218 Kasia Siwosz - When You're In It, You're In It

In this episode, Jason and Kasia discuss:

• Kasia's journey from professional tennis to coaching the top 1% and co-founding Wall Street EI
• Lessons learned from transitioning from professional sports to the corporate world
• Challenges and strategies for overcoming loneliness and self-doubt in a corporate team environment
• The importance of mindset, preparation, and strong leadership in achieving business success
• Experience coaching high achievers and helping them navigate feelings of loneliness and stagnation

Key Takeaways:

• Dedication, mental strength, and navigating unwritten rules are crucial for success in both sports and business.
• Tracking progress and building trust with others can help overcome feelings of loneliness and self-doubt in a corporate team environment.
• Staying fully invested and committed to a business's growth is essential, even if the eventual goal is to sell the company.
• Encouraging clients to face their fears and weaknesses through failure ultimately leads to personal growth and success.
• Providing mentorship, training, and support is crucial for increasing retention and success among young professionals in competitive industries like finance.

“In my coaching, it's not just about pushing clients to do more, but about bringing balance to their lives. I understand their obsession and provide a sense of belonging, showing them they're not crazy for their dedication. By shifting their mindset, they can keep achieving at their desired level. ”

 - Kasia Siwosz

Connect with Kasia Siwosz:

• Websites: https://www.wallstreetei.com/ , https://www.kasiasiwosz.com/
• LinkedIn
  
  

Connect with Steve and Jason:

• LinkedIn: Jason or Steve

• Website: Rewire, Inc.: Transformed Thinking

• Email: grow@rewireinc.com
  
  

Listen to the podcast here:

Kasia Siwosz- When You're In It, You're In It

Hello, and welcome, everybody to this episode of The Insight Interviews. This is your host, Jason Abell, and I've got a special guest today from all the way across the pond as they say, Kasia Siwosz. Kasia is, you know, I think you're in London right now. When prerecording, we didn't even talk about exactly where you are. Where in the world are you, Kasia?

Hi, Jason. Yes, so I am originally from Poland. Currently, or for the past 13 years, I've been living in London, with my husband and two daughters. I've always sort of traveled a lot. But yeah, right now in London.

Right now in London. So it's in the afternoon your time, and it's bright and early on the east coast in the US. So let me audience introduce you to Kasia a little bit. She grew up in communist Poland, she played tennis at the pro level, graduated from UC Berkeley, and is the first in her family to graduate from college with a college degree. She's done investment banking, she's ran venture capitalist funds, and most recently, in her career, she's taken on being a coach to the top 1% and co-founded an organization that we're going to get into, called Wall Street Ei. So Kasia, officially, welcome to the show.

Jason, thank you for having me. I'm really, really excited to speak to you.

As you and I engage one another this morning, Kasia, what strikes you that you're most grateful for this morning?

You know, I think even what you just said, you know, reflecting back where I sort of came from. Being where I am with the family that I have, being able to get to speak to you and really do what I do right now after different sort of turns and twists in my professional journey. I'm really grateful just to wake up today, very early, two little kids, but I'm just still really, really happy to be here.

Yeah, I can tell from even our prerecording chat, I kind of felt that from you. And so, for you to verbalize that that way, it's just a really fun way to enter into a conversation. I'm just excited to see where our conversation is gonna go this morning. I would love to know, starting back as a child, you know, what memory do you have as a child growing up in a communist state?

I think the memories, they were nothing unusual for me back then. Because you know, the fact that you know, I drink Coca Cola for the first time when I was seven years old, or we had no TVs, no cars, it was just a normal upbringing. So, there was nothing really unusual. Obviously now, when I look back and see what my children have, compared to me, I'm actually, you know, quite horrified. But I think wherever you are, I've had a lot of friends, and I had both parents. You know, the communist state, obviously is nothing pleasant. It was actually post-communism, but it took time for the country, people to kind of, you know, start living differently. But I think my upbringing as a child were, you know, quite happy. Obviously, when I started playing professional tennis, I would say, you know, to a certain degree, my childhood really ended or really changed, I would say compared to my peers. I think professional sports, it's kind of a job starting at the age of six. It was a hobby, but probably by nine, it was quite clear to me and my parents and everyone who surrounded me that this is it. And this is when I said you know, this is what you're going to do, if not for the rest of your life, but for long enough, and it requires a certain amount of dedication, sacrifice, and hard work. And I think this is something, because I started so early on, I didn't know any better. So perhaps it was not that difficult to kind of just go with the flow. There were obviously situations where, you know, I just kind of turned around was like, well, I've never really gone to any graduations because I was either practicing or traveling. I've rarely really gone to any birthday parties. So, this part was kind of tough at times. But again, I think now, when I think about it, it can, you know, you can get emotional because you think, well, you missed out on so much. But at the same time, I had that vision, I had that goal very early on, which I think allow me to, you know, perhaps do things that I've done in my life, traveled around the world, you know, had different professions that, when you come from Poland, or you know, from a country that is not that crazy developed back then, I think what I've done in my life, I think I'm very lucky and very privileged.

You mentioned being a pro tennis player, and that's certainly something that I wanted to dive into as well. There's so much travel; so much that you just teased out right there, but what type of lessons stick out to you playing professional sports?

Oh, gosh, so many. I think maybe that lesson is that I can, I think you know, there are lessons from sports, but what I do right now, you know, working with people at a certain level, or with moving up the level, the people that have a certain mindset that they want to be very good at what they do, regardless, whatever it is. It has nothing to do with the income. It has to do with where you want to be, you want to be just 1% of whoever you're trying to be. And I think it requires dedication. It requires a lot of delayed gratification. And I think for sports, you know, you compete really so little. But everything else is really preparation, recovery, practice. And a lot of people in professional sports, but also in a corporate world just want to compete and they want to compete, and they want to only win. I think teaches you to really just suck it up. And the practice that recovery, all this preparation that leads up to a tournament or a match is really 95% of the job. And when you do all that things will happen for you. And even when you think about playing any sports, whether it's Tennis or Football, let's say tennis, I think tennis lasts on average an hour and a half. But when you actually think about it, it only, you actually hit the ball for 20 to 30% of the time, the rest of it is very much those in between moments. Those in between negative and positive thoughts you have in how you prepare, how you recover, what you think about the previous point or game or set, whether you lost or won. It's all, in my opinion, the mental game that you have with yourself, because the skills are there. If you see me and Maria Sharapova on a tennis court, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference when we are just hitting the ball. The moment we actually compete, she will destroy me. And it’s not that her skills are better, she's just better mentally. And I think that's the huge difference when you reach certain levels, that technical skills are the same, but I believe what separates the good from the great is just what's in their mind. That's a bit of a long answer to your question.

Mindset is 100% something that we're going to get to. Our audience knows that Rewire was founded on the principles of mindset, and how important that is, so that is a topic that that we're going to dive into a big time. And some of what you said there, preparation is 95% of the job, hat type of mindset did it take to go from, there's transitions that I'm hearing from you. So going from being a pro tennis player to at some point in time not being a pro tennis player. From being a child that grew up in Poland to not being in Poland anymore. Transitioning from not being a college graduate to being the first one in your family that graduated from university. And then there's many more that we haven't even touched on yet for you. Tell me about some of those, like, transitions is a big deal for you, it seems like, Kasia. So, tell me specifically about the college transition. So, you come to the United States, you're going to school in one of the top schools in the world, and then you graduate. I don't know. What strikes you, what sticks out to you about that particular experience?

Hmm, so I think when you take a step back, I graduated from one of the best universities in the world, in my opinion, but my journey didn't start there. First, you know, I actually my English was not that great, so I had to go to community college, and I was there for two years in Kansas. And then after a year, I went to Baylor University for a year. And then, I transitioned, again to UC Berkeley. So, my journey was not definitely straightforward. And I think a lot of wherever I look, when I was a professional tennis player, or you know, education, or investment banking, all that sort of sounds so great, but you know, what led to it was not really a straightforward path. But I think the transition from university to going to a corporate world, to me, the school felt like, you know, you privileged, but you’re also entering the corporate world, were you thinking you've been prepared. I felt like, you know, I trained enough, and similarly to, you know, tennis match, I felt, okay, I've done my job, I got my high GPA, I graduated with a good degree, things should happen for me. Or at least, if I try hard, you know, things will happen for me. And they did, don't take me wrong, it's still, you know, you'd think, okay, high GPA, good school, you should get a job quite easy, but investment banking, quite competitive. And I've always been driven, you know, to maybe, you know, prove other people wrong, actually myself that I can get there. But once you get into corporate world, there's so many unwritten rules, there are so many in between moments that need to figure out on your own. And perhaps at school, you have teachers that tell you, you know, how to do things here and there, and you have coaches in professional sports. But I believe when you get into just work anywhere, for corporate or for yourself, there's just no one was really teaching you anything. You are really left on your own to figure out everything. And it's much more than just doing a job. I think there's so many political games, depends where you go, but you know, investment banking, for me, I was probably the only female on entire floor of the joint, so there was also very much, you know, wolf of the wall street sort of environment. Very smart and driven individuals, but everyone around you is smart and driven and graduated from good schools, so how do you set yourself apart? I thought, naively, that I'm going to go there, and people would tell me. They will kind of guide me, because I was used to being coached. All of a sudden, I just thought about what I don't even know if I'm doing good or bad, and you get that sort of mid-year or end-year review, and you kind of find out, well it's maybe not as good as you thought. So, it can be very lonely and misleading. And you just, if you don't take step practically, you can end up, you know, two, three years after, you just you won't even know if this is something that you like, or if you're good at it, or what you should be doing. That's some of the struggles that I found in that transition.

Thank you for kind of the transparency there. You know, we have a lot of clients at Rewire that have very similar stories, and some are by all outside observances, succeeding at life, and at business and health and all these different, you know, outside measurements that you would look in, but then you listen to them, and we hear stories just like you. Man, it's lonely at the top, or I don't actually know if I'm doing good or bad. And so those challenges that you just described, if we can go another level deeper, if you're okay with that, how do you get through those times? And how do you overcome those times?

So, I think similarly, also, at least, you know, my experience on working corporate or being an investment banker is very similar to being a professional tennis player. It's a little bit different when you play on a team, and I had the experience playing on a team when I was in college. And what it means is that, you know, we could play a game against, let's say, Stanford, and you know, if I win my match, but the whole team loses, I still lose. But when you’re a professional tennis player, there's, you either win, or you lose, and everything is on you, there's no team that you can blame. So, I think that's sort of the part of being individual player, and you kind of been taught that you're part of a team, but I think the team structure is very much missing in the corporate world, because I've been taught how to be part of a team, and it took me a while to transition from being a singular professional tennis player into a college. But then you have a bunch of people coming from college and never really taught how to be part of a team, short of small assignments here and there. But that that really sort of intrinsic, deep sense of being part of a team, at least in my experience, and a lot of experience of clients that I'm coaching is missing. So, then you do kind of feel alone and you want to be part of a team, but it seems like there is a competition within your own team. So, what I see, you know, a lot of my clients and myself struggling with, I didn't know who to trust, and I didn't know how to overcome that block of who I trust, who I don't trust, how do I actually overcome that? What I found that worked for me, and for some of my clients first I think getting that out to somebody to actually acknowledging the fact that, you know, I'm kind of lost. Like, I'm not sure whether I'm going good or bad. But then I think also tracking your progress, like with anything, and actually putting it down, like, okay, this is what I've done. And regardless of the outside feedback, you kind of, you need to control what's controllable on your side. It's like, similar to the gym. If I show up at the gym every single day for two hours, and I do this, or, you know, if I show up every single day at work, and I do my job, I check with my team, I do those basics, but you actually track it, then I think it becomes much more tangible and much more visually available to you to actually make a judgement whether you do something good or bad. You can feel a little bit, you have kind of evidence in front of you. But some people just go to work, and they don't track what they do. So same if you go to the gym, and you don't track how much weight you a lift, and that, you know lifting certain ways not increase over time, I don't think you can really track your own progress. And you kind of just stuck in a limbo of not knowing whether you progressing or not or what's next or what are you strong, what are you not strong?

Yeah, what gets tracked, gets done, for sure. And there, you've got a tangible, not just this gut feeling or this intuition, which is all very important, but you've got tangible data that you're looking at. So, you have tracking things. And then also I heard in there, sometimes it's hard to know who to trust, who not to trust, those types of things, but getting other people around you and getting a community around you and finding the people that you can trust that will help, I heard that in there as well. Moving on to your time as a VC, again, that I feel like there's even a transition there. But I think what I want to focus in on you know, there's many founders and startup people C suite that are that are running their own business, and whether it is, they're looking for investment income, or they just want to run their business, as if they could be bought or seek out rounds of funding, as a wide, this is probably too wide of a net, but I'm just going to do it anyways. Gosh, what types of things would you say to them, to those business owners to those founders, if you're trying to run your business as if you did want to be bought, or you did want to go for your next round of funding, what are the important things that stick out?

I think that are two separate things. If you're running a business just to be sold, I think there is something wrong, you know? It's like, you know, in my opinion, it’s like getting married, and just thinking, okay, at some point, I'm gonna get divorced. I feel like, you know, when you're in it, you're in it. When the sale happens, great, but I think you just got to keep pushing, as you were to stay there, you know, forever, because when the new buyer comes in, they need to, you know, depends if they especially are investing money, they gotta see that you are invested in it, and you are not there just to sell it. Unless, you know, you get to the point where obviously company's huge, and then you can sell it, but don't forget, even at that point, there needs to be a transition period where maybe the CEO stays for six to 12 to 18 months. I think checking out like that, I don't think it will help you with future investors, whether they're investing or whether you know, potential buyers, they will kind of see it through and that will, you know? Why are you so tired? Is just the end of the end of the sort of business growth for your venture? Like, they want to buy into something that produces money now and has a potential of producing even more, but you know, especially the VC lab, we're talking about, you know, precede series A or B, it's still young businesses that they need you and to be honest, you especially the smaller the business, the earlier the stage, it's not so much about the product or service or anything, it's really about the founders.

Yeah.

You make sure that the management is capable of taking the company to next stage. So, I think, I get it. It's very easy to go there. Oh, if I only sell it, but then to me is like all those founders that had that idea in their mind that, okay, I just want to sell, then I think they just don't get very good valuations; they just kind of sell too early. You can see through they think they can trick investors or themselves. I just, if you feel like you really want to sell, then I don't think you are going to maximize your returns.

I mean, I'm already sensing a thread. I know our conversation, because my questions have jumped around a little bit, but I'm seeing threads that run through this. The mindset thread, the preparation, the tracking, the, you know, keeping your eye on the ball, so to speak, of business, of not just like selling, but you know, doing something right now. And then the all-important, man, when people invest in it An organization they're investing in like you say, you, maybe not necessarily your service or product sometimes, depending on you know what it is. But most of the time, you're exactly right. It is, man, how strong is the founder? How strong is the C suite? And what's going on with with leadership there? So, yeah, I hear that. I hear that loud and clear. All of that brings us up to what you're doing now, which is, you know, when I go to your website, when I go to your LinkedIn, everything is hey, coach to the top 1%. And you did touch on it a minute or two ago. And then you've got this organization Wall Street Ei, so I don't know. Well, I guess maybe we'll we'll talk about coaching first. What does it mean, coach to the top 1%?

Yeah, so you know, in my own personal journey, I've always tried to, you know, live up to my so-called potential. I was always very attracted by a certain people, professions that, yeah, required, in my opinion, a lot out of yourself. And it was just very attractive to me, I was just never, you know, I never wanted to do something half-ass. Let's put it this way. You know, professional sports, I kind of fell into it. I think I just found that need to be around people that have very, I think it's just I just love people with a certain mindset, they just know what they want. They might struggle with certain things, but and then it was, there was professional tennis, investment banking, you know, VC, I also started my own restaurant, and there was when I started coaching, you know. I don't know, how was your experience, but you know, you coach different people. And I think it is exactly same thing in sports. I don't think there are bad coaches or bad clients, I think just the match might be wrong.

That's a big one.

So it's not like someone's not coachable, or, you know, obvious, I think, you know, I will take more responsibility as a coach. I will, and I'm sure in three or six years, I'm going to be much better than I am today. So, I definitely or we need to improve our skills. But I don't think that bad clients are not coachable clients, they just need to be right personality fit. And what I found that works best for me is to work with people who think of themselves or will describe themselves as, you know, high achievers. Those people that you know, like to be pushed a lot. They like to strive for more and more and more. And in my coaching, it is not necessarily always just to push them to do more and more and more, but sometimes just bringing them balance to their life. Just because I believe I can understand where they're coming from, the obsession, it gives them, I think sense of belonging, that they are not weird, that they are not crazy, that what they do is right, it just needs to be done perhaps in a different way, changing the perspective, changing, you know, their mindset and how they view things. So they can actually keep going forward at the level that they want to be. And like I said, a lot of my clients, they get very lonely because they get to the top. And you know, any place where you're the top, that is less people who push you who are motivated, who understand where you are, how to, you know, at the top, the interest really matter in my opinion, it's not about the technique is about the knowledge, it is about how you see yourself, how you talk to yourself in a positive and negative way. Are you actually challenge yourself. I have plenty of clients that get to me, like, you know, I don't know. I've paid off my mortgage, you know, all my kids would definitely go through university, you know? I don't know what else I can do to challenge myself, but yet inside, they have the deep desire to push themselves, you know, again, and again and again. 10 times they will surround themselves by people who are comfortable, and they will learn by environment, it's not really pushing me. So, they come to me, because they want to see if they can get to the next level. It doesn't matter how big that next level is. But to them is like, okay, I can see now that I can achieve the next level. Job satisfaction, fulfillment, you know, I think I can get, and it's not only about the job, it is generally getting to the next level of heart, you know? They just want to feel just like when you go to the gym and you know, you exercise but you don't feel this burning sensation in your in your muscles. And you kind of, you know, it's the same, right? So how can I improve it? And I would consider my clients you know, they are already ripped, they are already in a very good shape. So how do you take these people and push them a notch higher because not they just want it for themselves. They don't necessarily work for anybody else. So it's really in my opinion coming really from the deeper desire to yet again prove themselves and often they just need someone else who've been there, who understand that little obsession, because when they go to the friends and family they were like, you just have everything. Why you want to change anything or risk anything? But that sense of stagnation at the top, which, you know, doesn't change, in my opinion whether someone is earning $2,000 per month or 2 million a month or 20 million a month. Everyone has their own level that they're trying to just improve. This has nothing to do with the money, it just more with the sense of I am where I am. And I think when they have the money when they have the family when they have everything else, it feels to them a little bit silly that they still want something else. And it's difficult to tell anybody else, well, you know what, I still want to even earn more. Not for the sake of you know, I don't have anything to buy, but I just want to see if I can get to the next level.

Take us inside, if you don't mind, because I've had a lot of coaching sessions on this very topic with our clients, and I'd love for you, if you don't mind, not a particular conversation, but just in general, a generalized conversation of that client who is coming to you saying, yeah, the outside world by all measures, yeah, the family's there, the financial independence, and you know, abundance, the legacy, I am healthy, like you said, I'm ripped and, you know, ripped metaphorically, maybe physically, and I still want more, and I need help with that. What does conversation like that look like? And what's a, what's a good outcome for that type of conversation?

Again, I think, you know, everyone is different. And I think you would start with walking through the daily routine. I think it starts at the basics. What do you do, or how much of it and testing and trying to understand, you know, where there's still space for additional work, additional challenge, whether, you know, maybe the clients, you know, I've been relying on the same clients over the last 5-10 years. They keep coming back. Now it's comfortable, right? You know, they are loyal, I'm loyal. All it is, is just potentially ongoing. I'm meeting them every now and then for lunch, but what about prospecting? What about prospecting clients that they might say no to you? For example. What about you know, testing out different industry? What about testing different type of clients? And, what you're looking for is that comfortable pause, where they are, then I could also fail. And this is, in my opinion, something they want to do, they might fail to they scared because you know, they kind of established in the head is like when you think about if you are athlete and you know who you can generally win against. It's like, okay, if I play this play, if I play this boy, if you're if I race against my mom, I race my I guess my dad, I'm definitely going to win. What about that guy from the gym? I don't know. I don't know. Okay, do you want to race against this guy? Yeah, that will be interesting. Okay, what do we need to do? How do we prepare? And how can how can we prepare, even if you lose, because most likely, you will lose. So, I'm generally quite open about it, though. But you haven't raced against that type of guy. So, you will lose. Are you okay with losing?

Yeah.

I don't know. You know, I think losing is also, if you don't practice enough, it can be very scary. So I like to put my client up to challenge and I will tell them, look, this week, you have to fail. And you know, it's very uncomfortable. And it's okay, I will go and fail. And the harder they try to fail, I think, you know, it doesn't really happen that often because they kind of prepare this like, okay, I'm gonna go and fail, but then they prepare. Like, okay, actually, you know what? I done it, but it was not that bad. And you know, it's just proving them they can, yeah, just flipping the script, telling them to go win, because I think that's much more scary, so go and fail.

Oh, yeah. So you give your clients assignments to go and fail. I'm kidding, but you're, you're serious. I get it. I get what you said in the context of how you said it. I think it's brilliant, actually.

You know, I remember, you know, when I play tennis, I've had a period like three, four months where I will literally play fine, and something happened in my mind, and I was terrified to hit my forehand. And it's just crazy. Like, how can you forget? It's like almost something will trigger in your mind, and maybe there was a match where someone would hit two times to my forehand and I would just kind of choke. It blocks you in your mind. So, my coach that I was instructed to play next three matches, making sure I only hit as much as I can only forehand, which means that I was exposed to my weaker side the whole match, and you kind of left with no choice but to face your weakest side and figured out a way through to see what actually is not that bad.

Isn't that often the case, Kasia? It is not as bad as you thought.

It is. In my opinion, but I will have my clients come to me and ask me, can I do this? I'm like, yes, and you can go home now. They just want, you know, obviously it takes time, but and they know they asked me, and they know I will say yes, but yet, I think we all just have that need to, for someone to say it's okay.

So true. Yeah, it's so true. Oh, man, I feel like, you know, the, our podcast platform is, you know, 30 minutes, give or take. I feel like you and I could have a couple hour discussion. We, at some point in time, maybe we change the format of our podcast just for you, Kasia. To go long term. I don't want to end though without asking you about Wall Street Ei. What are y'all doing over there with that?

So, Wall Street Ei, together with my partner who actually, we met over the internet. He's based in New York, I'm based in London. And I remember my husband sent me a link saying that Weiss is basically doing, he had some article where he was talking about transforming and changing Wall Street. I don't know many other industries, from my own experience other than Wall Street, but it is quite cutthroat. It is an industry where the change is quite slow, you still go to major investment banks, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and they all look like from the 60s. There is a cubicle, it's quite gray. It's nothing like, you know, Silicon Valley, where you have beautiful campuses and stuff like that. And the hours are very long, people get paid still a lot, but compared to what it was, you know, now you have other industries and companies that are matching the type of salaries. So, people are leaving Wall Street, and not because they want to, because they like finance. They study finance, because they like it, but I think the way Wall Street is treating young people is, it cannot, it needs to change. I think my generation would still take it, you know, 100, 120 hours a week sort of work. And I think it's not so much about the hours. I think if people like something, maybe they can stick to it. But you know, things need to change and evolve because they look outside and be like, well, you know what, like, there are other companies that are treating you much better. So, I am not so sure if I want to, I don't want to be treated like this anymore. But more importantly for us, I think industry on its own need to change and hopefully we can have impact there as well. What we came up with is that we want young people who are coming from universities, top universities, a lot of them spent so much money and the competition is fierce to get to go through interviews, internships, like by the time they get a job, they probably have already had three, you know, internships and yet they get in there and they are unprepared mentally for the realities. And a lot of them don't, you know, they might feel a little bit overprivileged from, you know, maybe they are coming from, I don't know, top 10 schools, and they graduate 4.0 GPA, and they still think they're getting there. And the world owes them something. But the reality hits them pretty hard. And more importantly, because it's such a fast-paced environment, people also in turn within, you know, Wall Street companies are not prepared to train and take people under their wing. At least this is, in my experience, my business partner experience and a lot of other people. And there's very little help, in my opinion, how to help them with this transition. Before they quit, all we want to do is make sure that they stick around for long enough so they can actually give themselves a proper chance to see if finance is for them for them or not. They don't want to quit too early. And I think it's similarly because industrial change, it might change very slow. But what we want to do, at least from our side, is help them to survive this in best, you know, it's like I think Navy SEALs, you know, they need to get to this training. There's no other way around. So what we try to do is just help them assimilate. We'd help them with mentorship that they don't necessarily get internally. Let us help you for the first, you know, one to three years. After university they naively think that they're prepared for the reality of the corporate. Let us give you a head start, let us tell you how it is, so you can be just better prepared and be able to handle it, you know, in a way that will give you a better chance to succeed. Because you know, the first three years, you just suck it up and then you can do a lot of other things. The initial is like with anything, you know, if you want to start running a marathon, if you want to get in shape, the first, whatever, the beginning, is the hardest part.

Sure.

People will give up, people question whether this job was for them or not, or whether they made the right choice. And you know, it's a lot of pressure for kids who are coming out of university thinking oh yeah, I'm gonna be the next, you know, CEO or the next sort of big banker, and then they like wow, maybe not. Maybe I made a mistake. Let me help you through it. Make this decision maybe after one or two or three years and, and I think it'll be also very beneficial for the Wall Street companies to actually increase the retention.

Yeah.

Retention, you know, has decreased by a lot over the last 10 or 15 years. People leave on, I don't know what the numbers are, but I think you know, 12 months. It's not very long for anyone to get a taste for a job the first 12 month. We want to just help them get through the grind.

So, such an intriguing idea. I can think of other industries that could use that type of help, as well, but starting there, you're starting at the epicenter of where, you know, there's a big need. If somebody was listening, and they found that intriguing, how would they get ahold of you? Or how would they engage Wall Street Ei?

So, we are launching the course, and there will be also a community and a coaching program associated with that. So, whoever joins us will have access to the course that basically takes them through foundation. But then we're gonna be joining weekly calls, and anyone who, perhaps you know, the answer, the questions have not been answered during the group coaching sessions, they can submit the question to the portal and ask a very direct question. You know, I have this particular situation, would you mind, you know, giving me some more specific advice. And we want to give it to people, because not everyone has the same situation. So, imagine, if you have that throughout, you know, your beginning, first three years, where you can ask the part of the community, also that, you know, know that you're not the only one that is struggling. I think it's a huge plus, and at least finance industry, it's a small world. You will meet other people. And in my opinion, if you can start networking with the right people, then you will never have to apply for the jobs. Start getting know people and learning that skill that is, in my opinion, very essential. So yeah, that, you know, it's WallStreetEi.com and we are launching our program in about a week. So probably by the time this podcast is out, we're going to be, you know, up and running. So, we are very excited about that. And it's something, you know, much more than just a business. It's something that, you know, this is how I struggled and that's probably why I left investment banking earlier than intended. And my husband is also in finance. He is managing director right now. We see all our friends struggling through that. And every story, or 90% of the stories are exactly the same for the reason that people stayed and for the reason people left, and many, many of our friends left for that reason, because they just felt very alone. They didn't have any support, and they didn't know how to find help, because there was no help.

Yeah, WallStreetEi.com. You are a very engaging and passionate person. That is how I engage you. But this particular topic is something that I can tell you're fired up about, which is amazing. That tells me that you all are going to be doing amazing work. So WallStreetei.com. Kasia, is there anything- we've had a wide-ranging conversation today that is very much appreciated. Is there anything that I haven't asked you that you want to make sure before we end, that we touched on today?

I think, you know, I'm like an open book. Thank you for all the questions. But no, you have done a brilliant job of scoping the wild spectrum of things that I've done in my life. So no, I think perfect.

Well, with that being said, I have a feeling there'll be people in our audience that want to know more, learn more, just can maybe connect with you. How would they best do that?

I am on LinkedIn at Kasia Siwosz, and my website is the same, first name last name.com. I am sort of old style. At the moment, I'm just using LinkedIn. I'm not in any other sort of social media, but I would love to connect with more people and however I can help, I just love having conversation around, you know, life coaching topic. It's really a passion of mine. And I would never thought that, you know, I was coached and just kind of continue up until now and I'm very privileged to do what I do. And I hope you know I'll get to do it until I die.

Well, with the type of energy that you're bringing to the table, I think there's a really good chance that the the demand for what you've got there Kasia will outstrip the supply. So, we'll see. Maybe your wish will come true. We'll see. Either way, it's been a pleasure, lots of information, I took a page worth of notes, and I can't wait to go through it and and just learn even more as I kind of re-digest our conversation. So thank you for that gift. We'll put all your contact information, including some of your websites, and obviously, your LinkedIn link and all that in the show notes. But until next time, Kasia, and I hope there is a next time, thanks very much for being on the show.

Thank you so much, Jason.

Thanks for reading. If you got any value at all from this episode, a little nugget all the way up to some big, huge insight, please do us a solid by subscribing, recommending, rating, and reviewing us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or Google. That stuff matters to us, and it allows us to continue interviewing more awesome people.

Important Links

• Apple Podcast – The Insight Interviews
• Spotify – The Insight Interviews
• Google – The Insight Interviews
• LinkedIn: Jason or Steve
• Grow@RewireInc.com