Latest / "the good work talk show" with mallory contois / the good work talk show | ep. 10 - ruffin mitchener

Transcript

the good work talk show | ep. 10 - ruffin mitchener · "the good work talk show" with mallory contois

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: People could only see me as an accountant, even after like showing them that I could do other things.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, I'm just gonna have to create my own path.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: I was that kid that would rather take a B in class than raise my hand.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: I like to say like business school is definitely a privilege, not something you have to do.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: There's still moments where I'm like, oh, this could like all go away one day for sure.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_02: Are you surprised that you were like able to pull it off?
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_02: Uh yes.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_02: Today on Good Work, I have Ruffin Mitchner, the founder of Bridge Club.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_02: I'm so excited to have her.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_02: She's built an incredible business.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_02: She reaches over 200,000 women.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_02: It's on TikTok and Instagram.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_02: She runs an amazing community of women who are angel investing.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: She helps female founders fundraise from those women, and she has just really created an incredible amount of accessibility in business for women.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm really excited to dig into that with her today.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_02: I'm Mallory Contoff, and this is Good Work.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_02: Ready?
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah?
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, great.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, cool.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: Ruffin Mitchner, welcome to Good Work.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: So excited to be here.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for having me.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for coming.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yay.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so this show is really an exploration of how you ended up where you are today.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_02: My goal is really to help people sort of, instead of seeing the finished product of all the amazing things that you're doing today, to sort of understand all the decisions and the winding path and all of those things that led up to it.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_02: So we'll talk a little bit about your life all the way up till now, and then we'll talk a little bit about work and what it means to you and all that good stuff.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_02: Amazing.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_02: Cool.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so I always like to start with um with young ruin Ruffin.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_02: What were you like?
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_02: What were you like as a kid?
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_02: What was school like for you?
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_02: What were you into?
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_02: Just like tell me about yourself as a child.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: I love this.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I grew up in North Carolina.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: I was the oldest of three girls, so have that big sister energy.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I've always been like the super quiet kid.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, always had very close friends, and I feel like once friends were in my circle and I really trusted them, like I have this bigger personality, but I think to the broader world, I was always this like super, super quiet and curious kid.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, grew up in North Carolina, both my parents were entrepreneurs, so got to kind of watch and observe them build businesses throughout my whole life.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, loved school, always excelled in school, wasn't a big athlete per se, but um loved studying, loved anything about school.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Was also very quiet in the classroom.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: I was that kid that would rather take a B in class than raise my hands.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, loved school.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_02: That's so interesting.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_02: We'll get back to that.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_02: I'm so curious about the quiet kid to content creator pipeline.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: I've actually met a lot of creators that are true introverts, which you can maybe relate to too.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: I can absolutely relate to that.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_02: It is very different talking to a camera than it is talking in a like live room.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_02: So um, okay, and you mentioned your parents that they were very entrepreneurial, that they spent a lot of time talking about business.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I've also read that that is like something you guys talked a lot about at dinner, things like that.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_02: Tell me a little bit about uh maybe what your relationship was to that growing up.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_02: Did you feel like pressure about it?
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_02: Like, were your sisters into it?
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_02: Was it something you all talked about?
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what was that like?
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, never any like pressure.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: I think both my parents were always just like very excited by like whatever path we wanted to choose.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't feel like they ever like directed us in a certain way, and there there was never pressure around like you need to get this job or you need to build this type of business or pursue this type of career.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, actually, me and my sisters, we've all chosen very, very different.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: What are your sisters do?
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um so the sister below me is in real estate, she did commercial and now residential, and then my younger sister is in med school at Wake Forest.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, you really covered the like pillars.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: Very, very different paths.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um both my parents were in like more traditional entrepreneurial roles.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: So growing up in North Carolina, like venture capital startups, like that was not something I had honestly ever heard of.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Where in North Carolina were?
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um in Charlotte.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: So like banking, consulting, real estate, kind of like the traditional career paths were really big there.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um and you know and what did your parents do?
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: My parents, so my mom started a residential real estate brokerage firm like 30 years ago, around like the year I was born, actually.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um grew that to like a hundred agents under her and has like continued to be a little bit more.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, in Charlotte.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then my dad does commercial real estate.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so more of like the develop development side of like building shopping centers and finding sites kind of all up the southeast.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think one, um, growing up, like not many of my friends even had moms that worked, and so I think having not only a mom that worked, but also was like building a business and was like in leadership groups like YPO was just like incredibly impactful for me.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: I think it you know allowed me to see like what you could do as a woman in business, and so I'm like very grateful for that, and I think that has kind of inspired a lot of like the content I create today because I think not every young girl gets to see a woman build and her mom build a business like that.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think another thing was like at dinner, my parents would like often like talk about like they would partner on some real estate deals, and so that was always often a topic of conversation, which sometimes became a little bit annoying, I'm not gonna lie.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: And it still today is a big topic of conversation, especially now with my middle sister in real estate and love to talk deals.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so I again I think that has been a big inspiration for what I'm doing too.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: Of like I now realize that like talking about money investing was not typical for most households.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think I now understand the value of learning those things and talking about those things, and I think it's a lot of the reason of why I care deeply about kind of sharing these things online.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that makes a ton of sense.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_02: And what was college like?
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what did you study?
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, did you know what you wanted to study going in?
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so went to Wake Forest, only school I applied to.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I've applied early decision, got in in like September of my.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: I forgot we're both North Carolina college kids.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: We were uh not far from each other, Wake and Duke.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's like an hour away.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's very close.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I applied to Wake.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: My mom had gone there, so like honestly, it was the really only school I was interested in.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, didn't have like exact plans when I got um to school, just kind of explored.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: 17-year-olds don't literally had was there for like the fun and the school part of it, obviously.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um ended up studying accounting, which is like the least exciting.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: Basically, to get into the business school, you had to take an intro to accounting class.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, took that class, like really excelled in it, which is like such a hilarious thing.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: Was that surprising to you?
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, my dad was a CPA, so I think honestly, I feel like if you have the accounting brain, it just somehow gets passed down to a generation, which is like so weird.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's in your genetics.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: So I was just very good at accounting.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: But honestly, looking back, there weren't many conversations around like what does this major open up for you career-wise.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: Which like now I'm kind of grateful for because I got fed into accounting audit, which I like really didn't love and didn't see like a big long-term career path for me there.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I think if I had maybe gone into like investment banking, for example, and done like a finance degree, like I think the opportunities that would have come to me would have been like more exciting and easier just to like stick to those things.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think because I got pigeonholed into accounting, you're actually grateful that you were unhappy.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's exactly.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: So then I was like, okay, I have to be really creative about like how I create my own path because people could only see me as an accountant.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like after I left Deloitte, it was like went to a startup, did accounting, like even after like showing them that I could do other things, like you're just really pegged as this accountant.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, okay, I'm just gonna have to create my own path to break out of this.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, okay, that was gonna be my next question around those sort of early years in your career pre what year did you go to business school?
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I got into business school March 2020.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: So it was like very crazy timing.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: It was when LA was shutting down for COVID.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, they could have never imagined what the next few years would look like.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_02: So before you decided to go to business school, your first couple of roles, you know, we all have those first couple of jobs out of college.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_02: Like, how were you making decisions at that point?
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_02: Were you sort of following what showed up for you?
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_02: Were you making deliberate decisions at the time?
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_02: Were you feeling kind of lost?
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_02: Like what was that?
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: I would say like first job into Deloitte, that was definitely just like a follow the path.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: So, like if you took the accounting path at Wake, you were like very much in this like you're going to a big four accounting firm, essentially.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like there was like basically like no other conversation or like no other option around it, which is kind of crazy looking back.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so you do accounting, you actually have to do a fifth-year master's program at Wake to get the number of hours to then sit for the CPA exam.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, anyways, so like Wake very much funnels you into one of the big four accounting firms.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: They want that for their stats, so they like, I think just like don't really give you other options of what you can do.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so followed that path, got to Deloitte, um, was like I was an auditor, which was like truly one of the least exciting jobs out there.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, don't know that it could get much worse than that, but it like set me up.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: I think having Deloitte on my resume was like a huge thing and has been amazing.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and got there and was basically focused on like financial services firms, like KKR, Jeffries were two of my clients.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and when I got there, I honestly like um thanked my friend, my best friend Abby.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: We were lucky.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: We both did a camp.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: Abby, yes, she's the best.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, before we even like moved to New York for our jobs at Deloitte was like, Ruffin, this is not it.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like, we gotta figure something else out.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I think I maybe would have stayed there for years.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_02: No, literally.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: She was like trying to find a new job before she started.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: Before she started, yeah.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: What is she doing now?
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, she is now working in like fintech um partnerships at like a larger organization.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: She got out as well.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: Great.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: She got out soon after me, luckily.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_02: Amazing.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_02: And then, okay, uh, why did you go to business school?
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_02: And would you say it was worth it?
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yes.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: So went to business school.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: So I'd gone from Deloitte to working at like a consumer fintech.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: The company for context was Pierce Street, Andrews and Horroids back.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: They had just raised a Series A when I joined, and they were basically building this investment platform to help democratize access to investing in real estate.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so I had gotten like really curious around this concept of like financial inclusion, democratizing access to certain investing asset classes.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: I had spent about three years working at the startup, kind of saw like the roller coaster like highs and lows of building a venture-backed company.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, eventually, I think got to the point where I had always like thought I would start something of my own, but like wanted to get that true startup experience, especially in like I had no exposure to like tech and venture-backed companies.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so felt like it was very important to get that experience.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: So did that for a few years.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: I think learned that like, you know, everyone was just kind of figuring it out, and felt like I got to that place where like, okay, I really want to try doing something on my own.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um at that time, thought that business school was a good path to doing that.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: I think in this day and age, maybe not the best path, but I think it ended up being say more about that.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: A great thing for me.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think at the time they're just like one, like you needed venture capital, for example, two, you didn't need venture capital, but I think like there was a lot less you can do without the AI tools that we have today.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so, like, wanted to go back to school to kind of like build this network of investors, and also I think working out like a Series A startup is very different than like getting something fully off the ground.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so I saw business school, especially UCLA, who kind of had this like accelerator program as like access to like the resources around like how do you think about doing this?
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what does zero to one actually look like instead of like you know that next phase of growth?
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um I like to say like business school is definitely a privilege, not something you have to do.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I think in this day and age with like remote work, there's like things you can build on the side, which like you also know um that you can do without spending a ton of money going back to school.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: But I think business school also kind of gave me that time to just like really spend two years like thinking, trying different things.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I I if I was working another job, I don't know that I would have like had the space, the mental space even to create what I have created today.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, I've thought about a few times I've gone down the path of like, oh, maybe I should do uh business, you know, the part-time, like fully employed programs.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_02: And um, it just feels like to really get value out of business school, you have to be so you have to really treat it as like your own accelerator.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_02: Totally of like I'm going into this sort of like blank page space and I'm gonna discover what I want to be with.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, and to the point of which again is such a privilege.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: Is business school worth it?
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like I think you have to I went in with it, like I want to start something through this experience, and like I'm only focused on that.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: Why do you think you wanted to start something?
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: I I think like I just always saw my parents as entrepreneurs, and like I knew that was kind of the path I wanted for myself for many reasons.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: I think I just like wanted to control my time and like you know how I spend my time outside of work, like my destiny, and um really just I honestly only saw that as the path.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_02: I resonate.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and you talked a little bit about operating before founding something.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_02: Do you bel like if somebody was asking you, I want to found something, but like maybe they hadn't worked in a startup before, would you recommend they do that first?
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_02: Do you still kind of like feel like that was the right strategy?
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think for me, I needed to work for someone else, work in a startup setting, which was like incredibly different than working at a bigger company like Deloitte, just to like build my confidence and like feel like this is something I could do on my own.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: But everyone's so different.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: There are plenty of people that start something in college, and then it's amazing.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: But like I knew for myself that was not gonna be.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: I was not at the point where I was ready to do that.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it's just such a personal decision.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_02: I also feel like it's such a exposure thing where you are able to then take some learnings that are on someone else's risk bottom line and then like apply them to your own business versus I mean, you know better than anybody, running your own business, starting your business is a very sort of solitary experience.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_02: And sometimes you're like, is am I like a level?
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what am I supposed to be doing here?
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_02: So I I think that like from from what I've observed, it tracks in that like it's really helpful to have seen someone else do it first.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_02: Totally.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then what did starting your business look and feel like?
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what was tell me about the I assume it wasn't one day you were like, all right, here we go.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_02: So like tell me about what that path was.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_02: I think a lot of people that are gonna listen to this are probably in that sort of like messy.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_02: I have this idea, I'm experimenting, but like when do I decide to go all in?
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_02: Should I do it on the side?
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_02: Like tell me about that experience.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: Honestly, it's been basically like six years of like experimenting, and I only really went all in in 2026.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: So like this current year.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: Really, you would say you only went all in.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: What do you define as all in?
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, being solely focused on it.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: So, like last year I was working part-time with the family office, so I always had a foot in the door with like a part-time role in investing.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like a lot of people wouldn't know that.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I like I didn't speak too publicly about um the family office roles.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: This is why we have these conversations.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um mainly because they're honestly private, so I like can't say too too much.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: But um, yeah, I was in that role too.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: I always saw like content and what I was building as a way to like get investing experience, and so I was able to work under a woman who had like incredible experience, um, running a super large family office out of San Francisco.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so I before I went all in into what I was building, I thought it was super important to get some more like technical training on the investing side.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so worked family office for a bit, worked for an emerging fund manager before that.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, the journey was like I went to business school, I knew I wanted to start something.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: So like 20 2020 to 2022 was like exploring things.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: What I what am I gonna do?
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the last semester of business school, so I guess that would have been like January 2022.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: So about four years ago.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: I like created my first TikTok.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I guess technically that I feel like is what was that first TikTok about?
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_02: Do you remember?
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: I remember like the first one that caught fire and like actually went viral.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like at that point, I was when I started the first 30 days, I posted three to five times a day.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: Just like expensive.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_02: You went you went in hot.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_02: So you went from nothing to three to five times a day.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: Which I always say, like, if you want to get started on like video short form content, I think the best thing to do is just like throw so many, as many things at the wall as possible and just like see what it sticks, what's resonating with people.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and what I found was like I that post was about going to UCLA business school, spending like a crazy amount when you are in COVID and it's lockdown experience.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so what I realized was um basically talking about UCLA and having this like trust factor immediately with people because I was associated with this brand, was kind of what allowed me to build my audience initially because people like obviously had no idea who I was.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then I kind of leaned into that as well as my Deloitte experience to kind of build trust and build an original audience of people.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so, yeah, content was kind of like the first evolution of the business.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: When I went to graduate, I had like a small audience, I don't know, maybe like 40,000-50,000 followers on TikTok, maybe less, maybe like 40, 50,000.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was maybe 15,000.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: It was like, it was to the point where like you cannot monetize and like live off this.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like is uh what I'll reframe that as.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so I looked up and I was like, okay, well, I came into business school to start this like consumer fin tech idea that I don't want to pursue anymore.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: What am I what am I gonna do now?
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: I hadn't done any of the internships like with the big tech companies or consulting firms that other people did.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so I first tried to get a role in venture.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: My theory was like, hey, I have this amazing platform, I'm meeting all these founders.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: I I have a platform to you know share founders' stories and source deals.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yeah.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: But back then, like I think VCs thought that like this new form of media was honestly like kind of a joke.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like I probably write strategy wrong, wrong year.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I was a little too early, which has like now been amazing.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, sure.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: But I was too early at the time, like had a guy literally laugh me out of an interview and say is TikTok a real sourcing strategy.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: I hope so.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know who you are.
• 18:48
  unknown: Literally.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so the first year after business school, I actually just like took some odd jobs.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: I um basically couldn't get a job adventure at the time, so I like uh freelance in social media and like worked with some startups that like wanted help on like how do you build organic strategies around reaching your customers for startups, worked with some VCs on it as well.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so I kind of like pieced together job for myself, then eventually about a year after graduating, got my first opportunity venture with an emerging fund manager, then my way made my way to the family office, and basically along the way I've been building basically everything I've been doing on Bridge Club, which is a combo of media and now investing.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: But it's taken a long time to get here.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_02: And when you decided to go all in, what was the thing?
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_02: Like what what made you take that jump?
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think the big thing was I felt like I had gotten the experience I needed on the investing side.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then second, it was just clear that I was like having to say no to certain opportunities.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it was just time to really go all in.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it felt like it was very de-risked too.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: It was like, okay, there's something real here.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: And if I really focus and go all in, I can make this something a lot bigger than it is.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, were you scared?
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, definitely scared, yes.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, even with all the de-risking.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, totally.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, I think there's still moments where I'm like, oh, this could like all go away one day for sure.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if that ever goes away.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think it does.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_02: I was just in OGC this morning, somebody was like, I just started my business, and I feel like it's so much whiplash between this is the most amazing thing ever, and like, oh my God, what am I doing?
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, I'm many years in.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_02: And so that way I'm so sorry.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_02: It depends on like what day of the week you're catching me on.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, morning or afternoon, really.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um okay, and then I'm so curious, do you feel like you've found your thing?
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_02: Or is this a is this a stop on a longer path for you?
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: I love this question.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I do feel like I've like found what I was really meant to build, which is cool.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think like there will be different iterations of it and versions of it, but I feel like my North Star of like basically like getting more women into this world of investing and building companies was like truly always something I was meant to do.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and yeah, I think that's a really cool feeling.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: Are you surprised that you were like able to pull it off?
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yes.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: No, I literally still think I'm like, hmm, like like again, it goes back to like, is this gonna work out?
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like I still have that feeling.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_02: A huge thank you to my friends at Granola for sponsoring the Goodwork Talk Show.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_02: I started using Granola as just a note taker, but now I use it for every type of meeting and conversation, from quick check-ins to creative collaborations and everything in between.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_02: Granola is an AI notepad that transcribes meetings, whether online or in person, and it creates amazing summaries that you can chat with and you can ask follow-up questions to well after the meeting is over.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_02: As a busy person with a full time job and a couple of side projects, I truly couldn't keep track of all of it without granola.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_02: It helps me stay focused and stay present while still capturing all the details and the important to-dutes in the background.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_02: I even used it on all of these episodes, so you'll be able to check the notes for each show and chat with them just like you were sitting here with us.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: Granola also has features for following up and for drafting to-do lists.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_02: It definitely saves me from dropping balls and it helps me do what I say I'll do.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_02: The best way to check it out is to try it in your next meeting.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_02: To read the summary of today's show and chat with that summary, you can visit granola.ai slash goodwork.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_02: And if you're a new granola user, you'll get three months free.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_02: Again, that's granola.ai slash goodwork.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so it's time for our granola question.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_02: And so granola's been transcribing up until now, and all the it's cool, all the notes actually are gonna be available via granola too after.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_02: So it's nice and fun.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_02: But um, so it's been transcribing our conversation, then I asked it what we I should ask you next.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_02: And so the question it suggested was uh, how do you decide which opportunities to say yes to now that you're fully all in?
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like this is something I'm definitely still trying to figure out, and I'm sure you can relate to this, but like once you put yourself out there, you have an audience, I think there's a lot of opportunities to come your way.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: So it's always a constant battle of picking my battles.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think especially now I have a now one-year-old at home, and you know, you just have to be really ruthless about what you say yes and what you say no to.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: I wish I could do everything, but like literally not possible with everything going on at home now.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think I just always try and think about like, does this have true impact on the business?
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: And like, I don't know if I can give like a specific example, but just what does impact mean to you?
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, I think it's like on the numbers side, like, is there like actual revenue that can be generated here, or like, you know, is this someone that I think I want to bring into the bridge club world?
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: Is it someone like I really want to meet?
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, for example, I just went over to New York to meet Laura Modi, the founder of Bobby, and so you know, typically would not fly to New York and take a ton of time out of my life to do something like that, but like she was someone I really wanted to bring into the bridge club world.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think just I think about it in terms of like network and building the community around bridge, and then like what's the actual like honestly revenue impact on the business as well.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_02: Have you had to say no to anything or think about anything that was maybe high revenue impact, but like not aligned with your vision?
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, I think like certain brand deals, I would say.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm always trying to think about like, is this something like I would actually use for the business?
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: Is this like a true aligned partner?
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: So, like that is something that comes to mind on the like specific revenue side of things.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_02: I got outreach for a paramenopause situation, and I was like, I'm not ready for this.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not too young, but I'm not mentally ready.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_02: No, we're definitely not ready for that.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so bridge club is a little bit hard to fit into like one category.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_02: And um, this is like I feel like I'm asking myself this question too, all the time.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_02: But do you even try anymore?
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_02: Does it matter?
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I feel like people are like this whole niche down sort of mentality.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_02: Like, do you feel like it's important for you to be able to say, I run a media company or I run an investing company or I run a syndicate or whatever?
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, I struggle with this.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: Explaining what I do, especially to like my parents and their friends, is truly the hardest thing ever.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: I give some anxiety.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I literally don't want to go to a family gathering because people ask me questions.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: You're like how much time does it have an actual real job.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, this was like maybe started to be a real job like five years ago, so I get why you're confused.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but yes, it is something that is very difficult to explain.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: I think in my head, I see the two businesses as separate media and investing, but they both like fuel each other.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I really started in media because I saw that as the future to business.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so it was media first, but I always knew that would not be I didn't want to just be a content creator and I didn't want to just do media.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_02: And there's also a community aspect, which is the third sort of piece.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_02: And you're you mentioned the anxiety that you feel without being able to identify it, which like I feel the same.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_02: Do you feel like it's important from a business perspective, like from a user acquisition perspective, or do you find that the multi-hyphenate version of it is actually helpful?
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think the community piece like is something that surprised me.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like I didn't set out being like, I want to build a community.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: I think what ended up happening was people were kind of like following what I was talking about on socials, and like people felt very drawn to be part of that movement to get more women in business, to get more women investing.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so that kind of became this natural thing.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: I also think community can be defined in so many ways, and I also struggle with this of like I have this amazing larger community, you know, that's like following my content and engaging with me online and like you know, sharing these stories through content as well and participating in the stories, but then I also have like an actual community where we are like investing together and like sharing insights and sharing perspectives on different deals.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think it's just been an unexpected thing that I've loved, and I think all three facets really fuel each other in cool, unique ways.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, like on the investing side, what I've started to see is like these founders, one, love like the ethos of Bridge Club.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: I think they're just tired of you know, the investors on their cap tables looking the same, and they want to one, bring women along on the journey.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: And then I don't think they also think it's such a cool opportunity to have touch points with their actual customers, right?
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_02: Most of the businesses are targeted, like their target user is is women.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, we've naturally I think just leaned towards like companies in women's health and like consumer products serving women.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think that's just because one, we like believe in these products so much, and it's like things that we can collectively come together and invest in.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think of what you do as work?
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like, are you like I'm going to work?
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yes and no.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: I think like video and content creation is like extremely challenging for me.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I would say I think of that as work.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, sitting down to like ideate and actually like get in front of a camera is not something that comes naturally.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like, again, my background was like accounting, finance, doing Excel spreadsheets.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like, that's where I'm comfortable.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_02: What that pipeline is so obvious.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I would say like creating videos can feel like work to me just because it's not something so natural.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: But I think you know, with anything I've done in life, I think pushing yourself out of your comfort zone has been like amazing and like brings incredible opportunities.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um the like bridge club community aspect and like the interviewing the amazing female founders, like yes, it is work, but I I feel like that is just so much more fun and natural to me.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so I would feel like that feels less like work.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_02: How do you get yourself to do the the stuff that feels like work?
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I just know that it continues to bring incredible opportunities that you like time block it into your calendar.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: I like typically like Mondays and Tuesdays are very quiet in terms of less meetings on those days, and so I carve out time to do.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: I need long stretches for creative work.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you feel that the same way, but like, you know, I give me 30 minutes and I'm not doing anything.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: No, like I like really I do a ton of research for my videos, I like write out like scripts and do like multiple iterations of them, and then like I don't want to be in front of a camera every day, and so I typically batch film two to three, three to four videos.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so those are typically beginning of week, you know.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_00: I think when I have a little bit more creative energy, a little fresher, yes, and it's a good thing to get done early in the week before I get busy.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_02: I love talking to people that are like working on similar things to me because I also feel this one very deeply.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_02: You are working on like a very systemic challenge, right?
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_02: Of like women uh needing to get more involved in investing and raising more funding and things like that.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_02: Like that is not gonna change this week or this month or this year or even in the next five years substantially.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm really curious how you think about motivation and success and and things like that when there's such a long time horizon on like the payback period.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_02: Totally.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_02: And like how do you get yourselves every day to show up and be like, we're just gonna keep plugging away, even if the numbers aren't showing that it's working.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: And unfortunately, I think we've gone backwards in terms of the numbers in the past few years, which is like kind of insane to me.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because we're already at a pretty bad.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's absolutely insane.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so that's sad.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I think like that mission is like what makes me like continue creating the videos, for example.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like that, like I feel so deeply about like needing that to change.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because again, I've just seen like the impact of like my mom being able to build a business and like what that has done for me in my life, and so just feel so passionate about more women getting into investing, more women building businesses.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think like you know, it would be my dream if I had gone back in time to like work for a female CEO and just like the different cultures and who they hire is like so wildly different than kind of like this very one type of founder we are funding right now.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so I just feel so passionately about that that that is what keeps me going.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: But I've now lost what was your actual question.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_02: Uh the question was like, how do you continue to be motivated despite the numbers going backwards, for example?
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_02: So it sounds like it's it's it sounds to me like it's an internal uh mission that is like driving you, and you have sort of trained yourself almost to ignore the external numbers as a as a function of your success.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I think about just like the small wins that I'm having on a day-to-day basis, like whether it's like we're you know able to put a hundred thousand dollar investment into a female founder, like just small things like that that I think will build over time, which I've already started to see like with my content, and I think that will continue to build, especially on the investing side as well.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, cool.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_02: If Bridge Club disappeared tomorrow, for whatever reason, you stopped having stopped working on it, how do you know that it mattered?
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_02: Like what how do you define success, I guess, on a longer time horizon?
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what do you hope that when you're 80 you look back and like you felt like you feel like yeah, I like I did something that was important?
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: I think like the biggest thing, especially from the media side, is like women seeing other women build these things.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so, like, for example, my how she built this series on social is like showing women building these massive companies and just showing younger girls, younger women that it is possible.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: I think that is the biggest impact I can make.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_02: To me, from the outside, it feels like a pay it forward because you got that from your mom as a kid.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_02: And as you've grown up, you realize that not everyone does that.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, definitely like where it all stems from.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, not to therapise you.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, last question, favorite question.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_02: What is uh what does good work mean to you?
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um, this is such a good question.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_02: It's a hard one.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_02: It's a hard one.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_02: There's no right answer.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like for me, it just means like putting something out in the world that I'm incredibly, incredibly proud of.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um when I was thinking about this question, one thing came to mind was the interview I recently did with Laura Modi, the CEO of Bobby.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: I like prepped so much for that interview was like such a huge, exciting moment for me.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: And um, so much research went into that episode and interviewing her.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I think just being able to put that out in the world and feel like so proud about it, and then also like get messages from like my cousin who like doesn't have kids, like nowhere close to having kids of like, wow, I just listened to that episode.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like, one, you're not even in the tech startup world.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's like cool to see like that is resonating with people, and he's like, I now want to buy a can of Bobby, which I'm like, you're not even at a place where you want uh children, and so I think just being able to put like really quality work out in the world, yeah.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_02: What an amazing interview to be able to show your daughter one day, too.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_02: So I love that.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, well, thank you so much.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_02: This was so great.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for having me.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_01: It was the best.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for coming to our home.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_01: And um, this has been good work.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_01: The best, great work, great work.