Ep. 114/ Use Information Not Intuition: Business Advice with Growth Strategist Emily Friend
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Meet Emily Friend, the founder of the Florence Rose Group and a three-time award-winning operating and growth strategist with over a decade of experience in emerging, private, and Fortune 1000 companies. She specializes in driving innovation in heavily regulated industries, working with C-suite executives and top leaders to optimize their systems, identify areas for innovation, and help them stay compliant and competitive. Basically, she’s your business secret weapon and your competitors' worst nightmare. Emily's shares her journey as an entrepreneur, how her desire to not pack her lunch led to her starting a side hustle to earn an extra $100 a week, which is now a prestigious agency. She teaches about the biggest mistakes companies are making and how you can avoid them: including fear of change, using ‘intuition’ and the sunk cost fallacy. She also shares the impact that video marketing and messaging work for her own brand has had on her business - from increased prospects to improved sales to closing more deals.
You will learn:
Advice for the biggest impact to a company bottom line and what mistakes companies are making and what they should do instead - 13:15
Making business decisions based on data points - 15:55
The impact of working with kim on messaging, public speaking skills and video marketing - 26:50
How to embrace tech to empower your business - 34:43
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Ever wondered how data could transform your business operations? This week on The Exit Interview, I had the pleasure of chatting with Emily Friend. Emily is not only a three-time award-winning operating and growth strategist but also the founder of the Florence Rose Group. She brought a wealth of knowledge on how data-driven decision-making and intuition play pivotal roles in business.
One of the most fascinating points Emily made was about intuition. She challenges the common belief that intuition is just a gut feeling. Instead, she sees it as an informed data point shaped by facts and learned experiences. It was a real eye-opener to consider intuition in this way!
Emily's shares her journey as an entrepreneur, how her desire to not pack her lunch led to her starting a side hustle to earn an extra $100 a week, which is now a prestigious agency. She teaches about the biggest mistakes companies are making and how you can avoid them.
Throughout our conversation, we delved into how businesses, big and small, can benefit from understanding the nuts and bolts of their operations. From taxes and financials to marketing and systems, having a clear picture can lead to more informed and profitable decisions.
Emily didn’t stop there. She shared her journey of building the Florence Rose Group from scratch, offering invaluable insights into starting and growing a business. One key takeaway? The importance of messaging, on-camera confidence, and clarity in business branding through video which she learned through Kim’s course and time working together.
Whether you're just starting out or looking to grow, there’s something in this episode for everyone. Don't miss it!
In this episode you will learn:
Advice for the biggest impact to a company bottom line and what mistakes companies are making and what they should do instead - 13:15
Making business decisions based on data points - 15:55
The impact of working with kim on messaging, public speaking skills and video marketing - 26:50
How to embrace tech to empower your business - 34:43
Quotes from our guest:
“When you are embracing change, there's innovation, there's more money on the table.” - 13:22
“So I will say that intuition is big. You can have a guiding intuition, but intuition is actually a very informed data point even within your mind. It's very built off of fact and learned experience. So there is no such thing as trusting your gut.” - 17:00
“Video marketing has definitely translated, I'd say exponentially across my business from networking in person to sales tools to just creating content for marketing efforts myself.” - 25:20
About Emily:
Emily Friend is an award-winning operations and growth strategist driving success for Fortune 100 and 500 companies. Specializing in heavily regulated industries and emerging markets, Emily has a proven track record of launching new departments, leading sales, marketing, and strategy ops teams, and spearheading innovation and sustainability initiatives. She works intimately with CXOs and senior executives to optimize systems, build top-performing teams, and boost revenue, all while ensuring their companies remain compliant and competitive.
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EMILY’S LINKS:
Kim (00:02):
We have Emily Friend, founder of the Florence Rose Group here. She is going to tell you about the biggest mistakes businesses are making and what you should do instead.
(00:13):
Welcome to the exit interview with Kim Rittberg. Do you work for yourself and want to supercharge your business while still having fun? Well, this is your go-to podcast part MBA Part Cheer Squad. Every week I'll be joined by top business owners who share the secrets to their success. After I found myself working during childbirth true story, I quit my executive media job to bet on myself fighting the fear and imposter syndrome to eventually earn six awards, an in-demand speaking career and features in Fast Company and Business Insider. Now, I'm here to celebrate all you rock stars betting on yourself, and I want to help you win. Tune in every Wednesday to hear from remarkable founders and don't miss our Solo Friday episodes, a treasure trove of video and podcasting mini masterclasses with me. Exit the Grind, enter success on your own terms. Don't forget to subscribe today and grab my free video tips at my website, kimrittberg.com.
(01:14):
I'm really excited for you all to hear from Emily Friend. She has so much knowledge about business, operations, strategy, marketing, and she's going to help you figure out what you should be doing in your business and the things that you're doing wrong. It's going to be a great episode and if you are looking to start showing up on camera, I have a brand new seven day on camera challenge. It's going to be linked out in the show notes, teaches you what to film, what to say, and it has that built in accountability piece. So make sure to check that out. You can visit kim berg.com/courses and coaching or just go into the show notes. Alright, you guys are ready. She's basically like the superhero of business from New York City. Emily Friend is here. She and I have been working together for several years. We met through client work and I was like, this woman going to take over the world.
(01:59):
I need to stay in touch with her. And I've been really impressed with the business that Emily is building. She just has that really strong mix of strategy and she loves all the operational stuff that people like me don't like and aren't good at, but she's also super creative. So I'm really excited to have her on the show because everything she talks about, I'm like, how do you know how to do that? Show me, teach me. So I'm very excited. I'm going to read her bio and then we'll chat. Emily Friend is a three-Time award-winning operations and growth strategist with over a decade of experience in emerging private and Fortune 1000 companies. She specializes in driving innovation in heavily regulated industries, working with c-suite executives and top leaders to optimize their systems, identify areas for innovation and help them stay compliant and competitive. Basically, she's your business's secret weapon and your competitor's worst nightmare. Emily, thank you very joining me.
Emily (02:46):
Thank you for having me, Kim. It's so fun to be here. I can't believe it's been, what, three years now since we got to know each other and work together on our projects. It's amazing.
Kim (02:57):
It's crazy. I feel like I have a front row seat to your rocket growth of your business, so it's been really fun for me to watch you.
Emily (03:03):
Oh, it's been great to be alongside the journey with you and to be learning from you. I mean, I never would've been on this podcast had I not joined your video bootcamp and gotten myself in front of the camera, so thank you very much.
Kim (03:17):
I do feel like, and we'll talk more about the video marketing piece later, but I do feel like for me, having worked in media for so long and shifting into helping business owners, it is people like you and I have other students and clients similar, that getting to actually use my knowledge to help other people who I like and respect and see that they're building something cool. I'm like, Ooh, I get to be a part of that. Cool. So I think it's really also reminded me that I'm on the right path because I get to have clients who are smart and committed to growth and just have the growth mindset, but also the accountability to keep it going. And it's fun for me. It's really fun for me. So I'm going to dive right in with Emily. So talk to me a little bit about what you studied in your first job and then I want to get into what you're doing now.
Emily (03:59):
Yeah, when I first started, I was doing marketing right off the bat. I went right into insurance. I graduated with a mathematical economics degree and was very much heavy in the equations, the systems, the analytics. I'm such a nerd. I love the systems of solving a puzzle and an equation, which is probably why I am where I'm today. I finally have that answer for why did I get into what I love? And I graduated without a job. I was looking for something for that passion and marketing and the way that marketing is these days, that's analytics, that's creativity, it's numbers, it's equations, it's pulling systems apart. So I jumped into that and it really opened these doors of what companies are, which is so much more than marketing. It's figuring out how marketing and sales intertwine. It's figuring out how a CEO's vision intertwines with their marketing and their sales, how we communicate with people outside of a company. So that first baby job of being in marketing has now led to the company I run and working with CEOs and helping them untangle their own puzzles and put it to action. So it's been an incredible journey so far
Kim (05:25):
And it's so cool. I'm kind of always really into people's pivots, like I've pivoted to being a founder and I love people's pivots. And you were saying, so basically you started in marketing and then you started getting really interested in what's under the hood of the car, and so solving those problems. And so now you're really more honed in on, okay, I'm going to come in, I'm going to help tweak and fix the problems. It's kind of like a consulting company comes in and is all the things that are wrong, I'm going to fix them. It's kind of what you do, and specifically in those highly regulated industries, right?
Emily (05:54):
Exactly. So really what happens, you've got a CEO or a top executive who probably is looking at their company seeing I've got a people problem, or I am not quite sure why our revenue is stagnant or why something's going on, and something just isn't clicking and their brain is so lit up with their vision and their passion, but they're just not getting where they want to be. And we start talking and do a diagnostic audit and uncover where maybe there's some bottlenecks or some roadblocks and all of a sudden we're pulling out these little blips here and there and uncovering what a very smooth, simple system could be and their faces light up. It's so fun to see and untangle this messy web and to work with people. When you're working with someone who has so much passion for what they do, it's the most fun. I mean, you're just constantly in this state of spark and excitement. And so to have a career that's built on people's spark and helping tap into that and help them tap into that is just so fun.
Kim (07:10):
And so now for anyone listening who's like, I want to hire Emily, how would a company hire you? And you talk about highly regulated industries. Can you expand on what that means for people?
Emily (07:19):
Yeah, it's a funny term. So highly regulated industries, especially in my sense is insurance, finance, real estate, health, the power sector or clean energy. I'm in the renewable space, legal, anything that has very heavy compliance, that bureaucratic red tape, that's where I lean in and love again, nerdy, wonky, really love to fall. Within that. We get started with a very light discovery business audit. It's a 20 to 30 question audit that bumps out a number, and from there we've got some light recommendations that you take advantage of or we go into a much deeper dive business audit and can go into some of those more systems oriented project based work together.
Kim (08:09):
And so you had worked for companies and now what made you want to start your own business?
Emily (08:13):
Good question. Masochism. A funny masochism. Yeah, right. There's a very funny answer. There's a very open answer. I think a lot of business owners have. I'll start with a funny answer. Funny answer was me working a crazy, crazy amount. I was working 80 hours a week, commuting two times each way and desperately didn't want to meal prep on the weekends, just it's the last thing I wanted to do on a Sunday was make lentil salad. So I was determined to make a hundred dollars extra a week, and I picked up a couple clients. I mean, pickup is working an additional 25 hours a week at least to start your own business on the side. But it afforded me the opportunity to make a hundred dollars extra a week plus and roll into what has become this business seven years later. Actually, I keep saying seven, but it's now I think 10, maybe 11 years later.
(09:13):
It's been a long time. And the real, not that isn't a real answer, but the other answer is when I was in that marketing position, I kept looking for agencies to support myself and there wasn't the right support. They weren't able to remember what we needed, they couldn't remember who we were. And our campaign brief, we were constantly getting the same questions and ultimately we ended up having to do so much in-house anyway, repeating ourselves over and over and over again. And it was a very baseline cookie cutter service. And I knew there had to be a better way, even from the marketing standpoint, from the sales standpoint, from the way that even they were speaking to the CEO, I knew there had to be a better, more complimentary, tactful, humanistic approach, a much more bespoke tailored approach. And I kept looking for it. I spent years looking for it, especially when I went elsewhere, even when I started my agency looking for other agencies to pair with. And it just wasn't out there so much like other founders do you just create it in the market because you didn't find it yourself?
Kim (10:30):
I
Emily (10:31):
Love that. That's the definitely,
Kim (10:34):
It's funny what you were saying about it's wanting to not eat lentil salad for lunch that made you start your business. But I guess I don't think about it, but now I am really actually a two time founder when I had a jewelry business as a side hustle basically when I was in media, but it was way more than a side hustle. It was sold in Bloomingdale's and Henry Bendle and I sold a lot of jewelry, but it really was that a, I didn't have any money, so I was a starting out journalist. I could only wear, basically, I had enough money for a $20 h and m dress and what makes you look good, an amazing piece of jewelry that you made yourself. But obviously the real answer to your point is that I've always been a creative and was passionate about just making things, but it's the financial piece that drives you to be like, oh no, I need this.
(11:17):
And then to your point of solving the need, my dad had his own business and he always said, figure out what your clients need and do that. And I think it's, now that we're having this conversation, it's coming back to me. But that point that my dad had made is I work in video. I didn't want to run a production company that just didn't drive me and it didn't excite me. Not only does it not serve a need, I mean there's a million production companies, so when people are like, do you make a video? I'm like, if you want me to help you make a year's worth of videos, I could help you make a video or the strategy for your year. But if you want one video, that's not me. And so to your point of solving that need is individual business owners need to be on social media, they need to make videos for their business, and they don't know how to do it regardless of your budget.
(11:58):
If you're going to shoot with your iPhone or you're going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, you need a strategy, you need to know how to do it. You're not just going to make three fancy videos for your entire year and you're like, I did it. I marketed myself. Exactly. And so I think I've realized that, oh wait, I am serving this need that ends up, I'm really enjoying it, but it is a need that people have and that's why the company's doing well. Whereas when I started, I'm like, I really don't want to be doing briefs as a production company. I don't want to be pitching, I don't want to be answering RFPs to shoot people's videos. That's not, I do for larger projects when it's a client I'm passionate about, but that's not really, that doesn't drive me. And so anyway, that was a long-winded, winded way to say yes, it's always about serving the client's needs.
(12:40):
And I love to your point of you're really in that niche, which I assume is you have to be really in deep, highly regulated industry is like I never do work with pharma. I don't want to get up to speed. I'm not going to get up to speed on all the rules. Okay. Anyway, I want to talk to you. I know you have really, really good, great advice for our listeners because you at this point really help founders and business owners and executives make their businesses run smoother but also be more profitable. So what kind of advice would you have for, I know you love to talk about the bottom line, so talk to me about your advice for the biggest impact to a company bottom line and what mistakes companies are making and what they should do instead.
Emily (13:22):
Very good question. So I think the biggest, I mean, there's definitely a full list. I think one of the biggest impacts to the bottom line is having a fear of change and the fear of change. I mean, there's two paths. So not embracing change, you've got stagnation, a loss of revenue, a loss of team, and high churn. When you are embracing change, there's innovation, there's more money on the table. You've got happier teams. There's a greater likelihood of being number one in your industry. Companies who are fearing change, clinging to those outdated ideas. They avoid experimentation. Leaders who are innovative are much more likely to embrace calculated risks other than the outdated leaders who are looking for those guarantees of success, which let me tell you, there's no such thing as a guarantee of success. So you're just never going to be number one, and you're just going to quickly fall behind the employees who are looking for those innovators who are willing to have that change.
(14:39):
They're going to jump ship for the ones who are looking for the guarantees of success because they want the innovators who are sharing their vision, who are ready for the bold ideas, who want them to be at the top of their field, who are willing to put money behind them at the top of their fields. It's really, you can make calculated risks. You don't have to have a very risky company and be excited for change, but you really can't fear change. I'll say that's definitely number one. Number two is the sunk cost fallacy. We talk a lot about sunk cost, and we never add that word fallacy. Sunk cost fallacy is an emotional attachment to the money that you've put into an investment. And we as a society get really attached to the money that we've put into all of the things that we've invested our money in. Even if it's money into your clothes, you put money into your closet and then all of a sudden you don't fit into those clothes anymore and you don't want to get rid of those clothes
Kim (15:48):
And your bedroom is a mess because you're like, I spent money on this clothing. But you have to be willing to get rid of it if it's not serving you.
Emily (15:55):
Exactly. And so leaders will hold on to the things that are killing their company and not want to get rid of those things, or not wanting to change them just because they've spent unfortunately a fortune in that department, but they'll just continue to spend a fortune, even though smart leaders will say, look, it didn't work out. Cut our losses, move on. Allocate those resources elsewhere. And the gift of that investment was a learning curve of, okay, we're going to take this and go elsewhere. We're going to say, this actually wasn't a loss. We've now gained a new data point and we're going to use it to inform Q4 Q1 next year. That type of thing. Feeding off on that, another bullet point I will say is there is no such thing as intuition in business. I know that's a very hot topic. I am a big believer in all things woo woo.
(17:00):
So I will say that intuition is big. You can have a guiding intuition, but intuition is actually a very informed data point even within your mind. It's very built off of fact and learned experience. So there is no such thing as trusting your gut. And if you have a team member who says, I made this decision based on my gut, tell them to write down all the reasons why their gut said, that's why we should go with it. It's a very interesting conversation to be had. But intuition is a very cognitive component of decision-making, and the only decision making a company should be making is built off of all of these data points that you've been accumulating. So turning your investments elsewhere because of making that s sun cost decision and going into a different department resource, allocating elsewhere, or looking at your financial statements or checking out bottlenecks, going after competitors, that's where you make your decisions, not with I feel like this is where we should go. So I will say that, and then this is true for all businesses, large, small, starting out top Fortune 100 is know the guts of your business, whether you have people who do them or not. If you are a solopreneur, if you are someone who has 20,000 people to your company, know why your taxes are filed, the way that they are, why your financials are the way that they are, why your marketing looks the way that it does, what it takes to build a website. All of these different things,
Kim (18:51):
Even if you're not going to build it yourself
Emily (18:53):
Exactly. Even if you're not going to build it yourself and you don't have to but know why they work, know what it takes because it makes you just a smarter business owner or a business person. B, it definitely helps you down the road if something happens with your tax person and there's something fraudulent, it's good to know,
Kim (19:14):
Right? It's like we always read about those celebrities and you're like, how did you not know that? Even if you're not doing the accountant, how did you not know that? Right.
Emily (19:20):
And look, I'm guilty. I handed my things off to a tax professional and this year had a little ooh story. And this piece of advice is built off of experience.
Kim (19:31):
That's how you learn.
Emily (19:32):
It's how you learn, but knowing the boring of business is actually how you make yourself the most profitable. It's how your offers are profitable. It's how you know that you are sitting in the most stable of business. And if you can systematize anything, it makes your company a lot smoother, whether it's task management, whether it's mapping your customer experience, whether it's having a consistent onboarding experience, whether you can templatize something even if you are not a template kind of person. If you can make one thing easy to copy and paste, you've made your life easier. You've made anyone who comes onto your company's life easier, you've made succession planning easier because I'm sure you don't want to run your company just like you're doing it for the rest of your life. Sure. You either want to hand it down or you want to sell it or do something different. So that's what fear of change. Don't be afraid to cut your losses. Templatize, what was my other one?
Kim (20:41):
Fear of change, sunk cost fallacy going by your gut and not knowing the other guts of her business. I love those tips and I think that those are great. And these are for really any size business, whether you're working with a big business or a small business. And I think that we all have the thing we naturally gravitate towards. And to be a successful business, you have to fill in those other gaps. And I know this from my own business. I don't love the systems, I don't love the operations. It doesn't drive me, but I just got to get other people to do it. I have somebody who's doing my bookkeeping and they run the backend of the payment systems. I was doing that manually at first. And guess what? I wasn't always getting paid because that's not my skill. And that's okay to say, oh man. And even recently I realized there was a glitch in the payment system. I wasn't getting any notifications for any payment problems. And I'm like, wait, a developer needs to do the backend of this thing. That's not going to be me. I have to go find that person. I need to know where the money's at, how much I'm spending on things, even if it's not to the dollar, the big picture of all that stuff.
Emily (21:40):
So Well, and if you didn't know your cash balance of money coming in, money coming out, and if your offers are profitable, you're just flying blind, right? You're just hoping that your money is going to be green at the end of the month and not red.
Kim (21:56):
Yeah, right, exactly. I'm like, I think this is good. And then I think to your point, and that's why I know just a little part of it is not a large part of it is also that people part because to have the guts and the gaps filled in on the things that a leader isn't good at or doesn't like or doesn't know, you have to hire the right people, and that's its own beast, and that's really hard. And so I love hearing that you's something that you help. And talk to me about the audit that you're offering. I understand you're doing an audit for companies. Tell me a little bit about that.
Emily (22:25):
Yeah, a very light audit. We'll do initially that very easy questionnaire, which is just an initial discovery call, ask some simple questions about finances, marketing, their overall business practice, simply their assessment of change, these types of questions that really get into an overview. We give them that number. That's a very light audit. Then we have a very in-depth audit, which is much more of a buy-in, and that's a three week process where we go in and we interview the top executives through a series of stakeholder interviews of each of those departments. So you've got finance, marketing, sales, you've got the c-suite operations, and we very much deep dive and understand their systems, their mentality, their people, how their entire ecosystem is operating. We give that an audit number and then a series of recommendations and go forward mapping for the next six months or a year where they can either choose to work with us or they can choose to tackle that on their own. Most of the time they choose to work with us because they're on their audit score on their own
Kim (23:51):
20 out of a hundred. They don't want to do it because they can't do it themselves,
Emily (23:55):
But it definitely eyeopening and the recommendations we give are definitely actionable enough that they could take that action themselves.
Kim (24:03):
Oh, that's great. I love that. Three weeks is actually is nice. It's enough time for you to dive in. But then they're getting it pretty quickly. When you think about the turnaround time on companies, it's like, that's great how fast it happens.
Emily (24:14):
And it's a real privilege to be able to get to know them and to be able to have that one-on-one time. We definitely build a very light relationship, and it's a very intimate audit. You are really getting into the weeds. It's a very confidential relationship building, but like I mentioned in the beginning, it's really fun to get to know people's passion and excitement around the projects that they're doing. I mean, we're building relationships with some of the top leaders in their field, so nothing but passion there.
Kim (24:43):
Oh, I love that. Okay, now we're going to shift gears into video marketing. So Emily and I have worked together several times, so she came and did a big shoot day with me. We made the best video together, which is now on her website, florence Rose group.com, and she also took my video bootcamp class and we continue to work together shifting away from, I always say it starts with video, but shifting into thought leadership really video is a way to really be the go-to expert in your field. I'd love to shift a little bit into the video marketing. So we've worked together obviously. What was the biggest challenge for you in terms of video marketing as we started to work together?
Emily (25:20):
I am definitely a behind the scenes girl. I like to be in the back pocket of my executives. I think one of my clients calls me Jiminy Cricket, so I am not a in front of the camera kind of person. I really struggled with that. But from the shoot day through, even the beginning of this year, we just don't live in that day and age anymore where you can own and operate a company without having some sort of public persona. And I think also sales and being out forward facing, even if you're not online, forward facing, just getting comfortable being in front of someone's face and being newscaster hands and not being too emphatic. These are little tricks that end up being great for sales tools. So the video marketing has definitely translated, I'd say exponentially across my business from networking in person to sales tools to just creating content for marketing efforts myself.
Kim (26:34):
Would you say the clarifying of the message and the confidence speaking, how has the video lessons helped in sales? I always like to hear, I think it's very interesting, I think of it holistically, but how has the aspect of the messaging work and the confidence on camera work, how has that helped?
Emily (26:50):
Yeah, I think it was the clarifying of structure of how to speak within a minute, how to speak within 30 seconds, the structure of the kind of outline of the video, definitely getting the messaging clarity on how much to convey within that time, what to convey, what people would find interesting. One of my biggest takeaways I think is the starting right off the bat and not saying hi there. That's one of the biggest things I'll now catch from anyone else that I'm working with, which is funny because I would always edit that out from a client of mine, but never myself. So I love that. And then also just the decorum of how you hold yourself. I feel like I was always so willing to sit and not really hold myself with as much energy and excitement as I could. And now when I look at the videos over this evolution of time now, I really feel like I talk with this real power of I am an expert in my field. And while I could do that with the camera off, now I can do that with the camera on, which is really, really fun.
Kim (28:05):
And what have been some of the wins for you of you becoming more confident on camera, you learning how to make good videos for your business? What have been some of the wins?
Emily (28:14):
Definitely the pickup in client engagement, client reputation or the reputation that I have perceived from clients, the engagement from prospects in them seeing the video and saying, I was able to catch on these couple facts before engaging with us. And then discovery call, which is so valuable to be able to have someone experience you before you're meeting them for the first time and know almost that there's a little bit of that exhale of like, okay, I don't have to do quite so much showiness. They already like me. The discovery call doesn't need to be pressure on that. It can just be the easy stuff for me, the let's figure out your thing instead of the selling. I think that's been incredible. And also just being able to have these evergreen pieces of my business out there. In the past, it's just been written word and written word is fine, but only is as evergreen as it can be. Video though tells a million things in 30 seconds.
Kim (29:23):
I love that. That's so great. I obviously, I think of video as this thing that people think of it as, I just make a video and I'm like, oh my God, because video has so many components. It's the messaging behind it. It's the clarity of message. It's the clarity of your business brand. It's only when people come to me that they're like, oh, wait, I actually don't really know what I'm offering. I'm like, yeah, if you can't say it in a one minute video and forget about a one minute video, if you can't say it in a one minute elevator pitch, which is the one minute video, you need to rethink your business or your offering, or maybe not your business, but whatever you're offering. And so I think of it as a messaging piece. And then there's the on-camera confidence to which your point is it's about selling. You need that. I just did a session with elementary school kids as a nonprofit speaking course, public speaking, you need to have your shoulders back. You have your head held high because if you don't come up with confidence, and I think especially for women, I think it's even stronger as a female founder, you're not confident on that stage for everybody. People aren't going to believe in you. They're not going to invest in you. They're not going to know that you know what you're talking about, even if you do.
Emily (30:26):
Exactly.
Kim (30:27):
So I think it's just so important, but I like to hear from other people. I was so in the weeds of my own life and business and videos. I've been doing it for so long, but that always makes me very happy. Okay. Talk to me about the marathon that you're training for.
Emily (30:45):
Oh my gosh. I'm going into, so I am actually on my road to qualifying for Boston right now. So I don't right now have a marathon that I'm fully signed up for toying with signing up for Philly in the end of November. I just ran New York and this past November, and I am right now training for qualifying. I have to hit a, I think it's, I mean, they give you your time, but then you're supposed to fall way under it. So somewhere between a three hour and 15 minute marathon and a three hour and 25 minute marathon. I'm not anywhere close to that by now, so that's why I'm calling it my journey
Kim (31:30):
To it. You know what, it's one of those things. It's so trite, but it's the path, not the end goal, but training really is, I did one half marathon ever, so I'm like, look at me. But the training part is a part of it. It just forces you. You're very disciplined, but it does force you to be disciplined about running and
Emily (31:47):
Yeah. No, we just kicked off preseason. I'm running with no name program. They're an incredible, incredible program coach and coffee, highly recommend everyone follow them. They're awesome. No sponsored plug there. They're just an incredible group of coaches doing incredible work for New York. New York runners everywhere, but preseason has been kicking my butt. I am exhausted.
Kim (32:10):
Oh my God. So
Emily (32:10):
It's a very humbling experience, but it definitely ties into all the work that I'm doing. It's mindset, it's endurance, it's resiliency and grit. How do you show up for your business? How do you show up for yourself? And I never wanted to tie myself to being a runner, and now here I am, bringing it all back together, but we'll see trying to grow this business and also run and do all of that at the same time. It's going to be a busy six months.
Kim (32:39):
Yeah, we'll see. We'll see. Okay. Are you ready? I have some rapid fire for you. Do you feel ready for some rapid fire?
Emily (32:45):
We'll see. Okay.
Kim (32:46):
Okay. Weirdest job you ever had?
Emily (32:49):
Weirdest job I ever had? God, I've had some very normal jobs probably being a mother's helper where the woman never left. And so all I did was take care of the kids right in front of her while she folded the laundry.
Kim (33:01):
That is kind of weird. Best advice you'd give to another founder?
Emily (33:05):
Best advice I'd ever give. Be authentic, be original. Everyone has very similar ideas, and that is just a matter of this world and this age, but no one says it the way that you say it. So don't be afraid to put your ideas out there. You will find people who need to hear it from you and your voice. Absolutely.
Kim (33:23):
Worst advice you've ever gotten?
Emily (33:25):
Oh, worst advice I've ever gotten. Give up.
Kim (33:29):
Did someone really tell you to give up? That's horrible.
Emily (33:32):
So many. Yes. A lot of people. A lot people even today are like, why don't you just apply for a job? I'm like, why? My business is doing great. I was like,
Kim (33:38):
Actually, you're doing amazing. You should definitely not apply for a job. Surprising skill you have
Emily (33:45):
Surprising skill I have. I make an excellent cocktail and I'm a great cook.
Kim (33:51):
I'll have to find that over now. I just invited myself over for dinner. That was the,
Emily (33:54):
You absolutely did.
Kim (33:55):
Yeah, I guess that's not that shocking, but it's good though. Anything else that I didn't ask you that you'd like to share with the audience?
Emily (34:04):
I mean, this could also go with my skills, but I say optimize as much as possible. And that definitely goes with ai. And so I think we live in a day and age where people are really fearful of tech and really fearful of what AI is doing to future careers and to future businesses. And it's always going to take humans. It's always going to take you and your brain. I mean, it goes back to that authenticity, that originality plug. And I think women especially are very fearful of using tech in general. There's a tech gap that goes with the wage gap, and all I can say is lean in and use it to your advantage. Build your bots. Find people who can help you build your bots. Use it to optimize your emails and your content and help strengthen all of everything that you do, even from optimizing your calendar to your social.
(35:04):
I mean really lean into tech in a way that empowers you and turn that fear into excitement because it isn't going anywhere and it isn't something to fear. And if you are fearing it, it's probably just from the unknowing uncertainty of it all. And there are a lot of resources and there are people out there. Please reach out to me. I'm happy to be one of them to bring you along that space, but there's so much there and I can have a whole nother podcast on that, just that alone. But I do think that's one thing that we just don't have enough resources out there enough. So I'll say that.
Kim (35:51):
And we are going to do, Emily will be a part of another episode focusing on ai. I had some experts that I talked to for Fast Company, and so that's going to be a podcast episode so you can hear all of her AI advice. That's going to be in a few weeks. Emily, where can people find you? You
Emily (36:03):
Can find me on LinkedIn personal page, Emily Friend, or we do have the business page at the Florence Rose Group, also online, Florence rose group.com and on Instagram at the Florence Rose Group.
Kim (36:18):
Awesome. Thank you so much.
Emily (36:20):
Thank you.
Kim (36:25):
Thank you for joining us. Don't forget to exit the grind and enter success on your own terms. This is the exit interview with Kim Rittberg. Don't forget to grab my free download, how to Grow Your Business with Amazing video kimrittberg.com and linked out in the show notes. I love to hear your feedback. Make sure to submit to me what you learned from the show and how you are crushing it on your own terms. Connect with me on Instagram or LinkedIn at Kim Rittberg, R-I-T-T-B-E-R-G. And this show is edited by Jillian Grover and produced by Henry Street Media. I'm your host and executive producer Kim Rittberg.