They Were Already Doing This… She Built The Business

0:00Alex Chisnall:What stops founders from building something meaningful isn't the lack of ideas, it's the fear of getting started. I'm Alex Chisnall and this is Screw It Just Do It, the podcast for people who are ready to stop waiting, take action and make things happen.

0:15Laura Fullerton:The quick backstory is that I have always hated being cold. Screw It Just Do It moment for me was when I discovered this private Facebook group and at the time there were 6 ,000 people in it, which I thought was a lot. and I actually looked the other day and I think there's nearly 80 ,000 people in this group now.

0:32Alex Chisnall:Wow, so it's more than 10x.

0:33Laura Fullerton:Yeah, and it's just dedicated to people learning how to transform their own chest freezers into a DIY ice bath. So that really was the catalyst behind Munk. I put a lot of effort into my network. I think it is probably the number one thing that any founder entrepreneur can do. I think as long as you just have that relentless drive to knowing you have to get to where you want to be and you just won't give up.

0:56Alex Chisnall:Before we get into today's conversation, this is genuinely relevant for a lot of founders listening. Are you running a business that pays supplies abroad, receives international payments, or operates across borders? WorldFirst helps founders manage global payments and FX more efficiently with access to competitive exchange rates and tools designed specifically for growing businesses. WorldFirst have given us an exclusive offer for podcast listeners to get 50 transactions completely fee-free for 60 days. Head to worldfirst.com forward slash screw it to create a free account and claim now. Now let's jump into the main conversation.

1:35Alex Chisnall:Biggest challenge or set put you've had in the last three years?

1:39Laura Fullerton:Do you know what? Last year was actually a really tough year.

1:44Alex Chisnall:So many people. Carolyn Radford, who was here before, who owns Mansfield Town Football Club, she said the same thing. I speak to somebody who sells steel to property developers to a guy who was multiple second-hand car dealers everybody at the heart yeah

1:59Laura Fullerton:yeah it was tough yeah I think for me the hardest thing was fundraising in the climate last year and also just you know as a founder of an early stage business you're doing so much you're trying to build hardware and software while fundraise while build a team while get ready for a launch like there's just

2:16Alex Chisnall:whilst getting to bed before 10 o 'clock

2:17Laura Fullerton:yeah well exactly that's the thing that really tripped me up

2:20Alex Chisnall:it's the time thing isn't it but it was it was mainly fundraising it was just really

2:26Laura Fullerton:tough last year and luckily at the end of the year it really picked picked up good but yeah

2:30Alex Chisnall:for a good few months it was it was intense okay um what piece of advice would you give to somebody to help them get from where they are whatever situation that is to where they want to be what's helped propel you get from where you are to where you want to be i think as we just spoke

2:50Laura Fullerton:about i would say network okay yeah i think that is just the number one surround yourself with the right people yeah yeah yeah and i think you've also just got to ask your network for things but even if you know after this conversation i could say like oh hey who are the three people you think i should meet or it's a great line yeah it's a great line wasn't mine i don't know who i

3:09Alex Chisnall:stole it from her okay that's a really good line it's not yours okay yeah but I think also I remember

3:15Laura Fullerton:at the beginning of the year I read something and what was the quote it was something about like what happens if you actually just go for it and I've always had that in the back of my mind and you know I think I remember saying something if I yeah if I was talking to a friend who was I don't know telling me about a problem or something they wanted to do it would be so easy for me to be like oh you should just do this and tell them to shoot for the moon but as soon as it's like me talking to myself yeah I just kind of hold back so just thinking about that like also what is the worst

3:46Alex Chisnall:thing that could happen yeah I always I and again it was something I read or saw a couple of years ago and it was literally like unless there is a very high chance of you dying from doing this why wouldn't you try it yeah you know because you've probably seen this as well you know those surveys of people who are um you know at the end of their lives and what do you regret you know

4:11Laura Fullerton:and it's the things that you didn't try yeah you know it's not um i wish i'd done another day at

4:17Alex Chisnall:work you know which is another day in the office you know nobody regrets that shit yeah it's trying those things and i i you know pass on those lessons to to my kids now so i had the opportunity to do this at the welsh college of music and drama i had this opportunity and they're like like what act and i'm like yeah got invited to do that and i was too scared to do it got invited to uh to go for the south wales choir sing which is hilarious turn that down and you just think you know people they kind of laugh at me for it but you're like well who knows what different path life could have gone if i'd gone down one of those routes you know you just you just don't know and what is the worst thing that can can happen if it if it isn't going to kill you then bloody try it yeah um and having that having that bigger vision i think as well because if you do you know shoot for the moon you might not get there but equally you could land amongst the stars is like a kind of quotation isn't it yeah i kind of love that have you read a book called 10x not 2x no i haven't dan sullivan should i yeah oh okay my best friend just got me to read it and it's um yeah i won't go into it now but i'll yeah i'll show you afterwards it's um just that big sky thinking and making those leaps that um instead of just going to instead of doubling turnover next year we're actually gonna 10 10x our turnover next year well how do we do it's actually easier you know by freeing yourself up yeah um yeah you're i think you'll

5:41Laura Fullerton:like it i love a book recommendation from someone good absolutely love it you actually just reminded me of a quote i saw yesterday i can't i won't paraphrase it but it said something about imagine taking your 10-year plan and just saying right how can we do that in a year yes and actually what's what again it's almost like what's the worst that can happen you're you're going to get further than the team who did exactly the same thing but just try to achieve over 10 years

6:02Alex Chisnall:yeah i'm trying to remember the i've written a day and summer as well it's it's one of the world's most famous investors and he when he said whenever someone comes to him with a proposition and there's like a three-year a five-year a 10-year plan he goes i want you to go away rewrite that and try and do it in six months the six months sounds horrendous doesn't it because just because but i think a year yeah yeah what can you kind of squeeze down and accelerate um what was the one thing that you needed personally to screw it just do it and get from where you were to where you are know was it a quality um was it um somebody was it a quote was it a physical thing

6:50Laura Fullerton:i think one of the things that really got me through was a book called the hard thing about hard things by ben horowitz oh you have to read it yeah it's incredible but there's a chapter in it called the struggle and it is the best i don't know three four pages of writing and it was just like therapy reading it if you have ever had like a really hard day I just went and read that and I actually I remember reading it out to one of my best friends who's you know not an entrepreneur she has an amazing job and as I finished reading it she's literally she's like are you okay she's like that sounds horrible you know like the founder journey is really tough but

7:30Alex Chisnall:I that book for me was just it was amazing interesting okay um are you currently where you want to be oh no absolutely not good i'm glad to hear that only because i think that is the right answer yeah no matter who you are and i'm sure richard branson would probably give the same

7:49Laura Fullerton:answer yeah yeah i wonder do you think anyone would actually say yes i've never had anyone say yes to that yet i wonder whether that's like a reflection of the kind of guests you have on

7:59Alex Chisnall:people that are running their own businesses yeah aspirational i think so whereas yeah if you maybe asked a certain section or a cross-section of society maybe you get a lot more yeses yeah i hope one day i'll say yes to that yeah yeah yeah okay um what's been one of the biggest learnings you've taken away so far the journey would you say i think learning to delegate has been such a big one yeah um and i i'm not good at it yet okay

8:36Laura Fullerton:but I'm trying to get there but I think that has been a really big learning curve also I mean I yeah I've never built hardware or software before so I mean every day I'm just doing things that are completely new and I've had two businesses before but yeah yeah for sure but I mean neither of them were were anything like this no but I think as long as you just have that relentless strive to knowing you have to get to where you want to be and you just won't give up yeah then

9:06Alex Chisnall:then you'll get there it's funny because it never maybe is again a reflection of who i speak to but um in my mind

9:18Alex Chisnall:not doing the thing is not even an option not getting to the end it might be a pivot and go in a completely different direction but i'm still doing the thing whereas for other people maybe that is a thing and it's the same for me whether i was chatting to one of the guys um from who dares wins stas um and i was saying like doing the marathon because he was training for london this year and i was talking about new york and stuff and um he was giving an example of when he was in uh physical pain mental pain he would take himself away to this place and build like

9:58Laura Fullerton:his dream house and he goes like now we're working on the loft and we're there and i was like i love

10:03Alex Chisnall:that because i said like when i did the marathon i took myself away but i was like compent com i can't ever get this word right compent oh my god compartmentalizing that word i did it with him as well i wanted to i couldn't say the word doing that because i'm not going to try it um with the pain and just going okay that right quad's shutting down this left cuff and i've just compartmentalizing it i did it there you go putting that away whereas he actually took himself away to another place entirely and starts building his dream house and i'm like that's so cool where'd you get that from you know i like that i'll do that next time i run on a treadmill it's a really interesting one though isn't it um yeah and i think that's just never an option and i was saying that to him that just when i did the marathon it was never an option that i was going to quit even though you're in so much physical pain mental you're in completely another planet um finishing even if it meant you know walking crawling you just like you just have to get to the end but for other people maybe it's not i don't know yeah

11:09Laura Fullerton:Yeah. No, I think especially when it comes to at least running a business, maybe not a marathon, but you have to be a certain type of person.

11:18Alex Chisnall:Yeah.

11:18Laura Fullerton:Because people don't understand what you actually have to go through. People think, oh, you've just got to give up some evenings and weekends, but it's not even scratching the surface. Like the mental isolation and stuff you have to go through and you just have to give up all of your mental bandwidth and your sanity. I've had it when I've been out with friends and we're having dinner on like the rare occasion you can get out to do that. And they're talking at me and my mind is just like a million miles elsewhere.

11:44Alex Chisnall:Same.

11:45Laura Fullerton:And yeah, you just you just have to sacrifice so much and you're just constantly it's like a duck treading water. And yeah, you have to really be prepared to to go through it.

11:57Alex Chisnall:If this conversation resonated with you, don't just sit there, act on it. Make sure you follow or subscribe for more game changing conversations. and remember the only thing standing between you and your business breakthrough is the decision to screw it and just do it.