April 7, 2025 • 27 mins
Cassie Bernhardt and Courtney Scott, founders of Impresa Advisors, share their journey from C-suite executives to entrepreneurs, illustrating how courage and vulnerability became their business foundation.
- Former C-suite executives who connected through similar career inflection points.
- Built their consulting firm through phased transitions, recognizing the universe's signals
- Leverage their athletic backgrounds to develop resilience through business challenges.
- Share stories of success and failure to help client companies navigate uncertainties.
- Focus on working with companies making meaningful differences while having fun.
- Growth primarily comes through referrals and intentional networking opportunities.
- Provide fractional C-suite services across company stages from pre-seed to exit.
- Adapt their approach based on each client's unique position in their business journey.
Trust your gut when considering entrepreneurship – you'll know when it's the right moment to make the leap. Remember that you don't need to know all the answers on day one, and you've already survived 100% of your bad days.
Ready to optimize culture and transform engagement?
Visit https://commix.io to learn more.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carol Park (00:03):
Well, hi everybody, and welcome back to the Courage
Unmasked podcast, where wecontinue to talk about courage
and the vulnerability of courage, and that courage is
vulnerability and not weakness.
And I'm very excited thismorning to introduce to y'all
and then get to hear theirstories Cassie Bernhardt and
(00:25):
Courtney Scott, who areentrepreneurs who ventured into
starting their own consultingagency, c-suite Services.
And so here we go.
I'm so happy that y'all arehere this morning, cassie and
Courtney.
So welcome, hi, carol, it'sgreat to see you.
Cassie and Courtney so welcome,hi, carol, it's great to see
(00:47):
you.
Yeah, thanks for having us.
I'm so excited to have y'all.
So let's just dive right in.
Like, what was it like?
I mean, take us back to thebeginning of the start of
Impressa Advisors and whatinspired y'all to start this
company.
Impresa Advisors (01:02):
Well, courtney and I have had very full and
successful careers up until thispoint, to the point that we
decided to start our own firm.
We've operated as C-suiteexecutives in the respective
organizations that we've workedin, and I think it really was a
matter of life circumstances,personal family circumstances,
(01:25):
and really just being at a pointin each of our respective lives
where we were ready to makethat jump and take a risk, to
venture out on our own.
And I think when we met, it wasa natural connection and we
just hit it off immediately andjust kind of knew the path
forward from there.
Carol Park (01:46):
Yeah, it sounds very exciting and you were so right.
I mean starting your ownbusiness where you both were in
the level executive positionsI'm sure doing very well, very
secure.
So launching your own businessis risky business, right?
This is all about vulnerability.
(02:07):
So tell us a little bit aboutwhat that was like, especially
as women at being entrepreneursand launching this new business.
Tell us what that was like.
Impresa Advisors (02:20):
Sure.
So, as Cassie said, we had anundeniable connection as soon as
we met.
We had traveled similar pathsin our corporate, although
different paths, but they hadthese really interesting
inflection points that were verysimilar points.
(02:46):
That really gave us anopportunity to pause, reflect
and think individually and thencoming together and being able
to share those experiences.
Early on, cassie and I did a lotof storytelling with each other
to connect, and as the morestories we told, the more
connections and similarities tothe path that we traveled, and
so that was sort of the root ofstarting Impreza, because we
weren't doing this alone.
(03:06):
So this thought of venturingout and taking the risk, it's
still super scary, but you'rejumping with someone else and
somebody else who has hadsimilar life experiences up to
this point, who has been part ofyour life.
We met through a mutualconnection, serendipitously, and
it was just the perfect timing,and so it sort of felt like we
(03:29):
were supposed to meet at thistime and let's take this
introduction that the universeput in front of us and jump in
together into this endeavor.
And so doing it together helpsto.
While the risk is the same,there's some comfort in knowing
somebody's in it with you.
Carol Park (03:48):
Absolutely, absolutely Sharing that risk,
together having the connectionsto feed off of each other, to
know each other's strengths andprobably weaknesses.
I mean because we're humanbeings, so I'm sure that y'all's
strengths and weaknesses y'allalso play off of each other in
that way.
So did y'all go just what Iwould call kind of cold turkey
(04:10):
you just quit and started.
Or did you say let's stay wherewe are, we'll kind of start
building things and then we'llmake the jump.
Or did you just jump?
Were you just all in?
Impresa Advisors (04:22):
I think we, you know, we sort of did this in
phases.
I made the decision first, afew months before I met Courtney
actually, that this was thepath that I wanted to pursue.
And again, it was really theuniverse lining us up perfectly
by the time Courtney was ready.
It was sort of a no brainer,let's jump in.
(04:44):
So again, I think it was reallywe were just ready at the
respective points we were in ourlives.
Yeah, and for me, the universekept sending signals, and that's
been one of my big learningsthat Cassie and I have shared.
As for our storytelling is, ifyou're watchful, there's always
signs, and for me, I kept tryingto go down one road and
(05:07):
universe kept pushing me backinto this entrepreneurial spirit
, in this consulting, reallysupporting startups, uh, and I
tried to ignore it for a whileand then the universe just kept
hitting harder and harder.
At a point where I met Cassieand I was like, okay, fine, I
get it.
I get it like this is wherewe're supposed to get it Like
this is where we're supposed tobe.
It's time, this is where we'resupposed to be.
(05:27):
But I think you know that was.
That was part of.
What also gave us comfort ineach other was that we had gone
through that self-reflection andthe realization that we're in a
point in our lives where we'reconfident in who we are and we
know what we bring to the tableand we're also super transparent
about what maybe is not ourstrongest muscle and our you
(05:50):
know quote unquote weaknesses,which just is an area where I
just haven't worked as hard todevelop it quite yet and super
open about all of that andbringing it together onto the
table as we're going.
Yes, let's be partners and whatdoes that actually mean?
How do we work together?
But again, not doing it aloneand doing it with full, open,
transparency and arms welcomingeach other's journeys up to this
(06:13):
point into the conversation.
Yeah, absolutely.
Carol Park (06:17):
I know.
When we talked prior to thepodcast and I was just getting
to know y'all a little bit yousaid that with every
entrepreneurial company, everybusiness, every idea that people
start, they will hit some pointwhere it becomes a whoa, what
do we do now?
(06:38):
And then there's a lot ofdecisions that have to be made.
Do we keep going?
Do we pivot?
To?
You know so many differentoptions.
Was there a certain point, evenas y'all were building Impreza,
that you realized, oh, oh, whatdo we?
What do we do now?
Do we pivot?
Do we?
Do we shift?
Did y'all reach a moment likethat?
Impresa Advisors (07:00):
That's a great question, carol, and we
absolutely see that almost everyday with our clients, our
partners, and I think one of thethings that I knew when I met
Courtney we're both formerathletes, endurance athletes at
that.
Immediately, one thing that Isensed was okay, we are both the
(07:21):
kind of people with the lifeexperience of when stuff gets
hard and we hit those pointswhether it's in business or
personal lives of this is a makeor break moment.
We can decide to push throughand keep going and figure out
what are the next three thingswe need to get done, to keep
going or say this isn't working.
I knew that Courtney was goingto be that partner who's like if
(07:43):
we're having a hard day, that'sokay, it happens.
But what are the next couple ofthings that we need to get done
and push through?
And I I don't really feel likewe've had any of those moments
that make our break where, if wedidn't push through on this, we
we would have to stop and foldup shop.
I think that we just have thatmentality every day of we're
going to keep going Again.
(08:03):
Former athletes, we love to win, we do not like to lose or fail
, so it just it really hasn'tbeen an option for us up until
that point.
One piece of resilience right,yeah, resilience, yes, but
resilience with, again, theresilience with intelligence.
So, while we have continued topush forward with the spirit of
(08:26):
Impreza, supporting startups inthat early stage, what we have
changed is how we've thoughtabout how we serve our clients.
So, while we have not changedin what we believe the value of
our firm is the direction ourclients that we're going to
(08:47):
serve and where they are intheir journey, what has changed
is how we support them so much,like Cassie mentioned, we have
partners, so we've got ourclients that we support, and
then we have strategic partnersthat we have brought on, and
part of that is all wrapped upin this idea that our firm's
value proposition is to give ourfounders time back.
(09:10):
So we support that back officesupport.
Let the founders do what theydo, which is be visionaries in
technology and in science, andwe support the business aspect
of it, and we've done that withImpreza as well.
So we brought on strategicpartners where we believe that
either our time isn't valued inthat space or we know that we
(09:32):
don't have as deep subjectmatter expertise as maybe our
clients might need and we'reable to pull on those strategic
partners when necessary.
So being agile in our businessmodel has really helped us to be
able to continue to moveforward.
So we've adapted Impreza'svalue proposition, if you will,
a couple of times, but never theintent and never questioned.
Do we belong in this space?
(09:53):
Because we absolutely believewe do.
Carol Park (09:56):
Yeah, I'm so amazed by y'all's business too.
I know I shared with y'all inaddition to being a therapist,
me and a couple of co-foundersactually started our own
business, which, snowy day herein Texas, worked from home.
Yesterday was a telehealthplatform for therapists that was
(10:18):
HIPAA compliant.
And this was before.
This was a thing certainlybefore COVID, and when we had
started and hired a developer,we were tracking along, it was
going okay, not great.
And then we didn't hear fromthem.
And one day I was like I'm justgoing to go to their office
before I start work this morningand they were shut.
(10:39):
I mean, they were closed, witha sign on the door do not let
them in.
And the moment of panic and thatwas certainly a moment of oh,
do we keep going?
Do we say, maybe this is wherewe stop because we had already
spent investment money, wedidn't have a product and so,
(11:00):
long story short, we did decideto keep going.
But these are the things andthinking of y'all's business
where advisors who understandstartups and could give advice
at that point or help usnavigate, that probably would
have been nice, we justnavigated it and kept going.
But these are the stories and Iknow when y'all talked about,
(11:22):
there will always be something,and this is the uncertainty, the
risk, the emotional exposurethat we talk about with the
vulnerabilities.
So how do y'all help companiesas they navigate the
vulnerabilities?
Do you share some of your ownstories, your business Like?
Do you share maybe, failures,because we all fail, right, as
(11:46):
human beings, but how do y'allnavigate that?
Impresa Advisors (11:51):
Well, we absolutely.
If you haven't figured this outabout Courtney and I already,
we are definitely storytellersand we again, with a lot of
experience in our respectivecareers, have a lot of stories
to tell and they're not allknock it out of the park wins.
So we absolutely bring thatexperience in with us.
We share that with our clients.
(12:12):
We share when other colleaguestell us about their hardships or
their losses or failures.
We remember that too and sortof keep that in our portfolio of
things to remember as we helpour clients build and grow and
overcome.
Carol Park (12:29):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Is there any particular aspectthat y'all have found?
And maybe not, but as beingwomen in C-suite advisory
position, that has broughtcertain challenges.
Impresa Advisors (12:44):
You know, I don't.
I think Courtney and I woulddescribe ourselves as number one
, being very good at what we do.
Two, we happen to be women Digdown deeper.
We're both mothers, we havefamilies, we have a very full
personal place to manage andbalance, so we multitask with
them along the best of them.
(13:06):
I don't know that there havebeen challenges, but I have to
say I think we bring a lot ofstrength to the companies that
we work with because we are veryadept to multitasking.
We, um, I think we have a lotof emotional intelligence and
being one step removed from thefounder's position, I think that
gives us a unique perspectiveto be a little bit more
(13:28):
objective.
Um, so I don't, uh, I don'treally feel like there have been
challenges as women.
No, and I feel like we we tendto.
We get to.
We're in the luxury position ofchoosing who we work with, and
one of the first things we dowhen we start to get to know
potential clients or strategicpartners is we tell stories, and
(13:51):
Cassie and I don't shy awayfrom who we are outside of
Impreza.
In fact, we bring it to thetable and we encourage others to
share as well, to put it ontothe table that we're all
something outside of what we doon a nine to the table and we
encourage others to share aswell, to put it onto the table
that we're all something outsideof what we do on a nine to five
basis and what we're trying tobuild because Cassie and I are
building at the same time ourfounders are, which also is
helpful in a shared experience.
Yes, and that is super uh,seems to be impactful and
(14:16):
resonates with our foundersgoing.
We're in it with you.
We're trying to grow in present, just as you're trying to grow
your agency as well, and soputting all of that again on the
table and bringing about a bitof humility and just humanizing
the relationships we feel likegives us a big advantage, and we
just happen to be females.
Carol Park (14:36):
Yeah, yeah, I like that.
I also was thinking you arekind of in that parallel process
.
You're in that advisoryposition helping them from the
business side, but you're alsobuilding your own business.
So they're building theirs,you're building yours, but again
all of your experience in theretoo.
(14:56):
What business goals and valuesdrive and lead y'all as you
continue to build your businessand help other businesses grow
too?
Impresa Advisors (15:09):
I think one of the first things that Courtney
and I agreed on is we want tohelp businesses that are really
working to make a difference,and it doesn't have to be a
lifesaving business, butsomething that will affect
whatever audience it's marketingto and move the needle for them
.
One of the other fundamentalthings that two of them, rather
that we look for are foundersand partners who want to grow
(15:33):
and who are open to be coached,because those are things that we
believe in about ourselves.
We're always looking to growand we are coachable, either
with each other or from externalsources and events.
But the other sort ofunderlying thing is we want to
have fun.
I think we've both done thingsin our careers where we've done
(15:55):
it because we've had to and thatwas the company party line and
that's what the job was and nowwe're at a place where we get to
choose the people that we workwith.
We are looking for people withreally positive attitudes and
energy and who want to go havefun.
So I think those are some ofthe primary things we keep in
(16:16):
mind every day as we work.
Carol Park (16:19):
I remember that, when we had our conversation too
, that y'all said you reallywant to work with companies that
can make a difference in someway in people's lives or
whatever.
And I do remember that, whichis part of why I asked the
question.
So, yeah, I think that'sfabulous.
So, and the having fun, yeah,especially at this stage.
(16:42):
I mean, y'all are young, butyou still you don't want life to
just always be a grind right.
It's too short, so to have somefun in there too, so OK.
So how do y'all continue togrow your business?
So, again, you're in thisparallel process, helping others
(17:02):
continue to grow theirs andbuild theirs and and make a
difference.
How, how do y'all grow yours?
Impresa Advisors (17:09):
I don't know that we have a secret sauce to
growing the business.
We get most of our businessthrough referrals, so part of it
is just doing a good job,delivering on what we commit to
do, providing the value we knowwe can bring to the table, and
that seems to help and continueto have referrals.
(17:30):
For the part of the businessthat comes to us, that's not
referrals, that's Cassie and Igetting out there and engaging
with folks and being part of theconversations, partly for us
and also partly for our clients.
Anytime we go to any sort ofintentional networking event,
we're networking for Impreza andwe're also looking for
(17:52):
potential opportunities forinvestments or partners for our
clients, and so we've gottenreally good at listening.
And, again, we're storytellers,so we get connecting with folks
and telling our story or aclient's story.
We've gotten really, reallygood at making that just a
natural part of our DNA.
Cassie and I also seem to have aknack, for anytime we go out
(18:14):
it's an opportunity to meetsomebody new, and so there's
multiple stories of us going tocoffee shops or having a drink
at a bar and all of a sudden itturns into a business
opportunity because we're notafraid to say hi, I'm Courtney,
I'm Cassie Right and just makethat introduction and start from
there and see where theconversation flows.
We've also learned a lot fromthose types of connections that
(18:36):
we brought back to our clientsgoing oh we met this person and
they were in this field, butthey gave us this piece of
advice.
We should look into this, andthat might take us into a
slightly different directionthan we anticipated.
So we look at every opportunityto engage with someone new as
an opportunity to hear theirstory and possibly learn
something yes, it's where y'allstarted, even where the start of
(19:00):
your business.
Carol Park (19:01):
it's about connection, and so y'all are
good at connections and makingconnections and being connectors
with others, and so that justcontinuing to build and grow.
And, yeah, I think bestreferrals are from people that
you've worked with that feltlike they were helped, they
found success, and then theyrefer you.
Even as a therapist, I thinkthe same that when a client
(19:25):
tells someone that they love orfriends with, hey, you know you
may be struggling, there wouldbe somebody you would want to
see.
It's that's the referral thatmeans the most, because they've
actually been helped or foundthe services to be helpful.
So, yeah, well, any specificadvice you would give to other
(19:48):
entrepreneurs that are thinkingof starting a company, that have
started a company Our viewersor listeners are kind of lucky
here, because they they're goingto get some free advice.
Impresa Advisors (20:03):
Yeah, I would say I think you'll know the
moment.
At least for me, you'll knowwhen it's the right moment to
make the leap, to take the jump.
I attempted to take the jumpseveral times and it just never
felt quite right until now, Um,and there was just an internal
gut.
So I'd say trust your gut.
Your intuition is there toguide you and to protect you and
(20:24):
to tell you when it's right andtell you when there is an
opportunity to learn.
And the other thing would bethat you know, on those hard
days, one to expect them and,when they happen, welcome them
with open arms and a readinessto learn and recognize that
you've already survived ahundred percent of your bad days
and you would survive this onetoo, and to keep pushing forward
(20:45):
.
Carol Park (20:47):
Wow, that's great advice.
That's great advice, kathy, youhave any advice.
Impresa Advisors (20:51):
I do, and I'll just add to that that you don't
have to know all of the answerson the first day.
You know whether it's you'recontemplating going out on your
own and starting something.
You have an idea.
You know big ideas.
Don't just have it's not justan aha moment.
For most of us it takes manyiterations, many days of
(21:11):
refinement and I hate this word,but pivoting.
You've got to keep adapting andadjusting.
So just keep going and beflexible and keep editing your
product, your ideas, and knowthat it's a process and that you
don't have to know everythingthe first day is the best piece
(21:32):
of advice I would give tosomeone thinking about starting
a business.
Carol Park (21:35):
Yeah, that's fantastic advice.
So tell me a little bit more,too, about your company.
Do you work with it sounds likeprimarily startups, and are
they?
Well, startups are typicallysmaller, but do you work with
really small companies, Then?
Do you as they grow?
You continue to work with themas they?
Impresa Advisors (21:57):
tell us a little bit more about your
company with them as they tellus a little bit more about your
company.
So we work with a range ofcompanies really so startup from
pre-money, pre-fundraising tosmall to medium businesses that
don't identify as a startup atall.
I would describe my skill setand expertise as being very
focused on people, but on theexternal part so communications,
(22:19):
fundraising, investor relationsCourtney is an expert on
everything people, internal andbusiness administration.
So I think we're a really goodfit that way.
But that means we can operatein that range of startup to
mostly established business.
But maybe they are operating abusiness on a multiple day
(22:40):
mostly established business.
But maybe they are operating abusiness on a multiple day,
multiple states, and theyhaven't had a chance to create
fundamental procedures or anemployee handbook, for instance,
and we'll come in and do someprojects that way.
What we really love to do isoperate as a fractional portion
of our portfolio company'sC-suite, so we join their team
seamlessly as if we were therefrom theuite.
So we join their teamseamlessly as if we were there
(23:03):
from the beginning.
Sometimes we are there from thebeginning and we are the ones
who worry about those businessfundamentals.
So, just like Courtney saidearlier, they can focus on being
a founder and being thatvisionary, but we will
absolutely take on acuteprojects.
So someone, a startup, needs toget ready for a fundraise and
they just need our help gettingready for that or coaching on
(23:24):
that Go to market strategy, veryspecific things.
We'll jump in on that also.
Carol Park (23:32):
Yeah, so y'all really come in at all sorts of
points, from a beginning pointto a mid, to trying to exit.
Even you even work with theexit strategies with businesses
as well yeah, yeah, and then we,we're we are.
Impresa Advisors (23:48):
Our intent is to build long-term relationships
and connections with thesefounders.
Rather, if we get to championinside and be part of the
visioning everything everythingfrom designing processes,
putting in place the properoperations, making sure we have
the right talent on the team atthe right time.
That we're focused externallyfrom our marketing investor
(24:09):
perspective, that the foundersand their executive teams are
leading and building a companyin a way that they anticipated
it to be from a culture, stratand strategy conversation
leading towards an exit.
And then we also support theexits.
We've got some M&A experiencein our background as well to
help that exit process occur,which can happen in a multitude
(24:33):
of different ways.
But our joy is being part of thejourney and doing that right
along and being adaptable,because a startup that is
pre-seed has a very differentneed of a functional C-suite
than a startup who's nearing anexit.
Those needs are strategicallyand functionally different.
And then you've got thecompanies in the middle and
(24:54):
those are also very different interms of what they need.
And so we are adaptable in theway that we support all of our
clients.
But we've got a nice portfoliothat's got sort of all of them
in different stages of theorganization, which makes it fun
for Cassie and I.
Going back to what Cassie said,we got in this to have fun.
Carol Park (25:15):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, I also hear how thesynergy with y'all started and
continues and your experiencethat you were already C-level
executives and had lots ofexperience before even coming
into this where you're going toconsult and advise and bring
(25:38):
others to the team to consultand advise.
So, yeah, I hear how y'all hitit off from the beginning and
came up with your company.
So any final words to ouraudience, anything that you
would like to say?
Impresa Advisors (25:54):
Thank you, carol, for giving us the time,
and certainly if anybody that'slistening wants to connect.
Kathy and I, of course, love toshare stories, so we'd love to
a chance to connect and shareand learn, yeah absolutely.
Carol Park (26:07):
Thank you so much for being guests this morning.
It was delightful and I justwish you continued success as
y'all have fun and make adifference with the companies
that y'all are advising,strategizing with, helping to
grow.
So best to you both and thankyou again for being our guest
this morning.
Impresa Advisors (26:27):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
Thanks for tuning in to the Courage Unmasked podcast.
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Until next time, keep leadingwith courage.
Well, hi everybody, and welcome back to the Courage
Unmasked podcast, where wecontinue to talk about courage
and the vulnerability of courage, and that courage is
vulnerability and not weakness.
And I'm very excited thismorning to introduce to y'all
and then get to hear theirstories Cassie Bernhardt and
(00:25):
Courtney Scott, who areentrepreneurs who ventured into
starting their own consultingagency, c-suite Services.
And so here we go.
I'm so happy that y'all arehere this morning, cassie and
Courtney.
So welcome, hi, carol, it'sgreat to see you.
Cassie and Courtney so welcome,hi, carol, it's great to see
(00:47):
you.
Yeah, thanks for having us.
I'm so excited to have y'all.
So let's just dive right in.
Like, what was it like?
I mean, take us back to thebeginning of the start of
Impressa Advisors and whatinspired y'all to start this
company.
Impresa Advisors (01:02):
Well, courtney and I have had very full and
successful careers up until thispoint, to the point that we
decided to start our own firm.
We've operated as C-suiteexecutives in the respective
organizations that we've workedin, and I think it really was a
matter of life circumstances,personal family circumstances,
(01:25):
and really just being at a pointin each of our respective lives
where we were ready to makethat jump and take a risk, to
venture out on our own.
And I think when we met, it wasa natural connection and we
just hit it off immediately andjust kind of knew the path
forward from there.
Carol Park (01:46):
Yeah, it sounds very exciting and you were so right.
I mean starting your ownbusiness where you both were in
the level executive positionsI'm sure doing very well, very
secure.
So launching your own businessis risky business, right?
This is all about vulnerability.
(02:07):
So tell us a little bit aboutwhat that was like, especially
as women at being entrepreneursand launching this new business.
Tell us what that was like.
Impresa Advisors (02:20):
Sure.
So, as Cassie said, we had anundeniable connection as soon as
we met.
We had traveled similar pathsin our corporate, although
different paths, but they hadthese really interesting
inflection points that were verysimilar points.
(02:46):
That really gave us anopportunity to pause, reflect
and think individually and thencoming together and being able
to share those experiences.
Early on, cassie and I did a lotof storytelling with each other
to connect, and as the morestories we told, the more
connections and similarities tothe path that we traveled, and
so that was sort of the root ofstarting Impreza, because we
weren't doing this alone.
(03:06):
So this thought of venturingout and taking the risk, it's
still super scary, but you'rejumping with someone else and
somebody else who has hadsimilar life experiences up to
this point, who has been part ofyour life.
We met through a mutualconnection, serendipitously, and
it was just the perfect timing,and so it sort of felt like we
(03:29):
were supposed to meet at thistime and let's take this
introduction that the universeput in front of us and jump in
together into this endeavor.
And so doing it together helpsto.
While the risk is the same,there's some comfort in knowing
somebody's in it with you.
Carol Park (03:48):
Absolutely, absolutely Sharing that risk,
together having the connectionsto feed off of each other, to
know each other's strengths andprobably weaknesses.
I mean because we're humanbeings, so I'm sure that y'all's
strengths and weaknesses y'allalso play off of each other in
that way.
So did y'all go just what Iwould call kind of cold turkey
(04:10):
you just quit and started.
Or did you say let's stay wherewe are, we'll kind of start
building things and then we'llmake the jump.
Or did you just jump?
Were you just all in?
Impresa Advisors (04:22):
I think we, you know, we sort of did this in
phases.
I made the decision first, afew months before I met Courtney
actually, that this was thepath that I wanted to pursue.
And again, it was really theuniverse lining us up perfectly
by the time Courtney was ready.
It was sort of a no brainer,let's jump in.
(04:44):
So again, I think it was reallywe were just ready at the
respective points we were in ourlives.
Yeah, and for me, the universekept sending signals, and that's
been one of my big learningsthat Cassie and I have shared.
As for our storytelling is, ifyou're watchful, there's always
signs, and for me, I kept tryingto go down one road and
(05:07):
universe kept pushing me backinto this entrepreneurial spirit
, in this consulting, reallysupporting startups, uh, and I
tried to ignore it for a whileand then the universe just kept
hitting harder and harder.
At a point where I met Cassieand I was like, okay, fine, I
get it.
I get it like this is wherewe're supposed to get it Like
this is where we're supposed tobe.
It's time, this is where we'resupposed to be.
(05:27):
But I think you know that was.
That was part of.
What also gave us comfort ineach other was that we had gone
through that self-reflection andthe realization that we're in a
point in our lives where we'reconfident in who we are and we
know what we bring to the tableand we're also super transparent
about what maybe is not ourstrongest muscle and our you
(05:50):
know quote unquote weaknesses,which just is an area where I
just haven't worked as hard todevelop it quite yet and super
open about all of that andbringing it together onto the
table as we're going.
Yes, let's be partners and whatdoes that actually mean?
How do we work together?
But again, not doing it aloneand doing it with full, open,
transparency and arms welcomingeach other's journeys up to this
(06:13):
point into the conversation.
Yeah, absolutely.
Carol Park (06:17):
I know.
When we talked prior to thepodcast and I was just getting
to know y'all a little bit yousaid that with every
entrepreneurial company, everybusiness, every idea that people
start, they will hit some pointwhere it becomes a whoa, what
do we do now?
(06:38):
And then there's a lot ofdecisions that have to be made.
Do we keep going?
Do we pivot?
To?
You know so many differentoptions.
Was there a certain point, evenas y'all were building Impreza,
that you realized, oh, oh, whatdo we?
What do we do now?
Do we pivot?
Do we?
Do we shift?
Did y'all reach a moment likethat?
Impresa Advisors (07:00):
That's a great question, carol, and we
absolutely see that almost everyday with our clients, our
partners, and I think one of thethings that I knew when I met
Courtney we're both formerathletes, endurance athletes at
that.
Immediately, one thing that Isensed was okay, we are both the
(07:21):
kind of people with the lifeexperience of when stuff gets
hard and we hit those pointswhether it's in business or
personal lives of this is a makeor break moment.
We can decide to push throughand keep going and figure out
what are the next three thingswe need to get done, to keep
going or say this isn't working.
I knew that Courtney was goingto be that partner who's like if
(07:43):
we're having a hard day, that'sokay, it happens.
But what are the next couple ofthings that we need to get done
and push through?
And I I don't really feel likewe've had any of those moments
that make our break where, if wedidn't push through on this, we
we would have to stop and foldup shop.
I think that we just have thatmentality every day of we're
going to keep going Again.
(08:03):
Former athletes, we love to win, we do not like to lose or fail
, so it just it really hasn'tbeen an option for us up until
that point.
One piece of resilience right,yeah, resilience, yes, but
resilience with, again, theresilience with intelligence.
So, while we have continued topush forward with the spirit of
(08:26):
Impreza, supporting startups inthat early stage, what we have
changed is how we've thoughtabout how we serve our clients.
So, while we have not changedin what we believe the value of
our firm is the direction ourclients that we're going to
(08:47):
serve and where they are intheir journey, what has changed
is how we support them so much,like Cassie mentioned, we have
partners, so we've got ourclients that we support, and
then we have strategic partnersthat we have brought on, and
part of that is all wrapped upin this idea that our firm's
value proposition is to give ourfounders time back.
(09:10):
So we support that back officesupport.
Let the founders do what theydo, which is be visionaries in
technology and in science, andwe support the business aspect
of it, and we've done that withImpreza as well.
So we brought on strategicpartners where we believe that
either our time isn't valued inthat space or we know that we
(09:32):
don't have as deep subjectmatter expertise as maybe our
clients might need and we'reable to pull on those strategic
partners when necessary.
So being agile in our businessmodel has really helped us to be
able to continue to moveforward.
So we've adapted Impreza'svalue proposition, if you will,
a couple of times, but never theintent and never questioned.
Do we belong in this space?
(09:53):
Because we absolutely believewe do.
Carol Park (09:56):
Yeah, I'm so amazed by y'all's business too.
I know I shared with y'all inaddition to being a therapist,
me and a couple of co-foundersactually started our own
business, which, snowy day herein Texas, worked from home.
Yesterday was a telehealthplatform for therapists that was
(10:18):
HIPAA compliant.
And this was before.
This was a thing certainlybefore COVID, and when we had
started and hired a developer,we were tracking along, it was
going okay, not great.
And then we didn't hear fromthem.
And one day I was like I'm justgoing to go to their office
before I start work this morningand they were shut.
(10:39):
I mean, they were closed, witha sign on the door do not let
them in.
And the moment of panic and thatwas certainly a moment of oh,
do we keep going?
Do we say, maybe this is wherewe stop because we had already
spent investment money, wedidn't have a product and so,
(11:00):
long story short, we did decideto keep going.
But these are the things andthinking of y'all's business
where advisors who understandstartups and could give advice
at that point or help usnavigate, that probably would
have been nice, we justnavigated it and kept going.
But these are the stories and Iknow when y'all talked about,
(11:22):
there will always be something,and this is the uncertainty, the
risk, the emotional exposurethat we talk about with the
vulnerabilities.
So how do y'all help companiesas they navigate the
vulnerabilities?
Do you share some of your ownstories, your business Like?
Do you share maybe, failures,because we all fail, right, as
(11:46):
human beings, but how do y'allnavigate that?
Impresa Advisors (11:51):
Well, we absolutely.
If you haven't figured this outabout Courtney and I already,
we are definitely storytellersand we again, with a lot of
experience in our respectivecareers, have a lot of stories
to tell and they're not allknock it out of the park wins.
So we absolutely bring thatexperience in with us.
We share that with our clients.
(12:12):
We share when other colleaguestell us about their hardships or
their losses or failures.
We remember that too and sortof keep that in our portfolio of
things to remember as we helpour clients build and grow and
overcome.
Carol Park (12:29):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Is there any particular aspectthat y'all have found?
And maybe not, but as beingwomen in C-suite advisory
position, that has broughtcertain challenges.
Impresa Advisors (12:44):
You know, I don't.
I think Courtney and I woulddescribe ourselves as number one
, being very good at what we do.
Two, we happen to be women Digdown deeper.
We're both mothers, we havefamilies, we have a very full
personal place to manage andbalance, so we multitask with
them along the best of them.
(13:06):
I don't know that there havebeen challenges, but I have to
say I think we bring a lot ofstrength to the companies that
we work with because we are veryadept to multitasking.
We, um, I think we have a lotof emotional intelligence and
being one step removed from thefounder's position, I think that
gives us a unique perspectiveto be a little bit more
(13:28):
objective.
Um, so I don't, uh, I don'treally feel like there have been
challenges as women.
No, and I feel like we we tendto.
We get to.
We're in the luxury position ofchoosing who we work with, and
one of the first things we dowhen we start to get to know
potential clients or strategicpartners is we tell stories, and
(13:51):
Cassie and I don't shy awayfrom who we are outside of
Impreza.
In fact, we bring it to thetable and we encourage others to
share as well, to put it ontothe table that we're all
something outside of what we doon a nine to the table and we
encourage others to share aswell, to put it onto the table
that we're all something outsideof what we do on a nine to five
basis and what we're trying tobuild because Cassie and I are
building at the same time ourfounders are, which also is
helpful in a shared experience.
Yes, and that is super uh,seems to be impactful and
(14:16):
resonates with our foundersgoing.
We're in it with you.
We're trying to grow in present, just as you're trying to grow
your agency as well, and soputting all of that again on the
table and bringing about a bitof humility and just humanizing
the relationships we feel likegives us a big advantage, and we
just happen to be females.
Carol Park (14:36):
Yeah, yeah, I like that.
I also was thinking you arekind of in that parallel process
.
You're in that advisoryposition helping them from the
business side, but you're alsobuilding your own business.
So they're building theirs,you're building yours, but again
all of your experience in theretoo.
(14:56):
What business goals and valuesdrive and lead y'all as you
continue to build your businessand help other businesses grow
too?
Impresa Advisors (15:09):
I think one of the first things that Courtney
and I agreed on is we want tohelp businesses that are really
working to make a difference,and it doesn't have to be a
lifesaving business, butsomething that will affect
whatever audience it's marketingto and move the needle for them
.
One of the other fundamentalthings that two of them, rather
that we look for are foundersand partners who want to grow
(15:33):
and who are open to be coached,because those are things that we
believe in about ourselves.
We're always looking to growand we are coachable, either
with each other or from externalsources and events.
But the other sort ofunderlying thing is we want to
have fun.
I think we've both done thingsin our careers where we've done
(15:55):
it because we've had to and thatwas the company party line and
that's what the job was and nowwe're at a place where we get to
choose the people that we workwith.
We are looking for people withreally positive attitudes and
energy and who want to go havefun.
So I think those are some ofthe primary things we keep in
(16:16):
mind every day as we work.
Carol Park (16:19):
I remember that, when we had our conversation too
, that y'all said you reallywant to work with companies that
can make a difference in someway in people's lives or
whatever.
And I do remember that, whichis part of why I asked the
question.
So, yeah, I think that'sfabulous.
So, and the having fun, yeah,especially at this stage.
(16:42):
I mean, y'all are young, butyou still you don't want life to
just always be a grind right.
It's too short, so to have somefun in there too, so OK.
So how do y'all continue togrow your business?
So, again, you're in thisparallel process, helping others
(17:02):
continue to grow theirs andbuild theirs and and make a
difference.
How, how do y'all grow yours?
Impresa Advisors (17:09):
I don't know that we have a secret sauce to
growing the business.
We get most of our businessthrough referrals, so part of it
is just doing a good job,delivering on what we commit to
do, providing the value we knowwe can bring to the table, and
that seems to help and continueto have referrals.
(17:30):
For the part of the businessthat comes to us, that's not
referrals, that's Cassie and Igetting out there and engaging
with folks and being part of theconversations, partly for us
and also partly for our clients.
Anytime we go to any sort ofintentional networking event,
we're networking for Impreza andwe're also looking for
(17:52):
potential opportunities forinvestments or partners for our
clients, and so we've gottenreally good at listening.
And, again, we're storytellers,so we get connecting with folks
and telling our story or aclient's story.
We've gotten really, reallygood at making that just a
natural part of our DNA.
Cassie and I also seem to have aknack, for anytime we go out
(18:14):
it's an opportunity to meetsomebody new, and so there's
multiple stories of us going tocoffee shops or having a drink
at a bar and all of a sudden itturns into a business
opportunity because we're notafraid to say hi, I'm Courtney,
I'm Cassie Right and just makethat introduction and start from
there and see where theconversation flows.
We've also learned a lot fromthose types of connections that
(18:36):
we brought back to our clientsgoing oh we met this person and
they were in this field, butthey gave us this piece of
advice.
We should look into this, andthat might take us into a
slightly different directionthan we anticipated.
So we look at every opportunityto engage with someone new as
an opportunity to hear theirstory and possibly learn
something yes, it's where y'allstarted, even where the start of
(19:00):
your business.
Carol Park (19:01):
it's about connection, and so y'all are
good at connections and makingconnections and being connectors
with others, and so that justcontinuing to build and grow.
And, yeah, I think bestreferrals are from people that
you've worked with that feltlike they were helped, they
found success, and then theyrefer you.
Even as a therapist, I thinkthe same that when a client
(19:25):
tells someone that they love orfriends with, hey, you know you
may be struggling, there wouldbe somebody you would want to
see.
It's that's the referral thatmeans the most, because they've
actually been helped or foundthe services to be helpful.
So, yeah, well, any specificadvice you would give to other
(19:48):
entrepreneurs that are thinkingof starting a company, that have
started a company Our viewersor listeners are kind of lucky
here, because they they're goingto get some free advice.
Impresa Advisors (20:03):
Yeah, I would say I think you'll know the
moment.
At least for me, you'll knowwhen it's the right moment to
make the leap, to take the jump.
I attempted to take the jumpseveral times and it just never
felt quite right until now, Um,and there was just an internal
gut.
So I'd say trust your gut.
Your intuition is there toguide you and to protect you and
(20:24):
to tell you when it's right andtell you when there is an
opportunity to learn.
And the other thing would bethat you know, on those hard
days, one to expect them and,when they happen, welcome them
with open arms and a readinessto learn and recognize that
you've already survived ahundred percent of your bad days
and you would survive this onetoo, and to keep pushing forward
(20:45):
.
Carol Park (20:47):
Wow, that's great advice.
That's great advice, kathy, youhave any advice.
Impresa Advisors (20:51):
I do, and I'll just add to that that you don't
have to know all of the answerson the first day.
You know whether it's you'recontemplating going out on your
own and starting something.
You have an idea.
You know big ideas.
Don't just have it's not justan aha moment.
For most of us it takes manyiterations, many days of
(21:11):
refinement and I hate this word,but pivoting.
You've got to keep adapting andadjusting.
So just keep going and beflexible and keep editing your
product, your ideas, and knowthat it's a process and that you
don't have to know everythingthe first day is the best piece
(21:32):
of advice I would give tosomeone thinking about starting
a business.
Carol Park (21:35):
Yeah, that's fantastic advice.
So tell me a little bit more,too, about your company.
Do you work with it sounds likeprimarily startups, and are
they?
Well, startups are typicallysmaller, but do you work with
really small companies, Then?
Do you as they grow?
You continue to work with themas they?
Impresa Advisors (21:57):
tell us a little bit more about your
company with them as they tellus a little bit more about your
company.
So we work with a range ofcompanies really so startup from
pre-money, pre-fundraising tosmall to medium businesses that
don't identify as a startup atall.
I would describe my skill setand expertise as being very
focused on people, but on theexternal part so communications,
(22:19):
fundraising, investor relationsCourtney is an expert on
everything people, internal andbusiness administration.
So I think we're a really goodfit that way.
But that means we can operatein that range of startup to
mostly established business.
But maybe they are operating abusiness on a multiple day
(22:40):
mostly established business.
But maybe they are operating abusiness on a multiple day,
multiple states, and theyhaven't had a chance to create
fundamental procedures or anemployee handbook, for instance,
and we'll come in and do someprojects that way.
What we really love to do isoperate as a fractional portion
of our portfolio company'sC-suite, so we join their team
seamlessly as if we were therefrom theuite.
So we join their teamseamlessly as if we were there
(23:03):
from the beginning.
Sometimes we are there from thebeginning and we are the ones
who worry about those businessfundamentals.
So, just like Courtney saidearlier, they can focus on being
a founder and being thatvisionary, but we will
absolutely take on acuteprojects.
So someone, a startup, needs toget ready for a fundraise and
they just need our help gettingready for that or coaching on
(23:24):
that Go to market strategy, veryspecific things.
We'll jump in on that also.
Carol Park (23:32):
Yeah, so y'all really come in at all sorts of
points, from a beginning pointto a mid, to trying to exit.
Even you even work with theexit strategies with businesses
as well yeah, yeah, and then we,we're we are.
Impresa Advisors (23:48):
Our intent is to build long-term relationships
and connections with thesefounders.
Rather, if we get to championinside and be part of the
visioning everything everythingfrom designing processes,
putting in place the properoperations, making sure we have
the right talent on the team atthe right time.
That we're focused externallyfrom our marketing investor
(24:09):
perspective, that the foundersand their executive teams are
leading and building a companyin a way that they anticipated
it to be from a culture, stratand strategy conversation
leading towards an exit.
And then we also support theexits.
We've got some M&A experiencein our background as well to
help that exit process occur,which can happen in a multitude
(24:33):
of different ways.
But our joy is being part of thejourney and doing that right
along and being adaptable,because a startup that is
pre-seed has a very differentneed of a functional C-suite
than a startup who's nearing anexit.
Those needs are strategicallyand functionally different.
And then you've got thecompanies in the middle and
(24:54):
those are also very different interms of what they need.
And so we are adaptable in theway that we support all of our
clients.
But we've got a nice portfoliothat's got sort of all of them
in different stages of theorganization, which makes it fun
for Cassie and I.
Going back to what Cassie said,we got in this to have fun.
Carol Park (25:15):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, I also hear how thesynergy with y'all started and
continues and your experiencethat you were already C-level
executives and had lots ofexperience before even coming
into this where you're going toconsult and advise and bring
(25:38):
others to the team to consultand advise.
So, yeah, I hear how y'all hitit off from the beginning and
came up with your company.
So any final words to ouraudience, anything that you
would like to say?
Impresa Advisors (25:54):
Thank you, carol, for giving us the time,
and certainly if anybody that'slistening wants to connect.
Kathy and I, of course, love toshare stories, so we'd love to
a chance to connect and shareand learn, yeah absolutely.
Carol Park (26:07):
Thank you so much for being guests this morning.
It was delightful and I justwish you continued success as
y'all have fun and make adifference with the companies
that y'all are advising,strategizing with, helping to
grow.
So best to you both and thankyou again for being our guest
this morning.
Impresa Advisors (26:27):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
Thanks for tuning in to the Courage Unmasked podcast.
If you enjoyed today's episode,don't forget to subscribe and
leave a review.
It really helps us grow.
Follow us on social media forupdates and a look at what's
coming next, and a big thank youto our sponsor, comixio, for
supporting this journey.
Until next time, keep leadingwith courage.
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