Aimee Connolly

And thankfully it was positive.

But like in those first, you know, year or two, like you're you're really trying to firstly solidify your brand direction.

I didn't hire someone probably till about 18 months in.

You're really trying to watch your cash flow, which in turn worked for me because it created a slower growth at the start that I was able to sustain that cash flow to ultimately stay self-funded today.

You know, we still don't have investment.

And I think if I hadn't done that at the start and created that discipline, it would be hard to have maintained that because some people physically don't have the cash that's needed to start a business.

And so they have to go for investment.

And there's no right or wrong, but it's a big decision maker when you are deciding how to approach a new brand.

A bit of both.

I think, thankfully, social media was around.

Now, ironically, the launch for the product was a Facebook Live because Facebook was the key channel at the time.

Instagram was building slowly alongside it but what's interesting because I'm obviously like social media is still such a huge part of your strategy huge so you started as you meant to go on it is and it's nice in a way because I've always been used to doing it through social media whereas I would you know I would have empathy for say business owners who maybe started two or three generations ago and then all of a sudden social is an entirely new and it's a full-time role yeah you know like it's a lot and

But that was definitely a great tool because visually, you know, there's impact there.

You can see the products right away.

As an educator, it was a very natural space for me to be in.

But I did loads of around the country in my car.

So I was still doing the academy.

So I was teaching.

I had a really like loyal client base there.

You were very supportive.