Order my USA TODAY Bestselling book: toxicgrit.com TOXIC GRIT: How to have it all and (actually) love what you have. It will help you create a new approach to ambition and find space for all the diverse parts of yourself. Join 75K+ others who read my newsletter 🧩 Life's a Game at amandagoetz.com. It’s full of free tips to play the game of life at a whole new level. In 2018 I found myself at the height of my marketing career with 3 kids under the age of 4 and filing for divorce. In a world telling me to find alignment......I realized that was impossible. The work version of me didn't want to leave early to go be with the kiddos. The mom version of me didn't want to miss a moment with them. I wanted to be fiercely independent and yet also wanted to find love again. Other versions of me didn't want to feel responsible for anything or anyone. This diversity within me led to the creation of my Character Theory Framework. This framework helped me to create space for the 10 characters that make up the movie of your life:  The CEO → wants to pursue big goalsThe Partner → desires companionship  The Soloist → cares about personal growth and development The Caregiver → deep desire to take care of others and show up for themThe Goddess → wants to be desired and pursue pleasure  The Lazy One → loves to couch rot, no goals whatsoever The Socialite → values connection The Creative → desires creation and creativity The Doctor → your inner health &amp; wellness character The Explorer → craves novelty And it helped me. I was able to let go of the idea of balance and give permission for hierarchy, boundaries and the transition sequences necessary to embody these diverse characters. So I put it all in a book and it was an instant best seller!! I'm so excited for you to create space for all parts of you and to see ambition as multi-dimensional. Follow me here for advice as I build a multi-hyphenate life as a CMO, Author, Mom of 3 and getting married again. 

Amanda Goetz

I took a month from posting to really sit with myself and think about what I wanted for 2026. Here’s why….

I spent a lot of the last year in survival mode. 
After a divorce with 3 small kids I was always proving. Pushing. Needing to provide for my family. 

But now I’m on stable ground and yet my nervous system hasn’t caught up. I still feel like I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. 

That I need to prove I’m worthy. 
That I need to prove I’m smart. 
That I need to prove why I’m here. 

So this year my word is ENOUGH. 

And I’m going to spend the year learning what enough looks like. 

To be enough. 
To earn enough. 
To do enough. 

I love my new CMO role. 
I have a new exciting writing project this year. 
I’m hosting season 2 of the Girlboss podcast. 
And my weekly newsletter is a constant creative outlet. 

That’s enough. 

More isn’t always better. 

So if you are also planning to drive the speed limit in 2026 - follow along here as I’ll be sharing what I’m doing and learning along th way.

USA TODAY Bestselling Author of Toxic Grit | 2x Founder (acquired) 5x CMO | Mom x3 | Keynote Speaker | Subscribe ➡️ 🧩 Life’s a Game Newsletter

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I’ve been struggling with 2 things lately:

1) it’s clear that when I spend less time on social media, my mind is clearer and I can write from a place of curiosity and purpose. 

But then when I contribute to social media I feel like I’m feeding the beast that is stealing our curiousity and clarity. 

2) The loss of social from the media. 

The closer I got to big creators, the more I found out about the “teams” behind their posts and replies. I can also clearly tell when someone is using AI to reply to posts. 

So what are we actually doing here? 

The point is to connect and inspire. To evoke thoughts and inject nuance into conversations. To drive awareness to things that people may not see from their seat in this world. 

Anyway….if I’ve been a little MIA on here it’s because of these thoughts. 

I deeply crave meaningful conversations and I am trying to find the right medium to having them.

Another great episode of Ambition 2.0 with @girlboss and Malissa Clark 

Check it out anywhere you get your podcasts!

🗣️ Repeat after us: You can love your job and still be a workaholic.

In this episode of Ambition 2.0, Amanda Goetz sits down with Malissa Clark, a professor at the University of Georgia, Director of the Healthy Work Lab, and author of Never Not Working: Why the Always-On Culture Is Bad for Business—and How to Fix It, to break down what workaholism can look like in real life (spoiler: it’s not just about working long hours). 

They get into the sneaky “working light” tasks that we tell ourselves don’t count as work (like sending emails while watching TV or checking Slack between errands), how leaders accidentally create always-on teams, and so much more. 

🎧 Listen to the full episode here: https://lnkd.in/eKd9rtCv 

💻 Or watch the episode on YouTube: https://lnkd.in/eRqNjSN6

Continuing on my journey of “enough” - it’s important you plan your work around your life. Not the other way around. 

I approach my yearly planning the same way I approach building a marketing calendar as a CMO. 

I slice the calendar in 4 ways:

- Annual tentpoles & events
- Quarterly launches
- Monthly beats
- Weekly non-negotiables

Reminder: Use this link to get your 🧩 Life's a Game Planning calendar. ⬇️⬇️

Open article: 🧩 Life's a Game: Your 2026 Game Plan by amandagoetz.kit.com

Today’s newsletter has already gotten more replies than I normally get. I think this topic resonates…

Check it out and let me know. ⬇️

https://lnkd.in/eHCRCS4b

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Loved this convo with Alexa von Tobel - check it out and let me know what you think!

In this episode of Ambition 2.0, host Amanda Goetz sits down with Alexa von Tobel—the founder of LearnVest (where she raised $75M and successfully sold it to Northwestern Mutual) and current founder and managing partner of Inspired Capital—to unpack the resilient mindset that has shaped her successful career, from founder to venture-capital veteran.

Alexa dropped out of Harvard Business School and poured her life savings into LearnVest, a multimillion-dollar business idea—despite warnings from nearly everyone around her that she was making a big mistake. She did it in the middle of the 2008 economic recession, no less.

🎧 Watch or listen to the full episode, now live on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts! 

https://lnkd.in/eq-wEGjd

Open video: From Harvard Dropout to VC Powerhouse: How to Bet on Yourself with Alexa von Tobel | Ambition 2.0 on youtu.be

From Harvard Dropout to VC Powerhouse: How to Bet on Yourself with Alexa von Tobel | Ambition 2.0

23 Year Old Shopify App Founder \\ Sharing my Startup Journey with the World

Creating the best popups in eCom

Trusted by Nike Strength, Hexclad, Comfrt, Milk Makeup, Hot Ones, and 3K+ others

Shaan Arora

As a Boston native, this one is rly cool. OUR POPUP IS LIVE ON BARSTOOL ❤️‍🔥

Bootstrapped to $8M ARR // Building The Next Generation of Popups

Super excited to announce that we're a Klaviyo Preferred Tech Partner 🎉

I started posting daily LinkedIn content in Jan 2024 when we had $10K ARR. We're now at $8.5M ARR👇🏽

I'm happy that I've been documenting the entire journey publicly.

Here's why you should do the same:

First - accountability
When you post your goals publicly, you get hungrier. 
You don't want to look like a fraud, so you work harder.

Second - it's a journal
In 5 or 10 years when your business is booming, you’ll be able to look back and remember exactly how you felt at the beginning. 

Third - you can't recreate this
You can always make content about what you did after you sell. 
But you can never again post while you're in the trenches building. 
This moment is gone forever if you don't capture it.

Fourth - it actually brings business. 
A lot of our clients come from LinkedIn and Twitter because they follow the journey and have seen our growth and results. 

-

People fall in love with the journey, not the highlight reel.

Due to our AE's calendar maxing out, we're hiring a second AE. Here's what we're looking for👇🏽

1. Based in NYC or willing to relocate to NYC
2. Prior experience as an AE who was selling eCommerce SaaS to Shopify brands
3. Strongly motivated by compensation and upside
4. Energized by working hard and moving fast
5. Comfortable operating in a 40% outbound, 60% inbound role

About Us:

We've bootstrapped from $0 to over $8.5M ARR in the past 16 months.

Nike Strength, Comfrt, Hot Ones, Hexclad, and Graza are a few of our 3K+ Shopify brands. 

What we offer:

Competitive compensation - strong base, strong commission, and early employee equity

Beautiful Chelsea office -  join us in our spacious, well-lit office in the heart of Manhattan

Strong benefits - healthcare, unlimited PTO (+ your birthday off), lunch and dinner covered in the office

Meaningful impact - as our second AE, your work will directly affect our product and growth

You must email your resume to shaan@alialearn.com. Only applicants who submit their resumes via email will be considered for an interview.

Popups Wrapped 2025 🥰 - we recieved 910M popup views and collected 135M emails 👇🏽

Along with that we collected:
• 81M phone numbers
• 271M poll responses
• And saw an average optin rate of 15.1% across all our brands

Pretty fun year to be the best popup company in eCom.

Woah - pretty cool to have been spotlighted in a Klaviyo newsletter 🥳

If you're doing founder led sales, I hate to say it, but you have to smile A LOT on every sales call.

When I used to take a ton of calls, I would literally look at the clock at the start of each call and force myself to smile for the first three minutes of the call.

And I get it.

Some days the calls stack up.

I’ve had days with ten back to back calls.

Then the eleventh call hits at 8:00 p.m. and I still had to smile through it.

The only way to justify it to yourself is this: at the end of the day, you get to lie down, close your eyes, and know you genuinely tried on every call.

When you smile, the prospect can see it. It tells them you care about what you're selling and that it actually matters to you.

And if you can make them believe it matters to you and that you're excited about it, it becomes exciting to them.

So smile. Whatever you have to do, force a smile every single time.

This is our AE's calendar here at Alia. All are inbound. We're now hiring another AE and a BDR.👇🏽

AE salary - $185K OTE
BDR salary - $100K OTE

AE requirements:
1. Based in NYC or willing to relocate to NYC
2. Prior experience as an AE who was selling eCommerce SaaS to Shopify brands
3. Strongly motivated by compensation and upside
4. Energized by working hard and moving fast
5. Comfortable operating in a 40% outbound, 60% inbound role

BDR requirements:
1. Based in NYC or willing to relocate to NYC
2. Hungry and motivated by upside
3. Some experience doing cold calls or cold emails before

About Us:

We've bootstrapped from $0 to over $8.5M ARR in the past 16 months.

Nike Strength, Comfrt, Hot Ones, Hexclad, and Graza are a few of our 3K+ Shopify brands. 

What we offer:

Beautiful Chelsea office - join us in our spacious, well-lit office in the heart of Manhattan

Strong benefits - healthcare, unlimited PTO (+ your birthday off), lunch and dinner covered in the office

Meaningful impact - your work will directly affect our product and growth

For the AE role, you must email your resume to shaan@alialearn.com. Only applicants who submit their resumes via email will be considered for an interview.

For the BDR role, please call our AE (his name is Sameer) and he can set up an interview with you: 516-304-9384. 

LFG

Hi yall - we're going to be at NRF next week and are co-sponsoring these events. Come say hi 👋🏽

🥂 NRF Social Soirée | Monday January 12th, 6-9pm, O’Tooles Way | [link in comments]

🥗 Bluestone Lunch | Tuesday January 13th, 11am-2pm, Bluestone Lane (Hudson Yards) | [link in comments]

☕ Ecom Coffee Collective | Wednesday January 14th, 8:30-11am, Honeybrains | [link in comments]

Along with that, I'll be at the Smarterships happy hour this Sunday 🪩

'No Dicks, No Divas' --- Our $8.5M ARR company has 3 company values 🤭 

It’s easy to write down a bunch of generic company values.

It’s much harder to commit to a very small set of values.

We believe in keeping our values few, clear, and lived.

And below are the three values👇🏽

--

1. Unreasonably Good Service

Every client interaction is an opportunity to surprise and delight.

Mediocre service is easy. We choose the harder path.

--

2. Speed is a Weapon

We move fast.

Speed builds trust, creates leverage, and allows us to beat any competitor who dares to go head-to-head with us.

--

3. No Dicks, No Divas

No egos, no drama, no assholes.

We work hard, stay humble, and win together.

Low ego. High agency. Phenomenal results.

--

Our values are memorable and short. 

I bet most people can't rattle off their current employer's values. 

Ours are impossible to forget.

The Tumbler: our newest and coolest gamified popup in Alia. It's been CRUSHING for our brands

Portland Leather Goods switched to Alia. And you should too! (yes, you)

Got the chance to contribute to the state of industry by Sean Wendt and dtcmvp. 

The full ebook has insights from brand leaders across the ecosystem. Very cool to be invited to this and worth checking out. Link below 👇🏽

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