Welcome to episode 1 of Creative Conversation: Conversations with Veronica and Jillian. This episode of Creative Conversation introduces Veronica and Jillian as entrepreneurs and offers glimpses into their entrepreneurial journeys. It highlights their experiences in online marketing, e-commerce, networking, and the importance of business operations. Listeners can expect engaging conversations and practical advice from the hosts in future episodes.
Today Veronica and Jillian started by sharing fun facts about themselves, highlighting their early ventures into entrepreneurship.
Jillian reveals that she started her first business at the young age of 22, which was an Internet marketing business during the early days of online shopping. She reminisces about educating consumers about the internet and online shopping when it was still a novel concept.
Veronica's fun fact showcases her entrepreneurial spirit and her involvement in the rapidly evolving world of e-commerce. She shares her experience of launching an e-commerce platform for French designer clothes. Veronica explains how she had to educate people about the safety and convenience of online shopping, particularly in Eastern Europe, where the adoption of technology was relatively slower. She also mentions the challenges and unexpected expenses she faced while running her business.
The conversation takes an interesting turn when Jillian mentions a successful businesswoman she met 20 years ago, who organized trunk shows for exclusive clothing lines. This prompts her to realize that she needs to follow up with this person and maintain business relationships—a valuable lesson in networking and nurturing connections.
The hosts then shift their focus to discussing helpful tools for business management. Jillian recommends an Ai tool called Fireflies, which transcribes and recaps meetings, making it easier to capture important details and action items. Veronica adds to the conversation by mentioning another similar tool called Otter.ai and expresses her preference for handwritten notes, which she finds more effective for memory retention.
They conclude the episode by briefly discussing data security and customer privacy, hinting at a future episode dedicated to the topic. They also tease a potential guest speaker, a lawyer specializing in data protection and privacy laws, who could provide valuable insights on the subject.
About Veronica Guguian
- Website: https://spinideas.nl/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/veronica-guguian
About Jillian Vorce
- Website: https://thejilliangroup.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillianvorce
Credits
Music Composed by: BeeLa Music
Voiceover by Amanda Balagur
Podcast post-production by Melina Dio
Hello, everyone, and welcome to episode 1 of Creative Conversation: Conversations with Veronica and Jillian. And my name is Veronica, and I'm here with Jillian. And today, we're gonna talk about, actually, about us, very egocentric, but the topic will not be really about us. Actually, it will be about our businesses and how we became entrepreneurs. And maybe it's with the mentality and how we perceive this. So first, a chance to get to know us a bit better. We’re both going to share a “fun fact.”
My fun fact is I started my first business when I was 22 just a couple years ago. Like, 20 plus years ago. But, actually, the fun part of it is not that I started my first business at 22. The fun part is that it was an Internet marketing business. And this was, if you can remember, way back when credit cards were on the Internet. So it was, like, the very beginning of online shopping. I remember when all of those you know, that was starting off the 1st round of manufacturers that were starting to sell their products online, and it's the 1st round of companies and retailers who were, you know, kind of dipping their toes in. And so I spent time trying to educate consumers about, you know, what this crazy thing called the worldwide web and Internet shopping was all about.
So, yeah, Internet marketing was all the rage and was like, let's see here, 20, it's. Or 2001. Right around there. It's when I started my first business. So that's a little bit fun ish, but that's a fact about me. How about you?
Huh. I was actually thinking to show something else, but, you know, what you should just trigger a memory because my first official business that I launched was the ecommerce platform, not as early as you. Biomite platforms telling French designer clothes in the media. I'm Romanian, by the way. That's another topic. Yes. And it was a little bit easier because people were okay. So Eastern Europe is slightly different than the US, so the mentality is different. People are moving slower, let's say, in terms of technology at that point. Coming and buying, but were between the first ones launching it. And I think that we're also after like, during that and I think it was before that. Actually, I did my master's, and then I launched it on my master in marketing.
But it was a little bit like you're educating people that it's safe to buy online and how to do this. And, also, how to introduce the idea that You don't need to be modern. Now you don't need to be slimmer, but the most beautiful one to be there. So we were doing different things, doing photo shoots with our clients, actually. But the fun part was that we had the ecommerce. We were putting a lot of money including it in advertisements because then it was Google Ads. It was quiet at the beginning. Nobody knew for sure what the heck is happening, and you -- Mhmm. This money, to be honest. Wasn't the best investment I made at that point.
But what we used to do was bring photoshoots with our clients to the new collection, And besides the shop, the e-commerce shop, we also had the physical concept store, a very small one in a cosmetic salon. So ladies were going there to have their haircuts, to have their manicure pedicure. Now everything is related to facials and things like that. But, of course, you have a lot of time that you need to wait, like, lost time that you need to spend in that salon 1. You're right. And were thinking I was thinking, like, hey. How about we have a room here where you can go, of course, it was where I was going as well. So this way, it was easy to go.
So it was about while you were waiting for the dye to be done or whatever you had to go to come and view close. The fun fact was that we're selling more offline while we're selling online, and we are posting the pictures taking the picture to this lady that purchased it at the salon. Because it was also personal. We were closing the shop as I tried everything. And let me tell you, if you give a woman a whole shop to try on, they will live with a lot of clothes. And it's fun. And they also cut personal advice, how to dress, what suits them, or showing them how they can dress. So, of course, you're gonna buy. The problem was spending money and time doing the photo shoot, uploading everything.
And then over that, we were selling in the shop, and we had a big issue. So that's the fun part. So not the best planning without thinking about it. Maybe more merchants, that should have been better or something. But, yeah, we do need to learn.
So I love that you just use it as an because you just reminded me of somebody I haven't thought about in many years, a woman that was a very successful business woman that I met 20 years ago. Jeez. And she had clothing like a trunk line. So she was doing trunk shows with like this really very nice clothing line that was only available through these trunks, like really very nice clothing. And She is so great, and I am just yeah. So I've tried really hard to maintain my relationships over the years, but it's a bummer when there's one that I remember. I haven't done a great job of following up with. So thanks for the reminder, and I just put a tally. Okay. So note to self. I need to follow-up with her and see how she's doing.
It's been a few years. So thank you for reminding me of her. Need to follow-up with her. So anyhow, thank you for that.
And for our listeners, this is how you maintain business relationships. Everything we're gonna trigger a memory, but you do need to act. And I think that's actually the secret because we all gonna remember and say, oh, I need to do that. But the core of it is do you actually follow-up with it, and how do you follow-up with it? And I do know I'm a CEO of not following properly sometimes.
Yeah. It's definitely hard to do, and I think that's a great segue. I'm just gonna share a quick tool because I love tools I read a lot, I love. I'm always looking for new ways to think about things or new or better ways to do things. And so I'm just gonna share my quick I guess it's like a tool of the week kind of thing or tool of the show, whatever. But it's exactly along the lines that you're talking about. So I found again, through networking and through having conversations with other business owners. I found out about this great AI tool that you can use Well, I use it as, like, a plugin more or less for my Zoom account, and it automatically it's an AI tool that takes notes for me. It does the transcriptions, and it does meeting recaps, and it's wildly helpful.
It's called Fireflies, by the way. It's an app called Fireflies. So you can check it out and should be able to add it to your I guess it's added to Chrome or whatever. Download, it's very simple. And the free version is amazing. I ended up paying for the other version because it is so good. But in any case, I used it specifically for that, and so most of my meetings are via Zoom. And so there's always things that come up items and whatnot like I just mentioned. So when I get the transcripts, I can just quickly do a search and then find all of my action items. It actually can also isolate the action items too. But Fireflies.ai is a great tool if anybody is doing online meetings.
It's a great way to recap and to capture all the action items so we don't they don't dissolve after the meeting is over. So No. That's a good one. That's what.
I have. Thank you for that. I do know there's another one called Otter.ai that basically does the same thing. I will not be able to tell you which one is better, and I'm guilty of knowing about both of them and a lot of people are only using them, but I haven't used any. I'm quite old fashioned in this from this perspective because I don't know. For the listeners, they will not see, but the people that are watching which of the OCI have several notebooks with me here, and each is serving a purpose. And I find it for my style that it's easier to actually take notes. The moment I'm writing it, I remember it. But, of course, we all are different, and our brains are working differently.
What I do love and what will kind of make me want you to maybe make a list that states, Fireflies.ai, for example, or Otter.ai. Mhmm. -- is the fact that I can already in the call or in the script do actionable things. So, for example, it is already added to my calendar, for example, and that will make it easy. Because the notes are great when I have to write a proposal. Remember what happened, or I had a meeting with a client, and I need to take action or create something. So that's brilliant. But sometimes we do forget, like, oh, I just need to reach out to that person to say hello or to see what is happening again.
Yes. Yes. I actually used it recently. I had a meeting with a prospect, yeah, a referral prospect call with an engineer and the vocabulary and the subject matter was quite dense. And so it occurred to me, wow, I can either be taking copious notes or I can be present in the conversation. Like, I really need to be president in this conversation, and it's rolling. And so it's like so I decided, like, let me do that, and I thought this was when I first started using the tool. And I was so thrilled afterwards. I can't even tell you. It was like a great meeting. It was, like, 50 minutes or something. And I thought, wow, that was amazing, and then it was like, how would I describe what that was about? Like, where do I even start?
So I jumped in to have a look at the meeting recap, and I read it. I'm like, wow. What an amazing meeting that just was. So it's really helpful for me because I captured all the details, all the references, the acronyms, all the language that came up that I was somewhat or maybe not at all familiar with. So I didn't have to write that all down, and I was able to be present in the meeting, which was really helpful. So, anyways, this is not intended to be a commercial for, but I just think it's great. Anytime we can use, I think, for me, anytime we can kind of employ a tool or technology that'll make things run smoother, or, in this case, improve the experience. I'm a fan of it.
So I feel like the experience of the conversation was better because I was present and not doing and taking notes on the side. But just while we're at it, I too love notebooks.
It's one of my favorite little I don't know if it's actually a gadget. Would it be considered a gadget? I don't know. It's one of my little -- Let's say so. Favorite things. Yeah. This one is anyway. So, anyway, you can write on it and erase it. It's amazing. But the best part is you can take photos. I'm doing 2. Here we go. You can take photos of it and upload it to your Google Drive. So I use the same notebook when I go to events. I sketch down some notes. I can take a photo. And send it to whatever drive folder I choose. And there's several on the market. The rocket book. And this one is Bamboo, Bambuque, I guess, is called Bambuque. But, yeah, Bambuque.
The reason I'd show this one is because in the app, which is another thing that I have since learned. Probably everybody else knows this, and I'm late to the game. But if you look in the apps, I was trying to compare, like, reading reviews and whatnot trying to figure out which one I should get. And then I discovered that in the rocket book, there's a whole section on what data they're basically siphoning from me. Whereas this one has they are not doing that. They're not storing any of my data. So that made the decision quite easy. And so now I have the van book and not the rocket book. So that may have changed since this was a little bit ago. Yeah.
But I think that's good advice to follow, like, really make sure, especially when it comes to private data and your data and you're placing them in such a public way in one way, even if it's your own, who else has access to it. And I think that could be a great way to move towards the business side because these are definitely great pieces of advice for businesses. But, also, how do you protect your data? And what do you do with it? So always read the fine print.
Yes. No. I think that's a really important topic to circle back to, I think, especially with GDPR, etcetera. So I feel like that's that topic about data security and customer client privacy, etcetera. I feel like that's a really kind of a prudent conversation for us to have in the coming weeks. So here we go. And I think fireflies.
Has made an update on it. That's right. Yeah. And I think I know who we can have. I do know several lawyers active in this area. So maybe it will be great to have one of them, invite it as a guest speaker. And -- Great. -- just Great. So you already have a topic for the next one. But let's come.
I know I'm ready to roll. Of today. Yeah. No. So you started mentioning earlier about your I'm quite interested to hear your kind of evolution from that and really how you got set up with spin ideas. Just to share a little bit about that, what your story was.
Actually, that was my first business, but wasn't my first business idea. So I used to, like everyone else, worked for several companies including a corporate. I don't think that I didn't have at least 1 year, if not more. Experience working in a corporation. So I'm curious to see the ones that didn't. Yeah. Or maybe it's an age thing. For us, it was that the trend was to first get the corporate, and then you go into that. But the first time, a business idea and I didn't even know at that point that's entrepreneurship. I was buying quite a lot of presents. I was working at Siemens, so I was system manager of a department. And I was only buying presents, birthday presents for the department.
And I was pretty good at them because I knew the people, and I I had a relationship with them. So I knew what they'd want, like, not like, and I was always trying to do something very personalized. And my first business idea was actually to create a process in which a lot of people don't know how to buy presents. That's a reality. So they could actually send me a brief if this is the person I need to buy a prison for, need to present 3 options. They choose by including the receiver of the present. And I think what actually is because the idea of what is important to me is actually according to the values and always putting the person at the center of every business and everything that you do.
And I realized that, actually, this is something that is from the beginning. It's not something that just developed. But you do something very dear to me and something that drives me in everything that I do. So with that in mind, I I went and had my first business that didn't mean anything, but has 2. In Romanian, yes, it's Da. So we have 2 affirmatives in the name. It was very positive and had a nice read. So there, again, the customer, actually, the client wasn't the center. I said, actually, the client was the one posting. We did fashion shows with the clients, not professional models. We were trying to make it as real as possible. And moving to the Netherlands, if you moved a couple of years ago, and I think you experienced the same.
Like, after you have especially after you have a business that you have a network and you have your family, to support you you get to a country where, honestly, I knew besides my ex partner that I was living, just one person. And I was like, What am I doing here? Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Do I need to start? And yeah. And to remember, I moved in August. In Romania, August is the hottest month of the year. And here was raining, and it was cool. Like, I I was wearing my autumn clothes. And I was like, okay. It's raining. I'm just gonna wait until tomorrow to go and nor the city. And the second day the house because, you know, I'm not sure the rain will ever stop. So it's everything is totally different.
So I decided to actually get a job just to figure it out, what the heck is happening? How 's the culture? How are the people? Especially that I still had this. This is my initial thought: I'm just gonna bring it here. But what is very important to understand is your audience. So going and getting to know people. And, first, I got the job to really understand that the culture and way of running business here is different. So after having realized that, I decided to get a job and to figure it out. Satisfying and creating a network. And it is time to stop and just work for myself. And this is when Spin Ideas was created.
And it was very organic because the moment I left, I used to work for a media agency. The moment I left, I sent an email to all my clients, former clients, and they work quite a lot internationally and saying, thank you, and let's be in touch. And the response to that email was very, very great and actually very emotional because a lot of them met with me, and they said, I still want to work with you. Honestly, I started my business, and my business was created based on those phone calls and coffees. Because I realized what they needed, and that was marketing. And not only marketing, because there are so many companies offering marketing services, but the strategy, the structure. To guide them and to have a process, basically. And this house pin idea was created beginning in 2007.
And, of course, if I look at the first marketing campaign I created, like, the first marketing strategy I created, then with what I'm delivering now, it's a big journey and the way we develop processes and methodologies and things like that. But, basically, this is how we started by listening to what people needed. How about you? Because I do know you are involved a lot around everything that you do is around people and also processes and procedures. So I do love the fact that you are B-Corp consultant. Consultant. Yeah. So that maybe you'll be looking for our listeners to hear a little bit about that.
Yeah. I feel like the B Corp consultant is like the cherry on top of everything I have been working for 20- 25 years. But I can't help myself. I have to go back to one thing quickly. Because when you were talking about your business idea back with the gift giving gifts and such, I have to ask, do you know the gift guilds here in the Netherlands, Eva. I most likely,
I don't. Yeah.
Yeah. So I have introduced her to ONS. I'm not sure if she has attended yet, but I think the ONS network is a great kind of resource for her, and I think she could add a lot of value. So she is building a gift guild in the Netherlands. So just a quick side note, I had to bring that up. So you mentioned that Another thing you said reminding me, I have to just mention this just ironic about both of us having now where networks are and then moving to the Netherlands. It's funny. I'm kinda having one of those, like, full circle moments. It just occurred to me that many years ago, I think, I don't know, Somewhere around there. I was interviewed on the entrepreneurs on fire podcast with John Lee Dumas.
And at the end of my episode, he asked so I think that kinda question, if you were, you know, dropped somewhere you had never been before or something to that effect, what would you do? And in all of my wisdom in 2016, I said that if you're anybody to start. And I said I would go to a cafe and, you know, buy somebody coffee and start having conversations. And lo and behold, look at that, all of these years later, Or many years later, because I think we actually met in 2022. So call it 6 years later, Here I am in a community where I don't really know anybody, buffet buying you a coffee. And it actually happens. So, anyway, they had to share their names. The fiduciary story. I know. I know. It's like, oh my gosh. Look at what happened.
So be careful what we say, and sometimes it can come true. But anyhow, so just to jump in and add business journey. I'll do it in a kinda consolidated fashion here. So I, and you had also mentioned the corporate situation, so it's true. Yeah, I would say I never really had a corporate job, the last time I guess my last job, right? My last job? No, my second to last job. Was for a giant private company at the time. And I was doing my thing and they offered me a corporate sales position. I was nineteen or twenty and I would have been the youngest person in the company's history to be in a corporate sales role. It was very compelling.
But at the time, I was also coaching inner city girls basketball, and I was a literacy volunteer in doing other service projects. So my first thought was if I go do this big fancy corporate gig, I will make a lot of money, and it'll look really great, but I won't have the time to do all of these other things that matter so much to me. So I decided to not take this And about within a few months or within a year, I learned about Robert Kiosaki who was being interviewed on the Oprah show. This is back when Oprah, like, still had her TV show. Has it been gone long enough to say that shows how old I am? I'm not sure. But that might be starting to happen. Anyway, he was being interviewed by Oprah.
And as he was talking, it just, like, resonated with me, and it happened within a few just timing happened to you apparently, now I realized he was probably on a book tour, and then his book tour brought him to my city. And so I was able to go to his book event, meet him and have a brief conversation with him, photo op and whatnot. And so he, that was part of my business education that, you know, it's like twenty years old or something. What opportunities and what limitations there were for me as in my career. Some business shortly thereafter. And then for about that 1st 10 years, I would say, from yeah, around. Yeah, for those 1st several years.
I, you know, I didn't have much to offer in the way of, like, this, you know, business acumen and education and experience or, like, much at all. So I just began building relationships by focusing on other people. And I did a lot of things over the years, but in effect, that network started to grow and grow. And then I guess the best way to say it is in. Let's see. Like, 2013 or so, that's when the universe decided, okay. It's time for you to start your consulting agency. And suddenly the relationships that I had been building over many years just started to reach out to me for help with things in the way of technology tools and building relationships. So I started my agency at that time without really knowing I was starting an agency. I didn't have a business plan.
I didn't have any of the conventional things that you would think about having in place before starting a business. I just started receiving referrals and just figuring it out. The next thing I know is, like, a fire hose happened. And within 12 months, I had thirty people on my team, and I had. It's like we maxed out at, like, 15 clients on retainer, and it grew to forty people on the team, and it was madness. I was literally putting the bicycle together as we're pedaling. And so it grew very fast. In every piece of business that I've ever done, every piece of business I've received has come through relationships, aka referrals, or else they, you know, met me in a Starbucks or something like that. So it's all been that.
And, yeah, and over the years, my agency, like you mentioned, I started off really more so the marketing world, kind of outsource marketing for companies and healthcare, tech, finance, etcetera. And then we added management consulting and process optimization.. So we did a lot of process basically helping customers or helping clients. If you're getting a lot of leads and they're not closing or if they're getting a lot of leads and yeah, having difficulty with staff, etcetera, then it's not working still. So we implemented process management, And then this cherry on top is this last iteration, which is embracing sustainability as a strategy, and then becoming a B Corp consultant. And currently in the process of certifying my company as a B Corp as well.
So it's been quite a journey, quite a process, but you know, you mentioned it and it's very true for me. At the core of my business has always been relationships. So I've never I've always focused on listening to people and what it is that they need, and this includes clients and often clients are puzzled by it because I'm not trying to feel like I have nothing to sell. What it is that you what, you know, what do you need? And let's find the people or resources to help you. If that happens to be myself or my That's fine because I just can't do something for a client or sell them something. If I don't feel in my gut that it's the right thing for them, I just can't do it. So for better or worse, that's what I do.
And so, yeah, so I feel like that's a good place to put a period at the end of my run-on sentence here. But, yeah, that's a bit about me and how I got you know, my start.”
Hey. I just could highlight the final. But I actually wanted to jump into what you said because I can relate to that, and I think this is why we are such a good match for this. First of all, the base conference where that brought us together in one way. Yeah. Was launched because of what you just said. And when the company started growing and I experienced the same, it's one thing when you are alone, one thing when you have five people, when you start growing, and you have a bigger project. Let's be honest, these are overwhelming. And a lot of years, you are sitting and say, what am I doing? What do I need to do? How do I put this fire out? And it's about knowledge.
And the base conference, the purpose of this conference was for people in that situation. Even if you're growing it by two people or by ten people, the core of it is the same. You do need the processes in place. You do need the white work? You do need to know who do you need to bring? Who do you need to fire? What do you need to do? Who's who what's the client you need to say yes to and what the client you need to say no to? And it's very hard, I was in that position, and it's so scary. That's the reality.
But the purpose of the bathe and also the community that I have and what we do because I feel like we are working the same, but we do have different Not to be not of yourself to your community or network. And that's also one of the purposes of our podcast. Let's learn from us and share your knowledge with us. So we make it easy for all of us.
Mhmm.
This episode, I think it was that I think we can stay for 1 more hour instead. Put that thought I've gifted at the end. Yeah. Yeah. As far as I hope our listeners will have a better understanding of who we are and where we stand on. And I'm so excited about our next episode.
Yeah. I know we're gonna talk about next time we'll talk about specifically how relationships have influenced our business. Very specifically with actual tangible examples, etcetera. Because I think it's a topic I know a lot of people are interested in for people to think about, okay, well, what do I do? Like how do I do that? Where do I start? So I think that we both have some similar practices or some similar approaches, but I'm also sure that I'm gonna be able to learn from you as well. So we'll pick that conversation up next time. But -- Yeah. For now -- Exactly.
We're all gonna pick it, and it's part of running business and unique clients in order to do that. But as you said, this is a discussion for next time. So stay tuned. Thank you for listening in, and see you next time.