Your Network is the Business Model: How to turn conversations into income, funding & once-in-a-lifetime opportunities

0:00Doone Roisin:You can achieve crazy things. You can build your dream life. You can literally build a business that gives you the life that you want, if you want to. Anything is possible. You just have to, like, do it. Most big opportunities in life don't always come from what you know. They come from who you know. But nobody really teaches women how to build powerful networks, and I'm talking the kind that actually open doors and create real influence that makes you money as well. So today's guest has mastered that at a world-class level. Duane Brosing is the founder of Female Startup Club, Australia's biggest female-led business podcast.

0:38And she has interviewed over a thousand founders, building a global private network for high level women. And she is turning conversations into the most influential communities in entrepreneurship. And what I love about this conversation is we're not just doing the fluffy highlight reel. We're going to be pulling back the curtain on how she actually built the network, what does her business really look like behind the scenes, and the questions I know you're all thinking. So this is a masterclass in turning relationships into opportunity and opportunities into real success. Let's get into it. Dune Roisin, welcome to Unstoppable Success.

1:17Doone Roisin:Thank you. I'm so happy to be here. I'm so glad we lined it up because you've been jet-setting all around. Yes, it's been, I mean, it's always been a busy time, but specifically lately. Yes. Well, it's interesting because I knew of you and we've never officially crossed paths, but I knew of you years and years ago because I started in e-commerce as well. And so I followed your journey and then I saw you from afar. I sound like a stalker, but I saw you from afar at Create and Cultivate in Los Angeles at the end of last year. And we didn't officially get to chat, but you absolutely crushed it up on the stage with Cody Sanchez.

1:58Doone Roisin:I mean, yeah, it was a great time. I like to stand out and shine bright. Yes. That's how I spotted you because I was like, this girl looks familiar. She's in this pink outfit, the pink shoes. I was like, this is giving celebrity energy and I'm obsessed. Thank you so much. But tell us the outfit today because it's iconic. I mean, in another life, I'm a K-pop star. So for me, I'm just like always dressing, you know, for the person you want to be, which is a K-pop star. Okay. K-pop producers come here. We've got it sorted. Okay. But for everyone listening, you've got red leather pants. I'm obsessed.

2:41And a beautiful pink crop.

2:43Doone Roisin:I mean, the dream. What else? Dress the way that you want to dress. There's no time for boring clothes. Okay. Okay. I want to know before we officially get into it, have you always been this unapologetic? Yeah. I mean, I've always been someone that's very like action orientated. I'm just more practical. So if I want something, I step in the direction of getting the thing. And so I've always been kind of like, if you want to dress like a certain way, dress a certain way or if you want to achieve a certain thing then go towards achieving a certain thing and I think that I'm someone that really doesn't see a problem as something that can stop you like a hurdle I see a problem as something to be solved and so when I look back even at you know photos of me as like a kid there's like photos where it's like super contrast there's photos of me, you know, where we grew up in the middle of the bush and I look literally like a little chimney sweep in, you know, oversized clothes.

3:51Doone Roisin:But then there's also like this photo of me on my third birthday and I'm wearing like all pink, layered in pearls, neon bag, like all the things. And I'm really like, yeah, that's those two versions of me are still the versions of me today. Like you could see me at home wearing oversized random sack, or you could see me wearing the crazy clothes that you see me wearing today. Yes. Head to toe, sequins, glitter, dye my tears, all of it. I'm obsessed. Yeah. Me too. I love it. Okay. For those that don't know your journey, give us a quick just recap on why you're an absolute boss? I mean, I don't know if I'd say absolute boss, but I can give you a quick recap.

4:38I will say it for you.

4:40Doone Roisin:Okay. The quick recap is I had an e-com brand that I was building in, you know, 2018-ish, I would say. And it was the first kind of foray into doing something 100 % by myself. So I loved that kind of experience from the perspective of building a business, the marketing, the social media, all that kind of stuff. And it was a jewelry brand. So it had the sparkle element and, you know, fun built into it, but I didn't love the product for me. And I couldn't see myself doing it long-term. It wasn't something that solved a problem. I love problem solving. I love talking about problems and solutions.

5:19Doone Roisin:And I was just like, I don't know. I like a lot of this, but I also think that it needs to evolve and I need to pivot. You know, you have to do the things that you don't like to get closer to what you do like. So after that, I was, you know, trying to think about what to do and having these kind of quick conversations with women on social media, you know, friends in my network, that kind of thing, and asking them about how they figured out, you know, their pathway or whatever it was, like those quick kind of easy questions. And this is at a time where reels weren't a thing, it was more like IGTV and it didn't have distribution kind of built in that you could go viral or those kinds of things that kind of went nowhere.

5:59Doone Roisin:But I was posting those videos and my husband was like, why don't you start a podcast and just see what happens with the podcast? And I was like, you've got to be totally stupid because I am allergic to public speaking. I'm terrified even in these quick, silly videos for social media that are kind of going nowhere. like they were taking so much stress from me because I was always bad at public speaking, always bad at like being in a room of more than two people and kind of having to do anything in front of them was like giving me an allergic reaction. And so I had that kind of initial feeling, but then deeper down under that feeling was the layer of like, oh, but I wish I could, I wish I could have a podcast.

6:46Doone Roisin:I wish I was someone who could, you know, do those things. And so then I immediately went to, okay, well, I should then try because I can only get that skill set and I can only get better if I actually do. So maybe he's right. And I kind of filtered through all these different layers of thoughts and then was like, all right, I'll start the podcast and we'll see what happens. And maybe I'll figure out what I want to do from there. And so I started doing the interviews, kind of started posting online, and really quickly we realized that my husband shouldn't be the one to edit the podcast. Was he too brutal or too soft?

7:24Doone Roisin:I mean, just like we were – the distribution kind of model at the time was we were going to post three episodes a week, and it was just basically like, okay, we just need someone who's actually going to do this really quick. Like it's their job. They're a professional. It's not going to fall to him. And kind of him doing it when we're newlyweds and just figuring it out. So I was like, to get a editor, I need to have income from this. So I need to get a sponsor. And basically from that moment, the advice that was kind of online at the time from Tim Ferriss, who was kind of like, you know, the OG kind of podcaster, was you need 100 ,000 downloads to be able to monetize.

8:06Doone Roisin:and to be able to go out and get a brand deal. And I was like, well, I don't have 100 ,000 downloads. I think I had 2 ,000 downloads at the time. And I was like, I need a sponsor now. So I started kind of crafting a pitch and developing what I was going to put online and what the kind of vision was and how it would line up and be of value to someone else and just started pitching. And then fast forward basically from that list, I think I had a list of 10 brands that I was reaching out to. You know, it was obviously the right moment. There's obviously a layer of luck that comes into this. I hit the right person on the other side and that landed a$25 ,000 deal, which was kind of the beginning of a longer term partnership with them.

8:52Doone Roisin:And it really gave me this insight of like, okay, I can hire the editor, but two, maybe there is actually a business model here. what if I built a business online that doesn't involve physical products, that doesn't involve, you know, we were traveling all over the world at the time and I would travel around with this little suitcase and I'd be shipping the things from everywhere. And there's constant logistic problems and constant like different country postal shipping stuff going on. And I was like, imagine if I just built this online off the back of these conversations that I'm happening with these incredible women who are so inspiring and I'm learning a lot from that I can still apply to the business, but it's a different business model.

9:32Doone Roisin:And so that was basically the beginning of Female Startup Club. And from there, you know, it's evolved into an audience on social media, different kinds of resources, the private network, lots of opportunities that I never could have even dreamed possible. What is one of the biggest opportunities that's come from it? Oh, gosh, there's so many. I mean, in 2022 or 2021, I published a book and that was a self-published bestseller. That then led to being awarded Young Australian of the Year in the UK. That then led to being invited to Buckingham Palace for my voice in media, recognition of my contribution to women and girls in the Commonwealth, where I got to meet the King and Queen of England.

10:19Doone Roisin:Well, now the King in Queen of England, 2024, Techstars,$120 ,000 in funding, Davos being invited and flown by MasterCard to speak at Davos and be kind of part of the World Economic Forum's annual global meeting. All of these things have come from building this online business and the, I guess, the secondary layer of a personal brand around it. Yeah, huge. Now, did you set out to start a personal brand or did it just kind of happen as a result of you showing up online? I would say like I didn't start out to build a personal brand, but I realized very, very quickly the power of having online influence, the power of having eyeballs that are seeing what you're doing and what that can attract and the opportunities that come as a ripple on effect.

11:11Doone Roisin:So it wasn't as if it was like some engineered, structured, like I'm going to start a podcast and it's going to become this. it was very much like, oh, I want that skill set because it makes me feel so nervous and I'm so allergic to it. And I'm on the floor recording at my friend's house during the pandemic. And it was very organic beginnings, but at the same time, you can sort of spot when things are working and when opportunities are attracting to that and like kind of what was happening with it. And so when I look back in hindsight, I'm like, oh, yeah, you know, having a personal brand and having kind of influence, even without having a huge following, but being able to influence someone else or being able to understand mutual value exchange and what you can do for whether it's someone you're pitching or a partnership that you want or a guest that you want to bring on the show and using that as leverage to get what you want.

12:08Do you feel like that's been the key for you to unlock a lot of these opportunities and brand sponsors is just thinking about what can I do for them?

12:18Doone Roisin:Yeah, I think that when you have a professional goal in mind, or you've kind of come across something that you want to, you know, it could be securing a grant, or it could be landing a collab with a partnership of a creator or another brand owner, or whatever it might be, or getting on a podcast. It's like understanding the system behind whatever the goal is. So, you know, if you want to land a grant? Great. How does it actually work? What's the judging criteria? Does it even make sense? Can I engineer, like, am I the person that they're looking for? If it's Forbes 30 under 30, what's the system behind that?

12:57Doone Roisin:It's kind of looking deeper at the system behind it and then being like, okay, cool. If I want to pursue that goal, how do I now map my goals to my content and what I'm doing online to hit the goal? So how am I positioning myself as a thought leader? If you want to get a TED talk and you want to be known for whatever it is, X, Y, Z, great. You need to be talking about that online every day. You need to be saying those keywords. You need to be showing people that you are an expert. You have a perspective. You have a point of view. And so it's like, you don't need to have some huge following. You can have millions of followers and not be able to monetize it properly.

13:35Doone Roisin:You can have a very small following, but if you're influential to the right people, the decision makers who are hanging out on LinkedIn or whatever, you can get whatever you want and you can reverse engineer the the system but then what becomes a win for them because something that I see a lot of people get wrong and a lot of people who pitch me to come on like my show is like they don't understand the mutual value exchange so when I'm going to a partnership and I want to partner with a brand or get a brand deal or whatever, it's not about, hey, like I'm the value that you kind of need. It's more like, okay, cool.

14:13Doone Roisin:This person is in their career. They're in their nine to five. They probably want to look good to their boss and get a promotion. That's what they want. Their goals are very different to a company goal. So it's like not about going in and being like, here's the value I can give to the company or the audience that I can give to the company. It's actually what is that person's KPI and aligning kind of whatever your goal is to whatever their goal is and being like, how can I help you deliver? And there's equal value exchange for whatever your goals are. Yeah. And I think there's like, there's like a smidge of signs to it, but it's pretty straightforward.

14:49It's kind of logical, right? Yeah. And I think as you're talking, I'm like, our journeys are almost identical in that we both started e-commerce. I was petrified. Don't even look at me in the eyes. I don't want anyone to know I exist. And people are like, but you get up on stages now, Jess, and I'm sure people say the same to you. And when I started my podcast in 2020 as well, it started as an IGTV series. So I'm like, this is crazy. But also I literally had that conversation with one of my clients the other day, she's like, how do I get someone to say yes? And the example that you gave of the corporate person in a job being very different to the business owner, I know something that stops a lot of female entrepreneurs especially is one, ask for whatever the heck you want, which I think you are such a perfect example of.

15:41But then a lot of them get stuck on, but I don't know what value they want, or I don't know what I can offer them because I'm just small or I don't have this or I don't, and they are undervaluing themselves. So what advice would you have for someone who's maybe stuck in, oh, I don't know what value to offer someone, but I would love to ask for this.

16:02Doone Roisin:Yeah. So I guess it's like the, it's just asking a different question. So instead of asking for what you want and what you're trying to get as the outcome, it's asking them, what are your goals? What do you want? How can I understand you better so then I can put a proposal forward if it makes sense? Yeah. So what are the things that you're working on within the brand marketing team or the content team or the partnerships team that are your core focuses for Q1 or Q2 or Q3, whatever? What's your budget? What are the things that are important to you and your team right now? And then once you understand that, you can be like, oh, that's really interesting.

16:39Doone Roisin:you know we're doing x y and z that can align with that or i have this idea i'd love to send through a proposal or whatever it might be but it's kind of like i think in everything when it comes to business and and pitching and like online kind of businesses it's like and this applies to other different business models as well but it's like it's like dating you're not going to just like show up and be like hey i want to get married on this first thing it's it's relationship building over a period of time and understanding what the mutual exchange is, understanding like by asking. So asking what is it that's important to you because it might not align.

17:19Doone Roisin:And then it's like, cool, better to know straight up than bang your head against a wall trying to pitch something that's never going to happen or trying to get a grant that you're never going to get because you're just not like fitting into that particular system. And so I think like if it was someone who they, there's an outcome or there's a goal that they want to achieve, but they don't understand like what value they're bringing. It's like asking, it's asking someone, Hey, what are you working on at the moment? What's your focus? How can I help get you to that goal? How can I help you achieve your goal and your outcome that then helps me achieve my outcome or find a middle ground.

18:01Yeah, I love that. And one thing that you said was seeing if there is a partnership on your end as well. And I think a lot of people think pitching is, let me show you how amazing I am. And I call it, you know, the seagull and the chip. And it's like, are you going to be the seagull chasing everyone around and inching closer? And they're like, swatting you away because you're so annoying? Or are you going to be the chip that all the brands and all the seagulls want to come to? And it's almost just this energy shift around, let me see if I want to partner with you rather than let me prove myself and like desperate energy.

18:37That is a huge shift, especially for women. So I love that you said that. Okay. You had some really iconic guests on the podcast. How many episodes have you done now on your podcast?

18:50Doone Roisin:I don't know the exact number. I think we're at 750 or something when I looked. Yeah, huge. Recently, we've had a lot. A lot. Who would you say was one of the most impactful guests you've had? And I know this is like asking you how long is a piece of string, but if someone came to mind, who would it be? I love the episodes where it's women who have just achieved something that are like so fucking badass and so one of my friends well now I can call her a friend Juru she started this company called Hero Cosmetics she had minimal investment you know after she'd proven product market fit she brought she was like ex-L 'Oreal she was a nine-to-fiver she wanted to you know build her dream life and she wanted to do that outside of the nine-to-five so she took that experience she went to South Korea and she brought pimple patches to the US she you know proved out the business model she raised a little bit of cash and you know within a really short period of time I think like maybe it was five years or seven years something like that she was able to sell it for 650 million and so we had her on the show like at the very kind of halfway kind of mark I think maybe she'd like just raised or something like that and then we had her on the show again you know after she sold to talk through that journey and I think those kind of episodes are just so cool and having those multiple kind of like I've caught up with her in Paris I caught up with her in LA this year and being able to see the kind of like on-screen and off-screen journey and evolution of her life and what she's been able to achieve for herself.

20:33Doone Roisin:Another one is Alison Ellsworth from Poppy. She sold her business for$1.2 million. Sorry, $1.2 million. Lol. $1.2 billion. A few zeros off there. Yeah, a couple zeros off. She started, you know, at the time the brand was called Mother, she started that like at the markets. Back in the day, it was like brown branding. she was pregnant at the time and again in this really short period i think it was again five years or something like that she managed to you know absolutely nail it and then sell it for above a billion dollars and become a billionaire essentially she had a unicorn company she sold it for a billion dollars like that is so cool to me to be able to say like i've interviewed these women who very few people in general ever get to this point and imagine like having that as a role model, having that story, having that like direct conversation with someone who was like achieved this crazy thing.

21:33Doone Roisin:To me, those are the coolest stories because I'm like, holy shit, like anything is possible. You can literally do whatever you want. It's incredible just being in physical proximity. I feel like it changes something on a cellular level, right? What has been one of the biggest lessons that you've taken away from all of these interviews or what's something that you've noticed in like a consistent message across all of them? I would say the kind of pattern or like the thing that I actually take away from like the entire journey and everyone that I've spoken to, it's less about like the practical patterns that I've seen, it's more just about when you zoom out, literally, you can achieve crazy things.

22:14Doone Roisin:You can build your dream life. You can do stuff because here are hundreds and hundreds of women who have done it in whatever way it might be. It might be e-com. It might be digital businesses. It might be Leila Hormosey. She has a billion dollar company. It's online. It's literally a content education. Well, actually, that's not necessarily true. She's got a lot of investments in a portfolio of companies now, but it started as one simple online business and education business. And it's like, you can literally build a business that gives you the life that you want, if you want to. Anything is possible.

22:50Doone Roisin:You just have to like, do it. You just have to show up, take the actions needed, keep trying, keep trying, keep iterating, solving problems, whatever it might be, building a personal brand, but everything is possible. Yeah. With so much evidence in the world, why do you think so many women still doubt that it's possible for them?

23:12Doone Roisin:I guess there's like a, probably a mindset confidence piece of the puzzle. I think that there are a lot of people who see a problem as a problem and, or they'll have, you know, the mindset of like, oh, well, it was different for them. She was able to do it because of X, blah blah blah like there's always a reason or an objection that's like evidence that we want right that backs up the belief systems exactly yeah and so there's like a lot of the this layer in front of everyone that needs to be kind of stripped back and then i think there's the people who are like yeah a problem whatever like it can be solved we can move past it or like how do we just find a different way around and they're not stopped by the problem they're more I guess the goal that they're working towards or the dream that they have is more important than being stopped by something that's in their way.

24:07Doone Roisin:The benefit of getting to that dream life or that goal that they have outweighs the cringe or the embarrassment of failure or the things that you might get wrong or the things that are going to stop you because you're just like, no, I want it bad enough that I'm going to keep going. I love that. Honestly, a motto that I posted as my Facebook status back in 2011 was where there's a will, there is always a way. It just depends how willing you are to do it. And I think a lot of people are not willing to be cringe or not willing to get out of the comfort zone or not willing to have a million no's before they get a yes or not willing to stay up late or fly across the country to find someone.

24:47But you are really the definition of unstoppable. and you recently were in Davos at the World Economic Summit. That's right, isn't it?

24:59Doone Roisin:The World Economic Forum's annual global meeting is their wording. Okay. But same, same. Okay. Same diff. We'll keep it. We'll keep it as is. For people who have no idea what that is, because I was oblivious to it existing until I saw you go, what is it for people that are listening at home? I got into one of their programs called the Young Global Leaders Program. You get into this program and they give you educational kind of learning leadership opportunities. So you go to different countries to understand climate change in that area. It might be a learning journey where you go and you study the biodiversity of the region.

25:39Doone Roisin:If you have to break it down, it's like a networking event, but on steroids. It's like the most insane thing I've ever experienced. Or things like Harvard. We get to go to Harvard within the three-year program and learn a public leadership type course and do a module there with a group of other people. So you get access to these crazy opportunities and you get access to people that you never in a million years would have met. All these different kind of amazing people that are outside of your realm. And so they foster and the kind of broader belief around this program is if you're connected pre-40 to these people and you're put into rooms and events where you build deep connections with people from all around these different countries who have different beliefs, different perspectives, different way of solving problems and huge challenges that are happening in the world.