Serena Reynolds

Hi, I’m Serena Reynolds from Conceptiv.

Sara Ferrer

And my name is Sara Ferrer. And I am the former CEO and founder of Zoey Koko.

Serena Reynolds

And this is Fearless and Flawed: Women in Charge.

Sara Ferrer

Yes. This is our second official podcast. If you have not listened to our first, episode, we, Serena and I, work together. We both own our own respective businesses. We’ve worked together and through those long, long hours where the projects had to get done, we realized that there were stories to tell. Through our experiences in business, through what we’ve learned as being business women, but more so women in charge, women responsible for shit and how we manage that, how we got through it, and the lessons we’ve learned along the way. So today, I have the honor of interviewing Serena. I know Serena as a unicorn in all things design. She is a graphic designer. I hate to just say graphic designer because it’s like, oh, she makes pretty things. No, no no no, she does more than that. And she is the most humble person I know. So I have to say this because it’s worth it’s worth its weight in gold. You do it all. You design, you have, a strategy, mind you understand how to build websites. You understand the customer experience. You have the artistic touch. You are a unicorn. And I want to know, where did it all begin? Where did the greatness of Serena begin when it came to your entrepreneurial journey?

Serena Reynolds

So that’s… Sara’s my biggest fan. And I can’t tell you how much I love the way that she, tells me, which is one of the reasons I’m doing this podcast with her is because she’s she’s so much better at talking about me than I am. So where do I start? So I’m based in London, in the UK. I think that’s probably a good place to start. And I recently started up in advertising, and then I dropped into the.com, era, so I’d given some indication that I’m old. It’s all good. And from there, I just let life and my career take me down whatever path they kind of wanted to take me. I never really took charge of it. And I was just very lucky. I did some amazing projects. I worked with some amazing people and, some big company, some small companies. Like I said, it was the.com era. So I worked with startups. I worked with huge organizations, huge blue chip organizations. That would that I wouldn’t have normally worked with in any other industry. But just because of where I was, the time it was, I managed to work with, with these companies.

Sara Ferrer

What did you do with the like? What specifically what projects were you working on? What were you getting your feet wet with?

Serena Reynolds

Oh, it was the .com eras. So nobody knew what was going on. Nobody knew where to take it. So it was it was it was a it was an absolutely fabulous time for innovation. People you know from I remember talking about best dating sites tracking, you know, tracking, satnav type applications. We, you know, mobile phones were just becoming more and more prevalent in everyday life and, and apps. So, so that was everything was new. Absolutely everything was new, and everybody was trying everything.

Sara Ferrer

What did you know about it? It seems like a lot was going on. So to some people that read this chaos, would they. Okay. Nearest exit door. Thank you. But other people like yourself said, ooh, this is good. It’s kind of chaotic. There’s a lot going on. There’s a lot of new stuff. What what attracted you to that? What what what made you say this is something I want to be part of?

Serena Reynolds

Well, like I said, it was accidental. It was accidental. That’s that’s the best way to put it. I was working in advertising. There was a lot of travel involved and, day to day travel. And I was a junior. The money was not great. It was not worth my time. The the the six hours traveling a day. Three hours that three hours back on a on a genius salary. It was hard. So, I literally applied for a job as, graphic designer for, for a very small internet company that was down the road. And so I, I got the job, and I think one of my first questions was, this is how long ago was my first question when I, when I was in the interview is, okay. Can you explain email to me? I don’t know what email is. That’s awesome. That’s awesome. So that was…

Sara Ferrer

People that ask that now are your 100 year old grandmother. You know what’s hell? Yeah. But at the time, that was like a common question, right? Email. Who? What?

Serena Reynolds

Well it was email. I mean, we were an internet company. We were a.com company. We had one email for the whole office, one email address, just one. It’s awesome. It’s it’s like it was so early. It was so early. Like I said, it was very experimental. For me, I loved I loved solving problems. My thing was always solving problems. The, the thing with working in advertising was, was how do I get more people to do something? How do I get somebody’s attention? So that was where my passion was. So when I was in this.com era in the in the internet space, that was, you know, there was no e-commerce there. It didn’t exist. So, so people were thinking of, how do we make how do we make money from the internet? What do we do? How do we do this? And it was all brand new. So but somebody like me, who loves a talent and loves technology and loves to solve problems, this was this was a perfect space for me. It was it was very challenging. It was nothing was the same. No two days were the same.

Sara Ferrer

And that’s sort of your personality that’s working with you. You are, I think, where I referred to you as a unicorn and I am your hype woman, but that that is because it’s worth its weight in gold. You you have this unique when you speak of your experience, you have this unique way. Like you said, you like to solve problems. It’s not just painting pretty pictures. You like to solve problems. You like to understand a process. You like to understand who, what, why, where, when it comes to the bigger idea, right? Spearheading the strategy behind it. And so it sounds like you’re in the middle of all this newness, all these exciting things, but eventually you decide, oh, I’m gonna start my own business. Which which again, hearing your story up to this point, I feel like, you know little Sabrina, and she’s out there. Her. She’s got big wide open eyes. She’s open for the challenge. You know, you’re you’re hustling. You’re getting it done. Where does I’m going to become a business owner, become part of the story.

Serena Reynolds

And just as right from the very beginning, I was an accidental entrepreneur. Yeah. As the .com era grew, it crashed, as many people probably know. I mean, you know, a lot of these projects didn’t make money. There was a lot of investors throwing money at things and, at these new projects and not all of them were successful. We see the successful ones still today, but there was a for every one that succeeded, there was 100 the failed. And the VCs and and people that were investing kind of stopped investing. Bit of a market crash. Especially especially as as it got easier, more and more people learned how to do it. You started having, kids in their bedrooms saying, oh, I can I can knock out a website for you for like 10 pounds. Fiver kind of, sorry, English again here, but, we’ll cover. We’ll come over after it’s cheap. Yeah. They would they were offering it very cheap. So so basically the market but that market died out. So the company that I was working with actually specialized and did really well and continued got through that, got through the big crash and continued to thrive in its own little, in its own little space. But the, the type of jobs change they specialized that we were going down particular path, business decisions were more strategic. And so the work wasn’t as varied. We we certainly weren’t doing the fast dating sites anymore. We were specializing not so much interest for me. And then one day, not unexpectedly, I got made redundant. But it was I got made, I got made redundant, which was actually, Okay. So is that not an American term?

Sara Ferrer

No, no, I…

Serena Reynolds

So basically your job doesn’t, they no longer require you.

Sara Ferrer

Oh, you got laid off.

Serena Reynolds

The company pays you out. Okay. So it’s redundancy. You get redundancy. Okay. But it was it was an unusual redundancy, but easily said to me. Okay. Because we’re looking at selling this company, what we’ll do is we don’t actually want to lose your skills. We’ll we’ll hire you as a contractor. So it was, you know, I had two little payouts and, and I got offered this, this contracting role, and I thought, okay, that was the start of my entrepreneurial journey. I was I literally lost my job, and, they offered to pay me, to keep me around, to keep me going, and that’s what I did. So I, and I’ve been there ever since. That was a really long time ago.

Sara Ferrer

Now give it. Okay. Just just for perspective, ten years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago. Ballpark.

Serena Reynolds

I’m trying to work out quickly in my head of a probably about 20 years ago.

Sara Ferrer

So you, you, you basically make lemonade out of lemons, right? It’s all kind of, kind of sounds like it worked in the moment, but it was accidental, as you said, right? It just kind of happened. Yeah. Kind of with the current. Now you are a quote unquote business owner, right? This is when you start Conceptiv.

Serena Reynolds

Yeah. I, I had yeah, various different names, but yes. Pretty much yeah.

Sara Ferrer

You become the, the, the entrepreneur, the business owner for you.

Serena Reynolds

I’m more of a freelancer.

Sara Ferrer

Freelancer?

Serena Reynolds

Yeah.

Sara Ferrer

Do you have people? Are you building a team at this point? Are you still kind of the only person to do that? Yeah, tell me.

Serena Reynolds

I didn’t build a team, until probably the start of Covid.

Sara Ferrer

Wow. So you were freelance this whole time. So there I was, freelancing, and I’m getting all excited again. Like, I get this opportunity now to start choosing who and when I work. And I really like that freedom. At the time, I had a 32 year old son. Yeah. So I, I kind of like, okay, how do I make this work? So I just did and like I said, I got excited about the kind of projects I could take on. I was no longer stuck in this B2B business world that was trying to survive. I was I mean, I’m still trying to survive, but I was surviving on my own. So I got to do I had a lot more freedom. And that let let me be creative and think other entrepreneurial ideas that I could kind of push along the way. So, you know, I started a few things, failed lots of things, and enjoyed that talk about that then. Because here’s the thing, when I’m hearing this story, it’s like, and I know your talent and I know what you’re capable of, but from the outside, it’s easy to say, well, of course Serena is going to be successful. She’s so talented, right. Which many of us have that kind of that, that from the outside, of course you’ll make it work. But I have to imagine there’s failure, there’s fear, there’s challenges. I want to hear about that. You know, I know that you have the talent, but how are you getting clients? How are you building a team during Covid? How who is Serena as the leader, the quote unquote boss versus just being kind of the the creative, right. How do those two roles intersect? So let’s double click on that because so far it’s like this is great. This is great. But you mentioned a son a baby. You mentioned, you know, trying to just keep afloat. So what are some of the what are some of the early failures that you went through as the business woman, maybe even as feeling, you know, failure as a, as a mother, perhaps having a bit balancing that? What did that look like?

Serena Reynolds

I was really lucky, with my son and the situation that I was in, my parents were like mostly retired. So they were very supportive. And they talked to my son a lot, a lot for me during the day. I could also work from home a lot and around him. So that was that was my primary focus. And at the time, you know, I was a little bit with e-commerce, the baby things myself, because obviously I was in that mummy bubble. So I would, I would, you know, I mean, I was taking on more, more roles. I was trying to create something that would fit around the life I wanted with my son. Not necessarily a financial thing, but more of a, personal development thing. So I was focused around that a lot. My biggest failures came from when I, I trusted other people. So that says, okay, now we’re getting somewhere, getting deep now.

Sara Ferrer

Yeah, that that that that just struck a chord with me. It’s like. Yup. Continuous.

Serena Reynolds

Yeah. So, I kind of positioned myself in, in a, in a way that, you know, I would partner with people and help them excel in their business. And I was quite good to it. So to be honest, not to blow my own trumpet. And, like I said, I like solving problems. I liked getting into the weeds. I liked developing new strategies and and to see where it takes me. So again, I’ve lost the end where we were going with this question.

Sara Ferrer

So about about the failure of, which I think is so relatable of once you kind of overly trusted people, you found that, like, that was actually the beginning of the end when it came to, you know, the, the, the, the maybe the lack of expectations or that, that meeting having the same expectations or feeling like, I mean, I know you say.

Serena Reynolds

So for me, that trusting somebody was I found myself in a, in a few situations where I was no longer the leader. I was almost treated, treated like an employee. And that wasn’t that wasn’t ever my aim or my position or or what I wanted to do. So that’s where my failures came in, and that’s where, you know, self-doubt and stuff like that would creeping. I suffered terribly from, imposter syndrome. I, you know, you know, doing this podcast is huge for me, speaking out loud and, and, doing this kind of thing and opening myself out is help is, is is completely alien to how I have been. And that’s partly because of some of the experiences I’ve had with with people that I’ve worked with and export opportunities with. I’m very trusting person. I’m very open, I’m very honest. I’m very helpful. I suppose I’m I get excited, not necessarily from financial gain either. So that has led me to, to not always be in a good position with people where I’ve had to like, reverse out and get myself out of those situations.

Sara Ferrer

Where do you think? Because this is I feel like this topic is very relatable in many different realms, right? It’s I’ve gotten myself in a situation where I’m not feeling and correct me if if I’m not hearing this right, but what I’m hearing is I’m not feeling like this is an equal partnership. I’m not feeling like we’re on the same page. I’m not feeling like the expectation, the expectation is are the same. So how how do you navigate that? I mean, because this this is something that typically isn’t just a one and done thing. This is something that a lot of us consistently do. And then you had mentioned feeling the imposter syndrome, you know, really feeling like, well, maybe I’m the problem, maybe I’m not that great at what I do, really absorbing and internalizing all that. Wow. If if you have gotten through it or, you know, worked through it because the assumption is, oh, you’ve gotten through it, maybe not, maybe not, how do you deal with that? Or how have you gotten through that over the years?

Serena Reynolds

Relationships are the same, whether that business relationships, friendships, personal relationships, relationships are relationships, and you have to learn to stick up for yourself. You need to learn where your boundaries are. You need to learn really about you and what you really want out of any relationship. No matter what that relationship is, you need. Yes, I think that’s my key takeaway, and that’s something that’s taken me a really long time to really understand. I come from a background where nobody was a business owner. We were everyone was an employee, you know, there was no. When I was at school, we didn’t talk about becoming an entrepreneur. We didn’t talk about becoming leaders or people of any significance. We would dominate those, we were just expected to get a job, a 9 to 5. Yeah. So to. So it’s really hard to like I said, I was a, I was a, accidental entrepreneur. I never actually thought I’m going to become an entrepreneur. Probably a manager of some description, not necessarily an entrepreneur. So. Yeah, but so I wasn’t ready for that mindset shift that was required for entrepreneurship necessarily. And, that’s, that’s really, I think where that all kind of stemmed from.

Sara Ferrer

So. Right. It sounds like again, I, I have a lot of working experience with you and I if I had to describe you, besides all the accolades of your work, you are a very authentic person. You show up, you get stuff done, you do what you say you’re going to do. You’re all in that authenticity is a strength, but at the same time, when you have to balance that with authority, when you have to balance that with working with others, that might be challenging, right? So how do you how do you balance that authenticity with via authoritative rule, especially as your business has grown. And during Covid you mentioned you had to, you know, now hire a team. How do you manage that? Staying true to what you want to do professionally, who you are personally, your personal ethos, while also managing other people who might have other priorities. Yet you’re all still working towards the same goal.

Serena Reynolds

Well, for me it was as though a light switch went on. I’d been I wasn’t particularly happy. I was like, that’s it, I’m going to, I’m going to get a job. I was actually at that stage and going to get a job. And then there was this strange flu virus that was coming out of China or wherever, and people were getting sick and and, you know, Covid, Covid hit us. And where everybody else was panicking about that business. I just thought, hang on, this is an opportunity. This is now this is this is where I step up. I mean, this is I’m I’m a I’m a just I work virtually. I have done for 15 years. This isn’t this isn’t new to me. What what is it that I’m going to do now that’s going to to to change. And I thought, okay, the world’s changing. It’s time for me to change. And that’s when I was like, okay, I’m going to start employing people. I’m going to change my company to consumptive, which was kind of like a slight name that I’d always played with. It was it was a stupid name that came from a, a lecturer at my university. And it was I was that size. Does the concept, everything’s just a concept. So that’s where concept it came from. It was just a, a phrase, a mock that we used to do with one of my lectures at uni. So, so consumptive was always in the background. I’d owned the domain all the way through. So I was like, okay, I’m going to now I’m going to see what I can do with this business. And that was it was just a light went on and, I pivoted and I decided that I was going to be that leader. I was no longer going to be an accidental entrepreneur. I had skills, and they were very relevant at the time. And I just thought, okay, now now’s my time to do something fun. It’s still very accidental, I still float. Most of my clients have come through recommendation all the way through, so that’s phenomenal. I spent 20 years on recommendations.

Sara Ferrer

That is, I have witnessed that firsthand. I know what you do. And go, who? Sara? Who did that wholesale catalog? Who did that website? Who did that packaging? I think there’s probably about eight clients you’ve gained just from me being at trade shows and people pointing at an asset, a marketing asset, and going, who did that? Do you do you think that that’s I guess, to kind of circle back to the authenticity part, having the vast majority of your clients being word of mouth is bananas. Like, that’s not that’s like that’s like the goal. But, but but that’s like the goal. Everyone again in a perfect world to say, yeah, you know, I don’t pay for any marketing people just find me. But that’s your reality. How do you think the authenticity factor kind of pulls it? The authenticity that you have is a part of this word of mouth referral the trust people have. Do you think that there’s some type of thread there or you just think, hey, I just do good work and that just must be it.

Serena Reynolds

I think it’s combination of everything you just said. So my typical introduction would be somebody has said you should speak to Serena, she might be able to help you. And then, the next thing that happens is I have a conversation with these people. I learn about them. I learn about their business. I can because of my past experience of the.com era when I was dabbling in so many different industries. I can relate to what their problems are, I can hear their problems, and I can start seeing solutions to that problem and that maybe that they they most of them have already thought of themselves, to be fair. They know their problems. People know what their problems are, but just don’t know how to fix them so they avoid them the same as what I do my in my everyday life. If I don’t know how to fix a problem, I avoid it. And that’s and that’s when when being authentic comes through because I can I can resonate with them. I can hear them, I can I can address their problems.

Sara Ferrer

Right. You hear it like I have to say that you hear them. So you go in saying, tell me about you before you begin with, let me tell you about you, that that kind of the correct way to read it ups.

Serena Reynolds

Absolutely. This is all new to you. This story is new to you. I know this story is new to you. I’ve never gone down too much of a road about who I am or where I’ve come from or anything, and we’ve known each other for the past, I’m gonna guess four years.

Sara Ferrer

Oh, I’d say it’s like six. Like you are a lady of mystery when it comes to like the the like like the, the background of it. Because it’s like I see your output. Right. And I see, like, every single project we work on or you do for, for a referral is like she blew it out of the water again. And people always ask where they go, who is she like? She gets it. She she says she was in tech, but she also can like design, like her life depends on it. But she also is like really approachable. Like she gets it. And so you have all these things. But I again, I have to imagine opening up and you build this team. This is a whole new wheelhouse to you, right? You kind of were adding it to your repertoire of of who Serena is. And so let me ask in really building up concept of two questions. One, I’m sure you’ve had a bad client. We all have lots of them. Lots of them, because no one ever really ever talks about that. They talk about the amazing clients too. They are amazing. You would not be in business if you did not have amazing people, because you either get burnt out or you just wouldn’t get get hired because everyone didn’t see your beautiful vision. So we understand that there’s a lot of those gems that you’ve worked with. But tell me, how do you navigate working with bad clients? How do you navigate? Is all money good money? Is every opportunity a good opportunity? How do you navigate that part of business where you have to deal with someone that you’re not vibing with, or that has a different expectation? What’s your process behind that?

Serena Reynolds

Well, in my early days I would have said all money is good money. That’s so not true. Okay. Not true. You get the best out of me when you’re kind and genuine with me. I’m. I’ve been very lucky in the last few years in the fact that, you know, my, my job has, you know, my career, my, my company has been relatively stable. I’ve had a nice flow of clients coming in and out, and I’ve had some wonderful projects, and I’ve also had this the ability to be able to say no and to walk away and say only work with people I like. And…

Sara Ferrer

With that, I’ll say it again, say it, say it, say that word, what’s that word…

Serena Reynolds

I only work with people you like and trust. Yes, yes, yes, we waste stream people buy from you because they know, like and trust you. That you also have as as a business owner. You also have that that privilege to work with people you know like and trust. And I think that’s…

Sara Ferrer

Saying no. Saying no is something that how how difficult is it for you to say no? Because we all want to say no. We all want to put up the boundary. Right? We all want to. But it’s hard. It’s hard. So you mentioned saying, know how does Serena say no? I mean, walk me through it. Is it is it because I think that that’s really the meat of it. It’s like, yeah, I know I need to say no, but how the hell do I do it? You know, like, this is, I don’t want to disappoint this person. Am I upfront with it? Do I hide it in an email? Do I have a conversation? Do I just go see these people? Like, there’s a lot of ways to say no verbally and not verbally. What process works for you where you can sleep good at night, knowing that that know was conveyed and knowing that it felt like it. It was the right, the right choice.

Serena Reynolds

I’m not sure. It depends on the relationship I have with person. The same as, like, you know, any relationship once again is exactly the same. Treat everybody as though you’re going to think you have that relationship with them. Whatever that relationship looks like, it’s the same thing. So, you know, some people deserve ghosting.

Sara Ferrer

No backs. Backs. Thank you for being honest. I was like, oh, I do it. This I know sometimes it’s like, get out. You done? You’re done. Get to the bottom of the email list. We don’t need yeah like I imagine…

Serena Reynolds

I feel, people pleaser I am a natural people pleaser. I like to please people. It’s no secret. So I do go above and beyond. So it’s not always about ghosting. Sometimes it’s just the case of, oh, I don’t have time for this project. This isn’t something I want to take on. This is a conversation, but it does depend on who they are, how they’ve approached me, how they’ve treated me. Sometimes it’s a genuine I don’t have time for this project or this project. I’m getting tougher as I grow up, she says. One day I’m going to be a full grown adult here, and I’m going to and I’m going to be leading where I go. As opposed to letting things take me there. So, and one of the things I have learned is through all these years is that you do have to say no if it doesn’t fit in with where you want to go, it’s no good realizing somebody else’s dream. If your dream isn’t ever going to be realized.

Sara Ferrer

That I feel like that’s like, can we quote that fact? Can I just like, this is like back in like the Myspace days? Can I just have that be the banner? Like, well, I’m that’s a good one. Like, let me ask you something because I know I, I’ve, I’ve known that, you know, with the rise of fiber, with the rise of a lot of these kind of cheap website, cheap one and done easy. I have to imagine that a lot of your knows come from clients who expect Serena to be the fiber, you know, get it down for $10, get it done. I want ten revisions for $10. And and being the ambitious person you are, I imagine, you know, it’s hard to pass up projects that maybe seem interesting, but yet the expectation is of a fiber style, of design. So how do you feel about is there intimidation that now everyone’s a website designer? Is there empowerment in that? Well, wait, I know where I my role in this market, but how do you kind of grapple with with where the industry is at now, where everyone can build a website every you one can create emails.

Serena Reynolds

There’s there’s universal truth, you know, everybody can do anything. You know, given enough time, experience and stuff we can all learn to do these things. But the truth is I have that experience. I have that behind me. I have that history. And the companies like Fiver aren’t really an intimidation for any real design. Web person professional. Fiver is, is just something that exists. And if people want to go to Fiver, they’re never going to come to me. They will go to Fiver. And that is perfectly okay. And I’m very happy to send them there.

Sara Ferrer

Right. Do you think that that did that? Did you always have that, that feeling or is that something that you’ve built over time, that kind of if you want this and I’m not your cup of tea.

Serena Reynolds

Like I said, in the early days all money was good money. Yeah. And somebody would come up to me and have a problem. I would give them a solution. And, and I would take the job I’ve learned from then that from from that that. No, no. Dollar is created equal. There’s, there’s different styles to work. I’ve spent a long time perfecting how I work with people and trying to drive the narrative, into something. Sorry. What does that look like when you said what processes in place you said last week about, being a business owner, build a process, get somebody else to do it, and then find somebody else to work on. So that’s very true. Building the processes to to speed up, streamline and define what it is that I do as opposed to saying, yes, I’ll do it to whatever it was.

Sara Ferrer

Yes. Yes, we’ve all been there. Yes, yes, yes.

Serena Reynolds

And the new shiny object syndrome that I suffer from is a bit of an issue. I love to to find out new things. I love to delve in a little bit deeper. I love to to constantly learn and innovate, but there’s gotta be a process behind that, right?

Sara Ferrer

That makes perfect sense. And then through all this, through all this journey, we’re getting to, you know, Serena, the accidental entrepreneur, the accidental businesswoman, now you’re owning it. You’re owning who you are. If you had to give your younger self, the Serena who is on the train for, you know, three hours each way on that junior salary, if you had to give her a piece of advice, what would it be?

Serena Reynolds

Get off that train. Go. Go and do something for yourself.

Sara Ferrer

That train I love. First of all, I love that advice to your younger self. It was like so impressive but in such a British way. So I get off that train, girl. It was like, that’s the nicest way for anyone to yell at you.

Serena Reynolds

That honestly, I think it’s it’s about finding your own worth. I’m not a Fiver. I’m not a Fiver gal. It just that simple. I don’t work that way. I never going to. If I don’t understand your business, then I can’t help you. If I can’t understand why you want to get to. I can’t help you. That’s what Fiver it does. Fiver will spit out at work for you. That’s not what I do. And in. And I don’t want it to be. So I think if I was to give myself any real advice. Right, right. In the early years is to. It is. So, I heard somebody say the other day, so our podcast is Fearless and Flawed. Yeah. So I, I’ve been listening to lots of different podcasts and things like that. And there was something, about being courageous. So I’m taking this in with fearless here about being courageous. And courageous isn’t about being scared. It’s about doing it anyway. And, that’s what being courageous is. That’s what being fearless is. So I think that that would be my key takeaway. That would be my key advice is it doesn’t matter if you’re scared, do it anyway. And you got no, I got nothing to lose. You got nothing to lose. And I’m doing this podcast now and I’m I’m a behind the scenes gal. I don’t do this upfront thing. I don’t talk about myself. I don’t I don’t even talk about my own business. Most people don’t even know who my other clients are. I, I’m very private. You know, I confidentiality is is of utmost importance to me and my ethos and who I am. So. But that doesn’t mean I have to stay silent or behind the wall. And if I really want my business to go where I want it to be, I need to be more fearless. I need to step forward. I need to show my flaws as well. If I’m perfectly honest with you, I need to show that I’m human and that I do fail. And things aren’t always great. But it is what it is. And that’s what makes me famous.

Sara Ferrer

Yes. You literally took the word that I was going to say. What does fearless mean to you? Like, you nailed it. That makes perfect sense. Where where is Serena at today? You know, we have built the business. You have all these great clients. Word of mouth. What does the future look like for you? You know, now you have this. It’s almost like this. This coat of armor of really like, empowerment. When you when you tell me about the journey, it’s like, I know who I am. I know who I want to work with. What does the next step look like? Is it building out a bigger team for a concept? Is it taking on different types of projects, i.e. this podcast?

Serena Reynolds

I’m not 100% sure. I’m not 100% sure. I don’t particularly want to grow my team much bigger. I have a great little team. I think it’s about more about controlling the destiny of my my company. It’s about sell one day once retire.

Sara Ferrer

That’s why you retire. Wait. What else? Now? You know, any time soon?

Serena Reynolds

Not any time soon. Okay. I’m not that old yet. Yeah, well, I want to sell my company. I want this to be something of a legacy, something that I can pass down. I want to build processes that that will help. I love helping people. I love, I love helping people. I want to continue doing that for for much, much longer. I when you said I love building processes so I can help more people.

Sara Ferrer

Yeah. That’s. So you like helping people? That’s literally what you do. It’s it’s almost scary. Like you will be up at like 2 a.m. and I’ll be like, please go to sleep. You know, like, no, I just I just really wanted to tweet this to me better because I really believe in it. That’s you. Yeah. But that, that comes from that desire to help, that comes from that desire. Like you had mentioned earlier, I think sometimes we see people pleasing as being, you know, a negative thing, right? I mean, naturally it has that negative connotation. But if we flip that over, it’s really just a desire to help to some degrees, to some degree. There is that desire that drives, the people pleasing. And so, you know, in the next chapter for concept live or for Serena, there’s retirement in the future. In the future, there’s a whole theme.

Serena Reynolds

But it’s a long term goal.

Sara Ferrer

Long term.

Serena Reynolds

Long term goal.

Sara Ferrer

But we talk a lot about too, about long term plans, right? Like everyone starts a business and wants to hit a million or break even in the first year. That’s that’s usually not how it goes. We need the long term plan. And then it’s small bites to get there, to build the greatness that leads to retirement, which isn’t a given for everybody. Now, you know, nowadays that’s that’s not that’s not a that it’s not necessarily the expectation that everybody has. Some people say I have to, you know, work myself until the last day I’m here. Unfortunately that’s where we’re at. But you’re saying I want to keep this small team. I’ve learned these lessons. I’m I’m enjoying the people I’m working with. The imposter syndrome. I have to imagine and all that doubt. Does that still come up every now and then, or has that been eliminated?

Serena Reynolds

Oh, yes. Oh yeah. Those. Oh, yeah. Couple. Of course you know. Yeah. Part of who I am. It’s part of what makes me who I am. And of course. Yeah.

Sara Ferrer

Do you think that’s part of the authenticity part too, is even like you’re you’re you’re strong. Yes. To that is so authentic to me because it’s like, yeah, we’re hello. Duh. Like like, would you believe someone who was like, no. I always feel deeply reassured of who I am at every moment. You’d be like, yeah, kind of crazy, but that’s fine. Or you know. Right. Like that’s that’s just the reality of it. And so as we kind of continue this journey doing this podcast, this story of concept that is so great in terms of kind of the accidental entrepreneur building something great, having Covid, being the springboard for really honing in on what concept it is, what they offer when it comes to other entrepreneurs, other women in charge. When it comes to the person that we talked to next week, what’s one question, if you could ask that next female leader on our podcast? Any question, what would it be? Personal about navigating personal life, navigating business life? What is that question from Serena Reynolds?

Serena Reynolds

So, being completely authentic? I actually posed this question to Sarah as a question for our podcast, and I never planned an answer.

Sara Ferrer

That’s true. She sent me this question to ask. And here we are. What’s the…

Serena Reynolds

What’s been really fun to have have the last guests of the the first question to the next guest. And I really genuinely never thought the that she would ask me this.

Sara Ferrer

I love it. It’s a but here’s the thing. It can even be what’s your what’s your favorite ice cream flavor like? It doesn’t need to be. I think we sometimes think of like this one mammoth question. You know, what is struggle mean to you? Maybe it can be I mean, this is this is the time to be as authentic as you want to be. It can be like, what’s your favorite hobby? What, what? Or it could be like, what’s yours?

Serena Reynolds

My question is going to be is it’s going to be really, really simple. And it is where do you want to be in ten years time? I love it because at the end of the day, it’s not about today. It’s not about tomorrow. It’s it’s the long journey. This this entrepreneur thing is, is the long run. And the answer can possibly be sits alone, beat drinking gin and tonics just the same thing. I can tell that. Yeah. So, yeah, that would be my question is that would be the question I pretty much ask any client or any prospective client is where do you want to be? Where do you want to see this going? And that’s really what that’s really where the driver is, is I want to know where people want to get to.

Sara Ferrer

And then the final, final question, because as you’re saying this, now that you’ve mentioned a couple times that this is something new and different for you doing this podcast, being on camera and really telling your story is is very kind of front of the house, and you’re more of a back of the house type of girl. There’s plenty of people who are going to be like, okay, I can relate to that. You know, Serena, you’re so well-spoken. But again, you admittedly are someone who prefers to be behind the curtain. Now that you’ve done it. Now that you’ve done it, you’ve told your story. Are you a ball of nerves? Are you going to go down that bottle of gin? Are you going to go? I actually you would. Let’s drink the gin. Good or bad, right? I mean, I guess the answer is always gin. But how are you feeling now that you actually in the, in the last, let’s say, 45 minutes, hour or so, you’ve stepped out of your comfort zone. How is this feeling? Is it still scary? Is it enlightenment? Like it’s totally scary.

Serena Reynolds

Absolutely. This is not something so off camera. I’m very different. And I can have meetings, I can have conversations with people, and I come across as a relatively intelligent human being. And I feel the moment I’m in front of this camera, I feel like an idiot. Like, you know, my my tongue feels three times. It’s fat in my mouth and I can’t quite get my words out and brain fog, and I’ve forgotten where I’m going with my conversation. This isn’t who I am. This is just the situation I’ve put myself into. I’m much more comfortable having. I’m very comfortable having conversations with people. I see myself as a as a, introverted extrovert I’ve seen. So I’m very happy to make a loud noise and be seen and heard and, but don’t put me on stage to do it, because that’s not where I belong. It’s it’s really that simple. I’m quite happy, sitting back and other people being be the protagonist. So you’ve got you’ve done it. I mean, I’m brilliant. I’m doing it, this.

Sara Ferrer

That’s proof you’re doing it when people. I think sometimes when you hear these conversations or you see these videos, it’s like, oh, it’s so easy to think, oh, well, of course, you know, oh, of course they must have confidence in doing it because they’re doing it right. So the natural understanding is if someone puts one foot in front of the other, then they must be comfortable in it because they’re physically doing it as opposed to just daydreaming about it. But by doing it now and it’s scary and it’s it’s flawed. Right? Any conversation we have, it’s flawed. It’s not perfect. We’ll probably listen to this and go, oh God, why did I say that? Oh, that I was breathing too heavy when I was exclaiming, we might critique ourselves in the future, but we’re doing it now. And so where do you kind of see in this final, final, final question? Where do you kind of see now in doing this, in challenging yourself to kind of say, this isn’t comfortable, but I’m going to do it. How do you feel like that will, in the bigger picture of Serena’s life, affect that little thing inside your head that says, I don’t want to do it. It’s scary. How do you use these types of moments to challenge that?

Serena Reynolds

Well, to start off, I would say that I this is not my this is not my natural habitat. But I am fearless, I am strong, I am independent, I am all of the wonderful things that that we aspire to be. I am those things I know that, I also understand business. I also understand where people need to go with their businesses. And sometimes I need to listen to myself about my own business. Now, I have talked about my team. I have talked a little bit about, you know, long term goals, eventually selling consumptive, having something real to to talk about my history, my past, my something solid, more concrete. At the moment. I’ve spent 20 years working on the recommendations phase, which is which is which is wonderful. But that’s me. People buy into me. I can’t always be that. If I want to grow my business, I need to put my business first. I need to be the face, the voice. I need to be something else. Then the person that’s always behind the screen working. I need to to step up and I need to look after my team. I need to look after my business. And this is part of that journey. I need to spread my network beyond my beyond my who my clients or friends already know I need to be beyond that. And so I’m being fearless. This is this is what this is about. I’m being fearless. I’m, I’m I’m taking my my. And also it’s my passion. I mean, we’re talking about women in charge on this podcast. So I then you and me feel as though being female. I was in a very male dominated world the very first part of my career. I’d like it. You know, I was I was in an office with like over 100 people. There was three females. That’s how male dominated my world was, and has definitely affected my self-confidence and things over the time, because no matter where I was in that company, I was still asked to make the coffee. So. And I was young, and I’d make the coffee. So. Yeah. And I want to I want to share my experience. I want to pass that on. I want to grow my network. I want to talk to people. I want to be the fearless leader. I want to be somebody in charge of my own destiny, my own company, my own, my own everything. I am becoming this person.

Sara Ferrer

Wow, I love it. Like, listen, I, I really loved you before we did this podcast, but hearing the other side of you and the rawness of it and like you said, the extroverted introvert, which a lot of people can relate to, it’s like I’m introverted, but like, that doesn’t mean I can’t, you know, have a conversation and be lively and be passionate and be excited. So kudos to you for it. We did it. You’ve told me the story. I have learned so much about you, more behind the scenes about you than I have in like six years. And I’ve asked but you humbly, I’ve always said, you know, I the long story and I’m like, you’re going to tell the story because it’s it’s worth telling someone out there. When we listen, it doesn’t matter if they’re exactly the same personality type or exactly same industry. There’s so many layers there that as a woman in charge, you go, yeah, yeah, yeah, I can relate to that. Oh yeah, that makes perfect sense. Or that struggle was my own. So thank you, Serena, for telling us the journey that you have had with Concept Live. We will hold you to retirement. So, we’ll check back then. Eventually. But things get for people here. Yeah, yeah, we’ll check back in, like, where is she now?

Serena Reynolds

I have a fabulous team behind me supporting me. All of this. Yes, yes, yes. Yeah. You’re all in good hands.

Sara Ferrer

Exactly, exactly. This is fantastic. Well, thank you for sharing your story. And when it comes to the third episode of the podcast, we will be sure to ask whoever we are interviewing where they see themselves in ten years. But this has been wonderful. Serena, I’ve got to see another layer of you. And, it’s been wonderful.

Serena Reynolds

So thank you very much, Sarah, for being gentle with me.

Sara Ferrer

Yeah. Listen, girl, girl gentle that I couldn’t, I couldn’t. Here’s the thing. It’s easy to be gentle with people who the authenticity, the work ethic, the humanity that you bring to the table. I mean, I’ve seen you under pressure and I’ve seen you always choose the right path. You know, I want to be easy to throw someone under the bus or easy just, you know, to exploit, maybe, confused or an and an uneducated client. You’ve never chosen that path. You’ve never chosen that. Which is why I recommend you all the time. So I think being gentle with you. Yeah. How else could I be? I like you, you know, like. Like you’re a good person. So this was for me, talking to a friend. That’s all it was. So it was wonderful.

Serena Reynolds

I look forward to having many more conversations with lots.

Sara Ferrer

Yes yes yes yes yes. Well, this is officially concludes our second episode. And, you know, we’ll we’ll we’ll keep perfecting it. We’ll keep, you know, making sure the questions beforehand, I tell you that I’ll ask so that at the end when I’m like, where do you see yourself? What’s the next question you’d ask? You’re semi prepared or maybe not. Maybe that’s the format for this podcast.

Serena Reynolds

Maybe that’s the authenticity.

Sara Ferrer

Maybe that’s what it is. Sometimes when it’s too rehearse and it’s too well thought out, you’re listening and going, well, they have it so together. No, they just knew the questions. Three months before. You know, we want to keep things flowing and moving. But there is a little bit of let me figure this out on the spot and see what I can do with it.

Serena Reynolds

Right. Absolutely. Thank you so much, Sara.

Sara Ferrer

Thank you. Serena, this has been a pleasure and a delight.

Serena Reynolds

See you next week.

Sara Ferrer

Awesome. See you next week.