Jaimie Abbott: Well, my guest today on, Pitch Perfect is Rebecca Saunders. Now, Rebecca has an incredible bio for me to introduce her with, but she's a serial entrepreneur and a veteran business coach and she's actually an expert in helping isolated regional business women feel and stay connected. Now, as a city import into country life, in a little town called Mudgee in New South Wales where she lives now, Rebecca knows firsthand how lonely, isolating and disconnected it can be as a regional business woman. Alongside her role as editor and publisher of Mudgies Midwestern Living magazine, she founded membership group the Champagne Lounge. And I'm a proud member of the Champagne Lounge myself. As a space that women can sort of feel connected, supported and celebrated without any fear of judgement, it's an incredible membership to be a part of. It's basically, I guess, in the wake of the pandemic, it's become kind of a lifeline for many and is taking, location out of the equation of success. Now, Rebecca gets business at, 22. She booked a one way ticket to Sydney with her laptop from the UK and she had just $500 to her name. From there, she built her now global seven figure video production company, initially building it to sport sponsor herself to stay in Australia. And since then. So over the last 10 years, she's created thousands of videos for hundreds of clients around the world. during the pandemic and after 25 years of wearing a wig, Rebecca decided she has alopecia. And she decided it was ready, it was time to reveal herself to the world and live an authentic life and live into her own uniqueness with alopecia. Now, since then, she's been on a mission to equip women with the skills they need to stand up to Tall Poppy syndrome, have the big conversations they really want to have, and to celebrate loudly when they achieve their dreams. Now, I know building a business is not easy, but it doesn't have to be lonely. And here to tell us more m more about the, the Champagne Lounge and her incredible journey. Welcome, Rebecca Saunders. The crowd goes.
Rebecca Saunders: Thank you. I love the clap as well. Fantastic.
Jaimie Abbott: Yeah, we've got the ringing crowd, just me. but thank you so much for, for joining me on, on Pitch Perfect. It's great to have you on. I have so many questions to ask you about and I guess the first thing I want to know about is, because, I mean, so many of my listeners are entrepreneurs, business owners, and we all do have Tall Poppy syndrome and imposter syndrome. Well, we are victims of Tall Poppy syndrome and therefore we often have Impostor syndro syndrome. Whether it's warranted or not.
Rebecca Saunders: Tell me about.
Jaimie Abbott: I'm m gonna go straight to the hard. The hard topic, the hard stuff about your journey with alopecia, what that was like growing up. And Because I've only ever known you to be wigless, I met you in. We, were at a beautiful mansion, a $10 million mansion or maybe it was a $20 million mansion.
Rebecca Saunders: Yeah.
Jaimie Abbott: In Hawaii where this mastermind. And that was my first sort of, meeting with you without the week. So I don't know the wig, wearing Rebecca me about that journey, how you kind of grew up with that and where you got to where you are now.
Rebecca Saunders: Yeah. Oh, so that's. So, yeah. I didn't realise that you hadn't known that the pre Rebecca Jamie, like, that's You're the second person to tell me that in the space of 24 hours. And I'm like, oh, yeah, like those chapters really move really fast. so I got alopecia when I was seven. alopecia, for anyone that doesn't know what that is, it's an autoimmune disorder where you're body essentially attacks hair follicles. So it can have varying stages for different people. Some people might lose patches of hair and then, you know, it come back. Others might lose, the hair on their head but still have hair on their body. And others, like me, will lose everything. So, if you get to see, you know, fabulous photos of me, my fabulous eyelashes are stuck on every morning to look glamorous and fab. but I don't have hair anywhere, so that happened pretty fast. When I was seven, I had a really great GP that worked with my mum to ensure that I got wigs, that are fitting correctly, that were real hair at the time, and that I was able to have access to those and get, you know, two of those every couple of years that fitted me and were the right style. So, you know, from that, you know, and the fact that I also wear glasses, my prescription is pretty bad, or pretty big, I should say. And so I was the kid that was so different with the big bodily glasses, like total, target for bullying for school kids, I would say. you know, so I think a lot of what I went through as a kid, going through it, I've probably blocked out quite a lot of that and it's something I'm working on sort of uncovering and going back into, but I can sort of remember, things from when I was a teenager, so like the bit between seven and probably 15, I'm kind of, I, don't have too many memories of that that come to, come to fruition. But When I was 15, I was playing along with it and just having a little bit of fun with it. So for me, I never went hair free, but I did, play around with colours. So I'd be like blonde and brunette and have fringes and no fringe and all of the fun stuff. but you never, you'd never find me without hair on. Even in terms of like going swimming. I would always make sure I had it on. And the knots in hair. I know those of you with kids would go, aha. Uh-huh. Yeah, I can see you tangling knots out. Like, yeah, knots and wigs is so much harder to get out. And also they don't grow back if you have to cut them out. but, but for me that was sort of a play, a play zone, a play thing. I would always make sure that I had hair and makeup done every day. Like it was, get up, get ready. It doesn't matter whether I'm going out or not. Like, we don't want anyone to see the real behind the scenes me. and it wasn't until I moved to Australia and I moved here in 2012, and just jumped into business life, business community, but also building the people around the people around me. I chose for them all to be there. So it wasn't like having family and friends that I'd grown up with who would also 100% support me. But it was, I handpicked every single one of them. So the support factor, there was no real, there was no judgement in any of it. It was all support. There was no negativity around me at all. And so over a number of years of personal development work, a number of years of that and chatting and meeting my husband, or now husband, there were little bits that I had to do to get me to the point of being hair free. So, I remember coming home. Well, Alex came home from work one day. It's like a 38, 40 degree day in Sydney. He goes, why are you sitting there with your wig on? Because that's just what I do. It's like you're wearing a beanie inside on a 40 degree day. Like, just take it off. And I'm like, oh, yeah, okay. Like, yeah, okay. So it was little bits like that. Then it was like a baseball cap when I'm walking the dogs. And then it Was, you know, or maybe friends could come over and I don't have to have the hair on and so little increments of little things. And then it wasn't until Covid, where I, you know, there's been years of that where I went, you know what? I'm kind of done now. Like, I think now, now's the time for that switch to be flicked. and so I, yeah, took. Took it off. I think the first thing I did was go on a wine tour of Adelaide because I was in the Barossa for a business chicks conference at the time. And, when that conference ended, I decided the next day, yeah, I'll get a driver. Got a driver around all the wineries and just went with it. Like big earrings and just went with it. And I haven't put a wig back on since.
Jaimie Abbott: Yeah. Wow.
Rebecca Saunders: Yeah.
Jaimie Abbott: So going back to when that happened and you said you were 7, did you experience bullying or, how was your self confidence affected at the time? 7 is pretty impressionable age for a young.
Rebecca Saunders: Yeah, absolutely. Received a lot of bullying. and because kids are varying ages, like, you're just. It's, it's different. It's something you get picked on with. but in. In saying that, you know, I've always been brought up with a support of, you can wear it or not wear it. Like, it's completely up to you. So everything was always my decision. So, even down to, like, the glasses frames I was wearing too. Like, I look back at the pictures and go, mom, what were you thinking? Like, they were ridiculous. And she's like, you picked them all. Like, you had the choice and our full support in doing whatever you wanted to do. And so that's all I remember, like, really, in terms of. Yeah, the bullying definitely was there. and it was there right through school. Like, right through school. but I never had the. I don't have any memory, actually, Jamie, of anything other than go be who you want to be. And we've got your back regardless.
Jaimie Abbott: Yeah. Wow.
Rebecca Saunders: Which is quite an awesome thing to say, actually.
Jaimie Abbott: Do you think that that is an awesome thing to say? Do you think, like, what you're doing now, fast, forward to today. And I know there's a lot in between, but, yeah, you're all about empowering women and you speak so matter of factly about it. do you think having gone through what you've gone through, I mean, not everyone would come out the other side, how you are wanting to empower women and just being so confident about it, it could go the other way. I can imagine. do you think that that has a big part of. In life now, in business and just in general life and your friendship, personal relationship?
Rebecca Saunders: So, yeah, like, I've always got community and people and connection at the core of everything I've ever done. you know, as I think part of. I am very, you know, as you just said, matter of fact, straight 180. Like, you know, what you see is what you get. And don't beat around the bush on things. But, I think going through all of that, but also during my childhood, like, my brother was very sick, my dad had cancer and did pass away when I was 15. my grandma passed away shortly after that. So I think a lot of things within that realm of 7 to 15 were quite, well, life short. So go do what you want to do. Like, always, stick to your word. Say what you mean. Don't say things you don't. You don't like, don't. Don't say things you don't mean. So, like words, you know. You know how kids sometimes, oh, I hate you. And rah, rah, rah. That was never something that I would say. Like, if I'm saying, yeah, I've really thought about it and I've mean what I'm gonna say. So you're. There's no flippant comment. Right. Like, so I think all of that combined made me go, yeah, life is short. Enjoy it all. And if I can give someone else the confidence to be themselves and get up and make every day their best day, like, that's an awesome. That's an awesome thing to be able to do. Yeah.
Jaimie Abbott: And I think you have. You're such a special person in the fact that, you know, you. You do say what you want and you go for what you want, but you don't. I've never known you to bitch about anybody. Or I've also never known you. And I've known you quite a few years now, especially since I came into online business, which I'll talk about trolls and stuff in a moment. because, yeah, I'm sure there's messages there. But you also don't do it in an offensive way. You say, I want to go on this amount of podcast this year. This is my goal. I want. I want, you know, to be a guest. But you don't offend people. You don't just say what you. What comes to mind. You know how some people can go kind of to the extreme and go, I don't. Who are. What Prisons I take in my. In, my approach. So I think you do it in a really great way with going after what you want, but not offending people and you still have a filter. And I guess what I want to ask about, you're in the online business world now and have you ever had trolls? Because I get them every now and then. I might probably get more than most because I've come from conservative politics that I'll always have like a target on my back forever from side of politics. But in the online business world, and you see it all the time in our mastermind that we're in, people are saying, I got a horrible comment on my Instagram. Do you get that? And how do you kind of approach it? Or what advice do you give other people, having gone through what you've gone through, when you're dealing with negative feedback?
Rebecca Saunders: You know what? I don't think I've ever had any. No, I had. I recall doing a video ad on Facebook once where I think one of the comments was, I know, something about my eyebrows or something, but I can't even remember what it was. So it didn't really have that much of an impact. And I think it was just a case of, well, we'll just silence that one. But there wasn't. I, I was really expecting to be fully trolled. Like, really some real kickback when I did go hair free. Because when I went, right, now's the time to do it. I didn't do it by hearts. I did a whole new photo shoot. I changed all my socials, I changed all of my website. Like, everything was changed. Like, they want to switch flicks. Let's go. We're going all in. And I was fully expecting backlash on. On it all. And I got none of it. I got nothing but, like, this is incredible. You're inspiring. I had people messaging me in the background saying, I had no idea that you had alopecia to start with. but I've been suffering from it too. And, like, what you're sharing has just made me realise that one day that might be possible for me too. And I was like, wow, you really don't realise the impact you have on others who are watching and just watching and reading and listening. so, yeah, I can't tell you any horrific troll stories and how I overcame them because I haven't had any. And touch wood, yeah, remain that way for a little while. But, yeah, like even, I mean, you know, part of being in PR club and being, you know, a Speaker, you want to be in the media, you want to be on podcast, you want your photo to be front and centre because you're the front and face of your business and your message. So I don't know, there might be a day, one day, where someone takes offence to the way that I look, but actually I. I don't really care.
Jaimie Abbott: Yeah, I love that. Of course, you are one of my fabulous PR club members. I failed to include that in the intro. I just. One thing that just came to mind was the Jada Pinkett Smith, Will Smith, who was it? Chris Rock, when he got up and staged and punched him. And it did sort of shine a light on alopecia. A lot of people until that point, unless you know someone who has had it or has it, you wouldn't have known what it was, necessarily. And I think that really raised awareness, not in the best way, but, you know, it did certainly bring to light the. The alopecia and what it is. How did you feel about all that, seeing that, unfold? And it was a big topic for a while.
Rebecca Saunders: I got asked to comment an interview a few times on that one. look, I came with it from. From two angles. One very much was, I. I can only imagine what it's like as a woman who, you know, if I was 30, well, I'm 35. But if I was 35 and had my hair and everything was fine and then suddenly tomorrow it was gone. Like, I can only imagine how much of that identity piece is wrapped up in that. Like, I've got it really young and I really haven't really known any different. Like, yeah, ah, seven is still a young age. I've had a really long time with it and haven't known any different. so I can only imagine how, like, raw those feelings were. but then also she wasn't shy about sharing those. and I think. So for me, the fact that, you know, Chris Rock did know her and played on that to a. To a joke in front of an audience was in real bad taste. Like, if, if it had gone to anyone that maybe hadn't talked about it publicly or anything, you know, I could be less like, oh, well, it's just a joke and maybe like, rub that off. But she had been very, very vocal about how hard it had been. And I think that's where it crossed the line for me. Like, if someone's sharing their vulnerabilities to it and then you play on that, that's just mean. Yeah, it's not a Nice thing.
Jaimie Abbott: Yeah, yeah. It reminds me, I'm. I'm getting sucked into watching maths at the moment. And, someone said that one of the content contestants, one of the wives, they had crazy eyes. And it got back to her that she had crazy eyes, but then her husband said it in front of the other husbands about crazy eyes and was already a sore point. So, it just. Just reminded me of that. Putting the. The, the blind spot out there, the vulnerabilities and then playing on that. So let' Champagne Lounge, because you've really created an incredible community. I've been in it, I think, from from the start. Ah. Like, yeah, one. One of the OGs, I think, from memory. And, you know, what's your whole idea behind it? Because you've. You've got an interesting journey where you came from the UK to Australia, you were a city chick, you had. You still got the apartment in Sydney and then you moved out to, to regional New South Wales, to a little town called Mudgi, which is a beautiful country town, one of my favourites. And, from there you kind of develop the Champagne Lounge. What's it all about and what's your idea behind it?
Rebecca Saunders: So the idea was, it was what came from quite a selfish moment, really. it was far out. I'm working by myself, I don't have a team. I'm not really talking to anyone regularly. Like, obviously, I talk to my clients and I'm putting content out into the world from a social perspective, but I just want to chat. Like, I just want to just chat to people that get it, like. And I, I thoroughly enjoy. You know, we said we're going on Mastermind together and you get. The gems come in the conversations. The gems always come in the conversations and the space to have those conversations. And so I put it out there to go, well, like, I'm. I'm feeling pretty lonely when I'm working from home by myself. Like, does anyone fancy joining me in this virtual lounge room space where we could just sit and chat about whatever. And so it's grown from there, really. the champagne element of it isn't because you have to drink. Champagne isn't because it's all about drinking and all of that kind of stuff. It was about, combating the tall Poppy syndrome that we talked about earlier. celebrating the milestones, celebrating the highs and lows of business ownership, having conversations around business life and family life and balancing them all together. just those real, real raw conversations that you only really get when you're in a Safe space. And I wanted to build that safe space for women to come and be part of. That wasn't teaching them something, that wasn't giving them something else on their to do list, that wasn't making them go, oh, bugger, I missed that one. So I've got to catch up on an hour's worth of calls before I jump into the next one. I just wanted it to be come when you can, how you can, for as long as you can. And, you know, you've experienced it yourself. You jump in when you're free and you jump out when you gotta go. Like, yeah, the conversation flows and the topic changes depending on who's in the room and what we wanna talk about that day.
Jaimie Abbott: Yeah, I love it. I mean, I haven't been for a couple of months, but I. I love the fact that it's there and you get the reminder. Rebecca Saunders is live now in the Champagne lounge. Sometimes I go, oh, I'm free, and I will jump in. And, I mean, I haven't been there for a couple of months, but I'm still a member and I know I can jump in at any time. Do you find that the complaints or the concerns or the gripes or the struggles, challenges that women are having in business are all the same? Like, are they common themes when you're working online, working from home, by yourself, that women are having common themes there?
Rebecca Saunders: I think, yeah, overall, the themes, definitely the common themes are the common themes whether you're working by yourself or whether you have a team, I think, because, like, it's. They're all the growing pains of running a business and running a household, and there's no right or wrong way to do it. So, you know, themes of timing, themes of not being enough, or things of imposter syndrome, you know, can I do this? Or, Heck, I'm trying to figure this out. And I've got tech issues. Like, who hasn't got tech issues when you're running an online business? you know, so I think there's. They're definitely there and underlying, but they're not at the forefront. So, like, the conversations we have aren't. Aren't ranty ones. They're not, like, coming in like, oh, I just need to vent this off my chest. It's not. It's not sort of a venti space. It's more. More. The conversations are like, hey, I'm at. I'm here, I'm at this point, I want to get to this point. Or, you know, and, that could Be whatever conversation it is. But has anyone got any experience in that and the chant? Everyone has experience or someone has experience in it. So I couldn't pinpoint to you the exact themes per se, but I have never seen someone ask a question where at least two people ever haven't had experience in the same problem.
Jaimie Abbott: Yeah, I love that. And what's your grand vision for it? What do you kind of. Where do you want to take the Champagne Lounge? Or if anyone's listening to this, I'm sure my ideal listeners. in my world, they're your ideal listeners.
Rebecca Saunders: Yeah.
Jaimie Abbott: What's the vision and what's the grand plan for, Champagne Lounge?
Rebecca Saunders: You know what? I battle with this a little bit, Jamie, as to. Do I add stuff in, do I, you know, make academy, do I do this, do I do that? And no, like, it's going to stay the same as it is now and when people want to join it, they're going to join it there. We will move to a model where doors will be open and closed so we can welcome new people in and do the introductions so that people know who each other are and then, you know, when they jump onto calls. but it is. It's there as a safe space for conversation and I don't want to change that. It's work. It works beautifully for our, members when they want to come and have those conversations. And I know from feedback within the membership, that people don't want to learn something new. They don't want. They don't want another thing on their to do list because there's other programmes and other masterminds for that. And this is purely for connection and conversation. So it will stay wonderfully the same, it will stay wonderfully affordable. the only thing that's going to change this year is that doors will be open and closed three times. Yeah.
Jaimie Abbott: Yeah. Do you really think. I know this is one of your speaking topics about talking it out. Do you really think that that conversation and that connection is really important for. For one's mental health?
Rebecca Saunders: Absolutely, yeah. Yeah. Because you can very easily spiral yourself down. You can get into your head very easily with the negative self talk or the negative talk just being able to talk it out, even if no one, even if you're not expecting anyone to give you any feedback, but you just need to say, this is where I'm at. huge. It's huge for your mental health, you know, to be able to go, I'm not alone. Like, it's not being alone, physically alone, like, but just not I'm not the only one going through X. it is actually really huge. sometimes. Sometimes we've got members that just jump on and listen because they just want to just listen to whatever's going on in other people's worlds. And, you know, maybe they're watching a sports game with the kids or, you know, making dinner or something. But, yeah, I think mental health crisis is huge. And if you're by yourself, like, just conversation changes everything.
Jaimie Abbott: Yeah.
Rebecca Saunders: Access to conversation. Yeah.
Jaimie Abbott: Just one other thing, speaking of your speaking topics, because, you know, I've kind of gone through this with you. You being a PR club member. One of your topics is how to own your uniqueness and show up as the real you. and having gone through your journey, what are your tips? I mean, not all of us have necessarily, you know, had alopecia or I've overcome any sort of adversity, but many of us do struggle to show up. I mean, I used to. I used to not be my real self. So what advice do you have for people to show up? Whether they're showing up on stage, showing up at work, showing up online as their true authentic self. What are your tips?
Rebecca Saunders: I think, number one, not only a tip, but more of a, you know, precursor. this stuff takes time, you know, to have the, the confidence that both you and I have worked hard to have to step out and go, right, here I am. This is who we are. that takes time and it takes work. So be kind and patient with yourself throughout the journey is what I'll start with. key things for me. I love having things front and centre in front of me. Like, if you're watching the video, you'll see my vision boards up there. It's on my phone. You know, I get really clear on what I want, what I want the thing to be. and then it steps towards that. So I get really clear on what it is you want to do. Whether it's, you want to feel comfortable, comfortable in your body, whether it's, you want to suddenly change your hair colour. I don't know what it is. Whether you want to suddenly show your vulnerabilities because you've got alopecia, you now want to take the wig off. What you need to know what that thing is. And, get to the point of going, okay, I'm comfortable with that. And do little baby steps on the way up. So where I talk through, first it was at home, then it was with a baseball cap, then it was with friends, and then it was like, they're all little increments that really build up to that big picture. So work out what the little steps are there. I would also have what I would call intimate pod, or like, your ride or die squad. So, like, one or two people or, you know, could be more than that, but who understand the vision, the why, the who, the what. Like, understand that. And, who will be there when things get hard or whether you don't want to do it because, you know, if it does happen that you've tried something and you really hate it and people have been mean to you, you kind of want to revert back to people that go, it's all right. Like, these things happen. We'll just sit here and cry together tonight, and we'll go again tomorrow. Like, whatever that looks like. and your family and partners, you need to bring them along for the ride. it is a journey, and as you're changing and changing for you, others need to know that because they're going to watch you change, too. So take them along for the ride.
Jaimie Abbott: That's really good advice. Really good advice. Because the last thing you need are those people close to you questioning you and. And challenging you. That's a really good point. I love that. Anything else further to add? Bake it all.
Rebecca Saunders: I think we've covered a lot, Jamie. A lot. Yeah. you know, have that conversation, smile at that stranger in the street. Like, you never know where those conversations are going to lead and how much impact you're going to have on. On someone else, whether you talk to them or they see you, from a distance. So, yeah, that's. That's it, really.
Jaimie Abbott: Thank you so much. And if people want to find out how to join the Champagne Lounge, find out more about booking you as a speaker. Where can they go?
Rebecca Saunders: Just head to rebeccasaunders.
Jaimie Abbott: Com. Thank you so much for being a guest, Rebecca. It's been fabulous.
Rebecca Saunders: It's been awesome. Thanks, Jamie.
