging those two worlds. And finally, I actually have the capital to do it because if I'd gone out as like quit my job and just started a fashion brand, that would have been a whole different story.

35:38But building up this creative business first, it just gives me a platform to talk about it and the capital to do it. So I think that would be great. I could see myself making like some, I know it sounds cliche, but elevated basics, but I was thinking of like mixing financial transparency with that.

35:54Laura Donadio: That could be cool. you've also got the fashion buying and merchandising background so that will that would help with them fair enough yeah um got one last question that we were all very keen to hear who should pay on the first date oh okay even though i'm frugal chic and i'm quite progressive with my views yes i think maybe i'm a bit more traditional in the sense i think the guy should pay because because typically women have a lot more costs like to get to the date you might get an uber for safety because you're wearing heels um your hair makeup skincare period products like there's all these costs of being a woman to turn up on that date to look presentable it costs so much more than a man like obviously men do things for their appearance but if you add to tally up each one.

36:42It's not the same. And also I do think, yes, relationships are a partnership, but I think the most successful relationships I see is when the man is pining for the woman and wants to impress the woman. Even if their finances are 50-50, I think that's still a really healthy situation. So that's what I would say.

37:04Laura Donadio: I'll die on the same hill as you. I completely agree. I've got a quick fire for you um the least glamorous part of growth in one word flow state actually that's two words best fine we'll take it as a concept feel free to elaborate now because when you're in flow state you're not thinking about your appearance so it's very unsexy I mean when you're in flow state I'm no makeup hair in a bun like big t-shirt Adam Sandler style that's when I'm in flow state not how I show up on camera you still look great thank you um finish this sentence for me I felt most out of my depth when learning about how to structure my business fair enough what was your most expensive lesson so far and how much did it cost you not negotiating well leaving money on the table in all aspects of life but mostly when negotiating like brand deals and stuff before I joined my management severely undercharging like when I you know I charged 700 pounds for a brand deal that I should have charged maybe five grand for and in the end I didn't I didn't realize at the time but it just doesn't go back to the brand it just goes to the the agency that are paying me so yeah I think it's really tough because it's an industry that is so um like we call it the wild west right because it's so unregulated from that perspective and it's really hard as a creator to know what to charge and it's very much up to you to decide what you think your content is worth and when you're starting I think it's so hard to put a number to it I think it goes the same to um it's very similar to a day rate as a freelancer is knowing how much you should charge for the work that you do um one person that gave you the the one person that gave you the best piece of advice who it was and what was the advice hmm i mean i'm gonna go with a classic it's not someone i know it's warren buffett um be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful so it's an investing um phrase but basically when when everyone is thinking about something um it probably means it's oversaturated that could be a business or investing um but when everyone is you know panicking and thinking selling their stocks that's actually when you should be more level-headed and think that's an opportunity opportunity yeah absolutely um no audience no network and a thousand pounds in the bank what is your first move I would definitely if I had no audience I would use that a thousand pounds to start a service business instead of a product business because obviously with a product business you need the upfront capital to make the stock and everything.

39:50So I would use that a thousand pounds to maybe invest in a course or coaching or something that would give me the skills to then start doing one on one coaching or to offer some service to people.

40:02Laura Donadio: And if you lose everything tomorrow, who is your first call? Probably my parents. Yeah. I mean, I'm really privileged in the sense that at any point, like I can, I've got so much support network, even with my family and partner and everything so yeah I'm really lucky fair enough we started the podcast by asking you what you're known for we're going to finish it with what do you want to be known for a woman in business because a lot of people know me for how I help them open their first investment account and that's great but as I mentioned before my aspiration is to be seen as a businesswoman I hope you enjoyed watching this episode for more conversations like this head to the link in bio and join the growth collective.