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From Kitchen Table to Boardroom Table – This is Where It All Began
77 Plays5 months ago
Welcome back to The CEO's Wing Woman®, CEOs and visionaries! Today's episode is special as Olivia pulls back the curtain and gives an exclusive peek into her personal life. Olivia Jenkin’s story is anything but traditional. Get ready to hear how her adventure began not in a lecture hall but at her family’s cosy kitchen table in South Australia back in 1993. Picture this: tiny Olivia, helping her mum label rose oil bottles for her startup natural skincare brand. This is one ep you don’t want to miss, listen to Olivia’s full story now!
Ready to level up your business game? Join SUMMER SCHOOL™ with Olivia Jenkins for hands-on coaching and core marketing, strategy, and sales skills. Achieve consistent 10k months and experience a transformation in your business growth. Excited to learn more? Chat with Olivia through her dm @oliviajenkins.co.
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Transcript
Introduction and Personal Story
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome back to the CEO's Wingwoman podcast. Today, I am super excited to unpack a little bit more about my personal story because I know I probably don't share a great deal about my personal background and my personal life as I'm a business consultant on my Instagram and on my social media.
Unique Business Journey
00:00:17
Speaker
So I wanted to share a little bit more about where everything began to me in my journey and my first experiences in business because I definitely don't have a traditional story, I don't think. I think my story is quite unique in terms of my experiences with business and how long I have been ingrained in every aspect of business life. So let's go back to the very beginning and let's start with the original story of my very first interaction in business.
Family Business Beginnings
00:00:48
Speaker
So the episode title is From Kitchen Table to Boardroom Table. This is where it all began. And there's a reason for this because quite literally,
00:00:56
Speaker
That is exactly how it began because my first taste in business wasn't actually through textbooks or through university. It was actually back at our kitchen table in our very humble home in South Australia back in 1993. And essentially the reason that it started there is because my mother founded a natural skincare brand from our home back when I was 18 months old. So 1993, and I got my business education early. So it started very, very young. My siblings and I, which by the way, were her first unofficial employees. Anyone who's been part of a family business or who has a family business now knows that you're not exempt from contributing.
00:01:38
Speaker
to a family business and a lot of the time you are unpaid. So that's where it all began. And we used to sit around the kitchen table labelling bottles of Rosa Poile. So I remember we had, my dad had actually made up these little timber things that we used to put the bottle on so that we could label and keep everything straight. So it was very, very DIY, but it was so much fun. And we used to listen to stories from mum about her day because she had absolute relentless ambition when it came to our business, a lot like our ideal client archetype, our visionary CEOs. And she definitely had that moment of having an entrepreneurial seizure and just convincing my dad. I don't know how she did it because anyone who knows my dad, he just, I have no idea how she got him to agree to this. But anyways, she'd convinced him to sell the family car so that she could raise the money that she needed to start the business.
00:02:33
Speaker
And I look at my dad now and I just think I have no idea how she got that passed in, but she did. So off she went, she started the business and I just knew that she had to make it work. Like a lot of business owners that start their business, they've got this relentless ambition and they, they there's no other option. It has to work. They have to succeed. So we used still to listen to her stories about how she would rep from one side of the state to the other. And I think she had to buy a car that ended up having Every panel was a different color on the car because she had to go out and buy an old bomb basically because she'd sold the good car, the family car, to get the first barrel of Rosa Poirot. And we used to love listening to the stories about what she got up to in her day. So
Childhood Business Lessons
00:03:15
Speaker
that's where it began. And obviously that continued in my childhood of you know going to the office during school holidays or
00:03:22
Speaker
finishing school and catching the bus there to sit at the office and keep myself busy. sorry So for me, going to meetings with my mother, going to the office, being exposed to every possible facet of a business started at a very young age. And essentially that was my apprenticeship from 18 months old until adulthood. So it was amazing to grow up in a world like that, where you get to see so many things that you wouldn't normally see and be part of so many interesting conversations. I'm also a little bit nosy. So I always loved sitting in on the business meetings and eavesdropping on things and collecting all of the info. And I think as a child as well, I probably was a little bit underestimated in terms of emotional intelligence, because you probably don't expect a six or seven year old to have an opinion on something business related. So I used to really enjoy that. And sort of being a little, not a sniper, but like someone sitting in the background who was observing and watching quietly, but understanding what was going on a lot more than maybe people around me knew at the time. So that was fun. Got to, you know, witness a lot of things and be part of a lot of really cool experiences and go overseas, do trade shows, do expos, learn how to sell. Because again, as a startup business and anything in the context of business, you have to learn how to sell.
00:04:48
Speaker
And beyond learning to know how to sell, you actually need to learn how to love selling and not be afraid of it, but really embrace it. So loads of amazing opportunities. And I'm very grateful for having those experiences, which definitely are not stereotypical because I know, I genuinely believe that all of those experiences that I had throughout my childhood, albeit they were quite unconventional, have made me the person that I am today and have given me an incredible base or foundation to build upon in my corporate career and now as a business consultant. And this is why I get so much enjoyment from working with clients and working with other visionary founders or other visionary CEOs is because this has been part of my life since I was 18 months old. So this wasn't something that I just decided to do or woke up with an idea,
00:05:42
Speaker
you know as an adult, this was something that I knew that I was destined to do from a very, very young age. Just absolutely loved Tony Robbins, loved business books, loved anything, self-help or professional development, personal development. And I think growing up in that environment and being deeply ingrained in growth mindset, I knew that I was destined to help other people ah achieve that you know the best success that they could or to step into their full potential. And I think this is something that has been developed in me over time as well is to see potential in other people and to see potential in brands. So I've really learned to harness my superpower, which is seeing projected potential not only in people, but also in brands. And I think that's allowed me to work with
00:06:33
Speaker
visionary founders and visionary CEOs to ask them lots of questions, get a feeling for what it is that they're wanting to achieve, and then be able to help them put that into words, to articulate it and put it into a strategy that's a winning strategy for their brand that's going to help them get to where they want to
Key Business Lessons Learned
00:06:51
Speaker
be. And I think there's nothing in this world that lights me up more than seeing other people succeed, and that's why I do what I do today. sorry On the topic of what I've learned and you know all of the the lessons that I've had along the way, there's some key lessons that stand out to me. And whilst they relate to you know growing up in a family business and this kitchen table to boardroom table element, a lot of these lessons can actually be a liken to personal as well as professional context. So I'll start with the first one, and that is that quality is king. So starting out on the kitchen table, every label had to be perfect. There was a standard. So like I said before, Dad made us this little timber wooden thing that we'd put the bottle in so that every thing could be lined up. And what that taught me was the importance of attention to detail. So anyone who knows me in a work context knows that I'm Hawkeyes. Ask anyone.
00:07:49
Speaker
If there's one font that's off, I will know, I will know. I'm all over it like a rash. So for me, that quality was really, really ingrained into me from a young age, from the labeling, from making sure that everything was correct. So for me, that attention to detail is really important. And it taught me that quality is not just part of the product, it's the backbone of the brand. because if you do not have a quality product, a quality service, or even a quality delivery in the way that you go about things with clients or customers, it it it won't last very long. You will lose your reputation because people demand quality, they expect it, they want it. And that's really the backbone of the brand. So that quality piece
00:08:32
Speaker
has been ingrained into me from a very young age, and it all started with the labeling. The second thing is branding is everything. Now, I'm a branding girl, so I might be biased, but for me, a label is more than just a sticker. It's not just a sticker, it's a story, it's your promise, and it's your value proposition all in one. So that branding element is really important, and one thing that I've learned over the years is that the more you can put into your branding, the more you can think about it and make sure that you can justify and explain every aspect of your brand, the better. So even for me, when I think about the Olivia Jenkins Consulting branding, we when we were putting the branding together and I worked with a branding designer to create the original OJC brand, actually I lie.
00:09:21
Speaker
The first logo I had was a Canva logo and I did it myself and it was terrible. I'll bring it out just so you can see the journey of, you know, where it started versus where it is now. But I remember investing into branding and putting so much thought into the brand. And I could tell you every single thing, why it was there and how it related back to the brand. So for example, there's a part of me that's a traditionalist and there's a part of me that's modern. So for me, having two typefaces, having a more traditional font and a more modern font was important. The black and white as well represented the simplicity in the brand and the elevated brand nature. So every aspect of the brand had a reason, a justification. So that brand promise, that value proposition is really important. The third one is hands on beats, hands off.
00:10:11
Speaker
Now, this might be an unpopular opinion, but I believe that being involved in every step of the process taught me the importance of understanding every part of the business. Now, I say this all the time, especially to clients, I don't believe that you need to be an expert in everything. And to be honest, I don't actually think it's possible either. I believe that we're really, really good at three things. And it doesn't mean that we're not good at other things as well, but our superpower is in three main areas, three main things. But understanding what goes on, understanding the benchmarks of what good looks like and what bad looks like is really important in the context of business. So being involved in every step of the process from a young age taught me the importance of understanding that every part of your business, you need to know what good and bad looks like. So you can't just, you know, delegate and then check out.
00:11:05
Speaker
you have to understand and have mechanisms in place. So that's really, really important. And that hands-on experience is super valuable in the context of business. The fourth thing is persistence pays off. I believe that when you have this relentless pursuit, like my mother did, like a lot of our clients have at OJC, you see that payoff over time. That investment, that tenacity, that persistence, that relentless pursuit, that dog with a bone energy, That is what ends up being your ultimate success, your ultimate success factor. So that relentless pursuit and witnessing that in my mother taught me the value of tenacity and entrepreneurship and never giving up.
00:11:50
Speaker
If you have a dream, if you have a vision, don't give up, have that relentless ambition, have that relentless pursuit of your goals and really lean into the tenacity. It doesn't mean that you can't have a bad day, but just don't let a bad day turn into a bad week, turn into a bad month, turn into a bad year.
Core Values in Business
00:12:09
Speaker
So you can have a bad day, we all have them, but dust yourself off, get up and keep going and really lean into that persistence. The next lesson it taught me was leveraging social proof. Now this is something that my mother did really well and I still remember it because it was very jarring back then because there weren't a lot of natural skincare brands around at the time. There were two other main natural skincare brands in Australia at the time and it was fairly unusual to see a natural skincare brand back then. I'm talking
00:12:43
Speaker
early 90s, early to mid 90s. There wasn't a lot of choice available. It's not like it is today where it's almost an expectation that a brand is natural now. And one of the things that she did really, really well was leverage social proof. So she would have these before and after images where there would be, you know, scars and ah burns victims and really, really strong, powerful imagery of people who had very, very dire skin conditions or very serious accidents that they'd had car accidents or they'd had major surgeries or burns and they had a an after photo from using rosopoil and being able to have a huge healing transformation. so
00:13:25
Speaker
That was very different back then but that is exactly what we would define as social proof as before and after photos and that really demonstrated the efficacy of her brand but what it also did was made her brand stand out. So where everyone else was going airbrushed images and making everything look really beautiful she was going very very strong graphic imagery on before and afters and so that leveraging of social proof of those before and afters really demonstrated that the products worked. And I think that there's a lot of power in this because sometimes as business owners, we might forget to show proof. We know that our product or service is amazing, but how can somebody new know that if we don't actually demonstrate from somebody else's perspective that it works? So that was really powerful as well, was understanding the power of social proof.
00:14:19
Speaker
And the last thing is staying true to core values. So this is a really strong belief of mine because A, it's wrapped up in strategy. and Core values is a very big part of strategy. B, it's wrapped up in brand as well. But C, when you think about core values, core values are what drive your behavior. And so every one of us, whether we believe it or not, as individuals, as human beings, we have a set of core values. And that set of core values is how we drive our behaviors, how we show up every day. So they're also in a particular order as well. So whatever order your core values are in as a human is how you prioritize your time, how you prioritize your thinking and your choices. So the thing with core values is, and this is why it's a big lesson for me, is sometimes people can be challenged on their core values, especially in the context of brand or business.
00:15:17
Speaker
And it's very common for business owners to be tempted to make a decision which is not in line with their core values because it's easier. It's easier to be tested on the core value and to make a different decision because being called to the frontline to actually back your core value can be harder sometimes because maybe you have to make a hard decision. Maybe you have to do something that you don't really wanna do. or maybe you have to do something that's going to cost the business a lot of money, but it's what your core values are. So this is really important because when you stay true to your core values, when you really are congruent and convicted in your core values, that's what shows total conviction and total congruence in your brand. And that's how you can build a brand that stands the test of time and isn't a one hit wonder.
00:16:10
Speaker
because when you're convicted in those values, it means that you are actually behaving in line with the way that you're saying you will behave. And so your core values are what you'll prioritize over profits. And sometimes you have to make a bad business decision to make a good brand decision. And that's really what core values are all about. So despite the challenges that she faced, my mother faced throughout her early stages of business and beyond, She never compromised on what her core values were, not once. She always stayed true to those. And even when it meant higher costs, even when it meant maybe that she paid more for manufacturing or she did things in a more difficult way, she did that because she was convicted in her core values.
Reflections on Creating Brands
00:16:57
Speaker
So all of these lessons can be applied professionally in your career, in your business as an entrepreneur,
00:17:05
Speaker
but also in your personal life as well as a human. And that's why I love these lessons because there's so much correlation, not only to business, but to personal life as well. And all of these lessons that I've learned over the years have combined together over the past 31 years, forgetting how old I am now, 31 years to make me the person that I am today as a human being, as a leader, as a mum, as a friend, as a daughter. And they've shaped the person that I am. And I'm forever grateful for the history that I've had and the opportunities that I've had because I've now been able to distill all of those lessons, all of those learnings and be able to support clients with them, support friends, family, my team with those things as well so I can help them become the best that they can be. So if you're listening to this episode and you're on the path to building an iconic brand, just remember that the foundation of a successful business is often built upon small progress every day. So it's not that you have to now every single thing that I've run through today in these lessons, but if you can focus on getting 1% better every day and you can focus on putting one foot in the other and just staying true to what your vision is, to what your core values are and being convicted in that, the iconic brand will will be built over time, you will get there, but it's about that small progress and not wanting to shortcut things, but really deeply enjoying the journey and every single lesson that you have. So my final message is be clear with your vision,
00:18:42
Speaker
double down on your values, be tenacious in your approach, and be brave enough to stand out in the crowd. Be brave enough to be different. So I hope you've enjoyed this solo episode learning more about my background, my history, and learning about this kitchen table to boardroom table and what that actually means. I've really enjoyed sharing a little bit more insight into my personal life and where it all began. And I hope the lessons from today's episode help to inspire you in creating a brand that achieves cult-like status. Until then, I'll see you next time.