Hi, I'm Britney Saunders and welcome to Big Business, the place where business is far from boring.

And today I'm recording on gaddigall Land.

Now I somehow managed to build an empire from the garage underneath my house and I'm here to share it all with you, from the wins, the mistakes, the challenging times and the funny moments in between.

So, whether you're in business already, perhaps you're not in the game at all, maybe you're just looking for some inspo, or you simply just want to hear the tea, this is the podcast for you.

Happy twenty twenty six everyone.

How on earth is it a new year already?

I said at the end of last year, twenty twenty five went so fast, like offensively quick, And now we're back in the new year.

And I feel like when you're in business, the new year is even more of a thing.

Like you know, just year by year, we all set goals in the new year and we want to go back to the gym and work on my diet and sleep better and do my skincare routine more.

But I feel like when you're in business there's just this extra layer, right because we're thinking about business.

We're thinking about what we want to do in the new year, all the things that we want to change, all the things that we fucked up in the year before.

It's never ending, but starting a new year is really exciting.

I know.

For me, it's great that all of our head office team kind of go on leave over the holidays.

AJ and I have had a lovely break ourselves for the second year in a row, which is absolutely amazing, and it's just fun and exciting to have everyone coming in after the Christmas break and New Year and just get excited about everything in twenty twenty six.

So happy new Year, and I'm wishing you all an amazing one.

I want to talk a little bit before I get into it.

In this episode to kick off the new year, I'm going to talk about my goals of twenty twenty six.

Now you'll remember at the end of last year, I went through some of my goals that i'd set for twenty twenty five, and I actually didn't really achieve many of them, which is okay, As I always say, we're keeping things real here on Big Business, and if that means I don't stick to any of my goals that I had for myself or my business, so be it.

But I've been looking into the year that was twenty twenty five a little bit right, and I just wanted to share this with you.

I did share this on my other podcast, High Scrollers, and my co host Matt he wasn't really into it, but I thought maybe the big business listeners would be into this.

Did you know that twenty twenty five was the year of the Snake and twenty twenty six is the year of the horse.

The snake was the year of the snake, was a year that cleared your path.

I don't know if this resonates with anyone, but it truly does for me in many aspects of my life and business.

And then twenty twenty six being the year of the horse, it's going to move you forward, which I love.

So I'm really embracing the year of the horse this year in twenty twenty five says this, The year of the Snake was filled with truth, grief, endings, detox, end of cycles, shedding, and lifting of veils.

If any of that resonates with you for twenty twenty five, I'm right there with you.

Hello, Producer Rex here.

Hello, that really resonated with me in twenty twenty five.

Yeah, yeah, the new the shedding.

Lifting of veils, yeah, the endings.

Details, oh yeah, yeah, for good end for bar.

Yeah, exactly right.

I think we all learn a lot in twenty twenty five, and then we've got twenty twenty six, the Year of the Horse, which is this year it's all about movement, new beginnings, alignment, freedom, returning to truth, beauty, passion, flow, power, and opportunity power.

It sounds like it's going to be a great year.

I know, Joe.

I feel like the last good year was like twenty sixteen, and this has a six in it two, So I feel like this is a good year.

It's a good sign.

Yeah, it's a good sign, a great sign.

Yeah.

I feel like all the years have been kind of weird for the last like five years, I want to say all last ten, yeah, honestly, last thirty two.

Yes, my whole life, it's been a bit weird, you know.

But I'm welcoming the Year of the Horse and let's all have an amazing year together.

I also hope it slows down a little bit because I can't deal with how quick twenty twenty five went.

Yeah, it was actually harrowing.

Yeah, Like I remember us at the beginning of last year going what are we going to do for the first episode of twenty twenty five.

Again, I know we've blinked and it's absolutely flown.

But to start off the new year, we thought, let's set some goals for myself and let's read them out, let's put them out there into the world, which, by the way, is actually kind of scary to write down goals and then put them out on social media and to the world.

But I'm going to do it.

And then what I'm going to do in December this year, which will be here in about five minutes everyone, I'm going to go back through these and see if we achieved them.

Now, one of my goals of twenty twenty five, I said, I'm going to bring it into twenty twenty six because I didn't quite achieve it in twenty twenty five, and that goal is to enjoy it a little more.

This is something that I feel like I'm going to have this as a goal every single year.

But as I said in my episode at the end of twenty twenty five, when you're in business, it's actually really hard to stop and smell the roses.

And if you feel that way in your business, just know that you're not alone.

I feel exactly the same.

We have so many amazing days and moments at Fate.

We have so many people who are achieving so many things and doing amazing work, and we do so much exciting stuff and even just a little things like photo shoots and activations and all this.

But when you're at the head of it and you're leading, it can be hard to actually enjoy that stuff because you're just always thinking of the next thing, or you're thinking about all the things that are going wrong in the background while you're trying to enjoy it.

But I truely want to make it a goal of mine this year to stop and smell the roses.

I even wrote about this in my book and how it's something that I really struggle with.

And if you own a business, I know that you know what I'm talking about.

While everything is amazing, you can still just be so bunked down by the little day to day things.

So a huge goal of mine this year is to just stop and enjoy it a little more and kind of let go of the head noise, even though you can't really because it all falls back on you at the end of the day.

But I'm absolutely bringing that goal with me into twenty twenty six and I'm actually going to apply it to my life.

I'm going to do some more practical goals this year because I feel like my goals last year they were all like mental goals.

It was like, enjoy it more, stop feeling guilty about not being able to help everyone.

Like I'm gonna have those with me forever.

But let's do some practical goals to see if I can actually achieve them.

The first thing that I want to do this year is relaunch our swim.

Okay, this is tea because I don't know if you realize the amount of dams.

I'm still getting on the Instagram about sable Swim.

What's happened?

Well?

Have you have you got the We did an episode about it.

No, they want to know another update.

I don't want to know.

What's gone on with the copy was a copyright, no trademark, trademark trademark.

That is still going on.

But I have a plan B.

The t Yeah, I have a plan B and I've started working on it.

At the end of twenty twenty five, when things have progressed, I don't know if I can say, because I don't want to get in trouble, but I just have a plan B and I'm going to go with a different angle, That's all I'm going to say.

And I would love to bring back our swim this year just because I feel as if though there's a huge gap in the swim market when it comes to just good swimmers, you know, and I think everyone that buys swimwear, bikini swimsuits, you know that there's some great brands out there, but I feel like Fate.

I feel like Fate can be the one to knock it out of the park.

So that's a huge goal for me, is to relaunch Swim hopefully this year.

It might get pushed into you know, early twenty twenty seven, like January or something, but I'm going to do everything that I can to bring this swimwear back and bring it back with a bang.

So I've got that on my list.

In terms of another physical goal of mine, again, something we've been working on for a really long time, I want to launch our men's line.

I really want to make that happen.

So fingers crossand is like, yeah.

I've been working with you for two years and I have not been able to purchase any products.

You know, there is there are some products already that you'd be able to purchase and wear, like Matt wears out Downtown pants and absolutely no, you're so right.

Yeah, we've got a lot of like unis excited.

For, like a men's range.

Well, I'm putting it on my goals and I want to make it happen in twenty twenty six.

Fingers crossed.

I've just been waiting for our trademark to get approved for the name of that.

How exciting.

Yeah, And right now, at the time of recording this, it's in like a period where it's been like early accepted, like the Limbo almost, and you have like a three month period where anyone would like a similar name or whatever can come and object that lovely, and then it might push it back into a whole other cycle.

Okay, but fingers crossed.

Yeah, how many how much time have we are we into that?

I think there's something like a month or so left maybe, or maybe because we are pre recording this a little early.

Yeah, hopefully by the time this episode comes out, I'll have an answer and hopefully we get it passed so then I can actually hit go, because I don't want to start, you know, making anything with this name on it if I'm then going to get in trouble down the track.

Y you've just dropped too like delicious bits of tea, the swim where and also a men's raid.

Yeah this is hectic.

Yeah, keep going.

Tell me more.

The next goal, which is a little bit practical, but it's more behind the scenes one.

I want this to be the year of elevation for Fate.

I really want to level up the way that we do everything from the inside out and everything in between, from our service in stores to especially our customer service.

That's one thing I want to put a massive focus on this year.

We already have amazing customer service at Fate.

Everyone that contacts us, whether they call us or they email us, we're always getting so much positive feedback.

But I never want to be a business owner that thinks, yep, we do that perfectly, because there's no such thing.

You can always do things better and better and better.

And honing in on our elevation with customer service and the customer experience is something that I want to take to the next level.

I feel like we've already done an amazing job with our in store experience.

We have our Fate Society Facebook group where people are posting in there every day saying I've just been into Fate.

Paramatter, I've just been into Fate Miranda and had the best experience ever.

I'd love to elevate the other areas of our business with a huge focus on customer service.

I want Fate to become known like if people think of Fate now or they tell their friend about Fate, Oh yeah, they've got the really nice stores and everyone's really lovely.

I want our customer service channels to become part of our brand, and when people talk about us, I want them to say, and have you seen the way they do their customer service?

And just to give you some little tips and insights or ways that I want to elevate our customer service.

We have our Fate Hotline which people can call Monday to Friday and ask us any questions, which people have been utilizing and absolutely loving.

But I want to introduce a program where we call our customers to our them for feedback, because how nice would it be, you know, if you ordered with a business online or you shopped in store and then you get a random call a week later and it's like, Hey, it's Brittany here from Fate.

I saw that you went to our churm side store recently, and I just wanted to call up and ask how your experience was.

Like wouldn't that be nice to then feel valued in that way, to be like, oh, okay, like they want my feedback, and I want to learn more from our customers and take on that feedback so we can then elevate our experience even more.

We also want to and we have been working on.

It's not out yet, but we are working on a new mystery shopper program.

When you think of mystery shoppers, you think petrifying, right, if you're working in retail, you're like, oh my god, not the mystery shoppers.

We have done mystery shoppers a couple of times, but way back in the day, like when I just had my one Fate store and it was very basic.

You know, we got someone we know to go in and just ask a couple of questions and then they came back to us and said this, that and the other.

Because we have such a big community at Fate and so many amazing people that want to see us succeed, as a brand, which I feel like is absolutely priceless.

We're wanting to build a mystery shopper program that involves our community and our teams, but we turn it into something really positive.

I don't want it to be adaunting mystery shopper program that we release and our retail teams are shitting themselves that the mystery shoppers could be in at any moment.

But we kind of want to build a community program where we will most likely use our Fate Society members to be part of this program where it's not for them to go in and criticize every single thing, but it can be more about empowering and lifting up our teams and bettering the way that we do things.

So that's something that we've started working on in the end of twenty twenty five that we're hoping to launch in twenty twenty six, and again, like, I just love for that to become known as a thing that we do at Fate.

Do you know Fate they've got their lovely stores, the lovely staff, their customer service is amazing, and did you know they've got this really cool mystery shopper program, you know, where it's like a community within itself.

So I'm really excited for that and hopefully we will launch that.

I'll report back at the end of the year and let you know did we launch the Mystery Shop a program and how did it go.

But that all falls under the umbrella of I just want it to be our year of elevation.

We have a company word of the year, which I haven't decided yet at the point of recording this, but I think it's going to have something to do with elevation.

Did I ever say our word of the year for last year?

You did, and I forget what it is.

Our word of twenty twenty five was pioneer.

That's right, you did say.

I did say that on the phone.

Now at the time of recording this, I don't have our word of the year.

We're going to be working that out anytime now.

But I think it's going to have something to do with elevation, and I feel like with it being like the year of the Horse, it's going to tie in really well, just elevate and power.

And galloping into twenty twenty six.

Yeah, absolutely, piss bolting, piss bolting into twenty twenty six.

I just we want to elevate the way we do everything, which is a great goal to have, but it's also I put a lot of pressure on myself because we already do everything wonderfully at Fate, Like We're already all doing the most, and I'm just this overachiever, like, but we can do more, Like we can do it better.

But I really just want to elevate Fate as a business and a brand and have the customers feel that.

I want them to feel the elevation of the brand.

Whether that's better service in store, more personalized services in store.

Maybe we could do styling sessions.

We get asked all the time, can you do like private styling sessions?

And I'm always like, yeah, just go in and ask our staff and they'll help you out.

But maybe we can look at that closer and actually make that an activation.

Whether that's more community based events, better products, better photo shoots, better campaigns.

That's something that we've been working on in twenty twenty five, and we want to do more of just elevating Fate as a brand in every area possible.

It's a huge, huge goal of mine, a personal goal of mine that I want to do this year.

Whether it will happen or not, I don't know, but I'd like to go on a holiday with AJ for more than two weeks, for more than two weeks.

Where would what would be your destination of choice?

Right?

I want to do a euro Summer?

Oh yeah, have you ever done Eurosummer?

And has A ever been?

Yeah?

He has, but in his early twenties when he, like you know, was just backpacking and doing all that fun sort of partying stuff.

But AJ and I have only ever had two weeks off fate at the most.

And the first time that we did that was Christmas of twenty twenty four, So we've had to the last two Christmases, we've had two weeks break and we've never had any more than that time off.

And so this year hopefully I actually need to start organizing it soon because it's like in the middle of this year.

I would love for us to be able to go away.

For Can you bring me?

Yeah?

You can?

You've got yeah?

Is that you approval?

Like I've just approved your leave.

Right, are you?

Yeah?

Yeah?

Can you just let over know?

Yeah, I'm letting them know through this podcast to Xander's boss and Over, just letting you know the leave for Xander has been We're actually.

Doing big business from Europe.

Yeah, technically work we.

Could, but I would love to be able to go away for even three weeks, which I've never done that before, because I just think that would be so nice to kind of like step away and say we'll be back in three weeks and I could shoot heaps of stuff over there.

I imagine if I could shoot the swim over there, if it's ready in like.

A Spanish beach or something.

On the Italy, on the Italy, on the Italy, on the Italian coastline, wouldn't that be a vibe that's more of a personal goal.

I know this is a business podcast, but also I think it ties in because you need to have breaks when you're a business owner, and you need to treat yourself.

This also ties back into me stepping back and enjoying everything a little bit more, rather than being worried about everything that's happening at work every day and never stopping and actually just going, you know what, this is fucking awesome.

Yeah, as it is to you the horse you need to trot around.

I do have a bit of fun.

I do.

I'm galloping over to Italy watch me go, But a big holiday with AJ more than two weeks is a goal of mine.

Let's see if we are going to make it happen.

I'm going to leave one more little goal.

That's not a little goal, it's a big one, mind you.

I've got these now, but I've got like a million other things that I want to do, you know, and throughout the year, I'll come up with more things.

But I guess these are just going to be my main goals to kick off twenty twenty six.

But the last goal for me is grow my business more for the sole purpose of creating more opportunities for my current staff and future staff.

One of my favorite things about running Fate and growing it to the size that it has been is the satisfaction that I weirdly get from witnessing my team grow within their careers and everything that I do I do for Fate.

I want Fate to grow because I love the opportunities that come with it, whether that's us being able to create really new and exciting roles for people and roles that we've never had before.

I feel like that is so exciting within itself.

Getting your business to a point where you're like, hang on, I think we need this kind of person in the business.

We've never had someone like that before.

And also I just get such a kick out of watching the growth of my team, especially those that I've worked with for a long time over the years.

It's been so satisfying.

And I know that might sound like selfish, but to watch my team grow within their roles and develop as women and you know, move forward with complete confidence like in the Year of the Horse, I just get a real kick out of that.

And I want my team to grow within their roles if they it, of course, Like I know, there's some people that just happy doing what they're doing and they don't want to take on any new responsibilities or manage any people, and I'm all for that as well, to be honest, I think that would be nice.

Like for me, sometimes I'd love to just go to work and then go home and not think about it.

But I love doing business.

But I equally as much enjoy watching my team grow within their roles, and that can be through taking on new responsibilities, changing roles, receiving promotions.

I love giving a pay rise, like I want to do more of that, but for me to be able to do that, I need to grow fate.

When I had grace on last year.

If you listened to that episode, Grace was our national retail manager and she's just been promoted into a new position at the end of twenty five and going into this year, and it's just so exciting to, you know, just see someone absolutely shining and to kind of step back and let them do that.

When you're a business owner, you've got to get out of the way of your staff and your business.

It's very easy to get caught up in the day to day and think I'll do it, it's easier, blah blah blah.

But if you just step back and let them do their thing, like the business will absolutely explode.

But it's up to me to get my business to that point.

And I know that's one thing that Grace touched on in the episode that I did with her, which if you didn't listen, Grace is out.

Was our national retail manager and she's been with us for five years now and she's just an absolute weapon.

And one of the things that she said to me in that episode that has stuck with me, which I feel was very I don't want to say mature, but maybe mature of her to say and recognize as an employee is sometimes the business isn't always ready for what you want and you have to be patient with that.

That really stuck with me when she said that.

I was like, Grace, that is such a good thing for you to realize.

And I feel that majorly owning a growing business is I want to keep this thing growing so that my team can have those opportunities for growth as well, because I never want someone to kind of get stuck at a point where they're like, I feel like I can't grow, and then Fate isn't growing.

So I feel like a lot of responsibility on my shoulders to like keep growing Fate so that my staff can keep growing as well.

Yeah.

I think we spoke about this on an episode last year where I think someone was asking for advice about promotion.

But it's realizing that when you're a worker in the business, it's all about you and your head, but there's actually a bigger picture.

And when you realize that bigger picture, it actually becomes easier for you to navigate and for you to get a better understanding of like we actually where you fit in and the opportunity.

It's a really good not pattern to recognize, but for employees to be able to recognize, like it's amazing to want growth, and when someone tells me they want growth, I will never forget that, and when they're showing that they want that, but I think it's also just really nice for them to understand I'm ready for this right now, this is what I want to do, but also for them to be able to go.

But I can see that the business isn't quite there yet, so I'm just gonna hold tight and I know it's coming kind of thing.

Ye, So that's my last big goal of twenty twenty six is scale Fate, which is just a general goal.

You always want to continue growing your business, but I want to do it because I want to see my staff keep growing in their careers and roles because it's just awesome, like especially because we are a predominantly women based workplace.

Just to see a bunch of women just absolutely fucking slaying in my business like it, like I don't know, like that makes me feel a million bucks like business.

Yeah, sure, it's about me, and I started Fate for me, but it's not like it's about everyone else now.

And I get such a kick when I just see everyone's confidence building, you know, And I'll use April as an example.

Sorry, April, I'm just using you as an example.

But she's also been with us for five years now, and when she first started, she started working in our warehouse, and I remember, this was April that would be too scared to make a phone call or to answer a phone call, like you know, like cause she'd just be like, no, I'm too nervous, blah blah blah.

And now like she's here helping with my pod, she says yes and no to all the deals that we do on here.

She'll have phone calls with Rachel nov or whoever, and she just goes hello, April speaking And like even just that little thing of her going from not being confident enough to take a call to her doing my calls and emails for me now in her role, I'm like, yes, Like that gives me so much satisfaction.

And I think that's a bit of business that people don't really speak about.

But it's just like how proud you feel to see the growth of your staff.

And I've got so many amazing people working at Fate that are perfect examples of that.

So that is my last goal of twenty twenty six.

Of course, I've got a million more.

But I feel like we've got to kick off every year with this kind of episode and then we can come back at the end of the year and see just how many of these I did.

Hopefully we do this swim in the men's range because they're like the two physical ones.

That I better do the men's range.

I'd love to do the pop up stores as well.

Like, there's so many things I want to do, and the year goes in like five seconds these days, so I better stop recording this episode.

Yeah, I've got a lot that I need to do.

Will be planning the roundup of the year before you know it.

Oh, no, slow down.

But welcome to twenty twenty six.

Everyone.

Thank you so much for all of your support in twenty twenty five, and I'm sure we're gonna have a lot of exciting things in store for Big Business in twenty twenty six.

I need to end with a tip of the week.

Are we still doing the Tip of the week this year?

I love the Tip of the week?

Britts always like, should we change it to something else?

Can you give us feedback?

Actually, that's the tip of the week for you guys.

Send us a DM on Big Business Podcast on Instagram.

Would you like us to change the tip of the week and do something different at the end of every episode?

Yeah, Jeff suggestions for us?

Or do you love it?

We could do a shout out to a business at the end of every episode.

That's yummy.

Yeah, let's brainstorm that.

Yeah.

Everyone, if you're listening this far, which hopefully you are, let us know.

Would you like that instead where we give a shout out to someone who has contacted us through DMS or something.

Let us know.

Please, But I'll end this episode with a Tip of the week just because to kick off the new year.

Don't forget why you started.

Like I said in this episode, and like I say all the time, it's very easy to get stressed out in business and caught up in the day to day and oh my god, is this even worth it?

Am I cut out for this?

Trust me?

I feel these feelings every day.

Don't forget why you started in the first place.

And also, don't forget who you are.

Don't forget who you are in times where you're feeling stressed.

I've even had some people DM me sometimes and they've said, hey, Britt, like I was doing something today that was a bit scary, and I thought of you, and I thought what would Britt do in this situation?

And that's always like the biggest compliment.

But then sometimes I feel like I need to remind myself of that, what would I do in a time where I'm feeling stressed, because you know, stress can get the best of all of us and we can be our harshest critics.

But yeah, don't forget who you are or why you started whatever it is that you're doing, or why you're starting what you're currently starting.

So that's my tip of the week.

That's all for my first episode of twenty twenty six.

I'm so excited for this year.

Let's all bring on the year of the Horse and gallop through twenty twenty six together.

Come on, people, it's a pack of Wait, what's a pack of horses?

Is it called a pack?

I don't know.

Let's quickly I heard I heard of horse head.

A pack of horses?

No, I feel like it's another word.

Let me ask chat you with Tea, what is like a pack of horses called?

She's thinking a group of horses can be caught a few different things.

I heard of horses.

I heard a team, a string horse, a string of horses.

We are a string of horses.

Everyone.

I'm at the front and you're all.

Come on with me or a stud I'll be the start.

Is a male horse or something?

Yeah, a group of breeding stallions.

Nice.

Well that's all for the first ep of twenty twenty six.

Remember to chase after your dreams as if they are your money.