Speaker 1: Welcome back to she Pivots. I'm Kate Lucio.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to she Pivots, the podcast where we talk
Speaker 2: with women who dare to pivot out of one career
Speaker 2: and into something new and explore how their personal lives
Speaker 2: impacts these decisions. I'm your host, Emily Tish Sussman. Today
Speaker 2: we have on Kate Lucio, the founder and CEO of Luminary,
Speaker 2: a first of its kind global professional education and networking
Speaker 2: platform created to address the systemic challenges impacting women and
Speaker 2: our allies across all industries and sectors. Luminary also has
Speaker 2: a brick and mortar location that you just might recognize
Speaker 2: from our season three launch party last year. I met
Speaker 2: Kate through one of my dear friends, a former she
Speaker 2: Pivots guest, Marissa Lee, the author of the must read
Speaker 2: book Grief Is Love. In fact, I had the honor
Speaker 2: of introducing both her and another she Pivots guest, Brookshields,
Speaker 2: at her book launch, the party held at you guessed It,
Speaker 2: the Luminary. This is exactly what I love about this show,
Speaker 2: the way it brings women together and uplifts all of
Speaker 2: us individually, and Kate is the perfect representation of this.
Speaker 2: She started Luminary after wanting to bring together women in
Speaker 2: a meaningful community to share resources, time and expertise. She
Speaker 2: had spent two decades in leadership and financial services, leading global,
Speaker 2: multi billion dollar businesses, and she saw a need for
Speaker 2: a platform that would allow people to fully embrace their
Speaker 2: stories and skills, and so she pivoted and started Luminary.
Speaker 2: But that's not the end of her story. In fact,
Speaker 2: it's just one side, the professional. On the personal side,
Speaker 2: Kate was dealing with her own health journey from IVF
Speaker 2: to breast care answer to eventually a hysterectomy and acute
Speaker 2: and difficult loss for her after trying for a baby
Speaker 2: for so long. I'm so grateful to Kate for coming
Speaker 2: on and opening up about her still developing and complex
Speaker 2: feelings around the intersection of these deeply personal experiences and
Speaker 2: her blossoming career success. Ladies, this is an episode you
Speaker 2: won't want to miss enjoy. Oh and if you hear
Speaker 2: some chirping birds, it was just the idyllic setting that
Speaker 2: Kate was recording from. Let's jump right in.
Speaker 1: I am Kate Lucio, and I am the founder and
Speaker 1: CEO of Luminary and what is luminary. Luminary is a
Speaker 1: global networking and provisional education platform. We started here in
Speaker 1: New York City in twenty nineteen as a physical space
Speaker 1: for women and allies to connect, create, develop, and thanks
Speaker 1: to the pandemic, we went online overnight and now we
Speaker 1: have a global community around the world.
Speaker 2: You also hosted my launch party for the podcast we did,
Speaker 2: and I.
Speaker 1: Couldn't even be there but because I was having surgery.
Speaker 1: So but I you know, so many people continue to
Speaker 1: bring that event up. They're like, I was at Emily
Speaker 1: She Pivots podcast launch at the Glass Ceiling. You weren't there,
Speaker 1: but so many people continue to talk about what a
Speaker 1: magical night it was.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, I love that so much. Well, I mean,
Speaker 2: I think the energy that you brought into it, like
Speaker 2: into designing the space and even just like the spirit
Speaker 2: that you bring into it was so felt there. It
Speaker 2: was so everybody was just happy to be talking about
Speaker 2: their pivots and like how to help other women, and
Speaker 2: everyone was bringing that energy and like, yes, what can
Speaker 2: I do for you? What can I do for you?
Speaker 2: What can I do for you? Which is the kind
Speaker 2: of room I want to be in? Like that's definitely
Speaker 2: the kind of I want to create, and you really
Speaker 2: help do that with the space.
Speaker 1: Yeah, isn't that amazing where it's not just about listen.
Speaker 1: There's there's a time and place for the for the get,
Speaker 1: but there's also a time and a place for the give,
Speaker 1: and I think when it happens at that same time,
Speaker 1: it just inspires other to have that given the get.
Speaker 1: And so I'm pretty proud of what we've built and
Speaker 1: both physically and virtually, and just know that the incredible
Speaker 1: community and people coming into the space again physically and
Speaker 1: virtually is is exactly who we wanted to walk into
Speaker 1: the space.
Speaker 2: Well, I actually met you and came into the space
Speaker 2: for the first time in exactly one of these circumstances,
Speaker 2: because you hosted a book party for my friend Marissa
Speaker 2: Renee Lee and her book Grief Is Love, and that
Speaker 2: was my first time in the space and I was
Speaker 2: just blown away.
Speaker 1: And we love Marissa. She's amazing. So thanks to you.
Speaker 1: You introduced Marissa to Luminary. You introduced us to Marissa
Speaker 1: and her book, and that was an incredible book launch
Speaker 1: as well. But she's become a Luminary member and she's
Speaker 1: just an inspiring motivating is not even the words that
Speaker 1: I could use to describer It's so much more than that.
Speaker 1: But that was because she did her book launch there
Speaker 1: and now she's so engaged and so involved and also
Speaker 1: bring this idea that grief is love and we have
Speaker 1: to talk about it.
Speaker 2: You know, what she's talking about, what you're talking about,
Speaker 2: the luminaria, what we're talking about here at Cheap Pivots.
Speaker 2: It's so intertwined. It's like the fact that we want
Speaker 2: to show up professionally and we know that we're good,
Speaker 2: and we know that we can be our best selves,
Speaker 2: and we have these other personal factors that interplay sometimes
Speaker 2: and we want to show up with all of it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think they interplay all the time, right.
Speaker 1: I think historically women in particular women and women of
Speaker 1: color just were kind of told not to show up,
Speaker 1: you know, leave that at the door before you come
Speaker 1: into the I'm using air quotes into the office. I
Speaker 1: think the pandemic did change a lot of that, right,
Speaker 1: because we had windows into what everyone's lives were because
Speaker 1: everyone was going through it at once. And I think
Speaker 1: that the more we share our stories and we do
Speaker 1: it not behind closed doors or through what we call
Speaker 1: Whisper Networks. We're doing it out in front. It does
Speaker 1: inspire and motivate others to share their stories and bring
Speaker 1: their whole selves into whatever they're doing. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: it's the whole, you know, Like it's the whole idea
Speaker 1: behind a group therapy that like if you see someone
Speaker 1: showing up emotionally, then you are compelled to meet them, absolutely,
Speaker 1: both for yourself but also for them, like you don't
Speaker 1: want them to feel alone, and so like you show
Speaker 1: up to talk about the thing that you're going through
Speaker 1: and it helps them and it helps you absolutely. That's
Speaker 1: such a great analogy. I was just leading a workshop
Speaker 1: for one of our corporate our enterprise clients and around
Speaker 1: self advocacy. But I like the term self promotion much
Speaker 1: better because it makes people uncomfortable. Oh I don't want
Speaker 1: to be around someone who self promotes. It's the same
Speaker 1: as self advocacy. It's just this negative connotation that you're
Speaker 1: doing it in an in authentic way. And it can
Speaker 1: be done in an authentic way. But if we show
Speaker 1: up and we actually give facts and context, I say
Speaker 1: that's the way to do it. And so for me,
Speaker 1: when somebody shares an achievement or an accomplishment. When they're
Speaker 1: advocating for themselves, it inspires others to do that too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, totally. Okay, So let's get back to you, Kate. Okay, okay,
Speaker 2: So set the scene for us, give us a little Kate, like,
Speaker 2: what did you think you were going to be when
Speaker 2: you grew up? So, actually, my mom recently found something
Speaker 2: that I wrote. She has kept a lot of our
Speaker 2: kids stuff, and I think it was in fourth grade
Speaker 2: I said I want to be the president. Probably not
Speaker 2: what I thought I was going to do, but at
Speaker 2: that time, I think I was inspired by leadership. And
Speaker 2: so to me at that time, if I unpacked that
Speaker 2: a little, it was like that was the example of
Speaker 2: a leader. At the same time, I was in fourth grade,
Speaker 2: it was when the Challenger happened, and so we were
Speaker 2: watching all of these amazing astronauts, one of them being
Speaker 2: a teacher, right, So for me it was like anybody
Speaker 2: that was in a leadership role, that's what I wanted
Speaker 2: to do. I really looked and my teachers were leaders,
Speaker 2: and so one I thought there was they had a
Speaker 2: position of power, which an influence which probably didn't recognize
Speaker 2: then do now. And so for me growing up, I
Speaker 2: really wanted to follow my dad's flote steps. He was
Speaker 2: an FBI agent, and that's what I thought because that's
Speaker 2: what I knew.
Speaker 1: And my mom was a teacher, loved what she did.
Speaker 1: I could never be a teacher, but I guess I
Speaker 1: do that now. So when I went to college, I thought,
Speaker 1: I'm going to do political science criminal justice as a minor,
Speaker 1: and that's what I'm going to do. Or I'm going
Speaker 1: to work somewhere in the government, and that was what
Speaker 1: I really aspired to do.
Speaker 2: Wait, so how did you not end up as an
Speaker 2: FBI agent? Oh?
Speaker 1: Boy? So the true story that I don't think I've
Speaker 1: ever shared publicly. So when I was a sophomore in college,
Speaker 1: there was an internship program at the FBI Academy, oh sorry,
Speaker 1: the headquarters in Washington, DC. I went to University of
Speaker 1: Maryland underrub and very long story short, my dad said,
Speaker 1: you should apply for this. It's to be a tour guide,
Speaker 1: but that will get your foot in the door and
Speaker 1: you can start experience. What I didn't know is you
Speaker 1: had to go through the same application process that anybody
Speaker 1: that wanted to work with in the FBI. Was like
Speaker 1: thirty pages What I also didn't know is that I
Speaker 1: had tried marijuana for the first time about three months
Speaker 1: prior to that. Now this is in the nineties. The
Speaker 1: last page of the application said your drug history, and
Speaker 1: everyone in my dorm said, just lie, you've tried it
Speaker 1: one time, but I couldn't. I had to be honest,
Speaker 1: and I'm an FBI agent's daughter, and so we get
Speaker 1: into the interview and they're like, this is amazing. You're amazing,
Speaker 1: and then they get to the last page because they
Speaker 1: do it they did it in person, and they said, wait, oh,
Speaker 1: you've tried drugs. I said it was one time. I
Speaker 1: started crying. They said, I'm so sorry, You're ineligible to apply,
Speaker 1: and so had to go home and tell my parents
Speaker 1: and my dad was very disappointed, but he said I'm
Speaker 1: glad you didn't lie. And then got a letter a
Speaker 1: few months later saying because of your drug abuse, you
Speaker 1: know we can't you're not ineligible, and I thought, are
Speaker 1: you getting me? Literally, I tried it at one time, and
Speaker 1: I said, that's not where I want to be If
Speaker 1: that's the judgment, I understand their processes and rules, and
Speaker 1: so that was that was my I guess failed attempt
Speaker 1: to try, and then years later my dad actually said
Speaker 1: to me, I'm so glad that you did something different.
Speaker 2: Okay, so do you know what your dad was trying
Speaker 2: to get you away from?
Speaker 1: No. I think he thought, and again I'm putting words
Speaker 1: into his mouth, that I was destined for bigger things
Speaker 1: and bigger impact. And I didn't know it then that
Speaker 1: I really wanted to do something very international, and not
Speaker 1: that you couldn't do that at the FBI, but that
Speaker 1: would have not been my path. And so you know,
Speaker 1: many several years later, when I got recruited into banking,
Speaker 1: that took me into an international career for the better
Speaker 1: part of twenty years. And so I think that was
Speaker 1: one I do also think my dad was so committed
Speaker 1: and it's really a public service job. You're not making
Speaker 1: a lot of money, which is a shame. It's because
Speaker 1: they sort of protect us. And I think he wanted
Speaker 1: me to not have to worry so much all the
Speaker 1: time about finances and to put my four years of
Speaker 1: college that he paid for. That was a huge gift
Speaker 1: for me to use and to hopefully go and be
Speaker 1: financially stable.
Speaker 2: So was that the driving factor for you when you
Speaker 2: graduated college, like, I'm going to find a job that
Speaker 2: will help me be as financially stable as quickly as possible. No.
Speaker 1: I got a job in a nonprofit.
Speaker 2: Not known for financial stability.
Speaker 1: No, but so I was. I loved my job. I
Speaker 1: was working for an affordable housing nonprofit still around mana
Speaker 1: love them, and the CFO at the time, who was
Speaker 1: probably not that much old, wasn't old, but looked older.
Speaker 1: I was in my twenties. He came and he called
Speaker 1: me into his office the city said I think you
Speaker 1: need to leave. I don't want you to get stuck here.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't a negative. It wasn't like you should leave,
Speaker 1: and because it's more a bad place. It was you
Speaker 1: have a lot to give, you are, you have a
Speaker 1: lot of energy, and go work in the private sector.
Speaker 1: You can always give back and be philanthropic over time,
Speaker 1: and you can always come back like he did, because
Speaker 1: he had been a CFO in the sort of private
Speaker 1: sector and came back. And I really took that to heart.
Speaker 1: And it was the Internet boom, and so I went
Speaker 1: out and got a job at a tech startup and
Speaker 1: I remember thinking, oh my gosh, I'm rich because of
Speaker 1: what I was. I mean, it wasn't that much more money,
Speaker 1: but it was significant for me, and I could start
Speaker 1: saving to buy a house, things like that that didn't exist.
Speaker 1: So I went from well, I'm going to make money
Speaker 1: to a nonprofit to a tech startup to that for
Speaker 1: a couple of years, and then pivoted when I got
Speaker 1: recruited into financial the financial.
Speaker 2: World, you had really interesting international placements, what you would
Speaker 2: call yes, yes, that's great. Were the international jobs. Were
Speaker 2: you trying to find something where you would move around
Speaker 2: the world because I want to hear what you learned.
Speaker 2: It's just so interesting.
Speaker 1: Not necessarily so. I when I was in college, I
Speaker 1: studied abroad and that was for me. I mean I
Speaker 1: really I had been out of I never I've been
Speaker 1: on a plane one time before I studied abroad. So
Speaker 1: I went to Spain and it was amazing, and I
Speaker 1: was like this whole world that I never knew existed
Speaker 1: outside of sort of New Jersey, Midwest Florida, and I
Speaker 1: fell in love. I remember coming home going I think
Speaker 1: I want to live abroad. And when I got to
Speaker 1: that tech startup, about six months into the job, my
Speaker 1: CEO called me in and it was a very small
Speaker 1: company and you said, you have a passport. I said,
Speaker 1: of course, and he said, great, You're going to China
Speaker 1: with our CTO and you're going to help him figure
Speaker 1: out if we should set up joint ventures. He said JVS.
Speaker 1: I didn't even know what it meant, and Google was
Speaker 1: just starting, so he couldn't google it. And and then
Speaker 1: I went to China and it was like, wha, this
Speaker 1: is amazing experiencing this culture. And I spent you know,
Speaker 1: sort of the better part of two years on and
Speaker 1: off there working at this company and then realizing that
Speaker 1: I just loved international And so when I went back
Speaker 1: to school at Georgetown, it was not because it was
Speaker 1: I had a job in mine. I did a master's
Speaker 1: in international relations because I loved international and learning and
Speaker 1: learning about economies and political systems and certainly job the
Speaker 1: sort of what was happening in their markets. But there
Speaker 1: wasn't a plan. There was a I'm going to go
Speaker 1: back and either work in a startup or I'm going
Speaker 1: to go work in the government. There still was that
Speaker 1: government in the back of my mind, and I did
Speaker 1: a night program, so I was surrounded by people that
Speaker 1: were working in the government, whether it was the State Department,
Speaker 1: the CIA, the NSA. So I was like, this is
Speaker 1: what I'm going to do.
Speaker 2: And then I.
Speaker 1: Got recruited by a bank which was just nowhere on
Speaker 1: my radar, and that then over the next you know whatever,
Speaker 1: almost twenty years took me to Mexico and London and
Speaker 1: then working and traveling all around the world.
Speaker 2: When you were moving, did you think every time you
Speaker 2: think like this was a permanent move or you thought
Speaker 2: of it as a tour of service. No.
Speaker 1: I always thought, Okay, I'm and I'm very close to
Speaker 1: my family, and I always thought, well, this is just
Speaker 1: going to be temporary. But I didn't know how temporary.
Speaker 1: So for example, when I moved to London, the assignment
Speaker 1: or the placeman was two years, and I remember having
Speaker 1: this conversation with my mom like she's I'm very close
Speaker 1: to her, and I said, she said, it's only two years.
Speaker 1: It's going to fly by. And two years turned into seven.
Speaker 1: And so when I did move back to the States,
Speaker 1: you know, and Mexico was sort of on and off
Speaker 1: for two and a half years, and then I sort
Speaker 1: of lived a pneumadic life on a plane in Latin America.
Speaker 1: And even when I was in London, I was on
Speaker 1: a plane almost three weeks of every month, so but
Speaker 1: always in a different part of the world. So when
Speaker 1: I kind of moved. When I moved back to the US,
Speaker 1: it was very difficult for me because I loved learning
Speaker 1: and being and being thrust into situations where I sort
Speaker 1: of have to adapt, and coming back to the US.
Speaker 1: People warned me about repatriation, but I didn't really appreciate
Speaker 1: it until I did it, and it was difficult. I'll
Speaker 1: just say that it was difficult. I also was not
Speaker 1: happy in my marriage at the time, and so I
Speaker 1: think there was a lot going on when that happened.
Speaker 1: But I still love the travel. I've been, you know,
Speaker 1: amount one hundred and twenty eight countries, and so that's
Speaker 1: just part of who I am. It's in my DNA
Speaker 1: and my mom and dad always go, we don't know
Speaker 1: where you came from, but it's just they gave me
Speaker 1: this opportunity as a kid and growing up to believe
Speaker 1: I could be anything I wanted. And I think just
Speaker 1: giving me that belief and sort of reinforcing it and
Speaker 1: think for myself and become who I wanted, that has
Speaker 1: driven so much of why I love international and certainly
Speaker 1: you know, my job and giving it.
Speaker 2: All, will you fill in, like illuminate into a little
Speaker 2: bit into the personal. When you were going through you know,
Speaker 2: like twenty years of international living and international travel, I
Speaker 2: feel like sometimes it's hard for me to keep friendships
Speaker 2: and relationships with people like a town over or you know,
Speaker 2: like a different city. Yeah, So how did that work
Speaker 2: for you? Were you making friends as you went? Were
Speaker 2: you keeping up relationships? Were you dating?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 2: How did that work? Oh?
Speaker 1: Absolutely? I mean, you know, I think you're you have
Speaker 1: to make time to invest in relationships, right, So relationships
Speaker 1: that come from your past as well as the relationships
Speaker 1: that when you're in different places. And I think it's
Speaker 1: really important to surround yourself with local people as well,
Speaker 1: not just the people that make you comfortable, and usually
Speaker 1: those are Americans. So I made it a priority wherever
Speaker 1: I was to really invest time and build relationships locally,
Speaker 1: and a lot of those relationships I still have. It
Speaker 1: also was very intentional about how did I stay connected
Speaker 1: with my sort of network and my friend group that
Speaker 1: were still I'll call use the word home. And that's
Speaker 1: what's I think pretty wonderful. Is this is like before
Speaker 1: the Internet and before all the social media, so you
Speaker 1: really had to take time. And then obviously social media
Speaker 1: made it so much easier. I remember when Facebook came
Speaker 1: out and I was moving. I was actually moving to London,
Speaker 1: and it was like, oh, this is a great way
Speaker 1: to stay connected, and it really was. And it was
Speaker 1: also allowed people to see what you were doing. So
Speaker 1: many people thought I was in Cia because they're like,
Speaker 1: you're in a different country every week. So that and
Speaker 1: then you know, I got married when I was in
Speaker 1: London and my now ex husband, but my then person
Speaker 1: was living in New York and so we got married,
Speaker 1: he moved to London and spent a couple of years
Speaker 1: in London together before my job. The job opportunity brought
Speaker 1: me back to the US, but that was always going
Speaker 1: to be the thing that I wanted to do as
Speaker 1: my parents got older. But it was definitely it wasn't easy,
Speaker 1: but I think you really have to make an effort
Speaker 1: and and build that. And by the way, I also say, listen,
Speaker 1: I I'm not going to be in touch all the time,
Speaker 1: but when I am in touch, let's make the most
Speaker 1: out of it. And all of my US trips back home,
Speaker 1: I would really make it a point to see the
Speaker 1: people that mattered to me. It wasn't just I saw
Speaker 1: my parents and my nieces and nephews, which I did see,
Speaker 1: but it was like those those friends that I really
Speaker 1: needed to to also fill me up personally and also
Speaker 1: invest in them. It was important to me and be
Speaker 1: there for their special you know, events in their life
Speaker 1: and their weddings and experiences. Just because I wasn't in
Speaker 1: living in that area didn't mean I shouldn't make time
Speaker 1: for it, and I did. So let's talk about when
Speaker 1: you started to think about pivoting out of the corporate career.
Speaker 1: Was it when you came back to the US because
Speaker 1: you stayed in it for a little while? Still, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I stayed for a couple of years, and you know,
Speaker 1: I loved I loved my job. I love managing people,
Speaker 1: I love clients, I love deals, and and so when
Speaker 1: I when I decided that I was going to leave
Speaker 1: banking or at least, you know, take a stop in
Speaker 1: that part of my career, it wasn't because I didn't
Speaker 1: love it. I think the culture where I was was
Speaker 1: not the right culture for me. And I also, in
Speaker 1: a very again pivotal conversation with my one of my mentors.
Speaker 1: He said, you know, you need to go somewhere and
Speaker 1: build your continue to build your career somewhere where you're
Speaker 1: able to have a tremendous amount of impact, because that's
Speaker 1: when you get I don't want to use the word board,
Speaker 1: but you start to feel sort of antsy when you're
Speaker 1: not having an impact. And so that was a really
Speaker 1: eye opening conversation for me because I'd never ever had
Speaker 1: that and I'd never actually looked at myself that way,
Speaker 1: but he saw it. He had known me for you know,
Speaker 1: close to a decade and he's still a mentor of mine,
Speaker 1: and that was a very sparked the idea for me around, wait,
Speaker 1: do I have to do this for the rest of
Speaker 1: my life just because that's what as a gen xer
Speaker 1: I've been kind of told. And then a week or
Speaker 1: so later I had another conversation with him and he said, Kay,
Speaker 1: what's the worst that can happen? You build new skills,
Speaker 1: you do something different. If it doesn't work out, you
Speaker 1: can always go back, and your reputation precedes you. And
Speaker 1: so for me that was almost like if you heuish
Speaker 1: my coach or my boss, like this permission to go
Speaker 1: and do something different, not knowing what that was going
Speaker 1: to be. And so I decided that I was going
Speaker 1: to take a step back from that particular role. And
Speaker 1: what did I immediately start doing? Like within two weeks
Speaker 1: started interviewing with other banks again, and I said, what, wait,
Speaker 1: you didn't do this. You could have just done that
Speaker 1: when you were still in the institution you work for.
Speaker 1: And it was in that moment that I allowed myself
Speaker 1: to think. And I didn't even know that this was
Speaker 1: happening at that time, but I came out of an
Speaker 1: event and just wasn't what I wanted it to be,
Speaker 1: and I thought, I think I can do this differently
Speaker 1: and better and actually bring more people together versus we
Speaker 1: get so siloed. And I was called my then he
Speaker 1: still is my boyfriend, but I was divorced by then
Speaker 1: in my divorce, and he said write it down and
Speaker 1: I said I'm just spenting and he said, no, no,
Speaker 1: you have something and write it down. And so I
Speaker 1: spent the next week or two writing it down. And
Speaker 1: that was the business plan for Luminary. So what is
Speaker 1: it that you were Like what kind of event were
Speaker 1: you at? Yeah, And it sparked it, and like, what
Speaker 1: were you trying to solve for. So it was a
Speaker 1: very i'll call it intimate fundraiser, charitable fundraiser for about
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five women, and a friend of mine had
Speaker 1: invited me. And when I got there, I didn't have
Speaker 1: a job right because I was in this break and
Speaker 1: so I really was having a hard time identifying how
Speaker 1: to introduce myself. And there was another woman there from
Speaker 1: another financial institution. She was like, Oh, that's so bold,
Speaker 1: and that's amazing because she was the only person that
Speaker 1: would talk that it was talking to me. And so
Speaker 1: they went right into this like twenty people, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: why is no one getting the opportunity to introduce themselves?
Speaker 1: Like I don't know who these people are. And so
Speaker 1: I stopped everyone and I was like, I know we're
Speaker 1: at this dinner, but could we go around the room
Speaker 1: and introduce ourselves and tell a little bit of our stories?
Speaker 1: And you would have thought I'd eight heads. And these
Speaker 1: are all women that I thought well, and most of
Speaker 1: them were not working anymore. They had left to raise
Speaker 1: their families or do philanthropic things. And these were amazing
Speaker 1: and credible women that had these awesome stories, and yet
Speaker 1: then none of them wanted to tell their story. And
Speaker 1: I don't know why, but for me, it felt like
Speaker 1: I didn't get an opportunity to know any of them.
Speaker 1: I got a business card if I was lucky, and
Speaker 1: there was no connection. And I think because people weren't
Speaker 1: sharing their stories about themselves and maybe they all knew
Speaker 1: each other. I don't think that's the case, but I
Speaker 1: realized that so much of what connection is is being
Speaker 1: open to hearing about someone else and wanting to help
Speaker 1: if that's an opportunity, but also sharing our own stories.
Speaker 1: And then I looked around and said, wait a second,
Speaker 1: are we doing that in corporate America? How are women
Speaker 1: doing that? Is this holding us back that we're not
Speaker 1: doing this? This goes back to advocacy and advocating for ourselves.
Speaker 1: And then at the same time, I really was watching
Speaker 1: all of these women starting companies which I had no
Speaker 1: interest in, to be honest. And after I wrote this
Speaker 1: what now I know was my business plan, it was
Speaker 1: then I started really doing research and saying, Wow, there's
Speaker 1: an opportunity here that I think is untapped. And I
Speaker 1: was only thinking about New York, right, I didn't even
Speaker 1: think about more broadly outside of But I needed that
Speaker 1: community when I came back to New York and I
Speaker 1: didn't have one. What was the original business plan? So
Speaker 1: the original business plan was a physical space in New
Speaker 1: York City that women and allies because we've always been
Speaker 1: gender inclusive, but predominantly women, because we were trying to
Speaker 1: advance one of the workforce would come and learn and
Speaker 1: connect and collaborate. However, the first audience that was in
Speaker 1: that original business plan was really targeted at corporate women
Speaker 1: because that's what I knew. And it wasn't until I
Speaker 1: started to do more research that I saw so much
Speaker 1: focus on entrepreneurship and women in entrepreneurship and all also
Speaker 1: the lack of capital and all of the things that
Speaker 1: we know, and I was like, wait, that's a whole
Speaker 1: different audience. So what if I got both audiences and
Speaker 1: also women like me that are in transition. But what's
Speaker 1: really interesting is that original business plan didn't have the
Speaker 1: word digital or virtual at all. I did a word search,
Speaker 1: like when the pandemic hit, not one, so it was
Speaker 1: all around physical and then a year later it changed overnight.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I want to just stick with the original
Speaker 2: business plan for a second to understand. I mean, you're
Speaker 2: talking about three pretty different audiences, bringing in women who
Speaker 2: are within corporate structures, women who are entrepreneurs, and then
Speaker 2: women who are in transition. How did you think about
Speaker 2: marketing to each of them to bring them in and
Speaker 2: to let them know that they were included and like
Speaker 2: really wanted. Like I feel like there's often if you
Speaker 2: market to one of those communities and the others feel excluded.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, And I think as a banker and walking
Speaker 1: into that room of other women that were mainly philanthropic
Speaker 1: and there's nothing against that, but that was in me,
Speaker 1: I felt immediately excluded. I also had gone through the
Speaker 1: process in London for many years of trying to get
Speaker 1: into the Shortage House, which is part of the SOHO House,
Speaker 1: and I was never accepted because I was a banker
Speaker 1: and they were very clear, we don't want you. That's
Speaker 1: changed now, so nothing against them, but well, once they
Speaker 1: didn't take you, I'd hold it against them. Yeah, So
Speaker 1: when I launched the Luminaria is like, I don't want
Speaker 1: anyone to feel that way. And so that's actually the
Speaker 1: experience that allowed me to say we're not going to
Speaker 1: have an application process because if it's a true community,
Speaker 1: we break down barriers for people. We don't put up
Speaker 1: barriers for people trying to get in. That's not what
Speaker 1: I experience in a supportive community. And so that was
Speaker 1: always part of the business plan. I remember sort of
Speaker 1: fake pitching it to friends in finance and BC and
Speaker 1: private equity and they're like, Oh, this is never going
Speaker 1: to work. You have to have an application process. But
Speaker 1: that appl not having that application process broke down that
Speaker 1: original barrier that we were talking about around well, that's
Speaker 1: for women in corporate America, that's for people in entrepreneurship,
Speaker 1: that's for people in transition. And so now I'm not judging,
Speaker 1: I'm not there's no criteria around what you do in
Speaker 1: your background. I think the other thing is we forget
Speaker 1: that the topics and themes that challenge us or potentially
Speaker 1: hold us back, or things we need to invest in,
Speaker 1: whether you're climbing the corporate ladder or you're just navigating it,
Speaker 1: whether you're in transition, you're in a lot of those
Speaker 1: are topics are applicable across right, So advocacy, negotiation, relationship building,
Speaker 1: everything that we do on a that we lack or
Speaker 1: we need to invest in. It doesn't matter if you
Speaker 1: are sitting and working for a two hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: thousand percent organization or you're running a two person organization.
Speaker 1: A lot of those topics are applicable across the journey,
Speaker 1: and so what we've done is one make them accessible
Speaker 1: and to when we're talking to a specific audience is
Speaker 1: really tailor it around them.
Speaker 2: Okay, so you've created a physical space. Your entire business
Speaker 2: is raising dedicated on people being in a close knit
Speaker 2: strangers being in a close knit space together. The pandemic hits,
Speaker 2: what did you do? Yes? More after the break.
Speaker 1: So luckily we had a member who are unluckily for her,
Speaker 1: but she gets she was stuck in China and she
Speaker 1: we chatted me and said, it's worse than they're saying
Speaker 1: it is. So this like two week thing not happening.
Speaker 1: And either way, we hadn't shut down yet, New York
Speaker 1: had not shut down yet, but I knew that people
Speaker 1: were less and less people were coming in. And also
Speaker 1: I was worried about my staff, and so I called
Speaker 1: an intern in, one of our interns, and I said, hey,
Speaker 1: have you ever heard of this thing called zoom? Can
Speaker 1: you just get us a zoom and we'll just see
Speaker 1: what that looks like, because we had all this programming
Speaker 1: for the rest of March it was Women's History Month,
Speaker 1: and I needed to continue to deliver that whether it
Speaker 1: was two weeks or two months. And she called me
Speaker 1: and she goes, it's free for thirty days. I said,
Speaker 1: do I have to put a credit card down? And
Speaker 1: she said yes because after thirty days. I said, oh, well,
Speaker 1: we won't have it for after thirty days. Yeah, here,
Speaker 1: I have like one hundred zoom counts already now. And
Speaker 1: that was it. So overnight, before New York, even before
Speaker 1: the physical space even shut down, we went online and
Speaker 1: I remember our first program was don't touch your face,
Speaker 1: don't touch your four oh one k because everyone was
Speaker 1: talking about like you, you know, touching your mouth, and
Speaker 1: then everyone was panicking, Oh my gosh, you know, it's
Speaker 1: going to be like two thousand and eight, and so
Speaker 1: that really for us, it was we didn't know it
Speaker 1: then because we were in sort of fight or flight
Speaker 1: mode because we didn't know if we were going to
Speaker 1: make it, But it was the beginning of such an
Speaker 1: amazing opportunity for us to think about how do we
Speaker 1: reach more people and have more impact and make what
Speaker 1: we were doing much more accessible. Than just in New York,
Speaker 1: and that's really what what transpired. But it was those
Speaker 1: first March, April, May June was the hardest for the
Speaker 1: six months of my career, hands down, way harder than
Speaker 1: the Financial crisis.
Speaker 2: Wow. Wow. And I was a banker, right, I mean,
Speaker 2: that's that's quite a statement, to be harder than the
Speaker 2: financial crisis. Why do you think this was harder? How well? One?
Speaker 1: You know, I don't. I mean, even with all of
Speaker 1: the cuts during the financial crisis, I don't think I
Speaker 1: ever really feared for my job. I was, I was,
Speaker 1: you know, really doing a great job. And I don't
Speaker 1: think I ever really thought, am I going to lose
Speaker 1: my job? When everybody in that company relies on you
Speaker 1: to pay their rent, or their mortgage or their childcare,
Speaker 1: it's it's a real rude awakening of the of the
Speaker 1: realities of what's happening and also the pressure of what
Speaker 1: was going on. And so we knew we had to
Speaker 1: adapt very quickly in order to just stay alive for
Speaker 1: a couple of months. And I think I went back
Speaker 1: to that original business plan and said, what could we
Speaker 1: do that could be innovating but also still at the
Speaker 1: core of our community. And if you remember so many individuals.
Speaker 1: So we have two you know, very again distinct audiences
Speaker 1: in that we have B two C and B too.
Speaker 1: B B two C. Everybody's worried. It's like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: like I'm going to pull back on my spending B
Speaker 1: to B. It was trying to figure out all these
Speaker 1: company these were trying to figure out how do they
Speaker 1: stay close to their people and connect them. And so
Speaker 1: we had already had some great companies that we were
Speaker 1: working with, and I called them and said, I think,
Speaker 1: you know, let's double down. And now it doesn't have
Speaker 1: to be in New York. I can reach your women
Speaker 1: and your allies anywhere in the world. And that sort
Speaker 1: of I think innovation and adapting and a pivot in
Speaker 1: a way was huge for us.
Speaker 2: Yeah. It created a different way of thinking and a
Speaker 2: different pathway of opportunity.
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
Speaker 2: But while she was finding her stride with Luminary, behind
Speaker 2: the scenes, she was dealing with a diagnosis that changed
Speaker 2: her life. After the break, Kate dives into the personal
Speaker 2: that was behind her professional career. You know, the crux
Speaker 2: of this show is that these personal things that happen
Speaker 2: outside of us, like that we can't control end up
Speaker 2: opening up different opportunities. Like they're hard in the moment,
Speaker 2: and then they end up opening up different opportunities that
Speaker 2: we couldn't have even thought of. And a long which
Speaker 2: is basically this, I'd say, but this is still even
Speaker 2: kind of professional. You yourself have had a variety of
Speaker 2: health challenges that have taken you in different directions. Can
Speaker 2: you talk through that for us? Yeah?
Speaker 1: And I think it's you know, it makes you feel
Speaker 1: really human when you go through something that you never expected.
Speaker 1: I actually it started actually in March of twenty twenty
Speaker 1: because as everything was shutting down, we were now locked down,
Speaker 1: and I started getting sick and I thought, oh, it's
Speaker 1: just like cold, and then no, it was COVID. So
Speaker 1: it was the original first strain, if you want to
Speaker 1: call it that, and I was trying to keep the
Speaker 1: company in business. I was going through PPP, the paycheck
Speaker 1: Protection Program, and it was really really rough on my body.
Speaker 1: And I think what should have been a two week
Speaker 1: maybe three week sickness lasted well into six to eight
Speaker 1: weeks because I wasn't getting any rest. And I think
Speaker 1: that took a tremendous amount of a put a tremendous
Speaker 1: amount of strain on my body. But then I didn't
Speaker 1: stop right, so I just kept going and it's the
Speaker 1: pandemic and I've got to keep the business going. And
Speaker 1: then in twenty twenty two, after failing to go to
Speaker 1: a mammogram for two years, I was like, oh, I
Speaker 1: guess go to collegist said you have to do this.
Speaker 1: You're not leaving my office until you go schedule your mammogram.
Speaker 2: Fine, do it.
Speaker 1: And then I was going to get on a zoom
Speaker 1: for about five hundred people one of our corporate clients,
Speaker 1: and my phone rings literally like two minutes before, and
Speaker 1: it's my doctor and they're like, hey, you know, very
Speaker 1: matter of fact, your biopsy came back because I had
Speaker 1: to have a biopsy. You have stage one breast cancer
Speaker 1: and now we need you to get in touch with
Speaker 1: the rest surgeon did and I remember not even listening.
Speaker 1: I was like, wait, what would they just say?
Speaker 2: Huh?
Speaker 1: And I'm trying to take notes while also thinking I
Speaker 1: have to go lead this gigantic zoom session. And I
Speaker 1: hung up and I get on the zoom and my
Speaker 1: COO at the time, who's still our advisor and our
Speaker 1: general counsel, could see my face and she DMed me
Speaker 1: in the zoom and said do you need a minute?
Speaker 1: And I said yeah, as I just needed to collect myself.
Speaker 1: I got back on into the zoom and then she
Speaker 1: came into the beauty bar, which which is where I
Speaker 1: was doing the zoom from, and she said what happened?
Speaker 1: And I had to say it out loud, and She's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: you're leaving, You're going home. I'm going to walk you home.
Speaker 1: And I'm getting a little emotional now because I don't
Speaker 1: think if she had done that, I think I would
Speaker 1: have just kept powering through that day. But it was
Speaker 1: really I just couldn't believe and I knew that it
Speaker 1: was stage one and it was all that was curable,
Speaker 1: and I was in New York City and the best
Speaker 1: city in the world for medicine. But you think you're
Speaker 1: invincible and then that happens, and it was. It has
Speaker 1: been a journey, and I have not been as open
Speaker 1: about it, not because I'm not open. I'm an open book,
Speaker 1: but I think I've also had to behind the scenes
Speaker 1: deal with having surgery, having treatment, getting ontomoxifen, which is
Speaker 1: the absolute worst medicine in the world, but it's a lifesaver.
Speaker 1: Then having so many complications from breast cancer and the
Speaker 1: medicine likely that led me to have a hysterectomy, a
Speaker 1: full hysterectomy in January of this year. And if I
Speaker 1: thought I needed help when I was going through the
Speaker 1: breast cancer, boy, what did I underestimate what kind of
Speaker 1: help I was going to need when I had a
Speaker 1: full hysterectomy. And coming from someone who never had children, unfortunately,
Speaker 1: you know, I never I didn't have any of that
Speaker 1: sort of like what happens when your body goes through trauma.
Speaker 1: So that has been May of twenty twenty two, that's
Speaker 1: when I was diagnosed and then I had my full
Speaker 1: hysterectomy January, and I would say, I'm still on the
Speaker 1: on the journey.
Speaker 2: Do you think that you've had to adjust the way
Speaker 2: you think about your work, your impact, your time as
Speaker 2: you've been recovering and gone through these different phases. Yes,
Speaker 2: and no.
Speaker 1: I don't think my focus and my drive and my
Speaker 1: determination are different, but how I do it is. And
Speaker 1: I think the hysterectomy. If you had asked any of
Speaker 1: my team when I was going through the breast cancer
Speaker 1: and all that I don't think they would have said
Speaker 1: that there was a huge change because I just sort
Speaker 1: of got on with it and I kind of managed
Speaker 1: things around it. When the doctor told my surgeon told
Speaker 1: me that I was going to have to take at
Speaker 1: least six weeks to eight weeks for recovery for the hysterectomy,
Speaker 1: I just said, no, that's got to be a joke.
Speaker 1: That's a long time. And I had to mentally come
Speaker 1: to the grips with it. I needed to let go
Speaker 1: and this was going to be not a huge opportunity
Speaker 1: for me and the team, and they just were incredible.
Speaker 1: They have been incredible and continue to be incredible, and
Speaker 1: so for me that almost the entire month of January,
Speaker 1: it did not do one video. I did a few zooms,
Speaker 1: but I really and I told people, I'm on short
Speaker 1: term medical leave and this is who's handling things in
Speaker 1: the team. And I really had to let go of that,
Speaker 1: and I think it was one of the best things
Speaker 1: that I could have done as a leader for me,
Speaker 1: but also for my team, because oh did they shine
Speaker 1: and they continue to and I saw that when I
Speaker 1: was going through COVID and we were all at home
Speaker 1: and we got to see different strengths from our team members,
Speaker 1: and I think I temporarily forgot that that people really
Speaker 1: can step up to the plate and shine and if
Speaker 1: you give them the opportunity. So that's really what's come
Speaker 1: out of this for me, and not holding on so
Speaker 1: tightly to every single thing just because it's my company
Speaker 1: and really allowing people to have wings and sort of
Speaker 1: take flight and own it. Yeah, there's opportunity, but it's
Speaker 1: hard for people to do, especially when they found company
Speaker 1: and continue to run it. Yes, and I think I've
Speaker 1: learned a lot too.
Speaker 2: I also learned.
Speaker 1: I think that it is really important outside of work
Speaker 1: to lean on the people that love you. And I
Speaker 1: think I've always preached that right so to my family
Speaker 1: and to friends, like lean on me, lean on me,
Speaker 1: and I don't think I ever really practiced what I preached.
Speaker 1: And this was a great exercise. If you will on,
Speaker 1: you have to lean on the people that are around you,
Speaker 1: and you have to ask for help and you tell
Speaker 1: everyone that, but you're not doing it. So start role modeling, Kate.
Speaker 1: So that was a wake up call for me too.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Around the time of your Hysteric d Mags, a
Speaker 2: little bit after you had written on your Instagram that
Speaker 2: you were angry, that you were angry that the organ
Speaker 2: that you had never gotten to use to have kids
Speaker 2: was now the thing that was making you sick.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it still makes me angry because I think there's
Speaker 1: obviously a societal thing that says, like, women, you're here
Speaker 1: to pro create and to have a family. And I have,
Speaker 1: you know, brothers. I have a brother on each side.
Speaker 1: I have ten incredible nieces and nephews who I love,
Speaker 1: and so I always wanted to have a family. I
Speaker 1: really it was such a big part of what at
Speaker 1: some point I was going to be able to do.
Speaker 1: And when I wasn't successful, I beat the shit out
Speaker 1: of myself. Right, I can be successful at every single thing,
Speaker 1: but I can't do this and my body won't work.
Speaker 1: And so fast forward I went. I mean, I went
Speaker 1: through a lot of IBF and then to have to
Speaker 1: find out that they're going to take everything that that
Speaker 1: sort of like makes you a woman. That didn't work
Speaker 1: on me. I didn't think it was going to be
Speaker 1: a big deal. Emily, I didn't. And then it just
Speaker 1: hit me one night that I had to grieve something
Speaker 1: that I could never do. But it still felt like
Speaker 1: a loss and how that is. And I know that's
Speaker 1: you know, we get into that and there's lots of
Speaker 1: people that have way worse things. But I just felt
Speaker 1: in that moment when I posted that I am angry
Speaker 1: because something that I wanted so badly in my life
Speaker 1: was enabled could happen. And now even though I the
Speaker 1: doctors had always told me after the IVF, I was
Speaker 1: not going to be able to be successful, I think
Speaker 1: once they take it out, it's like, well then it's
Speaker 1: really never going to happen. Not that it was going
Speaker 1: to happen anyway, but it was just cemented that. And
Speaker 1: I'm still grieving that because it's it's a hard thing
Speaker 1: to go through and by the way, it puts you
Speaker 1: an immediate menopause and that's also you know, terrible. So
Speaker 1: it's it's just a lot to deal with and emotionally
Speaker 1: and mentally, and I think for me cathartic to just
Speaker 1: share that on Instagram or even here, because I don't,
Speaker 1: you know, there's definitely still a lot of anger in there.
Speaker 1: And I the more I share, the better I feel.
Speaker 1: And the other thing is the more I share, kind
Speaker 1: of like what we were talking about the beginning this
Speaker 1: group therapy, Like the more I share or I really
Speaker 1: open my heart and my eyes to listen to others
Speaker 1: about their experiences, and I learned so much.
Speaker 2: You know, often at this point in the interview, I
Speaker 2: would ask somebody to maybe like how they got through it,
Speaker 2: But I don't think that's a fair question to ask
Speaker 2: you right now. You're in it and like you're still
Speaker 2: having these waves of anger, maybe angry all the time.
Speaker 2: So how do you move through life with these big emotions?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 1: One is I always have something that I am focused
Speaker 1: on professionally and personally, right so I'm a goal oriented person.
Speaker 1: I always have something, and so for me, a little
Speaker 1: bit of is it And I'm again I'm not I'm
Speaker 1: not saying this is the best way, but I want
Speaker 1: to kind of just like move on, get on with it,
Speaker 1: and keep going because it will get better. I have
Speaker 1: learned in this kind of moment. Is my boyfriend Joe,
Speaker 1: who is amazing, would say, you know, you're all a boss,
Speaker 1: and he doesn't mean that in a negative way, but
Speaker 1: he's like, you're so tough and you have to let
Speaker 1: open yourself up. So part of me is still trying
Speaker 1: to figure out how to do that. I do that
Speaker 1: with my mom, my poor mom, every day. But that
Speaker 1: helps me move on. And also knowing that I have
Speaker 1: remarkable team and I have remarkable friends that if I
Speaker 1: need them, I can call on them, and even if
Speaker 1: I don't call on them, just knowing that they're there.
Speaker 1: But the other is I've got all these people in
Speaker 1: my community watching me, and I have nieces, and I
Speaker 1: want them to know it's okay to be honest about
Speaker 1: how we're feeling and that life is shitty sometimes and
Speaker 1: that we have to ask for help. So as an entrepreneur,
Speaker 1: you know, we have this emotional rollercoaster of like the
Speaker 1: terrible highs and lows. I think as humans we have that,
Speaker 1: and I just have to embrace both of them, because
Speaker 1: if you try to fight the lows all the time,
Speaker 1: I think you just get stuck in it even more.
Speaker 1: And so I have good days and bad days. I
Speaker 1: have good hours and bad hours, and that's really how
Speaker 1: I just kind of move I'm learning to move through it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a very real answer. You've referenced something that
Speaker 2: I think over the course of interview, something that I
Speaker 2: think about a lot is redefining success for myself at
Speaker 2: different points in my life. How do you think you're
Speaker 2: defining your success for yourself right now at this point.
Speaker 1: Doing my best every day. You know, I tell my
Speaker 1: team all the time, we're never going to make everybody happy,
Speaker 1: and it's hard to run a company and whatever job
Speaker 1: you're in. I think if you go to work every
Speaker 1: day or show up in your personal life every day
Speaker 1: with the best intentions and giving it your all, and
Speaker 1: it sounds kind of like a TV commercial from the eighties,
Speaker 1: but that's how I was raised, and I think at
Speaker 1: forty nine, so much of how I was raised is
Speaker 1: really being reinforced now that I'm in that sort of
Speaker 1: you know, my mid life and my definition of success
Speaker 1: really now changes kind of daily. It changes in the
Speaker 1: way that if I had a really great conversation with
Speaker 1: an employee, too, I had a productive conversation with you know,
Speaker 1: my boyfriend too, I had an impactful dialogue about, you know,
Speaker 1: supporting someone's journey through menopause or loss or getting a promotion.
Speaker 1: So for me, it's it used to be. It used
Speaker 1: to be just everything about my career, and that is
Speaker 1: definitely still me and I own that and I love
Speaker 1: that part of me.
Speaker 2: But I can do that.
Speaker 1: I can still be relentless on my career and everything
Speaker 1: we're trying to build by also having a life and
Speaker 1: really embracing the love that I have in it.
Speaker 2: That's so beautiful. What is one thing that at the
Speaker 2: time you saw as being like a negative or a
Speaker 2: setbacker really a low, and now in retrospect you see
Speaker 2: it's having really launched you into the success you.
Speaker 1: Are right now. So I really when I when I
Speaker 1: decided to do the sort of leave banking, and I
Speaker 1: kind of sort of say it was like a temporary
Speaker 1: exit because you never know and never say never. But
Speaker 1: for about two months, I was really in a state
Speaker 1: of depression. And I think this is important for people
Speaker 1: that are going through transition. Whether you've been part of
Speaker 1: a job for production or you've made the choice to
Speaker 1: do something different and you're kind of figuring it out.
Speaker 1: It's really lonely because everybody else is at work and
Speaker 1: you're making this huge decision and everyone's going this is
Speaker 1: so inspiring and amazing, and I can't believe you're doing this,
Speaker 1: and you're feeling like, oh my god, what did I do?
Speaker 1: And I really felt that I was really depressed and
Speaker 1: I didn't know what to do. And no one knew that.
Speaker 1: Nobody knew that except for my boyfriend and my mom
Speaker 1: and maybe a few close friends, but very few. And
Speaker 1: I was so tied and tied up into my identity,
Speaker 1: which was work. And it was really like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: I don't have this thing that has defined me for
Speaker 1: twenty years, and now I've totally redefined that for myself.
Speaker 1: And I didn't even know that that's what I was
Speaker 1: going to do. And so I just think of myself
Speaker 1: those almost two months sitting in my bathroom of my
Speaker 1: apartment and thinking what did I do? I just blew
Speaker 1: up my life in lots of different reasons and ways.
Speaker 1: And now I look back and said I had to
Speaker 1: go through that because now I can be a better advocate,
Speaker 1: I can be a better leader, manager, founder, because now
Speaker 1: I can put myself in the shoes of different people before.
Speaker 1: I don't think I think I've said I could do that,
Speaker 1: and I don't truly think I could have. There's so
Speaker 1: much now on social media, and there's so much and
Speaker 1: we can create these great brands and personal brands and stories.
Speaker 1: But I truly feel like every day that I show up,
Speaker 1: I'm honest and I'm open and I'm direct and sort
Speaker 1: of what you see is what you get, and that's
Speaker 1: me and I'm okay with that. And someone doesn't like it.
Speaker 1: They don't like get One of my old bosses said,
Speaker 1: not everybody's gonna like you, but hopefully they respect you.
Speaker 1: And so I think whoever's listening, whoever out there, is
Speaker 1: like just own who you are, whether you're twenty five
Speaker 1: or forty nine or seventy whatever it is. And so
Speaker 1: for me, it's like, I am tough, I am relentless,
Speaker 1: I am I'm not as emotionally in touch with myself
Speaker 1: as I should be. I don't have a skincare regime,
Speaker 1: and that's okay because that's who I am, and I'm
Speaker 1: pretty happy with that.
Speaker 2: Kate, thank you so much for joining. She pivots so
Speaker 2: good to have you on.
Speaker 1: Likewise, I'm so happy to be here and it's so
Speaker 1: good to see your face too.
Speaker 2: No, I know this just flew right by. Kate and
Speaker 2: Luminary are still in New York City, so if you're
Speaker 2: in the area, consider joining in person to truly tap
Speaker 2: into the magic of her community. You can visit their
Speaker 2: website we are luminary dot com to learn more. For
Speaker 2: more on Kate. You can follow her on Instagram at
Speaker 2: Kate Luzio. Thanks for listening. Thanks for listening to this
Speaker 2: episode of she Pivots. I hope you enjoyed it, and
Speaker 2: if you did, leave us a rating and tell your
Speaker 2: friends about us. To learn more about our guests, follow
Speaker 2: us on Instagram at she pivots the Podcast, or sign
Speaker 2: up for our newsletter, where you can get exclusive behind
Speaker 2: the scenes content on our website at she pivots thepodcast
Speaker 2: dot com. Special thanks to the she pivots team, Executive
Speaker 2: producer Emily eda Velosik, Associate producer and social media connoisseur
Speaker 2: Hannah Cousins, Research director Christine Dickinson, Events and logistics coordinator
Speaker 2: Madeline Snovak, and audio editor and mixer Nina Pollock. I
Speaker 2: en yours she Pivots