The Female Founder Show

Ep. 13: Building a Remote Workforce Empowered by Women: Liza Rodewald of Instant Teams

• Bridget Fitzpatrick

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Curious about how an "accidental entrepreneur" turned a desire for flexibility into a thriving software company? Meet Liza Rodewald, the visionary behind Instant Teams, as she shares her incredible journey and the pivotal moments that shaped her path on the Female Founder Show. Learn how the pandemic has revolutionized remote work, presenting unique opportunities for women, and discover Liza's unique leadership style that emphasizes empowerment and creativity within her team.

In this episode, Liza also offers invaluable advice for aspiring female entrepreneurs, shedding light on both the challenges and the rewards of launching a business. She emphasizes the importance of self-care for sustaining motivation and openly discusses her experiences with venture capital funding. Tune in to hear Liza's passionate commitment to supporting other female founders and the significance of building a strong community. Join Bridget Fitzpatrick as we celebrate Liza's remarkable accomplishments and eagerly anticipate future recaps with this inspiring leader.

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Voice Over:

This is the Female Founder Show with host and entrepreneur Bridget Fitzpatrick, exclusively on ASBN.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Hello everyone and welcome to this episode of the Female Founder Show, where you will hear inspiring stories and advice from female entrepreneurs to help you build and grow your business. This show is designed to inspire and motivate other female founders to be the best they can be. Today's guest is Lyda Rodewald, founder and CEO of Instant Teams. Instant Teams is a technology platform that enables companies to create and manage remote customer success teams powered by a workforce of military spouses. She's a four-time entrepreneur and a software engineer with over 16 years of experience. Liza, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you for having me.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

It's a pleasure to be here, yes, can you talk to us about what was your motivation for starting your company?

Liza Rodewald:

Sure, so I call myself kind of an accidental entrepreneur. I started my first software company when my son was actually 16 months old and I was doing a lot of traveling for work and I wanted to kind of have a little bit more flexible lifestyle and time on my hands. And so I went to my first company I worked for and pitched becoming a consultant for them and started my entrepreneurial journey there. And then that really took off and really started to get my creative juices going on creating companies and being in that entrepreneur space and now, with so many people working remotely, talk to us about the impact the pandemic has had on instant teams.

Liza Rodewald:

Sure, so the pandemic, while a terrible thing for us all to have to go through, has really accelerated the timeline and companies adapting remote work, which is really great for especially women in the workforce in this kind of environment having to juggle multiple things families, schools, daycares being out, those types of things and so seeing the industry adapt so fast, I would say it sped up that timeline by at least 10 years. And especially in government and healthcare, some of the slower moving industries really had to adapt overnight, creating a lot of opportunities.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

That's great. Now can you describe your leadership style? Is it different from men that you've worked for or with in the past?

Liza Rodewald:

Yeah, my leadership style is very, I think, visionary and hands-off. So I like I love the creation parts of what I love about being an entrepreneur finding problems, solving problems, really being creative but empowering people to also have that kind of same leadership style within my team so that they can really take ownership of things Like ownership is one of my main core values, I think. Growing up in tech so I've always been in tech since I graduated college, so I've always been predominantly around men in the workforce that my leadership style I don't know if it necessarily adapted from that, but has always just been a part of what I've done in the different businesses that I've created. But I really like to empower empower the people that work for me, empower them to join the vision and be really creative. That's what really gets me excited.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

I think that's great. Great now for those women out there thinking about starting a business. What advice do you have for them?

Liza Rodewald:

well, first of all, it's very hard. So I I always like to be very transparent about creating a company. Starting a business is a lot of work, right. So it's going to be more work than a typical nine to five. It takes more grit to dig in and you know lots of highs, lots of lows, but it's very, very rewarding and very exciting. So if you have kind of that personality who wants to go out and get something, you have big goals. I strongly encourage it. But I also strongly dislike some of the narrative that's online these days about how easy it is to start a business or how quick it is. It is a journey. It is difficult but it is worth it when you get in it and do it and I just like to encourage people go for it. Like, if that's what you really want, go for it. Just know that it's a roller coaster that you'll be on, you know, during the creation and even the lifeline. It doesn't get necessarily easier. The problems just get different.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Exactly yes, it's a lot of hard work. So on your most challenging days, how do you stay positive and motivated?

Liza Rodewald:

So I like to start all of my days. The first thing that I do is exercise, and I think it's really important as a female entrepreneur, as an entrepreneur in general, to take care of yourself, because if you're run down, you cannot stay motivated. Your body will literally break down on you, and I had kind of that sort of experience about eight months ago where I was a little burned out. I wasn't eating really well, wasn't sleeping really well and I knew, ok, to be my best, optimal, optimal self, I've got to create better habits and better routines and so doing that, making sure you're taking care of yourself, making sure you're you're getting exercise in. It's very easy to sit at this desk for 12, 13, 14 hours and not get up, but really making those things a priority helps keep you motivated, help keeps your mind clear, helps keep you inspired. Just moving keeps your mind inspired. I usually think of my best ideas and my best thoughts when I'm exercising and doing things like that, versus sitting here at the desk absolutely.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

I couldn't agree more now, knowing what you know now, is there anything that you would have done differently when starting your business?

Liza Rodewald:

So we're a venture capital backed company, so we've raised money which only 2.2% of venture capital goes to female founders. So it's it is a different road that a lot of female entrepreneurs don't go on, and there's a lot of things I learned early on that I would love to take back now and and go redo. So what I'm doing instead of that is like helping other female founders in the same stage about to raise money. Okay, here's some things to look out for and here's some things that I really understand at the time. But now, having walked through several rounds of funding, it becomes very apparent, right. So just pouring those kind of lessons back? Definitely nothing I would completely redo, but just some little lessons. I've learned along the way that if you've never done that before, it's hard to really understand until you walk through it, you see the numbers all translate and then you're like, oh, okay, that is how that worked. Next time I'll know not to do these three things Really just helping some other female founders, like watch out for those types of things.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Yes, and learning from those mistakes. That's great advice. Can you recall a time when you might have been treated unfairly because you're a woman?

Liza Rodewald:

These are always interesting questions to me because I did grow up in tech right, and so I've always been, I guess, a little confident and self assertive in situations, because you just kind of have to be when you're in those kinds of rooms. But I do remember, specifically when I was working as a software engineer, I had was talking to another male colleague that actually got the job for at the place we were working for and found out like he was making like $15,000 more so than I was, and so I just went straight into my manager's office and I said, hey, I should be getting paid x, he's getting paid x and I got a raise right. So I think also being aware that those things happen is important for women, and to not be afraid to ask for or to confront it, if you do see, it is really important. So there's a few little episodes that I can kind of mark along my journey, but you know, just having the confidence to address it I think is really important that's.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

That's very important. I think in my early days of being an entrepreneur I was a little bit more passive, but over the years I've learned you really do have to speak your mind, say what you're, and if you want to get what you want, that's, that's the only way. So great, great advice there. Now, in your opinion, what are the qualities of a good entrepreneur?

Liza Rodewald:

I think one of the main qualities I usually talk about is mental stability, like if you are going to go on the entrepreneur path, make sure that your life feels pretty stable in any aspect that you can actually make it stable in, because it is so much of a roller coaster like you can literally have the highest of highs and the lowest of lows within a 30 second, 30 minute interval. Right, these things happen very quickly. So having just that grounding force in your life is really important going into that stage so that's one of that mindset of just steadiness as things fluctuate is a really important skill set to hone, to make sure that you have before you kind of start that entrepreneurial journey.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Awesome. You're doing great work, so keep it up and congratulations on your success.

Liza Rodewald:

Thank you so much for joining us and we look forward to maybe having you back for a recap later on. Sounds great. Thank you so much for having me.

Voice Over:

Thank you. This is the Female Founder Show with host and entrepreneur Bridget Fitzpatrick, exclusively on ASBN. If you're a female founder and would like to help other female founders with your inspiring story, we would love to hear from you.