The Riveter

When I scaled The Riveter, I wrote a column for Forbes Women. Through my writing, I met women I ended up doing business with for years. Women across the country learned of my company and what we were building. And I connected with brands who aligned with The Riveter's values. Writing - and telling the world what you're good at - can accelerate your career or business of one (or many). Join me today with best-selling author, Forbes columnist and marketing expert Amy Shoenthal to discuss all things about writing a column when writing isn't your full time job. Can't wait! https://lnkd.in/g9detY36

Yesterday, my friend Pat Flynn said something that really hit me: You can serve and sell at the same time. If you have something that can help people, put it into the world, and sell it. I've been reluctant to "sell" some of the things that I think fall into my zone of genius - but I also think sharing that expertise can really help people make more money, build an audience, tell their story. So in the spirit of "serving and selling" - I'm hosting a one hour workshop tomorrow at 1 pm ET on all things TikTok 101. I've built a community of nearly 250,000 on the platform and think it is an incredibly powerful place to share your story. I would be grateful if you could join me and The Riveter - and hope we can be of service! https://lnkd.in/gWkpckBH

A few weeks ago I had a fantastic conversation about AARP's work around the longevity economy with Amy Sterner Nelson, founder of The Riveter, at the RTRX conference in Columbus. Business and community leaders joined us for the discussion about getting older, caring for the people we love, and the necessary innovation and policy we need to support intergenerational workplaces, solutions and lifestyles.

💸 The brutal truth?? A lot of us who work on our own end up paying DOUBLE the taxes we did as a W2 employee. Let's NOT do that. Last chance to join me and 112 other Riveters TODAY at 1pm ET/10 am PT for a workshop with Lettuce Financial on concrete strategies to keep more of your money as a solopreneur, coach, freelancer, consultant, solo biz owner, or side-hustler. Registration link ⬇ in the comments or DM me for the link. (Can't attend live? Register & I'll shoot you over the replay!)

I think one of the most important things any woman (at any age) can do is to learn how to make money *on her own* in America. But also: We need to learn how to keep more of it and build strategies that benefit our personal and business bottom lines. Join me, The Riveter and Lettuce Financial on Wednesday, July 31 for an action-packed, free, one hour workshop on this exact topic. You'll walk away with strategies and tools to: 💸 Streamline your "financial stack" as a solopreneur, consultant, freelancer, creator or coach. 🏦 Optimize your TAXES so you can take advantage of the many great deductions & savings opportunities provided to us when we work on our own. 🧑🏽💼 Tools to help automate the money stuff so you can do the work you want to do. One of the reasons I adore Lettuce is that they're building their own company with solopreneurs as fractional executives - so everyone is USING the product, too. We'll take with Gabrielle Tenaglia, Lettuce's fractional CMO who has saved tens of thousands of dollars with the financial tools she'll teach us about next week. Sign up ⬇ (link in comment) and let me know in advance if you have any questions. (If you sign up and can't make the live talk, we'll send you the replay!)

🎉 We are halfway to 2025 and I am genuinely excited about ALL the things I am working on. It's been a long time since I could say that and it feels good. This year, I've: 🍎 Launched The Riveter School where I work with women to get ready for inevitable career pivots by telling the world what they're good at & building a network of stakeholders. I've onboarded 70+ remarkable students, completed 5 masterclasses, & welcomed incredible guest experts like Amanda Goetz, Hitha Palepu, Carrie Kerpen, Gabrielle Blair, & Bobbi Rebell Kaufman, CFP®. Up next: Tori Dunlap, Stephanie Chung, & more. I feel like I'm able to be of service to women I really admire - and share everything I've learned. ✨ Worked with the amazing Lauren DeLoach and Launch It Girl to dream up & build a brand new website to reflect our own pivot and tell the world that we're working on pivots. 🚀 Continued to work with absolutely remarkable brand partners who want to connect with women doing big things. I've curated activations in Palm Springs, Nashville - and online. So much more to come this year on this front! 💡 I've created time and space to LEARN the skills I need to step into the role of Chief Everything Officer, including connecting with the folks at SPI Media and joining their team as an Expert In Residence (thank you Matthew Gartland). 📣 I've spoken at great events like Alt Summit and Mom 2.0 - where I was able to connect with incredible women. And on the personal front: 📚 My first book WILL be finished by the end of the year with publication slated for the first half of 2025. The theme: How to survive the worst thing that happens to you. I don't know everything, but I've learned A LOT these past four years and there is so much I wish I knew back when "the worst thing" began to unfold. I believe my book can help others. 🏊♂️ 🎾 🏋♂️ My husband, my 4 girls and I have all leaned into sports because you don't have to stop competing or joining teams just because you grow up. Carl and I lift weights together, I've joined a tennis team, and for the very first time all FOUR girls competed in a sport together (summer swim). If you had asked me two years ago - or even one year ago - if any of this would be possible, I would have told you that I didn't know. My family has been through a trauma that is almost impossible to articulate and that has required *thousands* of hours of work to overcome. But somehow, somewhere, the part of my brain that can create came back online and here we are. I credit it to the community of women that stood beside me in the dark and never let me give up. Thank you. Here is to the second half of the year and what may come. Don't forget to celebrate your wins & take stock of the miracles you've pulled off - especially if you work alone. It's even MORE important to share it with your people. ...and in the words of LL Cool J: "Don't call it a comeback / I've been here for years."

Just a reminder that you don't have to keep doing the thing you signed up to do when you were 22 years old. You are allowed to change your mind. You are allowed to start something new. I spent so many years thinking I couldn't do this. Thinking that because I'd chosen to go to law school, I should practice law forever. But I had changed. I had seen more of the world and wanted to build businesses instead of fight about them in court. It took me so long to give myself permission to walk away. The only person who stopped me was ... me. You are allowed to begin again. And if you want to, I hope you do. I'll be right here rooting for you.

Top 3 takeaways after pivoting from lawyering to building 2 companies, raising $30 million in VC, & living through a black swan (pandemic) that basically shut down my IRL business: 🍕 Quiet mouths don't get fed so learn to tell the world what you're good at & build a community of people who will listen & then tell them what you're good at. On repeat. Even if you feel like you're being annoying or salesy. 🎯 It might seem counterintuitive but gatekeeping is the quickest way to fail & sharing everything you know with everyone is the surest path to success because building things means *providing value* - to your customers, your team, your partners, everyone. 💕 There will never be a perfect time to do what you want to do just begin and then KEEP MAKING DECISIONS - even when it's hard, even when it all falls apart, even when you've had a bunch of wins and want a break, even when you don't know the answer (because you can surround yourself with people smarter than you who do know the answer), even when you're so tired you can feel it in your bones. You have to keep moving. I've had some big wins and some staggering losses but entrepreneurship is a hell of a life. I know so, so many women who want to strike out on their own or build something big and I am rooting for ALL of you - and for me. And if you've been waiting for a sign to start the thing, maybe this is it. We're halfway through 2024 and there is a long stretch of opportunity and chance stretched out in front of us. If I can help, 3 ideas in comments to get started ⬇ I mean, why not? The worst that can happen is that you fail - and then you get back up again.

This might be very controversial, but hear me out. Yesterday was Equal Pay Day. So many women posted about equal pay. But here's the thing: It isn't OUR JOB to fix the pay gap. I mean, there are still more Fortune 500 CEOs named John than there are women CEOs so it's even debatable if women alone COULD fix the gap. I made a decision a few years ago that instead of trying to change the entire system, I would try to change my own life. I can't fix the pay gap. But I can demand to be be paid what I believe I am worth and I've done that by going out on my own. I price my own services. I started The Riveter, where we had pay transparency - my contribution to perhaps changing something for someone else. I also post here because I believe that if we tell our own story, we can change our own lives. And here's the thing: If enough of us can change our own lives, maybe that's the best way to put a dent into a systemic bias that won't seem to budge. Maybe we fight our way to equal pay THAT way. This is what we're doing at The Riveter now: Working with women and allies to amplify their expertise, build trusted audiences, and use their own stories to build their own careers and businesses. You can join us tonight for an expert town hall with the amazing Bobbi Rebell Kaufman, CFP®. We'll dive into how Bobbi used an expert platform that she built as a journalist - personal finance - to build a business, Financial Wellness Strategies. These lessons are so important. We can do this. But I really believe that to get to the change we need, we must first lean in to the power of our own careers and lives. https://lnkd.in/gYKUFSSX