242 | Closing the Gender Gap Through Community Building with Wafa Al Obaidat
Our guest this week on the pod is Wafa Al Obaidat. Wafa is the Founder & CEO of PLAYBOOK, a company that accelerates career growth for women through expert-led Masterclasses and an engaged community that enables women to keep learning and leading. She is also the host of the Women Power Podcast.
Resources mentioned in this episode include:
Interview with PLAYBOOK’s Wafa Al Obaidat on Gender Equity in Business
NOTE: While it’s not perfect, we offer this transcription by Otter.ai for those who are hearing impaired or who don’t find listening to a podcast enjoyable or possible.
SPEAKERS
Paul Zelizer, Wafa Al Obaidat
Paul Zelizer 00:01
Hi, this is Paul Zelizer, and welcome to another episode of the Awarepreneuyrs podcast. This podcast is all about the intersection of three things, conscious business, social impact, and awareness practice. Each episode, I do a deep dive in with a thought leader in this intersection. Someone who has market tested experience and is already transforming many lives. Before I introduce today's guests in our topic, I have one request. If you could go over to Apple podcasts or whatever app you're listening to the show on, hit the subscribe button, do a review it would help tremendously. Thank you so much for considering it. Today. I am thrilled to introduce you to Wafa Al Obaidat. And our topic is Closing the Gender Gap Through Community Building. Wafa is the founder and CEO of PLAYBOOK, a company that accelerates career growth for women through expert lead masterclasses and engage community that enables women to keep learning and lead. She's also the host of the women power podcast, Wafa, welcome to the show. Hey, Paul, I'm so excited to be here. We're thrilled to have you. You're doing awesome work, I can't wait to share about it with our listeners. I'm such a huge fan of your podcast. So this is such an incredible honor. Thanks for listening. Since you've listened before, you know that we like to get to know somebody but asking you about wellness or resiliency practice that you personally use to resource yourself for this really important work. Yeah, so I feel like I have quite a resilient mind. I try to combat any challenge with a more of a positive experience. I've had two miscarriages and each time I went and did and signed up for an Ironman 70.3. Because why wanted to turn that year into a Ironman year, not a year of like a bad experience. So that's how I approach everything. I always feel like I'm able to pivot and turn things around and turn things and I have the power to change things from negative experiences into positive ones. And as you know, as we've talked, I'm also an endurance runner like what what endurance events but did they give you like some of our listeners like Paul these crazy things you do? It's kind of weird. Why do you do this? So why do you do stuff like that? So far? Great question. I really feel like as an entrepreneur, I My mind is operating at like 100 miles an hour, I am on constant overdrive, especially in the startup phase, or the beginning phase of launching a new business, especially now in technology with playbook. My mind is in different places doing things at the same time I'm fundraising, which can really be stressful. And you know, as a CEO and founder that's my primary role is to make sure we don't run out of money. And we're liquid. So I feel like the only way to combat such a stressful experience, which I love by the way, and I wouldn't have it any other way. But it's to commit to also an endurance sport because getting my heart rate up and getting my fight my body, my body, getting my body to be physically active and strong, is so essential to maintaining like wellness and a great work life balance. So I realized that when I do Ironman, or just train for triathlon, I sleep shorter hours, but deeper, I eat better, I have a lot more energy that I can put back into my business. So I can't imagine a life where I'm not doing startup, but also not doing triathlon or racing or running or moving in that way. Beautiful. Thanks for sharing that. We're gonna get into this incredible work you're doing with women and building community and how you're closing the gender gap in the workplace. But before we do that, if our listeners are like, well, who is this person? And what has she done before this like give, give our listeners a little bit of the origin story that led to your skill set that you brought to play. But so let's start from the beginning. I come from a teeny tiny island called Bahrain, we actually have one of the biggest US base armies here in this part of the world. Behind us is situated next to Saudi Arabia, but also Dubai. So we're in a super strategic location. Growing up beheading really thrived as a banking sector. So I had to fight tooth and nail to make sure that I studied something I loved which was much more in the creative industry and very much went against my father's which is of going into banking and finance. I managed to get to design school in London, I went to a great school where I developed design thinking strategies which I applied to all my businesses I've always known I wanted to be an entrepreneur, even though nobody on either side of my family was a business owner. I just
Wafa Al Obaidat 05:00
really wanted to be at the forefront of my destiny and lead and build really cool things. So as a young girl I always do was off the table to work for anybody else. I made that decision very early on. When I was a student, I started a digital magazine from my apartment in London, I turned it into a thriving studio 54 vibe space. But like, we were just like a bunch of nerds, just creating content at all hours of the day. I'm talking to photographers, filmmakers, writers, and I built a digital magazine that really showcase the, you know, creative work in a digital space. And it was right at the cusp, where things were going from print to digital. So we were very much at a very exciting time and a disruptive time and publishing. I launched my publication sketchbook it became one of the highest digitally, one of the highest digitally rated publications in the UK. However, I had no business model, I didn't know how to monetize anything. However, I started getting more clients, I started getting people calling us asking us to do things for them, whether it was like a digital publication, creating content, a website or brand. So I was like I had a bit of an aha moment, I decided to create an agency to fund my magazine, but the agency really took off, I then decided to move back home and launch in Berlin, after realizing that there were so many people that wanted to work with a female creative director with a different perspective. So a lot of my clientele were women, who felt maybe less intimidated talking to bigger agencies. So again, very much at the cusp of, you know, kind of boutique agencies were launching during that period. And I scaled my PR firm into a multimillion dollar firm. We have about 40 employees right now. And though the agency was like my bread and butter, and I use it as an accelerator to launch a bunch of other things, it didn't really bring me any joy. And I started questioning at some point after 10 years, like what is it that I really want to do. And I was invited to attend the World Economic Forum where I was exposed to, which is such a great honor, because it's such a exclusive experience with kind of global leaders just talking about what you know, just in terms of innovation and ideation, just focusing on what the world is doing. And gender diversity inclusion was such a huge topic. And I found out and this was a statistic that really pushed me over the edge that it was going to take 257 years to increase gender equity in business globally. And I was really upset by that number. And me now I mean, Middle East North Africa, which is where I'm from ranks seven out of 10 of the worst areas in the world, with the with the biggest gap. So came back home, spoke to my entire team and told them listen, we're going to sign up to do something about this. So I started a series of events called The Woman power Summit. And it was there that I invited women leaders to share their story on stage about how they become experts in their space. And then we pivoted to playbook. So in a nutshell, I went from content creator, to agency owner, and though my agency is still running my full time job is building this ad tech company now that is aiming to get women into leadership roles. 257 years ah, I just soon as you said that I just like, like somebody hit me in the stomach. I thought, ah, ouch. I believe you and out. And yeah, it's really like a tragic statistic. Because it's like, no matter how much you invest in your daughter, or it's like, it will take that long for us to have the equal opportunity as our male counterparts. So it is and then you start once you see the stocks, you start seeing it everywhere, when you start looking at decision makers and who's has those seats on the table? And how much funding gets given to women VC funding, like you start to realize, Wow, this is like all encompassing in every industry. So it's definitely not an equal level playing field and I feel you really does suck. And the research I've seen up as that during COVID it's actually gone. It's progressed it's gotten worse because so many women have had other polls like caring for children during COVID and caring for elderly relatives and the distance has widened over these past two two and a half years not gotten any closer Is that is that in line with the researcher seeing 100% That's really accurate and it's even worse so far off you You know, founders or business owners, because 96% of the SMEs globally are owned by women of sort of smaller businesses. So they were deeply affected. They didn't have the runway time or the liquidity possibly to maintain their companies or organizations that keep them afloat. So it's yeah, it's definitely been like a huge step back. But I mean, you know, we want to kind of focus on the positive. And even as I build out playbook, it's, it's the energy that I want to give out is that, you know, it's very positive. And it's more about how we can create change through technology and how we can reach as many women as possible so we can help them reach their highest potential. So one of the things that I oftentimes see as a through line, you know, half of this episode by atomic goes live will be well into the 240 episodes, I don't know if it's 241, or 243. But something like that 240 plus world class entrepreneurs who are really having big impact, and one of the things I've seen as a through line is that the founder, or the founders have a clear like, this is what we want to here's where we want to make a dent in the world. And for you, it was this issue of the gender gap. And and can you, like, help our listeners understand, once you like, kinda like, oh, wow, okay, I have this digital agency, I'm making good money. There's not a lot of meaning or purpose here. And then, oh, can you talk about that aha moment? And how as a social entrepreneur, when we when we really kind of plant our flag saying, here's where I want to make a difference, like how does that contribute to both actually having more impact and also creating a successful business? So yeah, the aha moment is so interesting, because I think getting there is so painful, like, no one ever talks about the excruciating pain that as an entrepreneur, you go through until you're like, Aha, right. And you wrack your brain, and you talk to your friends, and you talk to mentors and coaches, and you're like, Help Help me get to where I need to go. And I had that experience, I had a couple of aha moments. But my first one was going to the World Economic Forum, like I said, but then realizing, wow, it would be so cool to have an experience, like WEF, which was basically a summit that you know, had 1000s of people, breakout rooms, mentorship sessions, and where everybody's aligned with each other. And they're all talking about innovation and technology, like this would be cool to do for women. So I really was replicating the WEF model event experience. And I was like, I want to do this for women. So that was a huge aha moment for me. And then when I did it, and behind and we attracted the largest number of women in the region, almost 10,000 Women attended our experiences over three years. I had a huge aha moment when I was there, just seeing like, wow, this is, you know, this is this is working companies sent 1000s of women paid for their app for them to have access and corporate sponsored and partnered with us to bring this to life. I was like, great, like I've monetized an idea, like my idea. And it was, it was such a big aha moment. Because I hacked I figured it out, it took me 10 years when I started sketchbook, the digital magazine, I had no idea how to monetize an idea that I loved. And fast forward. 10 years later, I was standing there surrounded by 1000s of women with such incredible keynote speakers thinking, wow, this was all in my brain. And now not only are people actually here, and they showed out but companies saw the value and paid for their employees to have access, right. So that was a huge aha moment. The next one came after I burnt out after doing this event with over three years, I was like this is not sustainable. Like I'm in pain, like it takes me it takes nine months to put an event of the scale together. That's like having a full grown child like it's too much. And I'm talking nine months of a 20 Plus member team working over time. Plus me trying to take care of myself, you know, not really having a social life just completely burning myself out to put on an event of the scale, then realizing this can't be it like something about this is not sitting well with me. And I remember people would come up to me and be like, isn't this incredible what you've achieved and I just I'd be so numb, but I think it was because one I knew it wasn't sustainable. And two, I was burnt out I was too burnt out to enjoy meeting the very speakers. I've been stalking so they could come you know to this to this event so they can share their story and their their career progression with all the 1000s of women. I didn't go out to the dinners. I didn't do the lunches. I missed all this amazing stuff that was happening around the event, because I was just exhausted. So my aha moment came when I was watching Masterclass. And again I was like, Oh my God, this would be such a good vehicle something like this that would have a lot of the women who are on stage sharing their story plus 500 Women sent us messages from around the world asking for access to the video content. So there was an aha moment where I was sitting in my house and I was like, masterclass, okay, video pre recorded content, women on stage, and then the messages that kept pouring in saying, I wasn't able to come to this experience, I live in a different country, or even if I live in the same country doesn't the timing and date didn't suit me was like a working day, like, can you please do another that can I come to the other one is our video content. And I was like, Aha, you know, so this is me taking a complete leap of faith based on our track record, and also our, like, just knowing that this has worked as an offline experience. And now we're going to be shifting it online to see if it works as well. Peter Paul, so you did three years in person. And we didn't talk a lot about this. But I worked for a well known conscious business brand called wisdom 2.0. And I was on the marketing team. 1000s of people would come up, I know that feeling. Are these my version. I remember hiding out in the hotel room, and there was like the dance and a dinner going on. And I was just exhausted all these people I wanted to connect with. But I'm an introvert. I was fried, right? Like no, not do remember getting tax for people? Where are you at all like, I'm exhausted. Sorry. Right. And so I just hear you loud and clear about that moment. It's a beautiful thing. And you know, some people find a sustainable business model. And it wasn't for me. And so I hear you loud and clear. So. And Paul, what was crazy is, is I spent nine months putting an event of that Skiff together with an incredible team, I must add, obviously, like, I'm just part of a huge team that dedicated their, their, their life to this and their time to this. However, I remember also just ending up doing all the operational stuff like, there was like something on the floor. So I picked it up, I'd go check the food, right, like we have a parking crisis, because there would be the car parks would get full and people will be walking with their high heels from like, God knows when. So even on the day of those events, I was doing admin and operational stuff and in registration, and I was like, This is not what I want to do like this is so far away from like, I'm not really living the actual purpose. I'm actually just, I felt so disconnected. So now with playbook I get interviewed the master myself, I'm involved with the curriculum and the creation of the content. And then we get to share it with the world. And hopefully our subscribers will be able to enjoy it, I feel much more closer to the buy purpose, but also to the product that we're building. Beautiful. So one of the things I've done a lot of research about in terms of this podcast, and I think there might be some similarities, but I'd love to hear your thoughts. One of the best known business schools, at least in North America, and certainly around the world, some people have heard the name Harvard Business School. And one of the things that Harvard talks about is something they call when they look at the research, they said one of the best, most effective long standing sustainable ways to teach business is what they call the case study method of business education. In other words, somebody like does a deep dive to business that doing something well or something not so well. And people learn from real life experience, learn the concepts, learn some innovative strategies, learn what's not working as well anymore, etc, etc. Through real life examples and honest conversation. It sounds to me like that's kind of what was happening in those live events and the the way restructuring, it wasn't so sustainable for you or your team. And you said, I want to keep that part. But we're gonna do it differently in this digital way that we're about to talk about in a moment. Is that fair to say? getting women to talk about what really is working in terms of opening up career opportunities for them? Yeah, I mean, I really feel like you hit the nail on its head because I used to love career day when I was in school, because I loved my teachers, or some of them, but honestly, career they were like, these are real people out in the real world doing real things. And learning from them had a lot more gravity like it just had a lot more weight to me. I just felt like wow, like, this is what I want to do. I just, I'm so sick of consuming and not doing like I want to do and I want to actually, like do actionable things like I want to learn from somebody and then go out there and actually do what they're asking me To do or like to test ideas, right? So the school system, to me is such a frustrating experience, because it's more just consuming and not necessarily doing or learning from real experiences. So I find that what I learn, like school that's never prepared before the real world whatsoever, like, no one teaches you how to, like, save, or how to, like, invest properly, or how to, you know, grow your network, or how to ask for things, or how to negotiate necessarily, right. So like, I always feel like those soft skills are the things that are so important to become good at what you want to do. And I used to love doing all these mentorship sessions, which took so much of my time like booking sessions with all these incredible people to ask them if they could give me some of their time. So I could be like, Well, how did you raise money? And how did you ask for things? And how did you pivot and, you know, like, and you would learn, I've learned so much more from their real experiences. And I would be able to, like, really speak to them about the specific challenges I was having. And I think that's what we're trying to do, like, can we get you to skip all the BS that you have to go through and your career progression, and get you to have all the tools you need to like, get to where you want to go wherever that may be. So all our classes are based around soft skills. And you know, these are things that you learned from experience that you learned by doing well. And we're just reverse engineering that and sharing that with our audience or our subscribers. So I love learning from people's experience, which is, I guess why we all love TED Talk and why we love kind of these channels or a masterclass because it's like, okay, I trust you, because you've done the right you've, you've closed this huge deal, or you've, you know, raised money for your film, or you've, you know, open a Michelin star restaurant, like I believe in you, like, I know, You've done it, I want to learn from you. So I think that's what I'm trying to do is just, this is a kind of school I would want to attend if I was younger, and even today, obviously, but I was like, this is where I would want to be and this is who I would want to learn from.
Paul Zelizer 22:13
So when was it exactly that you pivoted from the three years of live events and saying no, we're gonna move to this new format.
Wafa Al Obaidat 22:23
So things are happening in parallel, we had just finished the final woman power Summit, which is the the last component because we promised to do this for three years with our partners, we committed to that number. After the third one, a Corona happened. And that's when I started my own podcast, again, just trying to get closer to like the women that I admire and remove all the clutter that's around the event and just really connecting with them one on one. And it really gave me an opportunity to meet them. And a lot of them were actual speakers as well. And just to interview them and to connect with them and learn from them. And, and then that's also that was also after I gave birth to my son. So it was such a huge transitional period because I was I had my son, I had my podcast, and I was just in limbo. So I remember going to a coach, her name is heya. And I interviewed her as well for the podcast. And I was just like in tears because I was going through postpartum, I was like, I don't know what I'm supposed to do. Like, I don't want to do the events anymore. But I love what I built. But I just I'm so lost. And she was really great in terms of saying it, doesn't it? She said it doesn't matter. The format you do it in like you're asking the real question, like, you need to just figure out your personal mission. And then you can put it in whatever platform like I was trying to focus on the end result like should it be an event? Should it be a podcast? Should it be a book what you know, should it be like an online community? Like what is it and she's like, that's the wrong question to ask. Like, the question is like, what is your mission? Like, what do you want to do? And that's when I was like, oh, like, I want to help women achieve their highest potential, like, I don't care what that looks like, I just want them to have all the tools to succeed. And she's like, Okay, well now tune into that frequency, which I know sounds a little bit like Oprah or abstract, but it was just like, it almost felt to me, she described it perfectly. Like when you're looking for a radio frequent like the radio channel that you want, you're just kind of like it's a bit that old school now because I don't have anybody listens to the radio but like you're zigzagging between different kind of channels until you find the right channel. But once you find the right channel, then everything else becomes much easier because you can actually hear things clearly. So identifying my personal mission and then figuring out Okay, now what format I want to do it and it was much easier to do
Paul Zelizer 24:46
that the language I like to use up as so many people, myself included, get really fixated on the what and the how the format and you know, what kind of vehicles should it be applied? cast or Summit, or, you know, one on one coaching or group or a membership community or physical product or a book or online course, all those things are great. But so many people are asking those questions. And I'm like, You know what, the reason you're confused is because there's some questions upstream that you haven't paid attention to. And those questions which I heard you really spend some time with my language is why, and then who? So what are your core values? And then who do you want to help and you had this like, really strong sense of wanting to help women and the wife was like, this is just wrong, and it needs to be changed. And I want to help him and move the needle in this direction. And then you got clear, you tried some iterations, you did these live events, and you got incredible feedback and interest, and it wasn't sustainable for you. And it pivoted and moved. But your why, and your who that once you landed on that you were able to iterate your way into a what and how that now, you're sitting over here, it sounds like you're really aligned with your purpose and your core values. And you've developed something that has sustainability and is really moving the needle, in terms of the impact would have in the world. Is that fair to say?
Wafa Al Obaidat 26:23
Yeah, and I feel I saw this quote on Instagram, and it said, we spend the first half of our lives chasing the why. And then we spend the rest the other half of our lives living the why. And I wish I mean, I just saw that quote recently. And I was like, Oh, my God, that's so true. Like, I've just been experimenting a lot and trying different things. The good news is I've never stopped moving, like I'm just always about, like, not being stuck. So like doing the summit, doing the podcast, like talking to mentors, like, like, I am such a continuous learner and an avid investor. And in my set, like investing in myself, so I have no problem paying for all this stuff. So I can get closer to figuring out what my next step is. And then like you said, there was a huge alignment in terms of my personal mission, which is, I mean, obviously similar to like a business mission, but it's just like your compass. It's your error of why you do things, and why you're motivated to do things. And I think we're all built so differently. And our y just gets us really excited about being alive. And once I was able to put the words, write the words down and formulate this really powerful sentence, the what became, like you said, really easy. And then as then reflecting on all the other stuff, I've eliminated, like, Okay, this is not gonna work. This didn't bring me joy. This was really activity like, then what happened was, when I landed on playbook and just merging all these kind of components together, I actually like feel like I designed this business based on my mission. So I love it, because it just ticks all my boxes. And it really serves me and it gives me energy.
Paul Zelizer 28:06
actually feel like I design this business based on my purpose. Oh my gosh, if I could wish, like one thing on humans on the planet. Yeah. Or at least the folks who are doing the entrepreneur path. Oh, gosh, what a gift. Oh,
Wafa Al Obaidat 28:23
yeah. Paul, when I when I was working at my agency, I would be in high heels all day and like designer clothes. And just just because I was meeting all these incredible clients, I just felt I had to dress a certain way, right. So like, especially as a young woman, like I want to command respect, I want to be able to be like I'm on your level. So I was never comfortable. Because I love being in sweatpants and a hoodie. And just being you know, comfortable at home. So like, even now, like a non negotiable for me is like I will never go work from an office again, I want to work from the comfort of my own home, I don't want to deal with like, I want to work with people that are excited about working with teams, because I'm just over that whole experience. Like my energy comes from strategy and research and partnerships. So I'd rather spend all that time connecting with people online, especially now through zoom, but I'm always in like comfortable clothes now. And like, you know what I mean? Like, like, and I show up to my meetings, like this is who I am. And I don't want to dress up for anybody anymore. So it's just about being authentic as well. So definitely wrote down all the list of my non negotiables and I made sure that with this business, I'm just gonna serve myself first and build it around my needs.
Paul Zelizer 29:38
As we record this on barefoot wearing trail running. I am in a polo shirt, I guess. I guess I guess that's my one very comfortable polo shirt. Yeah.
Wafa Al Obaidat 29:52
I'm in my fuzzy socks pause so nice.
Paul Zelizer 29:54
So let's do this in a moment. I want to hear some increases Exciting things have been happening for playbook including a significant raise and some very exciting developments. I want to hear about that and where you're going with the company. Before we do that, I just want to take a quick break and hear a word from our sponsor. Do you have a business that's about making the world a better place and you want it to grow, both in terms of helping more people, and in terms of your income, so you could they have a good quality of life. If so, I'd like to talk to you about a little bit of research that I think might be really helpful. When scientists look at what actually contributes to human meeting our goals, the single biggest thing, whether it's getting in shape, or quitting smoking, or growing a business is what they call social support. In other words, being connected to a group of people who are on a similar kind of journey and can empathize with us and give us tips about the highs and the lows. So as an entrepreneur, oh my gosh, I think I just got the biggest contract my business has ever done, or oops, it fell through and Ouch, that really hurts. Those places where we can go where people can give us tips, and maybe you want to refine that or what really worked for me who are on a similar journey, and are both giving us information. But even more so emotional support. And just some reality checks about what the journey is like. That is the single biggest predictor about whether entrepreneurs or people who want to get fit succeed if you have a business that is in this space, but where printers has a very generous and really effective community called the AWARE printers community, we have over 270 members from around the world. This is exactly what we do. You can post your latest sales page, help us think about branding, get a referral, whether it's for a lawyer who can help you with trademark or somebody who can build a website that understands these kinds of brands. It's affordable starting at $25 a month. And if it sounds like something you might be interested in, you can find out more at aware printers.com forward slash community and thank you to everybody in the AWARE printers community who sponsors this podcast. So after this is a very exciting time in the playbook journey. Like it's a little over two years and and things are really moving for you now. For instance, you've recently done a raise pretty significant raise tell us a little bit about that some of the funding what it's for, and how would you learn about pitching investors so that they say yes, we want to help this company grow?
Wafa Al Obaidat 32:47
Sure pause. So basically, I I was obsessed with masterclass. I read and listen to every podcast by the founder, found out through one of the podcasts that he raised a $1.5 million pre seed round. And I was like, Okay, well, if that's what he needs to raise to build something like masterclass, I can raise $1.5 million. So I started, I developed a pitch deck, I started shopping around for investors, and just making all the rookie mistakes you would think of I didn't have my financial model or my data room. I had a co founder who was amazing. I had a great track record. My pitch deck, got a lot of great feedback on the design. But with every meeting, I just kept going back and making the adjustments and changes investors were making. So I was getting things like I don't know what the problem is. And you know, where is your ask slide and you know, this doesn't make any sense or I'm overwhelmed. So the order of things I didn't I didn't get it. So I use them as discovery calls. And I was meeting I was meeting a couple of investors a day then I listened to this peloton, the founder of peloton and how he raised I listened to a podcast by the founder of peloton how he raised investment for peloton I was like I need to up my game was meeting like three investors a day. So I just really am things up. And for a few months, I've been talking to investors getting feedback, and just making all the needed changes. What I found really crazy is this is such a psychological FOMO experience because all your investors want to see who else will come in before they invest. So it's a bit of like a chicken or the egg situation. So it's like well if you guys aren't gonna come in, and how are other people going to come in. So it just got really interesting towards the 70% mark. So when I closed 70% of my funding, I had a mad rush of other investors who wanted to to subscribe to our round. So I took down my ask for 1.5 million to $700,000 because I actually didn't need the $1.5 million. I was perfectly fine with 700,000. So when I actually looked at a financial model, I changed my ask as well. which was a lot more reasonable because every time I pitch $1.5 million to investors, they would just be like, you know, you don't need that amount right now. And that's too high. So I could have raised the 1.5 and changed it later on. But, but it was an interesting like, like I said, it was all psychological. So like I tried with $400,000, as well. And we're like, that's too low like, so I just kept adjusting my ask, based on what people were telling me, but also decided to do a financial model and decide on a number as well after getting all this incredible feedback. And like I said, I found that it was much harder to raise the earlier the earlier component of the fund much easier to close at 30%. So we had an oversubscribed ground, and our investors are some of the best and in the region. So they include 500 global, which is a San Francisco backed VC, Faith capital, which is an incredible VC based out of Kuwait, in the region, and then woman Spark, which is the largest angel investment group, by women in the region, as well. And then I have a bunch of really strategic incredible angels who also got behind the business. It's really tough. I, thankfully, am quite extroverted, and I love meeting investors. So fundraising to me is really exciting. And I guess, in my past, work with my agency, I was the one acquiring customers, and do you know, working on the deals, so for me, this is just very much a continued continuation of my of the work that I know that I do so well. So I find that a lot of invest startups will really hate on this experience. And just, you know, they don't do well with rejection. I love getting rejected, like I'm like, great, like, I know the ratio 20 rejections and one, yes. So I want to get through the 20 rejections to get my one. Yes. Knowing and understanding that this is how it works. So I get really motivated, and I get really challenged to turn those nose into yeses. So for me, it's like when investors like no, we're not interested, I'm like, Well, can I still have a meeting? Or are you know, what if I hit these metrics? Or what would make you say, yes, so I am so motivated by turning? And even if they say, No, I'm still sending them like updates, like, would love to, like keep you in the loop. And then I find that when they see that you progress, and they've already met you in life to you, they could say yes, like, we've had a bunch of people come back and say, actually, you know, I continue, you continue the conversation with us. And we'd like to see if we can pump into the next round. So it's been really exciting so far, but it's very much a psychological, you know, thrill. And you really have to play on people's emotions and create FOMO basically,
Paul Zelizer 37:44
such great suggestions. Thanks so much. So, so talk to us about the actual master classes themselves. So you've pivoted now and you've gone to a master class format, like, Who are you interviewing? And what's the structure? And what are some of the topics.
Wafa Al Obaidat 38:01
So we feature the most influential, successful women in the region, our kickstarting with women from this part of the world, and they deliver classes on how to be a minister or how to thrive in government, or how to become a board member, right? So you're learning from the very best in the region and how they have basically designed and curated their careers, how they manage their money, how they handle work life balance. So we have one on authentic sales, right? Like how do you perfect a great sale from pitching to preparing to like, figure out what an invoice is. So it's all kind of centered around all the tools you could need to progress in your career. So we've already filmed eight master classes. They include you know, how to raise a pre seed round, how to get into the investor mindset or exploring investor mindset, how to run a family business. And these are all pain points and the content based around pain points from this part of the world as well.
Paul Zelizer 39:01
And a huge focus of yours Zinner episode title is community building. So it's not just the actual masterclass itself, like here's a bunch of information. Bye. See you later. Bye. There's, there's a sense of like, this is a learning community, like, talk to us a little bit about the thinking there. And how does that actually work given that it's mostly online experience.
Wafa Al Obaidat 39:25
So the supply book comes coupled with a professional network for women that offers job opportunities. It also offers, you know, job postings, and we're using AI based technology to link you with other members based on your needs and your wants. There is live classes and events that you can attend. And most importantly, we want to connect you to the masters and to other in house or resident mentors. So if you love the master class with a former Minister of our country, you can possibly book us session with her through the playbook community or what we like to call the campus. And that's when you basically book office hours with them. And these are paid opportunities. So I want you to be excited about consuming the content. But I also want to connect you with these incredible resources. So that's kind of what the campus is. And what frustrated me about all these learning online commute, like digital technologies? Is there were so one sided I would take, I would consume the content, but then there would be no way for me to like mingle with other members or share like, or what if I saw a master class or a tentative course. And actually, I wasn't able to solve a problem I had, I'd love to be able to go into the community and be like, Guys, this is what I'm going through, Can anybody help me or connect me to like a freelancer or a lawyer or a life coach or a therapist, right, so this is where you're able to share and also get specific information on your pain points.
Paul Zelizer 41:00
Super helpful, and like, how many women would you say are taking part in the campus at this point.
Wafa Al Obaidat 41:07
So we have 2000, women on our waitlist, we already have a mailing list of 10,000 women from our previous experiences, all very eager to invest in their careers, and also know about our next product. And we have 60 subscribers before we even launched. So these are women that have just come onto our site and have signed up before we even launched. So I'm we're really hoping for, you know, we have a target of about 10,000 members paid members this year. So it's looking really good so far.
Paul Zelizer 41:40
Yeah. And when you look ahead rapa, like, you've got this, your visionary founder, right, let's just say like it is, or you have this big vision, and there's a huge gap, not just in the region, but certainly in the region, but it is a global issue. Gender Equity, for those of you who don't know, is one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. In other words, the UN took a look around the world came up with 17 areas like, wow, we really need to move the needle and gender equity is one of those. And it's global, not just to region. So let's just say that, and you're somebody you have, you know, you're plugged into big visions. So like, if you dream down the road a little bit, three years, or five years or 10 years, where do you see this community going?
Wafa Al Obaidat 42:30
I mean, I think the problem I'm trying to solve is I want to make learning fun. And I want to I want to learn from women who look like me and talk like me and speak my language. So the big vision is to build the largest digital campus of women leaders in the world. And also to make learning fun now, that could be in the way of perhaps a master popping out of your phone. So they're like, I don't know, there's a hologram of them in your room, and it feels like you're sitting with them in a classroom, maybe, you know, using AI based technology to recreate masters that are no longer with us. But still having them deliver content that we think is powerful. So there's a lot of like whimsical, interesting, beautiful, creative ways to make learning exciting and to, to really reinvent what being in the classroom looks like. So I don't know if that's, I don't know what that looks like today, I just know that I'm really clear on my short term goals, for sure. But in the long run, I'd love this to be in everybody's in every woman's kind of phone and for us to be in her pocket or in her handbag, and she can access us whenever she needs to feel inspired, or she has a problem. So that's kind of like the big vision in terms of ideation, but also design thinking, like, let's keep it open and just keep working on providing different ways to solve the problem.
Paul Zelizer 43:54
Beautiful. So to the women founders who look like you and have a similar like, there's a, there's something in our world that's just wrong. And I want to create a business or I have a business that's working on it. But they're a little earlier on or maybe they don't have quite the, you know, track record. You built this incredible agency before you even started playbook. And you went to the World Economic Forum, like you had some incredible opportunities. And not everybody has that to somebody who's starting, who's a little early in their journey of being an impact founder. What would you say to women in that situation?
Wafa Al Obaidat 44:35
I mean, I think find a problem that you're passionate about solving. I think don't be afraid to ask for things. I think as women we're not you know, we're perfectionists. We don't necessarily like to burden other people with everything and, and I'm an asker that I love asking people for things and asking for help. And I guess yeah, just really working your purpose and your personal mission and build your entire career around things that you love.
Paul Zelizer 45:07
Wonderful, great advice. I could hang out with you all day Ababa and you're busy. Your mom, you got a business, you got a lot going on, it's later there than it is here and dinner's waiting for. If there was something you were hoping we were going to get to, and we haven't gotten to it yet, or there's something you want to leave our listeners with, as we start to wind down this interview, what would that be?
Wafa Al Obaidat 45:31
I mean, Thanks, Paul. First of all, thank you so much, this has been really great. I'm so grateful. I think if you want to know more about what we're doing, and what we're building, we want to build this in collaboration with women. We're not like living in silo. That's why we care so much about community and doing things in groups and understanding the power of being in forum and joining a community. So and there's also so much going on, right, like between our jobs, and our kids and our commitments and all the social media channels that exist, we want to make sure that playbook gives you a space where you can get answers and find solace and find co founders and find solutions. So I really hope that women can connect with us join the waitlist, check out the site, but also share with us what they think what their pain points are, you know, there might be stuff that we've missed that we could include in our master classes. Or if you think you'd be a great master or a great partner, you can definitely DM us or connect with us on social media or on the website. But we want to build this in collaboration with women around the world. So if I have one ask is if you think that you know, something was triggered, or you were triggered by something, this conversation, then for sure, connect with us and and work with us.
Paul Zelizer 46:49
Great, and we'll put links to the podcast, we'll put links to playbook we'll put links to the World Economic Forum, all that will be in the show notes. So listeners, fabulous resources today that Lofa brought to our attention. So please go check them out. And also go follow them on social media, tell your friends is an incredible opportunity to really amplify a project that's doing incredible work and helping close the gender gap. So I asked our community to support the playbook community because that's what we're about here. Everything you just said about that about not being siloed. That's, I'm about it, and I want us to be about it. So please, if you at all resonated with what was said here, please amplify this message, go connect, tell your friends, and let's help this community doing awesome work at the world out into the world. Thanks for being on the show today. Off. It's just fabulous to have you here.
Wafa Al Obaidat 47:43
Thank you, Paul, this was so much fun. And I'm so excited just to be a part of the podcast. And I love the work that you do. So I also can't wait to share this with my community so they can hear more about your work.
Paul Zelizer 47:56
Thank you so much. So that's all the time we have for today's episode, folks. Thank you so much for listening. Again, check out all the resources in the links below. Before we go, just want to let you know we love, love, love listener suggested topics and guests. If you have an idea for a show, just go to their website where printers.com go to the contact page. And there's three really simple criteria. That's how we that is it a good fit or not. So try to be really transparent. Take a look. And if you think you've got something that checks those boxes, please send it on it. We'd love to hear from you. For now I just want to say thank you so much for listening. Please take really good care in these intense times. And thank you for all the positive impact that you're working for in our world.