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Speaker 1: Hey, Hey, hey va fam, It's Vandy back with another

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Speaker 1: episode of Brown Ambition. Thank you all so much for

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Speaker 1: joining me this week. I wish I could say that

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Speaker 1: I'm not okay, y'all. I want to be okay. I

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Speaker 1: feel like I should be okay, but still here, I

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Speaker 1: am sitting here in disbelief that I had the opportunity

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Speaker 1: to sit across the virtual table from one of my heroes,

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Speaker 1: one of a living American hero. Oh my god, Stacy Abrams.

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Speaker 1: I oh, it's been over a week and I am

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Speaker 1: still not okay. I'm still not okay, you guys. But

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Speaker 1: do y'all remember and we're gonna get to the interview

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Speaker 1: I promised. But do you remember when I had Chris

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Speaker 1: Browning from Popcorn Finance on the show a few weeks ago,

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Speaker 1: and I was telling Chris. We were just sort of

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Speaker 1: both talking about how a lot of the opportunities that

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Speaker 1: we were receiving once we launched our businesses coming to us,

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Speaker 1: and people had already been talking about us in rooms

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Speaker 1: that we were not in, and people were saying, you know,

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Speaker 1: we want to reach out to Chris, we want to

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Speaker 1: reach out to Mandy. And then those opportunities came to us,

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Speaker 1: and we didn't have to do anything to get those

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Speaker 1: opportunities other than keep doing the work that we're doing,

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Speaker 1: because we know that our names, our businesses would be

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Speaker 1: on the tips of the tongues of people in those rooms,

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Speaker 1: you know, who are making decisions and you know, have

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Speaker 1: the power at the table, and just kind of the

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Speaker 1: magic and releasing and just like accepting that if we

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Speaker 1: keep continuing to do the work, those conversations will be

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Speaker 1: happening in rooms that we're not even sitting in. I

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Speaker 1: remember having that moment on the show where you know,

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Speaker 1: we were sitting there and I was like, that's happening

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Speaker 1: right now, Chris. You know there's a room somewhere and

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Speaker 1: there's an amazing opportunity. And because of the work that

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Speaker 1: we're doing right now and the work that we've been

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Speaker 1: doing for the past year or even years in our cases,

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Speaker 1: those opportunities are going to come to us. All we

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Speaker 1: got to keep doing is doing the good work that

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Speaker 1: we set out to do when we launched our businesses,

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Speaker 1: right and then lo and beyond, One of those conversations

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Speaker 1: happened in a room that I was not sitting in,

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Speaker 1: and someone at this publishing house called Portfolio said, you

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Speaker 1: know where we think would be a great place for

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Speaker 1: Stacy Abrams to promote her new business book, Level Up.

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Speaker 1: I think we should reach out to those fabulous women

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Speaker 1: at Brown Ambition Podcast and see if they'll have Stacy on.

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Speaker 1: And I kid you not through the contact form on

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Speaker 1: our website. Hi Nina, I'm just gonna go ahead and

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Speaker 1: shout you out. The wonderful Nina who's in publicity at Portfolio.

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Speaker 1: The publisher reached out to me so casually, did not

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Speaker 1: even put Stacy's name in the subject line. Like my

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Speaker 1: assistant forwarded me this email and it was so nondescript.

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Speaker 1: The subject line was something very general like new guest

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Speaker 1: for your show, which is every single email that we

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Speaker 1: get at Brown Ambition, right, it's someone wanting to be

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Speaker 1: on the show, you know, and anyway, And then you

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Speaker 1: open the email to find out it's the delightful Nina

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Speaker 1: from this publicity firm, and she's wondering, you know, love

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Speaker 1: your show, wondering if you'd be interested in having Stacy

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Speaker 1: Abrams come on sometime to talk about this new business

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Speaker 1: book that she's got coming out in February. When I

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Speaker 1: tell you, my jaw dropped like, is this a real question?

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Speaker 1: Would we would brown? And would Brown Ambition want to

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Speaker 1: have the queen of Brown Ambition? If you looked up

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Speaker 1: Brown Ambition, if we ever get included in Webster's dictionary,

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Speaker 1: literally put a picture of Stacy Abrams there and that

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Speaker 1: would be all we needed to get our point across,

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Speaker 1: that is Brown Ambition, Would we would I want to

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Speaker 1: talk to Stacy Abrams?

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Speaker 2: Are you kid?

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Speaker 3: Oh? My god?

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Speaker 1: And that is basically my reaction.

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Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 1: I kept it together because Nina didn't know me yet, right.

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Speaker 1: I wanted to just, you know, make sure that she,

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Speaker 1: you know, thought that I was like a reasonable human

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Speaker 1: being who had all of her marbles together, right, So

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Speaker 1: kept my cool took about a month, but we actually

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Speaker 1: got it. On the calendar Stacy Abrams was going to

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Speaker 1: be joining Brown Ambition, and I guess I just told myself, Uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, Stacy's very busy. She's recently announced she's going

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Speaker 1: to be running for governor of my home state, Georgia

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Speaker 1: again in twenty twenty two. Like she's probably gonna like

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Speaker 1: Oprah's probably gonna call her up on this Monday afternoon

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Speaker 1: and she's probably gonna reschedule or it'll get moved, and

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Speaker 1: this happens with extremely famous, influential people. But when I

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Speaker 1: tell you on the dot one o'clock PM arrived on

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Speaker 1: this afternoon last week and on my computer screen across

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Speaker 1: from me sat the gorgeous, the amazing, the intelligent, the

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Speaker 1: incomparable Stacy Abrams, and we had with her business partner

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Speaker 1: Lara Hodgson, a really wonderful conversation that I immediately felt like

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Speaker 1: I blacked out and remembered nothing of it. But my

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Speaker 1: producer on the show tell me that it did indeed happen,

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Speaker 1: and we have a record of it. Stacy Abrams joined

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Speaker 1: Brown Ambition with her business partner Lara Hodgson. And what

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Speaker 1: I love about this conversation is it made so much

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Speaker 1: sense and what made it actually possible for me to

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Speaker 1: keep myself together And I think, talk to Stacy, who

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Speaker 1: I just admire so much, and I can't even I

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Speaker 1: could just go on forever. But what made it possible

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Speaker 1: for me was because their book is genuinely meant to

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Speaker 1: help business owners, and especially business owners who are women,

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Speaker 1: who are people from marginalized communities, who don't always have

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Speaker 1: all the resources and knowledge to actually launch a business.

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Speaker 1: And I read their book and I loved it and

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Speaker 1: we connected on that level. You know, Stacy Abrams. If

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Speaker 1: y'all don't know, this woman is a serial entrepreneur. And

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Speaker 1: I'm actually embarrassed as a fan of hers, of a

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Speaker 1: fan of her work and politics. Obviously, I didn't know

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Speaker 1: that much about Stacy's past as an entrepreneur, her past, present,

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Speaker 1: and future as an entrepren newer. But in the early

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Speaker 1: two thousands, Stacy and her business partner Lara, they launched

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Speaker 1: a baby water company called Nourish Okay, And prior to that,

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Speaker 1: they owned a consulting firm together called Insomnia Consulting. And Stacy,

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Speaker 1: she writes about this in the book, actually started those

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Speaker 1: businesses because she realized going into public office. You know,

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Speaker 1: she didn't start out being this obviously, this national figure

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Speaker 1: with you know, on the cover of magazines and all

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Speaker 1: of that. She was earning peanuts as a state representative, okay,

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Speaker 1: and the House Minority leader. They don't pay you very much, Okay.

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Speaker 1: For those of y'all who think the politics is all

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Speaker 1: glitz and glamour, it's really not. And so Stacy genuinely

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Speaker 1: was like, I need to make money. So she and

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Speaker 1: her business partner Laura, They launched a consulting firm together,

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Speaker 1: and then together they realized, you know, we want to

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Speaker 1: actually create a business that could make money for us passively.

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Speaker 1: That isn't just you know, behold, isn't just a business

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Speaker 1: that we have to show up and physically be present

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Speaker 1: for and have you spend all this time devoting our

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Speaker 1: energy to. So they came up with this idea, this

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Speaker 1: brilliant idea for a baby water company. Now, parents, if

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Speaker 1: you know, you know baby water makes a lot of sense.

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Speaker 1: I'm not going to take a lot of time to

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Speaker 1: explain it here. But they launched his business in the

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Speaker 1: early two thousands, and they actually grew out of business.

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Speaker 1: And this was a concept that I hadn't heard before,

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Speaker 1: but they actually got too big and too successful and

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Speaker 1: they couldn't afford They weren't able to actually scale in

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Speaker 1: time financially to get to the point where they could

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Speaker 1: fulfill these big, huge orders they were getting because they

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Speaker 1: were so successful. This crazy crossroads for them where they

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Speaker 1: had to basically fold their business. They left the business.

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Speaker 1: The business went under because they grew out of business.

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Speaker 1: They were just too big, too soon, and they weren't

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Speaker 1: financially prepared to handle that, and it's a fascinating story

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Speaker 1: that they go through in their book. The book is

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Speaker 1: called Level up Rise Above the Hidden Forces Holding Your

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Speaker 1: Business Back, and they dissect and basically do a post

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Speaker 1: mortem on their baby water company, Nourish, and it has

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Speaker 1: so many amazing, juicy anecdotes and actually helpful I had

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Speaker 1: a couple of Aha moments myself, as a new business

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Speaker 1: owner an entrepreneur from reading this book and thinking about, Okay,

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Speaker 1: you know the business that I have is structured in

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Speaker 1: this way, and what is my big pie in the

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Speaker 1: sky goal for mandy money? What do I actually want

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Speaker 1: it to be? Is this going to be a business

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Speaker 1: that lives and dies with me? Or is it going

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Speaker 1: to be a business that I could pass on to

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Speaker 1: my family one day or that could actually employ dozens

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Speaker 1: of people one day. So I really encourage you guys

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Speaker 1: to check out this book again. It's called Level up

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Speaker 1: Rise Above the Hidden Forces Holding Your Business Back. Without

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Speaker 1: further ado, I'm going to get out of my own

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Speaker 1: way again and invite you guys to sit back and

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Speaker 1: enjoy this conversation with Stacy Abrams. I cannot believe those

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Speaker 1: words are leaving my mouth right now. But yes, here's

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Speaker 1: my conversation with Stacy and Lara. I had to say

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Speaker 1: thank you again so much to me and all the

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Speaker 1: team over at Portfolio for making this interview happen. Here

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Speaker 1: we go, let's level up with Stacy Abrams and Lara Hodgson.

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Speaker 1: So basically, I just want to jump in and chat

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Speaker 1: with you guys. I have to say first and foremost,

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Speaker 1: I wasn't expecting this reaction from reading the book, but

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Speaker 1: it made me miss my podcast business partner Tiffany so much.

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Speaker 1: She's been on hiatus. She unfortunately lost her husband in

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Speaker 1: late fall, so she's been on hiatus and I've been

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Speaker 1: flying solo and it's been weird, and you know, I

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Speaker 1: feel great in doing that for her, but also your book.

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Speaker 1: The fact that you guys met in a very similar

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Speaker 1: fashion to how Tiffany and I met seven years ago.

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Speaker 1: We met at a professional event. But the difference between

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Speaker 1: you two and us two is that she and I

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Speaker 1: bonded over both being wild introverts and needing to just

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Speaker 1: go plug ourselves in somewhere together. And you guys bonded

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Speaker 1: because you both wanted to be the leader of the

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Speaker 1: free world right.

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Speaker 2: But I wanted to do it secretly as an it

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Speaker 2: That's right, So.

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Speaker 1: That was your stacy. You said that as an introvert. Yes, yes,

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Speaker 1: I feel like you have made introverted people feel really cool, Stacy,

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Speaker 1: So I have to thank you for that. First and

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Speaker 1: foremost and all serious is now in the book. Obviously,

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Speaker 1: you guys are business partners but incredibly different in so

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Speaker 1: many ways, and you talk about how in the book

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Speaker 1: those differences are what made you such good business partners.

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Speaker 1: And as a newbie business owner myself, I just launched

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Speaker 1: my business in the past, I'm just like every other

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Speaker 1: a lot of pandemic, you know, related business entrepreneurs, launching

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Speaker 1: your business as a means of pivoting and finding a

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Speaker 1: new path. But you guys are so different. Talk to

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Speaker 1: me about how those differences have helped you and how

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Speaker 1: business owners can maybe hinder themselves by maybe surrounding themselves

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Speaker 1: with too many people who are just like them.

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Speaker 4: So yeah, I think you know, most people would say

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Speaker 4: that common knowledge is that having diverse sets of views

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Speaker 4: ads for a richer conversation, richer discovery. And certainly when

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Speaker 4: you're thinking about as an entrepreneur and you're trying to

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Speaker 4: drive innovation or do things differently. Having different perspectives always

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Speaker 4: adds to the possibilities. I think what a lot of

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Speaker 4: people realize is when they start to be surrounded by differences,

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Speaker 4: there's some discomfort. Right. Things don't necessarily go on the

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Speaker 4: surface as easily and as smoothly as you would think,

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Speaker 4: and so they sort of stop. It's kind of like

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Speaker 4: you face that initial friction and you say, oh wait,

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Speaker 4: it's way more comfortable to be surrounded by people that

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Speaker 4: don't question me.

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Speaker 3: But I think Stacy.

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Speaker 4: And I both have an innate curiosity and we love learning,

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Speaker 4: and so getting yourself to a point where you can

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Speaker 4: be comfortable with some of that friction, because the friction

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Speaker 4: is the friction's what allows you to unveil the wow.

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Speaker 3: Right.

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Speaker 4: Without that friction, you don't get the awesomeness that comes

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Speaker 4: after it. So I think Stacy and I were lucky

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Speaker 4: to meet in an environment where we were able to

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Speaker 4: appreciate our differences but also appreciate that what we are

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Speaker 4: aligned on is character traits and what sort of the

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Speaker 4: important things to us were that we would never give on.

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Speaker 5: I would add that part of the mission is to

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Speaker 5: always be adding to what you do. You want to

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Speaker 5: add to your bottom line. You want to add to

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Speaker 5: your product line, you want to add to your deliverables. Well,

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Speaker 5: in a partnership, you want to add to your store

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Speaker 5: of knowledge. And Lara reference the curiosity and the fact

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Speaker 5: that we like to keep learning. But what is so

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Speaker 5: important about our partnership is that we know completely different things.

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Speaker 5: We come to these projects with vastly different knowledge bases,

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Speaker 5: and we learned from each other, but we also add

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Speaker 5: to one another's understanding of what we think we already know.

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Speaker 5: One of our sort of core beliefs is I'd rather

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Speaker 5: have fifty percent of something than one hundred percent of nothing,

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Speaker 5: And the same is true about having a partner that's different.

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Speaker 5: I'd rather add to my hundred by getting something else,

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Speaker 5: as opposed to just doubling what I've already got, Because

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Speaker 5: doubling what I've got, the actual increase is nominal. But

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Speaker 5: if I bring in someone who has different skills, a

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Speaker 5: different background, a different mindset, it helps me build my

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Speaker 5: skills too. But it also gives me someone to rely on.

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Speaker 2: It.

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Speaker 5: It's a great backup plan. Like that's the other part.

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Speaker 5: I am really happy to have a backup brain. That

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Speaker 5: means I don't have to be the one thinking about

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Speaker 5: things all the time. And when you have a partner,

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Speaker 5: especially a partner who you trust to think differently but

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Speaker 5: has your same core values, you can let your brain rest.

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Speaker 5: I mean you referenced earlier your business partner, Tiffany, I

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Speaker 5: know that if something happened. In fact, in our lives,

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Speaker 5: things always happen. I can feel a little bit of

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Speaker 5: guilt for not being present, but I don't feel worry

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Speaker 5: for not being the one there. And that's an incredible difference,

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Speaker 5: because I may want to be there, but I know

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Speaker 5: it's going to get done, and I know it's going

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Speaker 5: to get done not the way I would have done it,

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Speaker 5: but in a way I will respect and trust and

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Speaker 5: in a way that's going to reveal new things we

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Speaker 5: may not have imagined.

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Speaker 1: That trust is so crucial. I love how you guys

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Speaker 1: also say that maybe one of your strengths was not

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Speaker 1: being besties, and tiff and I have talked about that.

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Speaker 1: You know, we are extremely closed in a business sense

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Speaker 1: and on a personal level too, but it was always

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Speaker 1: that the fact that we weren't best friends, that we

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Speaker 1: show up weekly for seven years, and we were making

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Speaker 1: no money for a very long time. Okay, when you

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Speaker 1: show up weekly and you have a standing appointment with someone,

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Speaker 1: I feel like, if they're your best friend, you're maybe

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Speaker 1: gonna show up late. You know, let's just not do

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Speaker 1: it today. But we both had that level of like, Okay,

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Speaker 1: I don't know them that well, I can't just flake

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Speaker 1: on them. And I think that that has helped as well.

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Speaker 1: I love the anecdote in your story if we can

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Speaker 1: talk about it for a little bit, Stacy, especially when

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Speaker 1: you were early so we're going to talk about Nourish,

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Speaker 1: which was your baby water company, but before even that,

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Speaker 1: you guys had a consultancy together, Insomnia Consulting, and I

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Speaker 1: think in those early I don't know if it was

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Speaker 1: early months, but Stacy, when you and Laura would go

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Speaker 1: into boardrooms together, you would find what you perceived and

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Speaker 1: you felt that racial bias against you, you know, people

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Speaker 1: in the room turning toward Lara or acknowledging Lara before

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Speaker 1: you and y'all had to have a frank discussion. And

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Speaker 1: I wondered if you could chat a little bit about that,

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Speaker 1: because that is a test of I think what we're

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Speaker 1: talking about here, that trust in one another. And I

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Speaker 1: kind of enjoy I loved reading that because I thought

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Speaker 1: it was a great example of how to have those

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Speaker 1: difficult conversations as partners.

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Speaker 5: I spend my life in spaces where I am the

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Speaker 5: only one who looks like me, unless I'm in a

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Speaker 5: space where the person bringing the coffee, taking the notes,

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Speaker 5: or cleaning the office looks like me, and so I

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Speaker 5: do not have from that this heightened sense of racial awareness.

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Speaker 5: I have a very real sense of my space, in

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Speaker 5: part because I don't ever want to miss the opportunity

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Speaker 5: to grow, because I think it's something that they see

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Speaker 5: versus something that I've done. And I think that's an

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Speaker 5: important caveat, because it's easy to dismiss concerns about racial

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Speaker 5: or gender bias by assuming people are just being overly sensitive.

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Speaker 5: I'm a black woman from the Deep South. My sensitivity

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Speaker 5: has been both honed and dulled, so you know, you

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Speaker 5: can you can tell the difference usually. But what happened

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Speaker 5: in this instance was that we were in the antique

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Speaker 5: used in the book, and were we went to meet

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Speaker 5: with clients and they were excited about the work we

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Speaker 5: could do. We go into the room and then there

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Speaker 5: are two pieces. One is that Laura is much more

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Speaker 5: extroverted than I am, as we discussed, and she's the CEO,

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Speaker 5: and so my natural deference is that she's our principle.

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Speaker 5: When we go into a space, she's the principle, but

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Speaker 5: I know what I bring with me, and so my

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Speaker 5: first reaction when we were in the room was simply,

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Speaker 5: they were talking to the principle until they were talking

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Speaker 5: about things that I was the expert on, and when

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Speaker 5: I would answer, they would look to her to essentially

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Speaker 5: validate that I had the right to be speaking. And

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Speaker 5: it was a very It was a dynamic that wasn't unfamiliar,

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Speaker 5: and I tried not to chafe at it, but as

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Speaker 5: it persisted, I realized there was nothing into Amanda, You've

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Speaker 5: probably done this. There are these in Laura too. When

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Speaker 5: you're in the space where you know there's something going on,

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Speaker 5: you'll kind of test it to say maybe I'm overreacting,

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Speaker 5: maybe this isn't true. All they failed every test, and

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Speaker 5: I tried multiple ones. I did like multivector analysis here,

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Speaker 5: and so by the time we were done, when we

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Speaker 5: were in the car going back to the airport. For

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Speaker 5: most of us, especially in a partnership where you're not

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Speaker 5: best friends or in a partnership where money's the bottom line.

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Speaker 5: You're going to suck it up, you're going to see,

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Speaker 5: you're going to build resentment, or you're going to be

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Speaker 5: passive aggressive, and then you're going to get mad for

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Speaker 5: someone not seeing what you saw. But part of being

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Speaker 5: different is that you can't expect people to have the

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Speaker 5: same experiences, and the responsibility is on the person who

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Speaker 5: sees something to say something. And what is so terrific

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Speaker 5: about being partners with Laura was that when she asked

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Speaker 5: me the first time, I did the stoicism, No, everything's fine.

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Speaker 5: When she asked me the second time, I did the well,

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Speaker 5: why didn't you see it?

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Speaker 2: In my head? But I just kind of glossed over.

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Speaker 5: And then I looked at her and I thought, why,

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Speaker 5: we have all kinds of skills between us, but neither

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Speaker 5: of us has telepathy. The absence of telepathy is a problem,

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Speaker 5: and so she can't know unless I tell her. And

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Speaker 5: so I said, this is what happened. This was the experience,

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Speaker 5: And to Lara's great credit, there wasn't this instant rejection

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Speaker 5: of it. There was an inquiry. Okay, so tell me

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Speaker 5: what happened, tell me how you saw it, and we

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Speaker 5: walked through it, and I didn't have to justify my

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Speaker 5: experience to her. And when she heard me describe it,

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Speaker 5: she immediately validated. She's like, oh, now I see it,

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Speaker 5: because she was in there to sell and she did

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Speaker 5: a great job at it, and she is so used

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Speaker 5: to seeing things she understands the gender side of it.

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Speaker 5: There was enough commonality between us because of our gendered

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Speaker 5: experience that she could understand what I was seeing. All

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Speaker 5: of which was to say that we had a new

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Speaker 5: protocol and one of the protocols, And this is true

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Speaker 5: for women and politics, women in business. We have to

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Speaker 5: be credentialed. People have to know why we're there, and

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Speaker 5: the same thing is true for people of color. And

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Speaker 5: if you're a woman of color, the credentials have to

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Speaker 5: usually be tattooed on your forehead and so and then

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Speaker 5: they're going to be like, there's something on your head.

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Speaker 1: And then validated by a white person who's read them

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Speaker 1: and says, yes, I endorse exactly.

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Speaker 5: But because of the grounding that Lara and I have

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Speaker 5: and the honesty we share, but also just the sheer

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Speaker 5: acknowledgment of the society we're in, we didn't have to

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Speaker 5: navigate all of that, Lara said, Okay, here's what we're

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Speaker 5: going to do. I said, if we can do it

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Speaker 5: this way, and we walked through what we were going

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Speaker 5: to do going forward, and it worked. There were always

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Speaker 5: going to be moments where it happened again, but we

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Speaker 5: knew how.

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Speaker 2: To prepare for it.

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Speaker 5: But more importantly, I wasn't trying to navigate my partnership

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Speaker 5: at the same time when I was navigating this other space.

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Speaker 2: La. I don't know if you want to add anything

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Speaker 2: to that.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, no, I think you know Stacy said it earlier.

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Speaker 4: We we all come to the to the world into

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Speaker 4: every situation with a lens that's only informed by our

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Speaker 4: own experiences, and so I think sometimes when another person

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Speaker 4: doesn't see what we see, like Stacy said, your internal

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Speaker 4: monologue is immediately to sort of judge, why didn't they

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Speaker 4: see that?

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Speaker 1: They?

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Speaker 4: You know, they and you make all sorts of assumptions

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Speaker 4: and conclusions. When Stacy first shared with me what she

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Speaker 4: had experienced in the room, you know, my first thought was,

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Speaker 4: my gosh, we were in the same room, right, Why

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Speaker 4: did I not see that? And like Stacy said, I was,

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Speaker 4: I was talking right. So when you're talking, it's hard

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Speaker 4: to listen, sometimes you were killing them, but but it

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Speaker 4: was so it reinforced why a partnership is so important,

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Speaker 4: because we discussed how we can look out for each other. Right,

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Speaker 4: there's things that she's going to see that I'm not

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Speaker 4: going to see. And if I trust that she's going

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Speaker 4: to let me know that, then I can be more

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Speaker 4: sensitive to it the next time and I can start

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Speaker 4: looking for it. Then we have four eyes, right, Or

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Speaker 4: if I hear something or see something that she doesn't see,

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Speaker 4: we would bring it up and just say did you

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Speaker 4: see that or did you sense that? And so do

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Speaker 4: Stacy's point earlier. That's where we become additive and then

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Speaker 4: we both become better at what we do. And you know,

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Speaker 4: as we talked about it, one of the things we

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Speaker 4: realized is next time we go into a meeting, we're

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Speaker 4: going to be very clear about some of the credentials

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Speaker 4: that we might not have led with before. We're going

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Speaker 4: to lead with them, so that people are very clear

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Speaker 4: about the skill sets that we bring. So I think, again,

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Speaker 4: if if you're willing to, you know, it makes both

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Speaker 4: of us vulnerable. I'm sure Stacy probably sat there and

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Speaker 4: thought about whether she was going to say it for

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Speaker 4: a while and she wouldn't know how I was going

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Speaker 4: to react, and then when she shared it with me,

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Speaker 4: like I had to stop and kind of think through

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Speaker 4: it because I started kind of criticizing myself initially, like

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Speaker 4: why did I miss it? But I think just getting

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Speaker 4: it out there and then being able to look at

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Speaker 4: the issue from multiple perspectives is what allowed us to

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Speaker 4: come up with some possible solutions that we could test.

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Speaker 1: I love that. I mean, I was raised by a

434
00:22:20,640 --> 00:22:24,320
Speaker 1: white mother. It's been many times when I've had to

435
00:22:24,359 --> 00:22:26,480
Speaker 1: have similar conversations and you know what, they didn't go

436
00:22:26,560 --> 00:22:29,760
Speaker 1: as well. Twenty twenty helped a lot, I think, for

437
00:22:29,840 --> 00:22:33,520
Speaker 1: these instances to help coach and you know, helped form

438
00:22:33,600 --> 00:22:36,520
Speaker 1: true allyships. So I give you, you know a lot

439
00:22:36,520 --> 00:22:38,240
Speaker 1: of kudos for the way that you handle that, And

440
00:22:38,280 --> 00:22:41,800
Speaker 1: I hope this inspires as well women of color who

441
00:22:41,840 --> 00:22:44,080
Speaker 1: maybe have seen things and have been holding them and

442
00:22:44,119 --> 00:22:47,400
Speaker 1: it festers, like Stacy was saying, to speak up, because

443
00:22:47,400 --> 00:22:49,080
Speaker 1: I think you don't speak up because you also fear

444
00:22:49,119 --> 00:22:52,200
Speaker 1: that invalidation and you fear people saying you didn't see

445
00:22:52,200 --> 00:22:53,640
Speaker 1: what you said and kind of dismissing it. I think

446
00:22:53,640 --> 00:22:56,560
Speaker 1: we've all been there before, so I love that part

447
00:22:56,600 --> 00:22:58,639
Speaker 1: of the book. Let's take a quick break. I still

448
00:22:58,760 --> 00:23:01,399
Speaker 1: can't believe I'm talking to Stacy Abrams right now, So

449
00:23:01,480 --> 00:23:04,639
Speaker 1: let me just take a quick break, gather my marbles again,

450
00:23:04,720 --> 00:23:07,600
Speaker 1: and we'll be right back with more from Stacy Abrams

451
00:23:07,640 --> 00:23:14,480
Speaker 1: and Lara Hodgson, the authors of Level Up Hey, ba, fam,

452
00:23:14,520 --> 00:23:16,560
Speaker 1: all right, we are back. I still can't believe it,

453
00:23:16,600 --> 00:23:19,040
Speaker 1: but it's really happening. I am sitting across from Stacy

454
00:23:19,080 --> 00:23:21,239
Speaker 1: Abrams right now, and we are here talking with her

455
00:23:21,280 --> 00:23:24,760
Speaker 1: co author and business partner Lara Hodgson about their new

456
00:23:24,760 --> 00:23:28,359
Speaker 1: book Level Up Rise Above the Hidden Forces Holding your

457
00:23:28,400 --> 00:23:30,520
Speaker 1: Business Back. I do want to talk about because we

458
00:23:30,560 --> 00:23:32,600
Speaker 1: are called Brown Ambition. Okay, we talk about money here.

459
00:23:32,680 --> 00:23:34,919
Speaker 1: It is a safe space for us to talk about money.

460
00:23:35,280 --> 00:23:37,600
Speaker 1: When y'all launched your business together, two of them, right, so,

461
00:23:37,640 --> 00:23:39,440
Speaker 1: you had the consulting firm to start with, and then

462
00:23:39,480 --> 00:23:43,920
Speaker 1: you went into your the baby water, the nourish business.

463
00:23:44,600 --> 00:23:46,920
Speaker 1: Talk to me about how you guys financed it, because

464
00:23:46,920 --> 00:23:49,320
Speaker 1: one of the key tenants of your book is how

465
00:23:49,320 --> 00:23:52,480
Speaker 1: difficult it can be for small business owners entrepreneurs to

466
00:23:52,480 --> 00:23:55,600
Speaker 1: find financing to get their business off the ground and

467
00:23:55,800 --> 00:23:57,680
Speaker 1: I want to talk to y'all about how you went

468
00:23:57,720 --> 00:24:01,760
Speaker 1: about fundraising and any lessons you can share for our

469
00:24:01,800 --> 00:24:05,400
Speaker 1: audience on you know, good and bad things about fundraising

470
00:24:05,440 --> 00:24:07,439
Speaker 1: the way that you guys did initially, because it was

471
00:24:07,480 --> 00:24:08,719
Speaker 1: friends and family to start with.

472
00:24:08,800 --> 00:24:11,240
Speaker 4: Right of course, like many people, at first, you just

473
00:24:11,320 --> 00:24:11,960
Speaker 4: figure out.

474
00:24:12,000 --> 00:24:14,040
Speaker 3: You're like, how can I do it myself? Right?

475
00:24:14,119 --> 00:24:16,240
Speaker 4: Stacy and I are used to being very self sufficient,

476
00:24:16,840 --> 00:24:20,280
Speaker 4: So initially it was, well, if we don't pay ourselves this,

477
00:24:20,440 --> 00:24:22,360
Speaker 4: and if this is going to cost X, can we

478
00:24:22,520 --> 00:24:25,719
Speaker 4: can we you know, scramble and sort of pull it together.

479
00:24:26,400 --> 00:24:28,840
Speaker 4: But I think as and and we were able to

480
00:24:28,880 --> 00:24:32,280
Speaker 4: do that with insomnia. Insomnia was it was consulting, it

481
00:24:32,320 --> 00:24:35,800
Speaker 4: was us, so really the cost was ourselves and so

482
00:24:35,840 --> 00:24:38,320
Speaker 4: we were able to kind of self fund that. As

483
00:24:38,320 --> 00:24:41,280
Speaker 4: we got into Nourish, that was the first time where

484
00:24:41,400 --> 00:24:45,040
Speaker 4: money had to actually leave our pockets before money could

485
00:24:45,040 --> 00:24:48,159
Speaker 4: come into our pockets, because we had to have molds

486
00:24:48,160 --> 00:24:52,000
Speaker 4: made before we could make a single baby water. And

487
00:24:52,600 --> 00:24:56,520
Speaker 4: you know, we we kind of sat down and we thought,

488
00:24:56,600 --> 00:24:58,959
Speaker 4: can we do it ourselves? And then we started, you know,

489
00:24:59,000 --> 00:25:01,480
Speaker 4: we did what most people would say you should do,

490
00:25:01,600 --> 00:25:04,720
Speaker 4: is go find outside money and you know, we went

491
00:25:04,760 --> 00:25:06,879
Speaker 4: to the banks. The banks were not lining up to

492
00:25:06,920 --> 00:25:09,400
Speaker 4: make lines of credit to two ladies with an idea,

493
00:25:10,520 --> 00:25:13,000
Speaker 4: and so as they listed all the things that were

494
00:25:13,040 --> 00:25:17,800
Speaker 4: going to be required, including personal guarantees, we walked away

495
00:25:17,920 --> 00:25:21,080
Speaker 4: because neither one of us were in a position to

496
00:25:21,160 --> 00:25:25,080
Speaker 4: do things like personal guarantees when we have others that

497
00:25:25,119 --> 00:25:26,800
Speaker 4: we care for. In my case, I had a new

498
00:25:26,800 --> 00:25:29,679
Speaker 4: baby in the house. Stacy cares for her parents. So

499
00:25:30,520 --> 00:25:32,359
Speaker 4: nor did we have the assets that you could just

500
00:25:32,400 --> 00:25:34,160
Speaker 4: sort of put up for something like that.

501
00:25:34,640 --> 00:25:36,680
Speaker 1: And just to be clear, when you say personal guarantee,

502
00:25:36,720 --> 00:25:39,440
Speaker 1: you mean putting your home on the line basically right or.

503
00:25:39,760 --> 00:25:43,000
Speaker 4: Right your home, your car, whatever else you might own,

504
00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:47,359
Speaker 4: which many of us don't have at the time. And

505
00:25:47,440 --> 00:25:50,399
Speaker 4: so you know, then we said, well, you know, everyone

506
00:25:50,400 --> 00:25:53,120
Speaker 4: else on television goes to like Shark Tank and they

507
00:25:53,200 --> 00:25:57,040
Speaker 4: just raise equity. And so we started out and we thought, well,

508
00:25:57,240 --> 00:26:00,000
Speaker 4: you know, we we can reach out to some contacts

509
00:26:00,040 --> 00:26:02,840
Speaker 4: and find some folks, and so we started talking to

510
00:26:02,920 --> 00:26:07,080
Speaker 4: potential equity investors and quite frankly, you know, we were

511
00:26:07,119 --> 00:26:10,320
Speaker 4: already a second class citizen, but we became a third

512
00:26:10,320 --> 00:26:12,640
Speaker 4: and fourth class citizen when they realized that we were

513
00:26:12,680 --> 00:26:15,280
Speaker 4: not a high tech startup. We were going to create

514
00:26:15,359 --> 00:26:20,119
Speaker 4: this innovative bottled water for babies and children, and that

515
00:26:20,280 --> 00:26:22,480
Speaker 4: was not the sort of in vogue thing to raise

516
00:26:22,520 --> 00:26:26,080
Speaker 4: money for. So we quickly realized as we were talking

517
00:26:26,080 --> 00:26:28,480
Speaker 4: to people that they just sort of discarded the business

518
00:26:28,960 --> 00:26:32,240
Speaker 4: as not in you know, not high tech, not sexy enough,

519
00:26:32,680 --> 00:26:33,520
Speaker 4: not something.

520
00:26:33,240 --> 00:26:34,120
Speaker 3: We're interested in.

521
00:26:34,920 --> 00:26:37,359
Speaker 4: And so Stacey and I were actually sitting at lunch

522
00:26:37,400 --> 00:26:40,440
Speaker 4: one day with a couple of our girlfriends talking about

523
00:26:40,480 --> 00:26:43,159
Speaker 4: the fact that here we sit in Atlanta, which is

524
00:26:43,200 --> 00:26:45,720
Speaker 4: sort of the beverage capital of the world, We've got

525
00:26:45,720 --> 00:26:49,480
Speaker 4: this innovative product, but we can't find, you know, anyone

526
00:26:49,520 --> 00:26:52,280
Speaker 4: that can help us. And it took a couple of

527
00:26:52,320 --> 00:26:55,960
Speaker 4: our girlfriends say well, what do you need and we said, well,

528
00:26:56,080 --> 00:26:58,719
Speaker 4: this mold cost sex, and this mold costs why, and

529
00:26:58,800 --> 00:27:01,199
Speaker 4: so this is what we need. And it was a

530
00:27:01,200 --> 00:27:03,119
Speaker 4: couple of friends that said, well, you know, none of

531
00:27:03,200 --> 00:27:05,679
Speaker 4: us can write big checks. We're not surrounded by people

532
00:27:05,680 --> 00:27:09,000
Speaker 4: that can just sort of stroke big checks. But a

533
00:27:09,040 --> 00:27:11,919
Speaker 4: handful of them together said, you know, could we cobble

534
00:27:11,960 --> 00:27:14,960
Speaker 4: together the money to get you started? And that's really

535
00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:16,320
Speaker 4: how we how we got started.

536
00:27:16,359 --> 00:27:17,160
Speaker 3: With nourish.

537
00:27:17,480 --> 00:27:19,480
Speaker 1: So that's how you do it before kickstarter and go

538
00:27:19,560 --> 00:27:20,560
Speaker 1: fund me exactly.

539
00:27:20,680 --> 00:27:23,480
Speaker 3: Well this is well before, this was before go fund me.

540
00:27:23,960 --> 00:27:27,360
Speaker 2: Crowdfunding exactly. But I think there are a few lessons.

541
00:27:27,440 --> 00:27:33,800
Speaker 5: One is that we tend to look to other solutions,

542
00:27:33,800 --> 00:27:36,800
Speaker 5: to other people's solutions to solve our problems, because for

543
00:27:36,880 --> 00:27:39,560
Speaker 5: a lot of us who have ambition but don't have experience,

544
00:27:40,040 --> 00:27:41,480
Speaker 5: the only way you can figure it out is to

545
00:27:41,480 --> 00:27:44,160
Speaker 5: look at what someone else has done. And to Lara's point,

546
00:27:44,200 --> 00:27:48,880
Speaker 5: we were having lunch with friends who understood that they

547
00:27:48,960 --> 00:27:52,040
Speaker 5: had not the solution, but they had pieces of an answer.

548
00:27:52,359 --> 00:27:54,960
Speaker 5: And so it's it's the it's the impetus behind a

549
00:27:55,040 --> 00:27:58,639
Speaker 5: crowdsourcing idea. We just crowdsourced before there was an efficient,

550
00:27:58,760 --> 00:28:02,679
Speaker 5: you know, tech solution to the problem. Second, there is

551
00:28:02,720 --> 00:28:06,080
Speaker 5: the internal hesitancy that comes with asking someone for money

552
00:28:06,080 --> 00:28:08,760
Speaker 5: when you know you're all of a piece in the

553
00:28:08,920 --> 00:28:12,360
Speaker 5: sort of economic space. Part of my hesitation was I'd

554
00:28:12,440 --> 00:28:16,040
Speaker 5: raised a lot of money as a political candidate. But

555
00:28:16,280 --> 00:28:19,080
Speaker 5: raising money for politics is different than raising money for

556
00:28:19,080 --> 00:28:22,200
Speaker 5: a business because in politics, they know what they're investing in.

557
00:28:22,280 --> 00:28:25,480
Speaker 5: They can see me as a politician, especially for women

558
00:28:25,560 --> 00:28:27,280
Speaker 5: and for women of color. It's hard for people to

559
00:28:27,280 --> 00:28:28,320
Speaker 5: see you as an entrepreneur.

560
00:28:28,400 --> 00:28:28,840
Speaker 2: It's hard.

561
00:28:29,480 --> 00:28:31,920
Speaker 5: They'll put money into politics because and they don't put

562
00:28:31,920 --> 00:28:34,080
Speaker 5: that much in but they'll invest in that because that's

563
00:28:34,080 --> 00:28:36,840
Speaker 5: where they understand you. They don't understand you as a

564
00:28:36,840 --> 00:28:40,239
Speaker 5: business person. It can be difficult to raise money, and

565
00:28:40,360 --> 00:28:42,840
Speaker 5: one thing I had to learn to navigate was to

566
00:28:43,160 --> 00:28:47,840
Speaker 5: again resituate myself and recredential myself for them in that way,

567
00:28:47,880 --> 00:28:50,560
Speaker 5: making sure that the people who I needed to invest

568
00:28:50,960 --> 00:28:53,640
Speaker 5: could understand that they could trust me not only with

569
00:28:53,680 --> 00:28:55,520
Speaker 5: their vote, but they could trust me with their dollar.

570
00:28:56,360 --> 00:29:00,440
Speaker 5: The third lesson was to think about what were they

571
00:29:00,640 --> 00:29:04,200
Speaker 5: buying and to let go of the guilt about your success,

572
00:29:04,920 --> 00:29:07,160
Speaker 5: because that's the other thing that stops us from raising

573
00:29:07,240 --> 00:29:11,160
Speaker 5: money from peers and from friends and family. It's one

574
00:29:11,160 --> 00:29:14,160
Speaker 5: thing to take a bank's money. They might get mad

575
00:29:14,200 --> 00:29:16,200
Speaker 5: at you, but the worst thing they'll do is take

576
00:29:16,240 --> 00:29:17,800
Speaker 5: you know, they'll take your stuff and they'll make your

577
00:29:17,800 --> 00:29:22,200
Speaker 5: credit bad. But you take your mama's money, you lose

578
00:29:22,280 --> 00:29:26,480
Speaker 5: your cousins. You know, five thousand dollars your friend from

579
00:29:26,560 --> 00:29:29,480
Speaker 5: high school pours their money in and you don't come

580
00:29:29,520 --> 00:29:32,880
Speaker 5: back with a ten x return, the guilt is overwhelming,

581
00:29:33,160 --> 00:29:35,800
Speaker 5: and so the other piece of this, if you're gonna

582
00:29:35,800 --> 00:29:38,480
Speaker 5: be ambitious, you've also got to be honest. You've got

583
00:29:38,480 --> 00:29:41,000
Speaker 5: a level set with the people you're raising from saying

584
00:29:41,760 --> 00:29:43,600
Speaker 5: this is what I think we can do, here's what

585
00:29:43,640 --> 00:29:45,480
Speaker 5: this is going to look like. And one thing that

586
00:29:45,560 --> 00:29:48,320
Speaker 5: Lauren and I did was over communicate on the investment

587
00:29:48,480 --> 00:29:52,320
Speaker 5: all the time. People don't mind you making a mistake,

588
00:29:52,360 --> 00:29:55,200
Speaker 5: they mind you not telling them about it. It's, you know,

589
00:29:55,840 --> 00:29:58,320
Speaker 5: good news fast, bad news faster, and so we were

590
00:29:58,360 --> 00:30:00,680
Speaker 5: always in there saying, here's what where we are with

591
00:30:00,720 --> 00:30:03,520
Speaker 5: your money, here's what we've purchased with it. There's a

592
00:30:03,560 --> 00:30:06,360
Speaker 5: tendency to be insular when you're a business owner, to

593
00:30:06,440 --> 00:30:08,920
Speaker 5: focus on not only the bottom line, but to focus

594
00:30:08,960 --> 00:30:11,200
Speaker 5: on your internal narrative and your internal and you don't

595
00:30:11,200 --> 00:30:12,800
Speaker 5: want people to know that you've made a mistake. You

596
00:30:12,840 --> 00:30:14,280
Speaker 5: don't want to know that this didn't work the way

597
00:30:14,280 --> 00:30:16,680
Speaker 5: it was supposed to. But you can't raise money out

598
00:30:16,680 --> 00:30:19,840
Speaker 5: of fear, and you can't keep people's money because you're

599
00:30:19,840 --> 00:30:22,880
Speaker 5: afraid to tell them what happened. And so part of

600
00:30:22,920 --> 00:30:25,640
Speaker 5: the ambition is that you've got to meet that ambition

601
00:30:25,840 --> 00:30:29,120
Speaker 5: with intention that yes, you're going to take their money in,

602
00:30:29,720 --> 00:30:31,840
Speaker 5: but you're going to tell them what they're getting, even

603
00:30:31,840 --> 00:30:33,680
Speaker 5: if what they're getting is not what they expected.

604
00:30:33,880 --> 00:30:37,440
Speaker 4: I think the other thing we've definitely learned throughout all

605
00:30:37,480 --> 00:30:41,240
Speaker 4: of these business ventures is, as Stacy said, you are

606
00:30:41,280 --> 00:30:42,480
Speaker 4: going to make a mistake.

607
00:30:42,920 --> 00:30:45,640
Speaker 3: I mean, that's just a given. There will be mistakes.

608
00:30:45,680 --> 00:30:49,480
Speaker 4: That beautiful vision that you started with something will change,

609
00:30:49,640 --> 00:30:53,320
Speaker 4: and on the back end of that, how you deal

610
00:30:53,400 --> 00:30:56,840
Speaker 4: with it actually makes you a better investment for someone.

611
00:30:57,400 --> 00:31:00,200
Speaker 4: And I've been surprised at how many times investors have

612
00:31:00,360 --> 00:31:05,160
Speaker 4: said it's because of your failures and how you responded

613
00:31:05,200 --> 00:31:09,000
Speaker 4: to them that I would want to invest because you

614
00:31:09,160 --> 00:31:11,680
Speaker 4: now know some of the mistakes that you wouldn't want

615
00:31:11,720 --> 00:31:14,840
Speaker 4: to make again, and that makes you a less risky

616
00:31:14,880 --> 00:31:18,080
Speaker 4: investment than somebody who's starting out who's just sort of

617
00:31:18,120 --> 00:31:22,920
Speaker 4: starry eyed with no real experience. So don't be afraid

618
00:31:22,960 --> 00:31:26,560
Speaker 4: to build your own experience, and your own experience will

619
00:31:26,560 --> 00:31:29,720
Speaker 4: not be all successes. There will be failures in there,

620
00:31:30,200 --> 00:31:32,920
Speaker 4: and how you respond to those failures make you an

621
00:31:33,000 --> 00:31:35,080
Speaker 4: even better investment for someone.

622
00:31:35,280 --> 00:31:37,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I think about So let's talk about

623
00:31:37,040 --> 00:31:39,600
Speaker 1: Nourish spoiler alert, Can I do the spoiler? They know

624
00:31:39,640 --> 00:31:41,120
Speaker 1: how to google. But if you have read the book,

625
00:31:41,160 --> 00:31:43,480
Speaker 1: if you read the book, the book's amazing, especially for

626
00:31:43,560 --> 00:31:47,680
Speaker 1: new the entrepreneurs. But Nourish, Nourish did not last as

627
00:31:47,720 --> 00:31:50,280
Speaker 1: long as you guys would have liked. You grew yourself

628
00:31:50,320 --> 00:31:53,040
Speaker 1: out of business, as you say in the book. And

629
00:31:53,120 --> 00:31:55,000
Speaker 1: I want to speak about that. I don't even know

630
00:31:55,040 --> 00:31:56,200
Speaker 1: if I can call it a I don't.

631
00:31:56,280 --> 00:31:57,320
Speaker 2: I hate the word failure.

632
00:31:57,360 --> 00:32:01,200
Speaker 1: It's just so ugly, you know, But basically Nourish did

633
00:32:01,240 --> 00:32:04,360
Speaker 1: not go forever, right, You guys had to dissolve the business,

634
00:32:04,800 --> 00:32:08,480
Speaker 1: but you pivoted in such a beautiful way into your now,

635
00:32:08,600 --> 00:32:11,360
Speaker 1: your now account business, it's called now account. And it

636
00:32:11,440 --> 00:32:14,000
Speaker 1: was really burst out of that failure, out of the

637
00:32:14,080 --> 00:32:17,400
Speaker 1: fact that Nourish, you guys ran into a cash flow

638
00:32:17,440 --> 00:32:21,000
Speaker 1: problem like so many business owners do, and you realize,

639
00:32:21,040 --> 00:32:23,040
Speaker 1: you know, we can really solve for this. Can you can?

640
00:32:23,080 --> 00:32:25,640
Speaker 1: I stop you right there and kind of have you

641
00:32:25,960 --> 00:32:28,240
Speaker 1: even go into more detail with how you handled that

642
00:32:28,720 --> 00:32:32,040
Speaker 1: setback When you knew Nourish was going to have to dissolve,

643
00:32:32,160 --> 00:32:34,080
Speaker 1: when it wasn't gonna make it, you had to shut down.

644
00:32:34,600 --> 00:32:37,080
Speaker 1: How much time was between that and when you had

645
00:32:37,160 --> 00:32:39,800
Speaker 1: now off the ground and in that time, you know

646
00:32:39,840 --> 00:32:42,320
Speaker 1: how much time? And then what was that experience like,

647
00:32:42,360 --> 00:32:44,240
Speaker 1: I mean were you were you devastated or was it

648
00:32:44,280 --> 00:32:46,960
Speaker 1: instantly like, Okay, this is done, We've got to pivot,

649
00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:49,000
Speaker 1: we have another new idea. Because that in the book

650
00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:50,840
Speaker 1: it sort of seems like you guys got the light

651
00:32:50,880 --> 00:32:53,280
Speaker 1: bulb moment with now and we can solve for this

652
00:32:53,360 --> 00:32:55,480
Speaker 1: and this is our next business. And it was incredible.

653
00:32:55,520 --> 00:32:57,520
Speaker 1: And as a reader, I'm just like following the two

654
00:32:57,560 --> 00:32:59,960
Speaker 1: of you, like wanting you to win. But as a human,

655
00:33:00,280 --> 00:33:02,200
Speaker 1: I'm like, dang, that must have really sucked. And what

656
00:33:02,280 --> 00:33:03,840
Speaker 1: was that time like when they had to when they

657
00:33:03,920 --> 00:33:06,400
Speaker 1: realized it was going to be it'd have to close down.

658
00:33:06,640 --> 00:33:09,440
Speaker 5: So one of the challenges was that it wasn't an

659
00:33:09,440 --> 00:33:13,400
Speaker 5: instant death. This was more this was you got the

660
00:33:13,440 --> 00:33:17,720
Speaker 5: diagnosis and you just had to wait for you had

661
00:33:17,760 --> 00:33:20,000
Speaker 5: to wait for the end. And part of it was that,

662
00:33:21,040 --> 00:33:23,360
Speaker 5: as we talk about in the book, the moment of

663
00:33:23,400 --> 00:33:27,080
Speaker 5: our demise looked like our success. And so the first

664
00:33:27,160 --> 00:33:30,720
Speaker 5: piece is that there was there was a moment of

665
00:33:31,480 --> 00:33:37,280
Speaker 5: joy slash opportunity, but that opportunity came with a cost,

666
00:33:37,480 --> 00:33:39,880
Speaker 5: and that cost is what really led to the demise.

667
00:33:40,400 --> 00:33:44,320
Speaker 5: It took a while, the wind down took years because

668
00:33:44,400 --> 00:33:47,520
Speaker 5: we could still do things, we were still selling product,

669
00:33:48,080 --> 00:33:51,160
Speaker 5: but it was scale and for so many small businesses,

670
00:33:51,160 --> 00:33:53,320
Speaker 5: and Laura Laurin can talk about this in the context

671
00:33:53,400 --> 00:33:59,360
Speaker 5: of how now operates. You can't keep just selling a

672
00:33:59,400 --> 00:34:03,440
Speaker 5: little bit because at a certain point the cost of

673
00:34:03,560 --> 00:34:10,479
Speaker 5: a little bit exceeds the return on investment. And we

674
00:34:10,480 --> 00:34:12,800
Speaker 5: were going to We could have kept selling a case

675
00:34:12,920 --> 00:34:17,360
Speaker 5: of bottles a month if we wanted to, until you know,

676
00:34:17,560 --> 00:34:21,719
Speaker 5: our suppliers decided they wanted a bigger customer. But what

677
00:34:21,760 --> 00:34:23,719
Speaker 5: we could never do was scale up so that we

678
00:34:23,800 --> 00:34:27,839
Speaker 5: could grow. And it's that growth that really was the

679
00:34:27,880 --> 00:34:31,880
Speaker 5: death for us. It's painful person who was doing the numbers,

680
00:34:31,880 --> 00:34:34,880
Speaker 5: who was calling the vendors and calling our customers saying,

681
00:34:35,320 --> 00:34:37,839
Speaker 5: I'm so sorry, you know this is what's happening. And

682
00:34:37,880 --> 00:34:41,040
Speaker 5: there's a humiliation factor that you start with where you

683
00:34:41,080 --> 00:34:44,040
Speaker 5: feel like, why won't they give us what we're owed?

684
00:34:44,120 --> 00:34:47,040
Speaker 5: But also I'm hat in hand to someone who I

685
00:34:47,080 --> 00:34:49,600
Speaker 5: know is in the same position, and I'm asking you

686
00:34:49,680 --> 00:34:51,880
Speaker 5: for largess when I can't tell you.

687
00:34:51,880 --> 00:34:53,160
Speaker 2: When I can solve the problem.

688
00:34:53,600 --> 00:34:56,319
Speaker 5: And Laura had a different set of dynamics because she's

689
00:34:56,360 --> 00:34:58,160
Speaker 5: the person who's face is out there all the time,

690
00:34:58,640 --> 00:35:00,160
Speaker 5: and between the two of us, I mean, there are

691
00:35:00,200 --> 00:35:02,680
Speaker 5: a lot of relationships that she was cultivating for us.

692
00:35:02,920 --> 00:35:05,240
Speaker 5: And then I'm calling like, yeah, I'm the other person

693
00:35:05,280 --> 00:35:07,680
Speaker 5: in the business. We're not gonna be able to pay

694
00:35:07,680 --> 00:35:09,160
Speaker 5: you this week, but Laura's gonna be calling you tomorrow

695
00:35:09,239 --> 00:35:11,680
Speaker 5: asking you to give us one more week. And so

696
00:35:11,840 --> 00:35:15,799
Speaker 5: it was there's a there's an emotional toll, but there's

697
00:35:15,840 --> 00:35:22,200
Speaker 5: also the internal dynamic that makes you want to win,

698
00:35:23,360 --> 00:35:29,719
Speaker 5: makes losing just excruciating. And it is a failure. I mean,

699
00:35:29,760 --> 00:35:33,240
Speaker 5: I have a very public set of experiences with failure.

700
00:35:34,080 --> 00:35:35,280
Speaker 5: I am an amazing loser.

701
00:35:35,400 --> 00:35:36,040
Speaker 2: I really am.

702
00:35:36,120 --> 00:35:39,919
Speaker 5: I have mastered failure, and that's the thing I don't

703
00:35:40,320 --> 00:35:42,319
Speaker 5: And I appreciate the fact that you hesitated to use

704
00:35:42,360 --> 00:35:45,520
Speaker 5: the word because part of our culture tells us, oh,

705
00:35:45,600 --> 00:35:50,040
Speaker 5: you don't accept it. I believe that you not only

706
00:35:50,080 --> 00:35:52,680
Speaker 5: accept it, you learn from it. And that's the other

707
00:35:52,719 --> 00:35:55,120
Speaker 5: piece that Lauren and I have always shared. We have

708
00:35:55,160 --> 00:35:59,680
Speaker 5: failed a lot in different ways, and it's hard and

709
00:35:59,800 --> 00:36:01,720
Speaker 5: you don't want to, you know, send out the Christmas

710
00:36:01,719 --> 00:36:03,920
Speaker 5: card to the person who put in the ten thousand

711
00:36:03,960 --> 00:36:06,359
Speaker 5: dollars because you know they're never getting their money back.

712
00:36:06,400 --> 00:36:09,480
Speaker 5: And there is nothing in this card but regret. And

713
00:36:09,520 --> 00:36:11,839
Speaker 5: so you know there are there are ways that it

714
00:36:11,880 --> 00:36:17,680
Speaker 5: is emotionally draining, but by accepting that there is another

715
00:36:18,080 --> 00:36:22,720
Speaker 5: path you can take that not to ever satiate the pain,

716
00:36:23,440 --> 00:36:26,640
Speaker 5: but it does fuel you for the next opportunity.

717
00:36:27,040 --> 00:36:29,520
Speaker 1: There's not a period after failure. I think that's my

718
00:36:29,600 --> 00:36:32,920
Speaker 1: hesitation is it just sounds so finite. You failed, but

719
00:36:33,160 --> 00:36:35,879
Speaker 1: you guys, the story kept going, and I think that

720
00:36:35,880 --> 00:36:37,920
Speaker 1: that's the piece and it's I mean, I do a

721
00:36:37,920 --> 00:36:40,799
Speaker 1: lot of coaching with small business owners, just people in

722
00:36:40,840 --> 00:36:44,000
Speaker 1: their career, and it's true. I mean, and you articulate

723
00:36:44,040 --> 00:36:47,480
Speaker 1: it so well in this book and others, that that

724
00:36:47,600 --> 00:36:49,759
Speaker 1: fear can hold you back. I mean, you talk about

725
00:36:49,760 --> 00:36:51,680
Speaker 1: in this book one of my favorite quotes, I think

726
00:36:51,800 --> 00:36:55,400
Speaker 1: is that self doubt is a sticky floor. Talk about

727
00:36:55,400 --> 00:36:57,040
Speaker 1: that fear a little bit. I mean, both of you,

728
00:36:57,200 --> 00:37:00,000
Speaker 1: and particularly on our show Brown Ambition we named it

729
00:37:00,040 --> 00:37:03,279
Speaker 1: brand Ambition for a reason. We both are very you know,

730
00:37:03,480 --> 00:37:06,080
Speaker 1: intimately aware of the special kind of ambition, that it

731
00:37:06,160 --> 00:37:08,520
Speaker 1: takes the hustle and the grit that you can develop

732
00:37:08,600 --> 00:37:11,080
Speaker 1: that you need because you often are in rooms where

733
00:37:11,600 --> 00:37:15,359
Speaker 1: people have low expectations for you and where you don't

734
00:37:15,400 --> 00:37:20,319
Speaker 1: want to adopt those low expectations you know, as as

735
00:37:20,360 --> 00:37:22,520
Speaker 1: your own, and that can be one of the great challenges.

736
00:37:23,000 --> 00:37:26,080
Speaker 1: But let's talk about self doubt. And you know, even

737
00:37:26,640 --> 00:37:29,120
Speaker 1: it's just never something I feel like that is ever

738
00:37:29,160 --> 00:37:33,200
Speaker 1: going to leave us entirely. I'm sure you know obviously, Stacy,

739
00:37:33,280 --> 00:37:35,960
Speaker 1: you are an icon and I'm really trying to keep

740
00:37:36,000 --> 00:37:38,799
Speaker 1: my cool. I'm extremely nervous about this interview. I just

741
00:37:38,840 --> 00:37:42,720
Speaker 1: love you so much. Oh no, I said it. And Laura,

742
00:37:42,760 --> 00:37:46,640
Speaker 1: you're a badass CEO of this incredible multimillion dollar company.

743
00:37:47,040 --> 00:37:49,160
Speaker 1: But self doubt, how does that show up for you

744
00:37:49,200 --> 00:37:52,960
Speaker 1: guys today? And what are some tools or helpful tips

745
00:37:52,960 --> 00:37:55,680
Speaker 1: you may have for people listening on how to not

746
00:37:55,719 --> 00:37:57,560
Speaker 1: necessarily cure it, but how to live with it and

747
00:37:57,560 --> 00:37:58,160
Speaker 1: move past it.

748
00:37:58,520 --> 00:38:01,120
Speaker 4: Yeah, and you know, it's it's it's one of those things.

749
00:38:01,239 --> 00:38:04,480
Speaker 4: It's a bit like failure. I'm not sure you want

750
00:38:04,520 --> 00:38:06,800
Speaker 4: to cure it, but I think you want to find

751
00:38:06,920 --> 00:38:07,800
Speaker 4: the part of it.

752
00:38:07,719 --> 00:38:08,719
Speaker 3: That motivates you.

753
00:38:09,480 --> 00:38:12,800
Speaker 4: So you know, for me, every day, I have self

754
00:38:12,840 --> 00:38:15,600
Speaker 4: doubt every day I'm doing something, and there's that literal

755
00:38:15,680 --> 00:38:18,880
Speaker 4: inner monologue that says, am I good enough? Am I

756
00:38:18,920 --> 00:38:21,960
Speaker 4: smart enough? Did I ask the right questions? Do I

757
00:38:22,000 --> 00:38:25,960
Speaker 4: have enough information? And you certainly don't want it to

758
00:38:27,360 --> 00:38:29,880
Speaker 4: paralyze you, but I think if you didn't have it

759
00:38:29,920 --> 00:38:32,400
Speaker 4: at all, then you would just believe your own bs

760
00:38:32,440 --> 00:38:35,000
Speaker 4: and be off like in La La Land. So it's

761
00:38:35,040 --> 00:38:37,880
Speaker 4: a little bit of a governor that allows you to

762
00:38:38,000 --> 00:38:41,359
Speaker 4: kind of step back, but at least what I've found,

763
00:38:41,440 --> 00:38:44,279
Speaker 4: I mean, it's another example of where our partnership has

764
00:38:44,360 --> 00:38:48,080
Speaker 4: helped me, because if you can surround yourself with people

765
00:38:48,239 --> 00:38:51,480
Speaker 4: that you respect, are incredibly good at what they do,

766
00:38:52,120 --> 00:38:54,480
Speaker 4: and what they do is different than what you do,

767
00:38:55,080 --> 00:38:57,640
Speaker 4: then there's ways that you can use that partner as

768
00:38:57,680 --> 00:38:58,160
Speaker 4: a mirror.

769
00:38:58,680 --> 00:38:59,279
Speaker 3: So there are.

770
00:38:59,239 --> 00:39:02,040
Speaker 4: Times when and Stacy knows, I'll call her in tears

771
00:39:02,680 --> 00:39:05,000
Speaker 4: because I think I've either made a mistake or I'm

772
00:39:05,040 --> 00:39:08,080
Speaker 4: not looking at it right, or I'm missing something, And

773
00:39:08,320 --> 00:39:11,000
Speaker 4: you know, she's always like, okay, well take a step back,

774
00:39:11,880 --> 00:39:13,960
Speaker 4: and she'll ask me a series of questions. Right, That

775
00:39:14,080 --> 00:39:18,719
Speaker 4: sort of recalibrates my brain, and all of us can

776
00:39:18,800 --> 00:39:22,120
Speaker 4: find someone or some folks in our life that can

777
00:39:22,200 --> 00:39:26,000
Speaker 4: do that for us. So I would say the answer

778
00:39:26,120 --> 00:39:27,640
Speaker 4: is not that we want to cure it and that

779
00:39:27,719 --> 00:39:29,479
Speaker 4: it always goes away, because it's a.

780
00:39:29,360 --> 00:39:30,880
Speaker 3: Little bit of our motivator.

781
00:39:31,040 --> 00:39:34,759
Speaker 4: Like anytime I have self doubt, that one part of

782
00:39:34,800 --> 00:39:36,520
Speaker 4: my brain says, am I good enough? And then the

783
00:39:36,520 --> 00:39:39,440
Speaker 4: other side says, hell, yes, I'm good enough. Failure is

784
00:39:39,480 --> 00:39:41,680
Speaker 4: not an option here. So I kind of if I

785
00:39:41,680 --> 00:39:45,120
Speaker 4: didn't have both voices, then the one that is ready

786
00:39:45,120 --> 00:39:48,880
Speaker 4: to go wouldn't have somebody to talk to. So I

787
00:39:49,040 --> 00:39:51,680
Speaker 4: like having that because it sort of creates the friction

788
00:39:51,760 --> 00:39:55,600
Speaker 4: that pushes me forward. But I do think finding someone

789
00:39:55,640 --> 00:39:59,840
Speaker 4: in your life. In my case it's stacy. Sometimes my

790
00:40:00,080 --> 00:40:03,440
Speaker 4: husband provides this role, but finding someone not that's just

791
00:40:03,480 --> 00:40:05,680
Speaker 4: gonna pat you on the back and say it's okay,

792
00:40:06,120 --> 00:40:09,040
Speaker 4: because my mother does that. Yeah, that's more coddling. But

793
00:40:09,120 --> 00:40:12,759
Speaker 4: someone who's gonna truthfully say, you know, maybe you have

794
00:40:12,880 --> 00:40:14,799
Speaker 4: missed this, but let's think about this. This is what

795
00:40:14,840 --> 00:40:17,840
Speaker 4: you did uncover. So it's kind of like always showing

796
00:40:17,880 --> 00:40:23,520
Speaker 4: you the ways that you are a superhero in context

797
00:40:23,520 --> 00:40:25,400
Speaker 4: to the things. You may think, oh, I didn't do

798
00:40:25,440 --> 00:40:25,839
Speaker 4: that as.

799
00:40:25,760 --> 00:40:29,400
Speaker 5: Well, and I would only add that part of the

800
00:40:29,520 --> 00:40:32,799
Speaker 5: dynamic though Lauren and I have that sometimes throws people off,

801
00:40:33,560 --> 00:40:37,680
Speaker 5: is that in our business relationship, she's the CEO. She's

802
00:40:37,719 --> 00:40:41,640
Speaker 5: the CEO of Nourish, she was CEO of Insomnia, she's

803
00:40:41,719 --> 00:40:46,080
Speaker 5: CEO of now Account. And part of self doubt tells

804
00:40:46,120 --> 00:40:48,360
Speaker 5: you that you should have the title, that if you

805
00:40:48,360 --> 00:40:50,120
Speaker 5: don't have the titles because you don't think you can

806
00:40:50,160 --> 00:40:56,080
Speaker 5: do the work. I've never measured my value by my title.

807
00:40:56,840 --> 00:41:00,319
Speaker 5: I measure my value by my work, and I know

808
00:41:00,480 --> 00:41:04,480
Speaker 5: my partner's value as well. She is an exceptional CEO,

809
00:41:04,600 --> 00:41:06,840
Speaker 5: and for the work that we do together, she is

810
00:41:06,880 --> 00:41:09,600
Speaker 5: in the right role. For the work that I contribute,

811
00:41:09,600 --> 00:41:12,480
Speaker 5: the way I show up, I'm in the right role.

812
00:41:13,160 --> 00:41:17,920
Speaker 5: And often our self doubt is tied to these externalities

813
00:41:18,800 --> 00:41:23,479
Speaker 5: that we can't or shouldn't control, Meaning, what is someone

814
00:41:23,480 --> 00:41:25,080
Speaker 5: going to think when they see my business card? What

815
00:41:25,120 --> 00:41:26,719
Speaker 5: are they going to say when I don't say something

816
00:41:26,719 --> 00:41:29,040
Speaker 5: in this meeting? What are they going to believe when

817
00:41:29,320 --> 00:41:31,920
Speaker 5: she's the one on the cover. And my answer is

818
00:41:32,120 --> 00:41:36,120
Speaker 5: that we succeeded, And so I think part of ambition

819
00:41:36,440 --> 00:41:40,480
Speaker 5: is also calibrating your ambition, not to these moments of

820
00:41:40,600 --> 00:41:45,239
Speaker 5: success or failure, calibrating your ambition to your long term goals. No,

821
00:41:45,480 --> 00:41:49,440
Speaker 5: I didn't win this contest. Yes, I'm being ratioed on Twitter,

822
00:41:50,520 --> 00:41:54,840
Speaker 5: which is my daily experience these says. But always it's

823
00:41:55,080 --> 00:41:58,120
Speaker 5: am I doing the things I need to do to

824
00:41:58,320 --> 00:41:59,799
Speaker 5: drive my ultimate goal.

825
00:42:00,160 --> 00:42:00,920
Speaker 2: It's to fruition.

826
00:42:01,640 --> 00:42:05,080
Speaker 5: And to Lara's point, self doubt is a way to

827
00:42:05,239 --> 00:42:08,400
Speaker 5: remind you to think about what you're doing. I wouldn't

828
00:42:08,480 --> 00:42:10,920
Speaker 5: use it as an anchor. I think you use it

829
00:42:10,960 --> 00:42:14,759
Speaker 5: as fuel, and it's being intentional about making it that

830
00:42:14,920 --> 00:42:18,839
Speaker 5: fuel that is so hard sometimes when you also aren't

831
00:42:18,880 --> 00:42:21,200
Speaker 5: used to seeing anyone like you doing what you're doing.

832
00:42:22,040 --> 00:42:24,040
Speaker 1: All right, I know that we have to wrap up here.

833
00:42:24,080 --> 00:42:27,160
Speaker 1: I want to end with this question, particularly importance of

834
00:42:27,200 --> 00:42:30,600
Speaker 1: sharing and speaking your vision and your business ideas out loud.

835
00:42:31,000 --> 00:42:33,040
Speaker 1: I know in the book you got some advice Laura

836
00:42:33,080 --> 00:42:35,239
Speaker 1: from a pretty famous friend. We're not all friends with

837
00:42:35,280 --> 00:42:39,440
Speaker 1: Sarah Blakeley from Spanks, right, but what I love is

838
00:42:39,440 --> 00:42:42,160
Speaker 1: that she told you, yes, share your idea, don't be

839
00:42:42,200 --> 00:42:45,879
Speaker 1: afraid of someone stealing it intellectual property or even if

840
00:42:45,920 --> 00:42:48,680
Speaker 1: you know in your case, it was a physical product

841
00:42:48,719 --> 00:42:50,799
Speaker 1: that you were creating. So what advice do you have

842
00:42:50,880 --> 00:42:53,040
Speaker 1: for people who are maybe just afraid to steal their

843
00:42:53,080 --> 00:42:56,680
Speaker 1: idea and stacy? Of course, being our legal expert, what

844
00:42:56,800 --> 00:42:59,920
Speaker 1: are some practical tips for people on how to protect

845
00:43:00,120 --> 00:43:03,640
Speaker 1: their intellectual property while they are sharing it In the

846
00:43:03,680 --> 00:43:05,200
Speaker 1: importance of that, Yeah.

847
00:43:05,000 --> 00:43:07,399
Speaker 4: I think you know most of us, when we come

848
00:43:07,480 --> 00:43:10,280
Speaker 4: up with an idea, it's very much like an infant,

849
00:43:10,480 --> 00:43:14,200
Speaker 4: and our tendency is to protect it, particularly women, right,

850
00:43:14,239 --> 00:43:17,920
Speaker 4: we nurture it. And so when you have that idea,

851
00:43:18,000 --> 00:43:20,200
Speaker 4: you sort of keep it close to your vest. You

852
00:43:20,280 --> 00:43:22,840
Speaker 4: might share it with one or two friends, but you know,

853
00:43:22,880 --> 00:43:24,600
Speaker 4: in the back of your mind you've just heard these

854
00:43:24,640 --> 00:43:26,920
Speaker 4: horror stories about oh, if I share it, somebody's going

855
00:43:26,960 --> 00:43:28,520
Speaker 4: to swoop in and steal it, and they're going to

856
00:43:28,600 --> 00:43:32,160
Speaker 4: go do it. But what that means is you never

857
00:43:32,719 --> 00:43:35,920
Speaker 4: include others that can help you. And you know the

858
00:43:35,960 --> 00:43:38,759
Speaker 4: comment Sarah made to me when we were I mean,

859
00:43:38,800 --> 00:43:41,879
Speaker 4: we were just thinking of Nourish. We didn't have it

860
00:43:42,280 --> 00:43:45,359
Speaker 4: firm in our mind yet, we hadn't designed it all yet,

861
00:43:45,960 --> 00:43:49,080
Speaker 4: and her comment was, if you don't share it with someone,

862
00:43:49,200 --> 00:43:52,319
Speaker 4: how are they supposed to help you with it, and

863
00:43:52,400 --> 00:43:55,560
Speaker 4: so we didn't just rush right out. We were still nervous,

864
00:43:55,560 --> 00:43:58,160
Speaker 4: but we shared a little bit with one person and

865
00:43:58,280 --> 00:44:01,680
Speaker 4: surprisingly that person said, oh well, I can introduce.

866
00:44:01,320 --> 00:44:03,000
Speaker 3: You to someone that can help you with that. And

867
00:44:03,000 --> 00:44:05,200
Speaker 3: we were like, oh wow, that's a pleasant surprise.

868
00:44:05,760 --> 00:44:07,680
Speaker 4: And so then we met the next person and shared

869
00:44:07,719 --> 00:44:09,839
Speaker 4: a little bit with them and they said, oh, well,

870
00:44:09,880 --> 00:44:12,080
Speaker 4: we can help you with that. And I think what

871
00:44:12,120 --> 00:44:14,839
Speaker 4: we realized is that, you know, most people are very

872
00:44:14,880 --> 00:44:17,440
Speaker 4: busy and they're not just sitting around looking for your

873
00:44:17,480 --> 00:44:21,359
Speaker 4: idea to go do, because coming up with the idea.

874
00:44:21,080 --> 00:44:22,160
Speaker 3: Is just the first step.

875
00:44:22,360 --> 00:44:26,640
Speaker 4: The hard part is then marshaling the resources and actually executing.

876
00:44:27,040 --> 00:44:29,960
Speaker 4: So don't assume that someone else can do that easier

877
00:44:30,000 --> 00:44:33,160
Speaker 4: than you, even if it's even if it's a big organization.

878
00:44:33,320 --> 00:44:36,640
Speaker 4: Like when we first started now Account, we were talking

879
00:44:36,680 --> 00:44:39,680
Speaker 4: to some banks and everyone said, well, gosh, don't share it.

880
00:44:39,719 --> 00:44:40,120
Speaker 3: They could.

881
00:44:40,200 --> 00:44:43,560
Speaker 4: They have all the resources to do this. True, they

882
00:44:43,560 --> 00:44:46,439
Speaker 4: had all the resources to do it, but but they weren't.

883
00:44:46,640 --> 00:44:47,080
Speaker 3: They weren't.

884
00:44:47,160 --> 00:44:50,360
Speaker 4: They were almost too big to take that idea and

885
00:44:50,760 --> 00:44:54,160
Speaker 4: turn it into action. So I do think you can

886
00:44:55,040 --> 00:44:57,359
Speaker 4: be smart about how you share it now. Stacy will

887
00:44:57,400 --> 00:45:00,239
Speaker 4: tell you she protected us on the back end when

888
00:45:00,239 --> 00:45:03,440
Speaker 4: we shared it, and everyone must sign an NDA, including

889
00:45:03,480 --> 00:45:06,680
Speaker 4: my husband. But I think as long as you figure

890
00:45:06,719 --> 00:45:08,840
Speaker 4: out how to do the things that you need to

891
00:45:08,880 --> 00:45:10,240
Speaker 4: do to be prudent.

892
00:45:10,080 --> 00:45:12,640
Speaker 3: And how you share it, sharing is.

893
00:45:12,640 --> 00:45:14,719
Speaker 4: The only way to get people to help you get

894
00:45:14,719 --> 00:45:16,040
Speaker 4: it to reality.

895
00:45:16,280 --> 00:45:19,719
Speaker 5: So yes, I am a stickler for non disclosure agreements.

896
00:45:19,880 --> 00:45:23,840
Speaker 5: I made her husband sign one and he looked at me,

897
00:45:24,280 --> 00:45:26,600
Speaker 5: thinking I was joking. I'm like, no, no, I need

898
00:45:26,640 --> 00:45:27,239
Speaker 5: you to sign it.

899
00:45:27,320 --> 00:45:27,640
Speaker 2: Thank you.

900
00:45:29,040 --> 00:45:33,440
Speaker 5: So One, make sure that you protect yourself by ensuring

901
00:45:33,440 --> 00:45:36,160
Speaker 5: that anyone who gets your information knows they're not supposed

902
00:45:36,200 --> 00:45:40,120
Speaker 5: to share it. Number two, document any time you do

903
00:45:40,160 --> 00:45:44,040
Speaker 5: share it, so emails, meetings that you have. Just make

904
00:45:44,080 --> 00:45:46,520
Speaker 5: sure you keep a record because part of proving it

905
00:45:46,640 --> 00:45:49,439
Speaker 5: was yours in the first place is proving how someone

906
00:45:49,480 --> 00:45:53,000
Speaker 5: else could have gotten it from you. Three it is

907
00:45:53,840 --> 00:45:56,040
Speaker 5: be really intentional about who you share it with. To

908
00:45:56,120 --> 00:45:58,239
Speaker 5: Laura's point, you want to share it with people who

909
00:45:58,280 --> 00:46:02,480
Speaker 5: can help, but don't brag. Bragging is I've got an idea,

910
00:46:02,520 --> 00:46:05,120
Speaker 5: but I'm not ready to do something about it. When

911
00:46:05,160 --> 00:46:07,640
Speaker 5: you are sharing it should always be because there's something

912
00:46:07,719 --> 00:46:13,120
Speaker 5: you can gain from the conversation, from the the investigation,

913
00:46:13,640 --> 00:46:15,719
Speaker 5: but never do it just to say look how cool

914
00:46:15,760 --> 00:46:17,800
Speaker 5: I am, because you will be someone cool with nothing.

915
00:46:18,680 --> 00:46:20,600
Speaker 5: And then I think the last thing, and this is

916
00:46:20,640 --> 00:46:23,280
Speaker 5: just the corollary, and I think it brings us full circle.

917
00:46:24,280 --> 00:46:27,120
Speaker 5: Lauren and I have contracts with each other. We have

918
00:46:27,239 --> 00:46:30,640
Speaker 5: rules that we follow, but we also have agreements about

919
00:46:30,640 --> 00:46:34,279
Speaker 5: how we trust each other. But we also know that

920
00:46:34,320 --> 00:46:36,719
Speaker 5: things happen that you forget what you said and you

921
00:46:36,760 --> 00:46:40,040
Speaker 5: don't remember why this was the way things got were done.

922
00:46:40,160 --> 00:46:43,239
Speaker 5: And we're in a partnership, you're not always looking at

923
00:46:43,239 --> 00:46:47,160
Speaker 5: the external possibility of conflict. You're also looking what could

924
00:46:47,160 --> 00:46:50,239
Speaker 5: happen between you. I've never been married, but I hear

925
00:46:50,280 --> 00:46:53,160
Speaker 5: tell there's this thing called divorce. I've never had to

926
00:46:53,160 --> 00:46:55,400
Speaker 5: experience it in a business partner with my business partner.

927
00:46:55,880 --> 00:46:59,160
Speaker 5: But one of the ways to protect against that and

928
00:46:59,200 --> 00:47:01,839
Speaker 5: to protect against the argument where well, I thought you

929
00:47:01,840 --> 00:47:03,840
Speaker 5: said this and I said that no, and Laura and

930
00:47:03,840 --> 00:47:05,719
Speaker 5: I've had to do this before we go back to

931
00:47:05,760 --> 00:47:09,480
Speaker 5: the paperwork. I'm a tax attorney by training. Paperwork is

932
00:47:09,480 --> 00:47:12,920
Speaker 5: your friend. Have some protect yourself and succeed.

933
00:47:12,840 --> 00:47:15,680
Speaker 1: As simple as that. Ladies, thank you so so much.

934
00:47:15,680 --> 00:47:19,239
Speaker 1: It was truly an honor. Stacy, you are the reason

935
00:47:19,320 --> 00:47:22,120
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about moving back to Georgia. I'm originally from Georgia,

936
00:47:22,560 --> 00:47:25,600
Speaker 1: PGA grad. I grew up all over, but my dad

937
00:47:25,640 --> 00:47:27,840
Speaker 1: now lives in Stockbridge. I have a baby brother in

938
00:47:27,840 --> 00:47:31,120
Speaker 1: the city building a house. He's constantly He was on

939
00:47:31,160 --> 00:47:34,839
Speaker 1: your campaign in twenty eighteen. I must have up. Yes,

940
00:47:35,640 --> 00:47:37,480
Speaker 1: he was knocking on doors for you. Brought me a

941
00:47:37,520 --> 00:47:39,759
Speaker 1: T shirt that I wear with pride, even though I

942
00:47:39,760 --> 00:47:43,480
Speaker 1: didn't really earn it. And yeah, so I just want

943
00:47:43,520 --> 00:47:45,319
Speaker 1: to say thank you so much for everything that you're

944
00:47:45,360 --> 00:47:48,960
Speaker 1: doing for Atlanta, for women, for black women, for black

945
00:47:49,000 --> 00:47:53,480
Speaker 1: girl nerds, and I just thank you so much. It

946
00:47:53,520 --> 00:47:55,040
Speaker 1: was such an honor to have you on the show.

947
00:47:55,080 --> 00:47:57,920
Speaker 1: And Laura, thank you for your time as well. Everybody

948
00:47:58,000 --> 00:48:01,240
Speaker 1: go read Level Up. It is a wonder full book. Honestly,

949
00:48:01,280 --> 00:48:04,480
Speaker 1: whether you're a newbie entrepreneur or you've had one or

950
00:48:04,520 --> 00:48:08,439
Speaker 1: two lowercase failures f failures in your life, you can't

951
00:48:08,480 --> 00:48:11,160
Speaker 1: recommend it enough. Thank y'all so much again for joining

952
00:48:11,160 --> 00:48:11,760
Speaker 1: brand Ambition.

953
00:48:12,239 --> 00:48:12,879
Speaker 2: Thank you Navy