01 - THE MOOD
Hi divas 🤍
Oh my god. I have had the most major week of my life and I need to tell someone, so it’s you.
A podcast I made with Netflix and Spotify went live. On Wednesday I hosted at the Amazon Ads Upfront. On Friday I interviewed OpenAI on stage at The Social Summit, and when I looked at the day’s lineup there were seven MOODY women on it. Britt, Arielle, Jordyn, Lauren, Amy, Zeenat and Alycia. Somewhere in the middle of all that I pushed go on a YouTube channel I’d been too scared to start for a month.
I’m not telling you this to flex. Okay, a little bit. I’m telling you because not one of those things came from being the smartest person in the room. Every single one came from being visible. From posting tiny mic videos in hotel corridors before anyone asked me to. From saying yes to a stage before I felt ready. From letting people see what I actually do, again and again, until someone with a room needed exactly that and thought of me.
That’s the whole reason I’m so excited about the yap challenge. Tuesday night’s kick-off, a week of daily reps in the chat since, and I’ve watched you all climb cringe mountain in real time. Ari’s entire team laughed at her first video in a meeting and she posted it anyway. Jessica took 789 takes. Sam’s first yap was a list of excuses for why she hadn’t done one, to camera, which absolutely counts.
The view from the other side is worth it. I’m not saying that from the top. I’m walking up it with you.
If you haven’t started, start today. Post it in the chat. Nobody’s judging, we’re all too busy cringing at our own.
Two things before you scroll.
Episode one of the MOODY vlog is up: the Sydney launch, the SABA shoot and what I learned in the Spotify x Meta room. China is next week. Watch it →
And the yap replay is coming. Ari filmed it on her DJI and we’re getting it to you as fast as we can, along with the kit list. Dropping in the chat ASAP.
02 - THE READ
Notes from the room: the yap challenge kick-off
The most qualified person on the call has spent eighteen years building brands for Apple, Puma and EA. She also once froze interviewing her own twin brother on national television, and she no longer watches her videos back because she can’t stand her own voice. If that’s the expert, the rest of us are fine. A hundred of you, a Tuesday night, 81 minutes, Ari filming it on her DJI because Google wouldn’t let us record. These are the six things that actually hit.
→ Comfort is earned on camera, not in your notes app. Clarity builds recognition and reps build delivery, and they’re different jobs. Every excuse in the chat, no time, need to look ready, must be perfect, don’t know what to say, is a condition you decided you had to meet before you were allowed to start. None of them are content problems.
→ If you can’t say what you want to be known for in one sentence, fix that first. You can’t be everything to everyone or you become nothing to nobody. Own one thing, then layer. Twenty things is credibility in none of them.
→ You are the front door. The house is your brand. People come to the door to meet you and stay for what’s behind it. Never let the door get bigger than the house. I could copy every one of your businesses. The one thing I can’t copy is you and what you have to say.
“Speak from scars, not wounds. If you’re speaking while you’re still in the battle, it’s too raw.”
→ Nobody cares about your morning routine. She said it more bluntly than that. You only need to know ten percent more than the person watching to have something worth teaching, so teach that. Light content is for a Friday. It’s never your hero content.
→ The minimal viable yap. One idea, one setup, phone, window light, normal clothes, three takes, ten minutes, then put the phone down. Stop at three takes. More rarely makes it better, and nobody is looking at your hands or that bit of hair.
→ One pillar, ten angles. Myths, mistakes, how-tos, checklists, before and afters, predictions, FAQs. Re-cut the same video with a different hook. Post the same story again, because most people didn’t see it the first time. Your DMs are a content calendar.
The question most of you asked: founder page or brand page? Personal shows the behind the scenes and the why, brand shows the execution, and keep them separate so the business can stand on its own if you ever want to sell it without selling yourself.
And one from me, since a few of you asked about gear. You need nothing beyond your phone, but if you buy one thing, buy a tiny mic. My corporate colleagues have thoughts about my tiny mic videos. Guess who gets flown around the world.
03 - THE DIARY
Here’s where we’re showing up.
Tonight, 6pm. Arielle, Jordyn and I go live on Calendar Invites on visibility and personal brand, since apparently that’s the month we’re having. @calendarinvites
Mon 21 to Sun 27 Sept, Sydney and across NSW. Spark Festival, Australia’s largest grassroots startup festival, entirely free and community run. Opening night at UTS Great Hall tonight, The AI Reality Check Tuesday, a two-day Startup Growth Lab Wednesday and Thursday, closing Friday. Program
Wed 23 Sept, Melbourne. ELEVATE Taster, now at XFLOS, a florist in Collingwood Yards, after the first venue fell through and the chat found her a new one inside 30 hours. A routine taught step by step, Esin on the decks, 2000s and 2010s pop and house, $45 and every ticket admits two. Tickets
Thu 24 Sept, 12pm, online. Abbey’s free LinkedIn masterclass, Seen, Known, Paid. Sixty minutes on what’s actually working for women founders, from getting paid more to landing speaking gigs and brand deals. Rosie’s review of Abbey is not printable but was enthusiastic. Register
Thu 24 Sept, Drummoyne. Aditi’s Late Night Cafe with Students & Starters, part of Spark. Founders and students at the same table, potluck, house party meets late-night cafe. Already full, so it’s waitlist only. Luma
Fri 25 Sept, London. Clock off with Nice One. Soph’s lighter canned cocktails take over Raye The Store for knock-offs, with a sampling station, a Polaroid and full cans to take home. For the London girls who know the weekend starts the second you clock off.
Sat 26 Sept, Kirribilli. Make Up & Mingle, Pride & Prejudice edition, 60 to 80 women, nibbles, a makeup demo and a raffle. Brands can still get into the goodie bags and activations. Apply via HYVN
Wed 30 Sept, 5:30pm, Sydney. Mode Office x SABA private styling at SABA QVB. Champagne, nibbles, yaps and exclusive discounts. Twenty going, and it filled in four days, so you’re joining the waitlist. Waitlist →
Wed 7 Oct, 8am, Adelaide. SAFIA Industry Breakfast at Adelaide Fashion Week, Kate’s panel on craft to scale, a quarter of tickets gone. Thu 8 Oct, SA Showcase with Cathy showing Yaneth. adlfashionweek.com
Thu 8 Oct, Sydney. Emily Elvey’s Ai in a Day, build your customer service AI agent for BFCM, at WeWork Castlereagh Street, $299, capped at 20. Luma
Thu 8 Oct, New York. Dinner, probably. Lily’s poll is still coming.
Fri 6 Nov, 8am, Melbourne. Chloe’s first ever Fashion Law Supper Club at Gracie’s Wine Room, South Yarra, for fashion founders and the next generation of fashion lawyers. Sold out with 82 on the waitlist before I could even tell you about it, which tells you everything. Waitlist
Sat 15 Nov, New York. Female Founder World. Tickets are on sale now and they will not last. Get yours here →
04 - RECEIPTS
What the girls have been building.
→ Rosie quit her job on Monday without the next one fully signed off, and announced it to the chat with “now that’s MOODY.” It follows the CMO summit a month ago where she asked for mentoring from the stage, out loud, and had the head of brand at 7-Eleven, the CMO of Bakers Delight and Optus come up afterwards to say yes. She’s now the case study for week six’s last prompt, ask for something out loud by name, before we’ve even got there.
→ Deepa Mani launched URVI, the newest shade in Proud of Colour Beauty’s award-winning Lip & Cheek Tint range, a warm terracotta made with melanin-rich skin as the starting point rather than the afterthought, plus a Ritual Kit of scrub, mask and tint. Founder-funded, Australian, and now a complete trio. She also sent me a question I’m going to sit with: is inclusive beauty really inclusive if lighter skin is still the starting point. Watch this space.
→ Jessica Duchesne is launching SaunaVeil, premium sauna haircare, in November, and has started a behind-the-scenes founder series on TikTok in the meantime. She needs a pattern maker and product development help, and Udoka already knows the founder of the brand she’s been benchmarking. Watch the BTS
→ Isabella is in London this week launching Envision Agency UK, and wants coffee with anyone in influencer marketing while she’s there.
→ Phoebe Perring joined us. Co-founder of Balmee Beauty, the first lip balm designed around your microbiome, after fifteen years at MECCA, Vida Glow and as Head of Content and Social at Merivale. She’s just started taking a small number of organic social consulting clients, and Bec’s review is that her insights are excellent. Book her
→ Lauren Moody got the Melbourne girls a friends and family day at the Zimmermann outlet sale before it opened to the public, which is what a fashion editor is for. Sababa’s summary: first the NFL, now this, Melbourne is winning.
→ Francesca and Zehra met at the Melbourne launch and ran into each other at a tech event a week later. Her caption: thanks MOODY for introducing so many fantastic connections. This is the whole product. Everything else is packaging.
→ Amelia converted her personal account to a founder account for Pelvy, and is still the pacesetter, four yaps in and using flowers as stand-ins for anatomy the platforms won’t let her name.
→ Alexandra shipped new features in Sigma Mind, her tool for de-risking AI investments before you commit budget. Building an AI solution shouldn't feel like a black box, so it now walks you through the whole journey, discovery to data to model to documentation, with a progress bar that tells you what's done and how close you are, and it tells you which kind of AI your problem actually needs before you build the wrong one. Every stage spits out a branded scope doc, dashboard and PDF you can put in front of a stakeholder. It's the working version of the three-minute video she posted last week. sigma-mind.com
→ The room rated the AI models on Tuesday morning and it was the most opinionated ten minutes of the week. Simone called Fable fabulous and then said she was burning through credits, Paige said ChatGPT is making a comeback, Jess said once you go Astra you can’t go back, and I confessed to having one of them think for 27 minutes on something that used to take one. Then I showed the room a two-minute video made from a five-second MacBook clip on a ByteDance model in Shanghai, and Paige’s reply was the whole China conversation in four words: the problem is security. The room is loyal to none of them, only to whichever one did the job this morning, which is exactly how your customers feel about you.
→ Also in the room: Brodie Kelly was first out of the gate on day one and filmed day two in front of the Eiffel Tower. Nicole is filming hers in a sauna at Cedar and Salt in Barangaroo, which is there until the 27th if you want to steal the idea. Laura Blagys is yapping about female pleasure while The Baths gets banned by Meta again, and sends solidarity to everyone in a taboo industry. Jazzie is planning a Canton Fair trip and Laura Mehanna, who went in April, dropped the entire logistics playbook in the chat: Qantas via Hong Kong then the fast train, hotel with a shuttle, get Alipay and Didi before you land.
05 - CLASSIFIEDS
What the girls need. All of it fresh this week.
→ Mikhaila has two roles worth a look. A Senior Social Creative and Strategy role, brand new, with an Australian-born, privately held lifestyle brand everyone loves. And a freelance pool of Creative Social Strategists for a global agency that’s just won a major client. Her jobs board
→ Rebecca Veksler needs a graphic designer for an investor pitch deck and branding at Lumie Health, tech experience preferred. Simone wants the same person. Portfolios to rebecca@lumie.health
→ Alex Woolf needs a freelance graphic designer with FMCG experience for a client’s energy bar for runners: visual identity, packaging, website and production guidelines. DM her in the chat.
→ Jordyn Wills wants a sales coach for a small to medium wedding industry team. Her words: this group is so insanely clever. DM her in the chat.
→ Leslie wants a podcast editor to outsource to. Jade has already pointed her at claxon.agency, but she’s still taking names. DM her in the chat.
→ Varenya needs a commercial property lawyer for a retail lease. Nobody has answered her yet and someone in here definitely knows one. DM her in the chat.
→ Caitlin Duryea, former tech COO with ten years in governance and board ops, is building a survey on the founder support ecosystem and wants to talk to anyone setting up governance or moving from an advisory group to a board. DM her in the chat.
→ Emily Hausman at Airwallex will help any digital or tech company expanding to the US: entities, payments, FX, cards. LinkedIn
→ Kristen, Health Lab and ten years in FMCG at Asahi, is offering help to anyone in digital or retail. LinkedIn
→ Alexis is opening The CMO Room, a six-week strategy and growth room for founders who need senior CMO thinking without hiring a CMO. Weekly group calls plus daily WhatsApp. She’s in the General chat, details this week.
→ Fern runs @creativecalloutau, sharing creative callouts daily. Tag her and she’ll reshare yours. Follow
→ Brisbane business owners: the Lord Mayor’s Women in Business Grant is open, up to $5,000 for businesses that are majority women-owned with turnover between $75k and $500k. Closes 4pm, Tuesday 6 October. Guidelines
Forward this to one girl who’d get it.
Brooke x
MOODY is Australia’s answer to the serendipity Americans take for granted. The room where founders, operators, corporates and creatives are in the same group chat, and it turns out they needed each other. These are the girls who get it and we are in a MOOD.
This newsletter is the highlight reel. The WhatsApp is where we actually live.
Every city, growing weekly.
when you try to speak to everyone you speak to nobodyyyyy love this