And She Spoke

Picture an auctioneer. If you’re like most people, you just pictured an elderly, bespectacled British gentleman, with a gavel in one hand and a glass of scotch in the other. Not a 20-something woman in a brightly colored dress with heels et al. That’s where Lydia Fenet comes in. Lydia is the Global Managing Director of Strategic Partnerships at Christie’s in New York by day and auctioneer extraordinaire by night. Lydia’s incredibly inspiring story began when she interned at Christie’s as a 21-year old. She quickly rose through the ranks creating her own brand of auctioneering, one that didn’t make her feel like she needed to fit into an old British man-shaped mold. She embraced her natural sense of humor, her femininity and learned to walk up on stage and command millions of dollars. All by the time she was 24. Tune in to today’s episode to get a behind the scenes look at the glamorous life of an auctioneer, her book, and her recent TV and film deal, but more importantly, to learn from Lydia’s journey of learning to draw her confidence from within.

Here’s a peek at what else you can expect:

• How Lydia was introduced Christie’s Auction House
• How her tenacity finally got her a job there Lydia’s advice for young women at their first jobs
• The series of events that led to her TV and book deal
• Her experiences being one of the few women in a male-dominated field
• How humor and femininity became Lydia’s best friends
• The importance of being authentic
•  

RESOURCES 

•  Princess Diana Auction - Christie’s Auction House
•  The Most Powerful Woman in the Room is You - Lydia Fenet
• Stand Up For Heroes 2015 Auction - Bruce Springsteen
• Lydia Fenet - Instagram
• Lydia Fenet - Website

This Week’s Joy:
Lydia has three kids and nothing brings her more joy than spending time with them. Even if that means just falling asleep with them after a long day at work.
 This Week’s Hustles:
Lydia believes every day is a hustle and that you are your own biggest tool to get things done.
 
Know Your Numbers
In our business, we're big fans of financial literacy and accountability. Knowing your numbers is an essential aspect of building a successful business and inherent responsibility for any entrepreneur.
What you focus on grows, so pay attention to your money.
We use Bench for our bookkeeping. It's simple, elegant and saves us so many hours that would otherwise be spent neck-deep in receipts on the other side of a spreadsheet.
Each month our transactions are automatically imported into Bench and we get on-demand financial reports. We even enjoy opening up our profit and loss statement to review each month. When tax time comes around, we are up to date and ready to go. And this is what Financial Empowerment feels like.
Use this link to save 20% off your Bench Accounting plan for the first six months!
This podcast is brought to you by Namastream.
This podcast is brought to you by the Namastream software platform. Namastream is an easy to use platform that helps you build and sell your own courses memberships and live-streamed programs. Go from idea to open for business in just minutes. Unlike other startups, Namastream was created by women for women. If you're looking for a simple, streamlined way to build and grow an online business. You can learn more at Namastream.com
 

It’s been a long few weeks. 

And full disclosure, they’ve been some of the worst for us and our business.

We’ve had to process the fact that our partnership with our work, our business’s core values, and our day-to-day operations have been shaken up, maybe even permanently. 

All in the span of a few days. 

Our business has always stood for sustainability, digital artisanship, and slow growth. It’s what we’re passionate about and we’ve worked very hard for over the years. 

But, a few weeks ago, we had to scale our business incredibly fast. And that meant having to make some very difficult decisions - ones that sometimes went against our core values and caused us to have mini breakdowns at our desks. 

Of course, we understand that in many ways, we’re hugely lucky. At a time of immense turbulence for so many businesses, the mere fact that we’re growing is nothing short of incredible. We’ve also had to hire people to meet our demand, and we’re glad we can provide our new employees with job security and a sense of stability. 

But, this kind of quick scaling has never been what we’ve envisioned for our business, which was built on the idea of humane growth. 

Our business was this beautiful, living, breathing, evolving experiment that the two of us were sharing with the world. 

And it feels a little bit like we lost control of that. 

The past few days, we’ve just focused on showing up, powering forward, and holding each other up through this. Of course, we’re aware that we’re a couple of weeks behind on releasing new episodes, only because we felt that the episodes we had in queue were a bit insensitive for right now and because we’re still trying to process everything around us. 

Moving forward, we’ll be talking about some actionable strategies, tips, and industry trends we’ve been noticing to help stabilize your business and pivot if you need to. 

But today, we just felt like sharing a very real conversation between two business partners and friends. 

 Here’s a peek at what else you can expect:

• Our anxieties about the structure of our business moving forward
• How we had expected these circumstances, but never this soon
• The intensity and scarcity of these times
• The beautiful ways businesses are pivoting to help out
• How to start new conversations about the future of our planet

Namastream - Instagram

Namastream - Website

This podcast is brought to you by the Namastream software platform. Namastream is an easy to use platform that helps you build and sell your own courses, memberships and live-streamed programs. Go from idea to open for business in just minutes. Unlike other startups, Namastream was created by women for women. If you're looking for a simple, streamlined way to build and grow an online business. You can learn more at Namastream.com

In our business, we're big fans of financial literacy and accountability. Knowing your numbers is an essential aspect of building a successful business and inherent responsibility for any entrepreneur. 

What you focus on grows, so pay attention to your money.

We use Bench for our bookkeeping. It's simple, elegant and saves us so many hours that would otherwise be spent neck-deep in receipts on the other side of a spreadsheet.

Each month our transactions are automatically imported into Bench and we get on-demand financial reports. We even enjoy opening up our profit and loss statement to review each month. When tax time comes around, we are up to date and ready to go. And this is what Financial Empowerment feels like.

Use this link to save 20% off your Bench Accounting plan for the first six months!

We’re a female-owned software company, and take a LOT pride in what we’ve built.

And we love supporting other woman-owned ventures, which is part of the reason we were both big fans of THINX. This was a product developed by women, for women, and it helped to change the public conversation about women’s bodies.

Good for women, and good for the environment? Consider us sold. 

So when we heard about what went down with THINX and Miki Agrawal, we knew we needed to talk about it. 

Investigative journalists did a little digging and found that both THINX underwear, and their work environment, were toxic. 

As consumers, we felt duped. But as business owners, we were curious to see how this would pan out. 

As female business owners, this sparked a lot of conversations about the ethics of branding, the reality of female-owned business, and why being female-owned doesn’t necessarily imply feminist.

Here’s a peek at what else you can expect:

• The strict standards for female business owners
• Cancel culture and the space to fail
• Our main takeaways from THINX
• Taking ownership of our failures
• The ripple effect of the failure of one female-owned business
• Can you be a feminist company and still be aiming for rapid growth?

• Patriarchy Proof: Thinx and the Perils of Emphasizing Female Founders
• The rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes
• A Culture of Failure: The Story of Elizabeth Holmes: Episode 119 of And She Spoke
• My Menstrual Underwear has Toxic Chemicals In It
• Taylor Swift - NPR Tiny Desk Concert
• Disrupt Her: A Manifesto for the Modern Woman

In our business, we're big fans of financial literacy and accountability. Knowing your numbers is an essential aspect of building a successful business and inherent responsibility for any entrepreneur. 

What you focus on grows, so pay attention to your money.

We use Bench for our bookkeeping. It's simple, elegant and saves us so many hours that would otherwise be spent neck-deep in receipts on the other side of a spreadsheet.

Each month our transactions are automatically imported into Bench and we get on-demand financial reports. We even enjoy opening up our profit and loss statement to review each month. When tax time comes around, we are up to date and ready to go. And this is what Financial Empowerment feels like.

Use this link to save 20% off your Bench Accounting plan for the first six months!

This podcast is brought to you by the Namastream software platform. Namastream is an easy to use platform that helps you build and sell your own courses memberships and live-streamed programs. Go from idea to open for business in just minutes. Unlike other startups, Namastream was created by women for women. If you're looking for a simple, streamlined way to build and grow an online business. You can learn more at Namastream.com

This Week’s Joy: We’re big fans of Taylor Swift as a person (‘Shake it Off’ is still the best advice ever) which is why this week’s joy and hustle are all about her! 

We recommend watching Taylor’s NPR Tiny Desk concert, especially with your little girl if you want to show her what a great role model looks like.

This Week’s Hustle: Seriously, we cannot get enough of Miss Americana, Taylor’s Netflix documentary. We love that we get to see Taylor evolve from this people-pleasing girl, to a woman who’s  not afraid to speak her own mind. 

Remember when you’d work your tush off just so that you get handed a shiny gold star in front of the whole class? 

Yeah, us too.

Our theory is that this behavior is why so many women in business identify as perfectionists today. 

When we had a show of hands in our community, there were SO many of you who identified as loud and proud perfectionists.

And, we can definitely relate. 

But, perfectionism has a dark side. And that’s what we’ll be exploring in today’s episode. Tune in to learn more about how to reign in your perfectionism and find the courage to fail (with pride).

Here’s a peek at what else you can expect:

• Our own struggles with perfectionism 
• How the quest for perfection can damage your business
• Baby-steps to help you get over wanting to be perfect 24/7
• Why we embrace the ‘B minus’ Method 
• Why the perfectionism you picked up at school and uni might not work in business 

• Seth Godin - Linchpin (and the concept of ‘Ship It’)

In our business, we're big fans of financial literacy and accountability. Knowing your numbers is an essential aspect of building a successful business and inherent responsibility for any entrepreneur. 

What you focus on grows, so pay attention to your money.

We use Bench for our bookkeeping. It's simple, elegant and saves us so many hours that would otherwise be spent neck-deep in receipts on the other side of a spreadsheet.

Each month our transactions are automatically imported into Bench and we get on-demand financial reports. We even enjoy opening up our profit and loss statement to review each month. When tax time comes around, we are up to date and ready to go. And this is what Financial Empowerment feels like.

Use this link to save 20% off your Bench Accounting plan for the first six months!

This podcast is brought to you by the Namastream software platform. Namastream is an easy to use platform that helps you build and sell your own courses memberships and live-streamed programs. Go from idea to open for business in just minutes. Unlike other startups, Namastream was created by women for women. If you're looking for a simple, streamlined way to build and grow an online business. You can learn more at Namastream.com

This Week’s Joy: It’s Peloton Bike! (Tune in to hear about Jeni’s newfound love) 

This Week’s Hustle: Two words - Inbox. Zero. This week, we finally cleared out our inboxes to zero and are actually surprised by how clean and visible our mailbox looks. Mental peace is an added bonus.

With more and more women getting into online business, we decided that it was time  to have an honest conversation about what it means to grow an online business in 2020.

Running an online business has its advantages: you can work when you want, where you want, while wearing what you want. But...there’s a downside. 

 People who work a 9-5 can switch off at the end of the day, but as business owners that’s a habit we need to intentionally cultivate (and it isn’t easy!). When your entire business can be accessed on your iPhone, the urge to check-in can be almost impossible to resist. If you aren’t militant about safeguarding your boundaries, all of a sudden it can feel like you’re working all the time. Tune into this week’s episode to hear about setting boundaries and maintaining work-life balance as an entrepreneur.

Here’s a peek into what else you can expect:

• How to spot the time-sucks in your day.
• The importance of disconnecting and taking that vacation!
• Seth Godin’s work-life philosophy. 
• The challenge of being truly anonymous in the age of Instagram.
• The pressure to always promote your brand or voice a public opinion. 

• ‘What if surfing was your job?’ by Seth Godin

• ‘Workaholics’ by Seth Godin

This Week’s Joy:   

Move towards a more sustainable lifestyle by thinking about your lifestyle and recycling by trying out zero-waste products from https://notoxlife.com/. 

Our upcoming retreat in Wickaninnish Inn in Tofino, Canada and all our photo and video content we’re planning to do there.

In our business, we're big fans of financial literacy and accountability. Knowing your numbers is an essential aspect of building a successful business and inherent responsibility for any entrepreneur. 

What you focus on grows, so pay attention to your money.

We use Bench for our bookkeeping. It's simple, elegant and saves us so many hours that would otherwise be spent neck-deep in receipts on the other side of a spreadsheet.

Each month our transactions are automatically imported into Bench and we get on-demand financial reports. We even enjoy opening up our profit and loss statement to review each month. When tax time comes around, we are up to date and ready to go. And this is what Financial Empowerment feels like.

Use this link to save 20% off your Bench Accounting plan for the first six months!

This podcast is brought to you by the Namastream software platform. Namastream is an easy to use platform that helps you build and sell your own courses memberships and live-streamed programs. Go from idea to open for business in just minutes. Unlike other startups, Namastream was created by women for women. If you're looking for a simple, streamlined way to build and grow an online business. You can learn more at Namastream.com

On an average day, we make 35,000 decisions. It can be as simple as deciding what to wear, or what to eat for breakfast, or something a little consequential like deciding to diversify your business revenue streams, or as tense as dealing with conflict.

As entrepreneurs, our power comes from being decisive. Making a decision, following through, and knowing when to pivot. 

Tune in to this week’s episode to learn more about the mindset shifts to help you take the stress out of decision-making.

Here’s a peek at what else you can expect:

• How decisions affect the way you live and feel
• Learning to rely on your intuition
• Why there is no such thing as a wrong decision
• How to stop spinning out from a place of indecision 
• The elements of decision-making
• Decisions, choice, and victim-mentality
• Why grit’s a character-trait 

• ‘5 ways to make tough decisions faster (and not regret them later)’ by Elizabeth Grace Saunders 

Joy: Cleo Wade 

Hustle: Bonnie Christine’s Flourish Planner

In our business, we're big fans of financial literacy and accountability. Knowing your numbers is an essential aspect of building a successful business and inherent responsibility for any entrepreneur. 

What you focus on grows, so pay attention to your money.

We use Bench for our bookkeeping. It's simple, elegant and saves us so many hours that would otherwise be spent neck-deep in receipts on the other side of a spreadsheet.

Each month our transactions are automatically imported into Bench and we get on-demand financial reports. We even enjoy opening up our profit and loss statement to review each month. When tax time comes around, we are up to date and ready to go. And this is what Financial Empowerment feels like.

Use this link to save 20% off your Bench Accounting plan for the first six months!

Welcome to the first official episode of And She Spoke. This week, we’re diving into everything that’s changed in the three years since we first launched the Soulful MBA. Entrepreneurship has been a journey of personal transformation for both of us. It’s given us a sort of unshakeable sense of self and confidence, and with it comes the comfort of knowing that no matter what happens we’ll be okay. 

Tune in to this week’s episode to learn more about why we believe that entrepreneurship offers an important path to self-actualization. 

Here’s a peek at what else you can expect:

• Looking at the biggest differences between now and three years ago.
• The focus of the new show; business and entrepreneurship as the path to self-actualization.
• Meeting adversity in life and the choices we have in entrepreneurship.
• Changes we have experienced; confidence, competence and appreciation.
• The most surprising events from our journey and how they fit into the broader picture.
• Our hopes and dreams for starting a company together.
• Cashing in on today's opportunities and online business real estate.
• What life was like before we started our business and how it all changed.
• Things that set us apart and allowed us to experience success in creating software.
• Avoiding burnout and quitting; why this is so common and how it can be sidestepped.
• This week's Joy and Hustle! Amazing bras and a must-see film on Netflix!
• The future of our lives; data points, advertising and weaponizing of profiles.

• Episode 1 of the Soulful MBA
• Third Love
• The Great Hack

With a new decade, we wanted to take a second to say goodbye to the Soulful MBA, it’s brought us so far, and we’ve gained so many loyal listeners in the process, but we realized that we’re now at a point in our lives and our businesses where we want to go deeper.

For the last three years, we’ve been talking about all the different ways that you can grow and market your teaching platform, but now we’d like to start talking about what it takes to be the woman behind a successful business.

Presenting, ‘And She Spoke, our brand new show that peels back the different layers of entrepreneurship so we can dive into the messy, the chaotic, and the heartfelt stories and lessons that define the lives of the entrepreneurs we know. 

You’ll hear from successful female entrepreneurs about how they’ve grown their businesses, how current events have affected, the role money, mindset, and philosophy play in shaping the kind of business you run. 

Think of And She Spoke as an inner circle of successful women in business having honest conversations about how they got there, the road bumps in the way, and their big plans for the future. 

We’re setting aside the tactics, and we’re stepping into our truth.

We hope you’ll join us.