Do something different and watch inspiration strike!

Hello, wonderful, beautiful people. As you can see, I've got my wonky donkey backdrop here. Um, we have got— oh, I'm a bit unshaped this morning, but that's okay. Um, I was testing another backdrop, but it isn't wide enough, but that's okay. It's irrelevant. I'm Susie Taaffe. This is the Susie Unshaped Sessions, and that is where we are unshaping all the beliefs and outdated patterns that we have. And basically the goal is we're coming back to our hearts. So one of the big things about being back to your heart is being inspired by something or leading from inspiration. Like, you know, when you just get that great idea and you're like, oh my God, that's amazing. Um, and it might not be an idea for something. It might be an idea like, oh my God, I really want some fresh, beautiful rockmelon. Or, you know, when you're at the shops, I get lots of inspiration at the shops, but I think that's maybe because I'm a cook and I love to cook. So I will, um, literally be in the shops for something completely different. Um, and all of a sudden I've got a cauliflower and the cauliflower, then I'm going to bake that and make that into cauliflower cheese. So then there's going to be a white sauce. So then that turns into, I need eggplants now for an eggplant Parmigiana with white sauce on on the top. And, and I go down this rabbit hole, and all of a sudden my trolley is very full of things. And my kids don't eat any of this, so I'm, I'm one person. So I now have a trolley full of food for one person. So, um, it's great to be around me at that time because everyone gets lots of food gifts, or I just freeze some so then I can have it later when I'm less inspired to cook. So cooking for me is like a meditation. Um, some people hate it. I just— love to get in the kitchen, put on the music, and I like to cook, as I think I've mentioned before, like multiple things at once. So I won't cook one thing, I'll cook 5 things at once, and they'll all sort of, um, segue into each other a little bit with, um, with one or use like some will use the same, um, ingredients. And anyway, I am babbling and that is not the point, but inspiration. But I think the shopping example is a really good segue. Into doing something different and then letting the inspiration come. So, you know, when you're in your routine, like this morning, I've gone and done it exactly what I am trying to inspire you— not trying, I am inspiring you not to do— is I've just slid down into my computer and got sucked into my multiple screens of work. So I have a lovely friend, Anna, who laughs at how many screens I have open. I have 3 screens with multiple tabs open on multiple Um, search engines. So anyway, that's just who I am. It's how I operate. It's nearly like my, um, external filing system, digital filing system. I've tried Trello boards. I've tried all of that. Doesn't work. They just go into a vortex and I never see them again. A bit like the Mac and its files. Never see them again. Um, but I was actually, um, helping my dear friend Anna yesterday and she said, can you come in and help us compile this report? And I was like, great, because I love her business. Her business is called Ramp. Um, and it is a marketing algorithm that can quantitatively measure your performance. And Anna is a specialist in building trust. So, um, I love her business because it's teaching brands to be authentic and connect, which is everything that I'm about. And that's why I love YouTube, because I find, uh, so many people that I can connect with on here that really resonate with me. Um, I find it really authentic. And, um, so anyway, I am again babbling, but, um, long story short, I went in to help, um, her proof this report she was writing. And I was like, and through when I was reading all her statistics, she has studied, like she's done nearly 1,000 reports over 500 brands, um, in 20 industries. So, um, really looking at where does trust break with brands and their consumers. And as we all know, moving into this next era that the world is moving into, if you don't stand for something and mean something, then people just aren't going to connect to you. Like, people are wanting to have their hearts lit up, and, and I think faceless brands and people that aren't out making people's lives better I think they're gonna, they're gonna wash away. Anyway, point being, I'm reading all of her statistics on this 23-page report, helping edit, um, edit the language, etc. And then inspiration just literally struck me. So I have had a, not a problem, it's not a problem, I just haven't felt aligned with Meta and Meta ads at the moment. That is why I'm actually here on YouTube because For me, I feel like it's a much more organic people trying to help other people and a much more organic version of that. Whereas I'm finding that Meta is really just in a rabbit hole of buy my shit, basically. Buy, buy, buy, buy, buy. And and so I have been. I've been. I've had a massive block. I've been in the back end of Meta ads. I did courses, multiple courses on how to do my own Meta ads, and it just every time I'd learn something, they'd change the Um, changed the system, the platform. Now it's like basically all AI-run, the, um, campaigns are. So you don't have any control over who is seeing your ads. And I think it's just using AI to algorithmically work out who's going to buy your shit. And so for me, that just doesn't feel right. So, and at the same time that you are paying for it too. And what really bugged me was that it's actually the consumers that are paying. Because if Meta— so on Meta, if you spend— if you get sales of 2 times your ad spend, so that means, for example, you get a sale of $20, it has cost you $10 to Meta to get those ads. And that's not even with the actual content creation, etc., that although they are moving into that as well. And I was It was just so disheartening because I just felt consumers are really the real losers in this game that Meta's playing. Like Mark Zuckerberg's got $108 billion. Does he need more? And so the inspo when I was reading all her statistics, it's obviously like triggered some things in my brain and I've realized, I think that what we can do is actually be really transparent on our, on like, I'm thinking of this for Scanties and any e-com brands out there. I'd love to know what you think about this. But I was like working out how my discounting, et cetera, and my pricing at the moment has got a big chunk in there built in for Meta, like averaging, like if it's going to cost me $20 to get a customer, I have to take that off the price. So it's a consumer that's paying for that. So I like this inspiration for like, um, conscious consumerism and instead of feeding the Meta beast. I think like I had this idea that we can do our own referral system within the website and not for like 5% off when you get your email down the track, et cetera. I mean like in the cart now and have a pop-up where you can send that brand to people that you actually think would like it. And instead of paying Meta, we pay you to do that. So you get a discount on the product at the time, depending how many people that you can send it to. And then there's also a thing in marketing, which is called, um, like lifetime value. How much does it cost you to get that customer and how long will they stay a customer for? So if we are paying you to get the customer, then I think there can be like a tiered membership level where all of a sudden you've helped me get customers. I don't need to pay to get you again. So, um, because you're already here and you're in my system. So then you can always get consistently lower pricing on the products because We don't have to factor in the cost to find you. Anyway, something that I've been playing with, and then I really think that we could start a movement with conscious consumerism, and there would be, instead of people going to shop on Facebook and Instagram, they would actually, I don't know if it's a platform style, I don't know quite how to do it, I don't know if it's a bit like an Uber rating, like brands get rated by the consumers, but I think it's time to give you back the money— sorry, Mark— um, and grow this as a movement, um, for people that want to help each other out, basically. So anyway, um, my point of this whole ramble, um, was that I was doing something different. And I've had this Meta problem for a while. I've also had problems with TikTok. Like, so for me, the rejection there, as we've spoken about, is redirection. The fact it wouldn't fit, and I banged that— I banged that peg, that round peg, trying to get it in the square hole. It doesn't go. And the redirection, I've— I feel like it had to be something big like this because I really banged really hard and it was stuck. And so I just put the problem to the back burner. I'm here on YouTube. I love YouTube. It aligns with me. And I feel like Sorry. So, and I was doing something completely different, but then it gave me the inspiration. It's like, what? Like, this makes so much sense. Like, we need to give the powers back to the consumers. So anyway, what it's actually gonna look like, it's funny, Anna's son is a, is a developer. So I was like, okay, can we do this? Like, how, like, can I do this? And it's a popup and we do it like a plugin to Shopify and then the consumer gets the, gets the discount straight away into that. So it's not like waiting for a discount code because they're also in the future. You want it now. Like, I want to reward you now. And then sharing the love like that. And then I did even have an idea because obviously, like, probably men aren't going— well, some men do like scanties, but most men aren't going to like scanties. And not— well, but maybe we could have a barter system so you could, like, trade it with other brands for discounts or something. So have, like, cross Pollination between male brands, female brands, different styles. I don't know. I am really babbling now, but we will let that inspiration come on another day. So point is, if you're stuck on inspiration for a problem that you have, I call it put it on the back burner, which is a little bit like the Borrower Fairy. It's a little bit like the borrowers. It's like, I know it will come to me. I'm just not gonna actively search for it now. Go about your day. Maybe do something different, like go in and work in someone else's office, or I don't know what. Do anything. Like I was there helping a friend, and it was so fun and exciting because I'm so passionate about her brand. And I've been there with her for quite a while now, helping with the strategy and working out ways that we can make it better and make people's lives easier. So go and yeah, maybe use the Chinese proverb. I don't even know if it's a proverb. I just said that, but. Um, what the Chinese do when they're— not Chinese, sorry, Japanese. Japanese do, if you're not feeling great, like if you're in a funk, go and help somebody else. No retail therapy because that's going to come back and then you get retail guilt, but go and help somebody else. And the, the effort of helping someone else is going to pay you back tenfold because it makes you feel good here. And when you feel good here, You feel better. Okay, I'm gonna go now. Love you lots, and let's see where your inspiration might strike. Okay, bye.