Ep95 Transcript: Interview with Jessica Kupferman

Andrea Vahl: Are you thinking of launching a live event? Would you like to have a big party with 800 of your closest friends? That’s exactly what my guest today, Jessica Kupferman decided to do in her forties when she launched her She Podcasts Live event. It was a raging success, but we talk about some of the pitfalls and lessons she learned along the way.

Hello Dreamers. Welcome to the Late Starters Club, giving you the inspiration mindset and tools you need to start something midlife and beyond. Remember, it’s never too late to follow your dreams.

Hello, late starters. It’s your host, Andrea Vahl and I am here joined by the amazing, the wonderful Jessica Kupferman who is, she is hilarious, first of all, and I actually was having a hard time starting this show because she was making me laugh.

So this is going to be fun. It’s going to be great.

So for those of you who do not know Jessica, Jessica is a dynamic entrepreneur, speaker, podcasting expert. She’s helped thousands of women podcasters and content creators find their voice and reach their audience. She runs an amazing conference called She Podcasts Live.

Her site is shepodcasts.com. So welcome Jessica.

Jessica Kupferman: Thank you so much. I’m so excited to be on your show.

Andrea Vahl: We got to hang out together earlier this year at PodFest, it was so fun. So fun. And I’m excited to be going to She Podcasts in Washington DC coming up in June.

And we’ll talk more about that. We’ll give that a good plug at the end too. And we’re actually going to talk about getting that event started because you started that later in life. A live event.

Jessica Kupferman: So what a mistake. No, I’m just kidding. Just kidding.

Andrea Vahl: We’ll get to the disasters.

Jessica Kupferman: Yes. Sorry. One thing at a time.

Andrea Vahl: So tell us a little bit about how you got started doing this, what your mission was when you started?

Jessica Kupferman: So I’ve had She Podcasts as a community that I’ve been working with or for, it’ll be 10 years next year I think.

My partner Elsie and I had done little workshops and we’d done webinars and we’ve done all kinds of things and we never got to do a conference and there were other podcasting conferences that were happening, but they were co-ed, which there’s nothing wrong with that, but when you have a co-ed conference and it’s a tech conference, it can be a little, intimidating for female identifying people.

They tend to feel like someone’s, it’s like they’re not doing it, but they feel like someone’s competing with them or trying to teach them how to do something they didn’t ask to be taught how to do, or there’s just something safe and comfortable about just having a conference with women.

To be able to feel like you can ask whatever question. No one’s going to laugh, that people are all there genuinely trying to just help you get through what you’re doing.

Andrea Vahl: It’s definitely a different vibe, different energy.

Jessica Kupferman: Yeah, so we wanted that. I was told that we wanted that, and so I did a Kickstarter for that and we raised money for it, and then we had the event, and then four months later there was a pandemic, and that’s when things got quirky.

But up until then, I really was like, if somebody asked me the question, this is actually how, it was an aha moment actually. I was on a podcast interview and someone said, what would you do with a million dollars? And I’ve always had the same answer. And that answer is throw an enormous party and invite all the people I love, to hang out with each other. Because I think they would really enjoy each other’s company.

And then when I said it, I don’t even remember what show it was on, but when I said it, I went, oh, I should do a conference. Like immediately I thought, of course, this is it, and I certainly don’t have a million dollars, but it just seemed I’ve been doing that my whole life… marrying different groups of friends together to go on vacations or to have lunch. Not even on purpose, but just because I like this person, I like this person. So of course we’re going to each other. You come too.

Actually I did that with you, did I not? We sat and had two different meals with total strangers that you had no idea, but I was just like, they’re cool. Come on, let’s go.

Andrea Vahl: I know, and it was so fun and I love that because, it is that whole thing of “Hey, I think these people are going to get along”, and we just had a blast. So that is great. And I love the fact that you would do that if you had a million dollars, but you did it without a million dollars.

Jessica Kupferman: It wasn’t my smartest move, but yes, I did. Yeah.

Andrea Vahl: But it was a success, right? You had 300, or how many?

Jessica Kupferman: The first year was 800 attendees.

Andrea Vahl: Oh my gosh. Eight hundred attendees.

Jessica Kupferman: And I had only Kickstart funded $50,000. In fact, the ask was $25,000, but we somehow doubled it to $50,000.

So we had $50,000 for the event, and we had a hotel that was at a discount because it was on the fly. We booked the hotel six months before, which you don’t usually do. And so yeah, it was really great. And of course, again, it was before Covid, so there was no inhibition about leaving the house, there was no inhibitions whatsoever. People just wanted to hang out with each other and it was fine.

And then that changed. But yeah, I would do it. What else is there? First maybe I’d travel the world, then buy my parents a house, and then maybe I’d throw a party. Priorities.

Andrea Vahl: I love that idea of taking a dream and saying, how can I make this happen in a different way? And ran the Kickstarter, that’s amazing. And had a wildly successful event with 800 people for your first event. That’s incredible. That’s really cool.

Jessica Kupferman: Thank you. Social Media Marketing World is a show where it’s pretty friendly for anyone. It’s a softer field than podcast conferences, which are much more about, it’s a faster growing technical industry and it’s way dominated by men. Whereas I think social media has never, I don’t know that it’s ever been dominated by men because women are so social.

I just started noticing that like none of the t-shirts fit me and they were always navy blue, like stupid things like that.

But we had 800 people and then 350 the second year.

Which was 2021, so that was roughly right.

Andrea Vahl: Yeah. And then we were in the pandemic time, so what can you do?

So awesome. I’ve got so many questions.

Jessica Kupferman: I want all of them.

Andrea Vahl: I know. What was a takeaway from launching that event? What lessons did you learn from that, that you are taking forward as you’re still having these events going on?

Jessica Kupferman: So there are two things that I learned from just doing the events. Full stop.

Number one is, I am an arrogant A s s H o l e because I thought I’ve had two weddings, I’ve done two bar mitzvahs. Of course I can do a conference like it’s no big deal. It’ll be fine. I have some event experience. It’ll all work out fine. You don’t sell tickets to those things, right?

People are invited to go to those things and they want to go. Whereas for a conference, you have got to convince them with every nook and cranny in your body that it is the right thing for them to do and and you have to do it every day, all day until you just run out of things to say, which usually happens to me like two weeks before the event where I’m supposed to be hammering get your ticket. And I just am like, I’m tapped out of ideas at this point. If you don’t have it now, I can’t help you.

So that’s the first thing I learned is that was very arrogant and I often think, oh, it’s no big deal. I’ll just do it. And I like to play my own lawyer, my own therapist.

Like it’s never a good idea and I’m always very arrogant in assuming that I can do it. I don’t know if that’s ADHD or ego or what, but I should stop doing it, is what I know for sure.

And then the second thing is that if you want to be a leader, you can’t also be subtle. You have to say exactly what you mean, even if people aren’t going to like to hear it.

And I had a big problem with this my first year because we did a Kickstarter and like I said, we had funded $50,000 and then we had open applications for speaking and speakers get free tickets. So a lot of those speakers had already donated to the Kickstarter. And they decided that they wanted to get the money back because they got a free ticket.

And so first I wrote an email and I was like, listen we so appreciate your support and it would be better if you could just, find someone else to give you your ticket too. Rather than have us give the money back because it’s kickstarted, we can’t really give the money back. And that didn’t work because I wasn’t direct enough.

I was like it would be nicer if you did this. And then it was like I don’t want to go through , I heard, I don’t want to go through the trouble of doing that, and I’d rather just have the money back if you don’t mind. And then I’d have to go back again and be like it’s going to be really difficult for us because it was a donation and Kickstarter doesn’t really do refund.

Still too subtle! Yeah, it’s still too subtle.

Finally, I had to just be like, look, that was a donation. These are tickets. Those are different. You didn’t actually buy a ticket because I don’t have that money, that’s Kickstarter money and these are ticket sales. You haven’t actually bought one of those. What you did was donate to something different. We can’t give your money back. I’m very sorry.

But it took three or four emails for me to get to that point. And a lot of frustration, like, why don’t they understand? Why don’t they, why can’t they read my mind?

Why don’t they know what I’m trying to say? I’m trying to be nice here. That’s not what leaders do, right? Leaders don’t try to be nice. They do what’s best, even if it’s not nice to hear, they have to do what’s best for the business. And I had never had to learn that lesson before because before I had She Podcasts, I was a graphing and web designer and a consultant.

So I never had to. My business was just my business. Nobody really had to discuss what I was doing with it or what was best for it because it wasn’t nearly as public or even, there weren’t even employees. It was just moi. So that was a hard lesson to learn.

Andrea Vahl: Yeah. Yeah. That is a hard lesson and I think also there’s, should we try and sugarcoat things, like you said, try and be nice about it. But I think the direct approach is always… I always think someone told me that “being direct is kind” and I was like, I never thought of it that way because it is easier to understand. It’s easier for everybody. There’s not, this miscommunication.

Jessica Kupferman: I’m a communications major, so it’s twice as embarrassing, right? I’m like, I studied this shit and I shouldn’t be able to do it.

So I stopped, I had a little bit of self-awareness and I stopped doing it.

And then I came up with, is nothing like no landmark whatsoever, but I now deliver news in a compliment sandwich. Which is like what you do, right? So it’s I love that you’re so excited and I wish we could do this for you, but we’re not going to be able to, but I still love you and your amazing bye.

Yeah, and I don’t know if it’s for me or them right, to tell you the truth but it’s certainly a nicer way to deliver news. People don’t want to hear. Yeah that’s true. Just throw kindness in there wherever you can. Yeah. And then it lands nicer.

Andrea Vahl: Yeah. And the other thing I think that you said that I love too, that I think people don’t understand, be it an event or be it anything you’re selling anything.

Is how much you have to sell. I just was talking to a client. I was talking to the client this morning who was like, No one’s buying this. And I said how often are you emailing about it? How often are you emailing your list about it? It was like once every two months.

I’m like well….? They don’t know it’s there.

Jessica Kupferman: They’re forgetting about you.

Andrea Vahl: Yeah. So you have to, you have to promote way more than you think is good. People miss messages. They’re not opening the emails. They’re not watching, they’re not seeing it. And then they’re like, oh yeah, I think I heard about that.

I’m like, are you kidding me? I’ve been talking about it every day.

Jessica Kupferman: My last corporate job I was selling advertising like for a newspaper, our local newspaper here in Delaware and their website. That was my first marketing job. And I told myself this story. I was wildly uncomfortable calling people and asking them for money.

And I don’t know why. It’s obviously part of my money story. And I told myself that, if you become a graphic designer, you can design the ads and you don’t have to ask people to buy them. So this is a very old story that I’ve told about myself, which is I don’t like asking people for money.

So I also didn’t realize when I put myself in the position of being an event planner and that first year, I really didn’t have to do a lot of begging. But during a pandemic, you have to work a little harder, right? So like here I am with this story in my head of I hate asking for money.

And it’s like just, it’s just crashing together in my brain. It still does. I just started at 501c3 hoping that it would make it easier for sponsors to support and like now I’m realizing that I just signed up for fundraising, I have to do it again.

Andrea Vahl: Whole different animal. Whole different animal.

Jessica Kupferman: That’s a whole different level of asking people for money, right? And like I, right? I either am trying to learn this lesson in this lifetime or I don’t think far enough ahead when I do things, but either way, I don’t seem to like it, but you have to remember in sales that what you’re doing is offering help.

And I think when you can keep that in mind, it’s a lot easier because I’ve heard, and I’m sure you have to, so many people who complain about social media because they don’t like sales, and what, just because you see a lot of sales doesn’t mean you have to do a lot of sales. You can do it your own way and explain what you’re doing and why it’s helpful.

And that’s what I’ve been trying to keep in mind.

Andrea Vahl: And the interesting thing is too, even you having this successful event, still struggling with the whole sales side of things, ongoing. As I do as well. But you know how much benefit people get from this event?

People love it. It’s life changing. It is magical. People create these friendships that…

Jessica Kupferman: They cry when they tell me about it, which is for someone dead inside, I can get a little, it’s a little uncomfortable, but I try really hard to feel what they’re saying to me and have it make an impression even if I can’t cry.

Andrea Vahl: It’s a beautiful thing and it’s interesting that we still, even with all this magic happening from the event, that we still have this resistance to actually selling it, and that is what happens to me as well. So I think for anyone listening, have that takeaway of you don’t have to love selling in order to sell.

You have to keep that in mind the transformation that you’re selling. The beautiful thing, the beautiful moments, all that, the life-changing experience. So that’s great.

Jessica Kupferman: I’m assuming you’re familiar with I think it’s Steven Pressfield and your five characteristics or whatever.

Do you know what I’m talking about? One of them is…

Andrea Vahl: Remind me about I, I love his war of art, but I…

Jessica Kupferman: Is it that, or it might be the Gallup, it’s basically you take a long test and they give you the 30 top traits of your personality. You know what you’re best at and like one of mine is woo, which means I could sit down in front of any stranger and charm them into being my friend.

Then another one is futuristic, which means that I can help people see their future. I can help them visualize what life will be like if, and not socially, but like in marketing. So I’m very good, I think, at getting podcasters to want to come. It’s the sponsors that I think, I don’t know how to woo them.

Because really, I know what the benefits are for sponsors to sponsor events, but it feels like a different sell.

But I guess my point is, when you are doing social media and you’re selling your own thing, find out what your traits are that help people understand you and then use them.

Use a lot of… like for me, the futuristic stuff imagine you’re here and this is how you feel. Wouldn’t that be amazing? I use that a lot cause I know that it’s, that I’m effective at it.

Andrea Vahl: Yeah. No, I like that. I like that. And it’s true. It’s not, it’s painting that picture that you know is true because you’ve helped people get there. You’ve helped people grow their podcast, you’ve helped, all these people feel more confident and find their voice, like you said to create that, actualize that dream inside of themselves and actually get that podcast going.

Jessica Kupferman: Isn’t it hard to explain though, like what you get out of podcasting?

I know what I get out of it and why I enjoy it. But is it hard? Because if you’re not like, “Well, I just like having my own show because I always thought I would be the next Johnny Carson,” people don’t usually react to that as well as something else, which is it’s so fulfilling.

I dunno about that. I really just always wanted to have my own show. That’s why I started it. What about like for you? What do you get out of it the most you think of having?

Andrea Vahl: Oh, for sure. I also thought I would be, Johnny Carson or, and maybe not Johnny Carson. I think…

Jessica Kupferman: Pat Sajak? Maybe?

Andrea Vahl: Ellen.

Ellen, yeah. Ellen. Yeah.

And so that was my… But, I got so much more out of it. For me, it was, it’s been so inspiring hearing these stories, talking to people, realizing how much we have in common, realizing how much people struggle and even though outside looks successful. We see that backstory of how hard they worked and we’re like, oh, thank God.

I thought it was just me working this hard. And it’s…

Jessica Kupferman: Its a relief for sure. And the fact that you put that out for people our age, I think is really valuable because I’m starting to note… At first I was like, I don’t know what people are talking about. There’s no midlife thing happening.

Everyone seems to be fine with midlife. And then I start noticing in movies that, like Chris Evans is paired up with a 25 year old, and I was like, that dude’s my age, he’s supposed to be paired up with Anna Faris. What is happening right now? Like he’s still in romcoms with the same age girls he was 20 years ago and it’s ridiculous.

So I’m starting to notice it now, but like it is, feels, it does, there are things that make you feel invisible and it’s silly because we’re smarter and more successful than we’ve ever been.

Andrea Vahl: Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. And that’s the whole point is I think that people, just are like, oh, it’s time to retire old, you old person.

Jessica Kupferman: Why did they make the retirement at 50? That just seems crazy to me now.

Andrea Vahl: Yeah. Yeah. I don’t know.

Jessica Kupferman: Like we’re still, I’m still like, I’m 48 and like I have, I would be so bored.

Andrea Vahl: I have so much to do.

I’ve got a lot to do.

Jessica Kupferman: A lot to do and say and accomplish. And 50 just seems like you’re throwing it in right when it gets good.

Yeah, exactly. Maybe that’s because everyone worked for a boss. Maybe it was just different when they, you’re right, like everyone worked for a boss and we didn’t have as many creative options for work as we do now anyway.

Andrea Vahl: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So let’s talk about, we were talking about beforehand, we were talking about some of your disasters. Cause I do like to talk about, I do like to talk about disasters. But let’s talk about specifically in running the event. because I think for people who are thinking of doing an event and have a dream to put an event together.

What are some of the pitfalls? You obviously had the biggest disaster of covid that hit, but what are some other things that…

Jessica Kupferman: I won’t even get into that was so crazy.

Andrea Vahl: Some other pitfalls or disasters that you thought were…

Jessica Kupferman: okay? Yeah. I have a good one. Okay. So the first year I was doing the event, so She Podcasts was just a community and Elsie and I got paid via PayPal, and then we would just pay each other from that.

I never had a business bank account, so when I decided I wanted to do the event, I opened a business bank account for the first time, like I would say June, and the event was in October. And I opened a bank account at TD Bank. I hooked it up to Kickstart, so that money was there, ticket money was in there, response for money, everything was in there.

And you could clearly see if I opened it up, how much money was in there. However, my event was out of state and TD Bank is not in Georgia. It’s, I didn’t know that it was, I thought it was national, but I don’t know if it’s, I don’t know. All I know is it wasn’t where I was and so as a result, it wouldn’t let me wire the amount of money for the hotel that I needed to wire, which by the way was like $60,000.

They won’t set up an event unless they’ve been paid. So yeah. So I’m there, it’s like Friday night the opening party is supposed to start, and I have my computer up and I’m like, I have the money. I’m not hiding it from you. I just can’t give it to you. And the, and like the bosses at the Marriott were like we’re sorry there’s nothing we can do. And like the woman working with me was like, all right, let’s just figure this out. Then I was on the phone with TD for like hours and hours trying to get them. Can you at least release it for one? No. It’s a very new account. Like it was a nightmare. It was a nightmare.

I ended up having to pay them in $5,000 installments all at one time. So this woman sat there with me while I made 12, $5,000 payments all in a row for however long it took. It was humiliating. It was, I didn’t know, I had no way of knowing in advance that was going to ever be a problem. Like how are you supposed to know? Oh my gosh. So I guess my advice is open the account now, even if you’re not sure you want to do it. Cause I think if I had been more established, it would’ve been less of an issue, but it was a brand new. There’s all kinds of stuff that just comes up that you don’t realize is going to come up.

Oh, another thing that happened was let’s say you’re at a conference. What’s the worst possible thing you can think of to forget to order?

Andrea Vahl: Coffee!

Jessica Kupferman: You think, okay, coffee is important, but that’s easily fixed. We approved, but apparently never purchased our name badges.

In the plastic printed with a gorgeous background, the whole thing. And I went back in the chain and saw that she sent me a proof and then I gave her a change. Then she sent me another proof and I said, great. And then nothing happened. And I didn’t realize this until I was like about to give them out.

Then I was like, oh no, we have no name… I don’t know how, but somehow they printed them and overnighted them. Maybe they were close to Georgia, I don’t remember. But by some miracle they were there. Not the opening night, but the next day when people were starting the conference, they were, I know. But holy crap, what a disaster.

It was terrible. I’m trying to think if there were any more. That was the worst one was the name tags. Because of all things, right? Like lanyards. Who cares? You can just pin the stuff up.

Andrea Vahl: Yeah, you can, right? You can work around. Yeah.

Jessica Kupferman: It was so terrible. And then I’m trying to think.

I think at one point during the party I don’t think this was my, like the people that I was there with, but like someone. There’s all this AV equipment left in the ballroom, because they do lighting and sound all day long and you don’t just take it all out and then put it back in.

And I think during one of the parties or after one of our parties, everyone had gone to bed and apparently, and no one told me this until after the event, by the way, so I had no idea. But apparently someone came in the ballroom and took a leak on the electric equipment. What? I don’t know who, I can’t imagine who it was.

I, like I said, it was like in the middle of the night. And Chris Krimitsos who was helping me with my event from PodFest, like he took care of the whole thing, didn’t tell me till the event was like a week over. What do you mean someone peed in the ballroom? What!?!?!

Andrea Vahl: Feels like that’s a guy move.

I just am saying it.

Jessica Kupferman: It couldn’t have been a she podcaster, but still a disaster that thankfully I didn’t need to… I wouldn’t even know the first thing to do if that happens. I guess call housekeeping. What else is there? That’s the only thing I would think of to do.

Andrea Vahl: That is the most bizarre story. I think I’ve heard about a conference.

Jessica Kupferman: Right??? It was so bizarre and thank God he shielded me from it. Yeah, that was, yeah. Yeah. So yeah, those are three, those are my first year disasters. The three biggest ones. We live through it. It’s funny.

Andrea Vahl: Exactly. Yeah. I don’t even know what kinda lessons you take away from that.

I don’t.

Jessica Kupferman: Yeah, like I said, the first one, you get your bank account as soon as you want a business, just open that account. You can always close it. Just open it. Open it now do it now. Go on Bank of America and open it now. It’s very easy. And then I guess for the second one, what could I learn from that?

I don’t know. Double check everything.

Andrea Vahl: Check. Yeah. Checking. I think that’s amazing. That’s a hard thing as well. It’s hard to think of everything. Yeah. Yeah. So what, so let’s talk just a little bit about when you are overwhelmed, obviously it’s a huge endeavor to put together an event.

When you’ve over been overwhelmed, how have you gotten your mojo back there?

Jessica Kupferman: Ooh, that is harder. Like, how to get your mojo back when you’re overwhelmed? It’s ironic that you say this because this has only been a problem for the last four days for me, and I usually forget the previous years.

So like I’m very calm and relaxed and everything in good time and all things are happening. And then eight weeks prior, the day that it’s two months prior, so April 19th on the dot. Everyone starts hammering me with questions. Everyone has requests, speakers stop being able to come.

Sponsors want to change things around always at the two month mark. So it’s like everything’s fine and quiet and then all of a sudden it’s like being in a rainstorm of communications. And so actually it’s affecting my sleep because even if I’m not working, I’m laying awake worrying about the stuff that, I always worry about what I’m going to forget.

Cause I think with ADHD, I’m conditioned not to trust myself. And so even if I have to-dos, and, even if I use my inbox as like a to-do I still lay awake going, am I going to get it all? What if I forget this person and I can’t, and I start making more lists at three in the morning, and then I’m exhausted.

So honestly, the first thing I try to do is sleep. If, like when I can, if I can. Especially if I know that stress is going to keep me up. There’s nothing I can, I could try and drug myself, but then you’re just, then you’re just spacey all the next day. It’s hard. So I’m trying to, I try to go with the flow. And also in the past when I’m totally overwhelmed, really the only way to refresh is to go somewhere without being able to be contacted. For just, I’m not saying a full day because that’s crazy talk, but like a couple hours, go to dinner, go to a movie, go to a friend’s house. Three hours tops where nothing can interrupt and you can be fully present. Because I think that is a skill that we are not fully present even when we’re not overwhelmed. But it is oddly mentally refreshing, I think is to just be only worried about the thing that’s in front of you.

Andrea Vahl: I love that.

Yeah, because that is, that’s huge. And I think it’s, it is very mentally refreshing go outside to just enjoy. Leave your phone behind. Know that you can’t be contacted and take a break.

Jessica Kupferman: I had a friend with breast cancer. She died a couple years ago, right when the pandemic started, but her daughter and my son were friends in preschool and so I’ve been friends with her for a while and we would have her over here, and I have no idea if this is cancer, if it was just Erica, but she’s the only friend I’ve ever entertained that came over with no other agenda, nowhere else to be, and no phone within her reach to keep checking. Like she would come over and if she wanted to stay for dinner, she could stay for dinner. If she wanted to stay for the night, she could, like there was nothing rushing her out the door.

There was nothing, there was no other obligation than being there with me. And it taught me a lot because she seemed very relaxed, and I think that’s the way to be, and I don’t think a lot of us remember how to be social like that, to just fully focus on the person who’s a company you’re enjoying.

That’s a hard skill I think, to cultivate. So when I’m overwhelmed, I try to do that because it’s a complete mental break from the things that are hammering me. I know that sounds very violent. Like it’s happening to me. It’s not, but that language. I just noticed that language was a little violent, but and maybe that’s how it feels, but it’s not really violent, it’s just that, it’s a lot and you just have to totally turn it off. Which is hard.

Andrea Vahl: Yeah. That’s a, that is a skill. That is a skill.

A good one to practice, so that’s good. So we are, I can’t believe like I said before, I was telling you before, it’s like hard for me, these half hour interviews, I love the timeframe, but it’s like I just want to keep talking for another hour.

Jessica Kupferman: If it’s 45 minutes, it’s your show.

You can do whatever you want with your show. I always found that stuff got really interesting around the 45 minute mark and then it’s how am I going to end it now? Yeah so my shows were really long when I did interview shows. Cause same with you. I never wanted to stop talking, but you’re right, half hour is ideal I guess.

Andrea Vahl: We’ll definitely get to where people can find information about She Podcasts live. But I want to have you share your favorite quote or inspirational saying.

Jessica Kupferman: I have two actually. Two female comedian quotes.

The first one is Lucille Ball, and her quote is, “I’m not funny. What I am is brave.” And I thought, how true is that? Because anybody can write a joke, right? But not everyone can stand up there and tell them.

And then my second quote is, Joan Rivers actually, who said “I made my living saying what everyone else is thinking”, and people tell me that I do that all the time.

Andrea Vahl: You do. You just say it. You just say, if anyone wants an honest opinion. Just talk to Jess. She’s… she will lay it out there for you.

Jessica Kupferman: Even with a compliment sandwich, I’ll lay it out.

Andrea Vahl: It’s a compliment sandwich that’s it.

Jessica Kupferman: But I’ll lay it out for you. Yeah. So I love that because it’s my aspiration to make my living saying what other people are thinking.

Like she is the master of doing that. But I would like to incorporate that more, I think. If I could.

Andrea Vahl: Awesome. Love it. Let’s talk about where people can go to find out about She Podcasts live. ShePodcastsLive.com, right?

Jessica Kupferman: Yep. ShePodcastsLive.com. It is exactly two months away.

It’s going to be really fun. It’s so Washington, DC. We have amazing keynotes, including Ms. Andrea Vahl. We also are going to have an immersive listening experience one night. We’re going to have an award show one night. It’s going to be amazing. And just the vibe and the people there are just amazing.

You get to network with all kinds of brilliant, successful people and all different stages of podcasting. And they’re all there to help each other through it. Which is and with no competition, no judgment, no, no nothing, no salesmanship, no nothing. It’s quite an experience, so I’m excited.

It will be your first one. And I’m excited to you.

Andrea Vahl: I cannot wait. I’m so excited. And I know. So if anyone, the other thing that I love about you and Elise, both who you bring together this community, you curate cool people, amazing people, bring them all into a community and lift, have each other, lift each other up.

And that’s what it’s all about. It’s just. So encouraging, such a great place to be. And I’m excited. I can’t wait to experience it live. Awesome. And we’ll have links in the show notes here. And thank you Jessica, so much for your time. It was as always fun and awesome to talk to you.

Jessica Kupferman: You too. Thank you so much for having me. Take care.

Andrea Vahl: All right. Bye everyone.

Jessica Kupferman: Sorry. I’m already **** it up, but it sounded like a gong. Was it? Yeah. Did you hear that? No. You’re like, I’m sorry. That’s awesome. All right.

Andrea Vahl: Hope that was helpful, and make sure you grab the free guide Top Tools for Late Starters on the website@latestartersclub.com and let’s turn dreaming into doing.