Ep.67/ Welcome to The Exit Interview with Kim Rittberg
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It is what you love AND more! In this episode I explain why we rebranded from Mom’s Exit Interview to be The Exit Interview with Kim Rittberg. And explain what you can expect of the podcast.
I’ve met so many people who find this show valuable, relatable and feel connected to it–they want to create a balanced, successful life outside the traditional 9-to-5. The challenges we all face don’t require being a parent. Your reason for wanting to be your own boss could be: wanting to travel, have better mental health, more time for your family… or just live your dream.
This show is for all you folks out there betting on yourself. I want to help you win! I want to help you grow your business and craft a life you love. That is success on your terms.
Plus I go deeper and share more of my own story, going from media executive on top of the world to having a career crisis in the hospital during childbirth. And I’ll tell you how I found my way into your audio library!
You’ll also get some of the “best of” the advice from our experts on the show including:
Carley Roney, CoFounder of the Billion Dollar Company The Knot on how big to grow your business.
Rebeca Minkoff, Designer and Entrepreneur on how to delegate.
Robin Arzon, Peloton Instructor & Vice President of Programming on balance.
Melissa Urban, Co-Founder & CEO of Whole30 on how to say no and create better boundaries.
Leah Neaderthal, Smart Gets Paid on how to charge higher prices.
Terry Rice, Host of Launch Your Business on what to charge.
Shannan Monson, Serial Entrepreneur on how to prioritize and focus on revenue generation.
Sabina Hitchen, Press for Success on setting goals.
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Today I want to introduce you to the show -- and what to expect!
And for those of you who have been loyal listeners for a while, you know I love you -- I want to explain why we rebranded ever so slightly from Mom's Exit Interview to The Exit interview with Kim Rittberg.
And share my favorite advice and stories over the past 67 episodes of Mom’s Exit Interview.
LISTEN BELOW! And don’t forget to ‘follow’ and leave a rating & review!
Click below to Follow, Review & Give a 5-star rating to Mom’s Exit Interview Podcast.
So what is THE EXIT INTERVIEW WITH KIM RITTBERG?
If you work for yourself and want to supercharge your business…While still having fun…The Exit Interview with Kim Rittberg is your go-to podcast. Part MBA, part cheer squad, each week, I’ll be joined by top business owners who share their secrets to success. And some laughs!
When I quit my executive media job to bet on myself, it was hard - I had to fight fear and imposter syndrome to launch my business. But it’s been worth it .. I eventually earned 6 awards, now have an in-demand speaking career and have been featured in Fast Company and Business Insider.
If you’re self-employed–a founder, entrepreneur, coach, real estate agent, consultant or solo practitioner–and want to learn about business development, revenue growth, marketing strategy, productivity, publicity, sales, social media content creation, productivity, confidence, and work-life balance (it’s achievable, I promise!), this podcast is made for you.
Tune in every Wednesday to hear from remarkable founders, and don't miss our solo Friday episodes – basically free mini-masterclasses on how to get clients with video and podcasts!
Exit the grind. Enter success…on your own terms.
The Exit Interview with Kim Rittberg is a podcast about crafting the life you want…building a thriving business… and a thriving personal life!
Follow host Kim Rittberg on Instagram
Subscribe to Kim's YouTube Channel to Make Better Videos that Convert
FREE DOWNLOAD: Improve Your Video Quality to Increase Your Revenue - 10 Tips to Take Your Videos from Mediocre to Magnetic click here
How To Be A Happier, Less Stressed & More Successful Parent: Click here!
TRANSCRIPT
Kim Rittberg (00:02):
Welcome to the Exit interview with Kim Rittberg. Today I want to introduce you to the show and let you know what to expect. And for those of you who have been loyal listeners for a while, you know I love you and I want to explain why we rebranded ever so slightly from Mom's exit interview to the exit interview with Kim Rittenberg. And I want to share my favorite advice and stories over the past 67 episodes of Mom's Exit Interview. It's actually more than that if you include the solo episodes. So what is the exit interview with Kim Rittenberg? If you work for yourself and you're looking to supercharge your business while still having fun? No, a hundred hour work weeks here. The exit interview with Kim Rutberg is your go-to podcast. It's part MBA Part Cheer Squad. And every week I'll be joined by top business owners who share the secrets to their success and some laughs.
(00:53)
When I quit my executive media job to bet on myself, it was hard. I had to fight fear and imposter syndrome to launch the business, but it has been worth it. I eventually earned six awards. I now have an in-demand speaking career and have been featured in Fast Company and Business Insider. And even better than that, I now get to help hundreds of business owners boost their bottom line through my group coaching. one-on-one and workshops, and it's beyond satisfying. If you're self-employed, you're a founder, entrepreneur, coach, real estate agent, consultant or solo practitioner. And you want to learn about business development, revenue growth, marketing strategy, productivity, publicity, sales, social media, content creation, productivity, confidence and work life balance, which is achievable. I promise this podcast is for you. Tune in every Wednesday to hear from remarkable founders and don't miss our Solo Friday episodes. Basically free mini masterclasses on how to get clients with video and podcasts.
(01:56)
Exit the grind, enter success on your own terms. Make sure to hit subscribe. So why did we rebrand? I launched Mom's Exit interview in 2022, and it was something I was really passionate about and I thought about it for a long time before launching. Actually, I wanted to create a community for moms, creating careers that worked for them. It was born out of my journey and the journey of people around me who wanted to make a career transition or create something that worked better for them. But soon after building the podcast, I started hearing from so many people who weren't parents, and I realized the challenges I faced that we faced and what I wanted to talk about that we all wanted to talk about were not directly related to being a parent. And it didn't require being a parent. And while the podcast has been evolving, so has my personal mission from helping moms to find a new path to helping everyone find their voice and their purpose professionally.
(02:56)
At the same time, my professional mission evolved from being a person who made videos. I mean really great videos like award-winning videos to teaching people and helping them. I've been speaking across the country and working with hundreds of people from coast to coast to be more confident to fight their fears and that imposter syndrome and clearly communicate their business and their work to, in the end, build a more lucrative, sustainable and fulfilling business. What I am all about and what this podcast is all about, it is about celebrating you. It is about teaching you, it is about all of us supporting each other. I want to also share their journeys as I feel they're universal and we can all learn from each other. The exit interview with Kim Rittenberg is a podcast about crafting the life you want, building a thriving business and a thriving personal life.
(03:51)
And the balance you seek could involve a child, a partner, travel your own mental health, or just living the dream and your why you work for yourself. Could be about flexibility, pursuing a dream, just wanting to be your own boss. And as for what won't change moving forward, every Wednesday you'll still hear from self-employed superstars. They'll still be dishing inspirational stories and tactical tips, and I'll continue to drop my mini masterclasses with tons of tips on digital marketing, specifically how to make amazing content for yourself and your brand. In those solo episodes, I'll also cover messaging and branding, how to effectively let people know why you're unique and awesome, and how to elevate yourself and your brand to be a thought leader in your field to gain clients and increase revenue. So how did I get here? Let me back up. Here's a little more about what led me to quit corporate. After 15 years bet on myself and build this podcast. On this show, you'll hear from all types of people and their why, but my personal why was well decidedly very personal. So there I was in the hospital delivery room, awaiting the birth of my second child, getting poked with an iv. I was anxiously working away on my iPhone and no, I wasn't looking at nursery decor. I was frantically reviewing resumes for my 18 person video team to replace all the people that fled after a mass layoff at my company. I didn't lose my job, to be honest. We were crushing it, but I definitely lost my desire to work in corporate America ever again. I was a TV news producer.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Kim Rutberg went to the scene of
Kim Rittberg (05:40):
The crime. Our Kim Rutberg has a story. I was a writer for TV and then a Netflix marketing executive. I or my hand interviewed celebrities for a national entertainment show. Oh wait, and I had a side hustle, a jewelry line I sold at Bloomingdale's. Oh, just reciting my own resume is exhausting, but I became a real boss, like a hashtag girl boss or a hashtag boss bitch. When I launched the video unit for US Weekly, it was my dream job executive producer. I am here with executive producer Kim Ripper. I pursued my boss for a year to get hired. I started with a bang, a baby bump hidden under my empire wasted dress, which was probably from Ann Taylor. When I had my first child, I was going 110 miles per hour. I grew my digital video team from three people to 18, built a new TV studio all while pumping inside my office twice a day and we were succeeding big time, churning out quality content and making the company money. I had an awesome team of creative and hardworking folks working under me. Plus I had a supportive boss who was also a parent. After two awesome years later,
(07:00)
I was on top of the world and then the earth started shifting under me. I was pregnant with my second child and my company was being bought. It was really chaotic and scary. The company sold for a hundred million dollars and the new owner told me the video unit that I launched was a big part of the attraction. As huge layoffs happened all around, tears in every corner of the office, and many people in my unit quit amid the uncertainty. But I had an epiphany. I have no control. I was successful, but this was my reward. Yes, I was the boss. Yes, our unit was making money, but so what? It seemed to all mean nothing. I realized a few things I want control. Control over my career, control over how I spend my time, control over my mental energy. Time is precious and I don't want to waste it. Mama
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Can play with me.
Kim Rittberg (07:56):
Oddly, I still couldn't quit corporate America. I knew I wanted to be a consultant and start my own branding and video strategy business. Basically building a company within a company from scratch at my dream job proved to me I could be a founder, I could be a leader, but still something held me back. Finally, after 15 years, I took the leap and never looked back. Since launching my business, it has been quite a roller coaster. At first, I was absolutely terrified. I was terrified to show up on video and even promote my own business. Yes, even being a video expert, I felt self-conscious of showing up on social, of people looking at me like I was unemployed instead of self-employed. And I felt overwhelmed by all the things I didn't know, and I definitely didn't have any sort of community to lean on in an office.
(08:50)
Your office meet brings grapes sometimes and offers comradery. But when you're on your own, well, you're on your own and it can be lonely. But showing up consistently on social video, building a community, creating this podcast and letting everyone know what I do and how passionate I am about helping other business owners has brought me so much success and joy and it has brought me success on my own terms. Having success on my own terms has been the driving force for me to quit corporate and work for myself. And it's working and it's happening. I'm finally crafting the life I want. I finally exited the grind and entered success on my own terms. And I want you to join me. Whether you just started out or you've been doing your own thing for decades, we're going to grow together and keep each other going. And now I'm bringing you the best of the exit interview. So far, some of the great bits of advice are rockstar self-employed folks have shared from the first year of the podcast. It also serves as a reminder of the awesomeness that is coming your way on the exit interview with Kim Rittenberg. I loved hearing from Carly Ronney who co-founded the billion dollar wedding business, the Knot. She detailed the struggles of building an early digital business. We
Carley Roney, The Knot Co-Founder (10:09):
Really had to convince a lot of people that the internet was going to be a big thing.
Kim Rittberg (10:15):
And now she's passionate about advising other business owners and has great advice on how big to grow your business.
Carley Roney, The Knot Co-Founder (10:21):
I just talked to a woman yesterday who has an actual bridal shop in San Francisco, and she was like, should I be expanding? Should I franchise my business? And it's really actually, I like to get back and say, no, actually keep your business very small. There's nothing you either need to have a big business or a small business because everything in between is torture, right? It's very, very, you really don't have much control over your life as you are in that area where you don't have a huge infrastructure to support you.
Kim Rittberg (10:54):
International designer and entrepreneur, Rebecca Minkoff words often replay in my mind about how to spend your time. And this relates to parents and non-parents alike.
Rebecca Minkoff (11:04):
You need to delegate on both sides. What are you terrible at? What is the highest and best use of your time? And if you're saying, well, I'm a single mom and I'm a solo entrepreneur, well, I applaud you, but I think that you have to figure out how you're going to delegate and what are you going to sacrifice in the beginning to delegate Because it's impossible to run the household and to grow your business without other brick layers. There's so many bricks you can lay in a day. And so whether it's interns that get college credit, in the beginning that's what I had. I didn't have employees. I couldn't afford them. I could barely afford to pay myself. And then how do you grow those interns? And okay, good, now I can pay you minimum wage. Great. What else am I terrible at? Who's better at this than I am? And I think you need to build your team inside the household and outside the household to help you do what you do best. Yes, I could be doing the laundry and cleaning and that would give me the hero's award, but guess what? It's not the highest and best use of my time. I pay for it.
Kim Rittberg (12:10):
I also appreciated the candor from Whole 30 Co-founder and CEO, Melissa Urban. She had this advice on how to say no in two specific situations. So one is people asking to pick your brain or meet you for coffee, and the other is, can you join this committee or can you come to this thing? What are your tips for
Melissa Urban (12:30):
That? Okay, so I love the, can I pick your brain or can I meet you for coffee? Because I'm assuming that this isn't just a friendly, like, Hey, do you want to get together and chat? It is like I am asking if I can use your labor for a little while. Are you willing to donate some labor to me? So this is definitely never, sometimes it's a hard no. If you in the moment simply don't have capacity, and you know that even if it's a wonderful opportunity and they might be a great connection and you really like them and you want to help them, but you don't have capacity, you cannot give them labor without taking something away from other things in your life that are mission critical. You have to just say, no. Oh, I'm sorry, I can't. I'm in a busy season right now, and that's not something I can do.
(13:09)
Sometimes when people ask me, I will say, that's incredibly vague. Can you give me more specifics about what you're looking for here? Right? And then it is up to them to say, I would like to ask you about X, Y, Z. If they continue to be vague, Hey, I would just love to know if you can give me some advice for starting my own business, there's a 99% chance that I'm not going to have capacity for that because that conversation can go 16 different directions and go sideways. The best thing, the best thing I've ever received from somebody is from my friend Molly. She sent me a note about two years ago. She said, I would like to do a 15 minute consultation with you to talk about what I need to do to launch my new book. I would like to cover these three topics.
(13:48)
It would be by telephone. I would call you at your convenience, and I will donate a hundred dollars to a charity of your choice as your consulting fee made it so easy for me to either say yes or no. So I think it's perfectly acceptable to ask for more details or information. It's perfectly acceptable just to say, no, no, I'm sorry. I can't accommodate that. No, that isn't an area in which I feel comfortable sharing advice. No, I don't have capacity. Ask for the question about can you join my committee? This is one of my favorite, just big picture boundary strategies. Never say yes automatically. Never, never. Doesn't matter what they're asking. Can you chaperone this field trip? Do you want to come to dinner on Friday? Can you join this committee? Thank you so much for thinking of me. Let me think about that. And maybe I wouldn't even say, I'm sorry, it's so natural to slip in and I'm sorry, but maybe it's just no, that's not something I have capacity for. No, that's not in my wheelhouse. No, that's not an area in which I have interest. Perfectly acceptable to say.
Kim Rittberg (14:48):
And I like to ask about balance because whatever you call it, it is something we're all seeking. Peloton instructor, Robin Arzon had this thought provoking angle on it.
Robin Arzon (14:58):
I don't believe in balance. I think it's a harmful concept because I think it implies that everything is, even Steven and every area of our lives is going to get the same amount of our energy as currency. I think a better question is whether you're making intentional choices with how you spend your day, and if that's in alignment with your season of life and your values. I use no to protect my yeses. I believe in being a multihyphenate and that we can wear many hats, but it's not necessarily in one moment. There are plenty of days where I am 95% an executive and 5% Athena's mom, and it's because I'm delegating and I'm trusting loved ones in my life to take on that role and love her and I'm accepting of that. And then there are other days where I'm not going to answer my email, you're not going to hear from me, and I'm going to be 100% present with my kid. And then obviously there's lots of shades of gray in between that. And just like in any given partnership or relationship, it's not 50 50. There are days it's 80 20, 70 30, and we have to honor that seasonality. So I think it's having honest conversations with ourselves, making really intentional choices, having tough conversations with the stakeholders in our lives about those value systems and priorities.
Kim Rittberg (16:14):
And Terry Rice, business development expert and host of entrepreneur magazines Launch Your Business, had this advice about what to charge.
Terry Rice (16:22):
I would charge whatever you're afraid to charge. And then add 20% fear plus 20% is the magic formula because again, we have this selfing belief that holds us back quite often. That's what I would do.
Kim Rittberg (16:34):
Serial entrepreneur, Shannon Monson, who has built seven figure businesses, had this advice on where to best spend your time to grow your business and revenue. What do you recommend as people are balancing like, where do I spend my work time? How do you figure that calculation out?
Shannan Monson (16:51):
Okay, so I love this. I have a very simple answer. I recommend spending as much time as possible in revenue generating opportunities. So if you are a small business owner and you have six hours to work today, and you can choose between doing admin, doing sales, doing marketing, doing client work, spend as much of time as possible going to get the next dollar. Because what that's going to do is it's going to give you more resources to be able to delegate off the admin stuff that you don't want to do. So where can you put drops in the bucket, coins in the bucket that's going to have the biggest payoffs.
Kim Rittberg (17:27):
And I love this tip from Leah Neaderthal, founder of Smart Gets Paid.
Leah Neaderthal (17:31):
What I teach my clients how to do is how to position your work as a painkiller. Position your work as the solution to your clients. Number one problem. A painkiller as opposed to a vitamin, which is a vitamin is something that's nice to have, but clients can get away with not having it. Everybody knows they should take their vitamins, right? I should take my vitamins. But if you go to the drugstore and you forget to buy vitamins, it's like whatever, you'll get 'em next time. But if you have a pain, if your knee hurts or you have a whatever pain, you're going to go and you're going to buy that thing because that thing is going to solve your pain.
Kim Rittberg (18:08):
And I don't take myself that seriously and I try to inject some fun into the show. Like when Rebecca Minkoff shared an embarrassing moment,
Rebecca Minkoff (18:15):
I was drunk and yelling at my kids, probably a little louder than I should. This girl came up and she's like, are you Rebecca Minkoff? And I was like, ah, the dumb.
Kim Rittberg (18:26):
And then you're like, no, I'm not Rebecca Minkoff. And moving forward, you can expect to continue to hear inspirational stories like this from Sabina Hitchen, founder of Press for Success.
Sabina Hitchen (18:37):
I would like to mimic my husband's salary in the next month and become the same replacement breadwinner. And we freaking did Kim.
Kim Rittberg (18:45):
And this makes me want to double down. This is from Social Strategist Kar Brulhart.
Kar Brulhart (18:50):
I am making considerably more money now. I'm working significantly less than 40 hours a week and making more than I ever made in corporate.
Kim Rittberg (19:10):
So welcome to the exit interview with Kim rit. We'll learn together, we'll laugh together, and we'll exit the grind and enter success on our own terms. I'm your host and executive producer, Kim Rittberg. If you're looking to grow your credibility leads and revenue with video and podcasts, make sure to connect with me on social media at Kim Rittberg, R-I-T-T-B-E-R-G, and you can grab my free download through my website, kimrittberg.com, and it's linked out in the show notes. This episode was produced by Henry Street Media and edited by John Horowitz.