Melanie
Welcome to the Monday Morning Marketing Podcast for all decision makers and action takers. Take it away, Esther.
Esther
And welcome back to another episode of the Monday Morning Marketing Podcast. Today, we're joined by Deborah Jordan, founder of Chuzeday. But it's only Monday. Let's figure out what all this is about. Welcome, Deborah.
Deborah
Thank you so much, ladies. Thank you, Esther. Thank you, Melanie, for having me with you today.
Esther
We're very glad that you can join us. So tell us about yourself, Deborah. What got you into business in the first place, and how did Chuzeday come about?
Deborah
Well, in a nutshell, let's just say I have a background I'm in the background of being in a family business, or my family being in business on both sides. So one side are jewellers, one side are hairstyles. And as I grew up, I always knew I wanted to be that independent woman, have my own money. And after doing, say, many years of working hard, I climbed to the top of my industry, I would like to say, in the hair industry. And I decided after a period of traveling and doing all the things that I wanted to do, that being in business was something that it was my highest priority as a say, a late 20-year-old that, yeah, I just wanted to work hard. I wanted to build a business. That was my, I guess, my own idea of being successful. I loved it. I was 30 years actually in the hair and beauty industry. The people really that I met along the way in personally and professionally always inspired me to, keep doing what you love to do.
Melanie
Agreed.
Deborah
Yeah. I'm very passionate about what I did, and I used to eat, sleep, and drink it. It allowed me to travel the world. It allowed me to be part of huge shows, hair shows, television magazine. So I'm very grateful. And anything I aim for. I was very lucky, maybe a high achiever in some ways that I got to do what I wanted to do. The last thing I did on my list, my bucket list was London Fashion Week. And once I did that, I was like, okay, love this. Now I think it's time to do something else. So I did actually downsize my own business We were going to move back to Wexford, and it was timing is right. So I closed down the business I had, down size to one-man band. And that was 2019, and I actually ended up having counsellor 2019. So that gave me the time to actually just think about how I've been doing business in the background, and I wanted to do it better. And in the time of recovery, then I really got to think about what I wanted. I had the big tools in the big business, but I didn't have them as a one-man band. Inspired by speaking with other business owners that there's the isolation, there's the struggle, there's the lack of boundaries, all these things that we have. So that's how Chuzeday came about, because it's not Tuesday, day of the week, it's about choice. Choosing your day, how you want to work, to get the life-work balance, which to me, I have got kids, I'm involved in coaching, swimming, a dog. We all have busy worlds. So Chuzeday was born. That's my nutshell.
Melanie
You've explained how Chuzeday was picked as a name. How did you actually start the concept of Chuzeday, and how did you sell it to other people at the beginning?
Deborah
Basically, I sat down at a kitchen table. I have lots of people in my life that have been amazing mentors and people who are also Founder's of Chuzeday. And between all of us as a team, we started reaching out to people that could help us because I'm not technical. And I make that clear that when Chuzeday was being built, that It had to be for people that weren't technical. That was really easy as if you go on Facebook. It had to be easy. And then let me see, reaching out to people, helping us grow. It's like any business. I was totally out of my comfort zone. And I really had to push, reaching out to people. Samantha Kelly has been a huge help for me personally and professionally. I have... There's a lady called Fiona Nugent. She's in further, and she's helping me with the funding element. Just all these communications and connections, which I find is so important. And But still very difficult. It's whatever business it is, you still have to grow it. So what am I now? I am three years in this space that I find, even though I'm out of my comfort zone, I'm really enjoying it, if that makes any sense. But connection with people who can bring me down the road of, excuse me, say the marketing end of it. I'm still wearing a lot of the hats, so I might not be that solo business owner anymore, but I have all the tacit knowledge because I have been one.
Esther
What have been some of the struggles that you've come up against with finding funding or with marketing and with getting people on board? Has it been hitting a brick wall or has it been plain sailing?
Deborah
No, absolutely not. As they say, if everyone was doing it, it would be easy for everyone, but it's not easy. I think that is the real goal here. I have such a vision for this product and what it can actually do for people. And I think that's what gets me up. And, my God, you nearly have more bad days than what you have good days. But I still think that because the vision is there and because I know what it can actually do, it's not going to be for everyone. It's for a small percentage of the market. But if it's something that can help people, I'm up. I'm so passionate about, I have done all this. What I have now, I can give and help people with starting off They're struggling. We're all about a community with Chuzeday, so it's not just about an app. We have a solo meet-up that happens once a month, and we get the business owners to come and meet each other and talk about what they do because we don't get that exposure. We don't get that platform. It's mostly about the SME, the bigger businesses have that bigger platform. So that's what I want Chuzeday to be. So it's a marketplace It's many things. But regarding it's still a business. It's hard work and you got to push hard. You got to innovate. You got to take yourself out of the comfort zone and put yourself, even sitting on a podcast. That can be really difficult. And for me, a year ago-.
Melanie
Yeah, she's terrifying. I know. I've been doing it five and a half years.
Deborah
Yeah, but people can understand that. Say, you're going on a podcast. Oh, my God, that must be so difficult. We all evolve. Every time we push through, you feel the fear. Just do it. Do it anyway. You can be sweating with nerves, but I learned that, I have learned that if you can just give it a try, if you make an absolute haem's of it, well, you're still human, and that's how I look at it.
Esther
It's a good way to look at it.
Deborah
I am human. I'm a mum. I'm going through all these other things as women do, and I'm not shy. I will share a lot of stuff, some things I won't share, but I do feel that we need to talk more as individuals. It's important.
Melanie
What is the time or cost investment in working with Chuzeday?
Deborah
As a business owner or as a guest?
Melanie
Well, let's do both. Let's give people both the opportunity.
Deborah
Well, from an onboarding point of view, we are really excited that in the next month we will have the onboarding process really easy for people because that is really hard part. People get very overwhelmed by it. Like, oh, there's a lot in it. But I like to do discovery call and find out what's the one part that you find? Is it your time? Is it your scheduling boundaries? What is it that you need? So when I understand their business a little bit more, it helps them go, okay, so we'll just focus on that part. And then it's like any, I suppose an app where the more you go on and play with it, you'll understand it more. But really, if I sat down with someone, I can have them on up and going on the system within the hour, which means that they're up in business within the hour. They have a landing page, they have their own schedule, their bookings, they have, which for me is very important, the integrated payments so people can actually get deposits because that's the one thing that I found. People didn't show up, people canceled on you, cancelation policy. So it really protects the one man band for the provider. And what else would I... There's an awful lot in there. I think being on a marketplace as we are growing, we've got 1800 people actually using it in Wexford at the moment, booking their services.
Melanie
You forget there's that many people in Wexford, don't you?
Esther
For our American listeners, Wexford is a county down in the very south of the Republic of Ireland. Obviously, it has more than 180,000 people in it.
Deborah
Well, we have a... There's a big population here, but I guess for us, we are growing it. And the aim now is to bring it nationally, and then I would like to bring it further than nationally. So there's great excitement in it. We have businesses coming onto it every week, and it's something that's growing, but not just for the businesses, but for their own clientele and stories of we have nurses who would be working late at night or doing late made shifts and they're able to go on to the app 3, 4 o'clock in the morning and book their local nail or massage, pilates person without having that back and forth DMing. And that was a lot of the issues I found. I lost a lot of time from a business point of view. But then you also have to think about your own guests, think about how easy it is, especially if you've got regular clients coming to you. So you've got the one to one booking and then you have the group booking So it's quite powerful for individuals, wearing all the hats.
Esther
So apart from the ones that you mentioned, Pilates, nails, hair, what other businesses? Is it mainly just B2C or are there B2B businesses adopting Chuzeday?
Deborah
From a B2B, I like to think that businesses can actually recommend each other. I'm an advocate for people being able to work with other people in their area. I think that's very powerful. Recently, our solo meet-up, there was two at the table that had picked up the phone in the same area working together, and they actually came stronger. I said, I so want that. At the moment it is word of mouth on the app for, say we have a girl in town, she's nails, she can turn around and recommend the other businesses on it. Oh, I know this person there on it. That's powerful. Our backstory really, I think, is a lot about we really want to keep people at home in the country, young kids coming up to know that they can have a small business. Well, say, late teens. If they can have a small business, they can start off. One of the girls, her name is Winnie, Winnie Rath. She has the nail this. She actually started her business in COVID. She was in fourth year. And I find her story very powerful because she built her business. She's now on Chuzeday. She's now in college. She's able to manage her business from in college. No, she's busy at the weekend. She's able to put up her hours, change her hours when her modules change. She's increased her revenue by, I think, 30%. So stories like that, that's a success story for us. For me, I just want to cheerlead these people on, and that's very much the background. It's about creating, not so much employment, just allowing these businesses to grow. They start off maybe as a side hustle, but then they can be something big. I'm sure when you will go on to be bigger again. And that's exciting. It's exciting to watch. So that's what I love to see.
Melanie
I like the fact you introduced the concept of collaborative efforts as so that people can work together. Is this an entry point for small business to give them a marketing platform and a collaboration platform? Or can you see this also withstanding larger, more established businesses like large hotels or large carveries, restaurants, that thing? Could that be on Chuzeday as well?
Deborah
Look, I'd never say no to anything. For now, it is very much about the solo business owner. It's about that platform because there are... Look, there's lots of software out there. There's lots for people. But what you don't have is everything that a solo business or provider needs on one app. There's always, we have five or six different emails to get into one thing. I'm just looking after the one man band right now, and who knows what the future could hold? I'm just busy working on what I'm working on. Who knows, Melanie? Who knows?
Esther
How are you getting the word out to the consumers? Because as busy mums ourselves, business owners, and going through all the things that women go through, as you said. At the end of the day, it's 5:30 on a Friday afternoon, and you've forgotten to book your hair, nails, dentist, whatever it is that you needed to make the phone call for. How do you get the message to the consumer that Chuzeday exists and that these small businesses are on the app for them to go in and choose which day and time, etcetera, to go and visit them? How are you promoting this?
Deborah
So because a lot of Chuzeday has been done on a shoestring, we are now clients of enterprise Ireland, which we're delighted with. They're getting lots of help there. Really, a lot of it is still back to myself. I have one other girl that I work with who's a marketer. She's helping me do a lot of that work because, again, this is not what I do. I do elements of, which I thought was quite good at the time with social media. But no, I'm changing my... It's all about social media, doing podcasts, doing radio interviews, getting it out there with the solo meet-up, which to me is going to be really powerful.
Melanie
You're doing press releases as well, Deborah?
Deborah
Yeah, I have done that. And really just as much help as I can get. And to be honest with you, I'm learning a lot of that, too. And I'm happy to put my hand up and say I definitely don't know it all, and I'm learning along the way. So I have a lot of blogs that I've written on the website about my own experiences of being an individual in business and from being in the big business, the differences. What else do I have? Yeah, look, a lot of Reels. I like doing the Reels, like chatting to my audience and getting more and more comfortable with that because I would have been very, very shy at the beginning. Some people are natural with it. I find it quite difficult, but I think, like I said, I'm pushing myself out there and telling people all about it.
Esther
And I think part of the... Sorry. It's the first time that's happened in a long time. I think an exciting part of it is the community. It's the building and the bonding that goes on between business owners, because a lot of that did get lost, not even just because of COVID, but in years before that, it almost seemed like everybody was just out for themselves and a whole me, me, me mentality rather than let's all build together. So how often do these meet-ups happen?
Deborah
I've had to, and I'm about to launch. Tomorrow, I'm launching my third date. I haven't got the final go ahead yet, but we're going to be announcing the venue, the date. What's powerful about it there's huge interest. There's so many one-man bands that aren't on the main street. They want to be seen, they want to be heard, they want to stand up and say, Hey, this is my name, this is my business, this is what I do. I'm really good at it. And some people aren't on Chuzeday. A lot of them aren't on it yet. Maybe they will be. But regardless of Chuzeday, the community aspect for me is the powerful part because the isolation, and not everyone has it, but I do find from speaking with other business owners that it really is a huge... They just want to chat, they want to vent, they want to talk, How do you do that better? So it's about giving tips. It's about having guest speakers coming on and saying, Do you want to learn about your finance? Do you want to learn about social media? So I'm building something I'm actually really excited about because we're now being noticed. And that's what I felt that was missing at a lot of the networking events I've been going to. We weren't getting that deep into people and what they were doing and what they can give. And they might be literally around the corner from me. People don't know where they are. So that's what I want. I want to cheerlead as much as I can. I've done it for... I've been in business a long, long time. I might not be able to help everyone, but I really am passionate about that.
Melanie
We need an advocate like you in every country that people listen to our podcast, because it takes one person to stand up and say, Look, we're all doing this all alone, and there's no need for that. Yeah, exactly. The one thing as humans, and especially as women, we're all terribly suckish at asking for help. We do not ask for help, ever. It doesn't matter where you're listening to this episode. There will be resources, and most of them are free. Deborah, you're advocating alongside Samantha Kelly, who everybody here in Ireland knows. There are so many people out there that can either help you directly or signpost you to further or better support. This This whole episode is about going out there and actually asking for help. This whole episode is about it. Deborah, thank you so much for speaking to us today and outlining what Chuzeday is. We're going to do a proper spelling of it in the episode title, so nobody gets confused with chew as in chew food or Tue as in Tuesday.
Deborah
I never thought it was chew food.
Melanie
This is so confusing.
Deborah
Yes. I thought it was cool to choose and spell it differently. And it looks good, I think, when you're-.
Melanie
Yeah, I agree.
Deborah
Yeah.
Esther
Different is good.
Deborah
Yeah. I like to be different. Yes. Thank you, Ladies.
Melanie
Well, thank you so much again. That's all the time we have for today. But if you'd like to learn any more about Deborah, where do we go to get your information?
Deborah
So we have our website, which is chuzeday.com. And my own personal email is Deborah, d-e-b-o-r-a-h@chuzeday.com. And there's free e-Books. If anyone wants to go in and download and get a lot of my tips and help just to see Then start with your business, what works, what doesn't work. I've made all the mistakes. Let me help you with that. So the free e-Books is quite cool.
Melanie
Brilliant.
Deborah
You can book a discovery call with me if you like on the website and on obviously socials, deborahjordan_chuzeday. We have the Facebook Chuzeday Community is there. If you want to have a look for that. And LinkedIn, of course, I'm on LinkedIn, so follow me. And sign up for the newsletters as well, so they can be quite powerful.
Melanie
She's full of code of actions, isn't she?
Esther
Don't worry, guys. All of these details will be in the show notes, so pop over there and look for all of those links that Deborah has just given us.
Deborah
Thank you, Esther, and thank you, Melanie. It was a pleasure.
Esther
The pleasure was ours.
Melanie
Okay, thank you so much. We better sign off, and we'll catch you next week. Bye for now.
Well, Deborah, if only people would understand that nobody's actually against them. Everybody's for them. I think one of the biggest and largest life lessons I've ever had is, I should have asked for help sooner, and I think I probably would have branched out sooner. I would have got help sooner. I would have... I don't know. It's one of my greatest regrets. Is that how you feel about the same thing?
Deborah
No. Sorry.
