Laura Kåmark
Hey everyone. Welcome to the Be Bold, Make Waves podcast, a show bringing you inspiring stories of women who are growing and scaling their business. I’m your host, Laura Kåmark, a website and tech integration specialist who works with online business owners who love their work and not their website. Join me as we have incredible conversations about business mindset, productivity, and of course, the website and tech behind the business.
Let’s go ahead and dive in to this week’s episode.

Thank you, everyone for joining us on today’s show. If you don’t already know me, my name is Laura Kåmark. And I’m a website and tech integration specialists. I work with women who love their work and not their website. I’m so excited for today’s show and to bring you Jacqui Money. Jacqui is a South African entrepreneur and Tiny House enthusiast who specializes in helping introverted service providers and coaches scale their online business without hiring a huge team if they don’t want to. She has a BA in Business Administration and a postgraduate honours degree in psychology. When she’s not working her magic on clients systems and automations. You’ll find her spending time with her fur and feather kids are planting her food forest. Jacqui, thank you so much for being here. Can you please tell the audience a little bit about who you are and what you do?

Jacqui Money
Thank you, Laura. I’m so excited to be here. And so as Laura said, my name is Jacqui money. And yes, my surname is really money. I always joke with people and say I’m married money. I love it too. And I help introverted solopreneurs and coaches who necessarily want to grow the businesses but don’t want to hire a huge team in order to grow. Because they introverted. And so that’s what I help with I help with systems and automations. And growing businesses that way. I

Laura Kåmark
love that so much i That speaks so much to me. And you’ve helped me in my business with getting some of my systems and processes set up. Because I I’m a big fan of the idea of having when I am at the point where I hire a team, I want it to be a lean team. And I’m trying to keep get as much automated and integrations automations and processes just like done on the back end, that I can now so that when I am at that point, it’s that much easier. But I also love that now I don’t need it because you’ve helped me set things up. And that just I love that

Jacqui Money
so fast. And it was such a pleasure working with you. And and these are the kinds of people I want to help. You know, people like me, I’m introverted. And I had to figure out a way. I mean, the worst thing for me is to have to manage a person, another person, I just, it freaks me out completely. So that’s why I fell into the automations. And take and streamlining my business that way and growing my business that way.

Laura Kåmark
I love that so much. I want to touch on a little bit more about the tech in a minute. I want to go back a little bit in here. I actually I’ve known you for a number of years. And I don’t think I actually know your backstory on why you started your business. So I would love for you to share that with us. Well,

Jacqui Money
um, it’s actually quite a nice story. So we were originally from Cape Town. And the one day Warren and I were watching a YouTube vegan person that we follow. And I was watching and she was doing a tiny house tour, as looked at why. And I said to him, I want to do that. And he was like, maybe, maybe not. And I think he thought I was nuts. And he actually persisted. And he he realized I was serious. And then he got really into it and started watching all all the videos. And we are big into sustainability and, you know, growing our own food and that kind of thing. And so we decided to have a five year plan, move off grid, build a tiny house. And then we realized, how are we going to earn a living moving into it to a small town where jobs are not plentiful. And so that’s how the business was actually born.

Laura Kåmark
And so how long ago was that? That was

Jacqui Money
we had a five year plan that was about five years ago now, but we actually did it in three we set up the business and moved and built the tiny house we actually in the tiny house. Living off grid. Tom.

Laura Kåmark
Yeah. That’s so awesome. And then Warren is in the business with you as well.

Jacqui Money
Yes, Warren does a lot of video editing and that kind Another thing in the business, he does the graphic design if people need graphic design, and then I’m more on tech systems, that kind of thing. I love that. Oh,

Laura Kåmark
that’s such a fun story. Yeah, I knew you were in the tiny house because I’ve seen the video the the tour of the tiny house, which is so fun. And I’ve watched some of your stuff on YouTube because you have a YouTube channel. Yes, yes. So Oh, that’s awesome. So what would you say? So you set up a lot of the tech and integrations, talk to me about some of the programs that you use for that, that you set up with clients?

Jacqui Money
Um, well, so I kind of we started off doing a lot of VA work. And then that kind of naturally progressed into. I mean, I had no idea that I was good at tech, until I got into it. And then it was I could figure all these weird and wacky wonderful things out that everybody else was finding. Completely complicated. I’m sure you know, because you’re also an integrator, so and everybody else was going like, this is so hard, and I was going, No, it isn’t. I don’t I do

Laura Kåmark
a lot of jigsaw puzzles to do like jigsaw puzzles?

Jacqui Money
Yes, I do. Okay, piecing things together. Yeah, yeah. And so it was like, trying to figure out which platforms I like to work, and fall in error, a lot of trial and error, and eventually, a table. And I completely fell in love completely. And so now I work predominantly in a table, I do have a couple of other platforms that I integrate with a table, but I work predominantly in a table. I love that. And so

Laura Kåmark
who are the people that like where are they in their business, when it’s a good fit for them? To have you come and do their airtable integration? And what? Let me start with that question. I’ll come to my next one.

Jacqui Money
Okay, so basically, the minute you start feeling like your admin is overwhelming you, the minute you start feeling like you need a person to come in and do some of these admin things for you. But you don’t want to you dreading it. We look at trying to set up the automation first, because let’s face it, it’s cheaper. It’s cheaper than hiring a person. And it’s less stress and hassle. Yeah. So we set up as much of the automation as we possibly care. And then if you still need a person, you can hire a person.

Laura Kåmark
And you have sort of like an audit that you do a workflow audit, is that the correct term? And that’s where you kind of do the deep dive and sit down with the client and go through like, what they’re doing in their business, all the workflows, everything, and then really dive into what can we automate?

Jacqui Money
Yeah, so what we do is, I call it a magic mapping session. I love that it’s basically mapping out your process, and particularly, what we specialize in is client management. So we take your client management from when they first become a lead all the way through to onboarding, and we map out that whole process. We look at what is working, what isn’t working, what can be automated, what needs to be perfected. And then we put that into motion. And what we do with air table is we actually build custom for you and your business, instead of you having to pigeonhole your business into one of the all in one tools.

Laura Kåmark
Love that. Can you explain a little bit about what air table is to our audience for some of those who might maybe they’ve never heard of air table.

Jacqui Money
A table at its basic form is actually a database. But what’s nice about a table is you can build so much into that so it stores your your data, but you can build project management, you can build client management, I use it for goal setting, I use it for marketing, I use it for a numerous things I even use it for my food forest database. So we growing a food forest, and I’m cataloging all the plants so you can use it for so many things, which is great.

Laura Kåmark
I always think of it as kind of like a spreadsheet on steroids.

Jacqui Money
Exactly that. Exactly that and it can do a lot more and is a lot more user friendly than I I wouldn’t say a Google sheet or an Excel sheet.

Laura Kåmark
Well, it can it like you said earlier, it connects to everything. So like, in my processes, someone lands on my website, and they go fill out a form that’s in. What’s it called? It was acuity. Now, it’s like Squarespace. Scheduling, scheduling. Yes. And so they go, and they and I have a form on that to get gather some of their information. And that connects to my air table, and puts them in that database for me and their questions, when you filled out the form I have, just get your information for the podcast, that all goes in there. And so I have it all in one place.

Jacqui Money
Exactly. Oh, it’s amazing. I’m really big on having your best, like one source of truth for your business, and having everything in one place. And having you manage your business at your fingertips, you know, not jumping around from Google Drive to your desktop, to all sorts of different places to find the information that you’re looking for. I love that.

Laura Kåmark
I know, because it does. I know I, when I first came to you, I was spending so much time I’m like, I have a lot of things. It’s just there everywhere. I put anything. And so having one source of truth, I love that. It just makes so much sense. It makes it so much easier on me. I know now, if I need to find like a blurb about my bio real quick, I know where to find it. I know exactly where it is.

Jacqui Money
Yes, yes. And so as a solopreneur, it makes it you can see how it makes it easier to run your business and less time consuming.

Laura Kåmark
Absolutely.

Jacqui Money
You see, and then eventually, when you get to growing your business further, if you need to, you can hire your team. And like you said, a lean team and not a huge team.

Laura Kåmark
Because I know for me, I’m a total control freak. And so I can’t even imagine what I would iron to be able to like, but I like it did my way.

Jacqui Money
Exactly, exactly. And they are, you know, we like to cater to people that are like me. And so I’m, I’m very much a don’t want to manage people. And I want my hand on everything. So, yeah.

Laura Kåmark
So how would you say that you’ve discovered that you were very techie? I mean, you don’t know all these things just going into it? How do you find the answers? When you don’t know what an answer? When you come up against something? You’re like, I don’t know what to do. How do you find those answers?

Jacqui Money
Well, I always tell people, YouTube is my friend. And I genuinely genuinely look for answers on YouTube. First, look at tutorials, obviously, the help docs on inside the platform. But what I have found is that a lot of people just simply don’t like figuring these kinds of things out. So, but definitely YouTube.

Laura Kåmark
I do a lot of Googling, that’s for sure. I Google a lot of things. And I also know for me, like I have a number of networks of other techie people and other website designers who I can go to when I like I build in Divi and when I come up against something that’s acting weird, I’m like, Okay, let me try to figure it out myself. Take a deep breath, step away, go reach out, ask for help, which can be hard to do, but ask my network for help. And keep googling.

Jacqui Money
Yep. And then and then of course, when when the tech is not going your way, as I’m sure you know. I spent I spent like half my day on on a chat with Google. So you know chats as well.

Laura Kåmark
Help support Absolutely. I know, I had a client site that crashed recently. And I spent two hours it was total four hours over two different days spread out to different to our phone calls with support with her host Wow. And at the end of the day, we ended up just moving her to better hosting.

Jacqui Money
Yeah, yeah. The day that’s sometimes what you need to do.

Laura Kåmark
Yep. Yeah. And I’m sleeping a lot better at night now. I’m sure you oh my gosh. Okay. I love this. So I’d love to know. Can we talk a little bit about your website? Yes. Tell me has your who built your website? I did. And have How did you figure out how to build your website?

Jacqui Money
YouTube can

Laura Kåmark
and you’re on WordPress, right.

Jacqui Money
Yes, I am. So when when we decided to start the business He was both still working jobs. I was I was kind of building the business at night. Okay. And because we are in South Africa, I mean, our exchange rate to the dollar is 16 and a half to one. So we just didn’t have the money, I had to figure everything out. myself. I really did. And so it was like, Okay, I need a website. Okay, I need this. Okay, I need that. And it was literally googling trial and error. And I mean, my website, from there to now is a huge, a huge change. But yeah, sometimes you have to just bite the bullet and learn yourself.

Laura Kåmark
I think also just like, getting started, I see. So often people get so hung up on like, it’s not perfect. I’m not gonna launch it. And then they get some feedback. I see a lot of like, progressive branding, where they’re like, just tweaking that logo, keep tweaking it, keep tweaking, and at the end of the day, like, no one cares what your logo, just pick a font, put it in, always change it later. No one’s gonna look at your amazing logo and be like, I love her logo. I’m hiring her.

Jacqui Money
Yes, I agree. I agree. And, you know, just do things Messier. That’s the one thing that I’ve learned. Because if I don’t do it messy, and I don’t push myself, it’s almost like I can get stuck in that cycle of never getting anything out there.

Laura Kåmark
Oh, so guilty.

Jacqui Money
Absolutely. And it’s funny when I look back, and I’m sure you do as well, the times where you’ve made the biggest progress. Or the times when you did the scary things, and just got out there and did it.

Laura Kåmark
Yes. 100%. Yeah. Because I get I get in my own way, for sure.

Jacqui Money
Yeah, I do as well. And I’ve literally just got to force myself to just do it. I like literally close my eyes and I push into some of the time. I’m just like, Okay, it’s done. It’s, I’ve pushed into I’ve made it live. I said I’m gonna walk away.

Laura Kåmark
Yeah. Go pet the dog. It’s like it’s done. Whatever. Whatever happens happens. Oh,

Jacqui Money
yeah, I can relate. It’s been brilliant. Yeah, absolutely.

Laura Kåmark
I can relate to that so much. Oh, my gosh. And I’m still doing it. Like, even, you know, five years into business. Seven years, whatever it is, I still am doing that. Where I get in my own way. And stop myself and I it takes me sometimes it takes someone else telling me. I had a conversation yesterday with Sarah Massey who we both know who was also on the podcast. And we were chatting back and forth. And she’s like revisions. What do you mean revisions? Like just Stephanie. That’s fine. I’m like, much slicing and dicing. She’s like, it’s fine. Just

Jacqui Money
see her as the Queen of doing things may see. Oh, she’s such an inspiration. She is she actually absolutely is.

Laura Kåmark
I would love to know what you say there’s anything that you’re doing that’s a little bit bolder in the industry that you’re not no one else is really doing. But you’re kind of sticking your foot in the ground saying this is how I do it. And I do it different.

Jacqui Money
Wow. I don’t know. I don’t know if it’s something that only I’m doing. But I have taken a step back from the social media hamster wheel this year. And I’ll tell you why. At the end of last year, I had been so burnt out. And it’s it’s this kind of message that we’re getting that we we have to keep posting we have to keep doing this. We have to keep doing that in order for our businesses to grow, get anywhere. And at the beginning of the year, I just took a step back and I said I’m going to do some me time. I’m going to take a break. I’m going to slow down and I’m not going to do things I don’t want to do anymore. And social media was one of the first things I like burned because it just felt so overwhelming to me. You have to post every day Oh, you’re not your business is going to collapse. And all of that nonsense that people are telling you. And so I completely cut social media. I barely post on Instagram. I barely post on Facebook. And my business hasn’t collapsed.

Jacqui Money
Yet Yes. Good. I think you were gonna ask How am I getting clients?

Jacqui Money
I have to say started to invest more in relationship building, instead of posting, to people who don’t even know me, and, you know, don’t really care. I would rather build relationships with people I do know and do like and who liked me. And that’s what I’ve been doing building a network building relationships with real people, instead of just kind of continuously posting content on social media.

Laura Kåmark
You also have an email list

Jacqui Money
case, yes, I email my list. And that is the extent of the content that I produce. I would rather email my list than post on social media.

Laura Kåmark
Oh, I think that’s a much more brilliant plan right there for marketing is emailing your list i The importance of nurturing that list? Because that’s a warm audience. Those are people who’ve already said, I like you. I like what you have to say.

Jacqui Money
Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. So that’s kind of where I’m putting my efforts. And I’ve also started doing a lot more podcasts, summits, those kinds of things. And that helps me grow my email list,

Laura Kåmark
as well. And then you have you have some courses you do as well, in addition to the one on one work you do,

Jacqui Money
I do, I have a couple of smaller courses. And then I’ve got some systems, what I call them system drops that people can download, and just kind of get familiar with a table. You know, I have a client management, table base that that they can download and play around was also have a subscription tracker, because I myself needed that. Tracking all my subscriptions telling me when when they do so that I can make sure that there’s money in their account for when, when they take the money off. So there’s that as well that people can purchase. And then of course, I’m busy developing a program to teach people how to create the client management system.

Laura Kåmark
Oh, can we talk a little more about that? What kind of program is that going to be?

Jacqui Money
It’s going to it’s basically going to be up. So so let me back up a little bit. What I realized is when I’m setting up these client management systems for people they are not everybody’s like you and me. They’re not taking, they don’t want to, they don’t want to continuously have to hire me to come and fix something that is if they break us up, or they move a document that they shouldn’t move or something like that. So what I thought was an I didn’t want to have have to have them hire me all the time. It felt disingenuous to me to to create yet another problem that only I can solve. So I thought if I create a program, showing them how the system works, showing them how the zaps work. And so they can go in and change them. I’m empowering them instead of making them more dependent on me. And so that’s why I thought this program would be a good fit for those kinds of people who would want to kind of take charge of their own systems.

Laura Kåmark
Yeah, the more DIY people. Because you have the people who are like, I don’t want to touch the tech with a 10 foot pole. And then you have people like me are like, I don’t mind the tech. I just I didn’t have the time to set it up. Because I knew when I when we talked, I was like, Yeah, I want to have something set up where there’s, you know, one source or source of truth. And I wish I’d set it up years ago, because it’s a manual process, bringing in all the stuff that wasn’t in before. Yeah,

Jacqui Money
yeah. Oh, it’s gonna be so wonderful once it is all in there. Oh, absolutely.

Laura Kåmark
But I mean, I knew I wanted to do that. I knew I wanted to work with airtable But I was like, I can either go fall down a rabbit hole of figuring out how to set up myself or I can hire Jacqui and she’ll come take care of it for me, which

Jacqui Money
is what Yeah, and and it was super quick. That’s the nice thing about it as well. Do you would have had to spend months running down that rabbit hole? Oh, absolutely.

Laura Kåmark
Oh, and I would have probably done it halfway and then A client project would have come in and distracted me. And I’d be like, Yeah, I’ll finish it later.

Jacqui Money
Yeah, yeah. And then you would still be hunting for all your various different things in different places. Absolutely. Yeah.

Laura Kåmark
I would love to know, what would you say are some of the biggest challenges, maybe like mindset challenges that you overcame? I know, we kind of talked about this a little bit earlier. But what’s like one of the mindset struggles that you’ve had,

Jacqui Money
I think for sure, what we were talking about earlier, is literally forcing yourself to, to get out there. Because it is I know, it’s really scary. It’s really scary. I mean, doing this podcast is really scary. Being on video is really scary for me. But forcing yourself to do the things that you don’t think you can do. And then just doing them is so liberating, and empowering. So that would be my number one tip. And then my number two tip would be not to give up at the first sign of struggle.

Jacqui Money
Running a business is hard. If it tells you running a business as easy as lie,

Jacqui Money
it is hard. And you need to have perseverance and determination. Well, sure. Sorry.

Laura Kåmark
For those of you listening, and I can’t just came out from behind the curtain.

Jacqui Money
Oh, I love that. She always goes like this.

Laura Kåmark
And also be ready for the unexpected.

Jacqui Money
Of course, that’s the other thing. We’ve got, like, seven furkids. Five of them are dogs. So if they all start barking at the same time, I apologize.

Laura Kåmark
I love when you post pictures of your dogs. Yeah, they’ve been great. Oh, well, I love all that. That was amazing. I love those tips. I agree with it. 100%. I know, I mean impostor syndrome is real, it does not go away. It’s like, and I hear this all the time. I have coaches that talk about how it’s a muscle. And you just have to like keep working that muscle and do the scary things and show up on the podcast and just doing it and it does get easier. It doesn’t necessarily still can be scary.

Jacqui Money
Yeah, that’s all scary. And I mean, don’t ever think that that’s going to go away. Because once you master something, the next challenge will come. And the next challenge I see. I see, like big name people that I work with, who have some kind of challenge or impostor syndrome challenge that you would never even think would have that kind of challenge you would just like they so put together they’ve so much further than I am in business doesn’t matter. Doesn’t matter.

Laura Kåmark
Doesn’t matter how big you are, how much money you’re making, you’re not immune to impostor syndrome.

Jacqui Money
Absolutely not.

Laura Kåmark
I love that. That’s, that’s it’s so true. It really is. I am What’s something that you would say you’re really proud of. I’m a big fan of celebrating wins and, you know, patting ourselves on the back. So I would love to know what’s something when you look back on your journey so far with something you’re really proud of yourself, for.

Jacqui Money
I’m really proud of starting the business, getting it up and running. And it’s literally supported us. The both of us, it’s supporting us supporting our family. And I’m really proud of that.

Laura Kåmark
That’s something to be really proud of. It’s incredible. It’s you know, and, and I don’t know what kind of work you were doing before this and what kind of like, I know for me like I was working a corporate job and yeah, I had weekends off. But man, I sure didn’t love that job. I did. Like now love Mondays. Like I love going to work. I have a neighbor who works corporate and I’ll see him and we’re out walking dogs like fri yay. And I’m like Friday. I’m like, oh, no, it’s the end of the week. I love my work week. I love my job. I love my client. I love what I do. Yeah.

Jacqui Money
I mean, Warren doesn’t like it very much, but I sometimes get up at 5am to come and suddenly work because I love it so much. I just keep it quickly just go do this. One thing, and then I’ll make some coffee.

Laura Kåmark
Well, it’s because the mind cuz I mean, I know I’m always coming up with ideas, I always have these things I want to do and create and other ways that I can help make an impact on my audience and my clients and just other things I want to put out in the world. And it’s exciting.

Jacqui Money
It is exciting. It’s, it’s, I love it.

Laura Kåmark
Yeah, you know, it’s really, it’s really cool that we work. We live in this world now where we can build these businesses, and live the way you know, work the way we want to work. If we want to get up and get something done at 5am, we can, we can just build these businesses that support the lifestyle, whether that’s building a tiny home and living off grid, or whatever it is that we dream, you had a dream, and you were like, This is what I want to do. And you did it. Like that’s incredible. In three years.

Jacqui Money
I know. I agree. It was like it was amazing. And we we didn’t think we would get it even done. Even get it done in five years. And we did it in three. So

Laura Kåmark
incredible. I want to know what you’re building what you’re growing in the food forest.

Jacqui Money
Well, we’ve only just started and we are busy doing what they call the Pioneer planting. And so those are the plants that go before the trees and set the ground, you know, for the actual trees to go in. But we have we’ve planted a guava tree. We’ve planted a fig tree so far. And then we’ve got a veggie garden as well.

Laura Kåmark
Well, I know where I’m coming for some cheese and fruit.

Jacqui Money
Oh, yes. Yes, we just a quick trip to South Africa.

Laura Kåmark
On my list,

Jacqui Money
you’re very welcome.

Laura Kåmark
Well, Jacqui, this was so wonderful. I do have one other question that I would love to ask you that I asked everyone who comes on the show. And that is what is one piece of advice you would give to someone when they’re first starting out in their business that would help them be bolder, be louder, and make more waves in their business.

Jacqui Money
Just get yourself out there. Start talking to people start putting your name at the end then do the scary things.

Laura Kåmark
Oh, I love that so much. Jacqui. Thank you so much for coming on the show. Can you let everyone know where they can come find you. Learn more about how you can help them automate. They’re the back end of their business. Where can

Jacqui Money
they can reach me on my website. It’s www.virtualduo.co.za

Laura Kåmark
wonderful and I’ll link all that up in the show notes. Thank you so much for coming on the show

Jacqui Money
today. Thank you.

Laura Kåmark
Thanks so much for listening to this week’s episode. Be sure to check out the show notes at LauraKåmark.com/podcast. And if you’re ready to grow and scale your business, and your current website is outdated and doesn’t reflect the magic you bring and the results you get for your clients. Go to Laurakamark.com to find out how I can help bring your vision to life. Thanks so much for listening. I’ll see you next week. Bye now.