Big Business with Brittney SaundersThis bonus episode is one hot mess to be quite honest... Kind of like how like Britt was this last week sick at home. But what happens when the boss is down and out of action? It's a very different experience getting sick when you're the CEO of a company.
LINKS
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- Instagram - @brittney_saunders
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- YouTube - Brittney Saunders - Fayt The Label
- Check out FAYT The Label HERE.
CREDITS
Host: Brittney Saunders.
Senior Producer: Xander Cross
Managing Producer: Elle Beattie
Find more great podcasts like this at novapodcasts.com.au and follow Nova Podcast's Instagram @novapodcastsofficial
Welcome back to a bonus episode of Big Business Today. We're talking randomly all things getting sick when you're a business owner, which is it was not part of the plan. And I don't know if you can tell in my voice, but I'm coming off the back of having influenza.
Influenza.
Oh man, I went downhill last week. I came here on Monday, all was well and good. Then I went to work on Tuesday. You know when you start to get a bit of a headache in the back of your eye sockets, you know that kind of headache. And I was at the warehouse and I said to the girls, has anyone got neuroph And I just got a bit of a headache. I kind of feel like I've got something coming on. But then I was trying to psych myself out of it, like, nah, it's just a headache, Like I'll have neurope and not be fine. And then it all just started to go downhill on the Tuesday night. And then I was off work Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and then I've just stayed home all weekend as well, like just done absolutely nothing. Now it's Monday again and I'm back in the studio and feeling probably ninety percent better, And weirdly enough, getting sick had me reflecting on the difference in my mentality as a business owner getting sick versus when I used to work full time and I would get sick from work.
And I don't know if.
Any other business owners feel the same. I'm sure a lot of you do. But it's just so funny the difference in terms of how I feel about getting sick now versus when I worked full time. So we thought, let's do a little bonus episode and share my thoughts.
You were offline for three to four days. Yeah, in the time that I've known you. Yeah, I have never known you to be offline.
Ever, I was really sick. Yeah.
It got to the point where I was actually like, I haven't even heard from Britain on WhatsApp. I was like, what is going on? Because I sent you some messages and I got no reply.
Oh yeah, I didn't you message me on Wednesday night or something and I wrote back days later hello, sorry, Yeah, I.
Was unwell and okay. So the good thing about.
Me is touch wood, touch bloody would there's no wood in here. I never get sick. And all the work girls say like you never get sick. And I don't know if that's like when you're a business owner, like you, your mentality is telling the universe I can't afford to get sick, therefore I don't get sick.
Kind of thing.
And as the same whereas like why do employees get sick all the time like us business owners just seem to not.
I have a theory on this because I used to never get sick either. Yeah, And so when I used to tour as a performer, you couldn't afford to get sick because you have to do your job. Like you have to do jobs, you're always on the go. And I feel like your body, like when you're always on the go, you're always the one to be dependent on. You have something that you need to like show up for all the time.
Your body.
No, yeah, I feel like your body. There's no science behind this, by the way, I'm eventually talking shit, it's a conspiracy. I feel that your body just just goes into resilience mode. Yeah, and whenever, because whenever I used to get home from touring or whenever, I used to like let that kind of guard downer and I could relax. Yeah, I used to plummet, and I used to get so sick, and it only happened like once every two years, like it was, I never used to get sick. But that's my little non scientific theory.
I think I'm with you on that one. I'm really lucky.
I think the last time I got sick was the first time that I got COVID.
Would that be the last time?
Ajaj's in the room today, by the way, we were trying to get him on the pod, but he refuses. And so that was the last time that I got sick, which was twenty twenty two.
That's when I got COVID.
It's now twenty twenty five, so it's been three ish or maybe two and a half years since the last time I got sick, and last time was COVID. This time I thought it was COVID, but I did one of those tests. I didn't realize the tests that I got. It tests fair like all sorts of things, Like I thought it was just a COVID test.
But then it's like got influenzer. Anyway, it was influenza.
I had influencer A And are you purposely saying influenza?
Okay?
I was like I wouldn't have passed.
You to say influenza, and yeah, I was really unwell and I absolutely hated every second of it. And it just got me thinking, you know, back in the day when I would work jobs that I hated, and thinking back to my last full time jobs that I had working Monday to Friday in my admin roles, like I would kind of get excited at the thought.
Of getting sick because I wouldn't have to go to.
Work, and I think that's like a normal thing, Like I'm going to say, like most employees would be like fuck yeah to having a few days off, Like I don't know about u Zaner, and I don't know what you can say, because I want you to get in trouble off Nova. But like when I would be sick, I'd be like yes, like I wasn't excited at the fact that obviously my body's run down. But when I was an employee, like I loved fucking having to have a week off work because I was sick, whereas now it's the most inconvenient, worst thing in the world as a business owner to have time off. And I was just laying in bed thinking fuck this.
Like I just wanted to be better. I hated that I wasn't at work.
I'm emailing kind of the people that needed to email every day, like calling in sick, being like I'm sick again. Everyone like I'm so sorry, message me if you need and it's just so interesting like that shift in mindset, and I think, reflecting on that, I feel extremely fortunate that I'm in a position with a job that I clearly enjoy enough where I'm bummed if I'm feeling unwell and have to have some days off.
That's the thing I think emailed it is that probably people who are looking forward to being sick and having days off work don't enjoy.
The job exactly.
And look, no one wants to work, like no one wants to I wish we could just get money transferred into our accounts without doing anything, I'd be bloody great. Yeah, but if you're in a job where you genuinely enjoy it, yeah, and like, to be honest, I don't want to get sick. I have a lot to do here, but I enjoyed. I enjoy doing it here and over like it's fun.
Everyone's goal.
Because I said this on my Instagram story yesterday when I was feeling a bit better, and I jump back on my story, like, hey, everyone, what's been going on for the last five days. Someone replied and said, I wish that I could feel that way about going to work, that like, if I was ever sick, that i'd have kind of fomo and I think business owner or not even if you're an employee. Like, I know, it's a weird goal to have, but I feel like it should be everyone's goal to work towards having some type of job or career where if you get sick, you will wish you weren't sick because you would love to be at work kind of thing.
And I know that, like.
Some people were like, well, I'll never achieve that kind of thing. If I was you, I would do anything to achieve that because it's absolutely achievable. And me, back then, when I was working full time, I would have said that same thing. There's no job in the world that I wish that I could be out instead of being sick. But it took me figuring out that I wanted to eventually become my own.
Become become my own boss.
Sorry I'm coming off the back of influencer, okay, but it is achievable to get yourself into a position, whether it's employee or owning your own business, where you will have fomo if you're sick or maybe I'm just a fucking freak.
What do you can about me having a.
Sort You're just so out of sorts today, and it's correct, I'm.
Fucking here and I'm showing up. I wasn't calling in sick to and nova.
Do you as a CEO, boss, what do you have any like tips or do you have any advice on how to like manage a team when you've when you've fallen down, Like obviously you would want your team to be set up to be able to continue, you know, the machine, like working that machine so like it's like nothing ever happened. But like for people who you know, it may not be as simple as that, do you have any advice for them on how to kind of like manage that.
I think it's a good thing to think about if you are a business owner and maybe you're in the earlier stages, think of your team training in the instance of you not being there one time, you know, like before you get sick. I think it's important to look at your team, even if you've got one or two employees set them up for success to the point where if you're not there, they will be fine to do their jobs. I have heard the saying, you know, a good manager will train someone to replace them. That's not a legitimate kind of thing, Like you don't want people to actually replace you, but you should train your team well enough that they could replace you if they had to. And I think that's something really important that we need to do as business owners, is to build our teams up to the point where they're confident.
Enough that they aren't relying on you.
And of course that's going to look different for everyone depending on what part of your business journey you're in. You know, when I think back to the early days of Fate, it was very much Brittany, Am I right to do this? Am I right to do that? What do you think of this?
As this? Okay?
But over the years I've definitely stepped away more and allowed my team to build their own self confidence in making decisions so that they're not constantly coming to me asking for a approval on everything. So I'd say, yeah, when you are well and not healthy, think of what's going to happen if I all of a sudden do become unwell. You know, is this team going to be okay without me? How can I train them in order to give them the confidence? It is just bullying me today.
You can bully me soon, trust me.
Okay, thanks, But yeah, build up your team's confidence in the instance that you might not be there one time. But what if something terribly tragic happens and you're not going to be there for a long period of time. You know, I had three days off and I was like, oh, this is the longest time in the world. Imagine if you know I was going to be off for three weeks sick. I can feel confident in knowing that my team have got this if I was to fall sick for three weeks.
So I'm very lucky for that.
I have a confession to make.
I'm scared.
So you were sick last week and you were there. You are coughing as I'm as I'm talking.
I leant away from a microphone because I don't want whoever's in here next to get influencer.
But what I came to realize when you got sick is that I think I gave it to you because no, yeah, because the weekend before Kylie Minogue I went home sick from work on Thursday because I was feeling quite unwell and I had a bit of a sore throat and a little bit of a temperature and I went, oh, my god, I need to go home now because I have kylieg on the weekend.
Thursday, you were sick, and then I saw you on the Saturday and.
We shared a drink zimber. So I am putting it out here on the podcast and apologizing to you publicly that I'm pretty sure it was me who passed on influenza to you.
Oh and this is my badge. Well there you go. Well I'll tell you what's weird as well.
So and by the way, that's where I thought I got sick from going to the Kylie Minou concert, like because there's so many people there.
I thought she did, Yeah, it's probably from you.
The weirdest thing ever as well is So that was on the Saturday that we went yep, And then I came here on the Monday to do the podcasts as normal. Then I went to work on the Tuesday and I was working around everyone, and I was working with one of the girls in the warehouse kind of closer. But that day I only had the headache in my eyelids. Now she's got it. But I only saw her that one day, and it wasn't when I had like any symptoms other than a little bit of a headache.
And I'm like, how the if she's gotten that from me?
How Like, well, it's because you've got it from me, that's how.
But I barely had it then I had a headache in my eyeball.
But you think, like how easy COVID was to like pass on summer, do you know what I mean? So true, so apologies, but it was it was probably.
Men if I hadn't have seen you.
Yeah, And then on Monday as well, I went home, I was like, oh, I feel I do still feel a little bit. I'mwell now, I know it's true. I know when you when I realized you'd gone downhill and had all those days, I was.
Like, oh fuck, it was me.
I kind of feel better now though, because like it's not as gross coming from you.
Yay, so thank you so much.
When it comes to getting sick and you're a business owner, you can feel like the worst boss in the world, like you're letting the team down. I know those are my thoughts because we had so much that we wanted to achieve in those three days that I was supposed to be at work.
We had a photo shoot.
Planned, I had a heap of content I needed to do because we've got this secret sale coming up, which would have already been by the time this comes out. So I'm fine to say that. And I just didn't get to do any of it. But that's when you know your team will step in and they're like, that's all right, we'll do the content. We've got this and it kind of made me feel okay with just you know, getting better rather than constantly worrying. And also, obviously AJ was going to work every day and it's good that I have him as well, which, by the way, I don't know how AJ hasn't gotten sick, Like he's been sleeping next to me every single night.
Do you know why his body knows? Yeah, you know what I mean. He has to be resilient. For you, I'm telling you, it's a real thing. Yeah.
Well, look, hopefully that's it for me for the next few years. Touch would and the annoying thing as well, because when you don't get sick, often when you do get sick, you're really sick, Whereas I feel like most people, like every second month someone gets a little sore throat or whatever, like I don't ever get that, like I'm either healthy or like can't get out of bed. Like just give me like a little sore throat every now and then where it's still normal and functioning. But anyway, hopefully that's it for me when it comes to getting sick. If you are a business owner and you do get sick, look after yourself.
You don't even have to be.
A business owner to look after yourself when you get sick. But I know it can be challenging when you have so much, so much respects if.
You're not a business owner, start.
What was that when you?
When you? When you? When you do? You know that little kid insert the clip of that little kid?
Oh God that you you had?
You you could you do you want? You could do so but no, when you have a lot of responsibility and a lot of people counting on you and then you fall sick, you can feel really guilty and like you're letting everyone down. But this is when you have to put trust into your team that they all know what they're doing and they're fine to manage on their own and if you are a business owner, maybe you're newer or.
You have new employees. What are you off right now?
Start to think about how you can set your team up for success in the case that you might be off work at some stage.
But that's it for me. That's a random sick episode. Fully sick, Yes, fully sick, mate, yeah, fully sick episode.
And thank you so much Sandra for admitting that it was you that made me sick.
Sorry,
