Jess Sato on Why Bold Women Build Better Businesses

GGGR with Jess Sato – Final

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Karen,

00:10

hello, hello everyone, and welcome to the good girls get rich podcast. I’m your host, Karen

Yankovich, and I am here with Jess sotto today and Jess, I’m so excited for this conversation,

because this is a conversation that I just don’t think we’re enough people are having in the

public space, in the entrepreneurial space, so I really wanted to have Jess on for this show. And

some of you may know Jess, if you follow entrepreneurs unfiltered, we’ll talk about that a little

bit. But Jess is one of my co hosts in that panel that I do every every week, or at least at the

time that we’re recording this. We’re still doing that. Entrepreneurs, unfiltered show Jess Sato is

a big idea and social impact coach. She helps purpose driven female entrepreneurs, thought

leaders and change makers, clarify their big idea, amplify their voice and create lasting impact.

As a former TEDx speaker coach, she specializes in helping women own their expertise, craft

powerful messaging and step onto the stages that matter, from TEDx to podcasts and beyond.

Through her bolt methodology, bold, original, loud and tenacious, Jessica empowers women to

show up with confidence, take up space and lead conversations that drive change, and I think

we need more of those conversations at this moment in the world, I’m so excited to have you

here, Jess, we never get to do

01:26

this, just you and I. So you heard me say that we Jess is one of the panel members for

entrepreneurs unfiltered. If you have not checked that out yet, either one of our linkedins, you

will, and all of that’s in the show notes will get you to those, to those videos, or if you’re

watching this at some point in the future and you want to watch those videos, reach out to one

of us, and we’ll, we’ll show you how to find them.

01:49

And those are so much fun to do.

01:51

It’s one of my favorite things we do each week, actually. Yeah, yeah. Me too. Me too. It’s fun to

have conversations around things that we just don’t get to have conversations around all the

time, right? So, so, Jess, you know, we talked, I read your bio, and we talked about a lot oftime, right? So, so, Jess, you know, we talked, I read your bio, and we talked about a lot of

things, but I want to go back to your how you refer to yourself, so, and I keep looking over here,

because that’s where I have justice fire, even though my camera’s here. Jess, Sato is a big idea.

And social impact coach, I want you to tell us where social impact coaches, because that’s

where I really want this conversation to go because, boy, does our social world need impact

right now. So tell us a little bit about what that is.

02:29

Gosh. Okay, this is kind of a huge topic. And if you ask someone else, they might tell you

something different. But the way I think about social impact is really looking at the issues or

challenges that we’re facing in our local communities or globally that affect other people, and

really trying to address those issues or challenges in a positive, thoughtful and strategic way.

And there are many business owners who care about those kinds of issues, but you know,

that’s not necessarily their space. That’s not, you know, that’s not what their work is really

about. And the more I started talking with other business owners, the more I realized, wow,

there’s something to making sure that your business can be a force for good. And this came

about because I was thinking about nonprofits. I was having a conversation with someone who

was in the nonprofit space, and they were like, Yeah, you know, funding continues to be a real

challenge. Like, how do we get funding? How do we continue to get funding, even though we’re

doing really important work, and we know government, depending on where you are in the

world, like, governments are imperfect. Even though they have a lot of resources, they’re not

always aligned with, you know, some of these social issues, and sometimes they’re causing

those social issues. So there’s a gap in the middle. And I just kept thinking, man, business could

be a really important way to fill that gap. And then once I started digging into it, I realized, oh,

wow, there’s a there’s a whole body of work around business for good and social impact and

really making sure that the businesses that we’re building, creating, that we’re leading,

04:09

are doing things to help move the needle forward and help close some of those gaps in a way

that only business can do.

04:18

So as you say that I think to myself,

04:22

and I think for the most part, from what I know of you, and I think I know you know, pretty we

were getting to each other pretty well. I think what we think is for good is is very similar, but

not everybody does, right? So as I’m building my business, and I want, you know, like, one of

the things that I really am, it’s really important to me, is I want there to be more wealthy

women in the world. I think women with money. With money can change the world. And I thinkthat that’s really it’s never been more important, I think, than it has been at this moment in

time. Some other people may, may not, think that that is, you know, where they’d like to have

that that’s not the kind of social impact they want to have, right? So, so I believe.

05:00

Believe that at this moment in time, we need to plan our flag and we need to, you know, we

need to let people know what we believe is social impact for good and, and what we think isn’t

and, and it’s counterintuitive certainly, to the way I grew up, right? Many, many years ago. You

know, don’t talk about religion or politics now you I feel like I have to, right? So how does that

impact the work that you do? Yeah, I, I grew up in that same kind of world where, you know, we

weren’t talking about any of those things and, and I’ll be honest, I’ve wrestled with that too.

Like I’ve been in partnerships where maybe there was a little bit of a split in terms of our

values. I’ve been, you know, in my own business, I’m like, Oh, do I really want to say that? Do I

want to get involved in that kind of a conversation? What is that going to do? There is a lot of

like, internal mental energy that gets brought into the equation, but I think we’re in a new era

here, like it’s no longer enough to just do business. People want to do business with people who

have shared values, who are using their business in ways that align with their values. And I

mean, the numbers are pretty significant. I mean, it’s something like 85%

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of Gen Z ers and millennials will actively choose a brand because of their values. They will stick

with that brand because of their values, and they will advocate for that brand because of those

values. And if you think about sort of the buying power of that generation, it is significant. So I

think, you know, long gone are the days of, Oh, I’m just going to stay quiet. I’m just going to

stay in my lane. I’m just going to do business. No people actually want to know. And if you are

not talking about it, and you don’t, let me just say you do not have to talk about this in a

divisive way. You can just be clear about where you stand. You can talk about the issues that

are important to you and bring those issues forward into the conversation, helping people

understand like, Oh, wow. I didn’t realize that we are aligned on this. I totally want to do

business with her. Like, that’s the kind of thing that matters. The other thing I’ll say about this

is, and this is probably obvious,

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you know, none of it can be performative like it all has to be authentic and real, because people

can suss that out almost instantly. If you’re talking out one side of your mouth, but you’re doing

something that is sort of counter to that, if you’re supporting brands, if you’re, you know, not in

alignment with the things that you’re saying. You will, there will be some penalty around that,

for sure, interesting, you know, it’s not easy to do that, right? I mean, even if you’re committed

to doing that, like, I feel like I am committed to doing that, and then I go on and, you know, I

mean, Amazon is at my house every day, you know, just because my life just requires that right

now. But maybe it doesn’t right, maybe it doesn’t, and I’m and I’m actively thinking about, how

do I change that right? So, but as I say that, I think that so, first of all, I think that all of our

businesses have a social impact. It’s just what are we choosing? What are we choosing for that

social impact to be, and are we, are we choosing what we want that to be? And are wefollowing up to make sure that it has is having that kind of impact? But so, so if you’re listening

to this, and you’re like, Well, I don’t really think that that’s something I need to think about.

Like, trust me, your business has a social impact, right? It’s just where, what is that impact?

And you know, you can carefully craft that. But the other thing I think, too, is that, you know,

08:25

I think it’s as much it’s as I feel it. You know, you talked about it from a positive standpoint,

which I’m all for, right? Like, let’s find businesses that we want to support. But I think that

there’s the other side to that too, and there’s businesses that I choose not to support. You

know, today alone, there were two people that I am connected to on Facebook, one of whom

I’ve known and loved for many, many years. I just, like, silenced her for 30 days because I just

couldn’t have that in my feed. And the other one was like, I don’t even know this person, like

she’s gone, like, I don’t want these people in I don’t want these people in my feed. I don’t want

to support them. I don’t want to support what they support, right? So, so when you take a stand

for social impact, you get to you get to do both of those things. And I think, you know, we

talked about this, maybe we’ll link to that in the show notes. The this past week’s

entrepreneurs on filter, right? We talked about how we talked about niching, right? And how

when you create a niche for yourself, people know when to come to you. I feel like this is kind

of the same thing, right? Like if, if they know what you stand for, and they know the kind of

impact you want to have on the world, they know whether or not they want to support you,

yeah, I think that’s absolutely true. I mean, you’re right. It can go both ways, right? It helps

repel people who are not the right fit, right? So if there’s someone who you know believes

something that’s completely counter to your values, they’re not going to choose you and your

vice versa. And if there’s someone who’s like, yeah, I totally am vibing with what she’s saying.

Like, I didn’t even know that was a thing, but now that I’m hearing more about it, I really care

about that. Or, you know, it opens a door for people to sort of lean.

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In and make value based decisions. And

10:04

you know, in a world right now where it feels like truth is a little bit fluid, all we have are the

values that we hold. So, you know, being clear as a business owner, not only what your

personal values are, but what the business stands for, what the impact is that they that you

want to make, what is your perspective, or your point of view on issues or challenges that

might sort of surround the business itself. That’s really important, because it allows you to, as

you said, sort of niche down.

10:33

Part of it is how you communicate who you’re here for, and allows those people to find you or

opt in, opt out. So I think there’s a lot of benefit to to taking a stand. And like I said, taking a

stand does not have to be divisive, like you don’t have to be confrontational, you don’t have tobe rude, you don’t have to be any of those things. This is, you know, some things that are

important to me. I care a lot that women have access to menstrual supplies, and that they

should be free and accessible to women globally. Like, maybe that’s controversial. I don’t know

if it is. I’m guessing it must be, because that’s not a thing that’s happening all over the world

yet. So, right, which is crazy, crazy, right? Yeah, so people know this about me, and if you’re

like, oh, I don’t really care about women. I don’t care about the fact that they can’t go to school

if they’re menstruating in some parts of the country or some parts of the world. Okay, we’re

probably not a good fit for each other, right? So, but again, you get to decide, do you think,

though too? Like, I kind of think too though, that if you don’t take a stand, and I don’t know

where you stand, I will probably buy from someone else Absolutely, because I’m because I don’t

want to get myself too far down, you know, down a path with somebody who may who I’m not

sure where they stand, like it’s important to me that I know the values behind the companies

that I support. I completely agree. I completely agree. So it isn’t even, I don’t think it’s optional.

No, yeah, I don’t think it is so. So if you’re a woman and you’re like, stepping into this a new

chapter, right? And you’re in your I know one of the things that you’re really good at is also

helping them with their big idea, right? Articulating their big idea, how do you bake this in, like,

talk a little bit about that, about how they create, how you help women create their big idea,

and how you bake in the social impact that sets them apart. Great question. So let me start by

saying the big idea from my vantage point is sort of your unique perspective, or your point of

view on an issue or challenge that is happening in the space where you work or places where

you serve. And we need to have a point of view, and it needs to be unique enough that it cuts

through the noise. And I would argue most people don’t have that or they don’t know how to

talk about it. So first, I want to help women better understand how to bring all that expertise,

that they have, all that experience, etc, bring it to the table in a way that allows them to to

speak clearly about what their thoughts and feelings are about issues that are happening in

their industry. For example,

13:08

in the process of that, sometimes, you usually get one of two scenarios when it comes to social

impact, we get a business model that aligns specifically with that issue. So, you know, a

colleague of ours is working in the substance use space. Her entire business is about substance

use. She has a unique point of view about the substance use space, and everything she does is

geared toward that point of view

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and the impact that she’s trying to make. That’s one type of type of business. So some of it’s

just naturally woven into the fabric of what they’re trying to accomplish and what they’re trying

to change or challenge. From an industry norms perspective, the other and I think this is

probably more common, we’re running businesses. So in your case, you said, you know, I really

want more wealthy women. So the work that you’re doing, the message that you’re doing, that

you’re you’re speaking about is all about, how do we do that, and how is your solution unique?

But the result of you doing that could be that you’re better able to fund, you know, programs

that support women in STEM women in entrepreneurship in other parts of the world where

maybe they don’t have the same access. So usually it’s like an extension or an effect of having

a business that’s successful, so more time or resources, money, etc, can, you know, then be

donated. So I see those two as the sort of two primary things. So you figure out your big idea.Some of that could be about the social impact, but more often than it’s about your business as

a whole. And then the effect of you running a successful business allows you to have the social

impact that you’re actually looking to achieve. I love that. I love that. So let me ask, I think,

where do we screw up? Right? What are the mistakes we’re making when it comes to doing all

of this?

15:00

Being seen and heard for a message that we feel might be a little uncomfortable to talk about.

Yeah, I I think we don’t talk about, I mean, I think that’s the problem. I mean, that’s one of the

problems. We’re not talking about it enough. Yeah. So we’re not talking to your point. We’re not

talking about our you know, we’re not really challenging any of the things that we’re seeing out

there, we’re all sort of like floating along the same path. And so there’s no real differentiation.

Big Ideas challenge something, they challenge a commonly held belief, a perspective, a

paradigm, etc. When you do that, all of a sudden, you know, people take notice like, oh, that’s

that’s something different. I haven’t heard that before, so I think part of it is we’re not saying

the things that we want to say or that need to be said.

15:46

I think, you know, unfortunately, we have, as women, been conditioned to keep quiet we, you

know. So some of it is because we don’t know what to say, and some of it is scary to say it.

And, you know, I’ll be honest, I I’ve been on this this kick lately where I’m like, I got to do more

video. I need to be more visible in this way. And I’ve been a longtime speaker. I’m not scared of

being on the stage, but yet to, like, actually put my words on video, all of a sudden feel scary.

So I think we’ve been conditioned to not rock the boat, to kind of keep ourselves small, to

shrink our voice, and because of that, we’re not nearly as visible as we need to be. So, you

know, some of this is a reframe that has to happen around the importance of our voice, the

importance of our message, and how that can be of service and is of service to the right

audience for us, right, right? And if we are, you know, there’s somebody that’s going to hear

your voice and they’re going to say, I needed to hear that, and that’s what I needed to hear to

for me to take that next step. And that’s the ripple effect that this work has, right? It’s that

ripple effect. The power is in the ripple effect, not like that, you know, we think of power like

fireworks, you know, like one big thing, but really the ripple effect is the power, I think

absolutely you know, because that’s where you know that the rising tide that lifts all boats,

right, like we start to lift each other up, and women get a bad rap for that, right? Like they’re,

you know, like they’re, they’re Catty, or they’re the and, you know, there’s movies about this,

and there’s so much about this, but I almost have almost never experienced that in my life. You

know, I think women are really good at lifting each other up when we’re when we choose to,

right and when we, when we choose to, to decide to grow, you know, grow our world and our

network and our voices, to get it in front of more people. And it is scary sometimes. Yeah, it is

absolutely but do you think just that it’s scarier for the people we know than the people we

don’t know? Right? Like, for example, like, I remember the first episode of this podcast, like

episode one. You can go listen to it at Karen yankovich.com/ 001, I remember thinking, like, I

didn’t really care about people I didn’t know, and what they heard. It was like, Oh my gosh.

What is this person going to think? Or what is that person going to think, right? So when I, when

I, when I am putting my voice out there in a way that you know, in things that I stand for, it’s

not the people that I don’t know that I worry about, and not that I really worry about anybody.But if there’s anybody that I worry about, it’s the people that I do know, you know. And that is

like, who cares? Right? Like I should not care about that. But I think sometimes that’s what we

do. I think, I think it varies. So I think there is, it sort of depends on where you are, but to your

point, like, yeah, sometimes I am worried. Like, what are people I know gonna think?

18:34

Are they gonna resonate with this? Are they gonna think this is crazy, especially if it’s if it’s

someone who knows you, but maybe they haven’t been on this journey with you. Like, maybe,

you know, I started thinking, like, when I was first starting the online portion of my business, I

was thinking, Oh my God, all my high school friends, all my college friends, are going to see

this, and are they going to wonder, like, what the heck? How did this come about? Right? So I

think there’s some of that, yes, but I think in general, what I hear a lot is, I’m worried about

people attacking me right there is a dark side to visibility. And, you know, the internet is kind of

a cesspool most of the time. And even though we can get good things from IT people, you

know, there’s something happens with the screen that you know, takes your empathy down.

And so the things that you would say to a human being, you feel like,

19:29

you know, all of a sudden you can just say all the things right? You would never say to

somebody doing this. You just would never do that, right? So I think, you know, what I hear a lot

is, I’m worried that people are gonna, you know, Judge me around, fill in the blank, my weight,

what I look like, you know, do I speak clear enough? Is my idea, you know, fill in the blank,

right? Um, so what I tend to think about in these circumstances is is really along the lines of,

what happens if I don’t say it like the question I asked my client?

20:00

I’ve been talking about this a lot lately, but it’s been a question that I’ve posed for a couple

years now, is, what in the world would change if you said what you wanted to say. On one

hand, it can be a little flippant, like, What in the world would change, but on the other hand, I’m

like, What in the world could actually change if you said this, and when I think of like big ideas

and the message and the impact, to me that is all about how to be of service, right? If we

believe in what we’re talking about, if we are committed to the idea, to the work, to the impact,

it’s actually a disservice to not to say those things, to not follow up on, on the actions that we

need to be taking. And so

20:47

for me, the fear of like, not, not get, getting the information to people so they can do

something with it is, you know, it really outweighs the the fear I might have around visibility,

right? Everybody has to do their own calculus, but that’s how it works for me. Yeah, I get that. I

get that. Well, you, you embody that right with your bolt methodology, bold, original, loud and

tenacious. So tell us about that. How did that come what is that and how did it come about?

Yeah, oh my gosh. Okay, so21:15

I’m not like, a super, like, crafty, creative type person in this way. But I was thinking a lot about

ideas and metaphors about ideas. And you know, the light bulb is a huge symbol, of course, but

I really got to thinking about lightning, and how When Lightning Strikes, it is jarring, and when I

think about a big idea, it has that same effect. And you know that it’s, you know, really

powerful, because there’s this this energy that comes with it. And so as I started thinking about

what makes ideas actually powerful, that’s where this bolt methodology came from. So bold

ideas, meaning, when we say them out loud, we feel a little bit uncomfortable, like we can feel

our inside squirming a little bit. That’s what you know. And if you if you don’t feel that, you’re

either not committed enough to the idea or it’s you need to judge it up a little bit.

22:15

I’ve never heard you say that before, but that’s exactly what I say when I talk to people about

their LinkedIn profiles. If your headline doesn’t make you feel a little uncomfortable when you

hit save, then you need to go back and make it a little bit more powerful, because you are,

yeah, I love that. I can’t believe that you just said that. Yeah, so the bold piece like got to be a

little bit uncomfortable. Original is all about you, right? If you think about messaging you do

messaging work. I do messaging work. You know, it has to come from somewhere authentic. So

this is your story. This is the why behind the work that you do, your experience, your expertise,

and you’re bringing all of that to the conversation. So it’s not just some Jane on the street who’s

talking about it. It’s you with a real story, with real impact that makes it personable and

connectable loud, to me is, are we saying things in a way that cut through the noise? So that’s

why I say, you know, you want, if everybody else is talking about the same issue in the same

way in your industry, it’s it just blends. It’s white noise. So when you provide the counter view,

or you say your perspective, but in a way that nobody else is talking about it now, all of a

sudden, it’s like a megaphone shouting out into the ecosystem. And tenacious is kind of a lot of

things, but I think the thing that matters the most is that most people give up on their idea too

early. They stop talking about it. They don’t allow the idea to grow and morph and change over

time. Right as we get feedback, as the idea pressure test, if we don’t feel like we’re making

traction, it’s easy to toss it aside, and we live in a very rapid turn culture. So it’s easy to see

how that happens. But when you’re talking about social impact when you’re talking about, you

know, really wanting to push a paradigm shift in your space that doesn’t happen overnight. So

you need a tenacity. You need the idea to be tenacious enough to withstand all of that that

comes with it. So that’s, that’s sort of the the guide behind the bolt methodology, and that’s so

that’s the foundation of the work you do with people, right? Tell us a little bit about how you

work with people, yeah. So I start working with people like you said, really digging into the big

idea, like really trying to help them articulate and get clear on what is my perspective. Why is

this important to me? Why am I the right person to be talking about it. And then we move into,

okay, how can we just this thing up? How can we bolt it and make our idea really a bolt idea?

And so we we look at, what is the language we’re using? How are we how are we framing it?

What are the stories we’re using to talk through this, so that people get a sense for what are

those values?

25:00

Values that we stand for, what is the impact that we’re trying to create? All of that gets wovenValues that we stand for, what is the impact that we’re trying to create? All of that gets woven

in, and then we figure out, okay, where do we talk about this? What are the right stages for

you? Maybe it’s, you know, an actual stage. Maybe it’s a TEDx stage. Maybe it’s a podcast.

Maybe it’s a book, right? Like, there’s a lot of quote, unquote stages, I often say stages of your

own making, that you get to decide where your message goes, how you talk about it, and all of

that, and then getting people out there in a way that allows their thought leadership to surface.

So that requires a level of visibility, a lot of discomfort, in many cases, with putting yourself and

your ideas out there for feedback.

25:41

So yeah, it’s really kind of a holistic process of starting at the beginning and getting that big

idea all the way to getting it out into the world. So it makes the impact that you really want to

have

25:52

so cool, so cool. And you start with a free assessment, right? You have a bold assessment. Tell

us about that. Yes. So like I said, you know, a lot of us have an idea, but we’re like, maybe not

uncomfortable enough, maybe we haven’t given it enough depth. And so there you can grab

the bolt assessment is just on my website, Jessica sato.com, forward slash bolt, and it takes you

through step by step for each of those four areas, like, Where? Where where is the opportunity

area for you? Where can you judge it up from a boldness perspective? What do you need to do

from a languaging perspective? So it just gives you some questions to work through in order to

identify how you can make your message bigger and louder in the world. Awesome. Awesome.

This has been great. I think that, you know, I am here for, for making this topic more visible,

right? The topic of being visible with what’s important to you, and being authentic in your

messaging around that. And I love, I love that you are too, and I love that we were able to bring

this conversation out to more people. And we need to just, you know, this is the ripple effect,

right? We need to keep it going. So, you know, everybody that’s listening, go to Jessica

sato.com/bolt and grab her bolt assessment. And if you are when you are ready to get more

visible, going over to LinkedIn for pr.com and all these links will be in the show notes, because

I’ve got a free checklist that we just created that talks about how to get started with that. How

do you get started with more visible How do you find the opportunities to get your message in

front of more people? And how do you use LinkedIn to do that? Because, you know, people are

buying from other people, and it’s the relationships like this, like Jess and I, you know, building

a relationship around this that that that’s where the business is happening in 2025 it’s the

relationship. So I

27:44

excited to continue this messaging. Certainly follow Jess. You can find her on LinkedIn. We’ll put

that in the show notes as well. I’m just sure on Instagram too, right? Instagram and and

threads. Yes, you are on threads a lot, because I know I I’m a lurker more on threads than I it’s

usually like, I’m laying in bed, scrolling, scrolling. That’s when I watch that I just don’t have the

brain power to jump into conversations as much. I need to make that more of a part of my in

the middle of the day when my brain is active conversation, I’m just kidding. I’m just starting on

threads. I’m really trying to figure out, like, Is that the right place for me? But I like thequickness of the of the conversation. So we’ll see. Yeah, same, same. I love that. All right. Well,

listen, I am excited to this. You’re gonna, you can catch more of the Karen and just show on

entrepreneurs unfiltered on Tuesdays at 2pm Eastern, at least in February 2025, and beyond.

28:38

And this has been great. And I, you know, I think there’s never been a more important time to

consider the social impact that the work you’re doing is having to be intentional about it, and to

create that impact intentionally, so that, you know, we need to be doing that we cannot be

silent. I don’t know what would happen. I don’t know what’s gonna happen, even if we’re not

silent, but I certainly know if we are silent, what’s gonna happen. So we need to have, we need

to have our voices loud and proud. So Jess, thank you so much for being here today. This was

so fun. Thank you for having me. Yeah, we’ll see everybody back here again next week for

another episode. You.