How She Does It

Finding out about our family's history can tell us so much about ourselves, and our place in the world. For a long time, Deb Liu, CEO of Ancestry.com, said she felt like a victim of her history. She grew up in South Carolina, and since she was one of the only Asian-American kids in her classes, she was often made the target of pranks and bullying. She had to fight for her place in the world. Fast forward years later, Liu credits Sheryl Sandberg, her mentor at Facebook, for helping her come out of her shell and embrace her true self. One day after a meeting, Sandberg pulled her aside and said, “You can stop fighting now. You can be gracious.” This statement profoundly changed the way she worked. Listen in to hear her advice on leading with warmth, how to avoid falling into the trap of ‘strategic ambiguity’ in your career, and why she thinks more women should plan their marriages the same way they plan their wedding day.Takeaways: It's important to speak up and advocate for yourself in the workplace. Don't be invisible; make your contributions known. Building relationships is key. Seek out allies, mentors, and sponsors who can provide advice and open doors for you. Transition from a mindset of fighting to one of building connections. Success in the workplace is about teamwork and relationships, not just individual achievement.  Plan your marriage with the same care as your wedding. Discuss expectations and roles to create a partnership where both parties contribute and support each other. Chapters:00:00 Introduction and Background01:43 The Road to Becoming a CEO03:23 Speaking Up and Building Relationships06:27 The Importance of Allies, Mentors, and Sponsors09:25 Asking for What You Want10:34 Transitioning from Fighting For What You Deserve to Building Connections14:27 A Swim Lane Marriage21:14 The Vision for Ancestry.com26:36 Lightning Round29:43 Where to Find Deb LiuJoin us! Snag all the latest episodes, savvy budgeting tips, investing advice and even giveaways via the HerMoney Newsletter at Hermoney.com/subscribe! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Women often have a blur of busy days — going from meetings and important phone calls to the grocery store or soccer practice. It often feels like the day goes by in a blink of an eye. This, of course, leaves many of us feeling drained at the end of the day, or inspired to push off our most important tasks to next week — or we forget about them completely. So how can we better juggle our busy work days, the challenges of raising a family, and all of the other tasks in-between, while still making time for fun? Laura Mae Martin has cracked the code. She’s Google’s Executive Productivity Officer, and she coaches Google’s top executives on time management and efficiency. She offers her take on how to cut out time-suck meetings once and for all, and why discovering our “power hours” does wonders for our creativity and productivity. Takeaways: Manage your email inbox like doing laundry - sort, prioritize, and focus on one task at a time. Use the list funnel method to organize tasks and prioritize based on timeframes. Limit and optimize meetings by setting agendas, evaluating their necessity, and providing feedback. Identify your power hours and schedule important tasks during those times for maximum productivity.  Minimize multitasking and manage email effectively to improve productivity. Chapters:00:00 Introduction05:24 Optimizing Time for Emails07:10 The List Funnel13:58 Working with Executives on Productivity15:06 Limiting Meetings19.32 Power Hours and Structuring Productive Days24:33 The Importance of Flexibility in Work Hours26:01 Productivity Mistakes: Multitasking and Email Overload28:06 New Research on Productivity29:12 Lightning Round: Quick Questions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There’s been a major shift in the fashion industry over the past few years, with a noticeable shift away from Fast Fashion. H&M, once a stock market darling, is now well below 50% of its all-time high. This, in no small part, comes from the concern over the waste emanating from the fast fashion pieces that now fill our landfills.Jensen Neff and Ellie Chen found out just how much fabric goes to waste in the fashion industry (14 million pounds of fabric daily, to be exact) and created their sustainably sourced clothing brand Oddli as their senior capstone project at Stanford. Fast forward to today, they’ve grown into a multi-million dollar profitable brand. Listen in to hear how they used social media to build a following from the start, and their best advice for other young female founders.Takeaways:  The fashion industry is shifting away from fast fashion and embracing second-hand retail due to concerns over waste. Oddli was founded by Jensen Neff and Ellie Chen, who met at Stanford University and shared a passion for creating ethically sourced clothing that promotes community connection. Oddli sources excess fabric, known as deadstock, from warehouses in downtown LA to reduce fabric waste in the fashion industry. The founders of Oddli believe in staying true to their vision and have chosen a non-traditional approach to fundraising and scaling their business.  Balancing ethical production and affordability is a challenge in the fashion industry, but transparency and education can help consumers understand higher price points. Social media platforms like TikTok can be powerful tools for brand growth and reaching a wide audience. Chapters:00:00 Introduction and Shift Away from Fast Fashion01:21 Introduction to Oddli 10:23 Sourcing Raw Materials and Accessing Excess Fabric15:50 Ignoring Conventional Wisdom in Fundraising23:38 Navigating the Industry as Female Founders31:22 Ambitions for the FutureJoin us! Snag all the latest episodes, savvy budgeting tips, investing advice and even giveaways via the HerMoney Newsletter at Hermoney.com/subscribe! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over the past 10 to 20 years, the sharing economy has taken over: In many ways, renting and returning is now our way of life. Think about it: We stay in strangers’ homes via Airbnb and VRBO, we borrow books on Kindle, Zipcars are viable alternatives to owning a car, and we rent a different dress for every wedding or event so we never have to be Instagrammed wearing the same thing twice. But what about renting things for the smallest members of your family? Fran Maier, CEO and founder of BabyQuip, has made that possible. With BabyQuip, traveling families can rent high-quality everything from cribs and toys to car seats for when they’re on the go. Listen in to hear Maier’s advice as a serial entrepreneur, her biggest regret when selling Match.com, and her hope for the future of female-founded companies.Chapters00:00 Entrepreneurial Roots03:29 Early Career and Match.com15:44 Time After Match.com22:12 Pitching BabyQuip on Shark Tank23:45 Navigating the Challenges of the Pandemic26:02 Competition and Market Strategy29:46 The Gender Gap in Financing31:24 Lightning Round33:13 Where to Find BabyQuipMore money news when you need it! Get the latest and greatest updates on all things investing, budgeting, and making money. Subscribe to the HerMoney newsletter at Hermoney.com/subscribe! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Music is ever-present in our lives, from our morning exercise routines until bed. And we all have a "life soundtrack" of songs that transport us to a moment or an era — one note and you're right back there. Music is also a multi-billion dollar business. But who runs this business? Despite so many of the biggest performers being women, the industry itself has long suffered from a lack of women and diversity — not only on the talent side but also on the executive side. One of the most powerful longstanding players in this business is Jody Gerson, Chairman and CEO of Universal Music Publishing Group. She’s the first woman ever to hold the position at a major music publisher, and since joining UMPG in 2015, she’s transformed the company, which has now surpassed $2 billion dollars in revenue.Listen to how she got her start in the music industry, how she can tell the difference between a mediocre song and a hit, and why she is working to make the industry more inclusive for women. Join us! Snag all the latest episodes, savvy budgeting tips, investing advice, and even giveaways via the HerMoney Newsletter at Hermoney.com/subscribe! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Let’s just admit it: Being a working mom in America is absolutely exhausting. Today, millions of women in our country are struggling to pay for their children’s care while they maintain their spot in the workforce. At the same time, American women are also fighting against the so-called “Motherhood Penalty,” which means that mothers earn just 58 cents for every dollar paid to fathers. Allison Robinson found herself — like many women! — questioning whether or not it was even possible to have both a family and a career. So, she decided to do something about it. She left her job at Procter & Gamble to start “The Mom Project,” which is now the leading digital marketplace for moms offering hiring, education, and retention solutions. Listen in to learn more about her mission to connect moms with jobs that work with their schedules, and how women can stay engaged in the workforce while taking career breaks. Join the HerMoney community! For the latest episode drops and financial news-you-can-use, subscribe to our newsletter at Hermoney.com/subscribe! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How does she do it? This week, we decided to ask our indomitable host, Karen Finerman, and co-host of InvestingFixx, HerMoney’s investing club for women, how she makes it all happen. Between her role as CEO of Metropolitan Capital Advisors, being a panelist on CNBC’s Fast Money, serving as a Wharton board member, and being a mom to two sets of twins, she does it ALL. We knew it was time to share her incredible story. Listen in to learn why Karen decided she wanted to become a risk arbitrageur at age 15, how she worked full time while raising her kids, and her best advice for getting invested — and staying invested — as a woman.Join the HerMoney community! For the latest episode drops and financial news-you-can-use, subscribe to our newsletter at Hermoney.com/subscribe! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are countless situations in which risky behavior can be detrimental to your life. But there’s one area though, where risk can be a very good thing — sometimes life-changingly incredible. That’s with entrepreneurship and your career. In fact, not taking risks is arguably one of the riskiest things you can do in your career, and perhaps no one knows this better than Pinky Cole, owner of Slutty Vegan, and author of “I Hope You Fail: Ten Hater Statements Holding You Back From Getting Everything You Want.” Pinky Cole knows exactly what it means to take risks in her career, fail, and get back up again. When her first restaurant burned down, she didn’t let it break her. Instead, she took it as a sign that she wasn’t fully aligned with her purpose, and chose to completely reset. Fast forward to today, and she’s the owner of the multimillion-dollar vegan empire Slutty Vegan. Our favorite bit of Pinky Cole brilliance from this conversation? “The sky is not the limit, there’s so much more beyond it.” We couldn’t agree more. Join us! Snag all the latest episodes, savvy budgeting tips, investing advice, and even giveaways via the HerMoney Newsletter at Hermoney.com/subscribe! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

While a whopping 25% of 40-year-old Americans have never been married, an all-time high according to Pew, engagements and weddings are still a huge business. Couples spent an average of $5,800 on an engagement ring in 2022. And with all of the different companies out there vying for your engagement ring dollars, how does a business target couples at the exact right moment when they’re ready to buy a ring? Gina Drosos has that moment down to a science. She’s ​​the CEO of Signet Jewelers, the world’s largest diamond retailer. When she took over as CEO six years ago, she made a pivot into data-driven business decisions that studied couples’ 45 “trackable milestones” that lead them to get engaged — and it transformed the company. Listen in to hear her philosophy as a “spider web leader” and what she’s doing to lift up other women as she climbs. More money news when you need it! Get the latest and greatest updates on all things investing, budgeting and making money. Subscribe to the HerMoney newsletter at Hermoney.com/subscribe! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Long gone are the days when going to therapy was something we hid from our friends, family, and even our spouses because of the fear that “they might think something is wrong with us.” These days, we share our learnings from therapy proudly and wear good mental health like a badge of honor. And at HerMoney, we love to see women talking about things that used to be taboo (like mental health and money!) because it makes it easier for all of us to learn from one another. Yet even though we’ve made progress with what’s “off limits,” there’s still a stigma surrounding couples therapy. Many believe it’s only reserved for couples who are dealing with serious relationship issues like infidelity, abuse, dishonesty, or other toxic behaviors. But  Kati Morton, YouTube creator, and licensed marriage and family therapist, is using her platform to help couples understand that seeking out therapy shouldn’t feel so weighty. In fact, it can be an asset to any relationship. Listen in for more insight into the benefits of therapy ahead of Valentine’s Day, along with the patterns Kati notices that make her optimistic that a couple can get through any conflict.Join the HerMoney community! For the latest episode drops and financial news-you-can-use, subscribe to our newsletter at Hermoney.com/subscribe! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices