April 28, 2025 • 19 mins
Amy Nelson isn’t just an attorney and founder of The Riveter—she’s a force of nature. For years, she’s been in the ring with Amazon and the DOJ—and she’s winning. Oh, and did we mention she’s doing all this while raising four young daughters? Now, she’s bringing that same fire to our new monthly call-in show, Ask Amy. She’ll be answering your biggest, boldest questions about pivoting in business—no fluff, no BS, just straight talk for women ready to shake things up.
In this episode, Amy gets real about what it actually takes to make a major career leap. What if your partner isn’t supportive? How do we communicate BIG family financial decisions to our kids? From looping her husband into the business plan to bringing in her mom as a third parent, Amy breaks down you can turn chaos into collaboration.
She torches the myth of “work-life balance” (spoiler: it’s BS), and offers tools to stay grounded, flexible, and focused—even when everything feels like too much.
And if you’re still waiting for a mentor to magically appear? Stop. Because sharing what you know to the world is how real mentorship and leadership begins.
This episode is for anyone ready to stop waiting for the perfect moment—and start building with what (and who) you’ve got.
DM the show with your questions for Amy Nelson. Now hit play and let's get to work.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Hey there you beautiful badass.
Welcome to the Keri Croft Show.
I'm your host, Keri Croft,delivering you stories that get
you pumped up and feeling likethe unstoppable savage that you
are.
So grab your coffee, put onyour game face and let's do this
thing.
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Don't say I've never doneanything for you, Amy Nelson.
Welcome back to Ask, Amy, I'mso happy to be here.
I am so excited for you to behere.
First of all, I love talkinganything business.
I love hearing how other peopledo it.
(01:33):
I love watching people do it.
I love doing it myself, and soI feel like you and I, we just
lock right in, don't we?
Speaker 3 (01:39):
We do, and here's the thing of why this is so amazing
.
We get to hear so manyinspirational stories of people
building cool things, but wedon't often get to ask the
questions of, like the moretactical shit.
Right, and it's fun to.
It's fun to talk about it.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
It is All right, so I just set our timer Okay.
Cause.
Part of the goal of ask Amy isno bullshit.
This is all lean meat here.
Okay, we don't have time forall lean meat.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
No, we're going to go right into the thing.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
We're going to answer questions and add as much value
as we can.
No fluff, all value.
That should be your, yourtagline no fluff, all value.
Okay, here we motherfucking go.
So before we start, I do wantto a couple of highlights from
the last show, your firstinaugural show.
One was women not asking forenough.
I think when, when somebodyasks you the question, what are
some mistakes women make?
And you said ask for the farm,I want, I mean, put that in your
brain.
Data, collect that.
(02:32):
And anytime that you arelooking for something in
business, you ask always ask formore.
All they can say is no, right,yeah, all they can say is no.
And then the art of networking.
So those were two things thattotally bubbled up for me, and
so we'll have more stuff comingon that.
All right, without further ado,let's see what we got here
today.
Oh, so we're going to have alittle focus here on partner and
family support.
(02:53):
So we've got some questionsthat we put together from some
people about how you getsupported externally when you're
, when you're the woman in thebusiness, which is really
important.
So how do you get your partneron board when you're making a
big career change that impactsfinances, time and or stability?
Speaker 3 (03:09):
I mean I think you have to make it a joint project.
And so, with Carl, my husband,when I was starting the Riveter,
every decision I made to makethe pivot he was part of because
he needed to be comfortablewith it from a financial
standpoint and from a timestandpoint.
You know, I mentioned in thelast episode that when we
thought about making the pivot,we made a financial spreadsheet
(03:30):
of like how long can we gocontinuing to pay for child care
and me not working?
And part of the reason that wasthe how long can we go and
still pay for child care isbecause we needed full time
child care.
That was part of the bargain.
If we were going to do it.
It wasn't that Carl was going towork less and step in or you
know, or that we thought I coulddo it if I was working 10 hours
(03:51):
a week.
We knew that I needed to work alot to make it work.
So I think that was a big partof it is that he was part of the
calculation and part offiguring out what we needed
around us to make it work forboth of us, because we aren't
doing these things in isolationand so I think you know bringing
him into.
It was a big part of it.
And then another big part of itfor us and I'm very fortunate
(04:12):
for this, but, like my motherhad retired and a big part of it
for us was that my mom came toSeattle and stayed with us while
we did this.
Now, the Riveter was, you know,a specific thing, and that I
knew I was going to have to flyaround the country.
I was opening spaces inmultiple states, I had to pitch
investors in multiple states andI needed my mom to be like a
second parent to a third parent,to our babies, and she was
(04:34):
willing to do that, but we also.
We asked her for the help,because you have to ask for help
from people around you, but youjust again, it's all about,
like, being transparent andbringing everyone on board.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
What do you do if your partner or your family
isn't supportive of your career?
Pivot.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
That's a tough.
I mean, that's a tough one,right, I think.
I mean there's a very realanswer, like if your partner is
not supportive of it.
I think you have to ask twoquestions how does that make me
feel if my partner isn'tsupportive of something that I
dream of?
And then, second, can I do itif they won't be supportive?
I could not have started theriveter if my husband hadn't
supported the idea and reshapedour lives around it.
It wouldn't have been doable,which goes to the point.
(05:16):
I think it's important to talkabout things like this before
you enter into a long-termpartnership, like what do, what
do you want?
You know, there was never amoment that my husband imagined
that I would be a full-time,non-working mother.
He knew I wanted kids and henever thought that I would be
the one taking care of them allday.
It's wonderful if you want todo that.
I did not want to do that.
(05:36):
So I think you know.
I think that's a question youhave to ask yourself when that
arises question you have to askyourself, when that arises, if
you do think that you can do itwithout the support of your
family or your partner when youare making your plans.
Don't count on their supportRight when you're making plans
for how much time do I need, ormoney, or you know these things
like you're doing that withoutthe puzzle pieces around you,
(06:00):
and so make that part of yourplan.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Choppy waters ahead, y'all yeah, choppy waters ahead,
y'all yeah, choppy waters ahead.
How do you balance risk takingin business with the
responsibilities of being a momor a primary caregiver, which I
think you kind of touched on,with your mom helping and?
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Yeah, I mean, I would also say the idea of balance
and anything is impossible and Idon't think we should be
striving for it.
You know, I a long time agocame to the realization that,
like work, life, balance waslike a made up bullshit phrase
that doesn't exist Because,first of all, there's no
standard of balance.
It is the same for everybody,right?
(06:39):
There's what you want your lifeto look like and there's also,
like the idea that balance onone day isn't balanced on the
other day.
Our lives are.
The demands change, you know,the demands change with the
season of your kids' ages, whichyou don't understand until
you're in it with your children.
You know, I thought havingbabies was hard.
I now think having babies wasvery easy, mentally, hard,
(07:02):
physically.
Now that my kids are older I'mlike, oh my God, this is so hard
mentally and it's for me themental tough parts are much
harder than the physical hardparts were.
But I don't think you shouldchase balance, that's all to say
that I think you should.
You should worry about, youknow, are you able to do what
you want, to do the best way youcan do it on any given day,
which again changes, but, likefor me, and this is good or bad.
(07:27):
You could judge me as a parentfor this, but like I bring my
kids along on the journey, right, like they know that their mom
and dad take massive swings.
That's who we are.
They might not be that person,but I want them to have
visibility into who we are andthat we do it and we tell them.
It brings risk to their livestoo, you know, in certain ways.
But and I think kids arecapable of understanding a lot
(07:51):
more than we give them creditfor, and so if you kind of bring
them along on the journey, theywill be more understanding and
a part of it.
I like what you said about.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Well, first of all, I agree with the balance thing.
But when you said your goalshould just be to do the best
you can on any given day, whenyou zoom in like that and just
focus on that day and justreally doing the best you can, I
think that's less overwhelming,I think it's highly
concentrated, like I can do that.
I can actually do my best forthis one day.
And then the next day comes andyou're like, okay, I'm gonna do
(08:22):
it again.
Yeah, but when you're lookingat the landscape and you're like
, oh, I need to find balance inthis, this crazy terrain I'm
looking out into the distance, Idon't know.
I like that.
Another.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Another good piece of sage wisdom for maybe Nelson,
but it is also like it's a skillI use to cope with trauma too,
right, or anything hard likethis isn't trauma, but'm lifting
weights.
If I'm like I cannot do 12 reps, yeah, I'm like, well, then do
two, right, and then you can dothe next two and the next two.
And when life is overwhelmingor shit is too hard like that,
(08:54):
you can't think about doing thebest for the whole day.
Think about doing the bestuntil you get to lunch, or doing
the best you can do for thenext hour.
Yep, it's okay to chop up hardthings into very small,
manageable bites.
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Back to finances.
What are some strategies forhandling financial pressure when
(10:51):
transitioning into somethingnew?
Speaker 3 (10:53):
There are a lot of people in the world who avoid
looking at money orunderstanding money because it's
scary.
I think the best thing that youcan do is to maintain knowledge
over your finances and thelandscape that you're living in,
over your finances and thelandscape that you're living in,
like if you, you know, I know,as a solopreneur, what are my
(11:14):
expenses, what is my revenue,where am I Right, and that gives
me peace at night.
You know, I, uh, you, you havelevers you can pull up and down.
If you have a company with anumber of employees, like you
should know, you know, when am Igetting into trouble with being
able to maintain the currentlevel of my workforce?
(11:36):
How many contracts do we need?
Right, just kind of you need tounder.
You need to have visibilityinto all of it, understand the
basics and know when you need to.
You can ramp up or you need topull back, and it's just having
control over it, is havingknowledge over it.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
How can women set boundaries with their partners
and families so they can fullycommit to their business goals?
Speaker 3 (11:59):
I feel a lot the same about boundaries as I do about
balance.
It's just so hard to implementthose, those kind of like lines
in the sand, because life isn'tsomething you can draw lines in
the sand on.
In most cases, I think it goesback to open dialogue,
transparency, communication,like when I say my husband was
(12:21):
on board with this.
He is, but like there weretimes when we got in massive
blow ups about either of usneeding more time or our kids
needing more of us and we didn'tknow how to give it to them.
But the best you can do isconstantly communicate what
you're doing, what you need,what's coming up, and also kind
of like where you're scared andwhere you need more support.
(12:41):
I think that's a big piece ofit too.
So I think just trying to keepopen lines of communication
about it.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
So what's the best way to find a mentor or
community when making a bigcareer shift?
Speaker 3 (12:54):
I don't love the idea of trying to find a mentor.
I think the best mentors inyour life are people that you
meet in one way or another, whoyou connect with and become your
mentors.
You know, I had a mentor interms of raising money from VCs
and he was a former Microsoftmarketing guy who became a VC.
And he approached me because hewanted me to be a guest speaker
(13:18):
at his class at the Universityof Washington.
And he came and he met mebecause he wasn't just going to
ask me an email and we spenttime together and I was telling
him about the Riveter and hesaid you know, this is an
amazing business and you're anamazing founder and you have no
idea how to sell your story.
And so he taught me how to andbecame my mentor.
And I mean I'm very convinced Icouldn't have had the successes
(13:40):
I had without his absolutelystellar guidance.
But like I didn't go out andseek a mentor to help me raise
VC capital, you know I needed, Iknew I needed one, but I
thought I would find one alongthe way and I did, and so I
would just advise you to keep aneye out and an ear open to
finding a mentor within therelationships you're creating
(14:02):
and then, when you do latch on,hold on, ask for help and then
also reciprocate and try toprovide value, service,
friendship, friendship, you know, to the people who are giving
you their time and their wisdom.
So I think that's a big one.
As far as community, I thinkit's incredibly important to try
to find a community of peoplethat you can share your
(14:22):
struggles with, get feedbackfrom who can connect you, and
that is different for everyone.
I think you have to find, like,is there a great community
that's involved in what you'redoing, or is it something that
will rise more organically?
You know the riveter, like whatwe do is build community and
network and skills around pivots.
But there are amazing othercommunities for everything
(14:45):
someone's doing.
You know there are communitiesof CFOs where people can talk
about those specific struggles.
Like there's EO, which isentrepreneurs organization,
where certain sized CEOs ofcertain sized businesses not
certain sized CEOs, but certainCEOs.
If you're under five, four no,it's like no, but it's.
Ceos of certain sizedbusinesses can get together and
(15:05):
share experiences, which isreally important, because they
can't complain to theiremployees or get feedback, you
know, so they have to, you know,to meet with other people, but
I think finding community isreally important, and so just go
out there and figure out whereyour people are.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
And another thing I would add to that is always
thinking about paying it forwardto.
Regardless of where you are inyour career path, you can be a
mentor for others and I thinkwhen you're looking from that
perspective, I always think likethe universe kind of pays you
back in ways.
So like don't always just bethinking how can someone help me
out there, help somebody else,with nothing in your mind to get
(15:43):
in return other than justfeeling good that you did it.
Those are always very helpfulthings to put in the universe.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
And if you don't know how to be of service and help
people, here's an idea thathelps everybody and helps you
you should start telling theworld what you're good at and
providing value and service.
You can do it on social media.
You know you could.
If you say you're a podcastproducer and this can also help
you find a mentor start postingabout producing podcasts.
(16:13):
Start telling people everythingyou know about how to do your
job.
They're not going to then nothire you because they're not
going to say well, I've learnedeverything I can from this
person.
I don't need a podcast producer, like they're going to hire you
, and that is a way to be ofservice to people everywhere and
at scale.
Just give away the farm.
Tell them everything.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Yeah, if you're still gatekeeping out there, you're
so circa like you're not in the2025s.
Yeah, gatekeeping is socounterintuitive.
Yeah, there's all kinds ofinformation out there.
People can figure things out,but you can't replace who you
are and your unique value.
So when you open the kimonoauthentically, it will always
(16:51):
pay dividends.
It will never short side you.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
It's the same thing, too, for the importance of
building your network andbuilding your community, because
one of the things that peoplewill still come to you for, even
if you do give away the farmand all your expertise, is how
you put those things togetherand who you connect it to Right,
and so that it's.
It's another way to be ofservice.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
How do you get in the right rooms when transitioning
into a new industry withoutfeeling like an outsider?
I mean, you have to ask peopleto put you in the rooms and then
you have to also show up in therooms yourself, even if you
don't know a single person there, and it feels scary.
So I remember when I startedraising money for politicians.
I did it because I had workedin politics but I had then
become a lawyer and that was myfull time job.
But I still wanted to stayinvolved in politics and I
(17:36):
thought well, I'm in Manhattan,I can raise money, there are a
lot of very wealthy people here.
And so I started talking topeople about what I was doing
and and also trying to learnmore.
And I went to a women'scampaign forum training.
That was three days.
I didn't know anybody there.
It was in DC, I lived in NewYork, but I went and did it over
a weekend and the whole weekendI sat next to this lady who was
(17:59):
in her 70s and she was sointeresting.
But I had no idea who she wasand I thought she was just like
me, wanting to raise money, andwe, you know, built a friendship
.
But, like I went to this roomwhere I sent the address and I
(18:20):
was like this lady lives onCentral Park and it turned out
she was this amazing woman andshe was Senator John Hines's
stepsister and she startedinviting me into rooms full of
people where I didn't feel likeI belonged.
But she felt like I belongedand but by putting myself out
(18:42):
there, opening myself up to newexperiences, ultimately I became
someone who belonged in thoserooms.
Right, and like that's kind ofthat's how you get there, you
show up and you talk to peopleand stay.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Yeah, and and you know what, just don't be afraid
to be an outsider for a minute.
Everybody starts.
I mean, it's okay if you'reuncomfortable and you have to
sort of again going back to thecold calling, differentiating
yourself, showing up beinguncomfortable.
It's just part of the process.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
It is, and look, we force our five-year-olds and
six-year-olds to do it right?
They show up for school andthey don't know anybody and they
have to go into a classroom andspend eight hours a day there.
Kids do this stuff all the time.
You can do it as a grown up too.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
All right.
So that wraps another episodeof Ask Amy.
All right, riveting, thank you.
Thank you.
So you know, the goal for thenext episode is to have live
call-ins.
So let's just, we're going tostay on the edge of our seats
because that's going to be evenbetter, but until then, just
send us a DM or send us an emailif you want to ask Amy, and if
you're still out there followingyour girl, follow me on YouTube
(19:40):
, spotify, apple or wherever youget your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
And until next time keep moving baby.
Hey there you beautiful badass.
Welcome to the Keri Croft Show.
I'm your host, Keri Croft,delivering you stories that get
you pumped up and feeling likethe unstoppable savage that you
are.
So grab your coffee, put onyour game face and let's do this
thing.
Baby Ready to elevate yourself-care game?
(00:29):
Boscal Beauty Bar is a modernmed spa offering everything from
cosmetic injectables, lasersand microneedling to medical
grade facials and skincare.
Conveniently located inClintonville, Grandview, Powell
and Easton.
Making self-care a priority hasnever been easier.
Use code KROFT for $25 off yourfirst visit.
Summer's coming in hot, but isyour skin summer ready?
(00:52):
Fine lines, sun damage, melasmaIf these are cramping your vibe
, the Moxie laser at Donaldsonwill leave you glowing Nervous
about lasering your face.
I tried Moxie and it was quickand gentle, Perfect for first
timers and all skin types, andmy results 10 out of 10.
And if you're a first timer atDonaldson, mention the Keri
(01:13):
Croft Show for $100 off yourMoxie treatment.
Don't say I've never doneanything for you, Amy Nelson.
Welcome back to Ask, Amy, I'mso happy to be here.
I am so excited for you to behere.
First of all, I love talkinganything business.
I love hearing how other peopledo it.
(01:33):
I love watching people do it.
I love doing it myself, and soI feel like you and I, we just
lock right in, don't we?
Speaker 3 (01:39):
We do, and here's the thing of why this is so amazing
.
We get to hear so manyinspirational stories of people
building cool things, but wedon't often get to ask the
questions of, like the moretactical shit.
Right, and it's fun to.
It's fun to talk about it.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
It is All right, so I just set our timer Okay.
Cause.
Part of the goal of ask Amy isno bullshit.
This is all lean meat here.
Okay, we don't have time forall lean meat.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
No, we're going to go right into the thing.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
We're going to answer questions and add as much value
as we can.
No fluff, all value.
That should be your, yourtagline no fluff, all value.
Okay, here we motherfucking go.
So before we start, I do wantto a couple of highlights from
the last show, your firstinaugural show.
One was women not asking forenough.
I think when, when somebodyasks you the question, what are
some mistakes women make?
And you said ask for the farm,I want, I mean, put that in your
brain.
Data, collect that.
(02:32):
And anytime that you arelooking for something in
business, you ask always ask formore.
All they can say is no, right,yeah, all they can say is no.
And then the art of networking.
So those were two things thattotally bubbled up for me, and
so we'll have more stuff comingon that.
All right, without further ado,let's see what we got here
today.
Oh, so we're going to have alittle focus here on partner and
family support.
(02:53):
So we've got some questionsthat we put together from some
people about how you getsupported externally when you're
, when you're the woman in thebusiness, which is really
important.
So how do you get your partneron board when you're making a
big career change that impactsfinances, time and or stability?
Speaker 3 (03:09):
I mean I think you have to make it a joint project.
And so, with Carl, my husband,when I was starting the Riveter,
every decision I made to makethe pivot he was part of because
he needed to be comfortablewith it from a financial
standpoint and from a timestandpoint.
You know, I mentioned in thelast episode that when we
thought about making the pivot,we made a financial spreadsheet
(03:30):
of like how long can we gocontinuing to pay for child care
and me not working?
And part of the reason that wasthe how long can we go and
still pay for child care isbecause we needed full time
child care.
That was part of the bargain.
If we were going to do it.
It wasn't that Carl was going towork less and step in or you
know, or that we thought I coulddo it if I was working 10 hours
(03:51):
a week.
We knew that I needed to work alot to make it work.
So I think that was a big partof it is that he was part of the
calculation and part offiguring out what we needed
around us to make it work forboth of us, because we aren't
doing these things in isolationand so I think you know bringing
him into.
It was a big part of it.
And then another big part of itfor us and I'm very fortunate
(04:12):
for this, but, like my motherhad retired and a big part of it
for us was that my mom came toSeattle and stayed with us while
we did this.
Now, the Riveter was, you know,a specific thing, and that I
knew I was going to have to flyaround the country.
I was opening spaces inmultiple states, I had to pitch
investors in multiple states andI needed my mom to be like a
second parent to a third parent,to our babies, and she was
(04:34):
willing to do that, but we also.
We asked her for the help,because you have to ask for help
from people around you, but youjust again, it's all about,
like, being transparent andbringing everyone on board.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
What do you do if your partner or your family
isn't supportive of your career?
Pivot.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
That's a tough.
I mean, that's a tough one,right, I think.
I mean there's a very realanswer, like if your partner is
not supportive of it.
I think you have to ask twoquestions how does that make me
feel if my partner isn'tsupportive of something that I
dream of?
And then, second, can I do itif they won't be supportive?
I could not have started theriveter if my husband hadn't
supported the idea and reshapedour lives around it.
It wouldn't have been doable,which goes to the point.
(05:16):
I think it's important to talkabout things like this before
you enter into a long-termpartnership, like what do, what
do you want?
You know, there was never amoment that my husband imagined
that I would be a full-time,non-working mother.
He knew I wanted kids and henever thought that I would be
the one taking care of them allday.
It's wonderful if you want todo that.
I did not want to do that.
(05:36):
So I think you know.
I think that's a question youhave to ask yourself when that
arises question you have to askyourself, when that arises, if
you do think that you can do itwithout the support of your
family or your partner when youare making your plans.
Don't count on their supportRight when you're making plans
for how much time do I need, ormoney, or you know these things
like you're doing that withoutthe puzzle pieces around you,
(06:00):
and so make that part of yourplan.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Choppy waters ahead, y'all yeah, choppy waters ahead,
y'all yeah, choppy waters ahead.
How do you balance risk takingin business with the
responsibilities of being a momor a primary caregiver, which I
think you kind of touched on,with your mom helping and?
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Yeah, I mean, I would also say the idea of balance
and anything is impossible and Idon't think we should be
striving for it.
You know, I a long time agocame to the realization that,
like work, life, balance waslike a made up bullshit phrase
that doesn't exist Because,first of all, there's no
standard of balance.
It is the same for everybody,right?
(06:39):
There's what you want your lifeto look like and there's also,
like the idea that balance onone day isn't balanced on the
other day.
Our lives are.
The demands change, you know,the demands change with the
season of your kids' ages, whichyou don't understand until
you're in it with your children.
You know, I thought havingbabies was hard.
I now think having babies wasvery easy, mentally, hard,
(07:02):
physically.
Now that my kids are older I'mlike, oh my God, this is so hard
mentally and it's for me themental tough parts are much
harder than the physical hardparts were.
But I don't think you shouldchase balance, that's all to say
that I think you should.
You should worry about, youknow, are you able to do what
you want, to do the best way youcan do it on any given day,
which again changes, but, likefor me, and this is good or bad.
(07:27):
You could judge me as a parentfor this, but like I bring my
kids along on the journey, right, like they know that their mom
and dad take massive swings.
That's who we are.
They might not be that person,but I want them to have
visibility into who we are andthat we do it and we tell them.
It brings risk to their livestoo, you know, in certain ways.
But and I think kids arecapable of understanding a lot
(07:51):
more than we give them creditfor, and so if you kind of bring
them along on the journey, theywill be more understanding and
a part of it.
I like what you said about.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Well, first of all, I agree with the balance thing.
But when you said your goalshould just be to do the best
you can on any given day, whenyou zoom in like that and just
focus on that day and justreally doing the best you can, I
think that's less overwhelming,I think it's highly
concentrated, like I can do that.
I can actually do my best forthis one day.
And then the next day comes andyou're like, okay, I'm gonna do
(08:22):
it again.
Yeah, but when you're lookingat the landscape and you're like
, oh, I need to find balance inthis, this crazy terrain I'm
looking out into the distance, Idon't know.
I like that.
Another.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Another good piece of sage wisdom for maybe Nelson,
but it is also like it's a skillI use to cope with trauma too,
right, or anything hard likethis isn't trauma, but'm lifting
weights.
If I'm like I cannot do 12 reps, yeah, I'm like, well, then do
two, right, and then you can dothe next two and the next two.
And when life is overwhelmingor shit is too hard like that,
(08:54):
you can't think about doing thebest for the whole day.
Think about doing the bestuntil you get to lunch, or doing
the best you can do for thenext hour.
Yep, it's okay to chop up hardthings into very small,
manageable bites.
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Back to finances.
What are some strategies forhandling financial pressure when
(10:51):
transitioning into somethingnew?
Speaker 3 (10:53):
There are a lot of people in the world who avoid
looking at money orunderstanding money because it's
scary.
I think the best thing that youcan do is to maintain knowledge
over your finances and thelandscape that you're living in,
over your finances and thelandscape that you're living in,
like if you, you know, I know,as a solopreneur, what are my
(11:14):
expenses, what is my revenue,where am I Right, and that gives
me peace at night.
You know, I, uh, you, you havelevers you can pull up and down.
If you have a company with anumber of employees, like you
should know, you know, when am Igetting into trouble with being
able to maintain the currentlevel of my workforce?
(11:36):
How many contracts do we need?
Right, just kind of you need tounder.
You need to have visibilityinto all of it, understand the
basics and know when you need to.
You can ramp up or you need topull back, and it's just having
control over it, is havingknowledge over it.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
How can women set boundaries with their partners
and families so they can fullycommit to their business goals?
Speaker 3 (11:59):
I feel a lot the same about boundaries as I do about
balance.
It's just so hard to implementthose, those kind of like lines
in the sand, because life isn'tsomething you can draw lines in
the sand on.
In most cases, I think it goesback to open dialogue,
transparency, communication,like when I say my husband was
(12:21):
on board with this.
He is, but like there weretimes when we got in massive
blow ups about either of usneeding more time or our kids
needing more of us and we didn'tknow how to give it to them.
But the best you can do isconstantly communicate what
you're doing, what you need,what's coming up, and also kind
of like where you're scared andwhere you need more support.
(12:41):
I think that's a big piece ofit too.
So I think just trying to keepopen lines of communication
about it.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
So what's the best way to find a mentor or
community when making a bigcareer shift?
Speaker 3 (12:54):
I don't love the idea of trying to find a mentor.
I think the best mentors inyour life are people that you
meet in one way or another, whoyou connect with and become your
mentors.
You know, I had a mentor interms of raising money from VCs
and he was a former Microsoftmarketing guy who became a VC.
And he approached me because hewanted me to be a guest speaker
(13:18):
at his class at the Universityof Washington.
And he came and he met mebecause he wasn't just going to
ask me an email and we spenttime together and I was telling
him about the Riveter and hesaid you know, this is an
amazing business and you're anamazing founder and you have no
idea how to sell your story.
And so he taught me how to andbecame my mentor.
And I mean I'm very convinced Icouldn't have had the successes
(13:40):
I had without his absolutelystellar guidance.
But like I didn't go out andseek a mentor to help me raise
VC capital, you know I needed, Iknew I needed one, but I
thought I would find one alongthe way and I did, and so I
would just advise you to keep aneye out and an ear open to
finding a mentor within therelationships you're creating
(14:02):
and then, when you do latch on,hold on, ask for help and then
also reciprocate and try toprovide value, service,
friendship, friendship, you know, to the people who are giving
you their time and their wisdom.
So I think that's a big one.
As far as community, I thinkit's incredibly important to try
to find a community of peoplethat you can share your
(14:22):
struggles with, get feedbackfrom who can connect you, and
that is different for everyone.
I think you have to find, like,is there a great community
that's involved in what you'redoing, or is it something that
will rise more organically?
You know the riveter, like whatwe do is build community and
network and skills around pivots.
But there are amazing othercommunities for everything
(14:45):
someone's doing.
You know there are communitiesof CFOs where people can talk
about those specific struggles.
Like there's EO, which isentrepreneurs organization,
where certain sized CEOs ofcertain sized businesses not
certain sized CEOs, but certainCEOs.
If you're under five, four no,it's like no, but it's.
Ceos of certain sizedbusinesses can get together and
(15:05):
share experiences, which isreally important, because they
can't complain to theiremployees or get feedback, you
know, so they have to, you know,to meet with other people, but
I think finding community isreally important, and so just go
out there and figure out whereyour people are.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
And another thing I would add to that is always
thinking about paying it forwardto.
Regardless of where you are inyour career path, you can be a
mentor for others and I thinkwhen you're looking from that
perspective, I always think likethe universe kind of pays you
back in ways.
So like don't always just bethinking how can someone help me
out there, help somebody else,with nothing in your mind to get
(15:43):
in return other than justfeeling good that you did it.
Those are always very helpfulthings to put in the universe.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
And if you don't know how to be of service and help
people, here's an idea thathelps everybody and helps you
you should start telling theworld what you're good at and
providing value and service.
You can do it on social media.
You know you could.
If you say you're a podcastproducer and this can also help
you find a mentor start postingabout producing podcasts.
(16:13):
Start telling people everythingyou know about how to do your
job.
They're not going to then nothire you because they're not
going to say well, I've learnedeverything I can from this
person.
I don't need a podcast producer, like they're going to hire you
, and that is a way to be ofservice to people everywhere and
at scale.
Just give away the farm.
Tell them everything.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Yeah, if you're still gatekeeping out there, you're
so circa like you're not in the2025s.
Yeah, gatekeeping is socounterintuitive.
Yeah, there's all kinds ofinformation out there.
People can figure things out,but you can't replace who you
are and your unique value.
So when you open the kimonoauthentically, it will always
(16:51):
pay dividends.
It will never short side you.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
It's the same thing, too, for the importance of
building your network andbuilding your community, because
one of the things that peoplewill still come to you for, even
if you do give away the farmand all your expertise, is how
you put those things togetherand who you connect it to Right,
and so that it's.
It's another way to be ofservice.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
How do you get in the right rooms when transitioning
into a new industry withoutfeeling like an outsider?
I mean, you have to ask peopleto put you in the rooms and then
you have to also show up in therooms yourself, even if you
don't know a single person there, and it feels scary.
So I remember when I startedraising money for politicians.
I did it because I had workedin politics but I had then
become a lawyer and that was myfull time job.
But I still wanted to stayinvolved in politics and I
(17:36):
thought well, I'm in Manhattan,I can raise money, there are a
lot of very wealthy people here.
And so I started talking topeople about what I was doing
and and also trying to learnmore.
And I went to a women'scampaign forum training.
That was three days.
I didn't know anybody there.
It was in DC, I lived in NewYork, but I went and did it over
a weekend and the whole weekendI sat next to this lady who was
(17:59):
in her 70s and she was sointeresting.
But I had no idea who she wasand I thought she was just like
me, wanting to raise money, andwe, you know, built a friendship
.
But, like I went to this roomwhere I sent the address and I
(18:20):
was like this lady lives onCentral Park and it turned out
she was this amazing woman andshe was Senator John Hines's
stepsister and she startedinviting me into rooms full of
people where I didn't feel likeI belonged.
But she felt like I belongedand but by putting myself out
(18:42):
there, opening myself up to newexperiences, ultimately I became
someone who belonged in thoserooms.
Right, and like that's kind ofthat's how you get there, you
show up and you talk to peopleand stay.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Yeah, and and you know what, just don't be afraid
to be an outsider for a minute.
Everybody starts.
I mean, it's okay if you'reuncomfortable and you have to
sort of again going back to thecold calling, differentiating
yourself, showing up beinguncomfortable.
It's just part of the process.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
It is, and look, we force our five-year-olds and
six-year-olds to do it right?
They show up for school andthey don't know anybody and they
have to go into a classroom andspend eight hours a day there.
Kids do this stuff all the time.
You can do it as a grown up too.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
All right.
So that wraps another episodeof Ask Amy.
All right, riveting, thank you.
Thank you.
So you know, the goal for thenext episode is to have live
call-ins.
So let's just, we're going tostay on the edge of our seats
because that's going to be evenbetter, but until then, just
send us a DM or send us an emailif you want to ask Amy, and if
you're still out there followingyour girl, follow me on YouTube
(19:40):
, spotify, apple or wherever youget your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
And until next time keep moving baby.
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