Ambition 2.0

If you only open LinkedIn when you're job hunting (or creeping your ex's new girlfriend's profile), this episode is for you. Amanda sits down with Catherine Fisher, VP at LinkedIn and one of the most trusted career experts out there. Catherine has built brands and led teams at eBay, Netflix and now LinkedIn. She's here to tell us what we've been getting wrong about the platform (spoiler: it's kind of a lot). The biggest mistake? Treating LinkedIn like a fire extinguisher you only grab in an emergency. Your network should be working for you long before you need it. Maybe you're buried in applications and running on fumes. Maybe you're quietly wondering if it's time to leave. Or maybe you just haven't touched your profile since 2019 (no judgment). Either way, you'll leave with a real plan and fewer excuses. Catherine explains why "looking for a job is a full-time job" is terrible advice. She tells you which three profile fixes to make first, and how to send a cold DM people actually want to answer. Catherine also gets real about how ambition changes over time. She scaled her ambition back when her kids were little and is now ramping up again as she's about to become an empty nester. Proof that ambition comes in seasons, and that's okay. Key Takeaways: Why you should be on LinkedIn all the time, not just when you're job searching. The three profile updates that do the heavy lifting: your photo, your About section and your Experience section. How skills-based hiring took off during COVID and why transferable skills matter more than big-name brands. Why AI should help "around the edges" but never write your first draft. The formula for a cold DM that gets a reply: be specific, set a time limit and offer to help. How to beat job-search burnout by applying with a plan instead of applying to everything. Catherine's biggest LinkedIn ick: being "humbled and honored." Rapid fire: the Open to Work banner, Easy Apply and the worst career advice she's ever received. 00:00 Intro 04:22 What people misunderstand about LinkedIn 07:02 The first three profile fixes to make 10:08 LinkedIn do's and don'ts 11:05 Why engaging in other people's conversations matters 12:13 Should you accept every connection request? 12:29 How to write a cold DM that gets a response 15:35 How to be authentic without throwing your boss under the bus 18:08 What's changed most about job searching 20:38 AI skills vs. creative skills 21:49 How to beat job-search burnout 23:37 Why referrals are so important 26:43 Where LinkedIn is headed next 27:14 Catherine's biggest LinkedIn ick 27:32 Advice for people early in their career 28:36 Rapid fire: Open to Work, cold DMs and Easy Apply GUEST LINKS Connect with Catherine: https://www.linkedin.com/in/catherinefisherlinkedin/ Read the Career Companion newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/career-companion-6994037905178398720/ FOLLOW THE PODCAST IG: https://www.instagram.com/girlboss/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@girlboss Amanda Goetz: https://www.instagram.com/theamandagoetz/ https://girlboss.com/pages/ambition-2-0-podcast SIGN UP Subscribe to the Girlboss Daily newsletter: https://newsletter.girlboss.com/ For all other Girlboss links: https://linkin.bio/girlboss/ ABOUT AMBITION 2.0 Powered by Girlboss, Ambition 2.0 is a podcast where we'll be exploring what it really means to "have it all" in work, family, identity, and self… and if it's actually worth it. Each week, you'll hear from hardworking women who've walked the tightrope of ambition. They'll share their costly mistakes, lessons learned, and practical tips for how to have it all and actually love what you have. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Laura Weldy was first building her coaching practice, she took a group of the most accomplished women she knew out for coffee, one by one, and asked what was standing between them and what they wanted at work. Almost every answer came back the same: “I don't have anyone advocating for me in the room.” But when she pushed further and asked what they wanted their allies to say on their behalf, nobody had an answer. That gap—between wanting to be seen and knowing how to ask for it—became the foundation of her coaching practice and her framework, the Personal Power Code. Today, Laura is a women's leadership coach, speaker, and podcast host who helps high-achieving mid-career women build fulfilling careers and lead authentically. On this episode, she and Amanda get into the specific phrases that undercut women before they've made their point, the difference between an ally and a sponsor, and why "just be more confident" is some of the least useful career advice out there. This episode is about what happens the moment you stop asking for permission to take up space and start deciding you already belong in the room. Key takeaways: Confidence at work is about having a clear, well-thought-out perspective, and building that perspective is most women's real growth edge. Small qualifiers like "sorry," "just," and "this might be a dumb question" undermine your authority before you've even made your point. Allies will back you up in a room, but sponsors are the ones who speak up for you in rooms you're not in—and you have to tell them exactly what you want before they can do that for you. The "likability trap" hits hardest for women who lead with connection, since softening their language and over-accommodating others can feel safer than risking being disliked. Your work cannot speak for itself: if you're not talking about your wins, nobody knows they happened. Reframing your default language—like swapping "I could be wrong, but" for "my thought is X, and here's why"—changes how people receive you before you've said anything else. Timestamps 0:00 Intro 0:47 What women deserve to know about taking up space 2:20 How ambition has changed for women 4:05 Why "just be more confident" doesn't work 6:00 The real reason women don't get promoted 8:10 How to find your professional point of view 11:21 The five traits that build a leadership brand 13:16 Why women hesitate to ask for what they want 17:34 Phrases confident communicators avoid 19:21 Breaking the "manufactured vulnerability" habit 22:48 Allies vs. sponsors 25:48 Reframing promotions as wins for your manager 28:43 Talking about your wins without feeling cringe 29:39 Rapid fire: better scripts for common powerless phrases 31:26 Laura's final word on confident communication GUEST LINKS Learn more about Laura: lauraweldy.com Follow Laura: instagram.com/lauraweldy Connect with Laura: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-weldy/ Join her retreat for women in tech: https://topshelfretreat.com/ FOLLOW THE PODCAST IG: https://www.instagram.com/girlboss/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@girlboss Amanda Goetz: https://www.instagram.com/theamandagoetz/ https://girlboss.com/pages/ambition-2-0-podcast SIGN UP Subscribe to the Girlboss Daily newsletter: https://newsletter.girlboss.com/ For all other Girlboss links: https://linkin.bio/girlboss/ ABOUT AMBITION 2.0 Powered by Girlboss, Ambition 2.0 is a podcast where we'll be exploring what it really means to "have it all" in work, family, identity, and self… and if it's actually worth it. Each week, you'll hear from hardworking women who've walked the tightrope of ambition. They'll share their costly mistakes, lessons learned, and practical tips for how to have it all and actually love what you have. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Neha Ruch built her career in brand strategy—an MBA from Stanford, a fast climb on the corporate ladder, and a title she loved. Then she paused her career after her second child and spent the years since rebranding what a career pause actually looks like for ambitious women. In her book, The Power Pause, Neha makes the case that stepping back from paid work isn't the opposite of ambition. It's a chapter of it. She also reframes the “stay-at-home mom” label, citing survey results showing outdated stereotypes (like apron-clad June Cleaver from Leave It to Beaver), and argues modern parenthood is more fluid with technology, networks, and involved partners. Whether you're actively wondering, "Do I quit my job? Do I take a pause? What should I do?", or if family planning is somewhere on your radar for the next few years, or if kids aren't even part of the picture yet—this conversation is worth having early. Neha and Amanda get into how to come out the other side of a power pause with a stronger sense of self, a real community, and clarity on what's next, well before you're right in the thick of it. Key Takeaways A "power pause" is deliberately shifting time and energy toward family for a chapter, while still holding onto a sense of self and community. The most common image people associate with "stay-at-home mom" (June Cleaver) versus "working mom" (Michelle Obama, Sheryl Sandberg, Beyoncé) shows just how outdated and polarized our cultural narrative around motherhood still is. A good partner is someone who can have difficult conversations and makes you feel safe having conflict, not someone who avoids hard topics altogether. Career pauses don't have to mean fully leaving the workforce; they can look like part-time work, consulting, freelancing, or simply deprioritizing taking on demanding projects for a season. Tracking small wins during a pause can become a real, resume-worthy experience when you're ready to return to work. How to know when it’s time to return to work and how to market your power pause on LinkedIn. Working moms, stay-at-home moms, and everyone on a power pause are part of the same ecosystem, not opposing sides, and supporting each other is what actually moves the conversation forward. Timestamps 00:00 Intro 02:07 Neha's career downshift 04:03 Dealing with judgment after pausing 06:03 The power pause framework 10:59 Why stay-at-home still feels loaded 13:09 Having money talks with your partner 17:11 Dating for shared values 21:12 Trade-offs and other options than just working or not working 24:50 Returning to work after the pause 29:57 We’re part of an ecosystem, not a divide 32:58 Rapid fire questions GUEST LINKS Follow Neha: https://www.instagram.com/neha_ruch/ Website: https://www.thepowerpause.com/ Read her book: https://bookshop.org/a/116169/9780593716182 FOLLOW THE PODCAST IG: https://www.instagram.com/girlboss/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@girlboss Amanda Goetz: https://www.instagram.com/theamandagoetz/ https://girlboss.com/pages/ambition-2-0-podcast SIGN UP Subscribe to the Girlboss Daily newsletter: https://newsletter.girlboss.com/ For all other Girlboss links: https://linkin.bio/girlboss/ ABOUT AMBITION 2.0 Powered by Girlboss, Ambition 2.0 is a podcast where we'll be exploring what it really means to "have it all" in work, family, identity, and self… and if it's actually worth it. Each week, you'll hear from hardworking women who've walked the tightrope of ambition. They'll share their costly mistakes, lessons learned, and practical tips for how to have it all and actually love what you have. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At 25, Hayley Paige signed the contract of a lifetime—head designer at a major bridal house, her name on the label, a fast track to becoming a household name on TLC's Say Yes to the Dress. She went on to generate over $220 million in bridal sales and dress more than 10,000 brides. Then, in the middle of a contract renegotiation, it all fell apart. In the span of just 24 hours, a judge's ruling took away her right to use her own birth name. She couldn't use it in business, couldn't publicly identify with it, and was locked into a seven-year unpaid non-compete—all while her former company took control of the social media accounts she'd spent a decade building. This week on Ambition 2.0, Amanda Goetz sits down with Hayley to talk about the raw, deeply emotional experience of going through a public legal battle, how she rebuilt her business from the ground up, and the red flags she now tells every young creator to watch for before they sign any contract. Key Takeaways Signing a contract early in your career without a lawyer can leave you exposed for years, even after you've outgrown its original terms. Believing "if I provide enough value, anything is negotiable" is a risky mindset going into any negotiation. Once you're operating at a high level, you set your own precedent, and that gap between your value and your original terms is where disputes start. Watch for red-flag language like "perpetuity," worldwide rights, and broad name, image, and likeness clauses before signing anything. Contracts should hold up to your questions; if they can't, it might not be the right opportunity. Setting boundaries early and having difficult conversations up front creates clarity, and contracts are meant to provide clarity, not create conflict. What happened to Hayley isn't an isolated case; the same pattern shows up across industries whenever talent operates under contracts they've outgrown. Timestamps 00:00 Intro 07:48 How she lost the rights to her own name 11:42 Contract red flags to watch for 15:03 Reclaiming her name and starting her new business 17:52 Launching A Girl You Might Know Foundation 20:13 Hayley’s fave bridal trends + rapid-fire qs GUEST LINKS Follow Hayley: https://www.instagram.com/misshayleypaige/ Visit https://hayleypaige.com/ https://www.agirlyoumightknowfoundation.org/ FOLLOW THE PODCAST IG: https://www.instagram.com/girlboss/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@girlboss Amanda Goetz: https://www.instagram.com/theamandagoetz/ https://girlboss.com/pages/ambition-2-0-podcast SIGN UP Subscribe to the Girlboss Daily newsletter: https://newsletter.girlboss.com/ For all other Girlboss links: https://linkin.bio/girlboss/ ABOUT AMBITION 2.0 Powered by Girlboss, Ambition 2.0 is a podcast where we'll be exploring what it really means to "have it all" in work, family, identity, and self… and if it's actually worth it. Each week, you'll hear from hardworking women who've walked the tightrope of ambition. They'll share their costly mistakes, lessons learned, and practical tips for how to have it all and actually love what you have. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you've ever caught yourself calling your side hustle "just a little passion project" while secretly wondering if it could be your next thing—this episode is your permission slip. Amanda Goetz sits down with Stephanie Cartin and Courtney Spritzer, co-founders of Entreprenista, who quit their corporate jobs on the same day back in 2012 with zero investors, zero business plan, and one very clear number: $4,000 a month each, just to break even. Fourteen years later, they've built a +3,500-member community, scaled an agency to eight figures in cumulative revenue, and helped women found and grow thousands of businesses. We cover how they knew it was time to go all in, the real difference between a hobby and a business, whether (and when) to tell your boss about your side hustle, and why community (not funding) is what actually got them to seven figures. Key takeaways You don't need a grand plan to quit your job—you need a number: Stephanie and Courtney calculated the bare minimum they each needed to survive and used that as their revenue goal before walking away from corporate. Stephanie's litmus test: if you're already making money, you have the start of a business. But turning a hobby into a business isn't automatically the right move. Never burn a bridge, and give yourself a real timeline before walking away from a job (they gave themselves three months to prove it could work). The single biggest driver of their early growth wasn't a funding round or a growth hack. It was showing up to one random networking group and actually building relationships there. Comparing your timeline, your funding, or your exit to what you see on Instagram is a fast way to lose sight of the business you actually want to build. Both Stephanie and Courtney say if they were starting a business today, they'd go all-in on learning AI. Timestamps [00:00] Intro [05:05] The exact day they quit their corporate jobs [08:47] How to tell a hobby apart from a real business opportunity [10:44] The most common (and costly) mistake new founders make [11:35] Did they set out to build Socialfly to sell it? The surprising answer [14:49] How to spot your first "side hustle idea"—and use AI as a brainstorming partner [17:48] Building a business while working full-time, without burning out [20:20] Should you tell your boss about your side hustle? [23:37] Why community (not funding) is their real superpower [29:06] Rapid fire: tools, time-wasters, and the best (and worst) advice they've ever gotten GUEST LINKS Follow Entreprenista: https://www.instagram.com/entreprenistas Join the Entreprenista League: https://www.entreprenista.com/tel-start Follow Stephanie: https://www.instagram.com/stephjillcartin/ Follow Courtney: https://www.instagram.com/courtspritzer/ FOLLOW THE PODCAST IG: https://www.instagram.com/girlboss/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@girlboss Amanda Goetz: https://www.instagram.com/theamandagoetz/ https://girlboss.com/pages/ambition-2-0-podcast SIGN UP Subscribe to the Girlboss Daily newsletter: https://newsletter.girlboss.com/ For all other Girlboss links: https://linkin.bio/girlboss/ ABOUT AMBITION 2.0 Powered by Girlboss, Ambition 2.0 is a podcast where we'll be exploring what it really means to "have it all" in work, family, identity, and self… and if it's actually worth it. Each week, you'll hear from hardworking women who've walked the tightrope of ambition. They'll share their costly mistakes, lessons learned, and practical tips for how to have it all and actually love what you have. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices