S6 Ep. 270 Victoria Yampolsky - Voted #1 Fan Fav from 2022 Guest

S6 Ep. 270 Victoria Yampolsky   Having Victoria Yampolsky as a guest on my show was incredibly thought provoking and encouraging. She is an expert on financial strategy, female entrepreneurship funding, and AI. We hope you enjoy this show and listen all the way to the end to hear her mentoring advice that benefits all listeners regardless of who you are. Here is a bite of what you can hear when you listen to the podcast. We all have dreams and they may seem unattainable. There is more to that quote. You can learn more about Victoria’s company at http://www.thestartupstation.com or connect with Victoria on LinkedIn.   #iHeartRadio #ApplePodcasts #GooglePlay #Spotify #Stitcher #Podbean #YouTube #Employers4Change #E4C #internships #radio #podcast #innovation #employers #smallbusiness #business #FutureOfWork #ValenciaCollegeRadio  

Episode Transcript

(00:10):
Hi, my name is IsabellaJohnston, the Intern Whisperer.
Our show is brought toyou by Employers 4 Change.
And also this week'stip comes from builtin.
com.
We want to thank them for putting togetherthis great list of unconscious bias.
This particular bias is more commonlyknown as peer pressure, and it relates to
the tendency people have to act similar.

(00:33):
To the people around them,regardless of their own personal
beliefs or idiosyncrasies.
So when a hiring team gets together toreview a candidate's application and any
documents that go with them, that they'regetting ready to have that interview.
Conformity bias can cause individualsto sway their opinion of a candidate
to match the opinion of the majority.

(00:54):
That's not right.
We don't want to do that kind of buy in.
Everybody needs to bean independent thinker.
The problem is.
The majority is not always right,which may cause your team to miss
out on an excellent candidatebecause the individual opinions
become muddled in a group setting.
So how can we avoid conformity bias?

(01:15):
Well, it's going to be one of those thingsthat the hiring team has to get together
when they're reviewing a candidate.
They have to write down allof the feedback that they have
in their individual opinions.
Separately, not collectively as a groupwhen the interview ends, then you have
your team come together and review whateveryone wrote down as individuals so

(01:39):
that you can hear their impartial opinionsand avoid conformity bias in the process.
So this week's guest is I want to welcometo the stage is a guest that was the
top one most listened to audio download.
She would got 1st place when we didour competition for the end of 2022.

(02:01):
Victoria Yampolesky.
Did I mess up your name?
Still?
Please tell me no.
Yampolsky.
Yampolsky.
That's right.
There we go.
Thanks.
She is the founder of Startup Station.
She is a strategic CFO, a serialentrepreneur, a speaker, and the
founder of also a Power Up program.
We're going to talk aboutthat for female entrepreneurs.

(02:24):
As I mentioned, she was the numberone most downloaded show in 2022.
So welcome back.
Thank you so much Isabella.
It's such a pleasure to be back.
We've talked before the show that I'veenjoyed my time on this podcast so much
and I'm very happy that what we talkedabout resonated with so many people.

(02:46):
Yes.
And I'm going to remind our listeners,you can go back to season five, episode
two, two, two, and you can downloadthat on your favorite streaming channel.
We, we share our podcast and over 20.
20 podcast streaming channels.
It's also available on YouTubefor individuals that are deaf.

(03:07):
We do special closed captionand also for internationals.
So people, they can find us on Facebook.
Our podcast is on Facebook.
It's also on YouTube and thenover 20 plus streaming channels.
And the most popular countryis the Ukraine's second most
popular that listens to us.
And I think that's because of you.

(03:30):
That is very nice, to,for you to say that.
And I'm very happy.
Hello, everybody.
In Ukraine, who's listening inright now, we are there for you
and we feel for what's going onevery day and we send you love.
Yes, that is very true.
So we did our little refresh, buttell our listeners a little bit more

(03:50):
about you, where, where you wentto school and just a few minutes of
that and how you ended up in finance.
That's so unusual fora lot of women, right?
Yes, unfortunately, I hope that that'sgoing to be more of a norm just in
programming that there will be morewomen pursuing various fields and

(04:10):
thinking that anything is possible.
So I'm originally from Russia.
I came when I was 16, almost30 years ago, I was born in St.
Petersburg, which is oneof the, in my opinion, most
beautiful cities in the world.
And after having visited manycities in Europe, I still think so.
And hopefully, at some pointI'll be able to go back once the

(04:32):
political situation stabilizes, andsay hi to, my favorite places.
So I came when I was 16.
I finished high school early.
And I didn't speak any English.
And it seems, almost, impossiblenow that English, it's actually
easier for me to speak English thanto speak Russian on some topics

(04:54):
because I've been educated here.
But when I came, everythingwas a struggle, and yet, I
was able to, go to school.
I went to, a great university, Cornell.
I love it so much.
I'm very involved.
And, if anyone out there is applying andwants to reach out to me and as an alum,
you can reach out using my business email.

(05:15):
I think it's an amazing school wherethey really care about you, no matter
where you come from, which is, I think,what this country stands, for as well,
where, you know, it's open to peoplefrom, All over the place, if you're
willing to do the work and, so afterthat, I studied computer science.
I discovered that itwasn't really my passion.

(05:36):
I didn't want to spendmy time programming.
So I went to divide to consultingand I did that in New York happened
to be in FinTech got interested infinance, went to business school.
School.
Columbia Business School,which was also in New York.
Then I ended up in WallStreet and Deutsche Bank.
And I actually, ended up in a veryinteresting group, which was not usual.

(05:58):
There are traditional, routesthat you can go, when you work
on Wall Street and Messe and Bankand sales and trading or research.
And in research, you wouldtypically cover a certain sector.
But my group was like a hedge fundwhere we're looking for trade ideas
within the company's capital structure.
Transcribed And we're publishingthose ideas to sell to hedge funds.
That's where Deutsche Bank's clients andso I got a chance not to focus on just one

(06:22):
industry, but every two weeks to researchthree or four new industries in both U.
S.
and Europe and get exposureto making different companies.
And that serve is a great foundationfor the work that I'm doing now as
part of my company, where I also getto work with many founders across some
different industries and understandwhat they're trying to do and what
their business models are, et cetera.

(06:45):
So, well, should experiencewas great, but I discovered my
passion as an entrepreneur meantthat I have to be doing multiple
things and not just any one thing.
And so I left to actually start thecompany in media and entertainment.
Because what I didn't mention is thatfor 8 years before, you know, starting
in, Russian and continuing in the U.

(07:06):
S.
When I was in college, I was anactress, and that's, I guess a
passion that doesn't necessarilygo with computer science.
But I think that if you do differentthings that actually expands your mind
and, increases your creativity andallows you to think outside the box.
And I continue to docreative things even now.

(07:28):
But because I was an actress, I wasinterested in, media and entertainment.
I didn't want to continue acting,but I wanted to get into producing.
So I, I started a company, and, that wasmy first, foray into entrepreneurship.
I tried to raise 165 million dollars.
For a slate of five films for bothproduction and distribution failed

(07:50):
miserably because as a first timeentrepreneur, I didn't know anything
about entrepreneurship or raisingmoney or media and entertainment.
But I learned a lot.
And I think that's a lesson of notgetting what I want and making all of
this mistakes was absolutely necessaryfor my personal growth and for my

(08:10):
professional growth because it taught me.
Humility.
It taught me to do more research.
It taught me to, do more, backgroundchecks on the people that you can trust.
It, taught me to, not, try to dosomething without building a track record

(08:32):
leading up to it, which is very similar tostart the journey where you start with an
MVP and then you get a few customers andthen you grow it, as opposed to raising,
as your first venture, 165 million, whichis a lot of money, even for people who
have been in the industry for a long time.
So that venture didn't work out.
And after that I started The StartupStation because what I realized that The

(08:55):
problem that I saw in the film industrywhere there were many producers who
were passionate about their projects,but didn't quite think about how to
sell them after they were completed.
You know, what stars shouldyou attract in order to attain
distribution in various territories?
What distribution strategyshould you have at all, right?
So they were just very focusedon making their project without

(09:16):
thinking who's going to buy it.
Or even about the target audience, right?
And this is a mistake that a lotof, startup founders make too, where
they get so enamored when they'recreating that they forget that this
is a business and they forget thatthey're not creating it for themselves,
but in fact, for somebody else.
And that's how you canmake a lot of impact.

(09:37):
So what I realized is thatbecause they don't have it,
they don't have the business andfinancial acumen, I can help them.
And so The Startup Station, even thoughfirst started as a strategy and finance
consulting, very quickly shifted intofinancial consulting and CFO advisory
because, it was a very clear need.
Either people knew what cash flow was.

(09:59):
Or they didn't.
And, if you don't understand finance,then it becomes very difficult to raise
money and to explain to investors whythey should invest in your venture.
But it also becomes very difficultto execute and track cash and
understand which parts of thisstrategy are working or not.
And so The Startup Station was born.

(10:20):
We're actually celebrating this month.
10 year anniversaries and wow.
Congratulations.
Thank you.
It's a big milestone.
And a lot has happened, you know,the company grew, you know, from a
little consultancy to what it is now.
So now there is also an educationarm that's been launched in
2015, I began teaching financeto entrepreneurs in New York.

(10:43):
I had two meetups, several thousandpeople in New York and Boston.
It created a curriculum for early stagefounders that would educate them on the
topics of financial modeling, accounting,valuation, and startup finance, so that
they're in if they're in a positionwhere they cannot afford to hire a
consultant or somebody to help them.
They are able to do it themselves, butalso to educate them in this areas,

(11:07):
because even if they do have somebodywho can help them, there still needs to
be able to talk with them intelligentlyand understand what they're saying.
And there still need to be ableto speak with investors and
understand what their concerns are.
And if you don't understand finance.
Which is the language ofinvestors or accounting, which
is the language of investors.

(11:28):
You put yourself in asituation which is weak, right?
And you want to be in a position ofstrength when you are negotiating
for the future of your companyand for the future of your dreams.
And, so that the educationarm was launched in 2015.
We began doing a lot of, communitystuff, social media, free content, YouTube

(11:50):
channel, speaking engagements, afterthat, because, I believe that education
is the way to impact the most peopleand, you know, of course, complimented
at some point with one and one advice,but, to introduce some concepts that
are similar to that a lot of peoplehave trouble with the greatest impact
that one can make is one too many.

(12:12):
And, last year, , I finally launchedsomething that I think is the purpose of
my life, which is the program Power Up.
And that's a program in a strategicand financial planning for C level
female adventures to help themscale and raise the next round
of capital, which is serious.

(12:34):
And, this is, you know, we arefundraising for the program right now.
It's a pursuing lunch in 4different regions around the
world and it's been going great.
We'll talk about it a little bit laterand I have never been more, fired
up and inspired and motivated as Iam now, because I know that I'm in

(12:57):
a position to help women around theworld to make their dreams come true.
And I would like to do it.
Because I can, you know, my lastin that, in the nutshell, it is.
And my last question that I always have inthe first half of the show is what do you
want to be remembered for in your life?
And I would say you just answeredthat question to have global impact,

(13:21):
to help women be able to raise money.
Yes, I would like tobe remembered for that.
I'm also beginning to advocate, for,laws to, enable fair access to capital
for women and, minority founders.
So, I hope that That I'll be ableto make not only impact on the

(13:45):
ecosystem side, but also on thepolicy side so that there is support.
There's holistic support from all sides,but I also would like to be remembered as
somebody who was kind and compassionateand pursued her passions furiously and as
a result was able to help a lot of people.

(14:05):
Yeah, those are good.
Well, let's go back to where we first,began, which was Startup Station.
So how did you pick that name?
Actually, it wasn't me who picked it.
Before I, founded The StartupStation, I was advising, a startup

(14:25):
in a mobile app space when theywere just beginning in 2012.
And one of the co founderswas, a very creative guy.
And then when I told him about myidea that I helped them to go from
pre revenue to revenue, help them withthe go to market strategy, pricing
strategy, et cetera, and realized thatthere was a bigger business opportunity.

(14:48):
When I told him about the idea,he, it was immediate for him.
And then I liked thatname and that's it stuck.
And so thank you, Matthew for,Lazarus for giving me the name that
is still with, with my company.
Yeah, it's nice to have people thatinspire us and that are part of

(15:08):
the story and to acknowledge them.
I love that you did that.
So Startup Station, how do people find it?
How can they get started with it?
And what stage do they have to be?
Sure.
So, The, there are two waysin which one can work with The
Startup Station on the CFO site.

(15:29):
If the company is raisingmoney, we can help.
You come up with a financial plan toshow to investors, which will be a
representation of your business plan,and you can use parts of that, financial
plan as a story for your pitch deck forthe financial parts of your pitch deck.
And once the due diligence becomes,and investors really digging, into

(15:50):
your numbers, it's especiallyimportant to have a story.
Which you can justify, which clearlyconnects your strategic decisions in
your thinking to financial outcomesand substantiates whatever rating the
numbers you want to produce and whatevervaluation you'd like to get so companies
that are in the fundraising stage canbe anywhere from pre seed to series A,

(16:10):
have a lot of expertise specifically withventures that don't have a lot of revenue.
Because of the approach that I'vecreated, once I began on The Startup
Station, which is what I call strategicfinancial modeling, where we specifically
focus on understanding your strategy,modeling your strategic decisions
as the drivers of the financialmodel and creating the logic that

(16:32):
translates them into financial results.
But of course, the same model serves asa great business intelligence tool once
you raise money or for any company that, is, doesn't have a financial model like
that and is executing, but especiallyfor companies that are experiencing
issues or in a state of flux where theyexperienced a rapid growth, expanding

(16:53):
into a new area, launching new productsor experiencing, any other problems.
You know, let's say that they cannot grow.
They're in a turnaround stage.
They're not sure what their profitabilitylooks like, et cetera, et cetera.
So for those companies, we wouldwork with them on a monthly basis
and help them solve those issuesand help them transition into the
in house team when the time's right.

(17:15):
So you can either be on aproject basis or on the CFO side.
For people who would like to learnmore about finance, there are online
courses available that one can take.
Thanks.
They don't assume any prior knowledge offinance, they're 2 hours long, there's
100 questions, per course, where youcan, practice some of the concepts that
are taught and they're yours for life,so, once you buy it, it's, yours to

(17:39):
keep in case you wake up on a Sunday, youwant to refresh your accounts receivable
knowledge that is, available to you.
Oh, so it's ongoing.
It's like an ongoing,curriculum, it sounds like.
It's a, it's availablefor purchase online.
Exactly.
It's a collection of courses that can bebought as a bundle or they can be bought

(18:00):
separately depending on people's needs.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
And where do people go to find this?
Www.
thestartupstation.
com.
You said The Startup Station, right?
Yes.
Okay.
Okay.
Making sure everybody knows that.
Well, that's good to know.

(18:20):
So let's talk about Power Up.
What is that?
How did you, I know you explained it alittle bit at the beginning, but you know,
what is it and where did the inspiration,let's just go deeper into that.
So, for the past two and a halfyears, I've been teaching at
the Bank of America Institute ofFemales Entrepreneurship at Cornell.

(18:44):
It's a program that's funded by Bankof America for, women entrepreneurs.
It's free to them.
It's taught by Cornell.
It's a collection of six courses.
70 percent of students are minorities.
It graduates around 100,000 students a year.
I'm teaching, two courses a month,so about 500 students a month.

(19:04):
And even though my expertise isfinance, I was getting assigned
courses in communications growthleadership, which was actually
great because it gave me insightinto the minds of entrepreneurs and
challenges that they were experiencing.
And some of the mindset setbacksthat they had that held them back
from realizing their dreams andthinking about their business in

(19:27):
more ambitious terms, et cetera.
And I started thinking that mycurriculum that exists right
now, it's not specific to gender.
It's specific to subject matter, right?
If you want to learn accounting,you take this course.
If you want to learn, valuation,you take another course.
I wanted to create a program forfemale entrepreneurs to help them
because there is a glaring disparity2 percent of capital goes to female

(19:53):
funded teams, more to mixed teams.
But it's very difficult to, raisemoney if you were a female.
And there's a couple of reasons for it.
One is, that, you know, theymay not have the expertise.
That's not specific to men or, women.
You know, startups at differentstages face different challenges.

(20:14):
So if you don't solve those challenges,you're not going to be able to proceed.
The second challenge is, is what'stypically addressed as the confidence gap.
But I now, having read a lot about,brains and psychology, started, calling
it the difference in that thinking gap.
Because human's brain is differentand we perceive risk differently,

(20:37):
because biologically we had differentroles in, on top of that, there are
certain societal norms and societal.
patterns that we've been born into thatmay affect how we think about ourselves,
how we think about the potential of ourbusiness, and, how we think about the

(20:59):
probability of something happening or not.
And that all affects how, wego about entrepreneurship.
So the only way to change somethinglike this would be through Self
awareness and psychology training.
The, 3rd challenge is that Isaw is that a woman had less
access to investor networks.

(21:20):
Investors like to invest in people.
And in order to find out whichpeople they can invest in, they
go to the people they trust.
So they go by recommendation.
So if you're not recommended by somebodywho an investor trust, it's much more
difficult for you to get that access.
You may not even know thatthis investor is looking for
an investment in your company.

(21:41):
And so, we're, youknow, that's the problem.
The problem is access is a pretty big one.
There are some investors out there whosay we would love to invest in women.
We would love to invest in minorities.
We just don't see them in our pipelineand our pipeline is already very big.
So we, if one wanted to solve theproblem of, an inequitable access to
capital, one would have to address that.

(22:02):
And the final problem is data.
Yes, there is data available.
Some, I would say aggregate data interms of female adventurers performing
better, , than, or let's put it thisway, , the ones that have, the most
diversity gender balanced teams performingbetter than gender imbalanced teams.

(22:23):
But there is, not necessarily databy country, by region, by industry.
In terms of what, what that performancelooks like for female adventures.
And so there is an inherent perceptionof higher risk of investing in
women that comes from men's viewof what a woman's roles could be
in the family and responsibilities.

(22:45):
And I'll diverge a little bit.
We talked to a lot of female foundersin terms of the questions that
they get when they're fundraising.
And a lot of them have nothingto do with the business, but more
how are you going to balance your,family life and entrepreneurship?
Are you planning to get married?
Are you planning to have kids?
And this is not a question that a manwould get, and yet that's, reality.

(23:09):
That one has to know if onewants to address the problems.
So these problems can be addressed withnetwork where people know and want to
invest in female founders, as well asthe presence of data that will make
this issues non relevant because therewill be clear proof of what they can do.
So Power Up is the program that attemptsto solve all of these issues for one

(23:32):
specific segment of the market, whichis the ventures that have raised their
first round of capital and need to scale.
Now, why this segment?
There's already a lot of support availablefor ventures that are very young.
You know, you have an idea, youwant to build an MVP, you want
to find your first customers.
There are many, manyprograms available out there.
There's not as many programs.

(23:53):
Available for what happens next andit's at that point that many ventures
fail because they're not able to scale.
They're not able to scale from 1 millionto 10 million from 500, 000 to 5 million.
They're not able to not only scale theirrevenues, but their infrastructure.
The biggest need at that point is,strategy and financial planning.

(24:16):
And that's why, you know, obviouslyfinancial planning is my expertise.
That's why I joined forces withmy co founder, Hemp Hampton, who
is a chief revenue officer, andfractional chief revenue officer
for many startups and multi, exitfounder who supplies the strategy side.
Now strategy and finance areintricately connected because If you

(24:39):
don't have a strategy, then what isthe financial plan represent, right?
It's just some, dreams that will neverbe executed on because they're not really
connected to the company separationsand what the company is playing to do.
And on the flip side, if you havea strategy, but you haven't done
the work to evaluate its financialfeasibility, the resources that you're

(25:00):
going to need in order to implement it.
The funding that's required inorder to put it into action.
You're again in a situationwhere you created something that
cannot be, executed in reality.
So the two come together and that's whyour program is focused just in this area,
which is a traditionally very weak areafor a lot of accelerators, where they
kind of, skim over those issues becausethey're not as relevant at early stages,

(25:24):
but they are very relevant the secondyou get capital and you need to scale.
The second thing that we're solving,like I've mentioned, is the different
in the mindset gap, and that is executedas a weekly group coaching sessions.
What I should mention for the first partof the program is that so the program
is structured as the initial bootcampduring which the founders put together

(25:46):
two year roadmap for them to execute on.
Why two years?
That's the length of time thatit takes on average to raise
the next round of capital.
And so we want to support them for theentire length of time as opposed to three
or six months that other programs have.
And so after the bootcamp, theywill go through quarterly one day
assessments to assess where they are,make sure that they stay on track and

(26:08):
help them to react to any challengesand, evaluate new opportunities.
The same cohort that begins workingtogether in the bootcamp, you know,
let's say 10 or 12 companies willcontinue to meet every week for
weekly group coaching sessions.
And this is a critical part of ourprogram and what, really, It's a focus

(26:34):
on psychology and the focus on coaching.
And so this sessionswill serve two purposes.
One, it will be an inbuilt supportgroup for entrepreneurs to go and share
their successes and talk about theirchallenges and realize that even if they
have setbacks, it says nothing abouttheir potential as human beings, or even

(26:55):
their potential, for their venture.
Thank you.
It's just simply part of their journey.
And if they change their relationshipwith rejection of failure, if they become
unafraid of, Negative circumstances,they will be able to achieve so much more.
And the second part of it will be thepsychology part where we'll introduce

(27:18):
some concepts in terms of how our brainswork, our subconscious biases, how
people think, how they make decisions onboth sides, because we have to interact
with both genders so that entrepreneursbecome aware of their thought patterns,
which can be unhelpful, as well as veryspecific tools, how to change them, so
that after eight months, About 8 monthsof doing this work, they can see real

(27:42):
differences in their perspective and howthey think about themselves, how they
see the potential of their ventures.
And it's our hope that after2 years, they'll, become,
they will feel limitless.
They will feel bold.
They will feel unencumbered to try.
Whatever they like, and we'll produce thenext generation of female entrepreneurs

(28:03):
who will not only raise serious a, whichis the purpose of the program, but will
go on and raise serious B's and C's andD's, which is how you can breach the
gender funding gap, not by raising just,you know, little rounds of capital.
The third part is access.
And so we creating a globalnetwork of Power Up ambassadors.
For all supporters of the program.

(28:24):
It's already present in 25countries on five continents.
And these are investors, philanthropists,academics, C suite executives,
business leaders and entrepreneurs.
And that again serves two purposes.
One is Let's say we run this program.
It's a virtual program.
By the way, it can be run in person.

(28:44):
It can be done virtually.
Let's say we run this programsomewhere in the emerging markets.
And of course, for a specificemerging market, the hope is to
go to a bigger market and it helpsif you have some friendly faces in
those markets for you to expand.
And so by creating an internationalnetwork, we're making it easy
for companies to go cross border.

(29:04):
And the second and very importantaspect is what I've talked about
before, which is access, right?
By having people who know about thecompanies coming out of the program
and ready for investment, it makes iteasier for our ambassadors to refer
them to people in their networksand for these companies to become
trusted referrals and get the accessthat they don't currently have.

(29:25):
The final aspect is data.
I've talked about it before, wherethere is some data available,
but there's no granular data perindustry, per region around the world.
And this is what we're going to becollecting as part of a Power Up.
Anytime we have an event in theprogram, starting with the pre
assessment at the boot camp andcontinuing with every program event,
which is a quarterly assessment, andthen after on a semi annual basis.

(29:50):
And what without will do is by the timethat they're going to go for fundraising,
there will already be an 18 month worth ofa transparent track record of execution,
which will clearly indicate the levelof risk involved in each venture, which
is an issue for a lot of startups.
You know, they may not have theright finance infrastructure in the
right processes in order to recordthe data and produce those records.

(30:11):
It doesn't matter, by the way, herewith the male or female lab, but if you
have those records, it makes it mucheasier for investors to make a decision.
Because it's part of due diligenceand so Power Up is a combination
of, expertise training coaching.
Network and data as a fourpronged solution to solve for

(30:33):
the gender funding gap worldwide.
So I pulled it up on your websiteand I was going through it as
you were talking about it here.
And I was looking through, youknow, you have some really nice
diversity on the website too.
So I can see that it's somethingthat would benefit women.
I think women anywhere in theworld can look at and go, Oh, I

(30:54):
see somebody that looks like me.
You know, whether it was race,ethnicity, age, whatever.
So I, I love that.
That's super helpful.
And then you have allies.
You have the male allies that are there.
Yes.
That's very important to us, because,we don't want to create a program
that fights discrimination bydiscriminating someone from participating.

(31:16):
And because the capital now isconcentrated in the hands of man.
It would be foolish not to get theminvolved and not to get them on our
side and explain how much more we cando together, how much more economic
impact innovation and return oncapital we can achieve if we remove
any boundaries from making decisions.

(31:38):
And you've got ambassadorsto and testimonials.
So you are like, reallykilling it over here.
I think that's wonderful.
I saw our friend Andy.
I'm going to give Andy linesa little shout out there
too, because she's awesome.
Yeah, but you the ambassadors, let's talkmore about the ambassador ambassadors.
How do people get involved with that?

(32:01):
If someone would like to becomean ambassador, they can go on.
They can either reach out to me becauseright now we curate who joins the
network, or they can fill out a formon our website, which says, you know,
join to apply to be an ambassador, andthen we'll review the information and
get back to the person who's applying.

(32:23):
The role is a public endorsement role.
And, we want supporters whocan lend credibility to the
program around the world.
We would love to add more countries andexpand our reach, or we would like to
add people who can help introduce us topotential sponsors, corporate sponsors,
or philanthropic sponsors for the program.

(32:46):
The four regions we're pursuing right noware US, Africa, Jordan, and Australia,
given our connections in each region.
So if you have connections in thoseregions, I would love to talk to you.
Now, there are other ways to getinvolved with and just to talk a
little bit more about the ambassadors.

(33:06):
So there is no time commitment.
There's no cost to join.
All we're asking is if you knowsomeone once we approve your
application, if you know somebodywho can be a Helpful to the program
who can help us advance the course.
It could be media can connection.
It can be a sponsor connectioncould be an investor connection
or entrepreneur connection.

(33:27):
Then you connect us to those people.
And that's how we've been ableto build a network right now.
And get.
unbelievable people involved.
And that's how we've been able to getPower Up to where it is, you know, to
exploring lunch in different regionsis through, through our network.
What do you get out of it is,introductions to our Power Up ambassadors.

(33:49):
Once we launched the program, of course,invitations to all the program events.
And then our, you know, if you'rean investor, we can, make our,
recommendations in terms of whichcompanies would be the best investments
based on how they're doing in the program.
And, of course, if there are any, other,opportunities that we can procure from our

(34:11):
network, then we're happy to do it too.
So it's a networking and apublic endorsement opportunity.
There will also be coaches in the program.
So the program is structured as acombination of workshops and one
on one sessions with companies.
And the coaches are eitherfractional strategy.
Consultants or strategy officers orchief financial officers to mimic

(34:35):
the two parts of the program, whichis strategic and financial planning.
So if you are falling to one of thoseexpertise, we can talk to you, not just
being an ambassador, but also becoming acoach in the program once we get funding.
And because it's virtual program,you can get a chance to mentor
companies around the world, whichI think is very exciting as well.

(34:57):
and bring them your expertise.
So I'm looking for the ambassadorlink and I don't see it.
So where do I, this is a wealth ofgreat information on your website.
How does somebody navigate to that?
I would imagine that you willfind, you will click on the link.
Find out more about ambassadors.

(35:18):
Oh, I see the link now that you said it.
Yep.
It's down here.
Learn more about PowerUp and bass ambassadors.
I want to make sure our listeners know howto navigate through your website for sure.
We'll make sure to put up a linkto join ambassadors as well.
I will check.
It's not there then.
Well, no, it is.

(35:38):
I think it is.
It says apply to be so.
Yep.
It's all it's all there.
So it's all good.
Yeah.
Okay.
Well, that sounds fun.
And then I was looking at your courses.
They look really great.
By the way, reallycolorful catches my eye.
You have all types of choices there,you know, being able to create a
case study the models included.

(35:59):
Being able to understand financials,valuation, all good stuff that
people would need to know.
Women, we'll say women, becausethat's what we're talking about.
But for women, for a lot of women, Iwould say, finance represents an area
of fear because they don't understand it.
And, it's really nothing to be afraid ofbecause, when you learn another language,

(36:23):
you also don't understand anything.
When you go to a foreign country, andI definitely can attest to that because
when I came here, I didn't understandanything and then you learn and then
everything starts to make sense.
And that's exactly like financecounting is nothing than just a
bunch of mathematical definitionsthat people have created in order to

(36:44):
define certain concepts to help themunderstand how the company is doing.
And you can think of this, languageas the language with which your
venture communicates with you.
Right?
It tells you which problems it has, whereit needs help, where it wants to go.
And as an entrepreneur, don'tyou want to speak that language?
That's your baby.
So yeah, nothing to be afraid of.

(37:06):
Not at all.
Not at all.
All right.
So let's come back over here tolike where my show notes were.
I think that giveseverybody a really good.
Insight as to what that program is.
And by the way, just a reminder, itis on The Startup Station website
and specifically says Power Up.
There's just like, it's soeasy to find right there.

(37:29):
So, you did some reallycool stuff in the summer.
And I want to talk aboutwhat you did this summer.
That was in June and in France.
So let's talk about that.
Sure.
So, Power Up, had itsfirst inaugural event.
In partnership with prepare for VCin Boston, new technology and born

(37:53):
global ventures and a few otherorganizations and the idea was to
discuss what's happening on the genderfunding gap front around the world.
And we were able to bringtogether speakers from US, Europe.
Middle East, Africa and Australiaand a person from Australia attended

(38:15):
the workshop at 1am for time becausewe couldn't make, you know, all the
time zones work and it just speaksto how passionate she was about
the topic and she really wantedto bring her expertise forward.
And so it was amazing to get everybodyin one place to talk about what's
happening around the world, on thefunding front and a range of initiatives

(38:40):
that are being, launched in order toaddress it, ranging from, nonprofit
to a government to private capital.
To corporate.
We had a person from PayPal whomanages two funds, 100 million funds
dedicated to diversity and inclusionand she talked about her strategy

(39:00):
and what PayPal as a global corporateis doing to address this issues.
We had a woman representing vital voices.
Which is an amazing organizationin Washington, founded by Hillary
Clinton and, Margaret Albrightto empower women around the world.
And then all the problems that theyhave in place, in order to achieve it.
They've been doing it for 25 years.

(39:23):
We've talked about our partner forPowerApp, Shekwetie, which is a
firm in Africa supporting femaleentrepreneurs in the region, as
well as running an accelerator, whichis part of the ecosystem support
and, another, our venture partnerin the Middle East, Amon Ventures.
And it's doing similar work for smallbusinesses and startups in Jordan.

(39:44):
And so it was, an amazing, I wouldsay, way for so many women leaders to
come together and to meet each other.
And it really speaks to the, ethosof what The Power Up is about, which
is the world should come togetherin order to solve a global problem.
It cannot be solved alone.

(40:06):
And the more like mindedpeople we bring, together.
The faster the change will happen and themore amazing things will happen and we
were lucky to have an event in the sameweek as they invest her summit, which
is we're in talks with to partner up aswell in the best her summit is part of a

(40:27):
global investor that's an organization.
Headquartered in France, that's 10 yearsold, and they're in business of creating
resources to match female foundersand funders so that they can find each
other and solve the access problem.
And they were having a summit onthe gender funding gap and access
to capital in Paris, and it waswonderful to have events on both

(40:51):
sides of the ocean at the same time.
I've never been to Paris,but I'm sure it's gorgeous.
And to be in that setting.
Wow, I cannot even imagine.
You must have met some reallypowerful women from around the world.
Well, I didn't get to go to the summit.

(41:12):
We did help to raise awareness about it,but I have been to Paris multiple times.
It's one of my favorite cities in theworld and if you haven't been, I highly
recommend that you take a weekend evenand go and it's absolutely wonderful.
I can only, you know, judging fromthe energy of the event that Power
Up generated, where we had over200 people attending, Thank you.

(41:38):
I can only imagine what a summit,what the summit felt like.
It must have been amazing and I hopethat it generated a lot of follow
through on the issues at work.
Yeah, that would have beenhard to concentrate there.
But, you know, just because.
You know, when you're in a newcountry, oh, I want to go see stuff.
But, you know, the purpose of whyyou're there is completely different.

(41:59):
So I think that trumpssightseeing for sure.
So, so let's talk about the NationalSmall Business Association in SBA.
You're involved with that.
You're, you wear so many hatsand I relate to that, but I
also know that it can be a lot.

(42:19):
So, we'll talk about how you balanceall of these things that you're doing,
but let's talk about what in SBA is.
Sure.
So, in April this year, I got anemail from NSBA, which stands for
National Small Business Associationto join their leadership cause.

(42:41):
National Small BusinessAssociation represents small
businesses in the United States.
It was founded in 1937 and thereare, it counts around 65, 000
members, in all 50 states.
The leadership council is a collectionof individuals that have a chance
to go to the local and federalgovernment in the media and lobby

(43:01):
for the interest of small business.
So, when they reached out to me andoffered me to become part of the
leadership council, I told them then Ihave 1 issue that I'm very focused on
and that I would like to advocate for.
And this is the gender fundinggap and fair access to capital.
And will they be willing to support it?
And they give me carte blanche to pursuethat issue and do, but basically advocate

(43:25):
for whatever issue I feel passionateabout as I'm using their platform
as a vehicle as a conduit to do it.
And, what's been happening recentlyis, It's been actually so many exciting
developments on the fair access to capitalfront, Alison Byers, who I don't know
if you've got a chance to speak with.

(43:47):
She is a founder of Scroobius.
She, I didn't know about this.
Until two weeks ago, she becamean advocate and, ideated a bill
that's been signed by Senate inCalifornia about, fair access to
capital for women and minorities.
It's a bill number 54 that's now wentfor signature to Governor Newsom.

(44:10):
It's the first bill of its kind,and it asks venture capital firms
to disclose their investments.
And women, and then other typesof minorities in terms of what
percentage they invest in and suchfounders and what amount of capital.
And then how that compares with the amountof capital invested in non minorities,

(44:30):
because there's obvious disparity, notonly that less capital goes but even
what kind of capital gets awarded.
I know also the same programexists, the same problem
exists on the website, Shopify.
recently published an article wherethey talked about the banks do not
award loans to female founders, thuspreventing many small businesses from

(44:53):
growing because not every businessneeds to go for venture capital.
Most businesses do not.
But if you don't get access todebt, then you're very limited.
In what you can do as a business and,Silicon Valley Bank was one of the
banks that actually did, award fundingto human entrepreneurs, but often not
on the same terms on owner's terms.
And because they didn't haveany other options, they were

(45:15):
forced to take those terms.
So as part of my role in SBA, I would liketo address that kind of disparity as well,
because this is also discrimination juston the bank side, not just on the VC side.
So this bill focuses on VCs becausebefore there was no regulation
of prior private capital at all.

(45:35):
And that's the 1st, 1 of its kind.
There is a similar billbeing, pushed in Massachusetts.
There was a call on Sunday that I'veattended where a state senator was there.
State representative and talked about thebill and her efforts to push it through.
And I would like to do the samein New York as part of NSBA.
I believe that, policies need tocomplement the ecosystem support.

(46:00):
We're creating ecosystem supportwith Power Up as well as many other
programs that we're collaborating with.
But it would be great if, that wascomplimented by what they are, you
know, by the lack of discrimination onthat, as a law that would be passed
by government starting with the U.

(46:21):
S.
But then hopefully around theworld at some point as well.
So this is my role when, and SBA andI'm beginning, you know, I'm learning
about the lobbying efforts and I'mputting a team together, a legal
team and a founding team investorteam to help me, get it through.

(46:42):
I think that's really inspiring.
Honestly.
I love that there's somuch availability though.
And you know, a lot of peopledon't think about debt as a
way to fund their business.
It's usually not on my radar, tobe honest, because I know that
with debt becomes, okay, yougot to start making payments.
I don't, do they, do they allowyou to delay making payments, like

(47:04):
maybe one or two months, so youcan kind of organize yourself?
Is that anything that they do?
I know that wasn't a question Ithrew out there, but I'm pretty
sure you might know the answer.
In terms of debt, you have to be ina certain position of your business
in order to be eligible for it.
Right.
In terms of your cash flow and interms of your ability to repay.

(47:27):
Will they allow delays?
It depends on the terms of the loan.
The terms of the loan are specifiedin the thing called covenants.
And so covenants may require, you tomaintain certain financial health of
your company before they force repayment.
Some loans, take a percentage of yourrevenue, every month, and they allow you

(47:48):
for a lot of revolving credit lines whereyou can continue borrowing, similar to a
credit card, just a bigger credit card.
So, when you like a.
I think it's a line of credit, right?
Exactly.
Revolving line of credit.
So just like a credit card,just a bigger credit card.
And, so there are different, there area lot of, I would say different, debt.

(48:14):
products and then you would needa finance person to help you
choose which one is good for you.
But also if you have a banker foryour business, they may be able
to present some of the options.
I don't recommend that youonly go with one option.
You always should look at multiple optionson the market to see what's available
and to choose the one that best fitsyour needs and for that you may want.

(48:36):
To get a financial advice becauseonce you take a loan, you may,
you don't wanna get yourself in aposition you can't get out of it.
Right.
Or when you have to, you know, drainyour liquidity or have to put up your
personal funds in order to repeat anobligation or have to go bankrupt.
Right.
So you, you don't wantto be, into position.
Absolutely.
You know, for a lot ofbusinesses that is the way to go.

(49:00):
You know, the traditional.
Things that will getfinances working capital.
Let's say you extend credit to customers.
So you have to buy inventory.
You, you know, can get revenue,before you buy inventory.
So you would want to get a loaninstead of spending your own money.
Similarly, if you have accountsreceivable, which is your credit to
customers, you sell something, butyou don't get that money for a number

(49:23):
of months, let's say three months.
But in that time, you stillneed to run your business.
So there are products available thatallow you to extract money right
away for those things, that's avery traditional form of financing.
And then, of course, there, you know,you can just take a like a rolling
line of credit or for other needs, orjust the general loan that will have

(49:44):
a certain repayment date and interestpayments and sometimes interest
payments, you can delay until thetime the loan is due and sometimes
you would have to make them make thosepayments On a certain, basis, let's say
quarterly or semi annually or annually.
That depends on the terms of the law.
So I went to their websitebecause you were talking about it.

(50:07):
I love being able to like,while you're talking, sit here
and go, Oh, what about this?
And check stuff out.
So I looked this up NFIB, national,is that, no, that's not it.
National association.
nsba.
biz is the website.
Yeah.
Yeah, and I'm I swear I was on ittoo, but it took me to another place.
Yeah.
So I love that they have so muchinformation here, but I also went

(50:31):
back and I'm on the right page now.
Anyway, the point being is thatthis is a really great resource.
And I really appreciate thatyou're sharing that with our
listeners and that they can see.
Wow.
They may not have thought about allof these ways that, that can work for
them, not necessarily be somethingthey're afraid of or, or think

(50:53):
that it's not going to work at all.
You know, I will say what I found outis I'm just beginning this process.
This is a new thing for me to, youknow, work with the government
to, let's say, idea a new law.
It's a very excitingjourney that I'm getting on.
That I feel very passionate about.
But what I was surprised to findout from the call yesterday.

(51:15):
I'm sorry on on Sunday is that, the,Massachusetts rep said we are accessible.
We want to hear about the problems.
We want to hear from the constituents.
So, reach out.
Tell us what's going on.
Tell us how you would liketo solve the problem because.
Oftentimes, when you're in thegovernment, you may not have the
expertise that's required in order tocreate a solution that will work for

(51:38):
the private sector, nor will you knowas much information as somebody is
dealing with that problem day to day.
And of course, from their perspective,what does the government want?
The government wants to generatejobs and stimulate economic growth.
And guess what?
If you allow for the best ideasto come forward, regardless of
whether they generate by minoritiesor women or men, doesn't matter.

(52:00):
You will win as a government.
Also, you want to solve the socioeconomicproblem where you'd like all of your
constituents to be treated fairly.
Right?
And so you kind of, kill 2birds with the same stone.
If you become on the side of losslike that, that's the one that's
been, cost in California right now.

(52:24):
We're going to take a short break toacknowledge our sponsor, Transcend
Network, and we will be right back.
The Intern Whisperer is brought to you byCat5 Studios, who help you create games
and videos for your training and marketingneeds that are out of this world.
Visit Cat5 Studios for moreinformation to learn how Cat5
Studios can help your business.

(52:45):
Thank you, Cat5 Studios.
So we're back to the second half ofour show, where we focus a lot on the
future of jobs and industries in 2030.
And I know 2030 is on your radar also.
So...
What do you think 2030is going to look like?
It's been a year later.
So all of the forecasts, they'vemoved around, they've shifted.

(53:06):
So we've been talkingabout things about money.
What do you think it's going to be like?
Well, generative AI, I think is thebig thing that happened in the past.
And, in fact, as a computer scientist,who's actually majored in artificial
intelligence back in college, that'sbeen a very interesting and worrying

(53:28):
development for me because, when land, sothere are good things about generative AI,
where a lot of things can be done better.
Research can be done faster atthe same time you want to be
careful about what you're creating.
And laws need to be created andpolicies need to be created to
really monitor, what's being done.

(53:49):
A lot of companies that are runby very smart people, may have
different motivations and peoplemay have different motivations.
Or even don't know what's goingto happen out of their work.
And so I think that this is a greatthing that needs special care.
And anytime man begins playingGod, bad things happen.

(54:10):
And, on that side, you know,we're actually, one of my creative
projects from the past came back.
I am executive producing a movie.
I know that's anotherthing that I'm doing.
Somehow I find time for my passions.
That are important to me and it is aboutethics of entrepreneurship and it is
about what happens with men playing Godand it is about the price of success and,

(54:33):
how far do you go before you admit thatyou've gone too far and you can't win.
And, I think this movie is actuallybased on my idea that I conceived a
decade ago, but it's even more relevantnow than before, because of generative
AI, because of what's been happeningwith cryptocurrency and NFT market

(54:54):
and the journey that they have goneon and so much fraud that happened,
in the cryptocurrency market wherethere wasn't enough oversight and
people, were driven by, ego and,you know, that's Greed instead of the
desire to change the world and serveothers, which is how you actually get

(55:15):
money because that's all connected.
But if you are driven by money, ifyou are driven by your ego, you're
not going to make the right decisions.
And then bad things may happen as a resultto you and to people around you and and
to others who your invention may affect.
And so, I think this is a veryimportant, topic, and, we've begun

(55:41):
talking about it, as part of The StartupStation, and we're going to keep talking
about gerontific AI and the ethicsof entrepreneurship going forward.
I agree.
That's always one of myquestions about ethics.
And when I say I agree that we needto be putting more checks and balances
in place, like because we can dothis, you're absolutely right, when

(56:02):
people start playing God, no matterwhat it is, bad things can happen
because they're motivated by their ownpurpose, not by the greater picture.
So, on the side of ethics, I, I knowthat there are some groups that have
already started forming around howto be using, AI responsibly, and I

(56:26):
saw a movie trailer that came out.
I don't even know what the movie was for.
It was last week and it said, we nevershould have let AI out of the box.
You know, it's like an endof the world, an Armageddon,
if you will, type of a movie.
And I sat there and I thought, you know,you have to be able to, to see that
that will happen, but there are waysthat we can help manage it and grow.

(56:51):
I look for some local groups that I couldbelong to, or even on a national level.
I don't know if you know if thereis any national, because you're,
you're kind of connected withthe DC group and everything.
Is there anything that's right outthere that comes to your mind about,
I haven't even googled it, ethicsand AI, like on a national level?

(57:13):
Is the government doing anything oris there a group that's tackling this?
And it's okay if you don't know.
So.
I'll be honest.
I don't know.
I have not gotten involvedin that topic yet.
Well, neither have I.
And I just popped that into my head.
Yes, but I know that there are a numberof companies that agree to work with

(57:36):
the government on creating policiesthat will monitor their activities.
I mean, of course, OpenAI is one of them.
I, I don't know which others Iwould imagine Google and Microsoft,
they're also doing a lot with AI,but there are a lot of other ones.
And so, I don't know, you know, aboutspecific organizations, but I'm sure

(58:00):
that, one can easily find out if, one isinterested and if, anyone feels inspired
to do the same work that I want to do forFerox to capital, but for generative AI,
it's very, inspiring to me as a citizenof the United States, that one can go to
the government and begin working with themdirectly on issues that are important.

(58:24):
In a few months, there can be abill passed in California on on the
topic that you're passionate about.
I think that kind of, opportunitynever occurred to me.
It always seemed like, hey, youelect an official and then they do
something kind of disjointed from whatI want and what I'm passionate about.
But it sounds like that'san ongoing conversation.
And so if anyone is passionate aboutAI out there enough to actually take

(58:49):
action, I think it's easy to take.
And it's easy to get involved.
It is and I just did a really quicksearch because, you know, I, I am very
passionate about it and I'm, I guessI'm kind of a little bit embarrassed
that I didn't say something, but I'mgoing to push that aside and just go.
I'm doing it now.
So I looked it up while we're talking.
It says there is a group and it's UNESCO.

(59:11):
They recently released a global draftrecommendation on the ethics of artificial
intelligence, and it's, unesco.
org at the, it is the ethics of artificialintelligence and it is a council.
So I'm going to do a littlebit more research on this.
I think maybe we shouldco-write something.

(59:34):
I think, you know, I'm, I'm open to it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We should co write an article.
Because I realize that some people do it.
One can do it.
And, I think the key is becausewe have so many things going
on is to put a team together.
And not only that, it will be betterbecause there are more brains involved,
but it also distribute the work.

(59:54):
Yeah, even Harvard Business Review,they wrote an article, it was up here.
I don't know what the date is, but why youneed an AI ethics committee in business.
I mean, definitely.
So I'm down for doing thatwith you if you're so inclined.
So we'll talk more offlineon this side of it.
We'll talk more on that one.

(01:00:14):
I'm very, very interested inthat topic because I, I really
see how it can impact our jobs.
And that's where I'm, I raised thatquestion usually with my guests
and go, just because we can makeautomations more, you know, make
things faster for us doesn't mean weshould always get rid of it because
there is this place where some people.

(01:00:36):
I know I check out at a grocery store.
I can self check at any store.
Now, a lot of stores, right?
But there are some people thatthey're not going to be programmers.
They're not going to bepeople that are scientists.
They're not going to be, you know,in professions just because of some
limitations, either in intelligence orsometimes it could be a language barrier.

(01:01:00):
It can be a whole lot of reasons.
It can be because, you know, that'stheir age and they don't want to do it.
It can be so many reasons.
And just because we can make thingsmore automated and eliminate people's
jobs doesn't always mean we should.
That's where I go.
There's a McDonald's here in Florida,Orlando, and you can go into it and

(01:01:20):
there's not a single person there.
You just go in, you order your food, itcomes out, and it's, you know, there's
nobody managing or cooking that food.
It's all run by, you know, machines.
And I went, I don't like that.
I wouldn't want to go to the McDonald'swhere there's not a friendly face
smiling at me saying good morning.
So that's the, that's the questionthat I go is just because we

(01:01:43):
can doesn't mean we should.
I think with McDonald's, it's probablybecause you expect a face to see there,
but imagine you were born in the agewhere that's just how stores operated.
So that wouldn't be your expectations.
You wouldn't feel thatyou're missing something.
You would be like, Hey, let me goget the food and, and get out.

(01:02:05):
I didn't know that there I've seenthat there's limited stuff at there.
I didn't see McDonald's in NewYork yet when there's no stuff.
Yeah, but I can see from thebusiness perspective, then that's
probably a lot of savings on that.
It can be because you'reeliminating people.
Right?
But again, I go back to the question.
Just because we can do itdoesn't mean we should.

(01:02:26):
And it also, I feel like it begins to makeus more in silos as people because we're
not learning those social skills thatwe need to have when we either go out to
eat and we, we should be able to respectthe fact that, oh, a person served me.
There's a, there's a person behind.
Everything that's AI, weare creating our own future.

(01:02:46):
I'm fully aware of it, but I alsofeel like not everybody's going to
fit into those boxes that we we saythey're going to be in technology.
Right?
Absolutely.
And so I think people are concerned about.
How would that AI is being trainedbecause the people who are creating this
datasets, they may have implicit biases.

(01:03:08):
And so they're then creating AI that hasthe same biases in a way that it operates.
That's one thing.
And another thing, you know,that you brought up that, you're
going to eliminate jobs.
And then some people will justbe left without prospects.
And that's a huge problem on risk scaling.
In the labor force, for example,the trucking industry is going
through a major technological change.

(01:03:29):
And if we're going to get to thepoint where those jobs are eliminated,
what's going to happen with thosehundreds of thousands of people that
are going to be left really without ameans to provide for their families.
And, I mean, I think from the government,that's a very big, problem to think
about when they think about education,when they think about social support,

(01:03:53):
because if they don't solve for thatproblem, if they don't start solving for
this problem already, they're going toend up with a very big social disparity
that is going to lead to more crimeand, you know, Unsafe neighborhoods,
because what are people going to do?
Or, you know, suicides and depressionand you learn a lot of mental health

(01:04:15):
illnesses because people are goingto be unhappy and people are going
to turn to other means of occupyingthemselves that may not be productive.
So I completely agree that, you know,not only that we may lose, control of
what's going on altogether and it can be,a survival, you know, existential threat.

(01:04:38):
There are, you know, some othereconomic and social economic threats
that can emerge even before that,which are just as drastic, and
it can affect us significantly.
You know, I really like this conversation.
I would, I would build a whole showaround this conversation because I
look at what real diversity is anddiversity is representative of people

(01:05:00):
that do not fit into what is eitheraverage or, you know, above average.
There's a lot of people that areon the other side and we create
the future that we're wanting.
I believe that's part of whyscience fiction movies exist and,
and it helps to for people to go,wow, I didn't think about that.
And then they start going, oh,that's a great idea we can, we can do

(01:05:22):
this, we can do this with AI, right?
So yeah, Again, I guess I'mgoing to stand on the soapbox one
more little time here is I go.
My biggest concern I go the best possiblescenario and I go the worst possible
scenario when I think about these thingsI go the worst possible scenario in my
head is that we become something akinto such a futuristic society that we

(01:05:49):
eliminate those people that have nopurpose similar, similar to something that
or did and in other areas of the world.
I go bad.
That is my biggest fear.
Yeah.
Or, you know, it's going to beGattaca because, I don't know if
you've seen the article in on bbc.

(01:06:10):
com where they were able to grow an embryowithout using, from stem cells, without
using, sperm and, I forget in English.
The egg.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So without using the biological cells,they were able to grow an embryo from
stem cells and a human that happened.

(01:06:31):
Yes, that happened a couple of weeks ago.
And that path of, I thinkis very dangerous because
then you kind of certain.
The course of you turned into God.
Yeah, you'd turn into God and so eitheryou create an artificial God, or you
became, or you can create biologicalhumans, the way you want, right?

(01:06:55):
And then completely decide whatkind of humans you want to create.
And so, and that is not good fromthe nature perspective that is always
has chaos component, presented andthen, like, we've talked about, it's
the diversity, that drives everythingforward and innovation and creativity
and, for things to, get better.

(01:07:17):
And if you startcontrolling that in any way.
It's not going to happen.
So we live in interesting times.
And, I think everybody who wants canhave the, responsibility and the option
to do something that, that feels right.
Yeah, well, that was on on thecautionary tale side, but on this side.

(01:07:42):
We're going to finishin a more positive way.
What is the best mentoring advice thatyou want to share with our listeners?
And keep in mind, that is somethingI know you answered before, but we
have so many little pieces of nuggetsthat we can share as mentoring advice.
And I'm going to guess it would be,the very same thing you just said.
We are all able.

(01:08:03):
If you're listening to theshow and no matter what your
age, we always have a choice.
We are all able to determine those things.
But what would you say is your bestmentoring advice for our listeners?
I would say that, we all havedreams and sometimes those dreams

(01:08:25):
seem very big and unattainable.
And I would encourage, everyoneout there not to decide in advance
what will happen within your dreamand go forward and pursue it.
And for me, the way how I was able tomore effectively overcome my doubts
and my fears is to pursue a dream.

(01:08:46):
That was bigger than those fears that Ifelt so passionate about that I almost
didn't care if I heard a no, or if somepath did not work out that I believe
that that dream was so important tome happened in reality that I didn't
care what it would take to get there.

(01:09:06):
And it wasn't about me being rightabout pursuing a certain course
of action or attaining certaindecision with my colleagues.
It was about a bigger picture.
And I think if you have a dreamlike that, I would, I would just
go do it because great things canhappen when you feel fearless.

(01:09:27):
I wrote, I was writing itdown as you were saying it.
Yeah, great things can happenwhen you feel fearless.
Yes.
I love this.
And I just want you toknow, you really inspired me.
You gave me some inspirationwhere you did not even know.
Encouragement is a good thing.
And what I liked is the fact thatyou said when you have a dream

(01:09:50):
that's bigger than your fears.
Yes, yes, sometimes.
I mean, that is exactlythe dream that I have.
That's why I started Employers 4Change and it is so big and I just
sat there and went, okay, but youknow, and it is what drives me.
It is what drives me.
So thank you.
And your life has more meaning and it hasmore light and you get to meet so many

(01:10:17):
interesting people that enrich your lifefurther if you are driven by the dream
that is bigger by your ambitions, I wouldsay, and then that has been my experience
and the first my first experience was thatwhen I produced the concert for Ukraine,
a year ago, which we've talked aboutin the first podcast, and it continued

(01:10:41):
with Power Up, and now it continueswith other things that I get involved
in that are all connected in my mind.
They're all part of the same thing,whether it's a media project to
bring, forward aspects of ethics ofentrepreneurship, or it's advocacy
to create policy support for, fairtreatment of women and minorities or

(01:11:02):
ecosystem support in the form of Power Up.
It's all part of the same solutiontowards creating a better tomorrow.
Well, I love this conversation now.
We'll just remind our listeners.
How can people find you?
Because I'm copying yourwebsite onto the show notes.
And I also pulled up your YouTube andalso your company LinkedIn profile.

(01:11:23):
But is there any other waysthat people can find you?
The company website, is a greatway you can book a 30 minute
free, consultation call with me.
You can also reach out directlyon LinkedIn or my email
victoriaatthestartupstation.
com.
I invite you to follow Power Up page tostay abreast of what we're doing there.

(01:11:48):
It's on LinkedIn.
And then we'll also share a formto send up to the mailing list for
Power Up as we share monthly updateson what's happening with the program
and how you could get involved.
Yes, please send me those links.
I don't have them right,you know, really handy.
But if you'll send those to me,I'll make sure they get on to

(01:12:09):
the show notes to that we share.
It's been so wonderfulcatching up with you.
We'll continue the conversation offline.
Just so our listeners know that there'slike, look for stuff is what I can say.
But, so great.
So great.
Thank you so much.

(01:12:29):
Thank you so much Isabella for allowingme a space where I can talk about the
things that I'm passionate about in avery supportive and friendly environment.
No, thank you.
We wanna thank our sponsor, Cat5Studios and thank you to our video
team, Gabe LaPorte, Tommy Myers , AndrewPiggott, and Julissa Hurtado.

(01:12:50):
Our music is by Charles-Lawrence Lide.
Visit Employers 4 Change at www.E4C.techto learn how you can create real diversity
and inclusive culture while skillingyour people for the future of work.
Thank you for supporting the InternWhisperer by subscribing to us on podbean,
our Employers 4 Change YouTube channel, orstream from your favorite podcast channel.

(01:13:13):
And please leave us comments.
We love comments and we loveshares and we love it when you tag
other people to have them listen.