The Keri Croft Show
The Keri Croft Show
How Women Entrepreneurs Can Thrive with AI & Build Abundance | Ask Amy x The Keri Croft Show
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
Hey there you beautiful badass. Welcome to the Keri Croft Show. I'm your host, keri Croft, delivering you stories that get you pumped up and feeling like the unstoppable savage that you are. So grab your coffee, put on your game face and let's do this thing. Baby Ready to elevate your self-care game?
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Speaker 2:Steely Dan.
Speaker 3:Oh my God, why do I have that in my head right now?
Speaker 1:It's driving me crazy.
Speaker 3:Is my dress pink enough? I love it Good question.
Speaker 1:It's so good, amy Nelson. Welcome back to your show. Welcome back to Ask Amy. Hi, carrie. I mean the crowd has been going wild. They're like when is Amy coming back? We have lots of we have questions about women pivoting in business. Well, that's what I'm here for.
Speaker 3:You're like the answer machine.
Speaker 1:I'm just a pivoter. Okay, amy, there are questions abound 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 I call 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 every, it's going to create it for, it's going to do it for me and it's not no, it's not.
Speaker 3:It takes the easy things and makes it easier, and I think that's important.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but you but. But authenticity is going to be that much more important, I think, than ever. And standing out from the masses and the highly diluted things out there, everybody kind of sounding the same.
Speaker 3:Yes, and AI will make people who don't have an original thought sound even less original. Right Like that, because it is now the unoriginal thing. Yeah, but I think, like I think that AI gives us a ton of opportunities to do what we do better. And for those of us I'm sure all of you listening who have many original thoughts and your deep skill is bringing it all together, bringing the ideas together, bringing the people together, bringing the solutions together, 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 a skill and then you can figure out how to like maximize the.
Speaker 3:AI. Look the fuck out. Well, and I will say this I think if you dive into AI, make yourself a student again. You will have a massively unfair advantage for the next two to three years. It's like early adopters of the Internet right Like AI is here, it's not going anywhereters of the internet right Like AI is here, it's not going anywhere. You cannot not like it and avoid it. It's going to change the world. So get on board, learn it and for the next two to three years, if you're an early learner like you, win. Yeah, you win, Agreed.
Speaker 1:Okay, so a little special addition to ask Amy. This this time is people are like 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 are doing a live in action. Call in, show. Well, I hope I have the answers. I mean masses need were the paparazzi bothering you outside. By the way, were they in the bushes taking photos?
Speaker 3:I mean, I really can't go anywhere without just bright flashes all right, so we have a caller.
Speaker 1:It's our first caller and her her name is Chelsea Chelsea. Hi, hi, how are you? It is.
Speaker 2:How are you, hi? Good, I'm so excited to be on. Ask, amy, I know we're so happy to have you.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 2:Hi, chelsea, hi, Well, I have a question for you, amy, okay, okay. So I'm really curious about how women can better harness community collaborations or like partnerships to accelerate a pivot, without feeling like I'm kind of like doing it all alone, like what's that balance that I need to play.
Speaker 3:So Chelsea, the way I would answer this is, on this specific point do not go for balance, go all in. I think you know we're used to doing so much on our own, but when you are going to work on your own, you should enlist everyone you know or have worked with or who want to work with and just like, dive into building collaborations, because you will go so much further, so much faster. So, like, say, you are launching like a business for HR strategies. I think you should create a content series where you reach out to 10 friends who work in HR and say you know what are your biggest challenges and get them involved, because, first of all, they're going to see what you're doing, connect with you and then they're going to think of you the next time they need to hire a consultant. Second of all, you're getting content like put on LinkedIn or Instagram or whatever to talk about what you're doing and you're showcasing your expertise. So like, bring everyone to the table on this one. Don't try to create balance. Thank you.
Speaker 1:I like that.
Speaker 2:Thanks so much. Good luck, thanks, chelsea.
Speaker 1:Bye.
Speaker 3:Bye, Chelsea.
Speaker 1:We got one. We got a couple from the DMs too. Here, I mean, there's a lot of AI questions, which obviously makes sense, but it says what's a smart way for small business owners to experiment with the AI tools without wasting time or energy on trends that might fizzle out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so actually this is a really great question and it's an important one.
Speaker 3:I think that the best thing that AI can do right now for small business owners is help you do things that typically only larger companies with large marketing 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.
Speaker 3:I would recommend perplexity or Gemini, um, and do the deep research of, like, who is your target demographic, what are the trends we're seeing in your industry? Um, what are the challenges people in your demographic are having right now? Like, these are things that previously you could have only done if you could afford to put together a, you know a, together a market research group of a bunch of people. Like now, perplexity can just tell you and that is the smartest thing, it's so fast and you can then use that and then figure out how you want to talk to your target demographic. Or you can, you know, ask chat, gpt or perplexity, like who is the target demographic, and then you can ask them what are words that they like to hear. I mean, it's pretty wild what AI can do for you in terms of marketing research, and that is how I think small businesses should be using AI right now.
Speaker 1:Hello, hi, victoria. Hi, how are you Good, how are you Fantastic? I'm here with Amy Nelson. Hi, amy, how's your day?
Speaker 3:going. Great. Thanks for calling in, victoria.
Speaker 4:Yes, so I guess I have a few questions to ask, is that okay?
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 4:Sure, all righty. So my first one. I'm a business owner too, so I'm very curious about the AI portion of it. So how do you personally use AI in your business or creative process, and where do you draw the line to make sure your work still feels fully you?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I use AI right now to help with research. So I do a lot in my business around. I do like skill sessions, masterclasses, and I'll use AI to help me do the research. For example, I was working with women the other day and we were talking about, like, if I'm going to focus on a social media platform to share my business's message, which one should I use? And I use the example of using AI to figure out, like, okay, what are who uses Facebook today versus who uses TikTok? Right, to kind of figure out, like, where your people are. So you know how to go talk to the right people. And then you still have to go tell the people, like, what you're good at and what your skill is and how you can serve them, yeah, but it's helpful.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but it's helpful to know where to go.
Speaker 4:Yeah, no, that makes sense, I love it.
Speaker 1:Thanks, victoria, we appreciate it.
Speaker 4:Yes, of course, for letting me come in.
Speaker 1:Yes, thank you so much. Keep listening. Bye, okay, bye-bye, that's so good. Okay, let's see here. Okay, one from the DMs. Do you think perfectionism is holding women back from pivoting or evolving their businesses, especially when speed to market feels critical right now? How do you coach people?
Speaker 3:through that. I think perfectionism always holds women back, because I think we have been taught particularly if you're like older millennials and eologenics, like we've really been taught that we're supposed to show up as like good and somewhat quiet and look, look wonderful, you know, not like get rough and tumble, get in the dirt and get it done. That's the message we've been receiving our whole life from society. So I think perfectionism is rampant and I think we have to just put it to the side. I mean, the way that I talk to people about it and the way I talk to myself about it because I still have to talk to myself about it is that the only way you are going to do big things or scary things is to give yourself permission to fail and in no way try to be perfect.
Speaker 3:I also, if you need another way to frame it, like if you are a parent, like, look at your kids, would you ever tell them to wait till something was perfect to try, or that it wasn't good? If it wasn't perfect, you would never say that. So why would you say it to yourself? I also, you know, just another way is to like look back at success stories that you're enamored with or that inspire you. None of them had a story of perfectionism. In fact, most of the stories of big things being done in this world are full of failure and fuck ups, and that's what makes them interesting and good, and it made them arrive at the destination they wanted to arrive at.
Speaker 1:And this, this is a great question um that I really personally am interested in.
Speaker 4:Oh, okay, carrie Okay.
Speaker 1:Okay. With today's heightened cancel culture and polarized social landscape, what's your advice to women who want to be bold and authentic in their business voice but are also afraid of backlash?
Speaker 3:Oh, what a good question. So it is a polarized society and here is my take on it no matter what you say, some people are 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, take your authenticity, bring it to the world and if 10% of people cancel you, okay, it's okay. You know, like I I have. I have gotten down in the weeds and gotten, you know, gotten into it on social media on various topics.
Speaker 3:Yesterday, on LinkedIn, I posted about how, like I don't know, the world's biggest LinkedIn creator was announcing a membership and he did. He listed his first speakers and he listed all men and I commented and he snapped back at me and he probably hates me. Now I don't care. What did he say, cause I saw yours. So I commented on his post and I said, like I was immediately going to buy your membership, but then I saw the initial speakers and didn't see any women, felt like I wouldn't belong, like it was disappointing, and he wrote back that I should have assumed positive intent and I wanted to like, really get into it. Then I'm like, oh, now you're going to tell me how I should feel, but I didn't.
Speaker 1:But it's kind of like okay, like it actually reinforced what I felt let's take a minute for that, because when you sent that to me I I stared at it for a really long time and I was like this is really wild to me well, because there were two things right.
Speaker 3:There was like there was the announcement of this creator, of his membership, where he listed all male speakers, and then there was this other thing from a brand that had like created this award for like the top 20 male ceos or no, sorry, the smartest ceos in the world right now, and it was 20 ceos and they were all men and most of them were white men. And I'm just looking at it and I like I posted on linkedin and I was like I would like to sadly announce the death of people even pretending to give a shit about women in leadership.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because that's what it feels like well, I'm looking at it right now and it's like america's smartest ceos based on linguistic no, based on linguistic analysis of vocabulary, sophistication, critical thinking and more. And then I was looking at all the faces. Now I do see one asian guy. They're all white. You know what? I wonder? I feel like you would be okay. I'm just going to say, if I was putting this together as a man, a white man, I would at least just put some women in there.
Speaker 3:Oh my God, I know Well, it's like the LinkedIn creator. I would at least just like put a woman speaker Like we used to just like put lip, like put a woman on, put one woman right, Like choose one woman, because then 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's what I think.
Speaker 1:I think it's AI.
Speaker 3:I think AI did that and they weren't smart enough to finesse it or fix it. I just don't care anymore because, I don't know, maybe society has been given permission 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 back now? I do think there's a big swing back. I do. It's interesting because there are more women in leadership now than there were five or 10 years ago. Right, like, like we are moving the needle for women slowly, far too slowly. But, like there are women in leadership in government, there are women in leadership in business. But I just don't think people want to talk about it anymore.
Speaker 3:And one of the things that was most interesting when I posted about this on LinkedIn, so many women who commented on my post were like thank you for being brave enough to call this out. And I'm like wait, when did we become brave for stating the obvious? Is that the vibe now, too? That, like it's brave of me to say this, but I'll go back to the original question. Like, I really don't give a shit if people cancel me.
Speaker 3: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'd rather be me and be authentic and people will want to align with what I believe. Not everybody, but some people will. Enough people will. You cannot be everything to everyone's, don't try. Try to be. It's exhausting Even the thought it is. But also, like, think about bigger brands. Right Like, there's enough room in the world for Nike and Adidas and you know like, in all the different brands, right Like they appeal to different, there's enough room. There are people who love W Hotels and there are people who are diehard Marriott. Right, like you know, we aren't hotels 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 a great saying. She calls it like I think she talks about it like flavors of chicken.
Speaker 3:Right Like some people like it with spice, some people like it barbecue, like just. Some people will like you. Just speak to them with your authentic voice.
Speaker 1:Some people will like you. Just speak to them with your authentic voice. Yeah, it is this. It really is one of the probably basic, one on one greatest pieces of business advice to give someone starting. Yeah, because I can remember too, when starting the fitness brand that I worked on. You want everyone to like what you're doing. It's so important because it's like you don't separate from like just your real life, like, of course, you want everyone to like you and you want everything to be like copacetic when you're building a business. The quicker you can decide who your ideal customer is and kind of let go of the rest, the more powerful you're going to be. Then build with that model in mind and just forget the masses. It's not a popularity contest.
Speaker 3:It's not a popularity contest, and do you know how much more work it would be to try to serve people who weren't really on your team anyway? It?
Speaker 2:would be miserable.
Speaker 3: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:Yeah, and let's call it an avatar or whatever the persona is. I would build to that and then I would I mean me, if anything I ever start again, it's going to be like try me, try to come in, because I don't want all I've done it, been there, done that. Yeah, you don't honey.
Speaker 3:It's too hard. And the other thing I will say is like and I will go a step further of like people who want to cancel you and who are mean to you online, use it. Don't just use it as fuel. Like, use it as content, use it to say like oh, bob in Omaha thinks my product is shitty. Well, fuck you, bod. What about heather? Oh, my god, I got this. I got this comment recently carrie's talking about. I got this comment on my tiktok about, like you know, I was talking about my family's battle with 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:But I said then I sent amy. I saw it immediately and I sent amy a text. I'm like do you need me to go in on Heather? Because I'm like that's another example too of like. What drives me crazy about human beings is when you don't have perspective or you haven't walked a path. Shut the fuck up, Heather. Have you had the? If you've had the, here's the deal, here's the caveat. I will eat my words, Heather, If you have had the FBI come to your door and barrel through your home and disrupt your entire infrastructure. If that's the case, then we will listen to you. Otherwise, S-T-F-U.
Speaker 3:I mean, yeah, but I do get it a lot. It's like, and I'm just kind of like, all right, but it's not done until you say it's done.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, and you don't want to be doing that Like I'm sure you can think of other things you'd rather be doing. I would like. I mean, sometimes I make content about my family's legal battle and I want to throw up in my mouth because I'm sick of the legal battle and like I wish someone would call up Jeff Bezos. Maybe Heather could call Jeff Bezos and tell him to stop. You know what? You just figured out a solution. What's your take on the role of personal brand today versus five or 10 years ago?
Speaker 3: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 for women in business. I also think it's non-negotiable for men in business. I think it's non-negotiable for all of us. That said, I think it's a huge opportunity too. I think it's exciting and it's fun. I mean, I think it's different than it was 10 years ago, because 10 years ago we couldn't all get on a stage, but today we can, and that stage is social media, that's. You know, it's like that stage is our own newsletter, our own podcast, and so you get to shape a brand publicly without anybody gatekeeping you. And so it's a big opportunity, and I think you should treat your personal brand as if you were building Nike right Like start with intention, build with intention, create guardrails and go for it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree, and I think let's look at the other way. So, like, if you're someone who's still laggard around, social media still doesn't get it, you know. You're like, oh, they're posting again. It's like people are building businesses off the backs of this stuff, so that that's first of all, wake the fuck up. But then, secondly, if you, if you don't feel like it's something you have to do, like to build your personal brand, like, let's say, you don't do that for yourself and build this infrastructure and community, and then you're working for a company and then they fire you or whatever you can take that with you, it's yours, it's yours.
Speaker 3:So why wouldn't you? I don't know, like I also like okay, look, if you look at how we've seen corporate America and how we grew up with thinking of corporate America, it was like it's a safe place to be, we can go work for a company, we can always have a job, we can have our benefits. That is not true today. Right, like I mean the government's laying off tens of thousands of people. Right, like those are supposed to be the safest jobs ever, but companies are not there to give you a job or to protect your job. They're there to maximize shareholder value, and that can change on a whim or they can have a random return to work mandate and what you thought was your life is something totally different and you can't do it anymore.
Speaker 3:And so, like, the skills that you build, the work that you do, the relationships you make, those are all yours. So own them, create a platform around them, and you don't have to have a social media platform with a million followers. Like your personal brand doesn't even technically have to be on social media, but it could be like I am going to stay in close contact with all of the people I meet while I'm an employee at company X. I'm going to reach out to them once a month and say hey, just was thinking, was thinking of you, wanted you to see this article. The other truth is that if you don't create your own personal brand, the world will create it for you, right, like? You have a brand, and so you should be the one to define it.
Speaker 1:And it might be a whisper brand.
Speaker 3:It might be a whisper brand that you don't know about, yeah. So, yeah, I mean, create your own brand and you can, like it, can change and pivot and expand. But yeah, if you don't know what your personal brand is and you don't know how to get started, my friend Aliza Licht, who is a brilliant brand strategist she wrote a book called On Brand no-transcript brand is and certain people will tell you.
Speaker 1:You know, the people who really care about you will tell you, but people be whispering about you out there. You know what I'm saying. So like you might as well know what that is, because there's nothing that drives me crazier than not know, like I want to. I want to be as self-aware as I can and none of us are a hundred percent, I don't think but like to be able to really understand, like, ooh, I'm coming across a little more brash than I think, or, man, I could be a little more patient. You know, no one asks those questions, nobody. The negative stuff, right, like what is it? What's what's not vibing? Because you don't want to hear the answer.
Speaker 3:But there's an answer yeah, the thing is like you don't. It's like sometimes it's like a lot of it, like people who are money avoidant, like you don't want to look at your bank account, but like the cash amount in there is important and it's not, it ain't changing it's not like a magical thing you can wonder about, like santa, like it's a number right and like your personal brand, like it's, it's there, whether you want to acknowledge it or not.
Speaker 1:Okay. So how can women stay resilient when a pivot takes longer to pay off than they expected or when early failures start piling?
Speaker 3:up.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's a good one.
Speaker 3:A pivot is going to take longer than you think. Like that's, I think, a baseline that everybody should accept, and so I think if you plan for that, you are better safeguarded against the feelings of failure and disappointment. And one way to plan for that is to make sure that you have other revenue streams while you're building your pivot. I think it's just really important. For example and I've pivoted a number of times but, like I will fall back onto legal consulting I was a litigator for 10 years and I will fall back onto that because I can bring in revenue and it gives me more breathing room and space mentally even to kind of chase whatever the next big thing is. So I think that's a big one.
Speaker 3:But I also think, like, when you'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 can check things off and know that you're still moving forward. As long as you keep walking in a straight line, you will keep moving toward wherever it is you want to go. So don't stop walking and celebrate smaller milestones.
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Speaker 3:This is so boring what I'm going to say. Learn how to manage cash flow. I mean, because without cash flow, like you're dead in the water. Learn the numbers.
Speaker 1:What's one piece of advice you got when you were standing at your own career crossroads? That changed everything.
Speaker 3:I love the piece of advice I got. That changed everything for me and I think I've said it to you before, but I'll say it a million times again, was it from.
Speaker 3:Carl Yep, yeah, it was my husband. I mean I, yeah, he, I. A million times again. Was it from? Carl Yep, yeah, it was my husband. I mean I, yeah, he. I was going to start the Riveter and at the time I thought it would be a lifestyle business. And my husband kind of looked at me and he said, if you're going to take the bat, swing it as hard as you can. And that first of all I felt an enormous amount of support and that it was going to be okay if I spectacularly failed, because I think my husband would have rather seen me like go down in flames than like a little fizzle Right, and so I just stepped into it, and then it allowed me to make a decision to step into it, and once I made that decision I didn't look back.
Speaker 1:If you were going to give women one permission slip or like break a rule, slip in business right now, what would it be?
Speaker 3:That you're going to talk about money and you're going to talk about it a lot Like I think women talk about money far less than men. They talk about how much they make. They talk about how much they want. They don't talk about how much they want to make, they don't talk about raising money. And I think you have to just learn to talk about money, love to talk about money and start talking Got to make that money, man, yeah, I mean, you're like I'm sorry we're not here for like gold medals and cookies, we're not.
Speaker 1:No, we're not, gary. I'm in the wrong room. I'm definitely here for a cookie. Nobody's bringing me any cookies. Okay, what trends do you think women should be paying attention to over the next one to three years? Things they can prep for right now.
Speaker 3:I think a couple of trends that women should be paying attention to right now are the idea that you can own your community, and that means if you're building a brand on or building a product and selling it through social media Facebook, Meta, TikTok, whatever you also need to try to get those people, that audience, those buyers, off of social media and into your orbit through an owned audience, 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 we should be paying attention to is the growth of micro communities. I think people are going to segment more and more into smaller groups, and those can be really lucrative and really profound. You don't need a million people to be buying what you're selling or interested in what you're building, but a smaller community is, I think, really profound. Who said it? Who coined?
Speaker 1:there's riches in the niches.
Speaker 3:I don't know, but it's a good one. It's actually.
Speaker 1:I don't even know, like, who said it out there, but it's true, because so many and think about like, so many people are about this, like, oh, they have X amount of followers and that's all like vanity metrics and I mean, I'm sure a lot of them are monetizing and that's great, but it's these sleepers that have these very deep, rich connections with a smaller group of people that are really, I think, laughing all the way to the bank?
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely, I mean. Here's an example. Someone was telling me about a newsletter that is run by a CFO for other CFOs. There are not a lot of CFOs in the world chief financial officers However, this guy runs this newsletter and community and he charges other CFOs a thousand dollars a year and there are a thousand members and that's a million dollar business. It's crazy and it's so simple. It sounds so simple, doesn't it?
Speaker 1:And it is it is but but again people hear that they take. We all want to run to the calculator and like go okay, thousand times, but the real magic is in the preparation and time and expertise, like it's always the content that's going to drive him to be able to to charge that consistently and to keep those people. It's, it's easy but it's not.
Speaker 3:Right, exactly, I mean he, he. This person probably spent years developing this expertise, develop, building his reputation, telling people who he is and how he can help them.
Speaker 1:What does sustainable success look like to you today, and how can women craft businesses that are resilient, not just profitable?
Speaker 3:So when I think about sustainability and business right now, my focus is on sustainability of you as a business owner being able to do this for a long period of time, and so I think to build a business like that, you need to figure out a way to work that works for you and works for your life. You can build an enormous business and still be able to pick your kids up from school a few days a week. You just have to figure out, like, what the hours are and how it works. I know that I'm not answering the question in terms of sustainability for the earth, but that's really outside the bounds of my expertise Outside your wheelhouse?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I do think. Um, one point that's worth noting is I don't think many people realize they can create their 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 of paper, yeah, and draw out your ideal state. Yeah, within reason, yeah, okay. I'm not saying like these all have to have, like you have to put work behind all this and framework, but I just think people grow up a certain way. They see life a certain way. They're supposed to go get a job, work for someone else. They're in this like little safe cocoon. They don't ever even realize that this is a choose your own adventure scenario.
Speaker 3:People, it is. And here, like, if you don't believe what Carrie's saying, like, take this tactic, go look up five women who you admire who've done amazing things. Like they aren't like born geniuses with multi-millionaire parents, oftentimes right. Like Sarah Blakely, who built a multi-billion dollar business like she was like selling copiers door-to-door in Atlanta and she came up with this idea for a different kind of like underwear and tights and she just went with it. She could still be selling copiers 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.
Speaker 3:And so it's always helpful to me to go back and look like, who are the people that did this that I admire, that did big things, they took risks and they definitely failed, yeah and so. But yeah, I totally agree with you. It's like, and it took me a long time to get out of that kind of like construct of the world. And another thing you know is that I went to law school. I chose to go to law school when I was 21 years old. I paid for it and I was a lawyer and I thought that because I'd made that decision at 21, like, I had to be a lawyer forever. Like it'd be failure if I stopped lawyering, even though I hated it, right Like the kind of lawyering I was doing. And you have to give yourself permission to say I don't have to do the same thing I chose to do when I was 21 or 22. Like you were allowed to change your mind a million different times and you should.
Speaker 1:I actually think lawyers are in a really like. If you're a lawyer and you're miserable in your practice, you're in like a really good space to like pivot, because when you have that lawyer, the lawyerly expertise behind you, when you have that lawyer, the lawyerly expertise behind you, like I think that's rocket fuel man.
Speaker 3:It is like the one thing I'll say. It's much harder to build things in the world than it is to destroy things, and a lot of lawyers are like in the business of destruction or fighting and so but if you're a lawyer who has a growth mindset and a build mindset, like I think, you're kind of unstoppable because you can do a lot of, you can understand risk in ways that a lot of other founders can't, and you spend less on lawyers because you can act as one yourself. Yeah, so you hear that out there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I would encourage any lawyer in the world to take a pivot and do something else.
Speaker 1:Anna will up your street cred because, man, lawyers, oh man, I used to like you're lucky I let you in the room. I mean attorneys, mike. I was a salesperson, obviously AT&T Anytime we'd be dealing with attorneys. I'm like I cannot with you, but you save so many things Because, listen, salespeople, we're like da-da-da-da-da, we're going to sell it and the attorney's like now hold on a minute.
Speaker 3:Did you cross that T? Did you dot that I?
Speaker 1:I mean it's just the yin and the yang. I know. I know what's one risk you believe more women should take in business this year, even if it feels scary or unconventional.
Speaker 3:I think a risk that women should take is to dive in and decide to learn AI. Like it probably feels risky because you're like what am I doing? Also, ai is sort of terrifying, but again it's here. It's not going anywhere If you opt out of learning AI and learning how to like operate with AI, how to use it, how to be flexible with it. It is the same thing as saying like back in 1998, like that whole internet thing is not for me, like it's just not, it's laughable.
Speaker 1:Now, right, it's funny, um, my friend brogan graham. He was on the show and he had mentioned something that he had a conversation with someone and they were referring to this type of thing as like a software upgrade it's no different than firmware or a software upgrade on a phone.
Speaker 1:If human beings decide to neglect these natural software upgrades for themselves, you end up being the curmudgeon uncle or grandma or whomever that you used to look at and go oh my God, yeah, you know like how many people out there have mothers right now who cannot turn left or right? Like like literally the tech texting. They'll put things on Facebook where it's like.
Speaker 1:I had no idea how to. Even you have to keep up with the times. But I think some people go toward like this fear factor, Right. So, like what are you? What are you afraid of? Well, okay, Because propaganda like I just saw something on Tik TOK and it's showing this human AI robot attacking. They're like in the, they're in this, like controlled environment, working on this humanoid or whatever, and the humanoid is like it's, it looks like it's like. So then people take, they go into fear mongering, they go into like oh my God, AI is going to destroy us all, we're all going to lose our job. It's like, okay, let's just take 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 a way that feels okay to me and just learn a little bit?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean the other thing, Carrie, is that like, if okay, so say you want to accept this premise like AI is going to take all of our jobs and ruin the world, you can do nothing about that? Like, opting out of trying to dive in and take advantage of what you can take advantage of now will not stop that from happening. Okay, what's the?
Speaker 1:biggest myth about success, pivoting or reinvention. You want to bust wide open for women listening to this episode Success, reinvention, pivoting none of it works overnight.
Speaker 3:There are no overnight successes. It takes time, Whether it takes time in the background quietly for years or you build in public for years, like it all takes time, yeah.
Speaker 1:so give yourself time yeah, and don't, and don't listen to the like all the marketing jargon out there where someone's like oh, it took me four weeks and I'm making six feet, you know, it's just. And again let's say there is someone who's an outlier and something extraordinary happened in that expedition. Like that crazy amount of time. It's not. There's no getting around hard work, there's no getting. It's like a whole design, like it's all designed for us to go through this obstacle course. It really is Like there's no get out of jail free, there's no quick fixes for anybody, right?
Speaker 3:There's not, I know it also, like you know, along those lines, treat starting a business or a pivot like an experiment, like you would have treated an experiment when you were in middle school. Like give yourself permission to try different things, to test different things, to see what works, to see what doesn't. Just be listening to the results, right, Like kind of collect them yourself, figure it out, but poke and prod and see what works and you can have fun with it.
Speaker 1:You have to love it. But that's just another example. You need to be upset. You know, when you're growing up or everybody out there can relate to like something that they found in life that they couldn't get enough of, and that insatiable appetite whether it's a good book, you can't put down, you can't wait to get back to the story. Whether it's a sport, you know that feeling when you are totally locked into something and it drowns out all the noise. That's how I describe the thing you need to find when you start a business, because it is so challenging and there are so many things, but when you love it so much and want to keep coming back to it, that's where you yield the, the results, completely, completely you know, with you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and to take this back to AI for a moment, because there's been so many conversations about AI, here's a way to use AI. When you are building your business or building your life and you find the things you don't lock in on and you don't love that you have to do, use AI to help you do those things. Like, for example, I realized the other day I kind of don't want to tell the world this because I don't want to ruin AI on this level, but you know, I I hate doing research about, like home purchases or things you know. And my kid to my kids needed a new mattress. And I was like, oh my God, I just can't do this.
Speaker 3:Right, because I knew if I searched on Google, google was going to tell me what somebody paid them to tell me which is search today. Right, like, your results are what someone's paying for. And my husband was like, let's just try chat GPT. So we put in a prompt to chat GPT. Like, what is the best mattress for a growing girl between the ages of 10 and 15? Like, and it gave me this great answer Five Little Monkeys. And I was like done.
Speaker 3:There's a mattress called five little monkeys, I know and I was like. First of all, I love the name, that's well, you know the book. Yeah, I know, I know, I know, I know that's, I loved it.
Speaker 1:My dad, kyle, is like right in the middle of I've been singing that, for I know one also, my daughter Holland.
Speaker 3:If you know my daughter Holland, this is wholly unsurprising, but she did jump on the bed, fell off and hit her head once and had to get a staple, um. But so I got the mattress and I was like this is genius. I am never researching any home purchase again Until somehow they figure out how to ruin AI and people will pay for results in AI. And then it's kind of over, right, but yeah, but it's interesting because I did, like speaking of businesses and amplifying other small business owners when I bought the mattress.
Speaker 3:I, you know, they give you a little survey like where did you hear about us? And the options were like, you know, search or a friend or whatever. And I wrote other and I was like I, you should know, I found out about you on chat, gpt, like here's the prompt and here's the answer, and I got a kick out of it and thought you would too, and the director of marketing wrote me back And's so cool, right, like I think we don't. Those interactions are important and great, and I'll post about it when I get the mattress on social, if it's great, um, but it's just to say like, if you want people to support you when you're making your pivot. Throw people little bones of support too right, like about excitement or things you see in the world, because it can really make someone's day why.
Speaker 1:Why don't we do that more?
Speaker 3:I don't know.
Speaker 1:So one of my things is always give credit where it's due. Yeah, Always and just authentically. If I see something and I don't want to want it to be awkward, like I won't do it, like overdo it, but I am constantly reminding myself about how hard it is, and if I see someone I'm that's just my reef. Why aren't people more like that?
Speaker 3:I don't know, because it's like you have to be intentional about supporting other people and sometimes we have just become the society that's. I feel that one of the biggest challenges we have in society is we've become very unintentional right. We're just kind of like going through it.
Speaker 1:But I just feel like also, I think people are afraid it's going to take away from them. That's messed up. I do. I think it's like a scarcity mindset where if I, if I see something out there, if I see someone out there doing something really cool, I can't really, I don't want to amplify that because it's going to. It's like some kind of shortcoming within me, like maybe an exercise would be the next time you see someone doing something that you, that that strikes you, is like really improving the atmosphere. Say something, whether it's a text, a DM, whatever feels organic to you, just build like, start to do that a little bit. Yeah, it feels really good to support.
Speaker 3:It feels so good when you do it and guess what? It comes back to you tenfold and it costs nothing.
Speaker 1:Like I don't know if people realize that the more you throw that stuff out there in an authentic way to really try to help, the more it comes back around.
Speaker 3:I mean 100%. Like here's an example like you know, this is easy. Right like here's an easy thing like my friend Carrie Kirpin, her book, the Whisper Way, um, came out this week, and like I went on Barnes Noble and I bought a book because it's an important way to support her and then I posted about it and it took two seconds. But it's like she wrote, I'm writing a book. That doesn't mean I can't support Carrie's book. Right like it's. Just like it's these are. They're small things and we should we should really start thinking about doing them more. We treat the world like it's a pie and there's only like 10 slices and if we don't get a slice, we won't get one. The world is not a pie.
Speaker 1:There's room for all of us no, and I always say like success is infinite. This is how this, how I feel about it. I feel like success is infinite and the only person that I need to worry about in the realm of whether I will succeed or not is me. Yeah, I don't think that somebody down the street doing something. I always look for ways to like kind of work together for like a greater good. That's just the way that I.
Speaker 3:I mean there's all there's room for, like there's room for like two basically identical businesses to both be incredibly successful. I just think it it's such a disservice to think of it any other way, and I think it's incredibly important for women to reframe their thinking this way, because we really have been taught there's like room for one person at the top, one woman at the top, and I realized a few years ago that even I kind of actually believed that in my heart of hearts, because I remember someone asked Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the now deceased Supreme Court justice, like how many women on the court would be enough? And you know there are nine seats on the Supreme Court and Ruth said nine, there'll be enough women on the court when there were nine, and I laughed like I literally laughed out 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.
Speaker 3:Yeah, right, like it's. And why did I laugh at that? Because I am so convinced that that is not a possibility, but it should be a possibility. Right, there could be like someday we could see that list of like the 20 smartest CEOs and there could be 20 women. There should be Um but like it. We need to get rid of the scarcity, scarcity mindset and understand that we can all succeed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, should we talk a little bit about this event that you and I want to dream up? Yeah, we don't really know quite what it is yet, but I feel like we both of us are aligned in improving the atmosphere. Yeah, you know, putting some shine on Columbus. There is a huge and amazing population of entrepreneurs, small business owners, good human beings who want to contribute, who are aligned with the same things. So I feel like we're we're kind of ideating right now as to what this is going to be.
Speaker 3:I mean, I think what we want is to like what we haven't found in Columbus, which we both love, is kind of a setting or community that brings together people who are interested in big things. Right, Like those people are here in Columbus, but we haven't found something that's bringing people together in an interesting way. Like we don't really want to sit and listen to a panel even though panels are great and can be amazing, they're a little crusty. Yeah, we want to be able to interact and talk and but and talk about big ideas, not just a casual cocktail where we're all just doing whatever. So it's this idea of like bringing people together with intention, yeah, and highlighting what the very cool and interesting things that are happening in columbus.
Speaker 1:you know a vibe could be this a vibe could be kind of like a live show, where you've got a couple of like people who are going to.
Speaker 1:You know, talk a bit then you've also got like a DJ, a bar, some light apps. You've got people kind of vibing around. There's. It's thematic, so there's like a theme. Um, I don't know, I feel a vibe, but also like I want, I w I feel like it would be inspirational, educational, aspirational, definitely aspirational, and and I would want people to leave their feeling not only full of something good, but like that they've connected with someone new?
Speaker 3:Yes, you know. Yes, we want to bring together people who wouldn't normally interact with one another. Right.
Speaker 1:With a hip hop. Yeah, everything has to have a hip hop. I mean, if you're with Keri.
Speaker 3:Croft, it's going to have a hip hop underbelly, underbelly.
Speaker 1:Okay, we've got to have a hip hop, because I feel like that really does get the right dopamine going. It gets the right pheromones flowing, yes, yes. So you know, I think we say this because we want to put little sound bites out into the universe 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 anybody want to be a part of the party? Um, you know, I think there's a lot of potential there you've, we've been talking about this for a minute.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like I feel this way and I know you feel this way, I'm not just throwing an event like I can't, I have a busy, but I haven't, I have event phobia, I think I've just I've named it, I think that's what it is I have tell me about this you probably noticed this like I'm not like when we were talking about doing an event.
Speaker 1:I'm very tre. Trepidatious. Kate, could you attest to this about the event thing with me? Yeah, I have no stress about it. Well, so, so, and I love that with her. But here's my stress about it is that I've gone to events in other cities, like thought leadership, like the summit, or you know. You go to visit other cities and you see really cool things. You have these like expectations, this ideal thing, in your head, and then you also have a lot of these like crusty and I don't want to shade anything because I think you know having a panel is important and some people are into that and whatever, I want it to hit on the right dials and I want it to have like I know how important, like the devil's in the details, so I really need to like zero in and make sure that it's hidden.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, I get it, I get it. Well, let's make it hit, let's hit, let's hit.
Speaker 1:All right, amy, anything else?
Speaker 3:for the people before we wrap up you know what In the next month. Try at least once a week to highlight someone you know that's doing something cool. I love that idea, Just try.
Speaker 1:Yep, those are your takeaway. That's a takeaway, and reach out to us about this event. Yeah, that's going to be popping off. It's going to be the best party you've ever been to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and if you want to be on the show next time, because we are taking callers and Amy clearly is I mean, she is, I joke, but she's smart, you really are and you're, you're just very real and so that's why hence why I have you answering all the smart business questions. So, dm, send an email, knock on my door we all know where I live at this point and if you're still out there following your girl, follow me on YouTube, spotify, apple or wherever you get your podcasts. And until next time, keep moving, baby.
