Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 198. Jaclyn Johnson, Founder of Create & Cultivate, Entrepreneur & Investor

Transcript

198. Jaclyn Johnson, Founder of Create & Cultivate, Entrepreneur & Investor · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I always try to look at the failures as really
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: lessons and data points and moments of my life that
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: pushed me almost like a pinball into the right lane
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: to get to where I needed to be.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Hey, everybody, Emily Abadi here coming to you live from.
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: The Age Studio.
• 0:29
  Speaker 4: You are listening to Hurdle, a.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Wellness focused podcast where I connect with everyone from your
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: favorite athletes to top experts and industry CEOs about their
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: highest hies, toughest moments, and.
• 0:40
  Speaker 4: Everything in between.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: We all go through hurdles in life, and my goal
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: through these discussions is to empower you to better navigate
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: yours and move with intention so that you can stride
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: towards your own big potential and of course have some
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: fun along the way. For Episode one ninety eight, I
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: am chatting with Jacquelin Johnson. She's an entrepreneur, investor, best
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: selling author, and Can't Forget founder, the ultimate multi hyphen it.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: You may know Jacqueline as the founder of Create and Cultivate,
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: a cult favorite brand that's rooted in conversations, resources, events,
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: and community for female millennial entrepreneurs and small business owners.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: We chatted after the launch of her newest baby, New
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: Money ventures, a venture capital firm and brand incubator, and
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: let me tell you, I am feeling inspired to boss up.
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: In today's episode, Jacqueline.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: And I get into some of the nitty gritty when
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: it comes to investing Lingo, and in telling her story,
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: she offers up a lot of really practical career advice
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: for everything from navigating layoffs and contract work to making
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: a big pivot.
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: Speaking of pivots, she.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Also sheds some light on what it was like to
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: pivot an experiential marketing brand during the pandemic, and reflects
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: on the concept of work life balance aka if.
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: The two can really coexist.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: I feel like I am always getting questions about work
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: and navigating work relationships, which makes sense because let's be real,
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: this is a huge part of how so many of
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: us spend our time.
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: So I was so amped to have Jack on the show.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: She is such just a massively successful strong woman and
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: happy that she could dive into the ins and outs
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: and shed some insight on so many of the things
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: that you all are asking about on the regular DC.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: I am so excited to be coming for you in
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: just a few days. And La this is new to
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: the feed. I am looking at hosting a meet up,
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: perhaps on Saturday morning, April second, if you are interested,
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: if you would be down for this, I may.
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: Be looking at the West.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: Hollywood area, so hit me with a message. Always feel
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: free to email Hello at Hurdle dot us. We will
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: make it happen. It's going to be a good time. Also,
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: make sure you're following along with Hurdle over on social media.
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: It's over at Hurdle podcast.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: I personally Emily am over at Emily a body And
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: with that, let's get to hurdling.
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: Today.
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: I am sitting down with Jacqueline Johnson.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: She is a I feel like, do you hate being
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: called a serial entrepreneur?
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: Like, how does that make you feel? I don't hate
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: it because I feel like it's accurate. But it also
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: makes you sound like a serial killer, So I don't.
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: Know, okay.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: Serial entrepreneur, co founder of a new venture capital fund,
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  Speaker 2: New Money Ventures. She's also the founder of greet and Cultivate.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: She also has a podcast called work Party. How you
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: doing today, girl?
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  Speaker 3: I'm good. How are you? I'm excited to be here,
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: I'm excited to have you.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: We were just reminiscing about a campaign that we both
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: worked on. A few years ago, and it feels like
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: that was literally a decade ago because pandemic years from
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: four years ago.
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: Literally, it just like I've aged ten years since then.
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: I couldn't agree more so so crazy.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: So in this intro I just mentioned your new VC fund.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: Talk to me a little bit about what that's like.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, so it's super exciting.
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  Speaker 1: So I've an angel investing for the last ten years
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: and female founded companies like Away In, Chill House, Lived, Tinted, Ceremonia,
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: Crown Affair, et cetera. Mostly investing in my friends and
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  Speaker 1: people I believe in and products I.
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: Love, And really it was an evolution of that.
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  Speaker 1: You know, at Creighton Cultivate, which is a media company
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: for ambitious women, most well known for our large scale events,
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  Speaker 1: there were so many amazing conversations that we were all having,
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: but one thing that always was kind of top of
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: mind during these conversations was raising money. How do I
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: raise money? Where do I go to raise money? Why
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: should I raise money? All these things, and you know,
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: really create and Cultivate was where conversation and community intersected.
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  Speaker 1: But now moving into this new phase, it's really all
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: about capital. So new money ventures is a twenty million
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: dollar consumer fund. Folks on women led or women founded
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: companies that are disrupting different spaces or experiencing high growth
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: where we can bring obviously money to the table, but
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: also mentorship for these women to help grow, build, and
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: eventually sell their companies.
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  Speaker 2: You have never told anyone that before because it wasn't
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  Speaker 2: like that was perfectly packaged with like a little bow
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  Speaker 2: on top.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, yes, it's weird.
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  Speaker 1: After fifteen years of being an entrepreneur, you get very
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: good at your elevator pitch.
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: We love it, We love it well.
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  Speaker 2: There are many reasons why I wanted to sit down
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: with you today, and I'd be remiss if I didn't
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: say that, Like it's not the typical like founder exclusively
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: for a wellness based company or person that's like making
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: their name in the fitness industry like you and I
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: vibe on like a very as you kind of insinuated
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: with your elevator pitch like female entrepreneurship wavelength. And so
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: I'm excited to have you here today because I think
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: that we're going to be able to talk about and
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: address some topics in a way that maybe I haven't
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: done so or haven't had someone on the show that
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: was able to do so in such like a way
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: that felt digestible and helpful on the show. Before I
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: am going to jump with you back to your beginnings,
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: but before I do so, I want to you mentioned
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: the term angel investing, and I feel like people hear
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: that all the time. They're like, Oh, that sounds so jazzy,
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  Speaker 2: but have no idea what it is. So why don't
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: you just first school us a little bit and what
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  Speaker 2: that actually means to be an angel investor.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So, being an angel investor typically is where you
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  Speaker 1: write checks and it really can depend, but between ten
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: thousand and fifty thousand dollars, you're usually a high net
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  Speaker 1: worth individual or have money or expertise to kind of
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  Speaker 1: lend to these different companies.
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  Speaker 3: The reason why they call it an angel is because it's.
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  Speaker 1: An extremely risky investment and you're basically being an angel
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  Speaker 1: to the business by giving them this cash to then
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: go start their business or launch their brand or whatever
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  Speaker 1: it is. The expectation for getting a return on your
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: money is typically very low. You're getting in early so
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: that if there is an exit, you obviously are getting
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: a large piece of the pie. When it does happen,
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: but the likelihood, again, as I said, is very low.
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  Speaker 1: I try to tell people it's as risky as it gets,
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: and then there are those one one in a million
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: opportunities that happen as well. But you're essentially investing to
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: receive equity or a convertible note, or you know, a
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: chance for future equity in the business. So it's really
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: a check and an investment in the founder to help
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  Speaker 1: their company get started.
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  Speaker 2: So the reason to be an angel investor again, you
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  Speaker 2: reiterated the importance of these being people that you're excited
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  Speaker 2: about or perhaps friends or family, so you're doing it
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: in an effort to be helpful. But someone who hears
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  Speaker 2: that would be like, yeah, but if this is such
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: a high risk and there's like such a low chance
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  Speaker 2: that you're going to get anything back on this investment,
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  Speaker 2: then why do it at all?
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  Speaker 3: Oh?
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  Speaker 1: Exactly, I mean, And that is the reality. I think
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  Speaker 1: it's for me. The reason why I do it is
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  Speaker 1: I really believe in the women and the brands and
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  Speaker 1: the companies they're building.
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  Speaker 3: So I do hope for an.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: Exit, and I've had a few exits, like looking at
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  Speaker 1: a way luggage is a great exait ball you know,
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: I wrote a twelve thousand dollars check to Jen Rubio
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: before the company even really started, and now that's a
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: billion dollar business again one in a million chances, and
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  Speaker 1: that was my first investment, which is pretty wild. But
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  Speaker 1: that being said, you know, you're investing because you want
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: to see people build the businesses that you want to
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  Speaker 1: see in the world. You want to see the founders
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: you want to see in the boardroom. And that's really
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: why I do it, and I know I can be helpful
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  Speaker 1: to these companies. But if you're doing it as an
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  Speaker 1: investment strategy to make money, it's a bit risky. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: no riskier than investing in crypto or anything like that.
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  Speaker 3: But it is risky. But it is risky.
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  Speaker 4: Okay.
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  Speaker 2: So then the follow up question to this, everybody wants
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: to know how, So.
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: You don't just answer that in one sentence.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: Obviously this is going to be a conversation, but let's
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: bring it back. Talk to me about where you started
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: in your career, because it wasn't building, create, and cultivate,
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: that's for sure.
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  Speaker 3: No no, no, no, no, no, I'm a thousand years old.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: But yeah, So basically I started my career in editorial
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: and not in content, because content I don't even think
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: was a word that existed, but in magazine production.
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: So I was working at Conde Nass.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: I did the internship thing, I did the whole shebang,
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: and then essentially when I went to take a full
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: time job there, realized I couldn't sustain my lifestyle of
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: living in New York City on such a low salary.
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: Do you remember what you made at Conde Oh.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: My god, Well, I was an unpaid intern when back
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: when unpaid interns.
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: Were a thing for a very long time.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: And then I think the offer I got was eighteen
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: thousand dollars a year.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: My first editorial assistant salary, I want to say, was
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: thirty five thousand dollars a year.
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, why.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: Guild eighteen thousand dollars a year in New York City
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: not going to happen. So was bummed about that. I
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: tried to negotiate, they said no, and so ended up
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: taking a job again to date myself in at the
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: time a company that was specializing in word of mouth marketing,
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: which will eventually become social media marketing, but was the
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: early early days of like me going in on forums
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: and like linking products and like finding.
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: What would have influencers and all that good stuff.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: So I started in social media marketing in the early
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: early days at an agency called Attention. I worked there
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: for a long time developing the strategies for SA latter Bluefly,
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: some really amazing fashion and beauty clients, like literally setting
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: up their Facebook pages like a thousand years old before
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: business pages were a thing, So doing all that stuff,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: which was really fun.
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: I ended up moving on.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: To a different agency called I Crossing, which was focused
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: on SEO but had massive clients that I was creating
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: social media strategies for, like CBS, Mazda, things like that.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: And then eventually went in house at a company called
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: ic which is a holding company for brands that you
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: probably know, like Match dot com and now Tinder and
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: weather dot com and all these things. And I went
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: in house at a startup called Pronto dot com which
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: no longer exists, which was essentially an Amazon competitor. But
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: I worked under John Foley, who is now the former
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: CEO of Peloton. So worked under John for a long
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: time there doing social media. Eventually was transferred to Los
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: Angeles to work at city Search, which was a sister
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: brand I see, and then was let go during the
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: Great Recession and ended up on my path to entrepreneurship.
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: Wow, no jobs, She's had no jobs everyone. She just
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: started entrepreneurship right from the get go. I you know what,
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: it was interesting when you said that I was transferred
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: out West when that was all going on. I get
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: this question a lot from women that are interested in
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: taking different career paths and thinking about entrepreneurship when it
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: comes to location. Obviously, location during the pandemic kind of
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: a very different conversation than it used to be three
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: or four years ago. But when you got transferred, were
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: you excited and open to this or was that something
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: that you were a little bit hesitant about.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was definitely not something I was excited about. Basically,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: what started to happen was layoffs were starting to ripple
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: through IC, and then John essentially sat me down and said, look,
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: we're doing layoffs, but there is this opportunity in Los
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: Angeles at this company, same salary, same title. And I
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: was like, no, I live in New York. I'm a
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: New Yorker, Like this is this is who I am.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: And he was like, I think you have a big
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: opportunity to be a big fish in a small pond
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: in LA and I think it's a really great time
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: to move and just go out there and check it out.
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: And so I did. I ended up obviously, it was
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: like perfect timing, Like my lease was ending.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: I was like breaking up with a boyfriend, Like all
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: the stars aligned, and I ended up moving to Los Angeles,
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: and then obviously was promptly let go, which was not great.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: But really all of these moves and all of these
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: you know, sort of failing upward moments or what propelled
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: me into entrepreneurship, which I otherwise don't think I would
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: have done.
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: Can we talk about failing upward and that mentality and
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: how to get to that mentality, because getting let go,
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: regardless of if you feel as though it could be
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: something that is good for you at any time, is
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: really a thing difficult. How did you manage the stress
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: and the anxiety, the emotions that went hand in hand
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: with losing a piece of what was your identity at
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: the time.
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was a real night. I definitely did not
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: handle it well.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: I was crushed not only losing a job, but also
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: being in a new city where you have zero relationships,
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: in the entire industry at that point was around entertainment,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: of which I had zero experience in.
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: Was very humbling moment.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: So I think for me, I always try to look
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: at the failures as really lessons in data points and
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: moments in my life that pushed me almost like a
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: pinball into the right lane to get to where I
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: needed to be at the time they're happening, though, they're extremely.
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: Painful and not fun and not cool to talk.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: About, So you know, I didn't talk about getting laid
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: off for a very long time. I was like, really,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: I had a lot of shame and guilt around it
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: because I was always the successful one.
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: I was moving up in my career, I was doing
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: all the right things, and.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: Then to have that happen is obviously a punch in
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: the gut. That being said, I like to talk about
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: it now because it really is what set me up
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: to be on the path to be an entrepreneur, which
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: now looking back, you know, is really fascinating to be,
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: you know, in a completely different position, completely different world,
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: and being successful in that world. You know, I always
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: like to say rejections redirection in a lot of ways.
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: What did your parents do when you were growing up.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: So my parents are entrepreneurs and small business owners. They
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: they own a wholesale car business. Not sexy, not cool,
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: but as you know, for as long as I could remember,
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: I was in their office stuffing envelopes, helping my mom
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: balance her checkbook. So obviously was always surrounded by work
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: in life and obviously working parents who were building a
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: business together.
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: Who are building a business together.
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean you can hear it in just the
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: way that you shifted your mindset at that difficult time.
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: It was like without that kind of foundation and without
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: being exposed to that from a young age, it's hard
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: as someone that's young in their career to think to
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: themselves like, Okay, what can I do with this right now?
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: Absolutely? Yeah, And my mom has been pivotal.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: I always jokingly and even in my book dedicated to
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: her my unofficial co founder of all my companies, because
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: she really was the one.
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: That pushed me through told me to keep going.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: You know, it was very helpful when it came to
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: things I wouldn't know in terms of financial stuff, especially
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: at the beginning, and you need that person like to
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: tell you to keep going. You know, it's very challenging
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: to be an entrepreneur, Like it's no joke, you know.
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: I forget who said this vice.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: I watched something I think it was like on TikTok,
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: but it was like, what advice would you give to
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: an entrepreneur to have them keep going? And it was like,
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: if you need advice to keep going, you shouldn't be
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: an entrepreneur. And I thought that was really powerful because
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: I think it's very true.
• 15:28
  Speaker 4: Oh man, I'm just like sitting here shaking my head
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: being like ye yep, about right. That sounds about right.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: So you get let go from this job and you're
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: trying to stay afloat what happens when you reach for
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: a flotation device?
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: And what's the floatation device? I would save my network.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: I sent an email out that was basically like, Hi,
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: it's me.
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: I moved to LA and got laid off.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: If anyone needs a freelancer or it has a lead
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: on a job, let me know. I applied for so
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: many jobs did not get any of them because everything
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: was entertainment and gaming at the time, which I was
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: like fashion and beauty and consumer brands, and everyone's like, nope,
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: not into it.
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: So I was very lucky in that.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: Actually, John Foley got me my first client as a freelancer,
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: and it ended up being an amazing client. I ended
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: up getting more clients and more employees and ended up
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: building my first company, which is called No Subject. It's
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: a marketing, events and PR agency for consumer brands. So
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: I end up launching that company when I'm twenty three.
• 16:25
  Speaker 4: Twenty three.
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: Now, when you're twenty three and you're launching a company,
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: is there someone that you look to that gives you
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: the ins and outs of the things that you need
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: to know when it comes to that.
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: Absolutely not.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: There was no such thing as like a mentor or
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: women helping women like this did not exist when I
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: was twenty three for contact and basically I just create
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: a quick books account I like legal Zoom and LLC,
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: and I just start doing it essentially and.
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: Had no idea what I was doing.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: It was honestly a complete mass for a long time,
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: but then actually became a very legitimate business over the
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: course of seven years, had amazing clients, you know, Urban Decay, Microsoft, Uber,
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: et cetera. And ended up selling that business to a
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: strategic after seven years.
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: We love that And when it came to the legal
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: Zoom of the name no subject. Is there a reason
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: why you had the parends around it.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: So the whole idea around no subject was this can
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: really be a blanket for anything. Like the agency world
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: and landscape that I wanted to build in was one
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: that had its own product lines, its own ideas and
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: events series, one of which was creat and Cultivate, which
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: was run through no subject for a long time. It
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: was just something I wanted to build and see grow.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: So there was no subject to the agency, like we
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: could do whatever we wanted. And so when you get
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: an email at that time where it was no subject,
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: I don't even know if that still exists anymore, but
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: you would get this email called no subject in parentheses
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: and it was like kind of playing on the internet
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: puns of the early early late twenty tenses.
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: Of what was sort of happening.
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: So now that would not translate at all, I would say,
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: So that is what we did.
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: We did the.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: Parentheses around it, we got it trademarked and yeah, and
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: the rest was history.
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: The rest was history.
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: So then where in the mix does create and cultivate
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: come into the picture?
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so pretty early on the first Create and Cultivate event,
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: so I started no subject. I think in two thousand
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: and nine. The first Create and Cultivate event was twenty twelve,
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: so it was early. It was something that was built
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: out of a partnership we did with the Ace Hotel.
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: We went to Palm Springs.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: They were having trouble booking their rooms on weeknights, so
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: we were like, who can go away.
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: For two days on a weeknight.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: Freelancers, creatives, entrepreneurs, people who own their own companies put
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: together something called creat and Cultivate where we would get
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: entrepreneurs together and have really cool, fun conversations get offline.
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: This was like peak DIY moment.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: So we did a bunch of DIY workshops, hosted a
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: dinner and I think.
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: It was about twenty five people that came, and I
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: never thought we would do it again.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: And then after that there was like momentum and interest
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: and it grew and we did another one the next year,
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: and then like another one the next year, and they
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: just got bigger and bigger talent, and you know, they
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: did not make any money. In fact, we probably lost
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: money on them the first three or four years, but
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: there was something exciting about it, and we used it
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: as a lead generation tool for our agency to get
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: new clients.
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: So that's really what it started as.
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: And then cut to end of twenty fourteen, I get
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: an email from my future business partner and creating cultivate,
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: Rina Panchanski, who's the founder of DBA, which was one
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: of the first talent agencies for digital talent, and she.
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: Was like, what is this thing you're doing? Like, what
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: is this thing?
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: And I was like, oh, you know, it's just like
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: this little get together, you know, we had blogger speaking
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: and things like that.
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: And she was like, I.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: Think with your brand marketing and event in my talent roster,
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: like this could be something that we like do bigger.
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: And I was like no.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: I was like no, no, no, Like it's honestly like,
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: it doesn't make any money, it's a lot of work.
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: We're doing it as like a marketing tool. I have
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: a really successful agency I'm focused on. She was like no, no, no,
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: She was very adamant, like this is a thing. All
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: put money into it. You put a little money into it.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: Let's see if it's the thing, and then we'll do
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: it as We'll do it as like a test. If
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: it sucks, we'll walk away. Never talked about it again.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: So we did our first test in early twenty fifteen
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: where we put a little more money and effort.
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: Into it, and it was insane.
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: We had major sponsors like Bare Minerals come in, we
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: had speakers like Emily Weiss, Julian Huff.
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: We ended up selling out.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: The event itself had so many kinks that were horrible,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: Like I think we ran out of water within like
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: the first like three hours.
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: It was like awful, but it was something, and we
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: got so much.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: Press and buzz, and I knew after that event that
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: this was something bigger, and so we both doubled down
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: and went all in on c and.
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: See where was that first big one Los Angeles?
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: It was at this venue that I like basically got
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: for free. It was like partially construction site. And I mean,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: there were so many things wrong with this event, but
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: it was there was nothing like it at the time. Like,
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: and I can say I say that now and everyone's like,
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: how can you even say that?
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: There's a dime a dozen like cool events?
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: No one was betting on experiential in twenty fifteen, right,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: we were one of the first people and it was
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: something that felt I was of the moment where no
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: one was getting women together specifically to talk about career.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: So I like to think we were first to market
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: to really build this type of experiencing community.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: You know, it's interesting to hear you talk about the
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: early days before this big like la construction side event,
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: because when I think about like the key phrases you said,
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: like it was something that was just exciting and maybe
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: we broke even, but it was also funneling things into
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: my business, Like you obviously had to be clearly, clearly
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: passionate about creating these like one off like kind of okay,
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: get together is because it made you feel really excited.
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: And the question that I'm sure you get often, and
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: the question that I get often is like if I'm
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: really passionate about the thing, but it's not making me
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: any money, like is it worth doing? Your answer to
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: that in this scenario was like yes, yeah.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: And it's not always the answer, right, Like I think
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: a lot of time, I always like to tell that
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: story because I think people started seeing Creighton cultivate in
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: twenty seventeen when like Kim Kardashian was speaking and all
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: these big names.
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: And they're like, oh my god, you're like an overnight
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: success and it's.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: Like no, it's no, like we've been doing this for
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: a long time and making no money, and it's just
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: about figuring out the formula and seeing if there's interest there.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: If there was no momentum after that event in terms
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: of brand partnerships and sponsorships and paid interest from attendees,
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: I don't think I would have done it.
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: Still.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: It's really about seeing the combination of like passion and
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: profit come together. Is when you know, to take that
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: dive into seeing if there's something there.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: And when you say a brand like Bare Minerals comes
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: in and sponsors an event, what does that actually mean
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: in terms of what does Bare Minerals get out of
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: sponsoring an event like a create and cultivate.
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean so in the early days it was
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: not a lot.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: Now it's very much like you know, exciting, But basically
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: there's a million different things that can be you know,
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: given during a sponsorship, most notably our naming rights, social media,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: access to talents, speaking opportunities, inclusion and sampling things of
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: that nature.
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: Isn't it so cool when you take a step back
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: and you think about the younger you that was trying
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: to articulate what it was that the opportunities were that
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: a sponsor would get when they came to you, and
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: now you know, fast forward five, six, seven, eight years,
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: it's like the rattling off of that is like, well,
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: this is what you can get.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, it's It's interesting too because I think we
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: were also one of the first events to really approach
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: sponsorship from an agency perspective. We had been building social
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: media campaigns and influencer campaigns for years in understanding what
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: the KPIs were and what brands were really looking for
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: when they spend money, and instead of saying like, oh,
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: your log is going to be on the step and
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: repeat and it's one hundred thousand dollars, we were like,
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: here's all of this value and we're doing it for you,
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: and we're giving you analytics to back it up.
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: We're giving you content. It can come from a media budget,
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: it can come from an event budget, it can come
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: from an influencer budget.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: So we were really creating a more holistic experience, which
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: now is table stakes to even throw an event, but
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: at the time was really new and relevant.
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: How is Jacqueline Johnson in twenty seventeen personally.
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: A hot mess?
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: So let's talk about that, because it seems as though
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: from the outside looking in, I mean even these days
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: as well. But in twenty seventeen building a company from scratch,
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: like kind of like just like hamster wheeling your legs
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: over and over and over, I cannot even imagine how
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: like where your head was at.
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: Well, let me break it down.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: So I sold my company end of twenty sixteen.
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: No subject.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: Part of my contract was to stay on for a
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: year part time to aid and transition.
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: So I was.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: Working essentially two full time jobs at two different companies for.
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: Over a year.
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: So I was at the Creton Cultivate offices three times
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: a week. I was at the Small Girls offices two
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: times a week. I was working nights, I was working weekends.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: I bought a house, I renovated it, and planned my
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: wedding all in the same year. And I don't recommend
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: it to anyone.
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: Wait, but wait, before you keep going, where did you
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: meet your husband?
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: I met my husband on Tinder?
• 25:27
  Speaker 4: Give me a timeline on the Tinder meet.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: Eight years ago? Eight years ago, so long time ago, Okay,
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: So basically I was yeah, I was twenty nine. We
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: met on Tinder. Tinder was the only app out there.
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: Just for context, Everyone's like, iw when.
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: You say, like we met, I met him on Tinder,
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: it's like a whole different implication than it was like
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: ten years.
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: Ago, one hundred percent.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: Everyone's like ew, I was like, listen, this was like
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: when there it was no one else on the internet.
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: So yeah, we.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: Met on Tinder and then yeah, I have been together
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: ever since. But it's pretty wild to go through that
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: level I was operating on was insanity. I've never probably
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: been more productive in my life, but so burnt out
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: on what I was doing Becauseiancy was just starting Small
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: Girls was like a thirty plus person agency that was
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: very legitimate, and so balancing both in teams and different
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: responsibilities was a lot to manage.
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean the thing that you said there, like
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: I was so burnt out. The question that comes up
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: then is if you are feeling so burnt out, how
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: do you even keep doing? And that probably goes back
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: to what we talked about, which is that like rooted,
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: foundational entrepreneurial mindset that you had.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: I think when you're having that much success, burnout doesn't
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: feel that bad because you are working, but you're seeing
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: the fruits of your labor. Come to fruition, which is
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: like the best feeling in the world, and you're getting
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: the momentum, and you're getting the brands that you would
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: have died to work with a year ago emailing you.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: It's you feel that level and you run at it
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: at a thousand miles an hour. So for me, and honestly,
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: when I say that, I did that for seven years
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: after that, Like it wasn't like, oh I burnt out
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: a choice of it. I ran up until the company
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: was eventually acquired. But it's one of those things where
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: I saw this success and it was working, and it
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: was exciting, and it was an amazingly fun and fulfilling
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: project like to be doing this, So it didn't feel
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: that bad. But like in retrospect that I was like,
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: oh my god, how did I do that?
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: That was insanity.
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: When you reflect on that time, can you recall anything
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: that you were doing to take care of yourself or
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: with self care?
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: Not even a thing, not even on the menu, like
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: not even on the menu, like I remember, like being
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: in New York, I don't even know for what, And
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: I went through this phase where I would just like
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: faint and I don't even know what it was, but
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: like all I remember is texting my assistant and being like,
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: I'm fainting.
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: I'm in a meeting, and I was like I have to.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: I went into a Club Monaco and go up to
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: the like cashier Raba was like I think I'm gonna faint.
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: She's like get into a fitting room. Like, got me
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: a fitting room and a lemonade.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: And I'm like getting rushed to Urgent Care, driving out
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: to the Hampton to do an event the next.
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: Day, like wild, and I just yeah, it was. But
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: in retrospect, I was like, oh, that was like really bad,
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: Like what was I doing? But yeah, ay, though the
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: lemonade brought me back to life.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: Bless that Club Monaco sales assist yet, but I didn't
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: work out. I was eating, I was on the go
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: twenty four to seven, and yeah, there was nothing I
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: was doing that was like.
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: About me. It was all about the business.
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: When Jacqueline twenty twenty two hears her talk about Jacqueline
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: twenty seventeen, what feelings does that give you? Now?
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: I don't like, I know you're not supposed to say this,
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: but it paid off.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: I feel like it's hard because I don't think a
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: lot of people talk about this, They're like, no, set
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: the boundaries and do the thing and whatever. But like,
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: I built a twenty two million dollar company that was
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: completely bootstrapped and like on my own, and like, frankly,
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: I couldn't have done that if I wasn't giving it
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: my all at that time. And also I'd like to
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: caveat that by saying I was having fun, like I
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: was on a plane, I was like meeting amazing people,
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: Like I had a great time doing that. I think
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: for me twenty twenty and working from home, like phase
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: one was like drinking a lot and being really depressed.
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: And then like phase two for me was like, oh yeah,
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: I have time, let me work out, let me get
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: back into it, and I established a lot of new
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: routines that I was like, I can't believe I let
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: this go for so long, and it would have been
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: possible for me to have included those things.
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: I just could not picture it at that time. I
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: was so in it. But yeah, I think, like I'm
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: glad I was able to.
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: I mean again, thinking of the good things that came
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: out of twenty twenty was like that balance was restored
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: in my life.
• 30:07
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  Speaker 2: five for fifteen percent off today. So let's take the
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: elevator down a few floors for a second to go
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: between the first really large successful construction event to twenty
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: two million dollar company because they don't like happen back
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: to back. So talk to us a little bit about
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: what happens with C and C right off the heels
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: of that first big event.
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: So we form the company officially, you know, we double down.
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: I invest fifty thousand of my own money, my partner
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: invest two hundred and fifty thousand of.
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: Her money, and we go all in. And it's a
• 32:58
  Speaker 3: rocket ship.
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: It's a rocket up until I would say March twenty twenty.
• 33:03
  Speaker 3: And we are go, go, go, go go.
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: We're making a lot of money, We're creating this amazing community.
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: We're getting hit up by incredible speakers, and it's a
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: it's an amazing time.
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: It's so fun. We're learning as we go. I'm not
• 33:17
  Speaker 3: I had no background in conferences.
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: We're figuring it out, we're doing it in our own way.
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: We're disrupting an amazing space, building a team, and it's
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: really the momentum around this company. There was nothing like it.
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: Like I always say, with my first business, every I
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: was knocking.
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: On everyone's door to be like hire me, hire me,
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: hire my agency, and like C and C.
• 33:37
  Speaker 3: It was like everyone was breaking down our door to
• 33:39
  Speaker 3: work with us.
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: So again, it was like we were early to like
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: the women in business movement. I understood that women wanted
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: access to this information. I had access to influential women
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: to give that information, and I knew how to throw
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: a really fun event, and those two things just happened
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: to magically combine at the right time in space where
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: people were ready for that experience.
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: Talk to us a little bit about what a quote
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: unquote typical create and cultivate event would look like.
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so you know, essentially, it's Instagram come to life
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: in a lot of ways. We our pictures come to
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: life in a lot of ways. We create an experience.
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: And the way I always thought about it was this,
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: and this is sort of how the vision came together.
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: I was like an early influencer in the blogging space.
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: Like again, a thousand years ago, there was like five
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: bloggers on the Internet.
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: I was one of them, and I was able to.
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: Get invited to a lot of influencer events in the
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: early days, right like so twenty fifteen to twenty seventeen
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: like peak early influencer days. And these events are insane.
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: They're beautiful.
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: There's amazing floral installations, there's like gift bags and you know,
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: amazing food and all these things. And I remember my sister,
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: who's a wedding photographer in Florida, being like, God, that
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: looks fucking incredible, Like that looks so fun. And in
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: my head, I was like, why is the events like
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: this that look good, have incredible food, have amazing networking ops,
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: photo ops, cool people there like for the everyday consumer?
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: Why is it just for these influencers? And so that
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: was really what I put into Create and Cultivate from
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: the get go was I want this to be an
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: incredible event from start to finish. I want you to
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: feel inspired by the environment, but also by the speakers.
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: I always say, Create and Cultivate is for women when
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: they want to do their taxes and their nails, and
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: those two things are not disproportionate in that modern women
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: are very busy, and we liked doing both things. We're
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: multifaceted people, and Creating Cultivate really leaned into that. And
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: it was a premium experience at a low price point,
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: and that was something that I was very passionate about. Like,
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: if you had the worst day of your life at
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: Creton Cultivate, you walked away with a gift bag worth
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: more than the price of admission that would at least
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: make you happy.
• 35:58
  Speaker 3: And that was the hope, and like we have gotten.
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: I can count the amount of negative reviews on my
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: hand that we've gotten from a Creating Cultivate event because
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: we pull out all the stops and it's all about
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: our community and that experience, and I think that's what
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: really sets us apart from the other types of experiences
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: you go to. There's two stages, there's multiple speakers, there's celebrities,
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: content creators, CEOs. There's pop ups you could shop, gift
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: take pictures that learn more about cool brands and what
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: they're doing. There's unlimited amounts of food and alcohol so
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: you can hang out and have a glass.
• 36:29
  Speaker 3: Of wine with your friends.
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: It's really just a one day festival celebrating female entrepreneurship.
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: No big deal, nothing going on, nothing going on, tons
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: of wine. It's like, hey, stay a while, but you
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: know something for everyone. Yes, okay, So now that we
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: have a good snapshot of what this looks like, clearly
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: it's like kind of like the pending doom when the
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: pandemic hits, cause pandemic hits and then you're no longer
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: getting what would like I mean, obviously depending on the
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: city and what's going on, but what would like an
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: average attendee size B fifteen hundred people. Okay, so then
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: what happens when that's not an option anymore?
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: So basically March twenty twenty, I mean, we have the
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: strongest Q one in the history of the company. We're
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: going into a year stacked with events and millions of
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: dollars in sponsorship, and then COVID hits. And I remember
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: so vividly being in like the war room at our office,
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: just like all the you know, C suite and leaders
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: in the business, and like hearing when south By gets canceled,
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: which was one of our big tent pole events that
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: we did, and having done it was like canceled three
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: days before the event too, and we're like and I
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: just remember being like, Okay, we're gonna do this. We're
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: gonna shift, we're gonna move to summer, and like moving
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: at one thousand miles an hour, which is what a
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: CEO would do in that situation, like survival, survival, let's
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: figure it out, And like my COO just looking at
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: me and saying, I don't think we're having events at
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: all this year, and I was like, no way, no way,
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: Like there's what, like, what are we going to be
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: making memes about this?
• 38:06
  Speaker 3: This is crazy. It's exactly what happened.
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: And we were very lucky. I was very lucky in
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: that I had that person in the room that was
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: also like realities over here and the potentiality of something
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: very bad versus like my like you know, trying to
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: keep spirits up and move and shift and do these things.
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: And so we had to unpack over six different events,
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: which was brutal, but we were able to.
• 38:31
  Speaker 3: Move very quickly.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: May twenty twenty, we had our first virtual event, which
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: was called Money Moves.
• 38:38
  Speaker 3: We put that together in three weeks.
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: We had incredible speakers stand behind it, and we had
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: sponsors that transferred to this digital sponsorship, and we had
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: over ten thousand people tune in from fifty different countries
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: and got a ton of press as one of the
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: first virtual events, and we were able to capitalize on
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: that momentum through the end of the year and end
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: the year with our revenue down but our profitability still
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: in the eight figures, which or sorry, seven figures, which
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: was unbelievable for a company like us to not have
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: a single event the rest of the year.
• 39:11
  Speaker 3: So for us, what happened was a lot of different things.
• 39:13
  Speaker 3: One is like, we.
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: Were very lucky in that we had other revenue streams
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: besides the events. We had podcasts, we had a digital audience,
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: we had membership, We had all these different things that
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: were already baked. So we just doubled down on those things,
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: saw our revenue shift into digital, and were poised for
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: success in that way. So we were able to come
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: out of it relatively unscathed and actually build another revenue
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: stream up in the process that now is almost equal
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: to or greater than our events business, which is coming
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: back in full force. So in many ways, it was
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: like a blessing in disguise. I'll say March through June
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: of twenty twenty were probably the darkest days of my
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: life as a CEO, and I think for anyone.
• 39:54
  Speaker 3: Who owned a business during that time period.
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: It was very challenging, super challenging, super challenging, and for
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: you to kind of find the light or see the light,
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: I would imagine that it took more than just like
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: one helpful cooo. Right, were you leaning into your friendships,
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: your marriage? Like where did you find your strength when
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: you felt like you didn't have any?
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: I mean I think myself, I think I'm like one
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: of I have an nerving.
• 40:21
  Speaker 3: Amount of drive and ambition.
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: And so for me, it was like, where's the opportunity
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: at all costs?
• 40:27
  Speaker 3: And I knew.
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: We were lucky in that we don't have investors at
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: that point, We have no board where not fifty people
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: were small shop. We can move faster than everyone else,
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: and we took advantage of that and we were able
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: to come out the other end of it. Our team
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: of event producers became digital content producers. Are you know
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: stage designer experiential designer became a web developer, Like everyone
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: just shifted and moved.
• 40:55
  Speaker 4: And we were a real stage developer.
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: Oh my god, she well, no, we she's amazing. She's
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: now our creative director. But she good for her. We
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: hired her, moved her from New York as an experiential
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: designer March twenty twenty. Wow, and she was like as
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: soon as the pandemic but she's like, I'm gone, Like whatever.
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: We were like, no, just figure it out. And she
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: taught herself how to design websites. Like but that's the
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: type of people you want on your team. Right, it
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: was like, who can do We can do anything quickly
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: if we want to learn and like move. And I
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: think everyone was so passionate about maintaining what we were doing.
• 41:30
  Speaker 3: And we were lucky.
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: Our community showed up, our sponsors showed up, people who
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: had been with us for many years, who knew we
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: could do something really incredible. We were able to do
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: so many fun virtual events, bring in awesome talent, and
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: the rest is you know, history in that way that
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: we were able to maintain and grow the business despite everything.
• 41:48
  Speaker 3: Being against us everything. You know.
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: It's funny we're recording this on the heels of Valentine's Day,
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: and I feel like I was plagued with this quote
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: the other day, which was if he wanted to, he would,
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: And so for you, it was like, all right, we
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: want to, so how like let's figure it out. Let's
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: let's you know, like, let's find our way and let's
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: keep going. And I feel like this could pivot us
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: a little bit in the conversation that I'm sure you
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: are approached about often, which is Okay, I want to
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: get into doing something else, or I want to acquire
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: a new skill, or I want to have a side hustle,
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: But I don't even know where to begin.
• 42:22
  Speaker 4: For you, when you hear this kind of thing, where
• 42:25
  Speaker 4: do you go with it?
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: I think it has to come from a place of
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: passion and momentum. I think if you start a company
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: because you see a white space opportunity or you see
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: a good business, you're going to have a hard time
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: growing that company because you have to be passionate about
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: it in some way, shape or form. There has to
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: be a form of authenticity driving whatever that product or
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: idea is. And now I think it's really just about
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: sitting back and thinking, like what do I love to do?
• 42:52
  Speaker 3: What am I passionate about?
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: Where do I see myself sitting in the space and
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: economy that.
• 42:58
  Speaker 3: Will provide value over time? And that's really why.
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: I think Creighton and Cultivate was successful is we did
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: not aggressively monitorze. We never really monetized our community besides
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: ticket prices which have never gone up since the moment
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: we've started. We were about the community and the value
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: we were charging the brands, but we were building the community.
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: And I think you just have to think through the
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: long term goals you have in mind, because there's no
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: quick overnight success, no matter how many times.
• 43:28
  Speaker 3: You see it happen or whatever.
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: There was a lifetime of knowledge and information that led
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: up to that moment and learnings. And I think that's
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: just important to know. There's no overnight secret to success.
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: There's no moment you're going to figure out exactly what
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: you want to do.
• 43:41
  Speaker 3: You just have to kind of start doing it.
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And that starting is truly for so many the
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: hardest part, the biggest hurdle, right.
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, I always say start by starting, like, get
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: it going, keep moving, don't wait for the money, don't
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: wait for the approvals.
• 43:57
  Speaker 3: Just get going, Just get going.
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: So when you start to pivot your business all by
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: temporarily online for.
• 44:05
  Speaker 4: You, what does it start to look like?
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: Like? What shifts for you as a leader of a
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: team in this moment, Because I would assume, after you know,
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: a week or two of like being in that quote
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: unquote war room, your foundational team also has to take
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: things online.
• 44:23
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, everyone, Like we completely shifted.
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: I mean again, we were lucky in that a lot
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: of companies had to then create an online business. We
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: already had one, it just was a smaller part of
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: our company and not as big as a focus, So
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: we just shifted focus and priority to that platform, which
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: was allowed us to scale up to five thousand plus members.
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: It allowed us to create even more excitement and traffic
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: around our podcast. It allowed us to focus more on
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: content creation and courses and things like that. So we
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: had all the pieces to the puzzle. The puzzle just
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: wasn't started yet, so we were like in.
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: That way, you mentioned a need for passion and excitement
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: about an idea beyond seeing just an area of white space.
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: But then what happens next? Like what happens next when
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: someone has this big idea, I mean, you have.
• 45:17
  Speaker 3: To execute on it.
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: You have to get going and get started, and that'll
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: shift and change over time. Like you know, I think
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: every founder goes through a phase where all of a
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: sudden they're the CEO of a company that's multimillion dollar
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: business and you're not doing the fun, cool things that
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: you were doing before. You're not designing the stage or
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: you know, picking out the speakers or whatever it is.
• 45:36
  Speaker 3: You're ending up running a more a massive business.
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: And I think for me that you know that happens naturally,
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: and I think then you move on to your next
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: thing and what you want.
• 45:45
  Speaker 3: To be doing and what you want to be building.
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: But I think it takes time and growth and excitement
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: and all those phases are really important and really fun
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: in their own way.
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: I think something else that's really interesting about creating cultivating
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: is yes, it's super inspirational inovational, but it's also bringing
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: a lot of very powerful people together in the same space.
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: So for you, as someone who was coming into her
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: power as a female CEO, you talk a little bit
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: about harnessing, I would say, like maybe collaboration instead of competition,
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: and this idea that everyone can have a seat at
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: the table.
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I genuinely believe that. We actually at
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: our twenty seventeen New York event, we had collaboration over competition.
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: This like big bright sign that was like Neon had
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: all these flowers and it was like our number one
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: most Instagram moment of all time and for us, you know,
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: it was really I genuinely do believe women helping women
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: is real.
• 46:41
  Speaker 3: I've experienced it myself.
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: I think there's enough room at the table and enough
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: capital for everyone to go around. I think the difference
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: was we just have men just had a head start.
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: So now we're at this place where we just need
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: to accelerate the growth, the information and the money to women.
• 46:58
  Speaker 3: To catch up.
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: And I think that's what critinic cults we started to do.
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: It was like building that community and knowledge sharing.
• 47:04
  Speaker 3: At a time when it didn't exist.
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: It's a point of contention for so many right because
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: it's it's natural to get a little defensive over your
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: space and you know, want to take ownership over X
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: or y. But the reality is is that once you
• 47:19
  Speaker 2: understand that you have opportunity to do things with other
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: people again that big word collaborate, it really does change
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: a lot.
• 47:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, and healthy competition is normal. I'm not saying everyone's
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: like your best friend and or like everyone's like gonna
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: be like no, no, no, you go ahead, Like that's
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: just not the reality we live in a capitalist society.
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: But I do think there's ways to create that level.
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: Like I will say, like when the pandemic hit, all
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: of our competitors leaders, we all reached out to another
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: what are you guys doing, what's your plan? And that
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: was really helpful and it was almost like very humbling
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: because it was like we all knew who the leaders
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: in the space.
• 47:55
  Speaker 3: Were and it was like, guys, are we canceling? Are
• 47:57
  Speaker 3: we doing? What are we doing?
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: And I think that kind of everyone just kind of
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: showed up for each other when when everyone needed it,
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: and like, how are we handling this?
• 48:03
  Speaker 3: What are we going to do with our sponsors? What's
• 48:05
  Speaker 3: in your contracts?
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: Like, people show up, you know, even if there is
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: that level of competition as well, and competition just means
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: that there's an idea there, that there's market there, that
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: there's opportunity there, so's it's all good.
• 48:17
  Speaker 4: Do you believe in work life balance?
• 48:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah? I believe in it in the sense that, like
• 48:23
  Speaker 3: I think you can do it. I think that they're
• 48:27
  Speaker 3: in your voice, like it's very indicative, like I don't know,
• 48:31
  Speaker 3: I don't know. I Well, look, I think there's work
• 48:33
  Speaker 3: life balance.
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: I think they're just balanced disproportionately at different times, Like
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: sometimes work takes the lead, sometimes life takes the lead.
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: And I think that's how I specifically have experienced it
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: over my time as an entrepreneur.
• 48:46
  Speaker 4: How do you execute it on your home front?
• 48:49
  Speaker 3: Well, now it's a bit different for me.
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: I think now I have a very very balanced work
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: life balance versus what i'd been experiencing for a long time.
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: I think for me, I now have very specific parameters
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: around when I'm working, how I'm working. I also, you know,
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: I work out almost every day, which I love is
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: like a new thing that I'm really excited about. You know,
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: I have life coach, I have a work coach.
• 49:14
  Speaker 3: I have all the things I need to like make
• 49:16
  Speaker 3: me be successful.
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: And I'm able to do that now because I feel
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: like I've hit this pinnacle for me of success where
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: I can let go a little bit of those things
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: that were you know, maybe I was a little bit
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: beholden too for a little too long.
• 49:29
  Speaker 2: For so many this idea of like implementing boundaries can
• 49:32
  Speaker 2: be really really difficult. I mean, you even talked so
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: excitedly about like your grind period, and yes, that can
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: be so critical and influential to everything that you want
• 49:43
  Speaker 2: on the line. But if your grind period ultimately gets
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: you to a place where you're incapable of executing, and
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: that becomes problematic. So totally, these boundaries, like it's something
• 49:55
  Speaker 2: that I think a lot of people really struggle with.
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I was also very good and knowing
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: my boundaries, Like I was pretty good at knowing when
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: to pull back on certain things when and again it
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: was all learning.
• 50:08
  Speaker 3: It was like very bad.
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: At the beginning, and then I think I got better
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: at it over time. But I think it is hard
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: to put up boundaries, Like you want to say yes
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: to every opportunity, you want to be involved in all
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: the like fun meetings, you want to do all the things,
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: but then eventually you have to learn to like let
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: go of those things. But I think all of these
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: things come with time.
• 50:25
  Speaker 3: You become a.
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: Better business woman over time, you become better at putting
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: up boundaries.
• 50:29
  Speaker 3: Over time, You get better over time and experience. Time
• 50:33
  Speaker 3: and experience.
• 50:34
  Speaker 2: Talk to me a little bit about getting comfortable being
• 50:39
  Speaker 2: the person that's kind of at the front of the room.
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: I think that that's something that a lot of people
• 50:43
  Speaker 2: would like to step in on, or step into their
• 50:46
  Speaker 2: power and being the person that's running a team or
• 50:49
  Speaker 2: I mean even speaking in front of large audiences.
• 50:51
  Speaker 4: But that can be really mega intimidating.
• 50:53
  Speaker 2: So for you, was there like any one moment that
• 50:55
  Speaker 2: you felt like you really stepped into this position of
• 50:58
  Speaker 2: being okay with being, you know, this front woman of sorts.
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: I think I don't know if I was always comfortable
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: with it. I specifically remember like our VP and this
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: was like maybe twenty eighteen because I was running around
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: in sneakers setting everything up for creating cultivate events, like
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: you know, and she she was like, I think you
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: need to like shower like before. Like she was like,
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: you need to like get hair and makeup for these events.
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: And I was like what, Like I was like in it,
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: you know. And I feel like that was like a
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: really big moment for me to be like, oh, right,
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: like I'm the face of this brand, and I stepped
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: into it a little bit there.
• 51:38
  Speaker 3: I was always confident in understanding my audience, understanding business,
• 51:43
  Speaker 3: understanding all those things.
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: Being the face of your brand is a little bit
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: of a different beast, and I think now there's a
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: lot of pressure on female founders to also be the
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: face of their companies, which I don't think is necessarily need.
• 51:55
  Speaker 3: You don't have to do both.
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: But I think for me, I was always really confident
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: and comfortable, you know, because I always like I knew
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: my shit, I knew what I was doing, and I
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: think like that was something that I learned early on
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: in my career because going into these rooms in early
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: social media days where I was talking about Twitter and
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: Facebook and engagement and user generated content, and like all
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: these old white guys are like, what is she talking about?
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: I knew, I knew more than them because I was
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: the consumer they were trying to hit. So I think
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: for me, I developed my confidence early in my twenties
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: just by being a part of my generation and understanding
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: like marketing early on.
• 52:33
  Speaker 4: It's the confidence for me.
• 52:34
  Speaker 2: And honestly, it's being honest about what you actually know
• 52:38
  Speaker 2: versus what you don't and being open to ask when
• 52:41
  Speaker 2: you want to learn exactly.
• 52:43
  Speaker 3: I agree.
• 52:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean talking about getting comfortable talking about confidence.
• 52:48
  Speaker 4: Where we talked about at the top of.
• 52:50
  Speaker 2: This podcast about new money ventures, your new venture capital firm. Obviously,
• 52:56
  Speaker 2: that means that you're also comfortable talking about money, which
• 52:58
  Speaker 2: is something that a lot of people aren't comfortable talking about.
• 53:02
  Speaker 2: And hand in hand with that, in hand with starting
• 53:05
  Speaker 2: new companies, trying new things, experimenting comes of course some
• 53:10
  Speaker 2: devastating losses at times. Let's have a little bit of
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: a conversation about that, right because I feel as though
• 53:16
  Speaker 2: it's like, how can we get better about opening up
• 53:20
  Speaker 2: about the less than glamorous moments the things that aren't
• 53:23
  Speaker 2: always posted all about all over Instagram.
• 53:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah, of course.
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: I mean I think, like as I said earlier, failure
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: is just data points that you're gonna win some, you're
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: gonna lose some, You're.
• 53:34
  Speaker 3: Gonna make a lot of money maybe and lose a
• 53:36
  Speaker 3: lot of money in the process. And I think that's okay.
• 53:39
  Speaker 3: I think that's that's why losses are there.
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: That's why you know, you learn by what you're doing
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: and taking big swings.
• 53:45
  Speaker 3: I think that's really important.
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: I think at the end of the day, talking about
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: money is so crucial, especially for women in business. Understanding
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: what to charge, how to charge, how to invest, what
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: to invest, how much to invest, who helps you invest,
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: all the things are so important because it just helps
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: further the education for women longer term. To then flip
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: the script on what generational wealth.
• 54:06
  Speaker 3: Actually looks like.
• 54:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the idea of like what to charge, who to charge,
• 54:11
  Speaker 2: I feel like is the like never ending click baby
• 54:14
  Speaker 2: thing that we're seeing on TikTok right now.
• 54:17
  Speaker 4: I've only been like.
• 54:18
  Speaker 2: Immersed in TikTok for a month or two, but since
• 54:21
  Speaker 2: getting involved, are you the same?
• 54:24
  Speaker 3: TikTok is insane? But everyone's talking about money on TikTok.
• 54:28
  Speaker 3: But it's crazy.
• 54:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really crazy, and I'm sure that a lot
• 54:32
  Speaker 2: of people seek out some of the resources perhaps that
• 54:35
  Speaker 2: creat and Cultivate was making when it comes to figuring
• 54:38
  Speaker 2: out how much they should be charging for different types
• 54:40
  Speaker 2: of brand partnerships.
• 54:41
  Speaker 3: Oh, definitely.
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: But I also think there's a little bit of a
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: credibility crisis happening where there's a lot of information on
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: how to make money, what to charge, what to negotiate,
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: but like, who.
• 54:50
  Speaker 3: Are these people?
• 54:51
  Speaker 4: Who?
• 54:51
  Speaker 3: What credibility do you have?
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: So I think that expertise which Creton Cultivate really provides
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: is going to be even more valuable over the next
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: couple of years.
• 54:58
  Speaker 2: When you think about some of the best lessons that
• 55:02
  Speaker 2: you've learned in establishing these companies, what would you say
• 55:06
  Speaker 2: are perhaps two of the biggest takeaways that you offer
• 55:10
  Speaker 2: to new entrepreneurs aside from just start.
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I would say first and foremost is
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: like cash is king, like focus on profitability, focus on
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: building a real business. And also I would say listen
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: to your community feedback is a gift. Getting that information
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: early on is so important to help build your business,
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: and continuing that information over time. I mean, we got
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: so much incredible feedback from our audience at Create and
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: Culture that shaped and shifted.
• 55:40
  Speaker 3: How we built a company.
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: Because those are the people that are going to be
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: buying your tickets, your products, whatever it is, and if
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: they have information that's going to help build your business,
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: take advantage of that.
• 55:51
  Speaker 2: How do you not take some of the negative feedback personally?
• 55:55
  Speaker 3: You don't? You take it very personally. I have all
• 55:59
  Speaker 3: every complain for see. See I was like, ah, like.
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: There are people who were like I did not get
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: this one product in my gift bag, and like, meanwhile,
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: it's like our team stuff in the gift bag, and
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: I would like mail overnight mail, buy the product myself
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: and just overnight mail it to them, because I was like,
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: I just want them to be so happy.
• 56:15
  Speaker 3: But at the same time, you also have to under
• 56:17
  Speaker 3: give contexts.
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: There's people who are always going to be unhappy or
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: complain about things, you know, whatever it is. But then
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: there's people who are actually providing real insight. And I
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: think you just have to know the difference between the two.
• 56:27
  Speaker 4: What are you excited about right now?
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: I have to say new money ventures, Like I'm so
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: excited to be on the other side, listening to these
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: incredible women picture businesses, hear about their stories and what
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: they want to build. It's really reassuring that the next
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: generation of female entrepreneurs are really doing amazing work and
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: building relieful.
• 56:48
  Speaker 2: Companies, new money ventures already investing in some really interesting companies.
• 56:53
  Speaker 2: Anything in particular that really ignites your fire right now, I'm.
• 56:57
  Speaker 3: Like obsessed with all of our portfolio companies.
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: I would say one that I'm really excited about is
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: called Frame Frame Fitness.
• 57:04
  Speaker 4: I've heard about this.
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: Yes, it's a digitally connected pilates reformer. I'm obsessed with
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: reformer pilates. I feel like it's the only thing that
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: actually changed my body. And it's essentially storable. So even
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: if you live in an apartment, I can go in your closet,
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: under your bed and has some of the best instructors
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: in the world. And so that to me, I'm I'm
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: genuinely excited about because I'll be a customer of that
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: for sure.
• 57:26
  Speaker 4: I need to I need to get on one of
• 57:27
  Speaker 4: those asaps.
• 57:28
  Speaker 3: Yes, they're amazing. They're amazing.
• 57:30
  Speaker 2: Someone comes to your Instagram page, they see someone with
• 57:33
  Speaker 2: over one hundred thousand followers, all of your beautiful accolades.
• 57:36
  Speaker 4: A motivated female, serial female entrepreneur.
• 57:40
  Speaker 2: When you look in the mirror, what is it that
• 57:42
  Speaker 2: you see looking back at you?
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: I mean, I would say someone who who's achieved their goals.
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: Like I think I was really bad at stopping and
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: being like, wow, this is like amazing that we've done this.
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: I definitely wasn't that person.
• 57:56
  Speaker 3: I was like, go, go go, and every like big
• 57:58
  Speaker 3: milestone just passed by. Ye.
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: But I think I was like, I feel like I'm
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: finally at a place in my life where I can
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: reflect on my success and really enjoy it.
• 58:06
  Speaker 3: We love that.
• 58:07
  Speaker 4: We love that, all right, Jacqueline.
• 58:09
  Speaker 2: Final question here right now, you have an opportunity to
• 58:13
  Speaker 2: give yourself a piece of advice.
• 58:16
  Speaker 4: Looking back at.
• 58:17
  Speaker 2: The hurdle moment, which was March twenty twenty, operating a
• 58:22
  Speaker 2: business that was coming off of its biggest Q one
• 58:24
  Speaker 2: ever and finding out you had to table everything, what
• 58:30
  Speaker 2: is it that you tell yourself with the intel that
• 58:32
  Speaker 2: you have now, I would.
• 58:34
  Speaker 3: Just say, keep going.
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: I think it's like push through it because at the
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: end of the day, I think it was the unknown
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: for everyone and I think if someone would have I
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: would so easily be like, let's just shut it all down.
• 58:48
  Speaker 3: Like I was in such a place like that. But
• 58:50
  Speaker 3: I think just like, keep going, keep moving, keep.
• 58:52
  Speaker 2: Innovating, keep going, keep moving, keep innovating. Jacqueline Johnson, is
• 58:57
  Speaker 2: so much fun having you on the show today. How
• 59:00
  Speaker 2: the hurdlers keep up with you? How do they follow
• 59:02
  Speaker 2: along with you? Give us all of your details?
• 59:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so mostly on Instagram. I'm at Jacquelin R. Johnson.
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: There's at New Mini Ventures co at Create Cultivate, and
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: at work party.
• 59:13
  Speaker 2: At work party, I'm over at Emily a Body and
• 59:16
  Speaker 2: at Hurdle Podcast another Hurdle Conquered.
• 59:19
  Speaker 4: Catch you guys next time.