Ep22 Transcript – Interview with Jody Milward

Andrea Vahl: Hello, Late Starters, does it take a private investigator to figure out Facebook ads? Possibly! Find out how accidental entrepreneur Jody Milward got started running a Facebook ads agency and what she does to keep her sanity while running Facebook ads.

Intro: Hello Dreamers. Welcome to the Late Starters Club, giving you the inspiration, mindset, and tools you need to start something midlife and beyond. Remember, it’s never too late to follow your dreams.

Sponsor Message: And now a word from our sponsor, me!

Would you like to get more inbound leads and sales from Facebook, Instagram, and Google? For most people, the answer is yes, but learning these ad platforms is time-consuming and complicated, and oftentimes business owners set up their campaigns wrong and waste a ton of money.

Let us do the work for you. I’m Andrea Vahl, I’ve been running ad campaigns for clients for 11 years, and I have generated over 4 million in trackable sales from Facebook, Instagram, and Google for my clients in the last two years. Some of the things I’ve done for my clients include things like:

• 3000 targeted new email subscribers to a list
• Sold 54 tickets to a brand new two-day event directly from Facebook
• 8x return on ads to a brand-new digital course
• 3,845 webinar attendees with over 300 member sales

So if you’re looking for results like these and don’t want to run your ad campaigns yourself, go to my website andreavahl.com and select the Facebook ad services to learn more. I’d love to have a conversation with you about how I can help you get more inbound leads in sales.

Andrea Vahl: Hello, late starters. It’s your host, Andrea Vahl, and I am here with the fabulous Jody Milward. Calling into us from Brisbane, Australia here, and I’m so excited to have Jody on the show today. Welcome, Jody.

Jody Milward: Thank you, Andrea. I’m so excited to be here because yes, I am quite the late starter, and you were such a pivotal part in my whole late starter journey here with what I’m doing today, so I’m excited.

Andrea Vahl: Yay. That’s so awesome. Yeah, it’s so fun to have you on the show. I’ve known Jody for many years now, and for those of you who aren’t familiar with her, Jody brings her private investigator background into the world of Facebook ads to uncover the clues to creating profitable ads, and she trains and equips women to make six figures per year as a Facebook ads manager and her website’s socialcharlie.com.

And we’re going to dive into all of that here.

So tell us a little bit about your journey in getting started and what prompted this shift and change for you? ‘Cause it’s a pretty big leap from private investigator to Facebook ads manager.

Jody Milward: What you mean? It’s not like a natural progression, right? This is the career progression at school.

I mean, even before all of that I was like a receptionist to private investigator. Yes. I mean, I’ve been constantly changing what they say. People typically these days have at least three different careers or so. So I wasnt such a late bloomer when I started all of this it was when I had three little kids under the age of four, so I was probably about 30.

And I realized I needed to do something that was going to be more family friendly. So not just dropping the kids at daycare then having to have days off when they were sick. And so I thought, what can I do? That’s going to be family friendly, right?

And so I thought, Here is a great idea. I’ll be a teacher’s aide because then I’ll have school hours. I might even be at the same school. I’ll get school holidays. Everything will be sweet. The kids still get sick, so you still need to have days off.

But the kicker was I was there in the vocational placement, doing the training and it was lunchtime and there I was in the playground surrounded by 50. That’s five zero screaming five-year olds. I was like, I’m happy to get rid of my kids for the day. What am I doing with the strangers 50 kids, right? No one’s I’m outta here . So I was like, what can I do that, I work from home, right? So I don’t have to worry about getting, organizing days off and such.

So that’s where I fell into the unclaimed money recovery business and became that private investigator got the little license, so there was no spouse busting. There was no car park stakeouts. It was all very dull. Just going and skip tracing and tracking people down. Calling them up and say, Hey, there’s $50,000 that belongs to you. Would you like it back? Because no one else has told you about it. But anyway, I got tired of all the government red tape and the police also calling me up cuz people were reporting me for scams. I certainly wouldn’t want to be doing it now.

So it was like that progression, but, that part, that journey there someone said to me, “oh, that’s very entrepreneurial of you.” And seriously, that was the first time I think I’d ever heard that e-word. I was like, what does that even mean? I didn’t even know what it means. I just grew up, my parents were a teacher and a nurse, and you just went to school and you got a job.

I, the went to the Queensland Health and receptionist. So it just defaulted. I say like accidental entrepreneur. I just fell into it out of necessity and I think that life change comes up for a lot of us and then we go what are we going to do? So whether that’s for me and a lot of ad managers that I work with, yes, it’s that kids have come along and what can I do to leave corporate and stay from home?

But then for a lot of us then it’s like you might have been working at corporate all these years. The kids have left home and you’ve got that freedom and you’re going, okay, I don’t want to do this commute anymore, and all of those things. So even though I, started that entrepreneurial journey, there was the transitions and I think I was about, probably about what would I have been about 42.

When I entered the world of digital marketing, I was like now that is a late starter, right? Young guys that are out there and they’re hustling and they’re getting into it and they’re doing, here’s this old girl at 42 going, okay, let me learn how to do Facebook ads. Yeah, so that was a bit of a transition, but I think it was just cuz, just data driven, results driven.

And again, like I know a lot of ladies. Who have made these career changes. They’ve maybe gone into being a virtual assistant, being a social media manager or things like that, that it’s oh, I’d like to learn Facebook ads now. So I think a key thing is as long as you are always learning and you know you’re hungry to learn, you’re hungry to try new things, then opportunities will, always be coming up and as we see here it’s a great way to be able to turn these opportunities into your hunger for learning into actually an income generating opportunity. So did I answer that question?

Andrea Vahl: Yeah. That’s amazing. That’s such a like crazy little pivotal path. I’m sure you back in school, I mean, we couldn’t really envision the internet way back then but it is wild how you can end up just progressing into something totally different and now you didn’t go back to school for this, you were really self taught, right?

Jody Milward: Absolutely. And like I said earlier, you were a pivotal bubble boo, if you could say that word, pivotal part of the journey. As I was doing all of that. So yes, I was investing like, it was a significant chunk, right?

So it would. And truly be probably equivalent of going to college or university and what you pay to be a doctor, right? Probably six figures now is what I’ve invested into all my learning, right? But I haven’t had to go off and go to college for three years and then or six years and then try and get work in this field that I have studied for.

You get paid as you learn, right? So I could go out, I could learn a few things. Great. I’m going to go over to Upwork and put myself on Upwork, right? That’s where I got some clients there initially. Even in Facebook groups, you can see that people are asking for help with their ads. And if you are learning ads and you know how to run ads, you can get clients on board.

Even like all around you, there are businesses everywhere that need ads. So if you are even learning, you can be approaching these businesses. Hey I’m starting a new ad agency or whatever it may be. And I’m looking for a couple of case studies. So for just $500 a month, I can run these campaigns for you and like they might just be $20 or $30 a day so thats low pressure ads, you’re not jumping in at a thousand dollars a day. And there’s some very simple systems and strategies that you can use for these businesses because they all need eyeballs. So you can do these very low pressure campaigns that you’re getting up and running, and that is like a godsend to these businesses because, They’re going, “Oh, now we need to learn to do Facebook ads. These guys have been reaching out, these agencies are too expensive,” and blah, blah, blah. Or I don’t have the time to learn them. So paying someone $500 a month and you are learning how to do them is a great way for you to learn on the job, right? So even though I’ve spent like six figures I’ve made I think it’s, probably around the $2 million mark now.

From learning Facebook ads, so the ROI on it has been amazing. People that I’ve met have been amazing. I mean college and university, it’s like they cannot keep up with the constant changes, that is always going on with Facebook. So it’s a matter of diving in. You still gotta invest in your own learning. You gotta get in and do the work, but you can get paid as you learn.

Andrea Vahl: Yeah, that’s the great thing cuz we started very similar. We were on a, on similar journeys with that, where you get some clients, you get some, small clients, you invest a little more, you bootstrap your way along and then, you invest, maybe you decide you want to really up level and you invest in maybe a larger program or a larger coaching program down the road. You can start small and learn online with kind of smaller programs and then, and then build and buy lots of books on marketing and all the stuff that you need to learn to do some of these things. And I definitely am, the same way where I’ve just read tons and tons of books, invested in some programs here and there and, you can definitely have a great business. So it’s great. It’s awesome. It’s amazing world we’re in now. I think that’s the beautiful thing.

Jody Milward: It is. There’s a low barrier to entry, and so as long as you go and you present your services in like an ethical manner, so if it is. You and it’s okay, what if and is business manager, what is a pixel?

And if you were to go out there and say it’s $2,000 a month unless you are contracting to someone who does have the runs on the board and the experience, you certainly want to be, wouldn’t want to be charging $2000 a month and you don’t even know how to launch an ad. Okay. So it’s that having that ethics and that’s where I said, we’re starting this side of an agency or whatever it may be.

You don’t want to particularly go out. I’m just learning how to run Facebook ads. You can word things in a better way that are still and we’re looking for case studies. Do this for this kind, so that they know okay. Things are a bit newer and and then you have systems in place so that you can go for three months.

We’ve got these amazing. So we’ve done X, Y, and Z, then you increase your rates as you go along, so you’re not always $500 a month I like, it’s yeah it’s a great way to get paid as you learn.

Andrea Vahl: Yeah. That’s awesome. That’s awesome. So let’s talk about, how do you feel like starting in your forties? Cause I was the same way starting something in my forties and especially in the digital space where there’s a lot of young people felt scary. But what, how do you think being older when you started, contributed to your success?

Jody Milward: And on that it’s not just being a lot of young guys in the digital space. It’s like you’re a female as well, right? So that really narrows things down. I know going to Traffic and Conversion Summit in America, a big digital marketing thing, you go to the restroom at the breaks, there’s a huge line for the men’s and the ways’ and out.

So not only are you older but your female as well, so it’s very good. So I think like older you are wise. That’s what we’ve got. We’ve got some life skills that we can absolutely draw from. And I think, like for me, I’ve been doing the working from home thing since about 2008 and the kids were all little, so they’ve grown up through all of that.

But I know like talking to a lot of ladies who have been learning this kind of thing later on in life. At least their kids have been a bit older and they haven’t had to do, all the runarounds of oh, they’ve got this night and this night. Okay. They’re not busy, being that taxi driver to the kids.

So they do have a bit of time back on their hands, and that’s where they’re saying oh, okay. So I can learn this. So for myself, yes. So the kids are all older now. They’re like 25, 22, and 21. So I’ve absolutely got the room and the space to be able to watch some trainings at night or during the day or whatever it may be.

So I’ve got that time on my hands. Then also, I think there’s a bit of that driving factor of okay, so I’m not getting any younger, , I’ve got this amount of time before I’m wanting to work less or whatever it may be. So having that wisdom and that insight and then possibly also oh, okay are my savings going to be where I want them to be?

Can also be like a great driving factor for okay I’m going to knuckle in and I’m going to do this. And I also think. It also gives you, because like you’ve had that life experience, you’ve generally worked with, various people, whether as an employee or whether it even has been your own business kind of thing.

It’s just that life experience of knowing how to work with people and appreciating maybe yourself a bit more so that you don’t actually, because in this digital space, and I know for lot, I’m probably going off tangent, but we wear our hearts on our sleeves a lot and we really want to serve people and do the best that we can, but also having this sort of life experience behind us and identifying how we.

Boundaries. Identifying boundaries as we’ve grown up and gone through life. Really helps us at this stage as well to not get caught up so much, even though we do, we can identify it a bit better to go Oh, okay. Things are getting a bit outta whack here. Even though I do have the nights and the capacity because I’m not running with kids.

I still want to enjoy life, right? So I still want to have the weekends off. So I think you’ve got the insight to be able to identify that a bit sooner rather than later. And yeah, and get things into perspective a bit more as you do the working with clients and enjoying the lifestyle, right? Because a lot of us get into this online marketing space or digital marketing online business.

To enjoy life, have some time freedom. So identifying all of that.

Andrea Vahl: Yeah. And for sure, I think in this business especially, you’ve gotta have good boundaries, right? Because working with clients that you know, some clients. As we have talked about before, can be a little crazy and you’ve gotta have the boundaries to say that’s not part of the scope.

Or, to really, know, maybe. Be a little more confrontational than you might be or you might have been comfortable being when you were younger. So I think that’s definitely helpful for sure. And just having, like you said, the life experience of work with a lot of different people and see how people work, I think is huge too.

And it’s hard. Digital is on 24/7. Facebook does not have office hours. So if you could go back and tell your younger self one thing what would that be.

Jody Milward: Oh my gosh. Okay. At the moment I’m listening to a book.

It’s an Australian guy called Barefoot Investor, it’s really good. And he’s talking about, getting things. It’s not just talking about, budgeting and all of that. It’s like looking at, okay, setting up, whatever bank accounts, looking at your super, looking at your whatever.

And just by making these changes, you could be making an extra a hundred thousand dollars or a few hundred thousand when you retire, for example. . So my younger self, I would be going back to say, look, you’ve gotta start putting some money away as soon as you can. . Yeah. So that when you are 50, when you are at this late starters club you don’t have that pressure.

To say I need to be earning this because, time’s running out for me to be working, right? I’ve been working 30 years. I want to be enjoying life a bit more and I want to fly first class when I go somewhere . So paying attention. So I would say, look, it might feel tough now but start putting this money aside and just let it sit, right?

Even though it gets nice and big and you would go oh, I’ll just take out these little bits. Just leave it there. So I think that getting that financial insight, because that’s not something we learn at school. And and unless you’ve got parents who have, been that small percent of the population that have got a grapple on it you just grow up and then your kids like also follow your way.

So for me it’s yes, okay, we’re 50 now. We’re on a path of okay, what can we do over the next however many, five years or whatever it is to just make sure that, we can work a bit less and travel a bit more and really enjoy life now with the kids that are grown up and maybe outta the house. I don’t know if they’re ever going to leave

So yeah, so that’s certainly something. And so even though I’m back here and it’s oh my gosh, the last 30 years, it would’ve been great to have had this set aside and that compounding interest and had millions of dollars. It’s good to know now that. It’s not going to have such a compounding effect, but it’s still not too late.

There’s still things that you can do now, so Yeah.

Andrea Vahl: Yeah. What I like about being an entrepreneur is you can, hustle a little bit more and, have a good year and things like that. And think of ways to to grow in Faster than you would with the, standard 3% raise that you get at a corporation, so

Jody Milward: cool. There’s all the talk around at the moment, it’s the recession and da. Interest rates are going to be in for an interest 18 months or whatever. It’s, whatever it is. And and that’s where it’s yes. If you are just an employee and you’re getting, this is your paycheck each right?

Then you need to look most likely with all everyone saying, look for a side hustle, right? , there’s only so many ways that you can decrease what you’ve gotta pay for the cost of living, but there are ways you can increase how much you make. So incorporating a side hustle into it so that you can make more, and like you said, as an entrepreneur, yes, we’ve got that ability like I’ll just make more sales.

Okay. And so before it’s oh, we don’t have to be so restricted for this. So yeah, that’s, one of the great things, like I couldn’t imagine being, I go to work and I get paid a thousand dollars a week or whatever it is. That’s such a scary thing. If it’s if we want to do something it’s okay, I’ll make some more sales.

And freedom that then comes with that, it’s amazing.

Andrea Vahl: For sure. For sure. That’s awesome. So what do you think, there’s a lot of people who are in this ads business and in the digital space and things like that, and you’ve had a very successful business. That you’ve grown and it’s really awesome to see how you’ve grown it and everything. What do you think has been one of the biggest contributing factors to your success?

Jody Milward: Oh, being crazy

Persistence is definitely a thing, right? Because, and especially like in this space with digital marketing, not everything knocks it out of the park a hundred percent of the time, right? You’ll launch a funnel, you’ll do some ads, you’ll have this great, what you think is a great offer, and it may be, but then it’s oh, there was no sales on it, right?

So you just might. Pack it all in and then go off and work at the factory or just try, do something else. It’s that thing of being persistent and looking okay, what worked, what didn’t work here? And then with our ads, this is where we’ve got the advantage of going to people.

Click on the ads, do they convert on the page? Where was the bottleneck? So you can see that? . But yeah, so it’s that. Just the keeping up. Just keeping on going. And yeah, and just, yeah, not giving up and.

Like I say, if it was easy, everyone would be doing it. Okay. So it is going to be hard. There is going to be late nights, there is going to be weekend work but at least you’ve got the flexibility in doing this kind of thing that you can go, okay, I do want to go to the movie with the kids and the family and we’ll go up for dinner.

And that means that I’m, if I’m going to have the four hours off during the day, I’ll do a couple of hours, when I get home and a couple of hours in the tomorrow morning, I’ll get up a bit earlier or whatever it is. So it’s that that willingness to I will do what other people won’t so that I can create this lifestyle that I want to create.

Andrea Vahl: Yeah, definitely. I think persistence and picking yourself up when something is disappointing is a huge piece of this. How do you get through those times where maybe you have been disappointed? I certainly have had lots of things where I’m like, oh, this is going to be great. It’s going to be awesome.

And then it’s it just doesn’t work for whatever reason. So it can be disappointing or, overwhelming too. And so what are some of the tools that you use to get through those times? What, what works for you?

Jody Milward: Chocolate and

Andrea Vahl: chocolate. And what was the petting The cat

Jody Milward: Okay. Yeah. It is a mental mind game. And like even just this week, I think Sunday, I feel like, oh, I’m a top of the world. I’m powering long Monday. It’s what am I doing? Nobody likes me. It is, it’s that mental mental stamina, and it’s like that’s where you just really need to control your mind.

So one thing that I’ve just recently started doing, I don’t know, I’ve gotta learn a bit more, particularly like on Monday where it was like, okay, I was just feeling negative about a lot of things. And I mean, when you look at the results, when you go back and, while you can get caught up in this moment, and I know we can, you just want to get in a spiral and have this pity party.

But if you can, like even have it written down in front of you where it’s things that you’ve achieved, that you’ve been proud of, the successes that you’ve had, write them down so that as your spiraling, you can look at them to help draw you back. Otherwise, you’ve gotta try and think of it at the time.

So if it’s written down, you can easily see, oh, here it is. Because otherwise you’ll think I never did anything good . But if you’ve got, when you’re in a good mood that will certainly help. But doing a bit of tapping, so this week is I was like, oh man, I was just feeling, went from the high to the low.

I was just doing some tapping, right? So if you, I’m not a tapping expert at all, but it’s even if, and it was like, even if I feel like my ads aren’t converting, for example, or if, if I didn’t hit those sales targets I fully and completely love and accept myself. And so just those tapping points and yeah, even doing that it was like, okay, just.

I don’t know. Like I said, I’m not into the tap. I’m not a tapping expert, but you just, I could just feel that release that was coming from that. So yeah, guarding your mind. And one of the sayings is Don’t follow your feelings, lead them. So even though you’re starting to feel this sort of, you’re going down, it’s okay, lead your feelings.

So okay, I’m not going to go into this. Where can I put my thoughts and my time? That is more productive? That’s just a couple things, but yeah, it all comes and that’s what I’ll say to my ad managers is you can have all the skills to pay the bills, right? But if your mind is struggling, if you are doubting yourself, if you’re feeling low, then yeah.

You may be worth, fully justified to charge $3,000 a month for ad management. You’ll probably go, oh, just a thousand dollars a month. Cuz you’re going, oh, I don’t feel worthy. So it’s just, yeah, it’s a hard game. It all, and it all comes back to mindset and just that consistently of daily focusing your thoughts on the things that are positive and more uplifting rather than going down a spiral.

Andrea Vahl: I love that. I love how you have. A wide range of tools that you use because, oh no. I love it because sometimes different tools work. I mean, I heard you talk about more some analytical things where you’re looking at what’s working from very objective point and then little bit of woo with the tapping is always, you never know the chocolate little bit of like reward.

And I think that’s what it takes is just this real spectrum so that you can pull in whatever tool that you might need at the moment. And maybe something, maybe the chocolate isn’t working so you bring up the, feel good folder or whatever that is. And try all the different things.

It can be very challenging and I love that whole lead your feelings. I hadn’t heard that before, so that’s really great. Awesome. Awesome. Speaking of quotes, why don’t we just share the favorite quote and I think you’ve got a couple that inspire you.

And then I want to also ask you another question that I usually ask all my guests. So why don’t you share some great quotes with us that you’ve got?

Jody Milward: Okay. Great quotes. One, it’s an all time favorite. I’ve got it written up on the little kitchen pantry door so everyone in the house sees it is discipline brings freedom.

So while we may not particularly like the process of getting a disciplined practice in for whatever area that may be like one of the things that I will talk to with my ad managers will be that, you’re training someone up. To get all the tools so that they’re running your ads right?

And you can go, oh man, I just want to go in and do this, or I’ll just tweak this. And you don’t follow a system. So not following the system there is showing a lack of discipline, which is keeping you tied in to having to keep, being on the tools and doing the work. So having a system or whatever it may be, where you do have that discipline to go.

I’m going to do this now, even though I don’t feel like it, I know that if I keep following this process, it will bring me that freedom. And whether that applies to, losing weight or getting healthy, where having to exercise and see this is a bit of struggle for me. every day. And that discipline it will bring you that freedom.

Okay. So discipline brings freedom is one that I’ve just, said, it’s been my mantra here, like years. I am still a working progress with it, , but that I keep saying it to myself. And another one, and I love is hug the cactus. There may be things that you don’t want to do, and it ties in well with the discipline brings freedom.

But there’s things that you don’t want to do, and especially each day when you’re working, it’s oh, I don’t want to do this. I’ll put it off. And then it gets put off to the next day, and the next day and the next day, hug the cactus, get that uncomfortable thing done, and then you can move on.

Andrea Vahl: Yeah, that, that’s awesome. That’s awesome. I love both of those. Those are so great. Cuz there’s a lot of things I don’t want to do. So

Jody Milward: gratification though. Yeah.

Andrea Vahl: And then one question I always like to ask all my guests too is what is an assumption that a lot of people have about you that’s not correct?

Jody Milward: I have a lot of people that say, why don’t you know how you do everything?

You do ? And I think I’m organized and it’s like I’m trying. I really do. And honestly like with that as well, I’m probably one of my own worst critics as a lot of us are. So as I go into our Google Drive or whatever it may be, Oh man, I want this to be better organized. I want this here and there.

Whereas I’ve had like VAs come on board and go, wow, this is an amazingly organized, Google Drive or whatever it is. So even though I’m harder on myself for these expectations to be up here, and people will say, how do you get it all done? How do you, whatever. And I go, I’m really not that organized.

I do believe there is an element of truth. I think people think I am a bit more organized than I really am like, sometimes, it’s that last minute hustle. If you’ve got, a week to do something, when’s it going to get done in that last 30 minutes? . So true. So whereas I go, I would like to be that person that is working on it for an hour every day or whatever leading up to it so that I can comfortably get it done , but I’m not.

So I think. Kind of one thing, but then yeah, for myself it’s and for maybe a lot of it’s given, show a bit more grace to yourself and go, you’re not too bad. .

Andrea Vahl: Yeah, . That’s awesome. That’s awesome, Jody. Thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing your journey with us. And I know it’s Given a lot of people inspiration just to see how things can actually grow and change.

And you can start something new when you’re in your forties that grows into a multimillion dollar business and it’s awesome. And thanks so much and it’s always great to catch up and chat.

Jody Milward: Yes, thank you, Andrea. It’s been so fun.

Andrea Vahl: Yeah. All right. Bye, everyone.

Outro: Hope that was helpful, and make sure you grab the free guide Top Tools for Late Starters on the website at latestartersclub.com and let’s turn dreaming into doing.