Running a successful business and managing a new baby - feat. Brooke Vulinovich

A business, a baby, covid, and an international relocation are just a few things I chat about with all-round legend Brooke Vulinovich.

Brooke is an Instagram specialist, international keynote speaker, creator of the global Social Club Membership and Academy, and a regular guest on Channel 9 News Perth. 

Brooke specialises in educating businesses on exactly how to leverage the power of Social Media to increase their brand awareness and boost their bottom line.

Follow Brooke personally and via The Social Club Community at:
Instagram @brookevulinovich
Website brookevulinovich.com
Instagram @socialclubcommunity
Facebook socialclubcommunity
Website socialclubcommunity.com

Join the conversation with me over on:
Instagram @iamtaraladd
Linkedin tarajoyladd
Website taraladd.com

Transcript

Brooke Vulinovich: 0:00

Just a heads up if you've got little ears around this podcast contains some swearing.

Tara Ladd: 0:09

Hi, you're listening to the word be a straight shooter podcast that generates real conversations about the systemic issues surrounding working women motherhood, business ownership, and society as a whole. I'm your host, Tara Ladd, owner of brand design agency, your one and only mother of two boys, and a champion of working in a balanced society.

Brooke Vulinovich: 0:38

Hi, guys, you're joining me today. And I have a very special guest. And I'd like to introduce you to Brooke Vulinovich. Hi, guys. As you can tell, Brooke is full of energy. And I just bloody love who she is. That's why I've asked her to come on here. But more importantly, she's an absolute boss at what she does been a big fan for a really long time. We've been some good best buddies over the last five years I've been in business. So I wanted to bring her on and talk about you know, how her life's going. And more specifically, I guess, the Juggle of having a child and running a really successful business. So before I jump right into that, Brooke, I'm going to swing it over to you. Why don't you let everyone know all about you and what you do. All righty. pressures on. So I'm an Instagram business coach for small businesses. I have a membership based business called the Social Club, where I educate businesses on kind of how to grow and sell using Instagram. So it's a global community now, which I'm very proud of will be five years in December, we've had 3000 members, which is just amazing blows my mind in 34 countries across the globe who are using Instagram to let the world know they exist and to you know, support their lives and support their families something that I now get on a very different level. Isn't it interesting? I love that. I guess. Well, you know, I love the fact that what I really love about what you do is just the way that you deliver it right? I mean, and you'll hear about it, she's not your everyday Instagram coach guys, like they're they're literally coming out every every angle of your body. But you know what I mean? Like, but every orifice out totally. And I think it's finding the right person. And you just bring such a great energy that just makes people want to really invest in themselves. I think that's really great. So that's my two cents. Yeah, that's cute. I love that. I can actually say I've done Brooke's membership, too. And it was really, really good when I was doing it.

Tara Ladd: 2:41

But I'm gonna dive into what you do a bit more. And I know you've mentioned it recently on your Instagram. But can you let everyone know where you started and how you got to where you are now?

Brooke Vulinovich: 2:52

Well, I started in my apartment in my one bedroom apartment, and do you know what I did not even start on a desk. I started on the I started on the side of the TV cabinets, because that's all I had to work on. I didn't I didn't have a desk, I had a TV cabinet, which is proof that you don't need all the fancy things to make things work. And I just worked really hard over the years and I started teaching social media workshops. I was actually teaching Instagram and Facebook. Back. Yeah, back six years ago, actually. And I was consulting, I was writing social media strategies. I was doing bigger workshops. And then obviously from that came keynote presenting. And I was working a million hours a week. And I was just really hitting burnout. And it was suggested to me multiple times to put my training online. But two things I was terrified of getting copied because I had such. Yeah, I had such massive impostor syndrome that I just didn't think I could possibly be the best option. And so I thought if I put my IP online, someone bigger and better and cooler and smarter is going to come along, take what I'm teaching, put it under their brand, and I can say sayonara to business. So I really pushed back on going online. And something else that really stopped me from going online, which is gonna sound really fucking stupid when I say it out loud now, but just hear me out. The feedback that I got when I was teaching is everything you just said, Tara, that it was the energy that I gave that inspired people to show up for themselves show up for their business and I was so worried that because up until that point, everything I've done was in person. It wouldn't translate online, but my entire business was social media. The only reason People came to my workshops was because of my social media. And like, it just sounds so stupid to even say that out loud now, but it's genuinely what I thought back then. So don't ask me. And then it got to a point where Instagram started well i niched down to Instagram, which was because everyone started teaching Facebook. Now everyone teaches Instagram. So everyone went right and I went left and I started hearing that people were coming to me for Instagram and referring to me as the person to go to for Instagram. So I was like, Okay, if that's what people want, I'll just focus on Instagram. And Instagram started changing like rapidly, and business owners would come and they do my three hour workshop, and then Instagram would hit with an update, and the business owners will contact me and say, Do we come repeat your workshop? And I remember saying, Well, it's a waste of your time and your money to repeat the entire workshop, when really all you need is about 10 minutes of the workshop. And so I thought, how can I continue to stay in communication with these business owners and let them know when an update hits, and train them in what it is and how to use it to keep making sales and keep growing on the platform. And that's when the need for what the the need for wanting to help my people and help my customers actually became more than my own stories. I was telling myself in my head, I started the membership. And by accident, it ended up being what grew my business globally. 100%. I do it's very funny you say that, because I had this conversation with one of my friends recently. Obviously, COVID is just fucked everyone. Yeah, how we do things even the way we markets differently now. Right. But I'm I know, for one, I haven't put my prices up since July last year, because I just am very cautious of where people are emotionally. And I also feel that it's I don't know, I don't want to be part of the contribution of inflation. I just yeah, you know what I mean? Like, I know, it will have to go up eventually, obviously. But right now, they don't need to. But yeah, I was talking to my friend the other day about that exact thing. And it was that sometimes we need to then get to the bottom, find whatever is available or go back to even the drawing board of what we can offer. Find out what that is put it out there and just see what sticks. And sometimes the thing that grows us is the thing that we just did not think was ever going to be that thing. So I find that like an absolute testament to what I just said. It's just It's classic. And I think that's why I think we can't be fixated in what we do, right. Like you have to always be open to new things and the direction and I love the fact that you you had impostor syndrome like you know, still Don't you even I said this like, so someone will ask me a question about design. And I can talk to the cows come home about design. But then someone will ask me to talk if they would ask me to talk with like, high level above the line agencies. I'd be like, Oh, fuck Wait, like, you know. And even though I know that I probably know half of what if not more than these people, because half of them in the leadership positions probably a younger than me. I just still get like, it's because of that status, right? Like you still always get that impostor syndrome. It's DC. Do you reckon that's a chick thing? Oh, yeah. And you know what, it's not just a cheap thing. It's also a mother thing. And I have reading this phenomenal book, which connects the dots. And as a new mom, it's blown my mind. And the books called me first. And I'm also called Kate Christie. And she talks about how in motherhood, you know, you're constantly winging it, and you're constantly just trying to find your way and constantly failing with certain things. And, you know, you try and bring your pre pre motherhood, life and systems and processes into your post motherhood life. And as you know, there's no such fucking thing as automating a baby. And because you know, you're home hormonal, and you're sleep deprived, and you're everything, you can't help but just automatically let that flow then into your business and your career life and you start doubting yourself and everything you're doing on this side, because of everything that's going on on your personal side. And it makes so much sense. Ah, so much. Yes, so much. And I can testament to me at the moment because of that, because yeah, the boys, like I said to Brooke, prior to us hitting record on this today, that I have just rushed to the studio because both my kids are sick again. So this is week four of them not being a daycare. It's driving us both absolutely insane, because, you know, it's the juggle and you know, you know, everyone knows if you run a business, that there's just all of these untapped hours that you invest into your business that are just never seen and it's things like creating a process, reading a book, implementing systems are doing all The admin is shit in the background to make sure that everything else can run smoothly setting pricing strategies, working marketing strategies, like it's, there's just so many layers and anyone that doesn't run a business just would not even like so when someone says to us, oh, why don't you just quit and go back to your nine to five? Oh my god just, let's just not even an option. It's just not. But that makes so much sense, right? Because you feel like you're in this bubble, right? And it's an everything that is going on is within that bubble. But sometimes you just need to kind of step back, have a breath and reassess. But yeah, I get massive, I find I get more impostor syndrome now. And that would probably make a lot of sense. Love that you've suggested. I'm gonna have to have a read of that. It's really good. I highly recommend any any mother in business is not just in business. Any working mom? Yes, it reads it's got a lot of like, oh, fuck, yep. That makes a lot of moments. Yeah. And I think that that's so well, obviously, that's why this podcast exists. It's obviously about working women and the the juggle and the emotional load that just comes out of nowhere. Like, oh, okay, here we go, given all this life admin stuff before the kid comes in. Yeah, all of a sudden, you realise that, okay, this is a whole thing like this is so much like, that's why you're saying to one of my friends that having three gives me anxiety. So my friends that have that many, but you know, I guess your business is almost like as much attention. It's not, it's not another baby, but it is as much attention as you would invest into a child. So it's just that much more emotional load, you know? So I will, I guess just segue straight into it. So okay, let's talk about Brooke, the mom. Your business is not only successful, but you are the face of it. Right? So how did you manage in the lead up to step away from it all? So well, my child Carlo, my second baby, I, I reckon your business is your first baby. And it really is. He was planned. So that obviously was helpful. And from the moment that I found out, I was pregnant, I basically knew then I was sort of working with the deadline. So I started writing down every single thing I did in my business every single day, in order and just writing it down just because you know, I am well, at that point I was six years in. So there's a lot of what you do that just become so robotic and automatic, and you kind of don't even realise you're doing it. And I did this for a while, a couple of weeks. And then I basically started going, alright, I've got a pretty clear system now of what I'm doing consistently, because I always time blocked, as well, as the massive time block. I'm very, I've always been very big on routine and time blocking worked for me to grow my business. And I realised very quickly that not all of these things, were going to be able to work post baby. So I was looking at what I was doing, and really noting down right from from this list and from this task, and from this day, and from this week, what can I automate? What can I outsource? Or do I need to hire someone in to take that role? And what actually just has to has to be paused and what has to go on hold? And I did that, like, you know, you're pregnant for a really fucking long time. On paper, it's nine, almost 10 months. In reality, it's about 15 years. And it's a long time to prepare. Yeah, because of how long it took we know from the get go right? Like that's the thing, you know, from the start. Yeah. And you know, when other people don't know, as well. So it was just a process of working out. Yeah, who do I need to train? Or do have I got that I can train. What do I need to change, update, automate? And what do I need to what do I need to put on hold until I'm ready? So that's what I did in the lead up to having Carlo. And then I prepared for 12 weeks, I thought, well, from a lot of advice as well. It was gonna be I thought it was going to be real bad. I don't know what I was expecting. But I had an angel baby. And literally all he did was eat and sleep. I was a month early, which definitely threw a spanner in the works. Because I thought I yeah, I thought I had another month but it's what's that thing? It's some law where you will fit a task into the time you have once that there's some law around it something some saying around it. I'm gonna say Parkinson's Law, but that just doesn't sound right. But basically my entire month that I had scheduled of work to do I managed to get done pretty much up until I was having the baby. Just because I knew Holy shit, I have a fire up my ass and I need to get this done now. So I was prepared to have 12 weeks off, actually had everything ready to go, and then calmly ate and slept every three hours on the dot. And because that five days that I had in the hospital was really the longest five days I've kind of had off since I'd started my business. I was bored. Yeah, I was born by the end of it. And I also and I don't offer as a hormones or what it was. I got really creative, and I started thinking of ideas and people. Because I hadn't right, so from business anyway, yeah, from business, let's let's be clear. I ended up going back after about Yeah, like five, five, I think I checked my emails for the first time after like five days, and went pretty much full steam back into it that I was doing almost full time. Until Paulo was about six months. That's when the big change was for me. Yeah. He went through some sort of sleep thing and stopped sleeping and started waking up like every 45 minutes and and they give me got more active. And that's when it just got, like, challenging for me. And I really, I really was having a hard time behind the scenes. I think for me personally like Carlos, almost a year. And we're really good now. But I think for me, seven to 10 months, was the most challenging part and way more challenging than the start. And because it I didn't expect it then because it was relatively easy. When I first had him. I was just, I don't know. Yeah. This isn't as bad as I thought. And I can actually get quite a bit of work done. And you know, then they start moving and talking and eating. And it just gets more challenging. And I had to reassessing and change, change everything based on that. And we did, we made lots of changes. My husband looks after him on a Monday so that I can have a really big workday on a Monday. And my mom watches him on a Friday, which is my backup work day. And my assistant comes on a Tuesday. We do like business development on a Tuesday. And then the other days are really just sort of what I can get done in his naps. And I did go through a process like I remember first when I was like I remember saying to my husband like sitting down having the chat about daycare, and we went and looked at daycare as and I had so much advice that like if it doesn't feel right. It's not the daycare for you keep looking. So we looked and we looked and we looked and it took until I think about seven daycares for me to be like I like this one. Yeah, apparently, so did everybody else in Perth. And I didn't know that daycares had wild waitlist. And really like one piece of advice I wish I was given was start looking for daycares when you're pregnant if there's something you think you might want to do. But it ended up in hindsight being good. Because what would I've done if he went in daycare, I just work every day. And it was a bit of a reality check for me that I left I quit my job and started a business so that when I started a family, I could be at home with my family. Here I was at home with my family trying to prioritise my business. And it was a it was a slap in the face. But it was a good one that I just thought, well hang on. No, no, I don't want to do that. I have gotten my business to a point where I don't need to work all day every day because I have an incredible team that handle majority of the load now and I'm so grateful for them and I love them so much and I could not do what I'm doing without them. Let's take this couple of years until Carlos at school to actually enjoy what I spent the last seven years building. Yep. And and find some I'm not gonna say balance, but find some please. And in like, what am I trying to say? Be proud of what I've created. And just focus on now instead of what's next. What's next. What's next. What's not so true. That is no. Yeah, because five years ago, this is what I wanted now. Yeah, so so let's just enjoy it now. I I feel I do that a lot. But right now I'm we're a bit in damage control because obviously, we've had a couple of hash tag lines attacking me. Anyone not watching a video? He's just got a volume flip off the head. We're just way good here. I got a hashtag literally attacking race. Oh, you know that? Yeah, maybe a life. Oh, that is just so funny. But ya know, I think that that's one of the biggest things for me as well. And I have I have a great team as well. And I think that's testament to those, like what you were doing and what you were saying when you were pregnant was exactly what I was doing. And I think you just have to be organised like, right, it's automation, right? I wrote process documents. I literally spent the three months leading up into it, like how would you answer a phone? How would you reply to an email like so meticulous in the way that you do things, how to jump online and bloody delete something if something's spelt wrong on the website, like stupid, stupid things like that. And now, I guess we've come back and you know, three out of four of us are moms. So it's good for us to kind of understand when someone's sick, we all kind of take the wheel and go, Alright, you guys work when you can. And it's, it's that right? The nine to five doesn't exist with us like we do work nine to five. But you know, say for instance, says because I'll sorry, Barney sick, I can't, I can't work. And we're like, whatever. Just jump on later tonight when you can, there's no rush. I always put at the forefront to my work. I mean, I am guilty of the fact that my boys go to daycare for three days a week, but they are absolutely Psycho and they need to be there. But she's fine. And I'm like, I'm anything against anyone that does it. Everyone has, you know, their choices and their rights. But for me, it was just that like, why when do we stop and enjoy? Yeah, totally out. Sit says yes, that's the right word. Not even sure you enjoy what you've built, because you built to have a life that you've wanted to have. And then you finally got there. And you're like, hang on a sec. I'm doing this room. Yeah. So I think that's yeah, that was that's my plan, too. But my plan. And I mean, I'm there I work. You know, I'm with my boys all the time. Ryan's home with them as well, like right now actually walking them around the street. So we're both very present parents, which is good. And the daycares literally around the corner. And same thing. Well, I was on the waitlist when I was, you know, five months pregnant. So he was already lined up ready to go. I learned that through Ari. So yeah, it's um, it is a testament to you have to really, and this is where I think men don't really understand. And I've said this before in another episode is that women just have this unspoken deadline. It were the I mean, for ones that want children anyway, you? Well, for me, I knew I wanted to have kids by certain time. I mean, it worked well, for me, I know that a lot of people have issues. But for me, it worked. And I knew that I wanted to be x in my career. I wanted to have a business by x time. And I wanted to be pregnant with my first by this date. And it all worked for me. But I guess you I started to think about that plan. Right? Early in my 20s. Right, like, early, early. And even then I was still really hesitant about whether I did want kids, I wasn't even sure if I wanted kids right up until I was, you know, late 20s, early 30s. And I was like, do I don't I do I don't I because obviously the business is going really well. And I knew that I didn't want to stop momentum. But then it got to a point where I've where we grew and I was like, hang on, we're in a good spot. Now could be a good time. And obviously my nieces were born. So then I had this whole fat newfound love with with them. But I find that yeah, that's something that women do they plan for that for that, I guess that gap that men just don't have to do because they don't have to do it, you know, and it's it's just interesting, but I know this segues straight in, I know that I severely underestimated the juggler like severely underestimated it. And I guess that that difference between you and I and everyone knows that already had his transplant. So that fucking threw a whole thing in the ring like that was like, run out of fit as fiddles like you know, we both thought we were gonna have this healthy kid and it came he came out with this, you know, just genetic fuckup like absolutely nothing genetic that we passed on. It wasn't hereditary. It just happened. And it threw everything in a spat so and then Bly was born and he had a you know, he's got a cow's milk intolerance. So then he was dealing with dairy and like gut pain and like it's I had horrible, horrible newborn experiences, right? But my kids get good when they were six to eight months old. So I really enjoy that period. And I find and obviously well, it was transplanted at nine months. So then obviously things got really good for us from there and lies now starting to crawl Stand up and he's not so frustrated. Like, yeah, they get frustrated. feel bad for them? Yes. Yeah, totally. Yeah. So I find that so it's interesting, right? How people deal with different different periods. So and then I thought, I want to have another one because you want to give. I wanted to give our your sibling you know, I was I had a couple of siblings, so it's kind of that, but then it was like, you know, and I've already had one fucked up kid. Like, how can I have another one? Not having any more. I'm done. But yeah, I mean, I was just so not not planning for that juggler. Yeah. And I mean, it's really it's really changed me as a person. Like, I just, I find, I don't know about you. Do you find that you're, I find myself really wanting to listen to other people's, I guess views on life. I really listened to what they say. Because I think that before, I mean, now I listened to I mean, you even read all these things on Instagram that, you know, if someone's had a miscarriage, or, you know, if someone's depressed, it's not such a time to laugh. Came back. I'm gonna close my blinds. Hang on. I mean, you can keep talking. Yeah, totally. We'll keep talking and attacked. The Yeah, I found that I was saying, really, I guess things that I thought were helpful at the time, but were just not, they weren't. Now I look back and go, Oh, my gosh, like, you just had no idea or, and I remember my sister in law, saying that she was tired at one stage. And I was comparing that to running a business. And now I'm just like, Oh, shut the fuck up. Like, do you know what I mean? Like, there's things like that. And I mean, I guess it's Hindsight is a wonderful thing. But I find that now I've really, and obviously, it could be off the back of our E stuff as well. You know, just try and understand where someone could be mentally because you know, different people have different capacities and different levels of stress. And that obviously ripples through everything that you do in life, right, you can become I know that, at times, I've got a become a really pissed off person if I was just not sleeping. Yeah, just like, I mean, it's also you, you just, you can't relate not Yuka Well, yeah, you can't relate until you there's only a certain level, you can relate with an experience, if you to have not experienced step totally. And you know, myself even as a new mom, like I was saying at the start for me, it was really easy. There is no part of me and like, Please don't hate me for saying this. whoever's listening. There's actually no part of me that would look back at that newborn stage as a time where I was sleep deprived. Because I wasn't, I would. Yeah, I had a really a really rough pregnancy. And especially in the last couple of months, I had really bad pregnancy, insomnia, and literally only slept a couple of hours a night. And when I finally had Carlo, I was sleeping in three hour blocks. And that was like, that was a dream. It was a dream, which sounds so odd compared to so many other people's journeys. But you know, then we hit the six month mark, and that's when it started to get really hard for us. But like you said that seven months have started to get easy for you. Yeah, and it's just you hear it so many times, but you just cannot compare it until you've experienced it and had your journey and then can understand to a certain level. We're all just as fucked up as one another. That's is my work so much. And I think I think the best thing that I did was, I will obviously I call them my system, everyone that doesn't know my sister is our studio manager. When I was pregnant with Ari, I said look, I know those first couple of weeks are going to be pretty intense and I don't want Stace to have to manage that workload just by itself. So you know, I've done what I can but this is what's hanging around Can you just jump in and just do the you know, the quotes that add many staff and you know, kind of go from there and she was like Yeah, no worries. So she jumped in and helped over that period and that was just like I mean obviously you had a different experience but for me that was great because I just I was stuck in that I found it to be a real identity shift so that to that was was really got me like the whole Ryan could just going to the gym and I'm like what the and I know you're a gym gym bunny too so I was just like what I just want to fucking go to the gym like and I'm like I can't go for six weeks and like you know I was finding that change really hard because you know I felt you feel like you're stuck in a spot but I found that really hard obviously it all came came around with little did I know there was a whole identity shift about to happen but yeah, I found that having summit that is take that load have just an email like off all my play or just having to check it. I didn't need to do that. That was really good. So yeah, I recommended that to a couple of friends that had businesses to just have, like an interim, me can always jump in and check your own, obviously, if you've got the capacity to do it. But if you don't, if you don't feel like you need to, and I found that was that was really good. I guess what's what's been your biggest challenge so far? I guess. I mean, I think I'm still in it. I think like what you just hit on sort of finding your identity and finding where you sit in this whole new mum world, you know, I'm still so new, and I'm finding how my life now works, as you know, as a wife, and a business owner, as a mom as a boss, and we're just about to move to another country. So why not make it super complicated on top of that, I My life isn't where I thought it would be when I had a baby, not in a bad way. It's just, we're building a house, it was meant to be ready before I had the baby. So again, Carlo was planned and in the kind of life plan, we were going to be in there. And life in my head kind of looked a little bit different. But now we're moving to the other side of the world for a while. And that wasn't really in the plan. And that's okay, I feel so, so lucky that we have this incredible opportunity to do that. But at the same time. It's pretty crazy. And it's something I've never done before. I've never lived anywhere, but Right. Yeah. And so I'm sort of just embracing the unknown for a little while. I am also really testing, I guess, for the first time what I've built as an online business, really putting that to the test. And, and I will see how I don't know I am to enter to really give any insight on it yet. Yeah. See, I really liked the fact that See, isn't it funny from the very initial part of the conversation that what you did, initially to change to a digital platform has now allowed you why all of these things right and wild. And I never knew this was gonna happen five years ago. And like I said, I feel like everyone now wants to start a membership. And I get that it is a very unique business model that allows that passive income. And it's incredible. And I feel very honoured to have built something like that. But when I started it, it wasn't for the reason of what, if anything, I was pushing back on doing it as much as possible when I had no idea of what it would allow me to do in the future. So it was all very accidental. But also at the same time when my husband came home, I mean, when I woke up once so we'd all we both of our parents from Croatia, which is why we're going over there. And we're both of our dads. And we joked that, oh, if our house isn't ready, we should just go live in Croatia. And we joked about it. I thought it was hilarious. And my husband is a little spontaneous. I woke up one morning, and he just said, we're booked and I remember thinking, but for dinner, what do you mean booked? And he said June 22. By we're out of here we go to Croatia and Norway. And I would knowing me over the last 36 years, I feel like I would have flipped out. But I've had a pretty hectic couple of years behind the scenes like COVID was really hard on my business. I almost lost my business. I lost my sister during COVID. And remember, yeah, that's Thank you. It was it was pretty shit. And it's been a very heavy couple of years. And I did not realise until that moment. I think just how much emotional weight I had been and even having a baby like I fucking love colour I cannot explain to you how much I love him but just just the weight of you know, motherhood and, and this whole new world is a lot. It's a lot. Like just having your own mind for a second. Yeah, it um, in that second that he said that I felt like I lost about 50 kilos of pressure on my shoulders and I just knew I I'm not like super woowoo but energetically, I just felt like this is what you need to do. Yeah, and and I haven't that was when he originally booked it feels like ages ago now. I think it was last year. I don't even think it was this year. Maybe it was can I remember anyway? There has not been a second that I have said or thought. Or maybe this isn't the right decision. Yeah, just No, it's fine. That's right. Yeah. I love the fact because then he can at least grow up and have a real experience of. Right. Yeah. And I think that that's really, I mean, he might be too little to understand. But I still think it's great that he can be, because Christ is fucking amazing. I loved it is amazing. And you know what, it's, it's the simple life, like, where we're going, there's no TV, you have dinner with the family every night and just sit around and talk. And it's, I think the past three years, if it's taught me anything is really just taught me how important family is quality time. And that's what I that's what I want. And that's what I crave right now. And my best friend is also coming, which is makes it like, even way better. And I just, I cannot wait, I cannot wait. And look, I'm sure there's going to be some interesting things that happen along the way as I navigate travelling with a one year old. But tell your story for the next podcast. I think it's, it's great. Because, you know, don't you find? Well, I mean, I don't know what you're like, but I was very, I'm very organised, very ordered. Yeah, right. So I find that having a baby has almost made me or having babies has almost made me go. It's not gonna work like that. To change real soon, and I think that that's, it's almost like a good thing to happen to someone like that. Because I mean, don't get me wrong, I've had some real issues and like, ADHD over here, legit. So like, organisation is my, you know, my coping mechanism. So when something is a lifeline, it's like, everything, then moods go and anxiety happens. And it's just like this. So for me, it's been, it's been a real juggle, to learn how to just go with the flow, and just to kind of let things go naturally and figure out how to change direction if you do need to do that. So I think it's been a good thing in that sense. And obviously, for you, it's been saying, So, alright, I think that that I just, like, yearn off the fact of that you get to go overseas, and do that have that experience, because I think that you know, and now more than ever, like everyone wants to travel now again, right? Like, they're friends, I could be boxed in this like, and especially for books in WA obviously, so, you know, like, cornered off from the rest of the world, which is not of the country anyway. But you know, it's not it's a good and a bad thing in that sense. But, you know, I think that it feels like, I feel like I lost a big chunk of those first few years like, and I mean, you probably would as well like, but the benefit is, I guess, used to get to celebrate his first birthday, right? Like wedding, Ari, Ari was obviously transplant and so we could never first birthday for him. And I had blind lockdown. And it was just like, it was just like all of these things, all these first moments have been taken. And I feel like now is the time that a lot of us that have been in that in that time, which is a lot of my friends to be completely honest. We've missed that opportunity to grow up with each other's kids. And it's like, we've all been restricted, because now everyone's like, Oh, this is such a such a sick, like, we can't go out or, you know, and everyone's just a bit cautious. So we've missed those moments. But I think now it's starting to be like, you know, wrong, that's needed. And we're all feeling good. Or you've either had COVID, or we've had COVID multiple times, and everyone's kind of like, okay, over and over. Yeah, yeah, yearning for that social interaction is coming back again. So I find, I guess that's a real benefit. Yeah. And it has opened up all of our minds, right, like, and changing the business models. Because no one thought that this shit was going to happen, my God. So it's gonna happen no one thought it was gonna last as long as it did not have the impact that it had. But obviously, there's, you know, some horrible stories that have come come through it and a lot of devastation. But I think in terms of opening people's minds to a different way of working has, you know, for you and I for an online business Ben didn't really great yet. And I think it wasn't at the start. wasn't at the start. I almost lost my business during COVID. And that was really hard, but managed to build it back up. And yeah, now we're in a different place. So should have reached out friend, we would have plugged you left, right and centre. Yeah, we've had, we've had to do something similar recently. Because yeah, like we've done the depths. And obviously I had Bly at a time when we were in a hard lockdown. So that was not ideal, because then it was not great. So I'm not there in the business to build the business during a time when people Yeah, so but now I'm like damage control at the moment. I mean, it's fine like because it was like it's almost like the news with the election and inflation is also scared a few people at the moment because I'm noticing very similar conversation happening. So I've just had 50,000 things in the background doing so I've just released like an online design course like, oh, yeah, so they will be really fun. And I've been wanting to do this for so long. So it's kicked me up the ass to do it. And it's it's actually kicked me out the US to do a lot of a lot of the things that I wanted to do. So like you said, it's like, sometimes that pressure needs to be there in order for you to kind of step away and go, hang on. I need to change something here. So yeah, I guess. Well, moving on to one or second last question. What would be your advice to women planning to have children and run a business? Ah, I hate. The worst thing about being pregnant is everyone wants to tell you what to give you. unsolicited advice? Yeah. Oh, annoying. But if, if good tips, good tips. Okay, so good tips. If you are in a position where you can get help, get help. Whatever that looks like to you in your business, if you're not in a position where you can get help, then and daycare is something that that you're really going to need them look into that now. Find one that you like now and get on a waitlist for it. And honestly, again, it's so hard until you experience it. Because every single person's story stress, the like the capacity of what every single person can take on is different. And every every single person's journey is different. But I think just just check, check yourself about what's important to you, as well. And you know, I was in a place in my business where I could step back for a while. And I'm very grateful to have been able to do that. But I know that there is a lot of people that can't and I remember, as I was touching on before talking about time blocking, my entire life was time blocked. And then even when I had Carlo because he did eat and sleep on routine, I could pretty much time block. And then when it started to get a bit more difficult. I remember just feeling like such a failure. Because it's Yeah, if I had planned to do something at 9am. And then his morning nap was at the wrong time. And I couldn't get it done at 9am. And I put a lot of pressure on myself. And I started to realise that time blocking as a mom. It's like you have to drop your expectations a little bit. Yeah. So I started really getting into lists, and my daily whiteboard. And at the start, instead of time blocking, I would just give myself one thing to do. And it's like, yeah, if I've got that one thing done, then it was a good day, because you were also a full time mother. Yes. Which I was reading somewhere is like the equivalent of having three full time jobs. Yes. So I started my whiteboard, because the difference between a whiteboard and a written list is a written list you just continue to add to, which just puts more and more and more pressure on yourself. But my whiteboard gets wiped at the start of each new day. And I'm really just realistic with what I need to do that day. There's no allocated times. It's just what needs to be done that day. And it doesn't matter what time I do it. It just has to get done. And that really helped me take that mental load off. And really, again, it sounds so silly, but just crossing something off the list. Oh, totally. What that sounds for your mental health don't Yeah, it sounds so silly and so simple, but it was something that really really helped me when I think the mothering and the sleep for me personally started to spiral that really helped me feel like just one area of my life I was kind of on top of shit to go Yeah, and I think yeah, I love that I I have a similar thing, but I also have my big to do list. But then I like change that regularly to have critical important that nice to have. And I had another suggestion from someone else. I can't remember who it was it was like for yourself for someone else like that. And what they did was put themselves first always and then they realised that all of the things that they were saying no to for other people were the things that were causing overwhelm. And I found that to be incredible like I was like you actually think about what you do and you're like what am I doing to try and please somebody else because every time you you please someone else you disappointing yourself?

Unknown: 44:59

Yeah

Brooke Vulinovich: 45:00

So I find that really interesting. Oh, Brookie good chat, my friend. So, lastly, why don't you tell everyone where they can find you? So if you would like to follow my business, I actually do teach Instagram as well. I know, we haven't really talked about that much. And it's, it's quite interesting. I had a meeting with my manager just before and I've done quite a few podcasts over the last couple of weeks. And we barely talked about Instagram. Well, I think it's because people buy from you. From you. Yeah, yeah, there's been been a huge shift. But I do teach Instagram and some have said quite well over the past few years. Is that something that you're interested in? Again, my business is Social Club Community so socialclubcommunity.com, or social club community on the socials or if you're interested in me, as a person, as a mother as a wife, as a boss, my as a speaker, I'm also a keynote speaker. I do that too. Sometimes I forget. My personal Instagram is just my name Brooke Vulinovich. And then my website is brookevulinovich.com. How do they spell it? Oh, I'm just kidding. It's gonna be in the bloody show notes It's a long it's a long one just go to The Social Club and find it from there. Love it. And it's funny because I remember thinking at least know how to pronounce the name because you did a post on it once ages ago on Instagram.

Unknown: 46:36

Vulinovich?

Brooke Vulinovich: 46:38

Yeah. That was like, oh, there we go. That was really easy to know. So I remembered that for a couple of years. So that was really good. But um, no, as always appreciate the chat. And yeah, I hope you have an amazing time. Watch this space. Thank you. I appreciate appreciate you having me back. And I appreciate everyone who's listening. You're amazing. Thanks Brooke.

Tara Ladd: 47:08

If you enjoyed this episode, then don't forget to head over and rate and view it helps to let other women know we're around. Also, don't forget to follow along on my Instagram page @iamtaraladd or hit up www.taraladd.com