Speaker 1: Hello Sunshine, Hey, fam Today, on the bright Side, entrepreneur,
Speaker 1: business strategist and author Kathleen Griffith is here to share
Speaker 1: her blueprint for creating a business and a life that
Speaker 1: you love. It's Wednesday, June fifth. I'm Simone Voice.
Speaker 2: I'm Danielle Robe and this is the bright Side from
Speaker 2: Hello Sunshine.
Speaker 1: Okay, Danielle, grab your bougie bookmark, grab your coffee or
Speaker 1: drink of choice, and get comfy. Okay, because the June
Speaker 1: Reese's Book Club pick has just been announced, so we
Speaker 1: are going to share it with y'all. Right now, Okay,
Speaker 1: this month's pick is The Unwedding by Ali Condy. Okay.
Speaker 2: If you like thrillers, if you like suspense and murder
Speaker 2: mysteries like I do, please check.
Speaker 1: Look check check check is right.
Speaker 2: Please look no further, because I'm telling you this book
Speaker 2: is for you. It follows Ellery Wainwright, a recently divorced
Speaker 2: woman who finds herself alone at a luxurious resort at
Speaker 2: Broken Point in Big Sur, California.
Speaker 1: I'm there, I'm already there in my mind.
Speaker 2: It's giving big little lies. I'm not gonna lie. So
Speaker 2: she should have been celebrating her twentieth wedding anniversary.
Speaker 1: But that's not happening.
Speaker 2: And to add insult to injury, the resort is hosting
Speaker 2: a wedding and Ellery gets the surprise of her life
Speaker 2: when she discovers the groom's body floating in the resorts pool.
Speaker 1: I just love a wedding thriller, a wedding murder mystery.
Speaker 1: There's something about the inherent chaos of a wedding, bridal parties,
Speaker 1: warring factions, because we all know that under the surface
Speaker 1: of a wedding is a whole lot of drama. So
Speaker 1: it makes sense that somebody has to die.
Speaker 2: I don't know that yet, have not been married, but
Speaker 2: we'll see TBD.
Speaker 1: This sounds so juicy. Ali's written a ton of books.
Speaker 1: You may know her as the author of the number
Speaker 1: one New York Times best selling Matched series. So good. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so maybe that was ringing a bell. She also started
Speaker 1: a nonprofit called the Write Out Foundation, and they run
Speaker 1: writing camps for rural teens. How cool is that? That
Speaker 1: is so cool and so important.
Speaker 2: I'm not trying to get like all intents here, but
Speaker 2: I was just listening to a podcast about how important
Speaker 2: it is for kids, in particular to learn how to
Speaker 2: write because it allows them to express themselves and their
Speaker 2: emotions later, especially in relationships and at work.
Speaker 1: Yes, that's so true. I'm not a rural teen, but hey,
Speaker 1: maybe there's a chance for me at one of these
Speaker 1: writing camps. It sounds amazing.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, I love a thriller. I cannot wait
Speaker 2: to read this one. I'm also super interested in how
Speaker 2: authors craft a mystery. So stay tuned because we get
Speaker 2: Ali here with us. We're going to ask her all
Speaker 2: the questions, all the questions about our process. I'm picturing
Speaker 2: a Homeland style map that she has at home, with
Speaker 2: strings connecting the different characters and plot points, m index cards,
Speaker 2: a lot of post it notes.
Speaker 1: You love post it notes. It's part of the lifestyle.
Speaker 1: It just it is what it is, all right, y'all.
Speaker 1: So up next, Kathleen Griffith shares her biggest piece of
Speaker 1: advice for people thinking about starting a business. This one's
Speaker 1: really good. Plus she tells us what it means to
Speaker 1: build like a woman. Build like a woman.
Speaker 2: It's right after the break.
Speaker 1: We are back talking about one of our favorite topics
Speaker 1: here on the bright side, entrepreneurship and how to build
Speaker 1: a business doing something that you truly love. But in
Speaker 1: order to do that, you've got to take that first step. Danielle,
Speaker 1: maybe you can relate to this, maybe you can't. But
Speaker 1: I've often felt like, man, I have all these great ideas,
Speaker 1: but I just get stuck, or we've been in a
Speaker 1: job sometimes, or we're not excited about it, and then
Speaker 1: we don't know how to go about creating something more meaningful.
Speaker 2: Everything you said could not be more true. And our
Speaker 2: guest today is an expert in building, in building a life,
Speaker 2: and in building a business. Kathleen Griffith is an award
Speaker 2: winning entrepreneur, business strategist, and the author of the newly
Speaker 2: released book Build Like a Woman, The Blueprint for creating
Speaker 2: a business and a life you love. Kathleen, Welcome to
Speaker 2: the bright Side.
Speaker 3: I'm so glad to be here because you know, I
Speaker 3: love building a bright life and i love building a
Speaker 3: big life.
Speaker 2: So I've come to the right place. That's what we're
Speaker 2: going to talk about today. Big and bright.
Speaker 1: Yes, let's get into your big and bright origin story
Speaker 1: because I think a lot of women can relate to
Speaker 1: what you were doing before you started your first company.
Speaker 1: You were working in marketing as a director for a
Speaker 1: big agency. So can you take us into your life
Speaker 1: before you broke off and founded your own marketing consultancy
Speaker 1: called Grace and Company.
Speaker 3: The story doesn't feel particularly special in that I did
Speaker 3: all the right things or that I thought that I
Speaker 3: should do. I went and got the right job, I
Speaker 3: got the right home, and I was doing everything that
Speaker 3: I just felt like I was expected to do. You know,
Speaker 3: you work eighty hour weeks, you work nights and weekends,
Speaker 3: You walk into meetings where you know, you kind of
Speaker 3: pass your work off to someone else who invariably takes
Speaker 3: the credit for that work. And the more and more
Speaker 3: I kind of marched into that life, the more burned
Speaker 3: out I felt. You know, I knew I was underpaid
Speaker 3: for what I was contributing. And I remember I went
Speaker 3: to grab pizza with a friend one night in New
Speaker 3: York City. It was one of those rainy nights, and
Speaker 3: I was eating what's called the Shroomtown pizza, So it
Speaker 3: was four different types of mushrooms, and I had treffle
Speaker 3: sauce shmeared all of my face and they looked at
Speaker 3: me deadpan and said, like, you look kind of like
Speaker 3: a ghost. You just look so washed out. There's not
Speaker 3: a whole lot of life in you. I was kind
Speaker 3: of drowning myself in the pizza, which there's nothing wrong
Speaker 3: with the pizza, but for all the wrong reasons. And
Speaker 3: I decided, you know, instead of taking a cab to
Speaker 3: walk home that night, and the lights were just reflecting
Speaker 3: off the pavement and I walked I think it was
Speaker 3: something like forty blocks home, and I had this quote
Speaker 3: that just kept reverberating in my head, which was from
Speaker 3: Tamra Keeves.
Speaker 1: She was a Harvard professor.
Speaker 3: I'd just been to one of her workshops, and it was,
Speaker 3: if you are this successful doing what you don't love,
Speaker 3: imagine how successful you'd be doing what you do love.
Speaker 3: And that haunted me in the best possible way and
Speaker 3: did not leave my mind until I left that job,
Speaker 3: that relationship, those friends. I honestly left it all like
Speaker 3: I burned my whole life to the ground to start again,
Speaker 3: destruction as a means for creation. So it was painful.
Speaker 3: But here we are, Simone.
Speaker 1: She did a bless We talk about blowing up your
Speaker 1: life on this show. It's just it's what the doctor
Speaker 1: orders every few months years. The actual time frame is
Speaker 1: up to you.
Speaker 3: That's so right, and I think there are people who
Speaker 3: actually that is their creative process. There are those who
Speaker 3: it's not. But for those who it is, like, yep,
Speaker 3: you're going to keep destroying and creating and on and on.
Speaker 3: I call it breakdowns and breakthroughs. Like you break down,
Speaker 3: you break through, you break ground, You break down, you
Speaker 3: break through, you break downd Oh.
Speaker 1: I like that, you break down, you break through, you
Speaker 1: break ground. So what gave you the confidence to know
Speaker 1: that there was a space for your ideas after you
Speaker 1: had that breakthrough?
Speaker 3: The revelation I really had was if I was feeling
Speaker 3: this way and I happened to work in marketing, if
Speaker 3: I was feeling this invisible and unseen and burned out
Speaker 3: and like no one really spoke to me or saw me,
Speaker 3: that there had to be other women who felt the
Speaker 3: same way. And so initially my consultancy was focused on
Speaker 3: doing just that. We were going to help brands talk
Speaker 3: to women like they were actually people, not like a
Speaker 3: target that needed to be served, and not like a
Speaker 3: group that needed to be sold something. Because I just
Speaker 3: did not want to engineer more kind of insecurity. I
Speaker 3: wanted to be part of something that would ideally inspire
Speaker 3: women to take the reins of their own lives.
Speaker 2: So you've helped fortune five hundred companies authentically market to women.
Speaker 2: Some of those brands were Nike, Correct any other brands
Speaker 2: that stick out to you.
Speaker 3: We've worked across a lot of categories of Verizon, NBC Sports, Bacardi, Gray, Goose, Maserati, Google, Yeah,
Speaker 3: a lot of the big guys huge so gals.
Speaker 2: Well, when you think about marketing to women authentically for
Speaker 2: people listening who are starting a business or have started
Speaker 2: a business, what do you say.
Speaker 3: I would say the most important thing is to find
Speaker 3: an enemy. So, no matter how small you are as
Speaker 3: a brand, there needs to be something that you want
Speaker 3: to push up against in the world, something that you
Speaker 3: want to take on. So that could be, for example,
Speaker 3: you don't believe in toxic household products and you want
Speaker 3: to rid the world of that, or you believe that
Speaker 3: families should be able to connect more over conversation, whatever
Speaker 3: it might be. Finding really finding an enemy and then
Speaker 3: bravely calling that out in the world and pushing up
Speaker 3: against that is I think what takes you from a
Speaker 3: generic place to a wildly specific and intentional place.
Speaker 2: I'm always kind of amazed by your vulnerability when it
Speaker 2: comes to talking about work because a lot of people
Speaker 2: in general, but particularly women, I think, have a hard
Speaker 2: time admitting a failure or they did something wrong because
Speaker 2: it's so much harder for us to fail and continue
Speaker 2: in society. You're big on failure. You say it loud,
Speaker 2: you say it proud. So in the spirit of failing
Speaker 2: big and proudly, is there something that you feel like
Speaker 2: you failed at that made you better, something you're grateful
Speaker 2: you experienced.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I still think of myself as a novice in business,
Speaker 3: like who comes out of the womb and knows what
Speaker 3: to do and how to do it?
Speaker 2: I was.
Speaker 3: I don't have family who've done this before. I don't
Speaker 3: have a lot of friends or didn't at least when
Speaker 3: I started, who'd done it before. So I almost think
Speaker 3: of myself as like a baby who's driving a car,
Speaker 3: and like you wouldn't expect a baby to know what
Speaker 3: they're you know, I'm hitting fire hydrants, I'm like jumping
Speaker 3: the curb. The car is all dinged up. But like
Speaker 3: to expect perfectionism is which I did initially, is just
Speaker 3: it's so impossible. You're setting yourself up for this like
Speaker 3: impossible thing that's way too stressful on top of what
Speaker 3: is already a stressful situation. The biggest failure that I
Speaker 3: had was when I had to lay off my whole team.
Speaker 3: I was going through actually something in my personal life
Speaker 3: and I just couldn't hack it. I just had to
Speaker 3: shutter my doors for a minute because it was so
Speaker 3: consuming at the time. And that was a really low
Speaker 3: moment to look in their eyes and tell them I
Speaker 3: actually didn't have what it took to lead them in
Speaker 3: that moment.
Speaker 1: What do you think was the learning from that?
Speaker 3: The learning was that I am an incredibly resilient human
Speaker 3: and I during that time, Yeah, I discovered a lot
Speaker 3: of interesting things about yourself.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, mostly that you could keep going.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but I took a long pause that was longer
Speaker 3: than a sixty second clauset.
Speaker 2: So there's a big piece of advice that you have
Speaker 2: for people considering starting a business, and it's to start
Speaker 2: with the heart test.
Speaker 1: I've never heard of this. I think you made it up.
Speaker 3: I sure did, and you certainly won't find it in
Speaker 3: business school. It is not something that you know. That
Speaker 3: is how we tend to create in our society, which
Speaker 3: is all about the head, right, everything's very rational very
Speaker 3: left brain, very cerebral. What's the white space and what's
Speaker 3: the potential? ROI but I love this because it is
Speaker 3: a way for you kind of put something in your heart.
Speaker 3: You've got an idea for a business. Right So for
Speaker 3: anyone who's listening right now, just imagine an idea, something
Speaker 3: that's just been sitting on your heart, and I want
Speaker 3: you to run it through your heart and it should
Speaker 3: do one of two things. It should either break your
Speaker 3: heart or it should light your heart on fire. Break
Speaker 3: your heart meaning it makes you just feel angry, frustrated, disappointed,
Speaker 3: your blood is kind of boiling over this particular idea.
Speaker 3: Or light your heart on fire in that you're so
Speaker 3: passionate about this idea, You're so excited, You've got heart palpitations,
Speaker 3: your heart is fluttering, you can't wait to drive after it.
Speaker 3: What is not a good idea and is not worth
Speaker 3: something or at least is something that you should then
Speaker 3: go back to the drawing board on is if you
Speaker 3: feel neutral or kind of ambivalent because you're just ultimately
Speaker 3: not going to be able to go the distance in
Speaker 3: your business. This requires heart above head.
Speaker 2: Does what did your heart test tell you when you
Speaker 2: started Gracing company.
Speaker 3: I was broken at that point, having worked in corporate.
Speaker 3: Now I'm this kind of broken shell of a person.
Speaker 3: Humpty dumpty on her back. How do I put myself
Speaker 3: together again? And so starting that business, my first business
Speaker 3: was really again just a desire for me to feel better,
Speaker 3: for more women to feel better. And I was really
Speaker 3: angry also at the time. You know the number one
Speaker 3: regret on people's desk beds.
Speaker 1: Guess what it is.
Speaker 3: I lived a life that others wanted for me instead
Speaker 3: of the one that I wanted for myself. And so
Speaker 3: here you are.
Speaker 1: This.
Speaker 3: How did I construct all of this with so much
Speaker 3: effort and energy? And it is absolutely not the suit
Speaker 3: I want to be wearing, not the life I want
Speaker 3: to lead.
Speaker 1: Well, I love your hard tests. I think it's brilliant.
Speaker 1: And when I hear you say heart, I also hear purpose,
Speaker 1: I hear calling, and I think that that's something that
Speaker 1: comes from your soul as opposed to a cerebral place.
Speaker 1: So I couldn't agree more. All right, we've got to
Speaker 1: take a quick break, but we'll be right back with
Speaker 1: the entrepreneur and strategist Kathleen Griffith.
Speaker 2: And we're back with Kathleen Griffith. So, Kathleen, your book
Speaker 2: is called Build Like a Woman. I'm going to ask
Speaker 2: the most obvious question, what does that mean?
Speaker 1: What does it mean to build like a woman? So
Speaker 1: to be a.
Speaker 3: Builder, in my view, is to be a woman who
Speaker 3: has a vision, has a really distinct, clear vision for
Speaker 3: what you want to create, and it is someone who
Speaker 3: intentionally deliberately steps into realizing that vision as best they
Speaker 3: can every day.
Speaker 1: You lay out what you call golden tools for entrepreneurs
Speaker 1: in your book. You've got the bacon take tests, you've
Speaker 1: got nailed it, risk and reward, hard hat hair, and
Speaker 1: the outrageous ask. I mean, first of all, names are incredible,
Speaker 1: love it so good? But can you break down one
Speaker 1: or two that most entrepreneurs tend to overlook?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean we're grown women, we're having fun. Why
Speaker 3: not have some fun with us too? So the book
Speaker 3: is really broken into two pieces. It's half mindset and
Speaker 3: half skill set. So how do you get your mind
Speaker 3: right when you're going to construct a business? And then
Speaker 3: what are those tangible skills that you need to be
Speaker 3: really good at building a successful company? Sprinkled throughout or
Speaker 3: what you're talking about are golden tools, which are my
Speaker 3: favorite tried and true techniques kind of hacks to supercharge success.
Speaker 3: And I discovered them as I was building. I was
Speaker 3: kind of playing around and then you'd stumble upon something
Speaker 3: and be like, wow, this thing.
Speaker 1: Really really works.
Speaker 3: I should share this with more people, I'd start. Let's
Speaker 3: start with risk and reward. We can do two kind
Speaker 3: of fun light ones. So risk and reward is based
Speaker 3: on the idea that we are hard wired to work
Speaker 3: for reward, so our brains release the feel good neurotransmitter
Speaker 3: dopamine when we get a reward. We are pleasure seeking
Speaker 3: people and we want things that we can touch, taste, feel, smell,
Speaker 3: besides something that's intangible like money, which just goes into
Speaker 3: your bank account. And so what I like to do
Speaker 3: here is you tether a goal. So everyone right now
Speaker 3: can just think about a goal that they have something
Speaker 3: that's really important to youkay, and then you put something
Speaker 3: else on the line. This is you reward that you
Speaker 3: really want, and I'm talking really want, really really really want,
Speaker 3: like in your bones. It's going to motivate you. So
Speaker 3: for me, you know, one of one of my first
Speaker 3: goals just to share when I was starting my business
Speaker 3: was I wanted to land a seven figure client that
Speaker 3: was really important to me when I was just starting out,
Speaker 3: and I finally did, and the reward I told myself
Speaker 3: I would treat myself too at the time was this
Speaker 3: love bracelet, which I really wanted but I would never
Speaker 3: get for myself. I'd never splurge on it. And so
Speaker 3: when I landed this business, I was out in California
Speaker 3: doing some consulting. I flew my mom out spontaneously. I
Speaker 3: was like, Mom, get on a plane. We're going to Napa.
Speaker 3: And we drove around. We had bathrobes on. We were
Speaker 3: in this convertible just having the time of our lives
Speaker 3: rippen around. We ran into there was a cardier there
Speaker 3: got the bracelet. I told all the women in the
Speaker 3: store this story, and they were then sharing their dreams
Speaker 3: and what goals they were going to chase down. And
Speaker 3: it was the most electrifying experience because there's something that
Speaker 3: happens also when you're in the midst of celebrating your win.
Speaker 3: You kind of breathe these magical crystals of possibility into
Speaker 3: someone else's lungs, like you watch them light up through it.
Speaker 1: And you said, there was one more that you wanted
Speaker 1: to do.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is my favorite you guys, this is so good.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm wondering where you're going. Is it hard hat hair? No,
Speaker 2: it's hard to say fast. I know you really can't
Speaker 2: write hard hat hair. Did a good job, but gun
Speaker 2: tripped up on that a few times. So this is
Speaker 2: called dundunta the outrageous ask.
Speaker 3: So the outrageous ask is a basic ask, something that
Speaker 3: you want, ramped up to the tenth exponent. So you
Speaker 3: basically imagine something some ask that you want to make
Speaker 3: to someone and you Now, what makes it so interest
Speaker 3: indifferent is that you take it to this very extreme place,
Speaker 3: like you have to demonstrate to the person that you
Speaker 3: are willing to humiliate yourself, embarrass yourself, go to extreme
Speaker 3: efforts and time, you are willing to do whatever it
Speaker 3: takes to make this thing you want come true. You
Speaker 3: just need their participation. So it's an enrollment and it
Speaker 3: should do one of two things. When someone gets one,
Speaker 3: they should think to themselves, who does she think she is?
Speaker 3: Or is she crazy? Like you need to seem certifiably
Speaker 3: crazy when you send this thing out. So for me,
Speaker 3: just to give one example, I was watching I was
Speaker 3: on the plane coming home and I was watching Becoming
Speaker 3: Warren Buffett. Have you seen that movie?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 3: It's a must watch everyone, And so I sent his office.
Speaker 3: I just spontaneously send his office a message, and I
Speaker 3: asked if I could take Warren on his daily drive through.
Speaker 3: He gets an egg McMuffin every morning. I said, can
Speaker 3: I fly to Omaha, Nebraska and go with Warren through
Speaker 3: the drive through? And I got a respond and his
Speaker 3: assistant said, I shared this with mister Buffett and he
Speaker 3: got such a kick out of your hutzpah. And it's
Speaker 3: not a no, but it's just a not now. So
Speaker 3: I'm still following up on that one.
Speaker 2: That's a great one has need a moment to appreciate that.
Speaker 1: How fun? Right, So what's the purpose of the outrageous ask? Like,
Speaker 1: what do you think is the growth that comes from that?
Speaker 3: This is based on the idea that one ask can
Speaker 3: change the trajectory of your business and life. Like getting
Speaker 3: one person to come on board or one brand to
Speaker 3: come on board and do whatever it is. It has
Speaker 3: the possibility to change your entire life. And that's the
Speaker 3: magic of it. Like when I started my interview series,
Speaker 3: no one wanted to do it at first, and I
Speaker 3: went out to Jessica Alba I asked her to do it,
Speaker 3: and she did, and then once she did it, everyone
Speaker 3: else wanted to do it. She kind of opened the door.
Speaker 3: And again that came from me just being willing to
Speaker 3: take outrageous action and make this request to the world's.
Speaker 1: I love the spirit of this. It's just about getting
Speaker 1: outside of your comfort zone and being willing to take
Speaker 1: big swings and big risks. Yeah, the hope.
Speaker 3: And intention for this book is something that I'm loving
Speaker 3: right now, which is watching more women ask themselves like
Speaker 3: what do I want? What do I want? Not what
Speaker 3: does Aunt Sally want? Not does what does my dad want?
Speaker 3: Or my husband or my kids? Like what do I want?
Speaker 1: What is true to me?
Speaker 3: And that then means this often kind of unconventional, unusual
Speaker 3: life because it's unique to them. Like, I really believe
Speaker 3: that we all have within ourselves the ability to create
Speaker 3: something powerful while we're here. And I just I love
Speaker 3: and I'm so excited by the fact that more and
Speaker 3: more women have stopped building other people's dreams and have
Speaker 3: started building their own.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's a very bright side. Kathleen and cheers
Speaker 1: to nonlinear living Kathleen, thank you for sharing your time
Speaker 1: with us and teaching us that it's all possible to
Speaker 1: build and build like a woman.
Speaker 3: Thank you and thanks for being such inspiring builders. I'm
Speaker 3: inspired by both of you and what you're building.
Speaker 2: Kathleen Griffith is an award winning entrepreneur, business strategists, founder
Speaker 2: of the marketing consultancy Grayson Coe, and now the author
Speaker 2: of Build Like a Woman, The Blueprint for creating a
Speaker 2: business and a life you love. It's in bookstores now.
Speaker 1: We'll be back tomorrow with Olympic hurdler and sprinter Queen
Speaker 1: Harrison Clay to talk all about this summer's Olympics, empowering
Speaker 1: young girls through sports, and we'll find out how Airbnb
Speaker 1: literally changed her life.
Speaker 2: Listen and follow the bright Side on the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 2: Apple podcast Us, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: I'm Simone Boye. You can find me at Simone Boice
Speaker 1: on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 2: I'm Danielle Robe on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 1: That's r O b A. Y See you tomorrow, folks.
Speaker 1: Keep looking on the bright side.