Entrepreneur Like a Mother with Beth Mazza

So I want to kind of bridge the gap.

Like, where did you realize, oh, we're doing something that's kind of unique?

It's funny.

So I hired her at Ashton, and she very quickly – rose the ranks, super smart, emotionally intelligent, clients loved her, hardest worker.

I mean, we all dream of someone like Victoria on our team.

And so we got really close.

And when we were acquired, she earned a super senior spot.

She was at the time at a very large global consulting firm.

She was the youngest managing director, let alone the youngest female, which she most certainly was.

And I think because there just weren't very many women that were senior, we ended up keeping this relationship we had at Ashton, but actually we were a little bit more equal.

I ran the full group, but in terms of clients, like we were pretty equal and we ended up being these really great colleagues.

And as she had kids and my kids got older, that grade school period, which is just hard as hell, we sort of quietly just kept covering for each other.

Like, Hey, can you take that meeting? Be a second on a client.

We were sort of the only two people we had and we did it, which got intensely close.

And then I think as all, she also grew up in an entrepreneurial household.

I think as we went along, not even that long, we just were like, we can do this better again.

And we did.

I mean, for her credit, like we just...

We just both grew up in entrepreneurial families and I think we thought we could do this a little bit better and we can figure out a way to get out of our non-compete, which we did, but it wasn't pretty.

It seems like part of your stated strategy for women who want to be entrepreneurs at this stage of life is that there are certain kinds of businesses or criteria for businesses that I always say, I want you to be able to run a business without breaking your life.

Like, what does it look like to have? And I completely agree with your promise that choosing the right kind of business to be in is a big part of it.

I don't think all businesses align themselves with the lifestyle that a lot of women justifiably want.

Right.

We kind of want to have our cake and eat it, too.

What are some of those criteria that you see that make a business more kind of viable in that life stage?