Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Catherine Baker
Hi Sarah Catherine, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I moved to Austin almost 5 years ago now, right before the pandemic and about 1.5 years post grad. Bounced around a few jobs trying to find something that felt like “me”, something that spanked joy and was aligned with my heart for helping women succeed. I found myself wedding planning for Amanda Blue Events (shout out ABE who took a chance on me and became my first mentor in ATX) but after a few years, I knew it was time to keep expanding. I don’t think it was an accident when I met the founders of What She Said, Bryn Carter Brown and Emily Salberg. I all but stalked them after learning a little bit about the community platform for women and non-binary owned businesses they were building and asked them how I could help. It was immediately clear to me that they were building something special for this community and something I simply had to be a part of. I quit my 9-5 a year ago now and asked them to put me to work. I support the small-but-mighty WSS team now as the Community Manager and Hype Human of our Austin market. In short, I am in love with building something with and for women. I plan and host our events in ATX as well as contribute to the building of our platform by making sure the product we are creating is a direct reflection of the humans we are building it for. It’s a dream job for me.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Building anything that hasn’t been done before isn’t easy. Especially when women don’t need anything else made for them – they need something that supports the way women already do business. We strive to bring humanity back to the way we do business and put community and connection back at the forefront – all while putting money back in the pockets of these small, women + non-binary owned businesses. Working in the startup world is not for the faint of heart, I have quickly learned. It takes a lot of work, a lot of patience and a lot of learning along the way. But, I’m addicted to the feeling of building a platform that will tangibly support the women in the ATX community (eventually nationwide) and will provide them an efficient place to earn more dollars and hype each other up in the process. One of the challenges we have faced along the way, like many women owned start-ups, has been fundraising. Unfortunately we still live in a world where women’s businesses are wildly underfunded, despite the fact that women owned businesses represent 42% of all businesses, employing 9.4 million workers and generating revenue of $1.9 trillion. Women owned businesses are driving economic growth in the US – closing the gap benefits everyone, not just women. Our goal is to support accelerated growth of these millions of women-lead businesses, especially after Covid cost women over $800 billion in lost revenue & income. Even with the hard numbers and a hungry audience of humans asking for a solution, we have found it sometimes challenging to “sell” the idea of community of women because we live in a very patriarchal forward society.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about What She Said?
I am a social butterfly who has always been a natural connector. I love being the person who my friends come to when they are looking for someone or need a biz connection (we like to call them “Hype Humans” over at WSS). I am always the biggest cheerleader of my girl groups and always scheming on the next thing I can plan or host. What She Said has been my heart and soul the past year, but I have also spent the last few months curating and developing my own personal brand. I think the event world is just a natural fit for me. It feels like game day (I’m a big sports fan and former semi-pro athlete – it’s just the way my brain I’m wired. I love it.) And the planning and coordinating comes easy as a naturally Type A, spreadsheet loving gal. On top of that, I think my superpower is that I can talk to anyone. I pride myself in my audacity to start any conversation and being able to connect and advocate well for the WSS brand is something I take great joy in. One thing I have loved about being a part of WSS is their continual support of me pursuing the things that light me up. They were MY cheerleaders in pursuing a career that I was passionate about and felt aligned with the life I want to create for myself. There is something so special about women supporting women. We really can go further when we allow space for each other to blossom and uplift each other along the way. I am proud that we are building a platform that will only make it easier to do that in our communities.
What are your plans for the future?
We just launched our private beta test about a month ago and currently have it in the hands of ~300 babes in ATX, Denver, and Kansas City. We are so excited to be fine tuning the platform and watching the community get excited about the way it will support small businesses. As we put it in the hands of new users, we are excited to be hosting events in each market to spread the word and provide a space in real life for them to support one another. There has been great feedback on our IRL events where we are trying to do something different than host “just another networking event.” Women are busy, literally doing all the things, but if they know anything, it’s the power of connection and doing life together. We understand that we can’t do it without each other and our IRL events have given our community a place to do just that. In other news, we are so excited to be working on another way to amplify women and non-binary voices and provide valuable content to our community… our community can start getting excited about our podcast that we have been diligently working to produce by the end of summer 2024! What we are obviously most excited about though is getting the platform in the hands of everyone so so soon.
Pricing:
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Contact Info:
- Website: https://whatshesaidinc.space/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whatshesaidinc/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@WhatSheSaidInc
