Ep. 13: Building a Remote Workforce Empowered by Women: Liza Rodewald of Instant Teams

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Curious about how an "accidental entrepreneur" turned a desire for flexibility into a thriving software company? Meet Liza Rodewald, the visionary behind Instant Teams, as she shares her incredible journey and the pivotal moments that shaped her path on the Female Founder Show. Learn how the pandemic has revolutionized remote work, presenting unique opportunities for women, and discover Liza's unique leadership style that emphasizes empowerment and creativity within her team.

In this episode, Liza also offers invaluable advice for aspiring female entrepreneurs, shedding light on both the challenges and the rewards of launching a business. She emphasizes the importance of self-care for sustaining motivation and openly discusses her experiences with venture capital funding. Tune in to hear Liza's passionate commitment to supporting other female founders and the significance of building a strong community. Join Bridget Fitzpatrick as we celebrate Liza's remarkable accomplishments and eagerly anticipate future recaps with this inspiring leader.

Thank you for tuning in to The Female Founder Show with host and entrepreneur Bridget Fitzpatrick. If you like what you heard, please give us a review and let us know what you think?

Want to hear and see more great content to help you run your business more profitably? Go to ASBN.com.

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Episode Transcript

Voice Over (00:07):
This is the Female Founder Show with host and
entrepreneur Bridget Fitzpatrick, exclusively on ASBN.

Bridget Fitzpatrick (00:18):
Hello everyone and welcome to this
episode of the Female FounderShow, where you will hear
inspiring stories and advicefrom female entrepreneurs to
help you build and grow yourbusiness.
This show is designed toinspire and motivate other
female founders to be the bestthey can be.
Today's guest is Lyda Rodewald,founder and CEO of Instant
Teams.
Instant Teams is a technologyplatform that enables companies

(00:40):
to create and manage remotecustomer success teams powered
by a workforce of militaryspouses.
She's a four-time entrepreneurand a software engineer with
over 16 years of experience.
Liza, thank you so much forjoining us today.
Thank you for having me.
It's a pleasure to be here, yes,can you talk to us about what
was your motivation for startingyour company?

Liza Rodewald (01:02):
Sure, so I call myself kind of an accidental
entrepreneur.
I started my first softwarecompany when my son was actually
16 months old and I was doing alot of traveling for work and I
wanted to kind of have a littlebit more flexible lifestyle and
time on my hands.
And so I went to my firstcompany I worked for and pitched
becoming a consultant for themand started my entrepreneurial

(01:25):
journey there.
And then that really took offand really started to get my
creative juices going oncreating companies and being in
that entrepreneur space and now,with so many people working
remotely, talk to us about theimpact the pandemic has had on
instant teams.
Sure, so the pandemic, while aterrible thing for us all to

(01:47):
have to go through, has reallyaccelerated the timeline and
companies adapting remote work,which is really great for
especially women in theworkforce in this kind of
environment having to jugglemultiple things families,
schools, daycares being out,those types of things and so
seeing the industry adapt sofast, I would say it sped up

(02:08):
that timeline by at least 10years.
And especially in governmentand healthcare, some of the
slower moving industries reallyhad to adapt overnight, creating
a lot of opportunities.

Bridget Fitzpatrick (02:21):
That's great.
Now can you describe yourleadership style?
Is it different from men thatyou've worked for or with in the
past?

Liza Rodewald (02:28):
Yeah, my leadership style is very, I
think, visionary and hands-off.
So I like I love the creationparts of what I love about being
an entrepreneur findingproblems, solving problems,
really being creative butempowering people to also have
that kind of same leadershipstyle within my team so that

(02:49):
they can really take ownershipof things Like ownership is one
of my main core values, I think.
Growing up in tech so I'vealways been in tech since I
graduated college, so I'vealways been predominantly around
men in the workforce that myleadership style I don't know if
it necessarily adapted fromthat, but has always just been a

(03:11):
part of what I've done in thedifferent businesses that I've
created.
But I really like to empowerempower the people that work for
me, empower them to join thevision and be really creative.
That's what really gets meexcited.

Bridget Fitzpatrick (03:22):
I think that's great.
Great now for those women outthere thinking about starting a
business.
What advice do you have forthem?

Liza Rodewald (03:29):
well, first of all, it's very hard.
So I I always like to be verytransparent about creating a
company.
Starting a business is a lot ofwork, right.
So it's going to be more workthan a typical nine to five.
It takes more grit to dig inand you know lots of highs, lots
of lows, but it's very, veryrewarding and very exciting.

(03:51):
So if you have kind of thatpersonality who wants to go out
and get something, you have biggoals.
I strongly encourage it.
But I also strongly dislikesome of the narrative that's
online these days about how easyit is to start a business or
how quick it is.
It is a journey.
It is difficult but it is worthit when you get in it and do it

(04:11):
and I just like to encouragepeople go for it.
Like, if that's what you reallywant, go for it.
Just know that it's a rollercoaster that you'll be on, you
know, during the creation andeven the lifeline.
It doesn't get necessarilyeasier.
The problems just get different.

Bridget Fitzpatrick (04:27):
Exactly yes , it's a lot of hard work.
So on your most challengingdays, how do you stay positive
and motivated?

Liza Rodewald (04:35):
So I like to start all of my days.
The first thing that I do isexercise, and I think it's
really important as a femaleentrepreneur, as an entrepreneur
in general, to take care ofyourself, because if you're run
down, you cannot stay motivated.
Your body will literally breakdown on you, and I had kind of
that sort of experience abouteight months ago where I was a

(04:57):
little burned out.
I wasn't eating really well,wasn't sleeping really well and
I knew, ok, to be my best,optimal, optimal self, I've got
to create better habits andbetter routines and so doing
that, making sure you're takingcare of yourself, making sure
you're you're getting exercisein.
It's very easy to sit at thisdesk for 12, 13, 14 hours and
not get up, but really makingthose things a priority helps

(05:18):
keep you motivated, help keepsyour mind clear, helps keep you
inspired.
Just moving keeps your mindinspired.
I usually think of my bestideas and my best thoughts when
I'm exercising and doing thingslike that, versus sitting here
at the desk absolutely.

Bridget Fitzpatrick (05:32):
I couldn't agree more now, knowing what you
know now, is there anythingthat you would have done
differently when starting yourbusiness?

Liza Rodewald (05:40):
So we're a venture capital backed company,
so we've raised money which only2.2% of venture capital goes to
female founders.
So it's it is a different roadthat a lot of female
entrepreneurs don't go on, andthere's a lot of things I
learned early on that I wouldlove to take back now and and go

(06:01):
redo.
So what I'm doing instead ofthat is like helping other
female founders in the samestage about to raise money.
Okay, here's some things tolook out for and here's some
things that I really understandat the time.
But now, having walked throughseveral rounds of funding, it
becomes very apparent, right.
So just pouring those kind oflessons back?
Definitely nothing I wouldcompletely redo, but just some

(06:24):
little lessons.
I've learned along the way thatif you've never done that
before, it's hard to reallyunderstand until you walk
through it, you see the numbersall translate and then you're
like, oh, okay, that is how thatworked.
Next time I'll know not to dothese three things Really just
helping some other femalefounders, like watch out for
those types of things.

Bridget Fitzpatrick (06:45):
Yes, and learning from those mistakes.
That's great advice.
Can you recall a time when youmight have been treated unfairly
because you're a woman?

Liza Rodewald (06:54):
These are always interesting questions to me
because I did grow up in techright, and so I've always been,
I guess, a little confident andself assertive in situations,
because you just kind of have tobe when you're in those kinds
of rooms.
But I do remember, specificallywhen I was working as a
software engineer, I had wastalking to another male

(07:15):
colleague that actually got thejob for at the place we were
working for and found out likehe was making like $15,000 more
so than I was, and so I justwent straight into my manager's
office and I said, hey, I shouldbe getting paid x, he's getting
paid x and I got a raise right.
So I think also being awarethat those things happen is

(07:37):
important for women, and to notbe afraid to ask for or to
confront it, if you do see, itis really important.
So there's a few littleepisodes that I can kind of mark
along my journey, but you know,just having the confidence to
address it I think is reallyimportant that's.

Bridget Fitzpatrick (07:53):
That's very important.
I think in my early days ofbeing an entrepreneur I was a
little bit more passive, butover the years I've learned you
really do have to speak yourmind, say what you're, and if
you want to get what you want,that's, that's the only way.
So great, great advice there.
Now, in your opinion, what arethe qualities of a good
entrepreneur?

Liza Rodewald (08:13):
I think one of the main qualities I usually
talk about is mental stability,like if you are going to go on
the entrepreneur path, make surethat your life feels pretty
stable in any aspect that youcan actually make it stable in,
because it is so much of aroller coaster like you can
literally have the highest ofhighs and the lowest of lows

(08:33):
within a 30 second, 30 minuteinterval.
Right, these things happen veryquickly.
So having just that groundingforce in your life is really
important going into that stageso that's one of that mindset of
just steadiness as thingsfluctuate is a really important

(08:54):
skill set to hone, to make surethat you have before you kind of
start that entrepreneurialjourney.

Bridget Fitzpatrick (09:00):
Awesome.
You're doing great work, sokeep it up and congratulations
on your success.

Liza Rodewald (09:08):
Thank you so much for joining us and we look
forward to maybe having you backfor a recap later on.
Sounds great.
Thank you so much for having me.

Voice Over (09:13):
Thank you.
This is the Female Founder Showwith host and entrepreneur
Bridget Fitzpatrick, exclusivelyon ASBN.
If you're a female founder andwould like to help other female
founders with your inspiringstory, we would love to hear
from you.