Learn from our mistakes: Charlotte Stavrou, Founder & CEO of SevenSix agency, BBC podcast host, creator & inclusivity advocate
And an unpopular opinion: I'm not a fan of manifesting.
Learn from our mistakes is a series where I share advice from impressive women. Today’s insight comes from Charlotte Stavrou, Founder & CEO of SevenSix Agency.
There’s a lot to love about Charlotte. Not only is she an award-winning agency owner, she’s also generous (I’ll never forget her helping me out with Faace content when we first launched), kind, smart, and passionate about representation in the influencer space. Charlotte founded SevenSix as a direct response to the lack of diversity within the ad industry. She’s also charming in that she has no idea how beautiful she is.
Charlotte’s answer to ‘what's the thing you'd do differently if you could start again?' is all about prioritising the right hires for you.
As someone without business or finance experience, I realise now that hiring a finance manager as my first hire would have been crucial. Understanding the numbers early on, rather than waiting four years, would have enabled us to grow quicker and more sustainably. Although I have learned a lot on this journey and have no regrets, having that expertise from the start would have made a significant difference.
This is something I can get on board with. It’s hard to think about hiring when you’re early on in your journey, but there are lots of excellent people out there who offer fractional (or part time/freelance) support. It’s difficult to know where to invest, but I think bringing people in where you don’t excel can benefit your business long term - it’s just about being sensible with spend.
If you like ‘Learn from our mistakes’ you can catch up on my first instalment with Hello Klean founder, Karlee Oz here.
Unpopular opinion: modern day manifestation is problematic
What about if you can’t manifest or believe to reach your goals? I don’t know enough about manifestation to offer any real insights into its benefits (of which I’m sure there are some), but I do think that in real life Mick Jagger had it right - you can’t always get what you want.
There’s a lot of pressure to self-help, up-skill, be the best version of yourself, but what happens when you can’t? I do believe that hard work is the foundation for getting what you want, but then I also believe there are many external factors that can get in the way. Your financial situation, what happens in your personal life, your health, the time you have available and often there’s an element of luck. I do believe that goal setting can help give you focus and then also aid you in achieving them. But hearing that you should have more self-belief or mantras around manifesting to get what you want could be hard if simply, you can’t.
I feel like manifestation is similar to the construct of Instagram vs. Reality. We want to believe it’s real, we’re putting forward the best versions of ourselves, but ultimately, it’s only showing one side of the story. Like I said, I’m not well-read on it, and I’m not interested in the idea enough to dedicate time to it, but I guess what I am saying is that it’s also okay to have a wobble, not feel like your best self, and be a slightly erratic human-being with mixed emotions. If setting goals helps you achieve them, then go for it, but also have peace of mind that not everything is always down to you and what you want or do. I like the idea that some things are out of my control. Parenting two people who I’d die for, but I know must face life at points without me by their literal side, experiencing things that I wished hadn’t happened like grief, it makes that easier knowing I can’t always control the outcome. The idea that not everything is down to me puts less pressure on myself and I’m all for that.