We Are Power Podcast
The We Are Power podcast is the podcast for your career and your life. A weekly podcast with listeners in over 60 countries worldwide where you'll hear personal life stories, top-notch industry advice, and key leadership insight from amazing role models. The podcast not only aids your personal and professional development but also delves deep into conversations around Gender Equality and Social Mobility. Each week the We Are Power Podcast will bring you a new interview from a leader within the 100,000-strong We Are Power community, hosted by Simone Roche MBE.
We Are Power Podcast
Building a Business and Balancing Life with Ruth Hartnoll
In this episode of the We Are Power Podcast, we delve into the world of entrepreneurship with Ruth Hartnoll, co-founder of Matchstick. Join us as we explore personal stories of growth, overcoming challenges, and the significance of community. Ruth discusses the origins of her business, the valuable lessons learned, and the importance of fostering a strong company culture. We also touch on balancing personal and professional life, as well as the impact of side projects and board roles.
Chapters:
00:00 Welcome to the We Are Power Podcast
01:33 The Journey of Matchstick
02:36 Challenges and Lessons Learned
06:31 The Importance of Culture
12:41 Side Hustles and Board Roles
16:50 Balancing Personal and Professional Life
19:12 The Power of Community
25:20 Reflections and Advice for Entrepreneurs
28:14 Conclusion
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Hello, hello and welcome to the we Are Power podcast. If this is your first time here, the we Are Power podcast is the podcast for you, your career and your life. We release an episode every single Monday with listeners in over 60 countries worldwide, where you'll hear personal life stories, top-notch industry advice and key leadership insight from amazing role models. As we Are Power is the umbrella brand to Northern Power Women Awards, which celebrates hundreds of female role models and advocates every year. This is where you can hear stories from all of our awards alumni and stay up to date with everything MPW Awards and we Are Power. Well, today I am joined by the amazing Ruth Hartnett. Hello, visionary B Corp-er. Thanks. Entrepreneur, superhero, multiple roles, matchstick co-founder.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the pod, hello, hello friend, nice, to sit with you and be recorded having one of our conversations. Well, do you know what I feel like? It's just going to be like one of our chats, first time in a chat in a pub. Yeah, loveline Brewery was the last one, wasn't it? Yeah, it was yeah.
Speaker 1:So actually yeah, it's not always a pub, but actually yeah, probably is. But we're going to go on an adventure today around the, the trials, the tribulations, the ups, the down, the fun, the adventures that comes with being an entrepreneur which is, quite frankly, bonkers at times. Yeah, it's the same thing. Don't do it, but where did it start? Where did it start? Yeah, there you go. Thank you, thanks for joining us today. Where did it all start for you?
Speaker 2:um, so matchstick uh was originally called jnr and it came out of someone that I used to work with approaching me and saying you know, I'll do sales, you do the creative bit and we'll just like start a business together. And I was like sounds great, I hate sales, I don't want to do that at all. And then about six weeks into that journey it just became really apparent I didn't have the language for it then, but it became really apparent that we just weren't a very good match and it's because the culture fit was wrong. But I didn't know that until I went on the journey of founding a B Corp and finding my now co-founder, greg hello, Greg, who's the one that took us on that journey and was like it doesn't have to be this way, man, it can be fun.
Speaker 2:I was like can it? So he sort of got us into the B Corp movement and he was the one that made us more purpose-driven. Then we figured all that stuff out together over the last five or six years. But yeah, I literally got started because someone asked it wasn't me being like I'm gonna go start a business. I was approached and said I'll do that. And then six weeks in was like I will do that, but not with you. But how did?
Speaker 1:you exit that relationship because it's easy sometimes to stay. It's easy to sort of stop still isn't it then make the difficult, awkward decision.
Speaker 2:I think, um, do you know what credit to the person I was dealing with? At the time, they both of us just sort of looked at each other and said this isn't quite right. Um, so I was annoyed at the time but now, like, what a small moment on quite a long and, you know, significant journey. So credit to both of us. I think at that six week point I was just like it just isn't right, is it? And that's okay, like I'll go on to do a thing and you can carry on doing what you're doing, and we just sort of parted ways amicably. It's really common. That isn't what happens. It's loads of people I know, particularly recently, where they start on that journey and it just doesn't work and that's really tricky. So in that way, I was incredibly fortunate that it just happened to go that way. So thanks.
Speaker 2:Previous partner and we've already shouted out super Greg but yeah which is his full title that is in fact his official name yeah.
Speaker 1:How long was it then before you found what your ideal match?
Speaker 2:yeah, very good sorry, very good um, so weirdly, uh, I used to get drum lessons from the lovely Davey Kelly another shout out there um, and his drum studio is based in elevator studios and Greg, my now co-founder, was literally moving out of his office and I was sat having a pint with Dave and Dave was like, oh, this is Greg, he's a web developer. I was like, oh, a pint with Dave. And Dave was like, oh, this is Greg, he's a web developer. I was like, oh, what do you do, greg? And we sat down and had a chat for 30 minutes and thus history was made.
Speaker 2:So he started out as a freelancer and sort of co-creator and after about I don't know, and that was like 18 months into the journey. So it was about a year where I was doing it on my own really. But then, yeah, slowly, like, greg became part of it, became a director, and we're now where we are today. It literally wouldn't look the way it would look without him, and he's also the very definition of an incredible ally and male feminist. He is, in my opinion, one of the greatest feminists I know. So, yeah, credit to Greg. We do all the b corp stuff and all that and that is so important like advocacy for gender equality is critical.
Speaker 1:It's not a woman's problem to solve, right?
Speaker 2:no, not at all no, and Greg Greg is uh. Anyone who's met him will know he is one of the best people for being in that conversation. So, yeah, a much better fit for me as a co-founder and did you always feel like you were purpose-led?
Speaker 2:I think when I so, when I very first and the reason why Greg sort of vaguely knew who I was uh, pre-meeting, when I first started J&R as we were called, I went on a thing about trying to work with female founders. So I was very much like I want to work with other female founder businesses, I want to support you if you're a woman in business. So I had like the kernel of an idea of being like support a group that is perhaps slightly under supported. But then Greg sort of expanded that thinking and was like yes, absolutely that problem, but also all these other things that you might not have considered, and I was like, oh, that's really interesting, we can expand that thinking and make it to do with inequality rather than to do with sexism specifically. And by opening that up it took us on the journey to B Corp and thinking about how to be purpose-led.
Speaker 1:So yeah, and tell us about that, because that is B Corp is. Congratulations, thanks, yeah. It's not mission easy, is it?
Speaker 2:No, it is not. And you know Greg is now also part of he's a co-chair of the B Local group. So if you're someone who's in Liverpool City region in particular and you want to get involved in B Corp or considering it, talk to that group of people. But yeah, like it's tricky, we're just about to recertify. So we certified in 2022. We need to recertify this year. It will look very different from when we first did it. I probably, to be totally honest with you, I probably wouldn't recommend it for micro businesses. Our business has changed shape and form over the years. We're now a team of two at the moment with a really excellent network of freelancers. So for me, I probably wouldn't go through that process now, but at the time we did it, it was absolutely the right thing to do and we will recertify because it's so valuable to us.
Speaker 1:And you talk about those challenges, about sort of growing a business, and now you've changed shape what have you learned most about that. Because change is great, because it can come about and bring great opportunities, but it also can come with pain, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. I think, particularly in relation to the size of the company. It's really personally quite a difficult thing to resolve in your head because we're fed a completely inaccurate picture of running a business where things very linearly go up and up and up and if it doesn't follow that trajectory you have failed. And it's just not true. First of all, because often what happens is you go up, you hit a massive pitfall. You go up slightly, a bit more, you hit another pitfall, then you go up a little bit more and a bit more, and sometimes you will have a couple of years rising. It's really likely you'll have two or three years where you fall quite a bit. So I suppose one of the main messages I would say is if that happens, you haven't failed.
Speaker 2:And there's so many things working against us at the moment. It is really unstable, uncertain times and there's also a mindset I find, particularly in places like LinkedIn, where it's like just try harder and it's like no, that's inaccurate. It's so inaccurate to say working harder and using that old capitalist model of thinking will result in you having more turnover, having more profit and you having more staff members. It simply isn't the case anymore and I always have a bit of a rallying cry when I'm in conversations like this to say it's not just you. There are so many things working against you and lean into that. So I think for me the biggest lesson over the last five or six years has been now that. So I think for me the biggest lesson over the last five or six years it has been now. Uh, it is not always an upward trajectory. It is often a mix of down and up, and that is valid and good too and I think it's the learning, isn't it?
Speaker 1:it's the learning from. Both isn't it? You learn from the wins and celebrate those wins. Yeah, and so, within, amongst those challenges, what have been those big wins for you?
Speaker 2:so there's been lots of big wins. Every single person we hired was wonderful, like huge credit to anyone who's ever worked in Matchstick. I didn't really understand what good culture meant until I had to go through the process of being like who do I want to work with and also how do we create a space that people want to work in. So any Matchstick we've hired, if you're listening, you're wonderful and we're deeply honoured to have had you as part of our team. The other big wins finding Greg. It absolutely changed the trajectory of what we were doing. So, yeah, definitely that I think as well.
Speaker 2:Going through the B Corp process and then having to embed that framework into everything we did. It's now led to the most recent iteration of the business that we were working on last year and sort of relaunching this year in February with our rebrand. It on last year and are sort of relaunching this year in February with our rebrand. It's not just about originally we were very much a marketing and comms agency. We're now also doing stuff like business transformation, talking to people about how they make more work for small working spaces. That's because of B Corp and living with that thinking for two or three years. So big wins.
Speaker 2:Definitely B Corp trying to do more purpose-led stuff. Just being a bit of a pain in the ass, sat in the room, just being in rooms where no one's talking about the fact that those old structures don't work and those old systems don't serve a lot of people. So just being that person and being vocal and having the huge opportunity and fortune to do that um, being part of the boards I know we'll come on to talk about some of the positions I've got outside of Matchstick. Those are massive opportunities and massive highs and also, just like all of the work we've produced, I think, one of the things I like.
Speaker 2:By nature I'm a copywriter. The trade that I learned was I learned to write and I applied it to a commercial setting. So anytime I got to sit down and write a case study, I get like PTSD because it's all I had to do for other people and I'm like god, I don't want to write another case study, written hundreds of them. But anytime I do it for us, it's basically like saying look at all the hard work you did. So that's always a nice moment too, to be like shit, we did that.
Speaker 2:That's cool yeah, high five, high five yeah you talked.
Speaker 1:I just want to sort of look at the talk about the culture yeah there's so much talk. We've talked about the, the, the, the love of linkedin yes, but you know, there's so much, lots of chat, gpt orientated stuff yeah, I'll let you we'll get on to that. How does that sit with a copywriter specialist? But, um, but culture. Is it harder or easier, do you think, to build that culture within a micro, as it is within some of those big multinationals?
Speaker 2:I think you're looking at two slightly different challenges, or multiple different challenges there, depending on the size of the team we've had. The biggest we've ever been was like 12 people, who were a mix of full-time and part-time. I personally feel and you can the staff would be the best testament to this, but they're not here, hopefully. I feel like we got the culture pretty right there and there was loads of stuff we made as decisions I was really proud of. However, going and shrinking to a team of just the two of us now, with a group of freelancers loads of the thinking that we embedded and thought about when we were the size of 12, 5, 10 people because it fluctuates quite a lot. It's still present now, even the way that, like if greg's having a bad day, if I'm having a bad day, or if one of us is sick, or if one of us is getting married, like how do we handle that is? It is part of the culture we embedded four years ago when we had team members. So I think, as a micro business, if you go through those like levels of fluctuation, whatever you started with the roots of that genuinely loads that like loads of those values, loads of that thinking still transposes when there's just two of you. It also transposes to how you deal with your freelancers.
Speaker 2:Freelancers are treated terribly. Um, we try to treat them as fairly as we can, as much as our cash flow will allow it. I'm sorry to every freelancer we've paid late. That's totally the cash flow's fault, um, but yeah, like anytime, we're dealing with people as well. We just say if I was a freelancer, how would I want to be treated so definitely that If you're dealing with a larger organization, honestly I don't think I've got the experience to talk about that, because the biggest organization I've ever worked for was like 35 people. So I've always been in SMEs. So the cultures that I've seen in larger organisations, I find that pockets of it do it really well and that's usually a reflection of like a little microcosm of the business and some of the values we've seen. Really it's down to the people and how much they care about it, but across the organisation, I think much harder to achieve if you're a bigger organisation, for sure.
Speaker 1:Without it being a tick box.
Speaker 2:Yeah, without it being like HR have told us to do this really tricky to achieve. That's hard work. I've never had to do that, so I wouldn't know and just moving into your side hustles yeah, like so um 18 months ago, something like that. Now you were appointed when you was the the co-chair, so yeah, the deputy chair of the business and enterprise board for Liverpool city region. Um, it's a bit of a big organization, right?
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah, yeah, to cover yeah, the combined authority.
Speaker 2:Um, so if anyone is listening and doesn't really know what the combined authority is, they're effectively the the very large group of people that look out, look after liverpool city region, and it's steve, rotherham and katherine who are the leaders of that organization. So they're the people we deal with most in those positions. Um, I do it with my very brilliant chair, david Mayowitz, as a partner on that. Yeah, just an incredible opportunity that that board position has led me to be in a room full of very interesting, cool people who are working very hard to do good things across our city region. It's got me to the Houses of Parliament to talk about net zero.
Speaker 2:Like loads of amazing stuff's come out of that that you can't predict unless you give yourself that opportunity.
Speaker 2:And like incredibly easy for someone like me, who's only like 35, to be like why on earth am I deputy chair of the region's business board? That's entirely the reason why I am, because they had a very clear mission when they reorganized all those boards to do very differently to what they'd done before, and me and David were that criteria. So we got the jobs. So if anyone is listening or watching and is like I couldn't be the chair of a board or whatever. Yeah, you can and you're way more qualified than you think you are, particularly if you've kind of got nothing to lose. I find when I'm in that find, when I'm in those board meetings, I'm a bit like well, I'm a deputy chair. It gives it kind of gives you like immunity, just to be a bit like they won't finish talking, be quiet, like you can be a bit like no, no, stop. So yeah, I think it also empowers you to be slightly more confident version of yourself, which is lovely, and you talked earlier about using your voice in the room.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and people want to do that, but they sometimes fearful of going. God, whatever say the wrong thing or actually I don't know enough to input here, so I'll just be an observer of why. What would you say?
Speaker 2:um, I would say frame your response as curiosity is quite a good hack. So I was in a meeting yesterday, for example. We were talking about branding for something and I said they presented something to us and I was like that's really interesting, coming from a place of curiosity, how did you arrive at that insight? So, rather than say like why on earth have you made that decision, which is the unfair, cruel thing, particularly if you're someone that's been involved in branding projects, so much conversation has gone on to get to that point that you need to be kind and empathetic to the people who've gone on that journey. So it's a bit like coming from a place of curiosity when was that insight from? That's really interesting. And then it opens it up so people don't feel attacked.
Speaker 2:I think that's quite useful, particularly if you're not feeling massively confident. Just say it like feigning ignorance. You can be like so I don't know this thing. That'd be really interesting if you could explain that to me. I'm curious to hear what you've got to say Like approach it with enthusiasm and a bit of curiosity and you will never look stupid. And if someone makes you feel stupid, that's with them, so it's not with you. Mental note, right here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that is the best top tip and you're also on the board. A part of the Lifted, the Lifted.
Speaker 2:Project. Yes, the incredible Lifted Project. Yes, the incredible Lifted Project that's founded by many brilliant women, particularly Zandra.
Speaker 1:Zandra Moore MBE. Zandra Moore MBE recently this year.
Speaker 2:Well done, miss Moore. Yes, amazing news, no, yeah, another really interesting project where they're trying to get more investment for female founders in lots of different regional clusters. I'm involved in the Liverpool City Region one, I suppose. Again, going back to the point about feeling qualified or underqualified I know nothing about investment, can't stress this enough like it's something that my type of business probably isn't very well suited for. So I sort of approached that board position with a bit of curiosity, again, being like I don't know anything about. It wouldn't be the great way to learn about it to be on a board with a load of people that do so. I just sort of put myself in the room and was like it would be really interesting to learn about this. So I did so again, like even if you're applying for a board, you're like I've got no direct experience, that doesn't matter, you can still add something, so just go for it and what?
Speaker 1:outside of all of this, I'm not I'm not really a big fan of the whole. Oh, how do you have it all and work-life balance, because I think everything just gets very blurred. You talked about, you know, getting married this year.
Speaker 2:Yes, I am, congratulations, Thank you. April, not too far away now. Yes, it's very near, very exciting.
Speaker 1:You've also mentioned drums.
Speaker 2:I literally scribbled that down right at the start of our conversation.
Speaker 1:Not that your wedding is an outside hobby, but what is going on in? Your outside of matchstick, outside of your board roles? Are you still playing drums? Are you planning a wedding?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Sadly, I don't play drums enough anymore. Sorry, Dave, you were such a good teacher. No, I'm not playing enough drums at all, I suppose outside of work. I think the reason why last year in particular 2022 and 2023, as Greg will attest were very hard years. They were not easy to run a business in. I think a lot of people struggled. We sort of really really felt the impact of COVID two years after it happened for our type of business. So it was everyone's budget shrunk. It was really hard. We had the biggest team we ever had and less income. So there was a lot of difficult stuff going on.
Speaker 2:Then, 2024, I think at the beginning of it, we just sort of both looked at each other and said this is the year we're just gonna have to look after ourselves. And in the entire time of running the business we've never said that. We always said how do we look after the team? What do we do for them? We kind of needed to, partly because we were both very burnt out, but also because we had no other option. The option was look after ourselves or have nothing to look after. So we did basically, and in doing that and allowing ourselves that breathing room, all the stuff in the personal life. Flourished because it meant when I was finishing work, I was really finishing work when I was thinking about I don't know if anyone's ever planned a wedding. Who's listening to this I saw it as like the ultimate creative live event. Brief.
Speaker 2:It was just like it was so fun to think about. I feel like our colleague in the background it absolutely is, and I think as someone that puts events on with fire starters which is the other thing we do outside of matchstick um, it was just really fun to think about Like what a cool thing to think about. How can I entertain all the people I love for a day, like great brief. So I think for me that made all of that stuff way easier. We also cheated and used the project management tool we have at Matchstick to make planning the wedding easier. Hot tip use Asana for planning a wedding.
Speaker 1:There's always side hacks and everything.
Speaker 2:There is and.
Speaker 1:I think another real powerful tool is other humans, and I think the one thing that I know about you, ruth, is you're always very, very generous with giving your time and your ear to other people and to listen and to take action and to do, and it's a couple of years ago now that you formed our Female Founders WhatsApp group in.
Speaker 1:Liverpool and it started in a fantastic lovely lunch at Marais, and we convene in big numbers, small numbers, individual numbers, but it's the power of that community and tribe particularly around female founders. I know we all have a million WhatsApp groups, families, business, you know, et cetera, but it is important, isn't it?
Speaker 2:That ability to be able to give and gain yeah, absolutely, and to massively credit uh chelsea slater here who founded, innovate her. It was 100 chelsea's idea. When we did that very first meal a couple of years ago, she was like we know loads of women in business who are struggling. She would just organize a meal. It was like great idea. So we did, we did it together, um, and then very organically, it became the female founders group, a part of and welcome other people to.
Speaker 2:Now it's such a that's such an interesting side entity to me because you can't emulate what that group does organically together and even the way we speak to each other in that WhatsApp group. Like the last time we met up at Lovelane, a friend of mine, christine, was there and she joined us temporarily, then had to go to go home and she sent me a message afterwards and was like I just can't get over how lovely and kind you all were to each other and how candidly you spoke together and I was like it makes me really sad you don't have that group, because we should all have that group, so we need to welcome her. But also, yeah, like find your tribe is such an important message. But I personally have found you often find that tribe by making it yourself. I'm very much a if you want it done, do it yourself person, so, yeah, we're very, very lucky to be part of that group of people. It's such an interesting group of people, isn't it?
Speaker 1:So, yeah, that is a good group, good support group. It is so good and I'm really gutted, actually, because we talked about vision boarding at the last get up and I can't be at it. And get up and I can't be at it and I'm like I'll host it. You can do it in the office and then we I'm down in that, their London town, but it's all about female founders in London, so it's all good that's my, that is my get out of jail.
Speaker 1:But there is that sense and it is that it's that safe place.
Speaker 2:Safe place isn't it yeah um, you know it's, uh, I'm being.
Speaker 1:I think it is that candid approach. What would you say?
Speaker 2:your superpower is um, I think my superpower is being the glue, and I think there are a lot of women who have to fulfill this role. Christina, who has been on the podcast very recently, in fact, and is also part of our female founders group, she sort of said to me it's so nice not to have to be the glue for once. And I was like isn't it lovely when someone else says what are we doing? When are we doing it? We're doing it here, it here, I've organized it, here's the invite. I often fulfill that role. I do it willingly because I have the capacity to do it. I'm child free by design, so it is much easier for me to give my time to those things. And it is with someone with caring responsibilities. So I'm a bit like if I want to do it, I'll do it, and if I don't, I just won't. So anytime that I'm putting my time into getting people together, it's because I want to. So glue, glue.
Speaker 1:Stickiness is glue and stickiness. Yeah, we mentioned it. Uh, so I just want to come back to very quickly. You started life as, not life in it. You know, out of the out of the womb, but as a copywriter, I don't know, maybe you did.
Speaker 2:Who knows I was writing as I came out. Yeah, indeed, you know the talent.
Speaker 1:You've always been talented. Chat GPT where does that fit into your world and ethos and value system?
Speaker 2:So I actually think it's a really interesting tool for copywriters. Not because it should replace the thing you're doing, but often, and particularly the way marketing budgets are going, everyone's teams are shrinking. Either you're not in a team at all it's very common to be the only marketer having to do a lot of things or, particularly if you're a copywriter, it's really likely you're the only writer in that company. I see it as a sparring partner. So if you're trying to come up with, we do a lot of like brand voice work at Matchstick, so we'll do brand identity work and then it's my job to figure out a company's values and personality.
Speaker 2:Chatgpt is a really good sparring partner if you haven't got anyone sat opposite you which is often the case because we do most of our work remote now at Matchstick so I think for me I use it as like, if not that this, then that, so you ask it questions and it'll be like this nonsensical thing. But because it said a nonsensical thing, it pushes your head into a different space which gives you the answer you need. So I see it as like a brainstorming tool rather than a replacement tool. I don't know how other people use it, it's how you coach it, I suppose, and guide and train it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, absolutely so I find it useful. Yeah, and we've talked about the wedding you know, there may or may not be sort of back to drums at some point down the line. There'll be a vision boarding but you've got the rebrands coming up very, very soon as well exciting. What are you most looking forward to?
Speaker 2:we've said it's it's challenging times yeah, I think the, the rebrand who was created by the absolutely incredible I am female studio based out of London. They did our rebrand for us. Um, that is such a big moment we've done effectively over the course of five or six years. We've done the first iteration, which was J&R, we did the rebrand that became Matchstick, and then we've got this most recent version of us. Because we do so much brand work, we've obviously got really high standards for it and we know the process very intimately. So I think, for me, I'm incredibly excited with what's possible with us doing that and who it introduces us to, so I'm really looking forward to it. It's also really soon, so it's very front of mind for me.
Speaker 2:So the rebrand is a huge thing. I'm really looking forward to that, and it also means we can sort of properly articulate ourselves in a way we haven't done before. So also, even from a copyright point of view, quite a fun thing to think about, to be honest. Um, so, yeah, definitely that, and also just the, the renewed energy we have after giving ourselves a year to recuperate and hide away and not be massively present, because we spent five years being really visible and doing everything we possibly could. Having a retreating year was actually amazing. It was lovely. Highly recommend hobbiting for a whole year. Um, and this year we're back back at it, back visible again. So you'll see that from February going on and you've been so honest today.
Speaker 1:You're always very honest always very candid and you enable that. I think in others, in in the group, in the tribe. So for anyone watching or listening who wants to or is considering following in the footsteps of being an entrepreneur or forming a partnership with someone, what advice would you pass on to them, because you've been brilliant hacks today?
Speaker 2:thanks, uh, yeah, so at the beginning I said don't do it, um I'd probably like to revise that answer slightly.
Speaker 2:Um, I would say um. I think the the point at which I was doing it, I was blinded by confidence and optimism and I think that is pretty critical. If you want to start a business, try not to think too practically at the beginning, which sounds like a mad thing to say. You're forced to think that way as soon as you take on other people and you're responsible for their responsibilities. So at the beginning, if you're considering running a business, my God, just go head and heart first and get on with shit.
Speaker 2:If I look back at the amount of stuff we achieved in the first two years of Matchstick, it's staggering. I couldn't do it now. I haven't got the energy for it because all my energy got taken in those first five years of the business. So I think as soon as you've got the energy, get on with it and start doing it and get other people energized by how much you care about it. So just throw everything at it if you're thinking about it and, equally, stay as small as you can for as long as you can would be quite practical advice I have for right now, in the current climate really do as much as you can with a very small group of trusted people and, as much as you can, try not to give yourself more work than you have to.
Speaker 2:So which, simone, you're terrible at. So just as a note for everyone listening, simone always does too much. So, yeah, like definitely give yourself a manageable amount, but just go at it like really really throw yourself into it, because if you're not at that level of energy for your own business, you'll never. You'll never make it. It's that clear to me, because if I didn't have that energy at the beginning, we just wouldn't be where we are now, at a much calmer stage. But I needed all that energy at the beginning to get to the calm stage.
Speaker 1:And finally, I think I've said I'm finally three times but it's okay. The hobby in gear. What was your highlight of that hobby in you?
Speaker 2:So definitely planning the wedding. That's been absolutely amazing. Shout out to the future. Out. But you mean the live event. Yes, the live creative collaboration I've done with my future husband, Joseph Wilding. Yeah, no, that's been really nice to plan and we came up with like branding for it and everything was so weird. So it's been such a fun thing to do. So that's been incredible. I think, also just like having the opportunity like over the summer, for example, it becomes incredibly quiet at agencies so we just said why don't we just do a four-day week for the summer? That was a really smart move. So we worked really quite hard for those four days but we had so much breathing room and we also didn't have to take that much holiday, which meant we could still be available to people. So really building in like routines around rest and then having a big thing to look forward to that that was the stuff that was really enjoyable last year.
Speaker 1:Ruth, thank you. I wish you so so much love for the wedding. Thank you, sorry I can't be with you oh, that's quite okay. I'm gutted, but no, thank you so much um really looking forward to seeing the outputs of the vision boards as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, high five to Greg, high five to all of our female founders.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for joining us today on the we Are Power podcast, thank you. Thanks for having me Subscribe on YouTube, apple, amazon Music, spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave us a review or follow us on socials. We are power underscore net on Insta, tiktok and Twitter. We are power on LinkedIn, facebook and we are underscore power on YouTube.
