Unlock Your Happiness Series
Interviewing experts in their field to find out from them what makes them happy. The podcast will be multi faceted talking about their personal and professional life and the journey they have taken whilst underpinning hot they have created happiness from within.
Sharing tips, techniques and tools to help each listener Unlock Their Happiness.
Unlock Your Happiness Series
Episode 20: Heather Williams- The Power of Being Yourself in Business and Life
What happens when you build a thriving marketing business by simply being yourself? Marketing Director Heather Williams takes us on her entrepreneurial journey that began with a simple desire to accommodate her new puppy, Brodie, rather than leave him alone while working in an office environment.
Heather's refreshing approach to business growth centres around pure authenticity, from candidly telling networking contacts she started her company because of her dog, to helping clients overcome their fear of showing up as themselves online. This philosophy has allowed her to build HW Media Management (soon to be rebranded as HW Marketing) entirely through word-of-mouth and organic social media, without spending a penny on paid advertising.
The conversation reveals powerful insights about combating the isolation of entrepreneurship through co-working spaces and meaningful connections. As someone who previously thrived in team environments, Heather shares how finding her "tribe" became essential for maintaining perspective and preventing the spiral of negative thoughts that can occur when working alone. Her approach to work boundaries defies conventional wisdom, embracing weekend productivity while taking Friday afternoons off, scheduling evening-written emails to send the following morning,and creating "Quiet Mondays" with no morning meetings.
Whether you're running your own business or simply seeking greater fulfillment at work, Heather's parting advice resonates deeply: "Don't pretend to be something you're not." When you show up authentically – in your communication style, dress, or work methods you naturally attract the right people and opportunities while filtering out those that aren't aligned with your true self. Join us for this heartfelt conversation about finding success through authenticity and designing work patterns that honor who you really are.
Heather Williams is a digital marketing strategist who helps small businesses and founders grow through smart, results-driven social media. With a focus on strategy, content creation, and engagement, she ensures brands aren’t just posting—but actually building a presence that works.
She’s also the founder of The Rookie CEO, a supportive community for business owners navigating the highs and lows of entrepreneurship with honest conversations and practical insights.
From LinkedIn to TikTok, Heather knows how to create content that’s authentic, impactful, and tailored to the right audience. And when she’s not managing social media accounts, she’s likely brainstorming new ideas—or spending time with her Springer Spaniel, Brodie.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heather-williams-28803b23b/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hwmediamanagement?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==
Jenny Williams
Consultant for Calm- Helping You Find Calm in the Chaos
Founder of The Calm Collective & The Calm Connected.Host of the Unlock Your Happiness Series Podcast. Based in Kent, London & the South East, bringing women together through meaningful conversations and soulful networking. Mum, Wife & Freelancer: I’m navigating the chaos just like you, while learning to embrace the calm along the way.
Let’s connect, collaborate & create more space for YOU.
You can find me here: www.jennywilliamsconsulting.com
Instagram: @jennywilliams_consulting
LinkedIn: Jenny Williams
Facebook: Jenny Williams
If you would like to be a guest on the podcast please go to the website and apply online.
Sending Love & Stay Happy x
hello and welcome. To unlock your happiness series, I am here today with another williams. Heather williams is here today. Hello, hello, hello. Um. So, heather, tell the listeners who you are and what you do. So I'm heather.
Speaker 2:I run um hw media management. Um, shortly actually going to be called hw marketing, so a little rebrand's coming um. So I predominantly look after people's social media. I work with small to medium businesses, help them implement strategies, create it, implement it, develop it yeah, um, but I'm more so now kind of becoming people's outsource marketing director, which I'm really excited about. So so, yeah, that's pretty much it and what else?
Speaker 1:What else do you do on a Monday night? Oh yes, how could I forget?
Speaker 2:So I run the Rookie CEO once a month, every. It's normally the last Monday of every month and the Rookie CEO basically is it's a networking event, but I don't really like to call it a networking event. It's a business collective for kind of, um, startup businesses, new business owners, yeah, or kind of people that are looking to get promoted and really want to grow professionally, um, and so we host that workshops for them so they can really learn those skills on how to network, um, making sure you've got your insurances all sorted, yeah, all the boring stuff that you don't think about and no one tells you when you start a business.
Speaker 1:Until you're either stuck and go. Oh, I didn't know I needed that yeah.
Speaker 2:And even things like data protection, gdpr, cyber security all this like little scary things that you don't know what you don't know? Yeah, and actually they can cause you a lot of problems if you don't know about them. Yeah, um, yeah, and you don't go to classic networking events and people tell you all about that unless they're selling it to you. Yeah, so that's a big rule. None of my speakers are allowed to sell to anyone. Good, um, if it happens organically, it happens organically, but they can't be like. Here's why you should use me.
Speaker 2:They just actually need to be like share value yeah like here's your top five tips on how you could do it yourself if you wanted to. Yeah, so it's been really nice, and there's free food and drink as well, which is always a bonus yeah, and I've been, and it's brilliant.
Speaker 1:So if you're in the Kent area, definitely look it up and we'll tag her in all of the bio as well yeah, so it's at Edenwood Place and it's a stunning venue, so I'm very.
Speaker 2:I'm very lucky to have it there as well and the food and drink is lovely too.
Speaker 1:I must admit so how have you got to where you are? So tell us your story. What's your kind of? You can start from birth. You can start from just with the business or just like, how have you? Because you're you're also very young as well, so you're very entrepreneurial and kind of motivated, and I think a lot of women might lack motivation because of so much that goes on and they're trying to copy others and all that type of stuff. So you're a bit of a maverick. In that instance that you're kind of, I take it. Yeah, you're like forth going and you really you know what you want, which is a great thing. So how have you got to that stage and what kind of got you there?
Speaker 2:so when I left school, I was just a little bit lost. I'll be honest, um, I did an apprenticeship in um Picardy Circus to try to become a hairdresser and I loved it, um, but I was always much more interested in when the L'Oreal rep would come in and she'd be telling you about the new products and their marketing campaigns and stuff. I was always more interested in that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I was just losing my passion for hairdressing. So I thought you know what? I'm going to go back to uni study digital marketing with Angela Ruskin and I was like actually this is what I enjoy. So I got a job at Vestel Order. I worked on five counters and I did the brand account for the counters within Bluewater, yeah, and pushed that because the kind of OIR was brought in because the individual stores were really struggling with footfall so they really wanted to push individual counters, social presence to get people in, to get them in for makeovers, all that kind of stuff. So that was really fun and we had like a team of seven on the counters and that was really fun getting them involved.
Speaker 2:We did a lot of trending content, which was really fun and it did like you could see, and that was really fun getting them involved. We did a lot of trending content, which was really fun, and it did like you could see that people were coming in a bit more, like the following grew. So that was great. And then I got the opportunity to work with my sister doing more street marketing, so that was very music-based, yeah. So I worked with a lot of festivals, club nights, kind of when one party finishes getting people to go to the next parties. So flyers, leaflets, kind of the big posters across London that would just pop up overnight and you'd wonder how the hell did they get there.
Speaker 2:That was usually me Making it happen overnight. So giving out samples at train stations, all that kind of stuff. I used to help coordinate, so that was really fun. But I just music is not really my passion, yeah. So I was like you know what, let me go and do something on my own. And then, yeah, I ended up. I had some connections in Medway because I moved back and that's where all my people I grew up with and stuff and people had kind of got businesses or they worked for businesses. So I had a few inns and it just kind of flourished from there really really naturally, from there really really naturally, and there was a big kind of calling for someone that could come in and help them.
Speaker 2:That wasn't an agency that was just one person that they could pick up the phone, talk to and wasn't charging like ridiculous amounts of money and never seeing them. That was a big thing. People were like I'm paying all this money to this company and I never seeing them. That was a big thing. People were like I'm paying all this money to this company and I never see them. So that was a big thing for me making sure I was visible and they got to know you.
Speaker 1:You were always part of the team.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and having that personal connection with them which I think they were missing from other agencies maybe, and I've just really developed it from there. And it's been really fun. I've got some lovely relationships with my clients now as well yeah um, which I've really tried hard to really nurture those as well, because, yeah, I do like to feel like I'm part of their team yeah, yeah, but that's.
Speaker 1:But it's a two-way street, isn't it? It's like you want to be part of their team and they want to absorb you in part of that as well which is lovely, and that's when you know the clients that you create. You've probably been through that journey already, where you pick when you first start a business, you're kind of at any clients a client, yeah, whereas as you start to evolve and grow, you start to learn. Actually, this is my type of client that I want and yeah once you find that and you go oh I know, that's it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you can.
Speaker 2:You can grow it, nurture it and really enjoy it yeah, oh yeah, and there was definitely some that I you know, like when you go self-employed and you're like, oh, I need the money. So I'm gonna say yes to everyone. And there was definitely some, not that they were bad, but they just weren't the right fit for me. Yeah, um, and that we've moved on like it was. We've all, we've parted ways in very amicably and happy. Yeah, yeah, but you kind of learn who is going to be the right fit, who isn't going to be the right fit and I'm not going to be the right social media manager for every business, just like they're not not going to be the right client for me every time either. Yeah, so that's been nice and having the confidence to be like, actually I'm not the right fit for you, but this person would be perfect yeah, so you're still connecting and collaborating it's just not the right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, alignment, isn't it?
Speaker 2:I think that's the thing for sure, um, and that's been nice actually, because I think people kind of ingrain in you that, oh, you can't talk to your competition, you've got to hate them yeah, yeah, it's weird, isn't it?
Speaker 1:Because actually you flourish more when you are together than you do when you're apart.
Speaker 2:And there's some businesses that actually I think I wouldn't have had the growth that I'd had if I hadn't have been friendly and wanted to get to know people. Yeah, and it does show that there were some people that didn't have the time of day for me when I was just like an unknown starting out that now want to collaborate with me.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I'm like well, you didn't want to collaborate when no one knew who I was, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So you kind of suss people out and I think the people that are open to collaborate with people at any stage, they always long term are going to have better relationships and I do think that the people that businesses longevity wise yeah, do really well, 100, and I think it's like it is still that old saying of it's not what you know, it's who you know isn't it, and yeah you never know, even though you might not have a client right now with them, in five years time or whatever, they're always watching what you're doing and then they become a client and yeah, if you are kind of not working with the right intentions and not, yeah, authentically yourself, people can suss that out and yeah, and then they won't recommend you, whereas that's why you're so busy, because everyone's always recommending you and booking you in and and you're authentically yourself which is a wonderful thing yeah, and I do.
Speaker 2:I do feel quite proud in the fact that I've grown my client base and I've not done a single paid ad. It's all just been either word of mouth or my own organic social media posting, because I'm like I really can practice what I preach.
Speaker 1:Yeah, which is nice um, because I think sometimes it. Sometimes people think the quick fix is a paid ad. But, actually, that's them drawing the wrong client towards you as well, isn't it?
Speaker 2:Well, things like, especially if you work in finance and someone wants a financial advisor, they're not really going to click on that random paid ad they saw. What they might do is click on that paid ad If they've been seeing you pop up on their feed for months and then you've put paid ads on. Yeah, again, it just all goes. Everything comes back to making sure people trust you and you're putting out a good, authentic view of yourself. Because, yeah, but you just put that paid ad when you had nothing else and it's the first time people have seen you.
Speaker 1:they're going to be like, oh, this looks like a scam yeah, we're very untrustworthy of stuff that we see now, aren't we?
Speaker 2:as well. Oh yeah for sure.
Speaker 1:So what was the turning point? Do you think of becoming HW Marketing? What was it that made you go? Do you know what? I'm going to go on my own, I'm going to make it happen.
Speaker 2:It's a really good question. To be honest, it just kind of happened. I knew I wanted to change, but I wasn't really sure what to do. And then I thought do you know what? What have I got to lose? At this point I thought I could I'll try it give it three months. I was looking for other jobs anyway, if you can hear her barking.
Speaker 1:We've got Brodie in here with us. So if you know Heather or you follow her, you'll see the beautiful Brodie and he comes to work with her and he's kind of like, why are you not stroking me and talking to somebody else?
Speaker 2:He's been very attention seeking.
Speaker 1:He keeps walking around the table like come on, mummy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I was looking for other jobs and actually goes back to Brodie. To be honest, None of the jobs I could find were either dog friendly offices or that I could work from like home hybrid.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And they were all full-time office based and I was just like I've just had this puppy at this point and I'm like there's no way in hell I'm leaving him for 12 hours each day. So my boyfriend was like, let's just go for it. Just like, do it on your own. Do I give it three months? Yeah, and at that point we hadn't we, we were still kind of living at home, so I didn't have big bills to pay, yeah. So it's like, oh, where's?
Speaker 1:it was low risk, yeah, so.
Speaker 2:I had nothing. I had nothing to lose. Um, and then, after three months, I had matched my salary at my old job. That's amazing and I thought, well, why the hell would I go back? Yeah, I had all this time, which now not so much. Not so much time, but you have freedom, yeah.
Speaker 1:I think that's the difference, isn't?
Speaker 2:it. I just networked my ass off, yeah, um and yeah, I just it blossomed and I was like, why didn't I do this sooner? Um, and I know it's, that's not the case for everyone, but I was, I feel, very blessed that it did kind of work that way, it's because it's all going to happen as it should, isn't it?
Speaker 1:and when you start to believe that that whatever's because it's all meant to happen as it should, isn't it? Yeah? And when you start to believe that that whatever's going to happen is going to happen as it should, yeah, it then works itself out, yeah, anyway. So you was meant to get the pup and you was meant to go, and make that decision and it was meant to happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I'm a big believer in you have to give 100% to everything if you're going to try it. And I really did that. I just threw myself into everything. I didn't cut any corners, like I, you know, with my email, even paid to get a proper domain for my email, because I was like I want to look really professional, all the things that like. When you start out you're like, oh, I won't do that to save money. But I was like I want to look super professional from the get go yeah, yeah, and I do think that all made a difference.
Speaker 1:And I kind of it gives you confidence in your business as well, doesn't it? Because you're like I'm professional, I'm treating it as professional. And then you come across that way as well, yeah.
Speaker 2:And I mean the first couple of networking things I went to, I did try and be like oh, I'm very professional, I'm very professional, I'm very corporate, and then I was like, actually, like, this is just not tiring to keep up with.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I just went in there and when people asked me the question why I went into self-employed and I went, oh, I've just got a puppy and I didn't want to go to the office. And, um, people relate to that, people just like that. I was actually just not pretending to be something, I wasn't. I know you. They kind of say fake it till you make it, but I was honest. I said, well, I've taken one client with me, but I'm starting completely from scratch.
Speaker 2:I think people really enjoyed being part of the journey of you as well and especially one of my clients right from the start, whenever I see her I see her every couple of weeks from another networking group now and she's like it's been so nice watching your journey, but I think I was always very open and honest about where I was and where I wasn't.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think that creates relatability though, because then people warm to you as a person. Yeah, like I do, I love you to bits and I only I've only known you probably about a month and a half yeah and um. Likewise, yeah, yeah, cheers, um, but it's just, you give off that authentic aura about you, like what you see is what you get, and you're kind and genuine and you see that on your social media, on your marketing as well. So then people kind of go I want you to make me look relatable. Yeah, be myself, and you probably actually help people more than you realize become themselves because, they're trying to be somebody else that they're comparing to on social media.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and when you go, just be yourself or just be silly or just do this, they kind of go, oh okay, yeah, and it's teaching them to become themselves. Yeah, and then their social media grows and their marketing enhances because they you're teaching them when you're yourself, people trust you and they relate to you and they want to buy from you well, I had like an older lady and I took over her LinkedIn and she was so worried.
Speaker 2:She kept saying to me oh, I can't post about myself.
Speaker 1:Like.
Speaker 2:I don't want people to think that all like and judge me. But I was like, well, you turn up to a meeting and you don't think about it. Yeah, you are who you are and people were going to resonate with that. And I, um, we arranged a actually like a brand photo shoot with my friend Chloe and we got these stunning photos, but they're not not very posed, they're more just her at her laptop, yeah, chatting with a client really natural and authentic posts and they look fantastic. And she was like, oh, like, why again? Like why did I do it sooner? But I think people were just you need sometimes you need not just someone to do your social media, but you need someone to give you that kind of like helping hand to be like no, like the courage and confidence to do it?
Speaker 2:the fear of the embarrassment is only going to last a short term, but the reward could be really long term yeah, and the thing is as well is teaching people almost that no one actually cares in the nicest possible way like they.
Speaker 1:If anyone is judging you, they've got a problem with themselves. If they're judging, somebody else yeah, whereas if you're around the right people and you're you're connecting with the right clients, they want you to thrive and you want them to thrive, and then everyone thrives together, don't they? Yeah, whereas if you're kind of going, oh, what will other people think, you shouldn't worry about what other people think, because most of the time they're worried about themselves.
Speaker 2:They're worried about what other people think as well. Yeah, and no one is going to sit on that Instagram photo and zoom in on it 20 times and dissect every little thing. Only you are going to be doing that.
Speaker 1:It's always to yourself, isn't it? You go, oh, I don't like the way I look in that You're your own biggest critic, yeah, but actually the people just see it purely as for what it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the chances are people are just going to scroll straight past and, if you're lucky, they're going to read your caption and give you a like and a comment, but people aren't paying that much attention.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So the more you show up, the more they will pay attention, but again, not in the way that they're going to be going. Oh well, she's not had her roots done, um, so yeah, it's just, it's building people's confidence with it. I think yeah um, which is easier said than done, but the more you chip away at it, the easier it goes yeah, it's like getting out of your comfort zone stuff as well, isn't? It.
Speaker 1:It's like the more you do like with that branding shoot. Once you've done one, you kind of go oh, I'd like to do more but in a different scenario or a different background, or, yeah, all of that type of stuff.
Speaker 2:So then people, they do it once and they go, oh, actually I could do it again and then they grow the layers of kind of and also when you do do those branding shoots, you might think, oh god, like I'm gonna have a photographer. But it's like okay, now you've got 20 images you can recycle and you don't have to think about this. Yeah, but maybe for three months, maybe four months, depends how much you want to squeeze out of them. Yeah, um. So I do normally say to people, if you are uncomfortable with that kind of stuff, actually a photo shoot might be the better option. Yeah, because then you've not got that every week. Oh god, like I've got to get a photo of myself or I've got to do this. Yeah, you don't have to think about, it's one and done.
Speaker 1:And it will give them that procrastination of like oh I haven't got a photo of me, oh I haven't taken one, or I've got to put my makeup on and all that type of stuff, and then they'll go. Oh, I just won't bother.
Speaker 2:Yeah, whereas the photographer I mean, they're magicians, they always make it look fabulous that you don't see, don't you?
Speaker 1:So they take pictures and you're almost like I didn't even realise he was taking that picture.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's when they're the best, aren't they? Yeah, my favourite ones are always when they catch you in an actual laugh. Yeah, because when I try and fake a laugh, you can see it in my eyes. My eyes are not smiling, but when they catch you on an actual laugh, it's like oh okay, yeah, actually that does look better.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so how do you unlock your happiness? So how do you stay happy when you're so busy You're kind of thriving in your business. So what helps you unlock your happiness? Well, first thing is I do have the dog in the office with me, so you're always with happiness, yeah my happiness comes with me everywhere oh, he's just giving his paws as we speak, literally like a good little boy, so gorgeous.
Speaker 2:I do think kind of, if you can take your dog with to the office, it just gives you that little bit of moment of joy. And also I found for me if I don't have the dog with me, I will sit at my desk from morning until late at night. And I won for me if I don't have the dog with me, I will sit at my desk from morning until late at night and I won't get up, I won't eat, I won't go for a walk or anything, yeah, whereas when you've got that.
Speaker 2:It's a good excuse to get up and out, right yeah, when. I've got him with me. I'm like, well, I need to go out for a walk at lunch because of the dog, but actually it's good for me, it gets me out um, I've also found that, um, I was getting really unmotivated and just hating everything working on my own. So I'm now at the co, at Dragon Co, working at the co-working space yeah, being able to chat with people and actually air my frustrations, because working your own is really lonely yeah um, so it's really nice being able to talk to people and then actually working from home.
Speaker 2:It seems like a great idea. But you don't shut the door on work because work is at home.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah so 100% again having oh Brodie come here Brodie agrees, and I think that's because someone's outside, so he's being Mr Protector of.
Speaker 2:Heather.
Speaker 1:He's saying don't forget me. Yeah, you just said walk Mum. I heard you and you've not taken me, can?
Speaker 2:you hurry up, please. But yeah, I just yeah. Talking to people and being like I've had a really rubbish day is really nice, and especially when they're not your family or your friend, there's someone external to it, so they can actually look at it as an outsider, which is nice. Yeah, with a different point of view, isn't it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that is one thing that they don't, or it's not promoted as much when you become an entrepreneur or a business owner or whatever you call yourself is, it does get lonely. Yeah, I think a lot of people kind of go. They see all these images and how brilliant being your own boss is and how you can earn loads of money and freedom, which you do get to a certain degree.
Speaker 1:But that journey is quite lonely when you're used to being in a corporate environment, being around teams and all of that type of stuff that keep you going, because you can have a moan and then move on and all that stuff, whereas when you're working from home or you're on your own you just get in your own head and then you start to fester on things or you can't let things go. So I 100% agree with you it's getting out in front of people, isn't it?
Speaker 2:because I've just never been left to my own devices before that, when I was a hairdresser, I was a huge salon, um, and we would go out after every shift and you had that social side. After, when I went for a saloon, I was on a counter with seven other people and then you had the whole of the beauty hall that you socialised with. In my old office there was the four of us, so it was the first time I ever was just left alone with my own thoughts and I was like oh, right.
Speaker 1:What do I do with all this time? What do I?
Speaker 2:do with all this and I was like, oh right, what do I do with all this time, what do I do with all this? And I had no one, no work friends, which I really missed. So now I'm sharing the office with Sam from Fuzzy Logic. That's been a really good. It really does make my day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like a shift change.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that I can like annoy across the desk.
Speaker 1:They can take the mick out of you as well. Yeah, and then you can just have fun, can't you?
Speaker 2:And if I'm like having a bit of a wobble about a client or something just to reassure her, is being like no, like I think it looks great and I'm like, oh okay, so it is just me having a wobble, not that the work was rubbish.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, and we all need a kind of tribe around us. Yeah, for sure, whether it's people that you are working with because they're doing work for you, or whether it's people that are just like-minded people, yeah, that are going no, you know your worth, right, you need to, yeah, do this and the other you need to find that. So, if you are listening and you are feeling a little bit of a lull and you're working from home trying to run your own business, get out and find people, come to the Rookie CEO, come and see us. It's really important to grow connections, not to create clients necessarily, but just grow connections, because everyone wants to see.
Speaker 2:Well, most people want to see people thrive, and those that don't aren't the people that you want to be hanging around with anyway, right, yeah, and like all these co-working spaces, have day passes like you know, you can just go see if you like it, or even go to a cafe just being around like humans yeah it's so good for you to just get you out of your yeah, bubble, yeah, I think it's so important yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1:So what would you say other than walking the dog and getting yourself around other people? Yeah, how do you ensure that you look after yourself?
Speaker 2:well is that I'm on a journey, aren't we all? Um, not quite there yet. I wouldn't have it all figured out, um, I don't think we ever do, by the way. No, I'm trying to just implement some boundaries, yeah, whether that's with clients, whether that's personal life, or setting boundaries and trying to stick to them, I think, is kind of key to having everything seemingly put together. So, like for me, I'm trying to. I know I work over the weekend and I'll never stop doing that, because actually for me sometimes it's the most productive time because my emails aren't going, so I can do other stuff to concentrate. So, ok, you're not going to stop working at the weekend. So you're going to take half days on Fridays, yeah. And if you can, you'll take the whole Friday off, yeah. Or, and if you can, you'll take the whole Friday off, yeah. So, rather than, rather than fighting against staff, I'm like, okay, we can't change that, but what can we do instead? Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it's almost. That's the autonomy that you can have as a business owner, and I think I think I said it in the talk when we was doing the, when I've done it at your rookie CEO is that I think a lot of the time, society tells us oh, we have to work nine till five, monday to Friday, and we should have weekends off and all the rest of it.
Speaker 1:But actually, if you work better at night, you can have the day off. You don't have to do the day and the night just because you feel like you should. It's actually going well. I have Friday off because I work Saturday. Or I don't have to work Friday, Saturday, sunday if I don't want to, as long as you're doing what you have kind of set out to do and not putting yourself under this kind of like oh, I'm not going to work Friday, saturday, sunday and then really stress yourself out Monday.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's about creating that kind of boundary or work pattern that works for you instead of being like oh, but I've just dropped the kids off and now I need to work nine till three. We don't if you don't, if that's not when you're most optimal, yeah, no one's telling you you have to work, it's just society creates this. Oh, we should work Monday to Friday and we should work nine till five, and we should always be on our emails, and all this type of stuff is like create, like you said creating those boundaries and kind of going yeah, but that is my day off.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and if you are ever worried about working weird hours, if I'm working in the evening again sometimes my most productive time I schedule my emails to go out. All the emails I'm sending, I click schedule on them and then they go. Don't get sent until 8am the next day. Yeah, that's so good. People might think I was online at 8am but I wasn't. I was working until 9 and I've slept in for the morning. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I bet it feels good as well, because you think, oh done all of that that's all set, ready to go and I close my laptop of an evening and I've got like 10 emails that are scheduled to go out at 8am. They're going to think, oh, she was eager she's been really busy this morning. Whatever she's up the break crack I always say this as well, because I used to hate Mondays, I used to dread them. I have what I call quiet Mondays, where I don't have any meetings until lunchtime onwards on a Monday.
Speaker 2:I like that, not that I don't. I do work every Monday morning, but so I can get to my desk, sort through some emails you can ease yourself in instead of being so like bang. It's Monday yeah and then I always found that if I had a meeting on Monday morning, I'd be so distracted by like, oh, I've got those emails and I've got to do this, whereas now, if I go into a meeting on a Monday afternoon, I'm much more concentrated on just that person.
Speaker 2:So that was another thing. So it's kind of a bit of like a long weekend-ish.
Speaker 1:Yeah, nice, I've given myself. You deserve it because you are working all the time. Yeah, so I think that's the thing is. Sometimes we go, oh, we should be doing this and we should be doing that, but actually you work so hard anyway. Yeah, you're always at networking events in the evenings. You're always working all day and your clients are happy.
Speaker 2:That's the most important thing. Yeah, and I used to just not really. I used to just sit around on the Saturday daytime. So I was like, well, if I can actually go out and enjoy things on a Friday and then do a little bit of work on a Saturday morning, is it the end of the world?
Speaker 1:no, no, and you're getting it done. That's the most important thing, and you're feeling confident in yourself because you're almost giving yourself the luxuries of the Friday afternoons. But actually it's just how it should be anyway. Yeah, like today, I'm gonna go to m&s, it's so exciting go outside. The weather's brilliant well you've got to walk brody in a minute because he's literally gonna be like mommy, you need to take me out.
Speaker 2:Well, brody's actually getting picked up. He's going for a sleepover. Oh, he's going for a sleepover with his nan he's very excited.
Speaker 1:He's like looking at us just kind of going what?
Speaker 2:are you two talking about?
Speaker 1:yeah, this is a dog, not a child, yeah, but dogs are a child, they're part of the family.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's definitely my baby. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I have one child and two dogs, so it's technically I've got three children oh, you're outnumbered, I know.
Speaker 2:And a cat? Oh my god, I must be mad right so Right.
Speaker 1:So wrapping things up because you've given us so much content. I know Brodie's probably desperate for a wee now. He's kind of pacing around and I do not want to suffer him any longer. What would be the one bit of advice that you would give to someone else that they could implement today to unlock their happiness?
Speaker 2:I think don't pretend to be something you're not. If you feel confident in jeans and a jazzy jumper, do business in the jeans and the jazzy jumper. I love that. Yeah, you attract people that have the same tendencies and like Vibe of you, isn't it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, of you.
Speaker 2:If you try and pretend to be something you're not, you're going to attract the wrong people.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Whether that's how you speak, whether that's how you dress, like your methods of doing things, the way you work.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Just yeah, I know it sounds a bit cliche, but yeah.
Speaker 1:Just for you Don't.
Speaker 2:yeah, don't put up any masks. Just be yourself, and if people don't like it, it. They won't work with you and that's not a bad thing yeah, that's such a good tip.
Speaker 1:I love that. Thank you so much for leaving that as a last comment and where can people find you?
Speaker 2:I am predominantly on LinkedIn. It's just my personal profile, so Heather Williams, and then on Instagram, hw Media Management. Same for Facebook and TikTok. Me and Sam are in the office trying to do some more funny videos on TikTok gonna check them out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, brilliant. Thank you so much for coming in and thank you for Brodie coming in as well. Thank you so much for listening. I really do appreciate you being here and, yeah, give Heather a follow and if you've got any questions or anything, drop her a line, drop me a line. Come over to the Rookie CEO if you can. And, yeah, have a wonderful weekend and, for those that are listening, send in love and stay happy.