Perfection won’t build your business. Full stop.
On this episode of Ask Amy, Amy Nelson returns to tackle the biggest mindset blocks holding women back—and how to break through them with clarity, courage, and a little tech-savvy edge.
Plus, we’re switching it up with TWO live call-ins! Real questions from real women navigating real pivots—because that’s what this show is all about.
Amy breaks down how to approach artificial intelligence as a power tool—not a threat—and how your human skills are more essential than ever.
We also unpack:
– The perfectionism trap and how to escape it
– Why “success is infinite” (yes, there’s room for all of us)
– Building revenue streams that don’t burn you out
– How to grow an owned audience and stop relying on algorithms
– A weekly practice to crush scarcity and support your community
Want your question answered on the next Ask Amy?
→ DM us @thekericroftshow to drop your question or let us know if you want to be a caller on the show!
🎧 Listen in and get the real strategies to grow a business that actually works for your life.
#AskAmy #TheKeriCroftShow #WomenEntrepreneurs #PerfectionismTrap #AIForBusiness #AuthenticGrowth #AbundanceMindset #SmallBusinessTips #BuildYourOwnTable #PivotWithPurpose
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hey there you beautiful badass.
Welcome to the Keri Croft Show.
I'm your host, keri Croft,delivering you stories that get
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Don't say I've never doneanything for you, and when you
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Speaker 2 (01:25):
Steely Dan.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Oh my God, why do I have that in my head right now?
Speaker 1 (01:29):
It's driving me crazy .
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Is my dress pink enough?
I love it Good question.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
It's so good, amy Nelson.
Welcome back to your show.
Welcome back to Ask Amy.
Hi, carrie.
I mean the crowd has been goingwild.
They're like when is Amy comingback?
We have lots of we havequestions about women pivoting
in business.
Well, that's what I'm here for.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
You're like the answer machine.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
I'm just a pivoter.
Okay, amy, there are questionsabound and we have a lot of
questions today about AI as well, which I personally am in love
with.
I'm in love with chat gibbet Icall it gibbet and there, but
you know, I always in my mind,I'm thinking, you know, a lot of
times people feel like, oh,chat GPT is like going to fix
(02:12):
every, it's going to create itfor, it's going to do it for me
and it's not no, it's not.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
It takes the easy things and makes it easier, and
I think that's important.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Yeah, but you but.
But authenticity is going to bethat much more important, I
think, than ever.
And standing out from themasses and the highly diluted
things out there, everybody kindof sounding the same.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Yes, and AI will make people who don't have an
original thought sound even lessoriginal.
Right Like that, because it isnow the unoriginal thing.
Yeah, but I think, like I thinkthat AI gives us a ton of
opportunities to do what we dobetter.
And for those of us I'm sureall of you listening who have
many original thoughts and yourdeep skill is bringing it all
(02:55):
together, bringing the ideastogether, bringing the people
together, bringing the solutionstogether, ai can never replace
that.
It can make you better at it,yeah, which I think is important
, but if you have all, that as askill and then you can figure
out how to like maximize the.
AI.
Look the fuck out.
Well, and I will say this Ithink if you dive into AI, make
(03:16):
yourself a student again.
You will have a massivelyunfair advantage for the next
two to three years.
It's like early adopters of theInternet right Like AI is here,
it's not going anywhereters ofthe internet right Like AI is
here, it's not going anywhere.
You cannot not like it andavoid it.
It's going to change the world.
So get on board, learn it andfor the next two to three years,
if you're an early learner likeyou, win.
Yeah, you win, Agreed.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Okay, so a little special addition to ask Amy.
This this time is people arelike people are going to call in
Wow, I, wow, I mean we had,we've had that much, that much
buzz on the dms that we aredoing a live in action.
Call in, show.
Well, I hope I have the answers.
I mean masses need were thepaparazzi bothering you outside.
By the way, were they in thebushes taking photos?
Speaker 3 (03:56):
I mean, I really can't go anywhere without just
bright flashes all right, so wehave a caller.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
It's our first caller and her her name is Chelsea
Chelsea.
Hi, hi, how are you?
It is.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
How are you, hi?
Good, I'm so excited to be on.
Ask, amy, I know we're so happyto have you.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Hi, chelsea, hi, Well , I have a question for you, amy
, okay, okay.
So I'm really curious about howwomen can better harness
community collaborations or likepartnerships to accelerate a
pivot, without feeling like I'mkind of like doing it all alone,
(04:38):
like what's that balance that Ineed to play.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
So Chelsea, the way I would answer this is, on this
specific point do not go forbalance, go all in.
I think you know we're used todoing so much on our own, but
when you are going to work onyour own, you should enlist
everyone you know or have workedwith or who want to work with
and just like, dive intobuilding collaborations, because
you will go so much further, somuch faster.
(05:03):
So, like, say, you arelaunching like a business for HR
strategies.
I think you should create acontent series where you reach
out to 10 friends who work in HRand say you know what are your
biggest challenges and get theminvolved, because, first of all,
they're going to see whatyou're doing, connect with you
(05:24):
and then they're going to thinkof you the next time they need
to hire a consultant.
Second of all, you're gettingcontent like put on LinkedIn or
Instagram or whatever to talkabout what you're doing and
you're showcasing your expertise.
So like, bring everyone to thetable on this one.
Don't try to create balance.
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
I like that.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Thanks so much.
Good luck, thanks, chelsea.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Bye.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Bye, Chelsea.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
We got one.
We got a couple from the DMstoo.
Here, I mean, there's a lot ofAI questions, which obviously
makes sense, but it says what'sa smart way for small business
owners to experiment with the AItools without wasting time or
energy on trends that mightfizzle out.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Yeah, so actually this is a really great question
and it's an important one.
I think that the best thing thatAI can do right now for small
business owners is help you dothings that typically only
larger companies with largemarketing budgets could do, and
by that I mean you can use AI,and I recommend you use AI for
research and you can do it.
(06:24):
I would recommend perplexity orGemini, um, and do the deep
research of, like, who is yourtarget demographic, what are the
trends we're seeing in yourindustry?
Um, what are the challengespeople in your demographic are
having right now?
Like, these are things thatpreviously you could have only
done if you could afford to puttogether a, you know a, together
a market research group of abunch of people.
(06:45):
Like now, perplexity can justtell you and that is the
smartest thing, it's so fast andyou can then use that and then
figure out how you want to talkto your target demographic.
Or you can, you know, ask chat,gpt or perplexity, like who is
the target demographic, and thenyou can ask them what are words
that they like to hear.
I mean, it's pretty wild whatAI can do for you in terms of
(07:09):
marketing research, and that ishow I think small businesses
should be using AI right now.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Hello, hi, victoria.
Hi, how are you Good, how areyou Fantastic?
I'm here with Amy Nelson.
Hi, amy, how's your day?
Speaker 3 (07:28):
going.
Great.
Thanks for calling in, victoria.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
Yes, so I guess I have a few questions to ask, is
that okay?
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
Sure, all righty.
So my first one.
I'm a business owner too, soI'm very curious about the AI
portion of it.
So how do you personally use AIin your business or creative
process, and where do you drawthe line to make sure your work
still feels fully you?
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Yeah, I use AI right now to help with research.
So I do a lot in my businessaround.
I do like skill sessions,masterclasses, and I'll use AI
to help me do the research.
For example, I was working withwomen the other day and we were
talking about, like, if I'mgoing to focus on a social media
platform to share my business'smessage, which one should I use
?
And I use the example of usingAI to figure out, like, okay,
(08:18):
what are who uses Facebook todayversus who uses TikTok?
Right, to kind of figure out,like, where your people are.
So you know how to go talk tothe right people.
And then you still have to gotell the people, like, what
you're good at and what yourskill is and how you can serve
them, yeah, but it's helpful.
Yeah, but it's helpful to knowwhere to go.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
Yeah, no, that makes sense, I love it.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Thanks, victoria, we appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
Yes, of course, for letting me come in.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Yes, thank you so much.
Keep listening.
Bye, okay, bye-bye, that's sogood.
Okay, let's see here.
Okay, one from the DMs.
Do you think perfectionism isholding women back from pivoting
or evolving their businesses,especially when speed to market
feels critical right now?
How do you coach people?
Speaker 3 (08:57):
through that.
I think perfectionism alwaysholds women back, because I
think we have been taughtparticularly if you're like
older millennials and eologenics, like we've really been taught
that we're supposed to show upas like good and somewhat quiet
and look, look wonderful, youknow, not like get rough and
tumble, get in the dirt and getit done.
That's the message we've beenreceiving our whole life from
(09:20):
society.
So I think perfectionism isrampant and I think we have to
just put it to the side.
I mean, the way that I talk topeople about it and the way I
talk to myself about it becauseI still have to talk to myself
about it is that the only wayyou are going to do big things
or scary things is to giveyourself permission to fail and
in no way try to be perfect.
(09:41):
I also, if you need another wayto frame it, like if you are a
parent, like, look at your kids,would you ever tell them to
wait till something was perfectto try, or that it wasn't good?
If it wasn't perfect, you wouldnever say that.
So why would you say it toyourself?
I also, you know, just anotherway is to like look back at
success stories that you'reenamored with or that inspire
(10:01):
you.
None of them had a story ofperfectionism.
In fact, most of the stories ofbig things being done in this
world are full of failure andfuck ups, and that's what makes
them interesting and good, andit made them arrive at the
destination they wanted toarrive at.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
And this, this is a great question um that I really
personally am interested in.
Speaker 4 (10:22):
Oh, okay, carrie Okay .
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Okay.
With today's heightened cancelculture and polarized social
landscape, what's your advice towomen who want to be bold and
authentic in their businessvoice but are also afraid of
backlash?
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Oh, what a good question.
So it is a polarized societyand here is my take on it no
matter what you say, some peopleare going to hate you and some
people are going to love you,and you do not need everyone to
love you.
And so take your message, takeyour authenticity, bring it to
the world and if 10% of peoplecancel you, okay, it's okay.
(10:56):
You know, like I I have.
I have gotten down in the weedsand gotten, you know, gotten
into it on social media onvarious topics.
Yesterday, on LinkedIn, I postedabout how, like I don't know,
the world's biggest LinkedIncreator was announcing a
membership and he did.
He listed his first speakersand he listed all men and I
commented and he snapped back atme and he probably hates me.
(11:20):
Now I don't care.
What did he say, cause I sawyours.
So I commented on his post andI said, like I was immediately
going to buy your membership,but then I saw the initial
speakers and didn't see anywomen, felt like I wouldn't
belong, like it wasdisappointing, and he wrote back
that I should have assumedpositive intent and I wanted to
like, really get into it.
Then I'm like, oh, now you'regoing to tell me how I should
feel, but I didn't.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
But it's kind of like okay, like it actually
reinforced what I felt let'stake a minute for that, because
when you sent that to me I Istared at it for a really long
time and I was like this isreally wild to me well, because
there were two things right.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
There was like there was the announcement of this
creator, of his membership,where he listed all male
speakers, and then there wasthis other thing from a brand
that had like created this awardfor like the top 20 male ceos
or no, sorry, the smartest ceosin the world right now, and it
was 20 ceos and they were allmen and most of them were white
men.
And I'm just looking at it andI like I posted on linkedin and
(12:18):
I was like I would like to sadlyannounce the death of people
even pretending to give a shitabout women in leadership.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Yeah, because that's what it feels like well, I'm
looking at it right now and it'slike america's smartest ceos
based on linguistic no, based onlinguistic analysis of
vocabulary, sophistication,critical thinking and more.
And then I was looking at allthe faces.
Now I do see one asian guy.
They're all white.
(12:43):
You know what?
I wonder?
I feel like you would be okay.
I'm just going to say, if I wasputting this together as a man,
a white man, I would at leastjust put some women in there.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Oh my God, I know Well, it's like the LinkedIn
creator.
I would at least just like puta woman speaker Like we used to
just like put lip, like put awoman on, put one woman right,
Like choose one woman, becausethen you can't be accused of
excluding women.
People do not care anymore.
I don't think, Um, but it is.
You know what I think here'swhat I think.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
I think it's AI.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
I think AI did that and they weren't smart enough to
finesse it or fix it.
I just don't care anymorebecause, I don't know, maybe
society has been givenpermission not to give a shit
anymore.
I don't know, but it is like.
I think that's what it is.
You think there's a swing backnow?
I do think there's a big swingback.
I do.
It's interesting because thereare more women in leadership now
than there were five or 10years ago.
Right, like, like we are movingthe needle for women slowly,
(13:36):
far too slowly.
But, like there are women inleadership in government, there
are women in leadership inbusiness.
But I just don't think peoplewant to talk about it anymore.
And one of the things that wasmost interesting when I posted
about this on LinkedIn, so manywomen who commented on my post
were like thank you for beingbrave enough to call this out.
And I'm like wait, when did webecome brave for stating the
(13:58):
obvious?
Is that the vibe now, too?
That, like it's brave of me tosay this, but I'll go back to
the original question.
Like, I really don't give ashit if people cancel me.
A lot of people don't like me.
I used to care a lot about it,but I don't anymore because I
can't make them like me and I'drather be me and be authentic
and people will want to alignwith what I believe.
Not everybody, but some peoplewill.
(14:19):
Enough people will.
You cannot be everything toeveryone's, don't try.
Try to be.
It's exhausting Even thethought it is.
But also, like, think aboutbigger brands.
Right Like, there's enough roomin the world for Nike and
Adidas and you know like, in allthe different brands, right
Like they appeal to different,there's enough room.
There are people who love WHotels and there are people who
are diehard Marriott.
(14:40):
Right, like you know, we aren'thotels and we aren't, you know,
athletic companies.
But if we have a personal brand, if we have services, people
will like our particular flavor.
My friend, amanda gets, has agreat saying.
She calls it like I think shetalks about it like flavors of
chicken.
Right Like some people like itwith spice, some people like it
barbecue, like just.
Some people will like you.
(15:00):
Just speak to them with yourauthentic voice.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Some people will like you.
Just speak to them with yourauthentic voice.
Yeah, it is this.
It really is one of theprobably basic, one on one
greatest pieces of businessadvice to give someone starting.
Yeah, because I can remembertoo, when starting the fitness
brand that I worked on.
You want everyone to like whatyou're doing.
It's so important because it'slike you don't separate from
(15:25):
like just your real life, like,of course, you want everyone to
like you and you want everythingto be like copacetic when
you're building a business.
The quicker you can decide whoyour ideal customer is and kind
of let go of the rest, the morepowerful you're going to be.
Then build with that model inmind and just forget the masses.
It's not a popularity contest.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
It's not a popularity contest, and do you know how
much more work it would be totry to serve people who weren't
really on your team anyway?
It?
Speaker 2 (15:49):
would be miserable.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
It's like Bob in Omaha on Yelp who's going to
complain about everything.
Sorry Bob, I don't care.
Yeah, right, like you're not,I'm not working for you.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Yeah, and let's call it an avatar or whatever the
persona is.
I would build to that and thenI would I mean me, if anything I
ever start again, it's going tobe like try me, try to come in,
(16:20):
because I don't want all I'vedone it, been there, done that.
Yeah, you don't honey.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
It's too hard.
And the other thing I will sayis like and I will go a step
further of like people who wantto cancel you and who are mean
to you online, use it.
Don't just use it as fuel.
Like, use it as content, use itto say like oh, bob in Omaha
(16:47):
thinks my product is shitty.
Well, fuck you, bod.
What about heather?
Oh, my god, I got this.
I got this comment recentlycarrie's talking about.
I got this comment on my tiktokabout, like you know, I was
talking about my family's battlewith amazon and heather's like
why don't you just move on?
And I was like no, heather,heather, I will not you actually
handle that really well.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
But I said then I sent amy.
I saw it immediately and I sentamy a text.
I'm like do you need me to goin on Heather?
Because I'm like that's anotherexample too of like.
What drives me crazy abouthuman beings is when you don't
have perspective or you haven'twalked a path.
Shut the fuck up, Heather.
(17:18):
Have you had the?
If you've had the, here's thedeal, here's the caveat.
I will eat my words, Heather,If you have had the FBI come to
your door and barrel throughyour home and disrupt your
entire infrastructure.
If that's the case, then wewill listen to you.
Otherwise, S-T-F-U.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
I mean, yeah, but I do get it a lot.
It's like, and I'm just kind oflike, all right, but it's not
done until you say it's done.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Yeah, you know, and you don't want to be doing that
Like I'm sure you can think ofother things you'd rather be
doing.
I would like.
I mean, sometimes I makecontent about my family's legal
battle and I want to throw up inmy mouth because I'm sick of
(18:02):
the legal battle and like I wishsomeone would call up Jeff
Bezos.
Maybe Heather could call JeffBezos and tell him to stop.
You know what?
You just figured out a solution.
What's your take on the role ofpersonal brand today versus
five or 10 years ago?
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Is it now non-negotiable for women in
business?
My take on personal brand today, versus five or 10 years ago,
is that it is non-negotiable forwomen in business.
I also think it'snon-negotiable for men in
business.
I think it's non-negotiable forall of us.
That said, I think it's a hugeopportunity too.
I think it's exciting and it'sfun.
I mean, I think it's differentthan it was 10 years ago,
because 10 years ago we couldn'tall get on a stage, but today
we can, and that stage is socialmedia, that's.
(18:32):
You know, it's like that stageis our own newsletter, our own
podcast, and so you get to shapea brand publicly without
anybody gatekeeping you.
And so it's a big opportunity,and I think you should treat
your personal brand as if youwere building Nike right Like
start with intention, build withintention, create guardrails
and go for it.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Yeah, I agree, and I think let's look at the other
way.
So, like, if you're someonewho's still laggard around,
social media still doesn't getit, you know.
You're like, oh, they'reposting again.
It's like people are buildingbusinesses off the backs of this
stuff, so that that's first ofall, wake the fuck up.
But then, secondly, if you, ifyou don't feel like it's
something you have to do, liketo build your personal brand,
(19:17):
like, let's say, you don't dothat for yourself and build this
infrastructure and community,and then you're working for a
company and then they fire youor whatever you can take that
with you, it's yours, it's yours.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
So why wouldn't you?
I don't know, like I also likeokay, look, if you look at how
we've seen corporate America andhow we grew up with thinking of
corporate America, it was likeit's a safe place to be, we can
go work for a company, we canalways have a job, we can have
our benefits.
That is not true today.
Right, like I mean thegovernment's laying off tens of
thousands of people.
Right, like those are supposedto be the safest jobs ever, but
(19:44):
companies are not there to giveyou a job or to protect your job
.
They're there to maximizeshareholder value, and that can
change on a whim or they canhave a random return to work
mandate and what you thought wasyour life is something totally
different and you can't do itanymore.
And so, like, the skills thatyou build, the work that you do,
the relationships you make,those are all yours.
So own them, create a platformaround them, and you don't have
(20:06):
to have a social media platformwith a million followers.
Like your personal branddoesn't even technically have to
be on social media, but itcould be like I am going to stay
in close contact with all ofthe people I meet while I'm an
employee at company X.
I'm going to reach out to themonce a month and say hey, just
was thinking, was thinking ofyou, wanted you to see this
article.
The other truth is that if youdon't create your own personal
(20:27):
brand, the world will create itfor you, right, like?
You have a brand, and so youshould be the one to define it.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
And it might be a whisper brand.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
It might be a whisper brand that you don't know about
, yeah.
So, yeah, I mean, create yourown brand and you can, like it,
can change and pivot and expand.
But yeah, if you don't knowwhat your personal brand is and
you don't know how to getstarted, my friend Aliza Licht,
who is a brilliant brandstrategist she wrote a book
called On Brand no-transcriptbrand is and certain people will
(21:28):
tell you.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
You know, the people who really care about you will
tell you, but people bewhispering about you out there.
You know what I'm saying.
So like you might as well knowwhat that is, because there's
nothing that drives me crazierthan not know, like I want to.
I want to be as self-aware as Ican and none of us are a
hundred percent, I don't thinkbut like to be able to really
understand, like, ooh, I'mcoming across a little more
(21:49):
brash than I think, or, man, Icould be a little more patient.
You know, no one asks thosequestions, nobody.
The negative stuff, right, likewhat is it?
What's what's not vibing?
Because you don't want to hearthe answer.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
But there's an answer yeah, the thing is like you
don't.
It's like sometimes it's like alot of it, like people who are
money avoidant, like you don'twant to look at your bank
account, but like the cashamount in there is important and
it's not, it ain't changingit's not like a magical thing
you can wonder about, like santa, like it's a number right and
like your personal brand, likeit's, it's there, whether you
want to acknowledge it or not.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Okay.
So how can women stay resilientwhen a pivot takes longer to
pay off than they expected orwhen early failures start piling
?
Speaker 3 (22:26):
up.
Oh, that's a good one.
A pivot is going to take longerthan you think.
Like that's, I think, abaseline that everybody should
accept, and so I think if youplan for that, you are better
safeguarded against the feelingsof failure and disappointment.
And one way to plan for that isto make sure that you have
other revenue streams whileyou're building your pivot.
(22:46):
I think it's just reallyimportant.
For example and I've pivoted anumber of times but, like I will
fall back onto legal consultingI was a litigator for 10 years
and I will fall back onto thatbecause I can bring in revenue
and it gives me more breathingroom and space mentally even to
kind of chase whatever the nextbig thing is.
So I think that's a big one.
(23:07):
But I also think, like, whenyou're planning your pivot,
create milestones for yourself,because you will hit milestones
along the way.
Make some of them attainable.
You know like, and so you cancheck things off and know that
you're still moving forward.
As long as you keep walking ina straight line, you will keep
moving toward wherever it is youwant to go.
So don't stop walking andcelebrate smaller milestones.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
What's one habit, if you could pick one, or practice
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Speaker 3 (25:32):
This is so boring what I'm going to say.
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Speaker 1 (25:42):
What's one piece of advice you got when you were
standing at your own careercrossroads?
That changed everything.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
I love the piece of advice I got.
That changed everything for meand I think I've said it to you
before, but I'll say it amillion times again, was it from
.
Carl Yep, yeah, it was myhusband.
I mean I, yeah, he, I.
A million times again.
Was it from?
Carl Yep, yeah, it was myhusband.
I mean I, yeah, he.
I was going to start theRiveter and at the time I
thought it would be a lifestylebusiness.
And my husband kind of lookedat me and he said, if you're
going to take the bat, swing itas hard as you can.
And that first of all I felt anenormous amount of support and
(26:10):
that it was going to be okay ifI spectacularly failed, because
I think my husband would haverather seen me like go down in
flames than like a little fizzleRight, and so I just stepped
into it, and then it allowed meto make a decision to step into
it, and once I made thatdecision I didn't look back.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
If you were going to give women one permission slip
or like break a rule, slip inbusiness right now, what would
it be?
Speaker 3 (26:36):
That you're going to talk about money and you're
going to talk about it a lotLike I think women talk about
money far less than men.
They talk about how much theymake.
They talk about how much theywant.
They don't talk about how muchthey want to make, they don't
talk about raising money.
And I think you have to justlearn to talk about money, love
to talk about money and starttalking Got to make that money,
man, yeah, I mean, you're likeI'm sorry we're not here for
(26:59):
like gold medals and cookies,we're not.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
No, we're not, gary.
I'm in the wrong room.
I'm definitely here for acookie.
Nobody's bringing me anycookies.
Okay, what trends do you thinkwomen should be paying attention
to over the next one to threeyears?
Things they can prep for rightnow.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
I think a couple of trends that women should be
paying attention to right noware the idea that you can own
your community, and that meansif you're building a brand on or
building a product and sellingit through social media Facebook
, Meta, TikTok, whatever youalso need to try to get those
people, that audience, thosebuyers, off of social media and
(27:39):
into your orbit through an ownedaudience, through a newsletter
or a podcast that you control,that an algorithm doesn't
control.
I think that's really important.
I think another trend that weshould be paying attention to is
the growth of micro communities.
I think people are going tosegment more and more into
smaller groups, and those can bereally lucrative and really
(28:01):
profound.
You don't need a million peopleto be buying what you're
selling or interested in whatyou're building, but a smaller
community is, I think, reallyprofound.
Who said it?
Who coined?
Speaker 1 (28:14):
there's riches in the niches.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
I don't know, but it's a good one.
It's actually.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
I don't even know, like, who said it out there, but
it's true, because so many andthink about like, so many people
are about this, like, oh, theyhave X amount of followers and
that's all like vanity metricsand I mean, I'm sure a lot of
them are monetizing and that'sgreat, but it's these sleepers
that have these very deep, richconnections with a smaller group
(28:38):
of people that are really, Ithink, laughing all the way to
the bank?
Speaker 3 (28:42):
Yeah, absolutely, I mean.
Here's an example.
Someone was telling me about anewsletter that is run by a CFO
for other CFOs.
There are not a lot of CFOs inthe world chief financial
officers However, this guy runsthis newsletter and community
and he charges other CFOs athousand dollars a year and
there are a thousand members andthat's a million dollar
(29:03):
business.
It's crazy and it's so simple.
It sounds so simple, doesn't it?
Speaker 1 (29:07):
And it is it is but but again people hear that they
take.
We all want to run to thecalculator and like go okay,
thousand times, but the realmagic is in the preparation and
time and expertise, like it'salways the content that's going
to drive him to be able to tocharge that consistently and to
keep those people.
It's, it's easy but it's not.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
Right, exactly, I mean he, he.
This person probably spentyears developing this expertise,
develop, building hisreputation, telling people who
he is and how he can help them.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
What does sustainable success look like to you today,
and how can women craftbusinesses that are resilient,
not just profitable?
Speaker 3 (29:44):
So when I think about sustainability and business
right now, my focus is onsustainability of you as a
business owner being able to dothis for a long period of time,
and so I think to build abusiness like that, you need to
figure out a way to work thatworks for you and works for your
life.
You can build an enormousbusiness and still be able to
(30:08):
pick your kids up from school afew days a week.
You just have to figure out,like, what the hours are and how
it works.
I know that I'm not answeringthe question in terms of
sustainability for the earth,but that's really outside the
bounds of my expertise Outsideyour wheelhouse?
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Yeah, I do think.
Um, one point that's worthnoting is I don't think many
people realize they can createtheir own reality.
It's crazy to the extent that,like, go get a whiteboard yeah,
go find a whiteboard.
Or even if it's a piece ofpaper, yeah, and draw out your
(30:42):
ideal state.
Yeah, within reason, yeah, okay.
I'm not saying like these allhave to have, like you have to
put work behind all this andframework, but I just think
people grow up a certain way.
They see life a certain way.
They're supposed to go get ajob, work for someone else.
They're in this like littlesafe cocoon.
They don't ever even realizethat this is a choose your own
(31:03):
adventure scenario.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
People, it is.
And here, like, if you don'tbelieve what Carrie's saying,
like, take this tactic, go lookup five women who you admire
who've done amazing things.
Like they aren't like borngeniuses with multi-millionaire
parents, oftentimes right.
Like Sarah Blakely, who built amulti-billion dollar business
(31:25):
like she was like sellingcopiers door-to-door in Atlanta
and she came up with this ideafor a different kind of like
underwear and tights and shejust went with it.
She could still be sellingcopiers in Atlanta and you would
never have any idea who she was, but she decided to choose her
own adventure win or lose.
She chose it.
And so it's always helpful to meto go back and look like, who
(31:47):
are the people that did thisthat I admire, that did big
things, they took risks and theydefinitely failed, yeah and so.
But yeah, I totally agree withyou.
It's like, and it took me along time to get out of that
kind of like construct of theworld.
And another thing you know isthat I went to law school.
I chose to go to law schoolwhen I was 21 years old.
I paid for it and I was alawyer and I thought that
because I'd made that decisionat 21, like, I had to be a
(32:08):
lawyer forever.
Like it'd be failure if Istopped lawyering, even though I
hated it, right Like the kindof lawyering I was doing.
And you have to give yourselfpermission to say I don't have
to do the same thing I chose todo when I was 21 or 22.
Like you were allowed to changeyour mind a million different
times and you should.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
I actually think lawyers are in a really like.
If you're a lawyer and you'remiserable in your practice,
you're in like a really goodspace to like pivot, because
when you have that lawyer, thelawyerly expertise behind you,
when you have that lawyer, thelawyerly expertise behind you,
like I think that's rocket fuelman.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
It is like the one thing I'll say.
It's much harder to buildthings in the world than it is
to destroy things, and a lot oflawyers are like in the business
of destruction or fighting andso but if you're a lawyer who
has a growth mindset and a buildmindset, like I think, you're
kind of unstoppable because youcan do a lot of, you can
(33:01):
understand risk in ways that alot of other founders can't, and
you spend less on lawyersbecause you can act as one
yourself.
Yeah, so you hear that outthere.
Yeah, I would encourage anylawyer in the world to take a
pivot and do something else.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Anna will up your street cred because, man,
lawyers, oh man, I used to likeyou're lucky I let you in the
room.
I mean attorneys, mike.
I was a salesperson, obviouslyAT&T Anytime we'd be dealing
with attorneys.
I'm like I cannot with you, butyou save so many things Because
, listen, salespeople, we'relike da-da-da-da-da, we're going
(33:33):
to sell it and the attorney'slike now hold on a minute.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
Did you cross that T?
Did you dot that I?
Speaker 1 (33:38):
I mean it's just the yin and the yang.
I know.
I know what's one risk youbelieve more women should take
in business this year, even ifit feels scary or unconventional
.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
I think a risk that women should take is to dive in
and decide to learn AI.
Like it probably feels riskybecause you're like what am I
doing?
Also, ai is sort of terrifying,but again it's here.
It's not going anywhere If youopt out of learning AI and
learning how to like operatewith AI, how to use it, how to
be flexible with it.
(34:07):
It is the same thing as sayinglike back in 1998, like that
whole internet thing is not forme, like it's just not, it's
laughable.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
Now, right, it's funny, um, my friend brogan
graham.
He was on the show and he hadmentioned something that he had
a conversation with someone andthey were referring to this type
of thing as like a softwareupgrade it's no different than
firmware or a software upgradeon a phone.
If human beings decide toneglect these natural software
(34:35):
upgrades for themselves, you endup being the curmudgeon uncle
or grandma or whomever that youused to look at and go oh my God
, yeah, you know like how manypeople out there have mothers
right now who cannot turn leftor right?
Like like literally the techtexting.
They'll put things on Facebookwhere it's like.
I had no idea how to.
Even you have to keep up withthe times.
(34:59):
But I think some people gotoward like this fear factor,
Right.
So, like what are you?
What are you afraid of?
Well, okay, Because propagandalike I just saw something on Tik
TOK and it's showing this humanAI robot attacking.
They're like in the, they're inthis, like controlled
environment, working on thishumanoid or whatever, and the
humanoid is like it's, it lookslike it's like.
(35:20):
So then people take, they gointo fear mongering, they go
into like oh my God, AI is goingto destroy us all, we're all
going to lose our job.
It's like, okay, let's justtake the dial it down, let's go
inch by inch and just figure out.
Okay, AI is not going away.
It's actually.
There's a lot of positives.
How can I dip my toe in in away that feels okay to me and
(35:40):
just learn a little bit?
Speaker 3 (35:42):
Yeah, I mean the other thing, Carrie, is that
like, if okay, so say you wantto accept this premise like AI
is going to take all of our jobsand ruin the world, you can do
nothing about that?
Like, opting out of trying todive in and take advantage of
what you can take advantage ofnow will not stop that from
happening.
Okay, what's the?
Speaker 1 (35:58):
biggest myth about success, pivoting or reinvention
.
You want to bust wide open forwomen listening to this episode
Success, reinvention, pivotingnone of it works overnight.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
There are no overnight successes.
It takes time, Whether it takestime in the background quietly
for years or you build in publicfor years, like it all takes
time, yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
so give yourself time yeah, and don't, and don't
listen to the like all themarketing jargon out there where
someone's like oh, it took mefour weeks and I'm making six
feet, you know, it's just.
And again let's say there issomeone who's an outlier and
something extraordinary happenedin that expedition.
Like that crazy amount of time.
It's not.
There's no getting around hardwork, there's no getting.
(36:41):
It's like a whole design, likeit's all designed for us to go
through this obstacle course.
It really is Like there's noget out of jail free, there's no
quick fixes for anybody, right?
Speaker 3 (36:51):
There's not, I know it also, like you know, along
those lines, treat starting abusiness or a pivot like an
experiment, like you would havetreated an experiment when you
were in middle school.
Like give yourself permissionto try different things, to test
different things, to see whatworks, to see what doesn't.
Just be listening to theresults, right, Like kind of
collect them yourself, figure itout, but poke and prod and see
(37:13):
what works and you can have funwith it.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
You have to love it.
But that's just another example.
You need to be upset.
You know, when you're growingup or everybody out there can
relate to like something thatthey found in life that they
couldn't get enough of, and thatinsatiable appetite whether
it's a good book, you can't putdown, you can't wait to get back
to the story.
Whether it's a sport, you knowthat feeling when you are
(37:40):
totally locked into somethingand it drowns out all the noise.
That's how I describe the thingyou need to find when you start
a business, because it is sochallenging and there are so
many things, but when you loveit so much and want to keep
coming back to it, that's whereyou yield the, the results,
completely, completely you know,with you.
Speaker 3 (38:00):
Yeah, and to take this back to AI for a moment,
because there's been so manyconversations about AI, here's a
way to use AI.
When you are building yourbusiness or building your life
and you find the things youdon't lock in on and you don't
love that you have to do, use AIto help you do those things.
Like, for example, I realizedthe other day I kind of don't
want to tell the world thisbecause I don't want to ruin AI
(38:22):
on this level, but you know, I Ihate doing research about, like
home purchases or things youknow.
And my kid to my kids needed anew mattress.
And I was like, oh my God, Ijust can't do this.
Right, because I knew if Isearched on Google, google was
going to tell me what somebodypaid them to tell me which is
(38:42):
search today.
Right, like, your results arewhat someone's paying for.
And my husband was like, let'sjust try chat GPT.
So we put in a prompt to chatGPT.
Like, what is the best mattressfor a growing girl between the
ages of 10 and 15?
Like, and it gave me this greatanswer Five Little Monkeys.
And I was like done.
There's a mattress called fivelittle monkeys, I know and I was
(39:02):
like.
First of all, I love the name,that's well, you know the book.
Yeah, I know, I know, I know, Iknow that's, I loved it.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
My dad, kyle, is like right in the middle of I've
been singing that, for I knowone also, my daughter Holland.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
If you know my daughter Holland, this is wholly
unsurprising, but she did jumpon the bed, fell off and hit her
head once and had to get astaple, um.
But so I got the mattress and Iwas like this is genius.
I am never researching any homepurchase again Until somehow
they figure out how to ruin AIand people will pay for results
in AI.
And then it's kind of over,right, but yeah, but it's
(39:35):
interesting because I did, likespeaking of businesses and
amplifying other small businessowners when I bought the
mattress.
I, you know, they give you alittle survey like where did you
hear about us?
And the options were like, youknow, search or a friend or
whatever.
And I wrote other and I waslike I, you should know, I found
out about you on chat, gpt,like here's the prompt and
(39:55):
here's the answer, and I got akick out of it and thought you
would too, and the director ofmarketing wrote me back And's so
cool, right, like I think wedon't.
Those interactions areimportant and great, and I'll
post about it when I get themattress on social, if it's
great, um, but it's just to saylike, if you want people to
support you when you're makingyour pivot.
Throw people little bones ofsupport too right, like about
(40:16):
excitement or things you see inthe world, because it can really
make someone's day why.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
Why don't we do that more?
Speaker 3 (40:22):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
So one of my things is always give credit where it's
due.
Yeah, Always and justauthentically.
If I see something and I don'twant to want it to be awkward,
like I won't do it, like overdoit, but I am constantly
reminding myself about how hardit is, and if I see someone I'm
that's just my reef.
Why aren't people more likethat?
Speaker 3 (40:48):
I don't know, because it's like you have to be
intentional about supportingother people and sometimes we
have just become the societythat's.
I feel that one of the biggestchallenges we have in society is
we've become very unintentionalright.
We're just kind of like goingthrough it.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
But I just feel like also, I think people are afraid
it's going to take away fromthem.
That's messed up.
I do.
I think it's like a scarcitymindset where if I, if I see
something out there, if I seesomeone out there doing
something really cool, I can'treally, I don't want to amplify
that because it's going to.
It's like some kind ofshortcoming within me, like
(41:18):
maybe an exercise would be thenext time you see someone doing
something that you, that thatstrikes you, is like really
improving the atmosphere.
Say something, whether it's atext, a DM, whatever feels
organic to you, just build like,start to do that a little bit.
Yeah, it feels really good tosupport.
Speaker 3 (41:35):
It feels so good when you do it and guess what?
It comes back to you tenfoldand it costs nothing.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
Like I don't know if people realize that the more you
throw that stuff out there inan authentic way to really try
to help, the more it comes backaround.
Speaker 3 (41:47):
I mean 100%.
Like here's an example like youknow, this is easy.
Right like here's an easy thinglike my friend Carrie Kirpin,
her book, the Whisper Way, um,came out this week, and like I
went on Barnes Noble and Ibought a book because it's an
important way to support her andthen I posted about it and it
took two seconds.
But it's like she wrote, I'mwriting a book.
That doesn't mean I can'tsupport Carrie's book.
(42:09):
Right like it's.
Just like it's these are.
They're small things and weshould we should really start
thinking about doing them more.
We treat the world like it's apie and there's only like 10
slices and if we don't get aslice, we won't get one.
The world is not a pie.
Speaker 1 (42:24):
There's room for all of us no, and I always say like
success is infinite.
This is how this, how I feelabout it.
I feel like success is infiniteand the only person that I need
to worry about in the realm ofwhether I will succeed or not is
me.
Yeah, I don't think thatsomebody down the street doing
something.
I always look for ways to likekind of work together for like a
(42:45):
greater good.
That's just the way that I.
Speaker 3 (42:47):
I mean there's all there's room for, like there's
room for like two basicallyidentical businesses to both be
incredibly successful.
I just think it it's such adisservice to think of it any
other way, and I think it'sincredibly important for women
to reframe their thinking thisway, because we really have been
taught there's like room forone person at the top, one woman
at the top, and I realized afew years ago that even I kind
(43:08):
of actually believed that in myheart of hearts, because I
remember someone asked RuthBader Ginsburg, the now deceased
Supreme Court justice, like howmany women on the court would
be enough?
And you know there are nineseats on the Supreme Court and
Ruth said nine, there'll beenough women on the court when
there were nine, and I laughedlike I literally laughed out
(43:28):
loud when she said that.
And then I was like, oh,actually there were nine men on
the court for a really long time, so there could be nine women.
Yeah, right, like it's.
And why did I laugh at that?
Because I am so convinced thatthat is not a possibility, but
it should be a possibility.
Right, there could be likesomeday we could see that list
of like the 20 smartest CEOs andthere could be 20 women.
There should be Um but like it.
We need to get rid of thescarcity, scarcity mindset and
(43:49):
understand that we can allsucceed.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
Yeah, should we talk a little bit about this event
that you and I want to dream up?
Yeah, we don't really knowquite what it is yet, but I feel
like we both of us are alignedin improving the atmosphere.
Yeah, you know, putting someshine on Columbus.
There is a huge and amazingpopulation of entrepreneurs,
(44:13):
small business owners, goodhuman beings who want to
contribute, who are aligned withthe same things.
So I feel like we're we're kindof ideating right now as to
what this is going to be.
Speaker 3 (44:26):
I mean, I think what we want is to like what we
haven't found in Columbus, whichwe both love, is kind of a
setting or community that bringstogether people who are
interested in big things.
Right, Like those people arehere in Columbus, but we haven't
found something that's bringingpeople together in an
interesting way.
(44:46):
Like we don't really want tosit and listen to a panel even
though panels are great and canbe amazing, they're a little
crusty.
Yeah, we want to be able tointeract and talk and but and
talk about big ideas, not just acasual cocktail where we're all
just doing whatever.
So it's this idea of likebringing people together with
intention, yeah, andhighlighting what the very cool
(45:08):
and interesting things that arehappening in columbus.
Speaker 1 (45:09):
you know a vibe could be this a vibe could be kind of
like a live show, where you'vegot a couple of like people who
are going to.
You know, talk a bit then you'vealso got like a DJ, a bar, some
light apps.
You've got people kind ofvibing around.
There's.
It's thematic, so there's likea theme.
Um, I don't know, I feel a vibe, but also like I want, I w I
(45:33):
feel like it would beinspirational, educational,
aspirational, definitelyaspirational, and and I would
want people to leave theirfeeling not only full of
something good, but like thatthey've connected with someone
new?
Speaker 3 (45:46):
Yes, you know.
Yes, we want to bring togetherpeople who wouldn't normally
interact with one another.
Right.
Speaker 1 (45:51):
With a hip hop.
Yeah, everything has to have ahip hop.
I mean, if you're with Keri.
Speaker 3 (45:55):
Croft, it's going to have a hip hop underbelly,
underbelly.
Speaker 1 (45:58):
Okay, we've got to have a hip hop, because I feel
like that really does get theright dopamine going.
It gets the right pheromonesflowing, yes, yes.
So you know, I think we saythis because we want to put
little sound bites out into theuniverse to see, like, okay, who
would be interested in that?
I guess if we throw this party,guys, will you come, yeah, will
you come, and like does anybodywant to be a part of the party?
(46:26):
Um, you know, I think there's alot of potential there you've,
we've been talking about thisfor a minute.
Yeah, like I feel this way and Iknow you feel this way, I'm not
just throwing an event like Ican't, I have a busy, but I
haven't, I have event phobia, Ithink I've just I've named it, I
think that's what it is I havetell me about this you probably
noticed this like I'm not likewhen we were talking about doing
an event.
I'm very tre.
Trepidatious.
Kate, could you attest to thisabout the event thing with me?
Yeah, I have no stress about it.
(46:47):
Well, so, so, and I love thatwith her.
But here's my stress about itis that I've gone to events in
other cities, like thoughtleadership, like the summit, or
you know.
You go to visit other citiesand you see really cool things.
You have these likeexpectations, this ideal thing,
in your head, and then you alsohave a lot of these like crusty
(47:07):
and I don't want to shadeanything because I think you
know having a panel is importantand some people are into that
and whatever, I want it to hiton the right dials and I want it
to have like I know howimportant, like the devil's in
the details, so I really need tolike zero in and make sure that
it's hidden.
Speaker 3 (47:26):
Yeah, no, I get it, I get it.
Well, let's make it hit, let'shit, let's hit.
Speaker 1 (47:30):
All right, amy, anything else?
Speaker 3 (47:31):
for the people before we wrap up you know what In the
next month.
Try at least once a week tohighlight someone you know
that's doing something cool.
I love that idea, Just try.
Speaker 1 (47:41):
Yep, those are your takeaway.
That's a takeaway, and reachout to us about this event.
Yeah, that's going to bepopping off.
It's going to be the best partyyou've ever been to.
Yeah, and if you want to be onthe show next time, because we
are taking callers and Amyclearly is I mean, she is, I
joke, but she's smart, youreally are and you're, you're
just very real and so that's whyhence why I have you answering
(48:03):
all the smart business questions.
So, dm, send an email, knock onmy door we all know where I
live at this point and if you'restill out there following your
girl, follow me on YouTube,spotify, apple or wherever you
get your podcasts.
And until next time, keepmoving, baby.
Hey there you beautiful badass.
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I'm your host, keri Croft,delivering you stories that get
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Don't say I've never doneanything for you, and when you
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Speaker 2 (01:25):
Steely Dan.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Oh my God, why do I have that in my head right now?
Speaker 1 (01:29):
It's driving me crazy .
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Is my dress pink enough?
I love it Good question.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
It's so good, amy Nelson.
Welcome back to your show.
Welcome back to Ask Amy.
Hi, carrie.
I mean the crowd has been goingwild.
They're like when is Amy comingback?
We have lots of we havequestions about women pivoting
in business.
Well, that's what I'm here for.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
You're like the answer machine.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
I'm just a pivoter.
Okay, amy, there are questionsabound and we have a lot of
questions today about AI as well, which I personally am in love
with.
I'm in love with chat gibbet Icall it gibbet and there, but
you know, I always in my mind,I'm thinking, you know, a lot of
times people feel like, oh,chat GPT is like going to fix
(02:12):
every, it's going to create itfor, it's going to do it for me
and it's not no, it's not.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
It takes the easy things and makes it easier, and
I think that's important.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Yeah, but you but.
But authenticity is going to bethat much more important, I
think, than ever.
And standing out from themasses and the highly diluted
things out there, everybody kindof sounding the same.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Yes, and AI will make people who don't have an
original thought sound even lessoriginal.
Right Like that, because it isnow the unoriginal thing.
Yeah, but I think, like I thinkthat AI gives us a ton of
opportunities to do what we dobetter.
And for those of us I'm sureall of you listening who have
many original thoughts and yourdeep skill is bringing it all
(02:55):
together, bringing the ideastogether, bringing the people
together, bringing the solutionstogether, ai can never replace
that.
It can make you better at it,yeah, which I think is important
, but if you have all, that as askill and then you can figure
out how to like maximize the.
AI.
Look the fuck out.
Well, and I will say this Ithink if you dive into AI, make
(03:16):
yourself a student again.
You will have a massivelyunfair advantage for the next
two to three years.
It's like early adopters of theInternet right Like AI is here,
it's not going anywhereters ofthe internet right Like AI is
here, it's not going anywhere.
You cannot not like it andavoid it.
It's going to change the world.
So get on board, learn it andfor the next two to three years,
if you're an early learner likeyou, win.
Yeah, you win, Agreed.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Okay, so a little special addition to ask Amy.
This this time is people arelike people are going to call in
Wow, I, wow, I mean we had,we've had that much, that much
buzz on the dms that we aredoing a live in action.
Call in, show.
Well, I hope I have the answers.
I mean masses need were thepaparazzi bothering you outside.
By the way, were they in thebushes taking photos?
Speaker 3 (03:56):
I mean, I really can't go anywhere without just
bright flashes all right, so wehave a caller.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
It's our first caller and her her name is Chelsea
Chelsea.
Hi, hi, how are you?
It is.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
How are you, hi?
Good, I'm so excited to be on.
Ask, amy, I know we're so happyto have you.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Hi, chelsea, hi, Well , I have a question for you, amy
, okay, okay.
So I'm really curious about howwomen can better harness
community collaborations or likepartnerships to accelerate a
pivot, without feeling like I'mkind of like doing it all alone,
(04:38):
like what's that balance that Ineed to play.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
So Chelsea, the way I would answer this is, on this
specific point do not go forbalance, go all in.
I think you know we're used todoing so much on our own, but
when you are going to work onyour own, you should enlist
everyone you know or have workedwith or who want to work with
and just like, dive intobuilding collaborations, because
you will go so much further, somuch faster.
(05:03):
So, like, say, you arelaunching like a business for HR
strategies.
I think you should create acontent series where you reach
out to 10 friends who work in HRand say you know what are your
biggest challenges and get theminvolved, because, first of all,
they're going to see whatyou're doing, connect with you
(05:24):
and then they're going to thinkof you the next time they need
to hire a consultant.
Second of all, you're gettingcontent like put on LinkedIn or
Instagram or whatever to talkabout what you're doing and
you're showcasing your expertise.
So like, bring everyone to thetable on this one.
Don't try to create balance.
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
I like that.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Thanks so much.
Good luck, thanks, chelsea.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Bye.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Bye, Chelsea.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
We got one.
We got a couple from the DMstoo.
Here, I mean, there's a lot ofAI questions, which obviously
makes sense, but it says what'sa smart way for small business
owners to experiment with the AItools without wasting time or
energy on trends that mightfizzle out.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Yeah, so actually this is a really great question
and it's an important one.
I think that the best thing thatAI can do right now for small
business owners is help you dothings that typically only
larger companies with largemarketing budgets could do, and
by that I mean you can use AI,and I recommend you use AI for
research and you can do it.
(06:24):
I would recommend perplexity orGemini, um, and do the deep
research of, like, who is yourtarget demographic, what are the
trends we're seeing in yourindustry?
Um, what are the challengespeople in your demographic are
having right now?
Like, these are things thatpreviously you could have only
done if you could afford to puttogether a, you know a, together
a market research group of abunch of people.
(06:45):
Like now, perplexity can justtell you and that is the
smartest thing, it's so fast andyou can then use that and then
figure out how you want to talkto your target demographic.
Or you can, you know, ask chat,gpt or perplexity, like who is
the target demographic, and thenyou can ask them what are words
that they like to hear.
I mean, it's pretty wild whatAI can do for you in terms of
(07:09):
marketing research, and that ishow I think small businesses
should be using AI right now.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Hello, hi, victoria.
Hi, how are you Good, how areyou Fantastic?
I'm here with Amy Nelson.
Hi, amy, how's your day?
Speaker 3 (07:28):
going.
Great.
Thanks for calling in, victoria.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
Yes, so I guess I have a few questions to ask, is
that okay?
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
Sure, all righty.
So my first one.
I'm a business owner too, soI'm very curious about the AI
portion of it.
So how do you personally use AIin your business or creative
process, and where do you drawthe line to make sure your work
still feels fully you?
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Yeah, I use AI right now to help with research.
So I do a lot in my businessaround.
I do like skill sessions,masterclasses, and I'll use AI
to help me do the research.
For example, I was working withwomen the other day and we were
talking about, like, if I'mgoing to focus on a social media
platform to share my business'smessage, which one should I use
?
And I use the example of usingAI to figure out, like, okay,
(08:18):
what are who uses Facebook todayversus who uses TikTok?
Right, to kind of figure out,like, where your people are.
So you know how to go talk tothe right people.
And then you still have to gotell the people, like, what
you're good at and what yourskill is and how you can serve
them, yeah, but it's helpful.
Yeah, but it's helpful to knowwhere to go.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
Yeah, no, that makes sense, I love it.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Thanks, victoria, we appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
Yes, of course, for letting me come in.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Yes, thank you so much.
Keep listening.
Bye, okay, bye-bye, that's sogood.
Okay, let's see here.
Okay, one from the DMs.
Do you think perfectionism isholding women back from pivoting
or evolving their businesses,especially when speed to market
feels critical right now?
How do you coach people?
Speaker 3 (08:57):
through that.
I think perfectionism alwaysholds women back, because I
think we have been taughtparticularly if you're like
older millennials and eologenics, like we've really been taught
that we're supposed to show upas like good and somewhat quiet
and look, look wonderful, youknow, not like get rough and
tumble, get in the dirt and getit done.
That's the message we've beenreceiving our whole life from
(09:20):
society.
So I think perfectionism isrampant and I think we have to
just put it to the side.
I mean, the way that I talk topeople about it and the way I
talk to myself about it becauseI still have to talk to myself
about it is that the only wayyou are going to do big things
or scary things is to giveyourself permission to fail and
in no way try to be perfect.
(09:41):
I also, if you need another wayto frame it, like if you are a
parent, like, look at your kids,would you ever tell them to
wait till something was perfectto try, or that it wasn't good?
If it wasn't perfect, you wouldnever say that.
So why would you say it toyourself?
I also, you know, just anotherway is to like look back at
success stories that you'reenamored with or that inspire
(10:01):
you.
None of them had a story ofperfectionism.
In fact, most of the stories ofbig things being done in this
world are full of failure andfuck ups, and that's what makes
them interesting and good, andit made them arrive at the
destination they wanted toarrive at.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
And this, this is a great question um that I really
personally am interested in.
Speaker 4 (10:22):
Oh, okay, carrie Okay .
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Okay.
With today's heightened cancelculture and polarized social
landscape, what's your advice towomen who want to be bold and
authentic in their businessvoice but are also afraid of
backlash?
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Oh, what a good question.
So it is a polarized societyand here is my take on it no
matter what you say, some peopleare going to hate you and some
people are going to love you,and you do not need everyone to
love you.
And so take your message, takeyour authenticity, bring it to
the world and if 10% of peoplecancel you, okay, it's okay.
(10:56):
You know, like I I have.
I have gotten down in the weedsand gotten, you know, gotten
into it on social media onvarious topics.
Yesterday, on LinkedIn, I postedabout how, like I don't know,
the world's biggest LinkedIncreator was announcing a
membership and he did.
He listed his first speakersand he listed all men and I
commented and he snapped back atme and he probably hates me.
(11:20):
Now I don't care.
What did he say, cause I sawyours.
So I commented on his post andI said, like I was immediately
going to buy your membership,but then I saw the initial
speakers and didn't see anywomen, felt like I wouldn't
belong, like it wasdisappointing, and he wrote back
that I should have assumedpositive intent and I wanted to
like, really get into it.
Then I'm like, oh, now you'regoing to tell me how I should
feel, but I didn't.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
But it's kind of like okay, like it actually
reinforced what I felt let'stake a minute for that, because
when you sent that to me I Istared at it for a really long
time and I was like this isreally wild to me well, because
there were two things right.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
There was like there was the announcement of this
creator, of his membership,where he listed all male
speakers, and then there wasthis other thing from a brand
that had like created this awardfor like the top 20 male ceos
or no, sorry, the smartest ceosin the world right now, and it
was 20 ceos and they were allmen and most of them were white
men.
And I'm just looking at it andI like I posted on linkedin and
(12:18):
I was like I would like to sadlyannounce the death of people
even pretending to give a shitabout women in leadership.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Yeah, because that's what it feels like well, I'm
looking at it right now and it'slike america's smartest ceos
based on linguistic no, based onlinguistic analysis of
vocabulary, sophistication,critical thinking and more.
And then I was looking at allthe faces.
Now I do see one asian guy.
They're all white.
(12:43):
You know what?
I wonder?
I feel like you would be okay.
I'm just going to say, if I wasputting this together as a man,
a white man, I would at leastjust put some women in there.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Oh my God, I know Well, it's like the LinkedIn
creator.
I would at least just like puta woman speaker Like we used to
just like put lip, like put awoman on, put one woman right,
Like choose one woman, becausethen you can't be accused of
excluding women.
People do not care anymore.
I don't think, Um, but it is.
You know what I think here'swhat I think.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
I think it's AI.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
I think AI did that and they weren't smart enough to
finesse it or fix it.
I just don't care anymorebecause, I don't know, maybe
society has been givenpermission not to give a shit
anymore.
I don't know, but it is like.
I think that's what it is.
You think there's a swing backnow?
I do think there's a big swingback.
I do.
It's interesting because thereare more women in leadership now
than there were five or 10years ago.
Right, like, like we are movingthe needle for women slowly,
(13:36):
far too slowly.
But, like there are women inleadership in government, there
are women in leadership inbusiness.
But I just don't think peoplewant to talk about it anymore.
And one of the things that wasmost interesting when I posted
about this on LinkedIn, so manywomen who commented on my post
were like thank you for beingbrave enough to call this out.
And I'm like wait, when did webecome brave for stating the
(13:58):
obvious?
Is that the vibe now, too?
That, like it's brave of me tosay this, but I'll go back to
the original question.
Like, I really don't give ashit if people cancel me.
A lot of people don't like me.
I used to care a lot about it,but I don't anymore because I
can't make them like me and I'drather be me and be authentic
and people will want to alignwith what I believe.
Not everybody, but some peoplewill.
(14:19):
Enough people will.
You cannot be everything toeveryone's, don't try.
Try to be.
It's exhausting Even thethought it is.
But also, like, think aboutbigger brands.
Right Like, there's enough roomin the world for Nike and
Adidas and you know like, in allthe different brands, right
Like they appeal to different,there's enough room.
There are people who love WHotels and there are people who
are diehard Marriott.
(14:40):
Right, like you know, we aren'thotels and we aren't, you know,
athletic companies.
But if we have a personal brand, if we have services, people
will like our particular flavor.
My friend, amanda gets, has agreat saying.
She calls it like I think shetalks about it like flavors of
chicken.
Right Like some people like itwith spice, some people like it
barbecue, like just.
Some people will like you.
(15:00):
Just speak to them with yourauthentic voice.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Some people will like you.
Just speak to them with yourauthentic voice.
Yeah, it is this.
It really is one of theprobably basic, one on one
greatest pieces of businessadvice to give someone starting.
Yeah, because I can remembertoo, when starting the fitness
brand that I worked on.
You want everyone to like whatyou're doing.
It's so important because it'slike you don't separate from
(15:25):
like just your real life, like,of course, you want everyone to
like you and you want everythingto be like copacetic when
you're building a business.
The quicker you can decide whoyour ideal customer is and kind
of let go of the rest, the morepowerful you're going to be.
Then build with that model inmind and just forget the masses.
It's not a popularity contest.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
It's not a popularity contest, and do you know how
much more work it would be totry to serve people who weren't
really on your team anyway?
It?
Speaker 2 (15:49):
would be miserable.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
It's like Bob in Omaha on Yelp who's going to
complain about everything.
Sorry Bob, I don't care.
Yeah, right, like you're not,I'm not working for you.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Yeah, and let's call it an avatar or whatever the
persona is.
I would build to that and thenI would I mean me, if anything I
ever start again, it's going tobe like try me, try to come in,
(16:20):
because I don't want all I'vedone it, been there, done that.
Yeah, you don't honey.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
It's too hard.
And the other thing I will sayis like and I will go a step
further of like people who wantto cancel you and who are mean
to you online, use it.
Don't just use it as fuel.
Like, use it as content, use itto say like oh, bob in Omaha
(16:47):
thinks my product is shitty.
Well, fuck you, bod.
What about heather?
Oh, my god, I got this.
I got this comment recentlycarrie's talking about.
I got this comment on my tiktokabout, like you know, I was
talking about my family's battlewith amazon and heather's like
why don't you just move on?
And I was like no, heather,heather, I will not you actually
handle that really well.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
But I said then I sent amy.
I saw it immediately and I sentamy a text.
I'm like do you need me to goin on Heather?
Because I'm like that's anotherexample too of like.
What drives me crazy abouthuman beings is when you don't
have perspective or you haven'twalked a path.
Shut the fuck up, Heather.
(17:18):
Have you had the?
If you've had the, here's thedeal, here's the caveat.
I will eat my words, Heather,If you have had the FBI come to
your door and barrel throughyour home and disrupt your
entire infrastructure.
If that's the case, then wewill listen to you.
Otherwise, S-T-F-U.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
I mean, yeah, but I do get it a lot.
It's like, and I'm just kind oflike, all right, but it's not
done until you say it's done.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Yeah, you know, and you don't want to be doing that
Like I'm sure you can think ofother things you'd rather be
doing.
I would like.
I mean, sometimes I makecontent about my family's legal
battle and I want to throw up inmy mouth because I'm sick of
(18:02):
the legal battle and like I wishsomeone would call up Jeff
Bezos.
Maybe Heather could call JeffBezos and tell him to stop.
You know what?
You just figured out a solution.
What's your take on the role ofpersonal brand today versus
five or 10 years ago?
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Is it now non-negotiable for women in
business?
My take on personal brand today, versus five or 10 years ago,
is that it is non-negotiable forwomen in business.
I also think it'snon-negotiable for men in
business.
I think it's non-negotiable forall of us.
That said, I think it's a hugeopportunity too.
I think it's exciting and it'sfun.
I mean, I think it's differentthan it was 10 years ago,
because 10 years ago we couldn'tall get on a stage, but today
we can, and that stage is socialmedia, that's.
(18:32):
You know, it's like that stageis our own newsletter, our own
podcast, and so you get to shapea brand publicly without
anybody gatekeeping you.
And so it's a big opportunity,and I think you should treat
your personal brand as if youwere building Nike right Like
start with intention, build withintention, create guardrails
and go for it.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Yeah, I agree, and I think let's look at the other
way.
So, like, if you're someonewho's still laggard around,
social media still doesn't getit, you know.
You're like, oh, they'reposting again.
It's like people are buildingbusinesses off the backs of this
stuff, so that that's first ofall, wake the fuck up.
But then, secondly, if you, ifyou don't feel like it's
something you have to do, liketo build your personal brand,
(19:17):
like, let's say, you don't dothat for yourself and build this
infrastructure and community,and then you're working for a
company and then they fire youor whatever you can take that
with you, it's yours, it's yours.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
So why wouldn't you?
I don't know, like I also likeokay, look, if you look at how
we've seen corporate America andhow we grew up with thinking of
corporate America, it was likeit's a safe place to be, we can
go work for a company, we canalways have a job, we can have
our benefits.
That is not true today.
Right, like I mean thegovernment's laying off tens of
thousands of people.
Right, like those are supposedto be the safest jobs ever, but
(19:44):
companies are not there to giveyou a job or to protect your job
.
They're there to maximizeshareholder value, and that can
change on a whim or they canhave a random return to work
mandate and what you thought wasyour life is something totally
different and you can't do itanymore.
And so, like, the skills thatyou build, the work that you do,
the relationships you make,those are all yours.
So own them, create a platformaround them, and you don't have
(20:06):
to have a social media platformwith a million followers.
Like your personal branddoesn't even technically have to
be on social media, but itcould be like I am going to stay
in close contact with all ofthe people I meet while I'm an
employee at company X.
I'm going to reach out to themonce a month and say hey, just
was thinking, was thinking ofyou, wanted you to see this
article.
The other truth is that if youdon't create your own personal
(20:27):
brand, the world will create itfor you, right, like?
You have a brand, and so youshould be the one to define it.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
And it might be a whisper brand.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
It might be a whisper brand that you don't know about
, yeah.
So, yeah, I mean, create yourown brand and you can, like it,
can change and pivot and expand.
But yeah, if you don't knowwhat your personal brand is and
you don't know how to getstarted, my friend Aliza Licht,
who is a brilliant brandstrategist she wrote a book
called On Brand no-transcriptbrand is and certain people will
(21:28):
tell you.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
You know, the people who really care about you will
tell you, but people bewhispering about you out there.
You know what I'm saying.
So like you might as well knowwhat that is, because there's
nothing that drives me crazierthan not know, like I want to.
I want to be as self-aware as Ican and none of us are a
hundred percent, I don't thinkbut like to be able to really
understand, like, ooh, I'mcoming across a little more
(21:49):
brash than I think, or, man, Icould be a little more patient.
You know, no one asks thosequestions, nobody.
The negative stuff, right, likewhat is it?
What's what's not vibing?
Because you don't want to hearthe answer.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
But there's an answer yeah, the thing is like you
don't.
It's like sometimes it's like alot of it, like people who are
money avoidant, like you don'twant to look at your bank
account, but like the cashamount in there is important and
it's not, it ain't changingit's not like a magical thing
you can wonder about, like santa, like it's a number right and
like your personal brand, likeit's, it's there, whether you
want to acknowledge it or not.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Okay.
So how can women stay resilientwhen a pivot takes longer to
pay off than they expected orwhen early failures start piling
?
Speaker 3 (22:26):
up.
Oh, that's a good one.
A pivot is going to take longerthan you think.
Like that's, I think, abaseline that everybody should
accept, and so I think if youplan for that, you are better
safeguarded against the feelingsof failure and disappointment.
And one way to plan for that isto make sure that you have
other revenue streams whileyou're building your pivot.
(22:46):
I think it's just reallyimportant.
For example and I've pivoted anumber of times but, like I will
fall back onto legal consultingI was a litigator for 10 years
and I will fall back onto thatbecause I can bring in revenue
and it gives me more breathingroom and space mentally even to
kind of chase whatever the nextbig thing is.
So I think that's a big one.
(23:07):
But I also think, like, whenyou're planning your pivot,
create milestones for yourself,because you will hit milestones
along the way.
Make some of them attainable.
You know like, and so you cancheck things off and know that
you're still moving forward.
As long as you keep walking ina straight line, you will keep
moving toward wherever it is youwant to go.
So don't stop walking andcelebrate smaller milestones.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
What's one habit, if you could pick one, or practice
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Speaker 3 (25:32):
This is so boring what I'm going to say.
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Speaker 1 (25:42):
What's one piece of advice you got when you were
standing at your own careercrossroads?
That changed everything.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
I love the piece of advice I got.
That changed everything for meand I think I've said it to you
before, but I'll say it amillion times again, was it from
.
Carl Yep, yeah, it was myhusband.
I mean I, yeah, he, I.
A million times again.
Was it from?
Carl Yep, yeah, it was myhusband.
I mean I, yeah, he.
I was going to start theRiveter and at the time I
thought it would be a lifestylebusiness.
And my husband kind of lookedat me and he said, if you're
going to take the bat, swing itas hard as you can.
And that first of all I felt anenormous amount of support and
(26:10):
that it was going to be okay ifI spectacularly failed, because
I think my husband would haverather seen me like go down in
flames than like a little fizzleRight, and so I just stepped
into it, and then it allowed meto make a decision to step into
it, and once I made thatdecision I didn't look back.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
If you were going to give women one permission slip
or like break a rule, slip inbusiness right now, what would
it be?
Speaker 3 (26:36):
That you're going to talk about money and you're
going to talk about it a lotLike I think women talk about
money far less than men.
They talk about how much theymake.
They talk about how much theywant.
They don't talk about how muchthey want to make, they don't
talk about raising money.
And I think you have to justlearn to talk about money, love
to talk about money and starttalking Got to make that money,
man, yeah, I mean, you're likeI'm sorry we're not here for
(26:59):
like gold medals and cookies,we're not.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
No, we're not, gary.
I'm in the wrong room.
I'm definitely here for acookie.
Nobody's bringing me anycookies.
Okay, what trends do you thinkwomen should be paying attention
to over the next one to threeyears?
Things they can prep for rightnow.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
I think a couple of trends that women should be
paying attention to right noware the idea that you can own
your community, and that meansif you're building a brand on or
building a product and sellingit through social media Facebook
, Meta, TikTok, whatever youalso need to try to get those
people, that audience, thosebuyers, off of social media and
(27:39):
into your orbit through an ownedaudience, through a newsletter
or a podcast that you control,that an algorithm doesn't
control.
I think that's really important.
I think another trend that weshould be paying attention to is
the growth of micro communities.
I think people are going tosegment more and more into
smaller groups, and those can bereally lucrative and really
(28:01):
profound.
You don't need a million peopleto be buying what you're
selling or interested in whatyou're building, but a smaller
community is, I think, reallyprofound.
Who said it?
Who coined?
Speaker 1 (28:14):
there's riches in the niches.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
I don't know, but it's a good one.
It's actually.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
I don't even know, like, who said it out there, but
it's true, because so many andthink about like, so many people
are about this, like, oh, theyhave X amount of followers and
that's all like vanity metricsand I mean, I'm sure a lot of
them are monetizing and that'sgreat, but it's these sleepers
that have these very deep, richconnections with a smaller group
(28:38):
of people that are really, Ithink, laughing all the way to
the bank?
Speaker 3 (28:42):
Yeah, absolutely, I mean.
Here's an example.
Someone was telling me about anewsletter that is run by a CFO
for other CFOs.
There are not a lot of CFOs inthe world chief financial
officers However, this guy runsthis newsletter and community
and he charges other CFOs athousand dollars a year and
there are a thousand members andthat's a million dollar
(29:03):
business.
It's crazy and it's so simple.
It sounds so simple, doesn't it?
Speaker 1 (29:07):
And it is it is but but again people hear that they
take.
We all want to run to thecalculator and like go okay,
thousand times, but the realmagic is in the preparation and
time and expertise, like it'salways the content that's going
to drive him to be able to tocharge that consistently and to
keep those people.
It's, it's easy but it's not.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
Right, exactly, I mean he, he.
This person probably spentyears developing this expertise,
develop, building hisreputation, telling people who
he is and how he can help them.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
What does sustainable success look like to you today,
and how can women craftbusinesses that are resilient,
not just profitable?
Speaker 3 (29:44):
So when I think about sustainability and business
right now, my focus is onsustainability of you as a
business owner being able to dothis for a long period of time,
and so I think to build abusiness like that, you need to
figure out a way to work thatworks for you and works for your
life.
You can build an enormousbusiness and still be able to
(30:08):
pick your kids up from school afew days a week.
You just have to figure out,like, what the hours are and how
it works.
I know that I'm not answeringthe question in terms of
sustainability for the earth,but that's really outside the
bounds of my expertise Outsideyour wheelhouse?
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Yeah, I do think.
Um, one point that's worthnoting is I don't think many
people realize they can createtheir own reality.
It's crazy to the extent that,like, go get a whiteboard yeah,
go find a whiteboard.
Or even if it's a piece ofpaper, yeah, and draw out your
(30:42):
ideal state.
Yeah, within reason, yeah, okay.
I'm not saying like these allhave to have, like you have to
put work behind all this andframework, but I just think
people grow up a certain way.
They see life a certain way.
They're supposed to go get ajob, work for someone else.
They're in this like littlesafe cocoon.
They don't ever even realizethat this is a choose your own
(31:03):
adventure scenario.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
People, it is.
And here, like, if you don'tbelieve what Carrie's saying,
like, take this tactic, go lookup five women who you admire
who've done amazing things.
Like they aren't like borngeniuses with multi-millionaire
parents, oftentimes right.
Like Sarah Blakely, who built amulti-billion dollar business
(31:25):
like she was like sellingcopiers door-to-door in Atlanta
and she came up with this ideafor a different kind of like
underwear and tights and shejust went with it.
She could still be sellingcopiers in Atlanta and you would
never have any idea who she was, but she decided to choose her
own adventure win or lose.
She chose it.
And so it's always helpful to meto go back and look like, who
(31:47):
are the people that did thisthat I admire, that did big
things, they took risks and theydefinitely failed, yeah and so.
But yeah, I totally agree withyou.
It's like, and it took me along time to get out of that
kind of like construct of theworld.
And another thing you know isthat I went to law school.
I chose to go to law schoolwhen I was 21 years old.
I paid for it and I was alawyer and I thought that
because I'd made that decisionat 21, like, I had to be a
(32:08):
lawyer forever.
Like it'd be failure if Istopped lawyering, even though I
hated it, right Like the kindof lawyering I was doing.
And you have to give yourselfpermission to say I don't have
to do the same thing I chose todo when I was 21 or 22.
Like you were allowed to changeyour mind a million different
times and you should.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
I actually think lawyers are in a really like.
If you're a lawyer and you'remiserable in your practice,
you're in like a really goodspace to like pivot, because
when you have that lawyer, thelawyerly expertise behind you,
when you have that lawyer, thelawyerly expertise behind you,
like I think that's rocket fuelman.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
It is like the one thing I'll say.
It's much harder to buildthings in the world than it is
to destroy things, and a lot oflawyers are like in the business
of destruction or fighting andso but if you're a lawyer who
has a growth mindset and a buildmindset, like I think, you're
kind of unstoppable because youcan do a lot of, you can
(33:01):
understand risk in ways that alot of other founders can't, and
you spend less on lawyersbecause you can act as one
yourself.
Yeah, so you hear that outthere.
Yeah, I would encourage anylawyer in the world to take a
pivot and do something else.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Anna will up your street cred because, man,
lawyers, oh man, I used to likeyou're lucky I let you in the
room.
I mean attorneys, mike.
I was a salesperson, obviouslyAT&T Anytime we'd be dealing
with attorneys.
I'm like I cannot with you, butyou save so many things Because
, listen, salespeople, we'relike da-da-da-da-da, we're going
(33:33):
to sell it and the attorney'slike now hold on a minute.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
Did you cross that T?
Did you dot that I?
Speaker 1 (33:38):
I mean it's just the yin and the yang.
I know.
I know what's one risk youbelieve more women should take
in business this year, even ifit feels scary or unconventional
.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
I think a risk that women should take is to dive in
and decide to learn AI.
Like it probably feels riskybecause you're like what am I
doing?
Also, ai is sort of terrifying,but again it's here.
It's not going anywhere If youopt out of learning AI and
learning how to like operatewith AI, how to use it, how to
be flexible with it.
(34:07):
It is the same thing as sayinglike back in 1998, like that
whole internet thing is not forme, like it's just not, it's
laughable.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
Now, right, it's funny, um, my friend brogan
graham.
He was on the show and he hadmentioned something that he had
a conversation with someone andthey were referring to this type
of thing as like a softwareupgrade it's no different than
firmware or a software upgradeon a phone.
If human beings decide toneglect these natural software
(34:35):
upgrades for themselves, you endup being the curmudgeon uncle
or grandma or whomever that youused to look at and go oh my God
, yeah, you know like how manypeople out there have mothers
right now who cannot turn leftor right?
Like like literally the techtexting.
They'll put things on Facebookwhere it's like.
I had no idea how to.
Even you have to keep up withthe times.
(34:59):
But I think some people gotoward like this fear factor,
Right.
So, like what are you?
What are you afraid of?
Well, okay, Because propagandalike I just saw something on Tik
TOK and it's showing this humanAI robot attacking.
They're like in the, they're inthis, like controlled
environment, working on thishumanoid or whatever, and the
humanoid is like it's, it lookslike it's like.
(35:20):
So then people take, they gointo fear mongering, they go
into like oh my God, AI is goingto destroy us all, we're all
going to lose our job.
It's like, okay, let's justtake the dial it down, let's go
inch by inch and just figure out.
Okay, AI is not going away.
It's actually.
There's a lot of positives.
How can I dip my toe in in away that feels okay to me and
(35:40):
just learn a little bit?
Speaker 3 (35:42):
Yeah, I mean the other thing, Carrie, is that
like, if okay, so say you wantto accept this premise like AI
is going to take all of our jobsand ruin the world, you can do
nothing about that?
Like, opting out of trying todive in and take advantage of
what you can take advantage ofnow will not stop that from
happening.
Okay, what's the?
Speaker 1 (35:58):
biggest myth about success, pivoting or reinvention
.
You want to bust wide open forwomen listening to this episode
Success, reinvention, pivotingnone of it works overnight.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
There are no overnight successes.
It takes time, Whether it takestime in the background quietly
for years or you build in publicfor years, like it all takes
time, yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
so give yourself time yeah, and don't, and don't
listen to the like all themarketing jargon out there where
someone's like oh, it took mefour weeks and I'm making six
feet, you know, it's just.
And again let's say there issomeone who's an outlier and
something extraordinary happenedin that expedition.
Like that crazy amount of time.
It's not.
There's no getting around hardwork, there's no getting.
(36:41):
It's like a whole design, likeit's all designed for us to go
through this obstacle course.
It really is Like there's noget out of jail free, there's no
quick fixes for anybody, right?
Speaker 3 (36:51):
There's not, I know it also, like you know, along
those lines, treat starting abusiness or a pivot like an
experiment, like you would havetreated an experiment when you
were in middle school.
Like give yourself permissionto try different things, to test
different things, to see whatworks, to see what doesn't.
Just be listening to theresults, right, Like kind of
collect them yourself, figure itout, but poke and prod and see
(37:13):
what works and you can have funwith it.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
You have to love it.
But that's just another example.
You need to be upset.
You know, when you're growingup or everybody out there can
relate to like something thatthey found in life that they
couldn't get enough of, and thatinsatiable appetite whether
it's a good book, you can't putdown, you can't wait to get back
to the story.
Whether it's a sport, you knowthat feeling when you are
(37:40):
totally locked into somethingand it drowns out all the noise.
That's how I describe the thingyou need to find when you start
a business, because it is sochallenging and there are so
many things, but when you loveit so much and want to keep
coming back to it, that's whereyou yield the, the results,
completely, completely you know,with you.
Speaker 3 (38:00):
Yeah, and to take this back to AI for a moment,
because there's been so manyconversations about AI, here's a
way to use AI.
When you are building yourbusiness or building your life
and you find the things youdon't lock in on and you don't
love that you have to do, use AIto help you do those things.
Like, for example, I realizedthe other day I kind of don't
want to tell the world thisbecause I don't want to ruin AI
(38:22):
on this level, but you know, I Ihate doing research about, like
home purchases or things youknow.
And my kid to my kids needed anew mattress.
And I was like, oh my God, Ijust can't do this.
Right, because I knew if Isearched on Google, google was
going to tell me what somebodypaid them to tell me which is
(38:42):
search today.
Right, like, your results arewhat someone's paying for.
And my husband was like, let'sjust try chat GPT.
So we put in a prompt to chatGPT.
Like, what is the best mattressfor a growing girl between the
ages of 10 and 15?
Like, and it gave me this greatanswer Five Little Monkeys.
And I was like done.
There's a mattress called fivelittle monkeys, I know and I was
(39:02):
like.
First of all, I love the name,that's well, you know the book.
Yeah, I know, I know, I know, Iknow that's, I loved it.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
My dad, kyle, is like right in the middle of I've
been singing that, for I knowone also, my daughter Holland.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
If you know my daughter Holland, this is wholly
unsurprising, but she did jumpon the bed, fell off and hit her
head once and had to get astaple, um.
But so I got the mattress and Iwas like this is genius.
I am never researching any homepurchase again Until somehow
they figure out how to ruin AIand people will pay for results
in AI.
And then it's kind of over,right, but yeah, but it's
(39:35):
interesting because I did, likespeaking of businesses and
amplifying other small businessowners when I bought the
mattress.
I, you know, they give you alittle survey like where did you
hear about us?
And the options were like, youknow, search or a friend or
whatever.
And I wrote other and I waslike I, you should know, I found
out about you on chat, gpt,like here's the prompt and
(39:55):
here's the answer, and I got akick out of it and thought you
would too, and the director ofmarketing wrote me back And's so
cool, right, like I think wedon't.
Those interactions areimportant and great, and I'll
post about it when I get themattress on social, if it's
great, um, but it's just to saylike, if you want people to
support you when you're makingyour pivot.
Throw people little bones ofsupport too right, like about
(40:16):
excitement or things you see inthe world, because it can really
make someone's day why.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
Why don't we do that more?
Speaker 3 (40:22):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
So one of my things is always give credit where it's
due.
Yeah, Always and justauthentically.
If I see something and I don'twant to want it to be awkward,
like I won't do it, like overdoit, but I am constantly
reminding myself about how hardit is, and if I see someone I'm
that's just my reef.
Why aren't people more likethat?
Speaker 3 (40:48):
I don't know, because it's like you have to be
intentional about supportingother people and sometimes we
have just become the societythat's.
I feel that one of the biggestchallenges we have in society is
we've become very unintentionalright.
We're just kind of like goingthrough it.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
But I just feel like also, I think people are afraid
it's going to take away fromthem.
That's messed up.
I do.
I think it's like a scarcitymindset where if I, if I see
something out there, if I seesomeone out there doing
something really cool, I can'treally, I don't want to amplify
that because it's going to.
It's like some kind ofshortcoming within me, like
(41:18):
maybe an exercise would be thenext time you see someone doing
something that you, that thatstrikes you, is like really
improving the atmosphere.
Say something, whether it's atext, a DM, whatever feels
organic to you, just build like,start to do that a little bit.
Yeah, it feels really good tosupport.
Speaker 3 (41:35):
It feels so good when you do it and guess what?
It comes back to you tenfoldand it costs nothing.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
Like I don't know if people realize that the more you
throw that stuff out there inan authentic way to really try
to help, the more it comes backaround.
Speaker 3 (41:47):
I mean 100%.
Like here's an example like youknow, this is easy.
Right like here's an easy thinglike my friend Carrie Kirpin,
her book, the Whisper Way, um,came out this week, and like I
went on Barnes Noble and Ibought a book because it's an
important way to support her andthen I posted about it and it
took two seconds.
But it's like she wrote, I'mwriting a book.
That doesn't mean I can'tsupport Carrie's book.
(42:09):
Right like it's.
Just like it's these are.
They're small things and weshould we should really start
thinking about doing them more.
We treat the world like it's apie and there's only like 10
slices and if we don't get aslice, we won't get one.
The world is not a pie.
Speaker 1 (42:24):
There's room for all of us no, and I always say like
success is infinite.
This is how this, how I feelabout it.
I feel like success is infiniteand the only person that I need
to worry about in the realm ofwhether I will succeed or not is
me.
Yeah, I don't think thatsomebody down the street doing
something.
I always look for ways to likekind of work together for like a
(42:45):
greater good.
That's just the way that I.
Speaker 3 (42:47):
I mean there's all there's room for, like there's
room for like two basicallyidentical businesses to both be
incredibly successful.
I just think it it's such adisservice to think of it any
other way, and I think it'sincredibly important for women
to reframe their thinking thisway, because we really have been
taught there's like room forone person at the top, one woman
at the top, and I realized afew years ago that even I kind
(43:08):
of actually believed that in myheart of hearts, because I
remember someone asked RuthBader Ginsburg, the now deceased
Supreme Court justice, like howmany women on the court would
be enough?
And you know there are nineseats on the Supreme Court and
Ruth said nine, there'll beenough women on the court when
there were nine, and I laughedlike I literally laughed out
(43:28):
loud when she said that.
And then I was like, oh,actually there were nine men on
the court for a really long time, so there could be nine women.
Yeah, right, like it's.
And why did I laugh at that?
Because I am so convinced thatthat is not a possibility, but
it should be a possibility.
Right, there could be likesomeday we could see that list
of like the 20 smartest CEOs andthere could be 20 women.
There should be Um but like it.
We need to get rid of thescarcity, scarcity mindset and
(43:49):
understand that we can allsucceed.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
Yeah, should we talk a little bit about this event
that you and I want to dream up?
Yeah, we don't really knowquite what it is yet, but I feel
like we both of us are alignedin improving the atmosphere.
Yeah, you know, putting someshine on Columbus.
There is a huge and amazingpopulation of entrepreneurs,
(44:13):
small business owners, goodhuman beings who want to
contribute, who are aligned withthe same things.
So I feel like we're we're kindof ideating right now as to
what this is going to be.
Speaker 3 (44:26):
I mean, I think what we want is to like what we
haven't found in Columbus, whichwe both love, is kind of a
setting or community that bringstogether people who are
interested in big things.
Right, Like those people arehere in Columbus, but we haven't
found something that's bringingpeople together in an
interesting way.
(44:46):
Like we don't really want tosit and listen to a panel even
though panels are great and canbe amazing, they're a little
crusty.
Yeah, we want to be able tointeract and talk and but and
talk about big ideas, not just acasual cocktail where we're all
just doing whatever.
So it's this idea of likebringing people together with
intention, yeah, andhighlighting what the very cool
(45:08):
and interesting things that arehappening in columbus.
Speaker 1 (45:09):
you know a vibe could be this a vibe could be kind of
like a live show, where you'vegot a couple of like people who
are going to.
You know, talk a bit then you'vealso got like a DJ, a bar, some
light apps.
You've got people kind ofvibing around.
There's.
It's thematic, so there's likea theme.
Um, I don't know, I feel a vibe, but also like I want, I w I
(45:33):
feel like it would beinspirational, educational,
aspirational, definitelyaspirational, and and I would
want people to leave theirfeeling not only full of
something good, but like thatthey've connected with someone
new?
Speaker 3 (45:46):
Yes, you know.
Yes, we want to bring togetherpeople who wouldn't normally
interact with one another.
Right.
Speaker 1 (45:51):
With a hip hop.
Yeah, everything has to have ahip hop.
I mean, if you're with Keri.
Speaker 3 (45:55):
Croft, it's going to have a hip hop underbelly,
underbelly.
Speaker 1 (45:58):
Okay, we've got to have a hip hop, because I feel
like that really does get theright dopamine going.
It gets the right pheromonesflowing, yes, yes.
So you know, I think we saythis because we want to put
little sound bites out into theuniverse to see, like, okay, who
would be interested in that?
I guess if we throw this party,guys, will you come, yeah, will
you come, and like does anybodywant to be a part of the party?
(46:26):
Um, you know, I think there's alot of potential there you've,
we've been talking about thisfor a minute.
Yeah, like I feel this way and Iknow you feel this way, I'm not
just throwing an event like Ican't, I have a busy, but I
haven't, I have event phobia, Ithink I've just I've named it, I
think that's what it is I havetell me about this you probably
noticed this like I'm not likewhen we were talking about doing
an event.
I'm very tre.
Trepidatious.
Kate, could you attest to thisabout the event thing with me?
Yeah, I have no stress about it.
(46:47):
Well, so, so, and I love thatwith her.
But here's my stress about itis that I've gone to events in
other cities, like thoughtleadership, like the summit, or
you know.
You go to visit other citiesand you see really cool things.
You have these likeexpectations, this ideal thing,
in your head, and then you alsohave a lot of these like crusty
(47:07):
and I don't want to shadeanything because I think you
know having a panel is importantand some people are into that
and whatever, I want it to hiton the right dials and I want it
to have like I know howimportant, like the devil's in
the details, so I really need tolike zero in and make sure that
it's hidden.
Speaker 3 (47:26):
Yeah, no, I get it, I get it.
Well, let's make it hit, let'shit, let's hit.
Speaker 1 (47:30):
All right, amy, anything else?
Speaker 3 (47:31):
for the people before we wrap up you know what In the
next month.
Try at least once a week tohighlight someone you know
that's doing something cool.
I love that idea, Just try.
Speaker 1 (47:41):
Yep, those are your takeaway.
That's a takeaway, and reachout to us about this event.
Yeah, that's going to bepopping off.
It's going to be the best partyyou've ever been to.
Yeah, and if you want to be onthe show next time, because we
are taking callers and Amyclearly is I mean, she is, I
joke, but she's smart, youreally are and you're, you're
just very real and so that's whyhence why I have you answering
(48:03):
all the smart business questions.
So, dm, send an email, knock onmy door we all know where I
live at this point and if you'restill out there following your
girl, follow me on YouTube,spotify, apple or wherever you
get your podcasts.
And until next time, keepmoving, baby.
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