#118: 7 Lessons Journalist Noa Gadot Learned From Interviewing Successful Women Entrepreneurs

Show Notes

Have you dreamed of being an entrepreneur but haven’t yet taken the leap? There's never been a better time for women to start their own business. Whether you simply want to work for yourself or you're driven to build the next big thing in tech, you'll find inspiration in this episode.
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In Part 2 of our interview, co-hosts Lori Vajda and Nola Boea talk with tech entrepreneur and CTech journalist Noa Gadot about what she’s learned from interviewing female founders. Listen as Noa talks about the lessons that successful women business owners have learned, the challenges they have faced, and the advice they have given her.

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In This Episode You’ll Learn 

• The key pathways – and obstacles – to success for female entrepreneurs and ways you can navigate them.
• Why in 2023, we’ll see new forms of entrepreneurship emerge – more diverse, more socially-minded, and more willing to drive the global economy forward. 
• How, in a crowded marketplace, this is the best differentiator.
• Why it’s important to remind yourself that there is always room in the market for you in whichever industry you pursue 

Key points Lori and Nola are sharing in this episode:

(02:15:27) The surprisingly similar childhood experience many successful female business owners share in common 
(05:24:18) While running a business may feel like a rollercoaster ride, successful entrepreneurs have similar mental stamina that includes this
(07:17:68) Only 2.4% of all venture capital funding for new businesses in the United States went to companies founded only by women. However, this may be the best way to improve that number 
(09:02:08) The winning attitude of this female founder made her the most remarkable woman I have ever interviewed.
(10:385:51) Seven lessons from successful women entrepreneurs

Resources 

The5starz - https://the5starz.com/ 

CTech online magazine - https://www.calcalist.co.il/ctechnews/article/hkekkfh00j 

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Lori: Ask any entrepreneur and they'll tell you that starting a business is a complex adventure, to say the least. Yet, the numbers show that more people worldwide are starting their own businesses than ever before. Despite the growth, studies indicate that when it comes to tech startups, funding and mentorship, men and women are not treated equally.
Stay tuned, friend, because we've brought back tech entrepreneur and journalist, Noa Gadot. She's here today wearing her reporter's hat and sharing what she's learned from interviewing female founders.

[00:00:34] Noa: You're listening to the Sticky Brand Lab podcast, where time strapped professionals like you learn how to create a business you love in as little as three hours a week.

[00:00:45] Nola: You might be as shocked as we were to learn that in 1738, at the age of 16, Eliza Lucas Pinckney was regarded as the first woman in the United States to take over and successfully run her family's business. And while the number of women owned businesses has certainly grown since then, there is still a long way to go, particularly when it comes to tech startups. And our guest today knows a thing or two about that.

Meet Noa Gadot. Before becoming a writer and successful entrepreneur in the tech industry, Noa had an amazing career as marketing director for several large international companies, including L'Oreal and Estee Lauder. She's the founder of the Israeli Company, The Five Stars, a marketing tech startup aimed at creating 100% honest and authentic content from real people, not influencers. In addition to running her own startup, she also writes a regular column for CTech called She Inspires. This column is aimed at promoting female entrepreneurship in the industry. Noa believes that female entrepreneurs are the future of the industry, and that glass ceilings are waiting to burst all around us if we just aim high enough. Welcome back, Noa!

[00:01:53] Noa: Thanks for having me.

[00:01:55] Lori: Yay. Welcome back.

[00:01:57] Nola: The last time you were here, you talked to us wearing your entrepreneur's hat. Well, today we'd like to pick your journalist brain. As a columnist with CTech, you write about women entrepreneurs with a focus on those who have launched tech startups. What insights have you gained from talking to all those entrepreneurs?

[00:02:15] Noa: Well, I speak to women founders a lot, and I always try to hear their journey. Every woman that I speak to is completely inspirational, and then I've always tried to understand, what made her different? What made her a successful entrepreneur, where others, they have the dream and they don't go for it? And so I always have a question about their childhood. What did that look like? Because I have a theory that it starts there. And what I've seen is that most of the women that I interview, their parents, mostly daddy, and they always tell them, you can be anything you want. They raise them that way. You don't have to be afraid. You are good enough as you are. And a lot of them have these bonds with their fathers, where they're doing things that are considered un-girly. They're kind of tomboy girls, where they would go on adventures and they weren't always told when they climbed the ladder or they climbed the tree or whatever, be careful don't fall. So they were treated as equals. And I really see that coming through in almost all of my interviews.

[00:03:22] Lori: I had never thought about it. I had never even heard that kind of perspective. But as you're sharing it, it really makes a lot of sense that you wouldn't know you couldn't, because there wasn't somebody telling you you couldn't.

[00:03:36] Noa: Exactly.

[00:03:37] Nola: That is fascinating. And what have you learned from them that you have been able to apply to your own company?

[00:03:45] Noa: I think a lot of the things that I would hear would be stay true to who you are. Stay true to what you're trying to achieve. When we get feedback, you can do two things. You can learn and grow from it, or you can whip yourself. You can always just go, yeah, that wasn't good enough. I'm awful. I'm terrible. I can't do this. And so I would definitely say that a lot of the things that I have learned would be, stay positive and learn from every experience. That really resonates through the interviews as well. These are women that are like, yeah, so I had a hard time, but then I overcame it. That simple! Because I was positive. Because I told myself never to give up. Because all of those cliches that we hear, I mean, they're cliches for a reason. Because they're true, so don't mock them.

[00:04:35] Nola: Good point.

[00:04:36] Noa: Listen to them.

[00:04:37] Lori: Yeah. You said that you found kind of this thread that began in childhood. In the first episode that you recorded with us, when you got a chance to talk about being an entrepreneur in a tech startup, you shared that you are in business with your dad. And you also shared that being an entrepreneur was not on your radar when you were growing up. So how does your growing up experience, your dad being an entrepreneur, and you being an entrepreneur later in life, how do all those tie in with what you learned from the founders that you've been interviewing?

[00:05:13] Noa: Well, when you have entrepreneurship in your family, I think it gets you really ready for what it's like, which is a rollercoaster. I've seen my father go through amazing success and terrible failures. And the way I saw him deal with it, I think got me really ready for my journey. He used the support of the family to get through hard times, and he always said, I'm not giving up. I can do this, I can do this. And when you hear that growing up all the time, and when it's said to you, you can do this, then it's like a flower, right? It needs sunshine, it needs water. It needs all of these things to grow, and when you have that, then that flower is just going to bloom.

[00:06:02] Lori: Yeah, that's awesome. In recent years, at least in the US, venture capital funding has really surged, but the numbers haven't lept forward in the same way for female founders. In fact, it's reported that just 2.4% of all venture capital funding for startups in the US went to businesses founded exclusively by women, and that was over the course of looking back in 2021. Is there more support for funding for women owned businesses in Israel than there is in the US?

[00:06:40] Noa: The numbers here are not much better.

[00:06:44] Lori: Wow. Okay.

[00:06:45] Noa: They are not much better. Being a female entrepreneur, I think anywhere in the world, is difficult. It's hard. I've just recently started an additional section called She VC, where I'm interviewing women from venture capital funds that are investing partners. And so the numbers for that, for example, in Israel are like 9% women that are investing partners. And when you really think about it, we are 51% of the population. 51%.

[00:07:16] Nola: Yeah.

[00:07:17] Noa: So, it shows you that huge gap between where we need to be and where we are today. And I think podcasts like this, this is one of the best ways that we can actually change that. Because we need more role models. We don't have enough role models. We need to have more of you guys.

[00:07:36] Lori: Thank you and I think that's why Nola and I think this is so important in getting the word out, and we were grateful to interview you wearing the journalist hat and reinforce that getting the word out and supporting female founders. there's a lack of mentorship out there.

[00:07:57] Nola: What suggestions do you have, or have you learned from other entrepreneurs, for overcoming common challenges?

[00:08:03] Noa: Basically what you want to do is let go of that thought that you need to be perfect. You're not perfect. Nobody's perfect. And that's okay. And find that support system, find that role model. She's not out there on page one of the New York Times, but she is definitely there. And if
you research that and you look for her, you'll find her. She'll be there. Because we as women, we want to help each other, most of us. Find that woman that is going to help you open those doors. And then once you find her, be 100% sure you're paying it forward. And be that person for the next woman. And I think that's the best way to spread it out.

[00:08:47] Lori: You have a front row seat in interviewing female founders, so was there a particular female founder or a particular story that was an inspiration for you and your business?

[00:09:00] Noa: I remember I interviewed, this was one of my coolest interviews I've had. She is a psychologist that works at a VC and she uses her analysis to help the VC choose the right founders to invest in.

[00:09:16] Nola: Wow.

[00:09:17] Noa: Really cool, groundbreaking stuff. And I was doing this interview at a WeWork, and she came with her newborn baby.
And I was just mind blown by this because it's hard to be interviewed. It's not an easy thing to do. And to do that with two- or three-month-old is so hard. And she was awesome. She was not sweating it at all. When she got tired, she was like, do you mind taking her? I'm like, yeah, sure, no problem. So we kind of moved her around a little bit so that she didn't get tired. And that attitude, that's a winning attitude right there, right? When you're not afraid to do anything.

[00:09:56] Lori: Yeah. And you find a way to do it, right? So she's a new mom and she is an investor and she's being interviewed as an entrepreneur, and she's like, I'm just going to lean into it and do the best I can.

[00:10:10] Noa: Right, exactly. And if the baby cries, then we'll take a break and everyone will understand because that's life. Yeah.

[00:10:18] Nola: That's amazing.

[00:10:19] Lori: I could see how that is such an inspiration. Because normally, a woman wouldn't see that, right? That gets edited out. And there you were, up close and personal, and right there seeing, well, if she can do it, it really encourages

[00:10:35] Noa: Oh yes.

[00:10:35] Lori: you.

[00:10:36] Noa: She is a total inspiration.

[00:10:38] Nola: So for me to be able to summarize or reflect on some of the things and lessons you've learned from so far, you've mentioned that perhaps a challenge that some of these successful entrepreneurs overcome are like the blending of business and family. They're not trying to put them in compartments.

[00:10:56] Noa: Yes.

[00:10:56] Nola: The other is a challenge thinking that everything has to be perfect and the advice is, you understand it doesn't.

[00:11:04] Noa: It can't.

[00:11:04] Nola: Another is, having a mentor to look to. If somebody doesn't have that, it can be challenging, but the solution is to find a mentor. So are there any other challenges and solutions you can think of through all of your years or your experience of interviewing other founders? Tell me more!

[00:11:23] Noa: I think another issue is knowing how to tell your story. Because I could sit here and say the exact same thing I've just said, and it would go through one ear and out the other. You need to know what to put emphasis on. What is the beginning, the middle, and the end. You need to make sure that your sentences are short enough so that we can understand them start to finish. You need to brand. You're a brand. If you're a founder, you are a brand and you want your brand to be as cohesive as possible across all channels. Make sure that you are telling a cohesive story from the way you're dressed, from the way you speak, from the language that you use, from the colors that you're using. Try to make sure that people understand when they see you, that they understand you. Super important.

[00:12:15] Nola: I have a question to dovetail on that. So our podcast, we often talk about expanding your career portfolio, having multiplicity of interests. And we recognize that that creates a unique approach for personal branding, especially. If you're running a company and if you're known for your business, but you're also known for your other endeavors. So my question for you is, how do you bring cohesiveness to your brand when you are both a writer and an entrepreneur?

[00:12:47] Noa: Very good question. I see them really going hand in hand because my brand is authenticity. That is what I sell. And as a journalist, you're trying to find that in the person that you are interviewing. You want to see their authentic self. As much as you can with the time that you have. I mean, I want to find the truth, basically. When I'm interviewing someone, I don't want to hear about how amazing their company is doing. I mean, oh, I've had interviews where I would just be like, plucking hairs out. Be real, man. Please stop telling me. Yeah, please stop talking to me about how amazing you guys are doing.

[00:13:29] Nola: This is not an infomercial, it's an interview. There's a difference.

[00:13:32] Noa: Exactly. Exactly. Thank you. Just be real, dude. I'm not judging you. You know, just a little bit of authenticity please. And that comes off, by the way. When you're interviewing someone, that comes off and when I'm writing that article and you acted that way to me, I'm not going to be favorable to you, I mean, blah. So yeah, bring me your authentic self. Let me know who you are, and then that's how people are going to read what I write and love you as well. Same brand.

[00:14:07] Lori: How does your story, for entrepreneurship, your family history, the work that you do in interviewing and bringing to light other people's stories, how does that impact the message that you give to your two sons? They're quite young, but you are their role model. You are not another male role model. You are teaching them something very different.

[00:14:33] Noa: I love that question. I have to say that just recently, really like last month in my son's school, my older son, he's in second grade and the teacher asked if there are any parents that want to come and present any topic. And so I decided to come and present entrepreneurship. And I spoke to the class about how to build your own company and what you need to do. And all those little girls, the ones that were engaged, you could see their eyes just like shining. And I'm like, yes, that's, that's what I want to do.
Yes. And I just recently, yesterday actually, one of the mothers comes up to me and she's like, you know, my daughter did not stop talking to me about your presentation. She wants to be an entrepreneur. And I'm like, oh, that's what I did it for. Yay!

[00:15:21] Nola: That's great!

[00:15:23] Lori: You're being influenced by the entrepreneurs that you interview. You are influencing because you're a role model to your sons, and by being a role model to your sons, you are opening that door to other women. Or young ones, right?

[00:15:40] Noa: Young girls. Yeah.

[00:15:41] Lori: So your sons will grow up not thinking about barriers between female and male. They'll just be able to say, like you said, My dad did it. Now they'll be able to say, My mom did it.

[00:15:54] Noa: Yes. Exactly. Be the person that you want your kids to follow. Be that role model all the time, if you can. It's not easy.

[00:16:03] Lori: No. And you also are backing up why it's so powerful to tell our story.

[00:16:11] Noa: Yes, yes.

[00:16:13] Nola: Well, this has been a fascinating conversation and I wish we could go off to a cafe and have a huge pitcher of

[00:16:21] Noa: Wine.

[00:16:22] Nola: Coffee.

[00:16:22] Lori: Wine. Sangria.

[00:16:24] Nola: There you go. But I know that it is getting late there in Israel. And we just have one final question to wrap up the show. If you could give female entrepreneurs one piece of advice, what would you say?

[00:16:44] Noa: I would say, even if you didn't grow up in that ideal family where your father told you that you're amazing and you can do anything, because a lot of us haven't, right? I mean, so that's just the reality of it. Be that person for yourself. Don't wait for someone else to tell you you're awesome. You don't need that. If you do it for yourself, look in the mirror. Really, just look in the mirror, it's called affirmation. Tell yourself, I can do this. I'm awesome. I'm amazing. Even if I wasn't amazing today, that doesn't mean that I'm not an amazing person. So be that role model for yourself. You can do that.

[00:17:24] Lori: I think that's a great piece of advice.

[00:17:26] Nola: Yeah. Thank you, Noa, for being our guest. If someone wants to learn more about you, your column or your articles, or even your company, where should they go or how can they connect with you?

[00:17:38] Noa: For my company, we have a website, www.the5starz.com it's with the number five and a Z at the end. And for my columns, you go to CTech. C t e c h.com. They're all in English and I'm on LinkedIn. Just write me, Noa Gadot.

[00:17:55] Nola: That's great. And we'll be sure to put those links in our show notes as well. So thank you, listeners, for listening to this episode. We hope it inspires and encourages you to start your entrepreneurial journey so you can create your best and most exciting life. If you found the information shared here today helpful, let us know by posting here where you're listening, or on our Facebook page.

[00:18:16] Lori: Not sure how to turn your idea into a profitable side business? Contact us at stickybrandlab.com/contact. We'd be happy to help you.

[00:18:25] Nola: Be sure to come back next Tuesday and every Tuesday for another informative, inspiring, and motivating episode. And remember, action creates results. So tap into your desire to create a business and brand you love by taking 1% action every day. Small steps, big effects.

[Out-Take]
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Welcome back, Noa. Did I say, do I say that right? Noa?

[00:18:55] Noa: Sounded like nwah!

[00:18:56] Nola: Noa? Should I say it that way?

[00:18:57] Noa: Noa.