Business Athletes: Georgia Austin

Hello and welcome to Business Athletes everyone 👋 

Each week, we’ll explore the athlete-like habits behind a different business leader. In less than 5-minutes, we aim to provide you with practical tactics that you can quickly apply in your day-to-day.⚡️

In the 12th edition of Business Athletes, we spoke to Georgia Austin, founder of Wordbrew, a platform revolutionising content marketing by bridging the gap between expert insights and first drafts.

Their model combines AI’s speed and automation with human insight and creativity, blending intelligence to bring together the best of both worlds when it comes to great content creation.

Her professional journey began as a content writer and marketing strategist, collaborating with industry giants like Nike, Under Armour, and Tommy Hilfiger.

Driven by an entrepreneurial spirit, Georgia left the 9-5 world to pursue freelancing full-time. Her venture into Fiverr was a remarkable success, generating over $3M in organic revenue and paving the way for the founding of Wordbrew, her new software company.

Here’s a snapshot of what Georgia shared with us:

• How a balanced start with reading, journaling, and coffee can boost creativity and problem-solving skills.

• Strategies for handling fluctuating focus levels and the importance of team roles and responsibilities in a growing company.

• Insights on handling client dissatisfaction effectively and maintaining a solid reputation, even in service-based businesses.

• The value and significance of proper feedback, structured onboarding, and the impact of mental toughness in building a high-performing team.

• And much more!

Read time: 3 minutes and 23 seconds

Pre-Game Preparation

Routines That Drive Performance

I wake up at 6:30am, making sure I get my 8 hours of sleep. My first move is to get some sunshine on my face — I'll sit outside in my egg chair and dive into my morning ritual, which includes taking my favourite book and journal outside.

Reading stimulates my creativity and often unlocks solutions to problems I’m tackling at work. Somehow, I solve those problems while I'm reading.

Physical activity fits into my day post-work: I alternate between a bar class, yoga, and running. This break not only invigorates me but also allows for a mental reset.

Managing Peak Performance

Admittedly, I have weeks where I'm hyper-focused and weeks where I'm less focused, which depends on what we're working on at the company, how many things I'm responsible for, etc. 

The truth is, as a CEO, you rarely manage to do deep work since you’re responsible for so many functions and decisions, and are always context-switching.

Currently at Wordbrew, we’re still going through team shifts to better allocate roles, responsibilities, and to allow myself the time to focus on the most important things. 

Deep Into The Game

Scaling Into Different Championships

Reflecting on the journey from scaling my Fiverr account to over $3M in organic revenue, to now launching software at Wordbrew, thorough planning has become critical to our moves as a company.

Back in the early days on Fiverr, handling 500 projects a month, we were just going day by day to keep moving and continue growing without any solid  metrics or goals as such. We had no ‘strategy’ — just focusing on what we were really good at and delivery results every single day.

That worked to our favour at the time, and compounded. But now, as we transition from a service-first model to software-first at Wordbrew, it’s become critical to not just have clear roles and responsibilities.

Handling Adversity

I think one of the things we are really good at is handling situations that go wrong. Content is subjective. One thing you might read, you might think is amazing, and I might read the same thing and think it sucks.

However, we excel in handling constructive criticism by empathizing with our clients and understanding their perspectives, an approach that has helped us build a solid reputation.

My team and I deal with ‘gone wrong’ projects by jumping on calls with every single unhappy client to make it right, find out what missed the mark, and assure them of the resolution. Most people don’t do that in service-based businesses, especially on Fiverr. They just cancel orders or issue refunds. Most wouldn't try.

But, I’ve had several encounters where clients expected a different end product, and we just dealt with it well, and in the end, they were most impressed by the way we handled the interaction leading up to it. 

Pressing Your Advantage

We have a key advantage on our side that allows us to do this, but of course most clients aren’t aware of what it is.

We can always find another writer to rework a project within the same domain of expertise. This is tougher to do as a solo freelancer who might be able to write in different tones of voice, but not quite differentiated enough to meet the client’s expectations.

On our side, we have an entire other expert rewrite the content, and it works 99% of the time. Once we have the intel on what the client is looking for, we have the team to make sure we find a better fit from a stylistic perspective.

How to Be a Better Leader & Coach

Lesson in Management & Delegation

Still to this date, I personally vet and hire every writer on the team. Implementing a structured probationary period for new writers has been a crucial step in ensuring quality and growth within the team.

Once their initial application is reviewed and their onboarding is complete, each writer completes at least three pieces of work with us on probation, receiving detailed feedback throughout the process. This period allows us to assess their ability to learn and apply feedback effectively. If they meet our quality standards, they officially join the team. If not, we part ways amicably.

The key lies in the transparency and expectations that were set in the beginning, so no one feels surprised by a decision. 

Feedback To Get The Gold

Equally important is the way we deliver feedback. Whether through a call or a private message, we ensure it is thoughtful and constructive, always explaining our reasoning for a certain piece of feedback. Never just pointing out errors or areas for improvement without logical reasoning behind it. 

Reflecting on my early days at Fiverr, I realize the impact of poorly given feedback due to my personal overload being the writer, editor, customer success manager, dispute resolution person, and everything else in between. I once hastily criticized a writer due to my overwhelming workload, which upset them and, in turn, affected me deeply.

This experience underscored the importance of social sensitivity in feedback, a principle we uphold at Wordbrew to foster continuous improvement and mutual respect within the team. After all, if you’re not nurturing your team and thinking about them staying with you for years, you’re not likely to build a top-class organization. 

Mental Toughness Over Skills

In startups, mental toughness often trumps physical skills.

While skills can be acquired over time, having the right mindset is crucial from the get-go. As a founder, I prefer team members who are 100% mentally ready—it’s important to see that they're ready to jump into startup life and prepared for the fires that every startup deals with.

If you give up too early, then quite frankly, entrepreneurship probably isn’t suited to you.

Post-Game Rituals

Rest

I find rest and re-energization in simple pleasures like reading at the beach, watching Netflix, or enjoying a good run. It’s important to switch off and do these activities regularly to avoid high stress levels.

Admittedly, I am someone who works until they need a day off.

But I don’t mind—I love my work, and that is how I enjoy spending my free time—even 4 years on.

The Business Athlete Mindset

Unafraid To Try New Things

I was the kind of kid who had a different sport going on every single day. I had hockey on a Monday, netball on a Tuesday, gymnastics on a Wednesday, judo on a Thursday, football on a Friday…you name it, every day was a different sport.

Given that, I've always naturally had a lot of drive, and I've always liked to try new things. I think this translates to my entrepreneurial journey, where you’re forced to dive into new things, and if that doesn’t shake you…it’s a massive advantage. 

Winning The Day

I feel like I’ve won the day if I've got the stuff I laid out in the morning done, and if my phone screen time is under 2 hours. Sometimes, it’s the little things.

New interview every week. Never any spam.

Subscribe above so you don’t miss next week’s interview with a founder hoping to revolutionise culture for startups⚡️

Sticking with this week’s content theme, we thought our audience would love to hear about Castmagic, a truly 10x product that has changed how we create and edit content.