51: Eliminating Multiple Endeavors to Find Focus

Realizing you're juggling too many things—and none are getting the focus they deserve—can feel overwhelming, especially as a founder.

For Mabel Oza, that moment came after building multiple products, launching ideas, and constantly staying in “creator mode”—only to realize that doing everything might be the very thing holding her back.

Instead of continuing down the same path, she began questioning her approach: Should she keep building? Or finally shift her energy toward focus, growth, and impact?

That realization sparked a deeper understanding of what it really takes to move a business forward—not just creating, but committing.

What’s one thing you might need to let go of so you can finally focus and grow?

Struggling to find the right child care? Get a video interview of your ideal nanny at https://www.momsub.com/child-care-options

Check out Mabel’s latest project at: https://intlcafe.io/

#EntrepreneurMindset #StartupLife #WomenInBusiness #FounderJourney #FocusMatters

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

So I had like a bunch of side businesses before, but they never launched. Like I was always like afraid of launching them. And then I also have um international cafe, which is like a language exchange, culture exchange platform. I can build whatever, like for free. This is great. I can build like 20 products tomorrow. Like it's but then you realize that there's so many things, like I don't know where I was going with this, but basically, like, you know, I do build a lot, but maybe too much sometimes. Like I like being a worker sometimes and just building things, and I have to like force myself to step away and be like, no, like let's now sell and focus.

SPEAKER_01 0:41

Welcome to Women and Work, the show where we take an inside look at how women are overcoming our own unique challenges as we grow our careers or build a business while nurturing relationships and family. I'm Diane Mocha, founder and CEO of Mom Sub, the child care app that connects you to a substitute mom. And I want you to know that work can fit your life. Each week we meet a woman who has done that. Today I'm with Mabel Oza. She's the founder of Chaching Social, a social network that gives creators control and more opportunities to monetize. I met Mabel through Founder Fridays, a monthly meetup in different cities organized by Founder University and Jason Calicanus, one of the biggest angel investors in Silicon Valley. Mabel and I also came together a couple months ago right here in the Talk Lab studios for a big ThinkAI event. Thanks for coming back, Mabel.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

Thank you for having me here. I'm so happy to be here, and I'm so happy I met you in the first place.

SPEAKER_01 1:39

Yeah, it's been great. We've been getting to know each other as founders. And I know you've been working in tech for a while, about 10 years or more, as an analyst, a developer, a software engineer, and then you co-founded the payments app for schools and began teaching blockchain and crypto at the Chicago campus of the University of Illinois before you launched Chi Ching Social. And you have another business that you're co-founder of as well. So all of this is in the tech space. And I know that space is dominated by men, right? We both know that. So I want to know as a woman, what do you think has been one of the biggest challenges for you in your entire career, whether it was working in tech for other companies or starting your own?

SPEAKER_00 2:23

Um, I would say like the biggest challenge has been like really just like confidence, honestly. Like, um, I actually didn't go to school for, you know, computer science. I was a marketing major and I used to be a copywriter, like right out of college. And I was like very fortunate to have YouTube and you know, Craigslist and just like meeting different people to like learn and like access to a 24-hour um borders in New York where I was able to like learn how to code and pick up different things, and so that really helped me like pivot my career, but that always made me feel like you know, I didn't have enough acumen to like be in this space or like I didn't belong in that space because it's like a male-dominated space, and then on top of that, I didn't have like a CS background, I was just someone who picked up coding from YouTube, and so I definitely like would say like feeling like you don't belong and you're always like having to prove yourself. I think that's I wouldn't say like I overcame that, like I still feel like that all the time. Um but I think it's also just like helped me become a bet better builder, a better technologist. A bit of imposter syndrome, huh? Yeah, definitely like a huge piece of imposter syndrome. Um I actually I used to like blog, and it was like my way of like being in meetings and being like questioned constantly or like over, like you know, questioned, talked over. Um, and so like that's how I got into like blogging and like creating my own little side projects. But that really like helped me like grow my career in you know in return.

SPEAKER_01 4:05

So you had trouble speaking up in some of those meetings, or if you did, other people kind of took credit or you know, dominated.

SPEAKER_00 4:14

Yeah, I mean, I think I was like pretty I've always been like pretty outspoken, but I think it's more of like um, you know, speaking up and like, you know, sometimes correcting colleagues or explaining how something works, and then being questioned, like, oh, how do you know that? What do you like where is that coming from? And like having to always like bring more proof than like my other colleagues, kind of like I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 4:41

I guess it my motivation was like almost spite or annoyance, but so you were telling people what was really happening, and they needed more credibility from you because you didn't have whatever credentials or look the way they expected you to look. And so you felt like a lot of women do that you had to overcompensate and sort of prove yourself, whereas other people didn't have to because you know, either they had you know gotten some education or they just look the way that fit the part.

SPEAKER_00 5:10

Yeah, totally. And like, you know, I think the thing that always got to me was like, you know, people saying, like, oh, you're not the technical person. And like I there's been times when I was like the most technical person on the team, but it was just like this perception that, oh, I'm not the technical person and this. Um, but yeah, I think it is just like it does feel like you know, you're overcompensating all the time, but I don't know. One day maybe I'll get over it.

SPEAKER_01 5:37

Well, you're a professor, so you certainly are uh knowledgeable because you're teaching others, right? About very complicated subjects, blockchain and crypto. So, what made you decide to take this pivot? You said you were in marketing and you were doing copywriting, and a lot of people spend their whole career in that and love that. And you just kind of got interested in tech and started watching these YouTube videos, but to change your whole career because of it is a big thing. Was it like one big decision or did it happen a little over time?

SPEAKER_00 6:07

Um, it was kind of like one big decision made on me. Um, so I worked, my first job was at an advertising agency. And um, well, let me backtrack. So, like when I graduate college, my dad was like, go into accounting or finance. I was like, I don't want to sit in front of a computer all day. And then I get my first job, and it's at an advertising agency. They take me to my laptop and they're like, here, now pull reports on Excel. And, you know, I think so, you know, I had a lot of friends that were working in investment banking, and they were doing V lookups as well and making like double what I was making, more than double. And so I was like, Well, I'm doing the same exact thing. I'm not doing, and it's like, you know, I did some copywriting is a little bit creative, but it's not sometimes it depends on the client and you know what you're doing. Um, so yeah, I basically, sorry, can I go back? Or of course I'm like stumbling. Can you ask that question again and I'll answer it? No, you're not.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

You're first of all, you're not stumbling. So we're gonna get you out of that imposter mode, right? So you um you deserve to be here in this room. Yes. You're a founder, you are very knowledgeable about tech and about your life. And sometimes it's hard to articulate exactly why you are at a certain place in your journey. And I want to explore a little this idea of what you said about your dad expecting you to go into finance or recommending, maybe not expecting, but you know, going to finance or accounting. Did you feel pressure, external pressure from society or your family or others to go down a certain path, even take a certain degree? And and did you then eventually realize that you didn't want to follow somebody else's path? You wanted to follow your own?

SPEAKER_00 7:54

Yeah, I guess like I'll kind of start from like, I actually, when I was out of c high school, I didn't want to go to college. I wanted to just like open a restaurant. I was like, why don't I just invest in a franchise and I'll learn everything I can about business? My that wasn't an option. They're like, no, you have to go to college, which I'm glad, you know, I it allowed me to give me options to always move around. Um, and then when I was in college, I actually majored in entrepreneurship. So somehow I am now an entrepreneur, so that's cool. Um, but when you're you're a freshman, like you're a college student, you're majoring in entrepreneurship, there's not really any jobs or internships you can get. Um, and so then I decided I kind of like got really obsessed with like copywriting. I read like all of like Ogilvy's books. Um, I was obsessed with Michelle Gondry. Um, and I also just loved like music videos too. And so I kind of saw like advertising as like a really good path into like going into like directing short films, music videos and stuff. So that's kind of that was my initial like drive towards advertising. Um, and so yeah, I think when I was in New York, like I got a job in advertising, it was great. Um, you know, that was exactly what I wanted to do. And then I think there's just like so many factors that weren't really my parents, but just like life factors that kind of came in that made me not enjoy it as much. And like the first biggest one, and I hate to say it is like money. Like when I was uh in New York, don't be ashamed to say it. You have a right to want what you want. Yeah, if you wanted more money, you have a right for that. So, yeah, like when I was a copywriter in New York, I was making 35k. This was around 2010, so that was still really low to live in Manhattan on 35k. Um, I had like a second job as like a security guard at like this uh the Manhattan neighborhood network. It's like this public studio. Um, and so yeah, it was really hard to like make ends meet. I was like living on my sister's couch. Um, really like I used to pretend like I liked McDonald's. I eat like the dollar sandwich like every day. Um and I would just like sell it, I was like, oh, I love this. I love McDonald's so much. Like now I can't have it. It's gross. But it was really hard to like live. It's like there's a certain level of like passion, and then there's like all those life pressures, right? And then on top of that, a lot of my friends like were investment bankers, they worked on Wall Street, they made more than double than what I made. It was like, so like we would go out and like they would all spend so much money, and like there was a lot of times I felt a little like I couldn't participate, or I had to kind of like make cuts on other parts of my life to like be part of that group. And so I think that was like a big factor. And then the other big factor was um, I was like really, I wasn't really great at my job. So like at my job, we had to do reports and we had to like run Google and Facebook ads. Um, and like in my job, I actually um automated my work because I just found it very tedious and mundane. So I automated my work using Excel macros and it was a really cool program. It would call APIs from Google and everything. But then I wound up like overspending one of our clients' like campaign by like 30k or something. So um I was fired and I was very sad. Um, but I decided like, you know, I'd want to go back into advertising and I want to do something new. So that's when I took like a class, a SaaS class um on statistical marketing at NYU. And I took that class in New York and then um I got a job at Walgreens, moved back to Chicago, and yeah, that was kind of my journey. I don't know where I was going with that.

SPEAKER_01 11:53

Well, no, we wanted to know how you got to tech and if it was deliberate. And, you know, the fact that you were doing these macros and and coming up with automation when that wasn't even really your job shows that you had this aptitude and this interest in using technology to make things more efficient, right? Yeah, yeah. And they didn't appreciate it. Of course, there needed to be some guardrails or checks and balances, you know, and these are the kinds of things you learn. Yeah. But um, you know, it if the environment would have nurtured, like, hey, you're doing this, this is great, we can teach others and we can make this more efficient, we just need to make sure that there's some checks and balances. But you know, sometimes people want you to stay in your lane. And so that's the nice thing about being an entrepreneur. Yeah. You said you always kind of knew you wanted to be an entrepreneur. So you went to college intending to study it. And sometimes you don't really know how or when that idea for a business is gonna come along, but when it does, you know, you already had that drive to want to do it, and you need drive to be an entrepreneur because it's not easy. So your first business was with the payments app, where you were actually kind of part of being the founding, you know, with the founding team and being one of the founders. You know, how did you end up in that?

SPEAKER_00 13:06

Yeah, um, so I had like a bunch of side businesses before, but they never launched. Like I was always like afraid of launching them. And then even this payments app, we never launched like fully, but we did start talking to customers. And I did commit to that like for close to a year. And so that was a payments app that allowed like parents and teachers, like parents, teachers to communicate, fundraise for classrooms, pay for you know, lunches and school payments and so forth. Um, we were trying to sell it during 2024 when it was just like a very unclear year for schools because they just didn't know what their budgets were like. And then also, like me and my co-founder, he was uh in, he worked in payments like at Apple, and I was also a technologist. And so we both didn't have that um that founder fit for selling to schools or creating a school product. Um, and so that's kind of why we like moved away from that startup. But you know, it did give me a lot of lessons, you know. Definitely like the idea of like just putting pushing things to market right away is like a huge lesson I got. And I think when we built the payments app, like I built really good tech, really sophisticated tech that you wouldn't even see in like you would see in like huge Fortune 500 companies, but it was like, what's the point of having all that tech if you don't even have customers? And so I think that kind of taught me that always like build and then push it to customers and you know, being able to kind of get over that fear of perfection.

SPEAKER_01 14:44

Yeah. And have you read The Lean Startup? No, I haven't. Okay, so that the Lean Startup book talks a lot about that, and it's the idea of create an MVP, and of course you know what that is, uh minimum viable product. And nowadays it's easier than ever to use AI to just create something. If you have an idea and you think this would be great, it would give people more efficiency, you know, like my app helps connect parents and childcare providers. You know, instead of doing a really extensive app that has all these different features, just start with something basic and then, like you said, push it to customers. Have people try it out, ask people what they think, see how people use it before you put a bunch of time and money into, you know, building something that's really fancy and uh takes a lot of effort, but maybe people aren't gonna use it or use it in the way that you think. So you've been kind of doing that with Chaching Social. You created something basic and you've been getting people to use it. Cha Ching Social is a social network, but a different kind, you know, it gives a lot more control to the to the people who are who are on the network. Tell me what the idea for that, you know, where it came from, you know, and how you decided to develop it.

SPEAKER_00 15:56

Yeah, so like we first actually, Cha Ching Social, like this company has like evolved through different iterations. Um, the first iteration was like it was called Guap Social. Um, and it was basically and no, like, sorry, the first iterate, like we had guap social, then we changed it to Fat Fire Social. But the first iteration was towards like um fire, the fire community and a social media site for people who want to talk about finance. Um, we realized like the fire community is like very small. Fire community? Fire is like um financially independent retire early community. So it's like these people that so there's like different levels of fire. There's like lean fire, barista fire, fat fire. And so they're all this is all new information to me. Financially independent retire early. Yeah, yeah. So it's like it yeah, so like it's like these people that just want to take sometimes it's while just taking a break between your life and like building your portfolio to a certain level so you can just like take a break and do something else. Um, and so you know, there's just all these different tactics and money management styles. Um, and so first it was like the fire community, and then we realized like we want to like help everyone get there. And so then we expanded to being a social media site for finance management. And I think I kind of like touched on it earlier, is like, you know, talking about finances is like just such an important thing. Um and like, you know, just like I think a lot of people keep that's like you know, the number one stressor for people, and like it's important to have those conversations. And even personally, for me, it feels like a little like uncomfortable. So I wanted to create that space where people felt comfortable doing that. Um, the only issue was like when we were building it and as we were getting users on, you know, a lot of them were more concerned about like getting jobs because in this economy, people are not even thinking, they don't even want to think about investing because they're just like, let me just figure out my job situation. And so that's when we kind of like pivoted to where it's more kind of like upskilling communities, and like, you know, our users were bringing in other things, like other communities, and we're like, let's just embrace it. And that's kind of the interesting thing about like when you have a social media site, you have to like it's not just yours, right? Like, I think earlier you asked me if I'm the founder, and I was like, I'm called the core contributor, because it's like that's definitely like a realization I have when you have a social media site, you're like build you're truly building the site with other people, like and you really have to kind of make this thing evolve to fit everyone's like personalities and charm and you know their values too, and so kind of finding that mix between that. But I don't yeah, I don't know what's going with that.

SPEAKER_01 18:50

But so is this the main focus in your life right now? Have you monetized it? And I know you're teaching as well, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:58

Um, and then I also have um International Cafe, which is like a language exchange, culture exchange platform. So it's about like it's kind of a similar concept, it's about more of it's about people like stepping away from their um their backgrounds and like also understanding other people's like cultures and backgrounds. So it's like I'm Indian and I I get exposed to Indian food all the time, but it's like I want to learn more about like Korean food and I want to learn more about Burmese food and so forth. And so that's the whole idea is like it's not food. I don't know why I keep talking about food, but it's like you want to learn about more cultures, and I think that's just like honestly a very important value like we should have in our world. Is international cafe a social network as well?

SPEAKER_01 19:44

Um it's more of a platform, yeah, it's kind of like that. Um so people come in and they interact with each other, they share events, they contribute, okay. Oh, and they share events like on Cha Ching Social.

SPEAKER_00 19:56

Yeah, so they're kind of it's more like I would say it's like a community platform.

SPEAKER_01 20:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 20:00

Um, where people yeah, bring their own clubs. So we have we brought like seven different clubs on our platform like last month, and we did a few kickoff events. So we had an Arabic club, um, one with the Southeast Asian languages. Um, there's this other group, it's a Southeast Asian, South Asian, sorry, um group called Millen Meetups, and like a few d other ones that we just like onboarded. But the whole idea is to just get everyone who's doing these cool cultural programs and events in the city, in their cities, to like connect with each other.

SPEAKER_01 20:34

And are these events where people want to focus on just that culture, or do they want outsiders to come in and learn more about their culture?

SPEAKER_00 20:42

And I think they want outsiders to come in. I think definitely the event I went to this Saturday, which was Millen Meetups, it's like for South Asian kind of diaspora community, but you know, there were a lot of people that were not South Asian, you know, by but they just had some sort of connection towards the culture, and I think that's like an important thing that I'm learning, you know, with this startup is like that you know, people's cultural backgrounds isn't like what you see right off the bat. Um, I actually didn't know, I don't know what your background is.

SPEAKER_01 21:17

So I spent 15 years as a television reporter. I mean, like grew a cult oh yeah at the CBS station in Milwaukee, and uh and I loved that career. Media changed a lot during the time that I did that. Yeah and I had a very long commute and listened to a book that was called Rich Dad, Poor Dad, that a lot of entrepreneurs have heard, that got me thinking about things in a different way than I ever had before. And I was at the time realizing that the journalism pay was low, like you realized in marketing, and I needed some other income, but didn't necessarily want to change careers, so I started a side hustle, and that's when I became an entrepreneur, an accidental entrepreneur. So I started a business in real estate, and then I ended up getting Another business that was kind of a logistics business with delivering signs. And then mom sub came out of my own experience of having challenges with childcare and realizing that technology can solve those kinds of challenges for other people and wanting to, you know, create another business where I could do that, and not really knowing that a tech startup business is very different than a real estate business or a sign business. And so I've been on this journey, you know, along with you, going to these meetups, you know, um, going through incubators and and learning how to take that idea and and a you know core group of customers and and expand it from there. And, you know, one of the things I like about being an entrepreneur is how well it integrates in my life, right? I have a lot of control over my schedule that I wouldn't have if I worked a nine to five. So, you know, I wonder in your situation, how your career and the evolution of your career has either been impacted by or impacted your personal life. You know, do you have uh someone special in your life? Do you have ideas of where you want your personal life to go in the future? Like you want a family or you don't, or you're not sure.

SPEAKER_00 23:11

Yeah, no, that's kind of like interesting, is like, um, I definitely want a family, but it does feel like um that's like hard being a founder, like a startup founder. And it's like, how do you build that? There's not like in a dating perspective, there's not there's not a lot of selling points to dating a founder because we're like pretty much broke, we're always working. Not a good girlfriend. Not a good girlfriend. Like, what is the value? Like, what's the benefit or incentive of dating someone who's a founder? Like, I'm still trying to understand them. Like, you're always, and then on top of it, it's like I think I'm like very introverted, but then like as a founder, you have to always put yourself out there and like go to events, meet people. And then it's like, I just like socially don't have like any energy for like my friends or anyone else. And so it's like, yeah, I don't know. I guess I'm trying to still understand what's the benefit of like dating a founder, but maybe there's an upside. Maybe they're investing in they're like an investor in the business, and they're like, maybe this their business is gonna exit very soon and they're gonna be more available after that.

SPEAKER_01 24:24

So you're saying it's hard when a lot of the people you're meeting are other founders. Your social life really is centered around this whole idea of being an entrepreneur and being a founder. Yeah. It's sound, you know, and I know that that's sort of um evolved for me as well, you know. It's like you only have so much bandwidth to spend time going out, and it's like I would rather spend my time going out and doing things that are in the founder community, you know, than, you know, I I care about my friends that I've had for years, but they don't have the same goals, you know, they're doing other things in life, and this is really my focus. So have you found that maybe you would want to spend time with somebody who is also a founder and you're kind of like co-working side by side.

SPEAKER_00 25:06

No, why not? Only one dreamer in a relationship. Uh you need someone that's practical. Yeah, what someone who's practical, making like keeping things stable. Like, I don't need we don't need two dreamers. Like, how do you start a family with that, right? Like, I mean, I'm just trying to be practical. Like, I definitely like want kids, and like you can't do that with two founders. I don't think that's possible. But there's lots of husbands and wives that have a business together.

SPEAKER_01 25:36

That's true. That's true. And it's difficult, you know, but they make it work, right?

SPEAKER_00 25:42

Have you ever worked with your spouse on their business?

SPEAKER_01 25:45

So the real estate business I started. It was really kind of my thing in the beginning, but he thought it was a great idea. And he actually said to me for years, like, oh, you know, we should look into this idea of like, you know, having a house, and then you rent it out. And I'm like, oh, we couldn't do that, you know. And then I listened to this book and said, Oh, maybe we could, and maybe I could. And then I kind of went down this road and did it on my own. And then it grew and grew in a way I didn't really expect, and I needed help. And so he started contributing, and then eventually he said, I'm really interested in this and got his real estate license. And so then we worked on the business together, and eventually I said, you know, this isn't my passion. You know, I I see the value of this business and where it's going, but I really want to focus, you know, my time on something I'm more passionate about, you know, a business of helping moms. And so he's really taken over and is much more involved in the real estate business. But we do have to, you know, sometimes collaborate together on that. And it can be challenging because we have different ways of approaching, even though we're both the owners of the business, people have very different skill sets that they bring, as you talked about. Yeah. You know, and you really seem to enjoy the whole tech aspect of it because anytime you're talking about, you know, these different businesses you've had, you talk about, you know, the creation of the product, right? And you've done that for all of them.

SPEAKER_00 27:04

Yeah, yeah. I think it's definitely like it's definitely like um the issue of like being in like I always thought like being an engineer, you're you know, like when you work in the corporate environment and in society, like being a software engineer is like you are treated like God's gift. And then you go to the startup world and you're like, I'm an engineer, I can build whatever like for free. This is great. I can build like 20 products tomorrow. Like it's but then you realize that there's so many things, like I don't know where I was going with this, but basically, like, you know, I do build a lot, but maybe too much sometimes. Like, I like being a worker sometimes and just building things, and I have to like force myself to step away and be like, no, like let's now sell.

SPEAKER_01 27:50

Focus. So the challenge of building something new is very exciting to you, it sounds like. Yeah, yeah. And so if you could just start a new company every year and build something new, that'd be really exciting. Yeah, but you want to see the things that you've built go somewhere and have an impact in people's lives. Yeah. And so what you need is a partner that does the selling, right? Yeah. And maybe they happen to be a right, a guy that's your type. That would be perfect. So that's true. But you know, I mean, finding the right person in life is difficult, and just like finding the right business partner is difficult.

SPEAKER_00 28:26

It definitely is. Like, um, I guess like I with International Cafe, I do have a founder that does the selling, so it's really nice. Um, and then I also have a twin. Uh so with Chujing Social, I usually just lean on her to like a real life twin.

SPEAKER_01 28:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:43

Your sister. Yeah. No, I didn't know that. We've known each other now for months. Wait, did we meet? Yeah, you've met her. She was talking about the auntie app, and I think she came to one of the founder of Friday events.

SPEAKER_01 28:55

Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah. It was a while ago. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:58

And I think at the time I said, I didn't know you had a twin.

SPEAKER_01 29:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:02

But I call her my board member. But basically, she's like, she's not officially on our board, but I do lean on her for like a lot of like advice. And actually, like sometimes we'll go to events and she'll just like pitch for me. And then people come up to me and they're like, I heard about your business. Like, tell me more. And I'm like, what did you say? But I think she's Zuffi, like, I've always been like, you know, the I I think it's nice to have that balance. And like you always have that one person in your life that can like, even though they're not officially part of your company, they're like a part of your, they're so ingrained in your life that they are part of your company in some ways. I mean, I'm sure you have that like with your family as well, right? Like, where you're like, this is my life, and if you want to be part of my life, you're you're gonna somehow be part of my company. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:48

My kids know about you know what we do with our businesses, whether they want to or not. They just kind of hear about it and sometimes they help. Yes. Yes. So what keeps you going, you know, when there's probably times when you might have questioned, well, I really like to build. Maybe I should just, you know, go back and have a job as a software engineer, or maybe I should just do this on the side. I mean, it's a struggle to like keep a business going, you know, and there are so many people out there who don't know if this is the right thing for them, you know, should I stay with this business or not? How do you know that it's the right thing and that you should keep going?

SPEAKER_00 30:25

I honestly don't know. I was like, I I question that every day, but then I still stay. Like I um I think the thing is I can pinpoint it, but I really like I complain about it. I'm like someone who's just very negative and I complain a lot, but I truly do love it. Um it's yeah, it's probably like you know, someone you're dating, you're just like, oh my god, they're so annoying, but you still are married, you still love them. And I think maybe it's just like I think my struggle is like I love the when I put when I work on something, I truly love it. Um, and like it's very hard for me to like, even though I complain about it, my brain is like, this is crazy, what are you doing? But um I don't know, I think it's the love of it. Like my background is like I'm a blockchain engineer. Um, and the jobs that pay for a blockchain engineer are pretty lucrative, you know. And so I think that's like a like a logical struggle of like why wouldn't I just go back to being a blockchain engineer and like you know, I could probably make more all this money, like I'm not gonna make that much money like off the bat. But I think it's just like a I guess it is passion, I would say, because it's I can like get out of it. Like I keep thinking about it. It's maybe it's passion, maybe it's obsession. I honestly don't know. But yeah, like I don't know, like what's kind of you what's what it like gets you hooked on like your job?

SPEAKER_01 31:55

I think I stay with the company no matter what because I want to make an impact. So I consider you know, mom sub to be a social impact venture and one that is definitely making a difference in the lives of working moms, and I know myself that I struggled with childcare as a working mom. And so you when it gets rough, I just keep thinking about the impact that I'm making and how, you know, this is what I want to leave as a legacy. Yeah. Because, you know, a lot of women I think you have children, you feel like, oh, this is my legacy. Uh, these children are gonna do great things in the world, but it's like, well, I want to do great things in the world too, you know, and I had a career in media that I'm very proud of. I did investigative stories and and I did consumer stories where I help people like who were ripped off. But you know, that's a body of work that I feel like is sort of static. And when you have a company, it's it's growing, right? And it's constantly helping more people and discovering new ways to help people. And and if you're serving people who are experiencing problems that you went through, it's very meaningful. So that meaning is what sort of pulls me through, you know? And it sounds like your passion for what you do, for like caring about the company and loving like the creation of making something and then seeing it being used is really exciting for you.

SPEAKER_00 33:15

Yeah, I that's definitely true. Like, I think with Cha Ching Social, like I was able to like, I'm someone who was like a marketing major that was able to like completely change the course of their life through like consuming content online. Wow. And I was like good at like finding the right resources, and I think I'm excited about Cha Chang Social because it allows people to really like it kind of curates places where people can really dive into that rabbit hole and like become an expert in any field. And I think like that accessibility is like important to me. Like being making knowledge more accessible is like a huge thing, and I think it's like not to sound so pretentious, but I think it's like the thing that will like equalize like a lot of our problems in society because I think education is very like gate kept. And I think I definitely like I would say like I saw this like in San Francisco, like even online meetings, like when blockchain like Bitcoin and block like blockchain server first came out, it was like all these things were in San Francisco, and then I used to hold um kind of like this group, um, this community session in Wells Fargo where we would do like online calls, and we would have like people from all over the country like join our calls. So people from South Dakota, North Dakota, and so forth. And it was just like it made me realize like what like how people don't get like some people are doing really cool stuff in the space, but they don't get the visibility. And then also some people are doing really cool space things in the space, but they're not like getting, or they are really capable and smart, but they don't get they just don't know the thing exists because they're not even like people are not even pushing that information like globally to them, right? Like someone in small towns don't get the same information that you would get in like living in San Francisco or New York.

SPEAKER_01 35:10

That's for sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:11

And so I like this idea of like making I love the internet. I love being like, you know, a lot of people I like IRL, but I also think like there's so much value in just like the internet and the all the the rich information out there. Um and so like making that social, like social media is a really powerful thing and it's like it's like a weapon, and like um basically, like right now we kind of see it used a certain way, right? Like should I say TikTok, Facebook, it's you know, and like I think we can take some of the best parts of social media and make it into like an educational tool to like allow people to like disseminate thoughts, learn, you know, pivot their entire career and like get access to the right information. I think that's like a really powerful thing.

SPEAKER_01 36:00

Yeah, and that's definitely something that can pull you forward. You've had a lot of stages in your career, you know, working for different companies in different areas, um, now spending, you know, a lot of the last several years uh as a founder and leading these different companies. If you could go back at any time, you know, during this journey and and change something, knowing then what you know now, what's the one thing you think you would change?

SPEAKER_00 36:26

Um, I would have like taken the plunge to be an like a founder sooner. I think I've always worked on projects on the side, but I never like launched them or had the I don't know, the confidence to push it through. Um and I've I've learned a lot from my projects. Like I think the first project or endeavor startup like thing I did was um creating like a Tinder food app. So it's like an app that this was like years ago when Android apps first came out, and it was a I created an app that allowed you to like swipe through different dishes, and then if you like the dish, then you can like swipe right and like go to the restaurant, like see more information on the restaurant. But I never launched it, and I think the fear of launching was like something I would tell my younger self to do um and like like tell myself like I think I would teach myself like that. There's no um the you know, do not be afraid of like rejection or like you know, and really putting yourself out there and not being I think I don't know, I think that's the big thing I would teach myself, like tell myself. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:41

I mean, rejection is part of life, and but people think that somehow they can control and stop it from happening if they don't take you know risks, but it's gonna happen anyways, right? And sometimes you might it it might happen in ways that you don't expect, and the risks that you could have taken might lead you to things that turn out to be great. And even when you fail, we all know this as business owners and you know parents and whatever you're going through in life, you learn from it, right? And yeah, so I think that's a beautiful thing for you to share with us and for everyone listening and watching. And we thank you for sharing that insight on today's episode of Women at Work. If you were inspired by today's story, remember to share it with a friend, leave a review, and subscribe to meet our next amazing guest. If you or anyone you know is struggling to find the right child care, check out MomSub's free webinar that guides families through the steps to find and keep trusted, reliable child care at momsub.com slash webinar. That's mom sublike a substitute mom. You can connect with momsub on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, or LinkedIn. And to Ching Social. Oh, yeah. Our mission is for you to discover what you want in life, pursue it with intensity, reach out for help when needed, and fulfill your dream, reducing your stress, guilt, and self-criticism, and increasing your calm, confidence, and clarity along the way. Remember your career, your choices, and your success are yours to define. So keep pushing boundaries and spreading your love and encouragement to other women who need it.