Welcome to the Bea Bold in Business podcast. My name's Samantha Hearn and I'm the host of this amazing channel. I wanted to bring you a place where you hear from myself and other amazing inspirational business people on their journey to the success they've created. I wanted to bring you the offline journeys to the online successes we see on social media.
I want to create a place where you hear the struggles people have been through, the challenges, the lessons they've learned, the mistakes they've made, so that you know that ordinary people can create extraordinary things every single day, and that it's totally possible for you too. The Bea Bold in Business podcast is a place where you are going to hear real, genuine, what's in all stories from some of the most exceptional people in business, and how they succeeded anyway. If you are ready to show up in your business, if you are ready to be bold, if you are ready to learn from your mistakes, if you are ready to bounce back and become more resilient, this is a podcast for you. And me, Samantha Hearn, I cannot wait to welcome you, support you, empower and inspire you, and share with you the stories that sometimes don't get shared online, and give you this real refreshing approach on how building a business sometimes can be hard, sometimes involves failing, sometimes involves struggle, but you can still succeed anyway.
So welcome to the Bea Bold in Business podcast, and I cannot wait for you to take your invitation to be bold in your business too. OK, welcome to another episode of the Experience Series. So you'll be used to how we do these now. It's essentially just a really good opportunity for me to bring my amazing clients into your world, so you can learn more about them and what they do, and just see the different type of people that I work with, and the impact that it can have and their experience.
So it's, as you know by now, very, very open, loose conversation, just talking to these incredible people. So today we are joined by Vicky. Hello. Hello, thank you for having me.
Thank you for coming. Do you want to just introduce yourself to everyone, first of all? Yeah, so I'm Vicky Schoflin. I'm a social worker, and I train in a newly qualified social worker.
My business is called Social Work Sorted, and so I help them with their skills in practice. I have an online platform entirely dedicated to newly qualified social workers. I'm a membership and I also provide CPA accredited training for universities and organisations. I love it.
And what made you want to start helping and do training rather than just stay in social work yourself? I think it started for me post-COVID because I started to recognise that the experience of social workers, when they were training and when they were newly qualified, was very different to my experience. So lots of things went virtual, communication skills, and being in person with people wasn't necessarily available for any qualified social workers. And so a lot of the skills, a lot of the things that I assumed were that everybody had, I realised I got them all from training in person.
And so when I started to, I wanted to write a guide, and I joined Instagram to talk to social workers, make sure I was doing the right thing, make sure it was going to be relevant for them. I found such a huge reception to things like I was talking about, where do you sit on a home visit? How do you introduce yourself? What do you do before you knock on somebody's door?
Like all these overwhelming things, that if you haven't been in person with another social worker, see them do it, shadow them, you're going to struggle with, and then you can't be the social worker you want to be when you're so panicked about all those different things. So it was from sharing those quite tangible, practical, almost step by step, really supporting new social workers to then go on and build their confidence and do all the things that they really wanted to do. Oh, I love that. And I think my first question and I definitely would like to dive into that a bit more in terms of how did you feel going from having a job that was offline?
You're doing work with real people in real life, offline. How did you feel going online, just to start your business in the first place? What was that experience like for you? I'm scared, I'm scared, because when you are, and so most people in other public professions, you get the talk when you're at uni, you get the talk when you start your job about social media, and being careful and you're online presence.
And I was also working as a child protection social worker, and I had children. So I was worried about the children I was working with, because confidentiality is the organisation that was always so important to me. That was always a priority. But then also thinking about having a public profile, being mindful, I'm a registered social worker, and I have to renew my registration every year, be mindful of what I was sharing, who was seeing me, who was seeing all the parts of my life, and so, yeah, to start with, it was all anonymous.
I shared my first name, that was it, and that obviously massively evolved a lot from working with you. So, yeah, in the beginning, I don't regret that, because it was, I believe it was the right way for me to start to understand the different social media platforms, and to understand how I wanted to be online. But, yeah, things definitely changed when I started to show my face and be a bit more present. And I did that in terms of my manager, making sure that was okay, being really tight on confidentiality and, you know, privacy and around my life.
But, yeah, starting out as a scaring, I didn't know anybody who'd done anything like it before, as well, I couldn't, there wasn't anybody that I could look, and be like, oh, Dave done that, which I've always had that, and I think, yeah, maybe a lot of people in different kinds of businesses have something similar, but there wasn't really anything in the UK, that was a couple of accounts, but nothing really similar. So, yeah, scary. I think it's good to ask that, because so many people do have, whether it's jobs, vacations, or things offline, and when they come online, they do, here's quite an overwhelming experience. So, how long would you say you were online doing your thing, before you then thought about getting support?
I reckon it was probably five or six months, and it all tied in with it, and then I kind of changed it. I was still working full time, but I changed jobs into a slightly different role. And it was a bit lost in terms of what I was doing. I found myself sort of looking at other social work accounts and thinking, is that what I need to do?
And then I fell more into just responding to what people were saying, this is really helpful, I just did more of it. I knew that I'd come on because I wanted to write a guide, I was writing that in the background, and I didn't really know how to move it forward. And I suppose connected with the people, because I had the first step of people were following, talking to me online, but I wanted that next step of connection. And I wanted to be able to write my guide and put it into action, and not feel so lost, and was spending lots of time learning, which was important, but I didn't quite have a direction.
I never even imagined I would have a business coach ever. But I think being in the online space, once you search something, you then get everything that you follow comes up, and it's like business and growth, and it's like really overwhelming. And even then I wasn't thinking about getting help, and my brother was a personal trainer, and he set up his own business. And so I then knew that he'd done it, and I kind of just thought, well, he's done it, that's probably a good idea, because then he'd like two years prior to that, he was now working with nine full time.
And then I think I found, he actually told me to follow another personal trainer in terms of exercise and different stuff like that, and they must have shared something that you did, and so I started to follow in. And I'm quite sceptic in terms of, like I said, you know, people show up and that, all you get in your feed is like business and online, because I'm not from that kind of world, and because it was all new to me. And because I'm, have quite a good bullshit meter, I was always really skeptical of that, but then I started following you, and I don't know if it's because you're a teacher, well, that kind of teacher, but like everything that you shared, which was free to access was like tangible practical, the kind of stuff that I was doing, and then wanted to do, and everything that was suggested, all of your free stuff, when I did it, it worked. So that was just like the tick for me.
And then I think it was probably from there, I then was like, okay, well, if all this stuff that somebody's sharing, it's there for me anyway, if all this works, then maybe like the next step will work and it will offer me a little bit of clarity. So I think we had a one to one. And I'm actually thinking this morning, I'm doing stuff today that you talked about in that one to one, which if I'd done it 18 months ago, it would have been amazing. But then I think from that, I was like, oh yeah, she's talking about, and it was like, you didn't tell me what to do, but you managed to like bring all this stuff out with me.
And then from that look like one hour, I had a plan for the next six months. And so yeah, it was like those stepping zones. It wasn't I was ever like looking for it, I guess, like I said, when I found stuff and I did it and it worked, I was like, okay, onto something here, this could be really helpful. Yeah, because we didn't intensity again, did one to one and then you did the shift.
So it's quite a nice like array of things. What would you say when you think back then, you know, 18 months, what have been some of the biggest of changes that you found in your business or in yourself from having support? Oh my God, loans were we, I knew then when I start, after that my intensity was like, okay, here's some direction. And it was only then I like, start doing master classes and things started picking up.
And then we, as we were like picking together one to one. I know that when I started, I was like, things are really picking up, things are really growing. I wasn't like sick of social, because I think a lot of people leave social work because they've like been out and I wasn't. I was like, this is really growing and it's really helping people.
I'm getting really good feedback and I don't want to not pursue this. And I also, in my head, knew that I wanted to potentially home educate, I knew that I needed some flexibility about my job, I knew that we wanted to like, I mean, husband knew that we wanted to travel a little bit. So then I remember signing off the one to ones and in like the first session, being like, in six months, I want to be like, have left my job, be able to kind of go away, be flexible, and then I did. So I think like that, like the biggest change is that it has moved from me doing something on the side, if you like, to actually be taking it seriously as a business.
And so I guess then the thing about, for me, it was just having the confidence to take it seriously and not have all this like self doubt or what if it doesn't work and just being like, well, it was well because it has to. And yeah, just having that like direction. Huh? You've completely changed your life.
You know, like you were traveling for six months with the boys, come back, like starting a podcast, like so much has changed since that first. It's probably very, very, I shouldn't. Yeah. So when I think about it, like that is, yeah, I probably don't think about it enough.
But yeah, it just, yeah, enabling me to start like having, from just wanting to write a guide to then thinking like, what could I do next? Or what more could I offer? Or how like, big would this be? How many more social workers could I help?
Like what ways could I help them? And then obviously enabling me to just like work flexibly, now home educated, I've not had to like sacrifice on any of those things that I would have to do. And I still love social work. I can still so passionate about it.
I've like, I've not lost that driving care for it as well. Yeah, it is a great, a big range. Yeah. Do you feel that?
Because this is something I always think is interesting to hear from someone else. Obviously, you know, your knowledge and what you do, you could have executed all of these things yourself. What do you think the main difference is with having support versus doing this on your own? You're right.
Oh, okay. You're right. Yeah, I think, I don't think I would have been able to execute myself. I think I have the knowledge and I have the capacity to like take something, listen to it, read it, and implement it.
So yeah, probably quite of doing it myself in some ways, but also things around systems and using online platforms and having something that functions to hold a membership or to build a course, all those practical things and know where it could be done. But actually, it wasn't even about practical things. It was about having someone who will bring out what needs to happen next without telling me or forcing me to do something. And you being able to ask the best questions to then prompt me and having a plan.
So obviously, from the one to one, it's like every single month, there was a plan of what I was doing next, where I wanted to go, and also then in between times, well, which I know you always talk about, but it wasn't just having the sessions. It was then being able to send you things, like check over, read over, check different bits of copy, check over, like letters, formalities, advice on business contracts, like all those things that, yeah, I absolutely could have learned it by myself. It was taking ages. And I probably wouldn't have had the incentive to do it, whereas obviously knowing that I had those like a lot of sessions with you with me, and while I would have like a six month plan, I'd also have one I did next week, the week after.
And then also like learning from watching you do it as well, because obviously my bullshit needs to be strong. But I think then knowing that you seeing what you do, and then obviously on the inside, I know that you teach what you do and you do what you teach. And that's been really helpful for me, because then I'll learn from you in terms of like what you're doing on the outside, but then you can talk about it on the inside, if that makes sense. Yeah, it makes complete sense.
And Vicki did so well there. I basically had the biggest coffee for it at all time. And Vicki's watching on the screen basically choked to death while she's explaining all of that. So I'm very glad you told that together.
You're okay. I'm like, is she the carry-out? Yeah, she's like, I was literally giving her hand signals like carry on talking. I don't edit the podcast, I probably should, but I don't.
So that's just, you know, the way it goes. Yeah, I think that's a really important thing that you said there because you definitely could do it yourself. Everyone can, and I always say that. You can Google it, you can find it out.
But actually, you don't have those micro-mals don'ts that you're working towards it, just everything becomes so big. Okay, I need to work out, do this. Okay, I need to work out how to do this. So rather than spending the time that you've got implementing, you're spending your time researching.
So then once you've got the knowledge, you don't then have the time to implement it because you've spent all that time just finding things out. So I'm glad that you shared that because actually that's something that I really value, being able to help people accelerate all of this. You know, we find the information out and then spend the time doing it. And also from my perspective, being able to watch you, like you said, we'd have these calls, we spoke a lot in between, it was really nice to see the difference in such a short space of time, you know, in four weeks.
But by the time we had the next call, so much has happened. But that's only happened because you could bounce the ideas off, you could send me things, you could ask questions. So there was so much more progress made because you didn't spend so much time bumbling around in the mud, you know, it was very much okay. I want to do this.
What do you think? Yeah, good. Okay, carry on. So within this place of four weeks, let alone six months, it was such a vast change that then by the time when we think about when you join the shift, that then became even more like, right, okay, let's use these calls, use the in between.
So my question to you though is, because not everyone, not everyone utilizes the support that they're given in the same way. So do you also feel from your perspective that it worked this well or you had this much progress and this much change in your life's completely 60 because you also utilize that support. You know, what would you say if someone was listening in terms of, you know, not just working with me, working with anyone that you did to maximize that experience for yourself? I mean, I think it's, for me, if I pay for something, I'm going to use it.
And so it's like, and again, like my brother, but he's personal trainer, he will not take me on as a client and as much as I ask, because he's like, you won't do it because I'm not going to charge you and you won't do it, you're getting it for free. And it's absolutely right. And you know, it's a similar kind of thing. So I guess it's for me personally, I'm not just going to use it if I'm not going to pay to something, they're not going to use it.
And that gives me the, that gives me an incentive, first of all. And I think, yeah, if I say I'm going to do something, I do it, so I will use, and sometimes I haven't needed to use it in between bit as much because I know what I've been doing, but I'll never just sit on something and almost like, wait, and if I'm finding myself being like, oh, I'm really stuck, I'm going to put something down, I'm going to write something down, put it in Google Doc and send it over to you. And that almost then helps me do it because I either procrastinate, but I know from you, I'm like, like, about you, you're not just going to be like, oh, what's wrong, Vicki? Like, poor you, let me help.
You're going to say, well, what have you done so far? And if I've done nothing, well, you know, you're not going to do it for me, but you shouldn't. So it almost then triggers me to be like, okay, put something down on the Google Doc and the sound is then going to, like, I'm going to get the prompts, I need them, I need them to get the feedback, I need them to do the next thing. So for me, I find that really helpful, I guess.
So I guess it's something about me that I'm not going to take on helping, I'm not utilizing it. And if I find myself going into a mindset of poor me or this isn't happening instead of the like, oh, it's because I'm terrible, because I can't do this, I can't do that, I'm like, well, no, just cannot do anything. So like, take the small action that you need to, and then sort of move forward on it. So yeah, partly me, partly probably your coaching style.
And yeah, just the idea that I'm never going to not take advantage of something that I paid for, basically. I think that's really important because I think sometimes, you know, this is all about the experience. That's why these conversations are lots of questions that I think the listener would benefit from. I think sometimes people do assume that when they pay for something that fixes it, you know, I'm going to join this or learn this or go to this course or, you know, whatever that might be, and then it fixes it.
But actually that's the beginning of the journey, you know, and you're a perfect example of that, because you invested in a one-to-one and then you had a plan for six months, that could have been you. See later, but that was the beginning. And you were like, wow, if I invest in this and I've got this, I want to invest more and get more. I want this to last longer.
And I think that's a really good example. Secondly, also when you're saying about, sometimes you use this support and sometimes you didn't, also recognizing that it was about a process. It wasn't just, let's just send some stuff for the sake of sending stuff. I want to make sure that sending has a benefit to your business rather than just to use my time.
So I think it's a combination of those things as well. One, recognizing that the investing is stage one, you know, that's the first step. Two, recognizing that having the support doesn't mean you use it when you don't need it, but it means that having it means you're much more likely to use it and get yourself out of those, you know, funks or procrastinating. Do you think then, because you did one to one first and then you came into the shift, do you think what was the experience like from spending six months to shoot an eye to spending 12 months with UI and a group?
I think for me, it was just like the next natural step. And I knew that, and again, it's like having that idea that it's not a quick fix. So I knew that, okay, what the end of this six months and be like, yeah, I'm where I want to be. But I was like, I want to go backwards.
And I don't feel ready to not have anything. And I didn't feel, I actually got so much from, because even though everybody's business is different and everyone is at, well, people at all different stages, I always got something out of the calls because it's you kind of teaching what, you know, and coaching that through. So I would always learn something from the calls anyway. So I never felt that I got less than I did when it was one to one, if that makes sense, because you know, you would never have like, oh, time to love no one can ask any questions.
I couldn't have a gap in that. And also because we have like two calls a month. That wasn't really helpful because it was almost like a good like back end it. So it had even more of that reminder in between.
And it also made me really focused on what I needed to know as well. So, you know, I needed to take even like 10 minutes to really think about the questions I wanted to ask you to focus in. So it almost like pushed me a little bit. And it's been nice to get to know people and like see what they're doing and see how like, you know, they can, how they can teach or help them support me as well, because it's like an array of different businesses.
So yeah, I never felt, felt in the next natural step. And it also never felt like I was getting less than I did one to one. If anything, it was like more in terms of like the touch points. Like it was different.
But yeah, it's been like really valuable, especially the time this year obviously like I came back from probably we moved to my new home education started. So if I hadn't have had that, I just, there's just been stuff that I just wouldn't have done. I'd be nowhere near where I am. And I think because I'm not like one day a week fixed for work, I have to like really maximize that time.
And I wouldn't have done it if I didn't have like the accountability, I think. Yeah. Yeah. And I appreciate that.
And I think a few people have mentioned that to me before, you know, in life gets in the way, without having the shift, they would have definitely just allowed that to take over. Because there's no one sort of staring at them saying, where are you at or what's happening or how are you doing? Because yeah, life can just carry on, getting away. Yeah.
I love that. I also really liked your insight because, you know, to go from one experience to another is nice for someone to hear about what the change is like or what the difference is. If you, if some, what would you say to someone if they were thinking about joining the shift, what would be your feedback? I would say to do it.
I would say it's offered me so much. It's like really kept me going this year. And it's kept like momentum up for my business. And I would say that you get all the benefits of you as a coach.
It's not a compromise on anything because it's still like two, like two calls a month, the in-between, like I say, whether that is like, I need a pet talk. Can you send me a voice note? Like the pet talk voice note? Looking over all my documents, having the Facebook group, so I can literally drop a question in and get a response back to it.
It's like propelled things forward for me, I would say. And it's, yeah, it's the kind of thing like anybody, you know, you could join and just not do anything. But if you join and you use it, you won't go backwards, you won't stay the same. So yeah, and also like for, because I'm not in from a business world.
So like I said before, like I'm a skeptic, like I have to like really have that trust. And I know that you do all the things that you teach, it's not bullshit. So, and for me coming from like completely outside of a business world, that's kind of what I would share with people that it isn't, it's not just this like empty rhetoric, like you're doing it and you're like genuine. And I think sometimes people, you know, if you're like being inundated with kind of business code, I'm a business coach, I do this, I do that.
It's really hard to kind of like see through the noise. But I know that you, you do that. And for me, kind of thinking that like my business is so precious to me, like it took a long time to build and to get where it is. And it's like it's inherently connected to my job, to work for people, like all the social work that I work with, I just think they're amazing.
And like I, and so the business kind of holds, I know it holds them and it gets them through their first year. So yeah, I wouldn't ever enter anything into anything where I thought I wasn't going to get anything out or that that person wasn't going to care about me, my business, my life, like my kids, all those other things as well. So yeah, that's what you get with you. I think that's so important.
And I, like I say to anyone, before we started, there is no kind of like agenda to the chat. There's not like a bullet point list. And I'm like, actually say this, Vicki, it's just, I just want to say it. Yeah, I just want to see where the conversation goes.
And like the reason I've asked you questions different than I've asked other people that have come on to this experience, because you've done a range of different things with me. I thought it'd be really nice for people to hear what that's like, because exactly like you said, it can be really overwhelming to decide what you're doing and how to do it and who to do it with. I'm really grateful that we spend so much time together. And I'm so excited if each holds for you.
Like the last 18 months have been incredible. And what you've done, feel family as well. And you completely changed your lives, trapped the world, you know, like it's just insane. And even like your daily life, it's different.
Your job looks different. Like what the boys are doing looks different. Like where you live, like it's just, it's amazing to see because. It's a great thing.
It's a great thing. But now that's kind of what I wanted to do. Cause I was like, I like to have memories of things and times. And I'm pretty crying.
I'm like to be crying. Yes. And I was like, you know what, I want to like have this as a little memory. Like I want to be able to like share this with boys so they'll know when they're older, like what I was able to do.
And I think it's really like good to be able to just sit and like look back on where I've been to where I am because I don't know if people do it enough. I don't do it enough. I get it. So yeah, it's nice to think about.
100%. And even when I think back to our first call, and it's so easily done, but the way you were thinking then versus the way you're thinking now, it was very safe. And I just want to create this one thing. Whereas now when I talk to you and you're like, right, I created these emails, I'm gonna do this.
I've got this membership. I'm gonna do this software. I've got this idea. I'm gonna bring out this bundle.
It's, I feel like it's also opened up your mind to what's possible in another space, you know, and that's something that you'll have forever, you know, like you'll always be able to think about, okay, if I've got this goal, it doesn't, I can't achieve this. I can't do this. I'm gonna make this goal. And that's what I love and I used, you know, that you've now got this basically access to this completely new world of possibilities.
I know that's, I think I'm like so fearless now. Like I just, I would have always been like, oh, what's that like that? And then I would just do it and then build it and it's a bit scary, but whatever, it's not gonna be the end of the world. So yeah, that's definitely the biggest like, changing me, I think.
Yeah, I'm honestly, I'm so glad that we've had this conversation and obviously it's got more sessions and we've got our Christmas party and all of those juicy things. But honestly, it's been an absolute pleasure. I'm so excited. Oh, what you've done is incredible.
So you should be really proud of this. Oh, that's so nice. Don't you? Thank you for trusting me to be on this journey with you.
It's gonna be too praying with me to the fuck up. I'm gonna leave Vicki's, like Instagram handles, you kind of see what she does. Again, even though it might not be in your industry, you can just see how she wants her business, so it's just really important and you can just connect with her. So thank you Vicki for being on the podcast.
Oh, thank you. Thanks for having me.