Episode 310: How One Courageous Conversation Led to Impacting 11.6 Million Lives with Carrie Rich
If You've Ever Had an Idea You Talked Yourself Out Of, This One's For You
You know that idea? The one that keeps pulling at your heart? The one you immediately follow up with "but who am I to do this," or "I could never actually pull that off"?
Yeah, that one.
Today's guest, Carrie Rich, had one of those ideas. She was mopping hospital floors and pushing snack carts as a graduate student volunteer. Not exactly the glamorous origin story you'd expect from someone who's now impacted 11.6 million lives across 70 countries.
But here's what I want you to really hear: Carrie didn't wait until she had it all figured out. She didn't wait until she had funding or connections or the perfect plan. She started with one joke during an attendance meeting. Then she made one bold ask. Then another. Then another.
And if you're a woman entrepreneur right now dealing with economic anxiety, struggling to access funding (we only get 2% of venture capital, by the way), or questioning whether your business can actually make it through these uncertain times - this conversation is going to light something up inside you.
Because Carrie's going to share the financial planning for women entrepreneurs strategy that changed her entire life. And it started on a stack of napkins.
The Joke That Started Everything
Let me set the scene for you. Carrie's in graduate school, volunteering at a hospital, doing whatever needs doing. Mopping floors. Folding laundry. Taking attendance at meetings.
She wasn't complaining about it either. She showed up fully to every single task, trying to bring joy to people stuck in a hospital. Singing while mopping. Offering seconds from the snack cart. Making the best of it.
Then one day, the CEO of the entire health system walks into the meeting where she's taking attendance.
Everyone sits up straighter. This is a multibillion-dollar organization.
When he signs the attendance sheet, Carrie jokes that he's signing her student tuition bill. Everyone else probably would've stayed quiet. Professional. Appropriate.
But that joke? It made him look up. It made him notice her. It broke the pattern of what everyone else was doing.
And Carrie didn't let that moment pass by. She researched him on LinkedIn, figured out the email structure for the health system, and reached out to his assistant with a very specific request: could she have a conversation with him about living a life of purpose?
Not about healthcare. Not about a job. About purpose.
His assistant said yes.
"I don't consider myself a particularly courageous person. I'm learning that it's okay to be scared. I was terrified in all of these situations. My approach was to learn, to engage. That was not so scary to me."
The meeting went so well that Carrie blurted out at the end: "Would you write a book with me?"
She had no idea what the book would be about. She just knew she didn't want the conversation to end.
That book became a job. That job became the Global Good Fund. The Global Good Fund has now impacted 11.6 million people worldwide.
All because one woman was willing to crack a joke and then follow curiosity wherever it led.
What Actually Makes Entrepreneurs Fundable (It's Not What You Think)
Through running the Global Good Fund and the Global Impact Fund, Carrie's learned something every woman entrepreneur needs to hear right now, especially with funding being so tight.
It's not just about your business idea. It's about YOU.
Carrie looks for entrepreneurs who've already jumped out of the airplane and are building their parachute on the way down. You've started something. It's working. You're solving a real problem based on your actual lived experience. And you're humble enough to know you need support to grow.
These are people who've already moved mountains to get to the starting line. When you back someone with that level of resilience and grit? You're making a smart bet every single time.
But here's where most funding organizations get it wrong.
They Fund the Business But Ignore the Human
Most funding goes straight to the business. Marketing budget. Operations. Scaling infrastructure. All important stuff.
But when Carrie looked around, she found organizations claiming to support leadership development while putting 0% - literally zero percent - of the money toward actually developing the leader.
"It's not enough to just back the business. We really need to take a chance on people, on human beings, on individuals. Those are the people who have outsized impact and a ripple effect."
So the Global Good Fund does something different. They invest directly in YOU as the entrepreneur. Twelve-month fellowships with coaching. One-on-one mentorship with executives who've run companies worth $40 million to $60 billion. Capital. A peer network so you're not alone. Hands-on support for the stuff that doesn't show up on business plans - like mental health, wellness, and navigating family expectations.
Because sustainable impact comes from developing people, not just funding business plans.
This matters especially for women entrepreneurs and founders from underrepresented communities. You've had to bust through walls to get where you are. You're already proving your resilience. You deserve investment in your growth, not just your business model.
The Stack of Napkins: Financial Planning for Women Entrepreneurs
Okay, this part gave me full-body chills when Carrie told me. And if you implement just this one thing from this entire conversation, it could completely change your business and your life.
When Carrie told her boss she wanted to leave her secure healthcare job to start a nonprofit with no benefits and only startup capital, he didn't try to talk her out of it.
Instead, he pushed a stack of napkins across the desk and asked one question: "Do you have a financial life plan?"
She had no idea what that even meant.
So at 25 years old, he walked her through her life in increments. Two to three years at first. Then five years. Eventually, working backward from ten years before death.
It wasn't depressing or morbid. It was actually inspiring.
Carrie had ambitions. She wanted children. She wanted to travel. She wanted to be a philanthropist. She wanted to keep learning. But she'd never actually written down how she'd fund any of it.
This is the foundation of effective financial planning for women entrepreneurs - getting honest about what you want to fund before you set revenue goals.
"How can you possibly ask other people for money to fund your ideas if you don't know where your own money is going?"
This is one of those questions that changes everything once you hear it.
Defining What "Enough" Actually Looks Like For You
Through that napkin exercise, Carrie got clear on something most of us never define: what does "enough" look like?
Not what Instagram says enough looks like. Not what your family thinks you should want. What do YOU actually need to fund the life you want to live?
Before she got married, Carrie sat down with her future husband and laid it all out. She told him exactly what she wanted her life to be about. Taking their children around the world to do community service. Continuing her education. Staying curious and hungry. And she showed him what that looked like financially.
She'd already mapped out the financial reality of her values.
And she still revisits this plan every six months. The napkins are now in proper files and spreadsheets, but the principle is the same.
For women entrepreneurs facing economic anxiety right now - and 70% of small business owners are expecting a recession - financial planning for women entrepreneurs isn't optional anymore. It's essential.
You wouldn't launch a business without a financial plan. So why are you trying to build a meaningful life without the same level of intentionality about your resources?
Grab your own stack of napkins. Map out your life in two-year increments. What do you want your life to look like? What experiences matter most? What level of financial security lets you sleep at night?
These aren't indulgent questions. They're the most essential questions you can ask yourself.
Why Men Have Been Critical to Her Success (And Why That Matters)
In a conversation about women redefining success, Carrie said something I really appreciated. Men have been critically important to her journey.
Her husband. Her board chair. Her co-founder. Her COO. All men who actively supported her growth and protected her from burnout.
When her board chair noticed she was working herself into the ground, he didn't just say "hey, maybe slow down." He staged a full intervention over lunch.
He asked her to identify what she wanted to do really, really well - both at work AND at home. Then he asked what she needed to delegate because it wasn't the highest and best use of her time.
Nobody had ever asked her that before.
That conversation changed everything. She learned to focus on quality time with people she loves and the few things she's genuinely best at. Everything else? Someone else should own it. Her job is to make sure they have what they need to do it well.
"I love getting to work with both men and women. Men have been a really important part of my support system. Let's not leave out half of the population here because men really can be a support system to leverage."
Look, this isn't about ignoring the very real challenges women face or pretending systemic barriers don't exist. They absolutely do. Women only receive 2% of venture capital. Small-business confidence among women has dropped for three consecutive months.
But sustainable change happens when we work together, leveraging everyone's strengths. Building your support system intentionally - across genders, across industries, across experiences - is how you create the foundation for long-term success.
Values to Velocity: How She Built a Three-Part Impact Ecosystem
Carrie's work now operates across three different areas, and each one proves that your values can create actual velocity in the world. Not someday. Right now.
The Global Good Fund (Nonprofit)
This is where it started. The Global Good Fund invests in high-potential, overlooked social entrepreneurs through 12-month fellowships. You get coaching, seasoned mentors, capital, peer networks, and support for all the stuff that doesn't fit neatly into a business plan - mental health, wellness, and navigating family expectations around your choices.
Global Impact Fund (Venture Capital)
This fund provides equity investments in for-profit companies led by overlooked founders building socially impactful businesses. These entrepreneurs are running smart businesses with real opportunities. They just don't fit the typical Silicon Valley mold. The fund proves you can do good and do well at the same time.
Global Good Imani (Consulting)
This consulting practice helps other organizations create impact through their business. Cultural diplomacy in the Middle East. Ethical supply chain management for luxury watches. Leadership development across Africa. The same values move through completely different industries.
The same principles guide everything: backing resilient people, investing in leadership, proving that purpose and profit aren't enemies.
What This Financial Planning Strategy Means for Women Entrepreneurs Right Now
If you're a woman entrepreneur navigating economic uncertainty, funding challenges, and eroding confidence right now, here's what I want you to take away from Carrie's story.
Start with Your Values, Not Your Bank Account
Carrie didn't wait until she had funding to build something meaningful. She started with the question: if you had all the money in the world, what would you do with this one precious life?
Your clarity about what matters will attract the support you need. This feels backwards, especially when money is tight and competition is fierce. But starting with your values creates a foundation that sustains you when everything else is uncertain.
Create Your Financial Life Plan This Week
Seriously. Grab napkins if you have to. Map out your life in increments. Define what "enough" looks like for you.
What do you want your life to look like in two years? Five years? Ten years? What experiences matter most? What level of financial security lets you sleep at night? Financial planning for women entrepreneurs starts with getting your dreams on paper and understanding the financial reality of what you actually want to build.
This isn't about perfection. It's about getting honest with yourself about what you're building and why.
Financial planning for women entrepreneurs starts with clarity, not perfection.
Build Your Support System On Purpose
Carrie's success came from being willing to ask for help, learn from others, and accept intervention when she was heading toward burnout.
Who are the people in your life - regardless of gender - who can support your growth? Let them in. Ask for help. Accept the intervention when someone who loves you says you're doing too much.
With small business confidence eroding for three months straight and economic anxiety at an all-time high, isolation will make everything harder. Connection will make it possible.
Your One Courageous Step
The path from one courageous conversation to global impact isn't a straight line. It's built from accumulated moments of showing up fully, asking for what you need, and staying connected to what matters most.
Carrie started by mopping floors. She made a joke. She asked for a meeting. She proposed a book. Each step seemed small. But cumulatively? Those steps impacted 11.6 million lives.
"If you had all the money in the world, what would you do with this one precious life? People who do have all the money in the world think about building a life of purpose and impact. What if I really intentionally started there?"
Your values can become velocity. Your ideas can reach millions. Financial planning for women entrepreneurs begins with that one courageous step.
The world needs what you're building. It needs your authentic voice, your lived experience, your willingness to solve problems others overlook. It needs you to define success on your own terms and build a business that aligns with who you actually are.
Start with the napkins. Start with your own approach to financial planning for women entrepreneurs.
Just start.
If This Episode Resonated, Listen to These Next
These three episodes pair perfectly with Carrie's story about financial planning, taking courageous action, and building a values-driven business.
Listen to the Full Episode
Ready to hear the whole conversation? Click here to listen to the full episode or press play below and let Carrie's story inspire your next courageous step.
About Our Guest: Carrie Rich
Carrie Rich believes in making the world better through business and leadership. That is why she co-founded The Global Good Fund over a decade ago to invest in high-potential, overlooked social entrepreneurs. Many entrepreneurs need access to capital to scale, so Carrie went on to found and manage the Global Impact Fund, which is dedicated to investing in socially impactful businesses, primarily led by overlooked founders. Her fourth book, Impact The World: Live Your Values and Drive Changes as a Citizen Statesperson, was published by Wiley in May 2022 and is now a WSJ and Amazon Best Seller. Carrie gives back by serving on corporate and nonprofit boards and by volunteering in her local community with her three young children.
Carrie's fundamental message is about accessibility - everyday people can empower themselves and others.
Connect with Carrie Rich
- Website: www.globalgoodfund.org
- Facebook: facebook.com/carrie.rich.71
- Instagram: @mscarrierich
- YouTube: @theglobalgoodfund6602
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mscarrierich
About Sarah Walton
Sarah Walton is a business coach, podcast host, and mentor who helps women entrepreneurs build businesses they love. She's the creator of the Abundance Academy, Effortless Sales, and the Game On Girlfriend® podcast. Sarah's mission is to put more money in the hands of more women while teaching authentic, heart-centered business strategies.
Ready to Talk About Your Business?
If Carrie's story resonated with you and you're ready to have a conversation about building a business aligned with your values, I'd love to talk with you. Book a free call with me and let's explore what's possible for your business.
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