In this Business Blast Podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Liza Rodewald, founder and CEO of Mad Skills. Liza shares a pivotal story about pitching at South by Southwest (SXSW), where despite not winning the award, she forged a connection with the winner that helped double her business within months. She discusses her background as a software engineer and emphasizes the importance of building minimal viable products (MVPs) to test ideas cheaply and iteratively, noting that Mad Skills has pivoted several times using this approach. Liza offers broader business advice: never give up, but be willing to pivot when necessary, framing change as part of the entrepreneurial process. Reflecting on her younger self, she advises trading comfort for ambition, wishing she had taken the leap earlier. She defines happiness as living authentically and being true to oneself. The most impactful book for her is Million Dollar Women by Julia Pimsleur, which taught her strategies for bootstrapping and pursuing venture capital. Her favorite quote, from Brené Brown, underscores the value of feedback only from those who are also in the arena. Finally, she provides her online contact points: the Mad Skills website, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
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Welcome to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.
All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Liza Rodewald with us. She is the founder and CEO of Mad Skills. So welcome to the show.
Thank you very much, I'm very happy to be here.
Of course, we're happy to have you on. Uh, we'll dive into the first one. The first one I have for you, Liza, is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Well, I think throughout your life you have different things that happen to you that have different meanings. And one of the most interesting one that happened to me recently regarding my business was I was invited to pitch at South by Southwest this past spring. And I was very excited about going because I felt extremely prepared and I was ready to pitch to investors and start to raise capital for our own endeavor at Mad Skills. And so when I went and I got there and every single person pitching with me was on their Series A round and had already secured money. So immediately I felt a little bit intimidated, but I still felt very good about, about where we were and everything. And so we did the pitch. I think I did the best that I could have possibly done for the pitch and everything. And then they just gave out awards at the end and at the end I didn't win, And I was so disappointed. And it's easy to, to just see things from the surface. So, you know, I was like, man, I really thought I was going to win that thing. And I was, I was just, you know, kind of down on myself and, and things like that. But out of that one event, I grew connections. I grew connections with the winner of the event and doubled our business with just in a few months from that one Wow. I did it. So I know that, you know, it looks like I didn't win the trophy at the end of the day, but I won big time in our business. So sometimes things, you know, look a little different than what we expected, but the outcome of it is much greater than what we could have anticipated.
I love that. Thanks for sharing that with us. Um, the next one I have for you is what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
Okay, so a little bit about me. I am a software developer engineer by trade, so I've done that for years and years and years. And one of the things that I see entrepreneurs and people that are just starting to build tech products get into is their MVP, the minimal viable product that they develop. And a lot of people think that it needs to be something that is already sort of like a baby version of what you have, but you can test ideas and do things with much less, with email, with surveys, with different types of tools. So I always encourage everyone to test your ideas as much as possible. We've pivoted several times with Mad Skills since we founded it and doing the MVP and looking, seeing how like cheap and small you can make it to start testing your ideas and just get started. I think it's the best path.
And what is your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry-specific.
Okay, so starting a business and growing a business is hard. It's hard work. And so my best piece of advice is don't give up. But you hear that a lot and people might bang their head against the wall trying to do something. So don't give up, but don't be afraid to pivot. Like you have to be able to change. Like don't give up being an entrepreneur and pursuing your business, but you have to be able to look at something and know when it's time to change and when it's time to pivot. And that's okay. It's not a failure. It's just hard work. It's part of the process of building a business.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
I would say to trade what you're comfortable with for what you really want. I spent a lot of years doing things that paid me very well and were easy and comfortable to do, but I knew that I wanted to grow something much bigger. So I wish that I would have made that leap and started just a little bit earlier.
Spanish. And in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
I think feeling true to yourself and being authentic is the key to happiness, because if you're going out and you're putting on a show or pretending to be something that you're not, then when you go home at the end of the day, I mean, you have to live with yourself. So living authentically and being true to yourself, I think, helps to bring happiness to you.
And what's the best book that you've read, and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
Okay, books. I've read so many amazing books. So, you know, there are a lot of them out there, but the most recent one that I read that had the biggest impact on what I'm doing right now was Million Dollar Women by Julia Pimsleur. And she talks about the different ways she bootstrapped to fund her business throughout the book, and then what holds some women back from going for the larger investments. And she just has a really great story. And I learned a lot about just going after the VC funds from that book.
And what is your favorite quote and why?
My favorite quote actually comes from Brené Brown. It's sort of a touché type quote, but it says, if you're not in the arena also getting your ass kicked, I'm not interested in your feedback. And to me right now, that speaks to me in the space that I'm at, because you're fighting for your business and people will always have things to say. Um, but if they're not in the same space trying and doing the same things, you know, sometimes some of their feedback is not as important to listen to as say some others who actually understand what you're going through. So being able to cancel out the noise and focus in, um, I think it's really important.
Yes. Uh, thank you so much for coming on. Uh, the last question I have for you before we let you go is where's the best place for people to find you online?
So you can visit our website at hiremathskills.com, go to the about section. You'll see all of my information. You can You can find me on LinkedIn @lizarodewald and also on Instagram as @lizarodewald.
Perfect. Thanks again for joining us. We appreciate it.
Thanks so much, Tyler.
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