For Women Who Refuse to Be Underestimated, Underpaid and Undervalued

I've spent the last seven years working almost exclusively with women, and one thing has always fascinated me: why does another woman's success sometimes make us feel inspired...and other times make us question ourselves? For a long time, I thought comparison was the problem. But the older I get, the more I realize comparison isn't inherently bad. We compare because we're trying to figure out where we stand. The problem is that we're comparing ourselves with incomplete information.

We compare someone's title, company, salary, business, or exit. What we rarely compare is where they started. We don't see the opportunities they had, the relationships they inherited, the financial safety net they relied on, or the obstacles they didn't have to overcome. Then someone gave me a piece of advice that completely changed the way I think about success: Don't judge where you are. Judge where you came from and how you got there.

That simple sentence has stayed with me ever since. It came rushing back during my conversation with this week's Takin' Care of Lady Business guest, Rachel Krupa, because it reminded me that success isn't just about where you finish. It's also about where you started—and whether you're creating more opportunity than you had.

With Love & Lady Business,
JJ 

In today’s edition:
1. Are You Taking Startup Advice That Was Never Meant for You? With Rachel Krupa
2. Build Someone Else’s Starting Line
3. TJD Power List
4. Lady Bits

1. Are You Taking Startup Advice That Was Never Meant for You? With Rachel Krupa

That's Rachel Krupa, founder of The Goods Mart and Krupa Consulting, on this week's episode. Rachel has spent over 20 years across CPG, retail, food, and wellness, helping launch and grow brands including Thrive Market, Our Place, Goop's wellness vertical, Milk Bar, and La Colombe. In 2018, she built The Goods Mart, a curated convenience concept designed to spotlight emerging, founder-led snack brands, before “better-for-you convenience” was a category anyone else was chasing.

What made me want her on the show is how openly she talks about walking away from the version of success everyone told her to chase. More stores. More funding. More noise. She chose to build for longevity instead, and she paid for that education the expensive way.

In this episode, you'll learn:
— How to tell the difference between real growth and real leverage
— Why operational excellence often outlasts rapid scale
— How to recognize when your own hard-earned expertise has become one of your most valuable assets
— What it actually means to define success on your own terms, not someone else's scoreboard

🎧 Listen here: Spotify | Apple | YouTube
Explore The Goods Mart and Krupa Consulting 
Follow Rachel on Instagram and LinkedIn

2. Build Someone Else’s Starting Line

Someone once told me, “Don't judge where you are. Judge where you came from and how you got there.” I've never forgotten it. Here's why.

Aren't we all working to create opportunities we didn't have? Whether it's for our children, our families, ourselves, or the women who come after us, most of us are trying to leave behind a better starting line than the one we inherited. Better schools. Better financial security. Better connections. More choices. Less struggle.

If that's true, then why would we resent another woman whose parents or circumstances gave her exactly those things? We shouldn't. In fact, isn't that exactly what we're all hoping to create? What we shouldn't do is compare our outcomes without first understanding our opportunities. That's where comparison gets us into trouble. It assumes everyone started from the same place. They didn't.

Some women graduate debt-free while others begin their careers carrying six figures in student loans. Some inherit opportunity. Others have to build it. Some have a network that opens doors before they've even knocked. Others spend years creating relationships one conversation at a time. Some can afford to take risks because they have a safety net. Others can't afford to fail.

None of those realities make anyone more or less deserving of success. But they absolutely shape the journey. I graduated from an Ivy League law school with more than $200,000 in debt, even after scholarships. I chose to become a single mother. Neither was the easiest financial decision, but both were exactly the right decisions for me. Those choices shaped my path, but they don't define what's possible for me.

Every day, I negotiate for women to earn more money, more equity, better severance packages, and stronger opportunities. Not because success is about winning some imaginary race. Because every dollar, every ownership stake, and every opportunity has the power to change someone's starting line.

And that's how real change happens. Not all at once. One woman at a time.

REAL TALK
Don't chase someone else's finish line.
Build someone else's starting line.

3. TJD Power List: Dee Poku Spalding

Dee Poku Spalding built the room she couldn't find a seat in.

Founder and CEO of The WIE Suite. Board member at BAFTA and Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy. Named one of Marie Claire's 50 Women Changing the World.

I've known Dee since I was pregnant with my kids, 13 years ago, and she has been unrelenting in her quest to raise women's net worth and network every single year since. Dee started The WIE Suite because the higher she climbed in corporate leadership, the lonelier it got, and nobody had built the third space women in power actually needed. So she built it herself: a private membership community where women trade referrals, introductions, and capital, not just encouragement. In her words, it's “very, very transactional,” which is exactly the point.

She's walking the talk every single day, and that's why she's this week's TJD Power Lister.

Follow Dee on Instagram and explore The WIE Suite.

💋💋Lady Bits

🧠 22 people. One riddle. Watch how fast the room gets uncomfortable.

🗣️ Everyone said women don't have ambition. New data says otherwise.

🏆 One player just made WNBA history in a single season.

🎤 A 21-year-old brought “Everybody Supports Women” to Madison Square Garden.

Hi, I’m JJ

Since starting the Justice Dept, we have increased women's wealth by over $100MM in just over 5 years. Want to know what inspires me to do this work, other than making women money? My clients' surprised reaction when we manage to get them much better terms for themselves and their companies, whether via talent agreements, employment, severance, partnerships, asset sales or investments. They often admit that they never thought they could get that result. Not even hoped. This blows my mind. As we know at The Justice Dept. you are all worth everything you ask for and more. Reach out and we’ll show you how!
x TJD