When the Executive Room Is a Puppet Show: A Second Career for Women, with Stephanie Davis Smith

Stephanie Smith: I was trading, my 40-hour workweeks for 60. I was expecting, this flexibility and prestige as I got into the VP world, only to realize it was just more work, in a colder room. it started to feel not as meaningful. And I don't know about you, but when you're a woman and you get to the room where it happens and you realize it's a puppet show.

Erica Rooney: Welcome to Glass Ceilings and Sticky Floors, the podcast where we stop playing small, start calling things out, and actually do something about it. I'm your host, Erica Rooney, executive coach, speaker, and a little bit of a movement maker, and I'm on a mission to get more women into positions of power and keep them there.

Erica Rooney: I want to ask you something before we get started here today. When you think about your career five years from now, 10 years from now, the version of success that you have been working towards, does it look like a bigger title, maybe a bigger team, a corner office? Ooh. Or has something shifted for you?

Because there's this quiet revolution that is happening among the most ambitious women in the country, and today's guest has a front row seat to it. Her name is Stephanie Davis Smith, and she is the chief marketing officer of the N2 Company. Now, y'all listen up. This is a little in-depth here, but it's all relevant and important.

The N2 Company is an eight-time Inc. 5000 honoree, and they have built this portfolio of 850 hyper local magazines that are distributed to some of the most incredible homeowners across the country. Now, these magazines, what they do is they create real community, and the business model, that's what we're gonna talk about today, the business model creates real freedom.

And here's the interesting thing, 65% of people who have chosen to become N2 franchise owners right now, they are women, and most of them are making the move as part of a second career after deciding that the corporate ladder is no longer aligned with the life that they wanted to build. Now, listen, you might be like, “Erica, what in the world are we talking about here today?”

But stick with me. Y'all know the mission here is to get more women into positions of power, and y'all, that means more dollars in our hands. So if you are approaching that second half of your career or maybe you just want another revenue stream, I want you to know what this opportunity is, and I want you to hear about it here.

So Stephanie, my girl here today, she is also a very sharp and curious marketing executive who thinks seriously about AI. So y'all know I love that. She is really focused on building things that are worth caring about. And y'all, this conversation is gonna be a good one. So Stephanie, welcome to the podcast.

How are you?

Stephanie Smith: Thank you. I love all the y'alls. I'm in Atlanta, so the Southern y'alls get to come out. I actually had a boss in New York tell me to stop writing y'alls in my emails when

Erica Rooney: Oh, no. It's a very inclusive word, so I use it all day every day. But it does make me laugh, 'cause I never recognize it, but when I go places like California or Arizona, they'll be like, “Are you from Texas?” And I'm like, “What?”

All right, girl, we are gonna dive in, because I know everybody's probably listening and they're like, “What the heck are we talking about here?” And so explain N2 and this franchise opportunity in, just a few sentences, the elevator pitch, and then I want you to tell me what are you seeing with all of these women making the choice to jump in?

Stephanie Smith: Okay. I love talking about what I do. So we own these magazines. Stroll Magazine is the one a lot of people have heard of. It's our flagship product. It is in 550 of the most affluent neighborhoods in the country. your country clubs, your gated communities. And what it is telling the stories of people in those neighborhoods.

It's almost like Facebook, but in print. So there's always a family on the cover or a pet in the neighborhood, and it's only for that neighborhood. It doesn't talk about anything else. So I came from magazines in New York, GQ, Self magazine, where it was for everybody. And then people got more niche, and niche, is where we see people really reading again and wanting to read about their neighbors.

So we have all these magazines for that, where it's telling the stories of your community. Stuff that's not gonna make the cover of Vogue or The New York Times. So it's really about building community and getting to know your neighbors, which I think right now is, the perfect time to just realize we're all alike.

We have more in common than we think, and we need to know our neighbors. So that's what we do really well, and then we have The Real Producers magazine, which is only in the top real estate markets. So top realtors are the only people that receive the magazine, and that's the people we talk about. And so what you're talking about is we have franchise owners who run those magazines, and they've created incredible wealth, freedom, community.

They become very much like the influencers and the connectors in their community, and I feel like that's something women do really well, right? You all have that friend that's “I'm gonna ask that person where to go to eat or who to know,” and they connect you with people. Those are the kind of women that run magazines in our franchise system.

Erica Rooney: Okay. So I love this idea of new revenue, of new opportunity, but I'm a woman. It sounds interesting, but my very first, sticky floor thought here is like, I don't know how to run a magazine. What are you talking about?”

Stephanie Smith: Exactly. So we have people, I have, I can think of Melissa Frye, who's in North Albuquerque right now, who was a stay-at-home mom who hadn't worked in 10 years, and she's “Can I really run a magazine?” Girl makes so many six figure... You know what I mean? Just, has two magazines now. She tells a story of how she couldn't even Halloween shop because she was pinching pennies so she could stay home and let her husband work, and now she, goes to Spirit and lets them run wild and get whatever Halloween stuff they want.

But we taught her how to run a magazine, and we basically print it for you. We teach you how to sell it. We do all the ads. We do all the accounting.

We do all of that. You do the content, and you sell the ads, and you plug into our system. But the best thing about it is you can work whenever you want. You can make as many meetings as you want. You can tell the stories when you want. You can work at night if you want. So we watch these moms, I think of Muriel Donovan in, she's, in Worcester, Mass.

for us southerners, one of those towns that sounds like Duxbury, or something like that in Massachusetts, and she had four kids. And she came and is doing this job making serious six figures, and she wanted to be there for her kids and be able to pick 'em up from school and be there and do all the things.

So I just think about the freedom we're giving these women in the back half of their lives or in parenting. 'Cause you know in corporate America, you don't get... They don't wanna hear about your kid's school play and that you gotta run to the doctor, and you gotta do, be at this or that, and I feel like that's really what we've created.

Actually, one of my friends, Stephanie Cancelleri, I hope she's okay with me dropping it. She was a big wig in New York at The CW, and Discovery did the big layoff. And she was like, “What am I gonna do next?” And I was like, “Come try this.” And she moved to Florida, and she runs a magazine in Tioga, Florida, which is, right in Gainesville. and she's loving it. She puts kids on the magazine and she puts her neighbors on the magazine. She hosts Mahjong night for the community. All the baseball kids are on the cover, and she just loves it.

Erica Rooney: Okay. So it sounds, for someone me that's an extrovert and I love to get out in the community, like a good gig, something interesting, a diffent, a different revenue stream, which I love. And I'm intrigued to know like what brought you into it? How did you get interested in this?

Because I hear you talking about the flexibility for moms and parents and things like that, and I'm wondering, is that the red thread?

Stephanie Smith: Yes. I think I realized somewhere around 40, around that time, that I was trading, my 40-hour workweeks for 60. I was expecting, this flexibility and prestige as I got into the VP world, only to realize it was just more work, in a colder room. And I worked in luxury magazines, which I always loved.

So I set up GQ, Self, I worked for Modern Luxury. I worked in a really affluent spaces, and what I realized is I was selling luxury handbags to people and, “Oh, here's the latest Dior collection.” And it started to feel not as meaningful. And I don't know about you, but when you're a woman and you get to the room where it happens and you realize it's a puppet show.

Stephanie Smith: There's like, pull back the curtain and you

Erica Rooney: nobody knows what they're doing.

Stephanie Smith: “ Nobody knows what they're doing.”

Erica Rooney: in the right place at the right time. They were never trained on how to be a leader. You might get, one, maybe two good ones. trust me, this is... I'm a chief people officer, girl. So

Stephanie Smith: So you know

Erica Rooney: rooms. I have exited people from those rooms.

it is bananas, but especially just the men. It is, it, just Let's just say I got stories that I cannot talk about legally.

Stephanie Smith: at NDA. But I was I think I was so ambitious to get in that room that it, I was just like, I couldn't see anything else. And then when I got there, I remember one day, one of my friends was just below me on the ladder, and she... I was in a conflict, like a power struggle with some other people in the office, corporate politics, and she was like, “Don't they know who you are?

You need to walk in there and be like, 'This is who I am.'” And I was like, “Am I just gonna lead with ego the rest of my life like I'm watching men and other people do? pushing people off the ladder as I'm trying to climb it?” And I was like, “I don't wanna do this anymore. I wanna be in a space where women are supporting women, are great with men, we all communicate well.”

So I got headhunted to the N2 Company wave, and I had never heard of it. And I was like, “How have I been in magazines 25 years and never heard of this?” But then I realized there's even competitors in this space. They're just quietly doing this and making $163 million, $175 million a year, basically helping these people create their own businesses and really wanting them to do well.

And one of the things my company said when I was interviewing was, “We don't hire brilliant jerks, so if you're a brilliant jerk, we don't want you.” And I was like, “Check. That's what I want.” And they kinda suss you out. They make sure. They do a a lot of, questions that they know will get to the heart if you are a brilliant jerk, if you do lead with ego.

And I feel like I'm in a place now where I'm watching women climb the ladder, and we're... There are no power struggles, and everyone's doing their own thing in a group, if that makes sense. nobody's trying... We have top salespeople that make millions of dollars selling magazine ads, which you would be shocked.

Some of them own 10, and they make 1.5 a year, things like that. And then some women who just do it as side revenue, and they get five to six grand a month to have a great dinner and go out and go on a vacation. Whatever it is for you, that's what we wanna create.

Erica Rooney: I love that because I think what you're telling me is like something finally clicked into place with purpose and with values, and you hadn't had that at all of these companies that even were some pretty big names, right?

GQ, per se. Oh my gosh. Okay, y'all, before we hit record, Stephanie and I were talking about GQ and her role there, and I want you, Stephanie, to tell me what you told... Tell them what you told me, and then we gonna talk about it, 'cause I know some of these women have done that too

Stephanie Smith: I know.

Stephanie Smith: So at GQ, I kept trying to get in the rooms, like I said, where it happened and talk to these guys, 'cause everyone above me was a man. Obviously, it's GQ Magazine. And I started watching SportsCenter every night so that I could talk to them about what they were talking about, 'cause they would, I hate to say rattle on, but we were talking about that.

It's like spitting sports numbers and stats, and I was like, “I am clueless, so I'm gonna watch SportsCenter.” But what I didn't account for is the back knowledge that men have going back to their childhood, and they would bring up a story of hit 50 million home runs in 1994,” And I'd be like, “I cannot compete

Stephanie Smith: in this

Erica Rooney: girl, you know I have an 11-year-old boy who is into all sports, and so the fact that you're laying out this backlog, it is so true because his knowledge of useless sports facts, go back I don't even know how many years for an 11-year-old. So he is so far ahead of the game, whereas my daughter is just, drawing beautiful artwork, and so it it does not exist for her, right?

And I think this is so interesting because my girlfriend, Dr. Jen Welter, I'm I don't

Stephanie Smith: Yes, I've heard that. Yeah

Erica Rooney: she has a big event every year where she brings in women and she teaches them the language of football. She teaches them how to tackle. She suits them up and makes them,

Stephanie Smith: Do it. No

Erica Rooney: tackle people because she wants them to feel what that's like and, give them all this power.

And I think it's very interesting because there's, two sides to this coin, right? some people believe, “No. F*ck that.” “Why do I have to learn football if I don't give a sh*t?” no. But other people are like, “You know what? This is my reality. I'm gonna play this game for a little bit,” or, “The juice is worth the squeeze,” whatever, right?

And, who am I to judge? But it's just very intriguing

Stephanie Smith: it interesting that they're not... Yeah, they're not trying to learn, Debbie Gibson songs from the '80s or, any back knowledge about what's going on with women or what we were into in our day. But I think about, too, is I grew up on Georgia football. I grew up with the Braves, so I can speak football, SEC.

I cannot speak pro football, 'cause the Falcons. Sorry. But anyway, but so I even can do that a little bit. My other secret sauce for men was always movie quotes. I know, every movie quote from, Spaceballs or really, Step Brothers, and they tend to speak in those, if you've ever noticed, and

Erica Rooney: But is the movie thing authentic to you?

Stephanie Smith: It is 'cause I like it

Erica Rooney: yeah, the movie, so that is okay, 'cause that's like, all right, I really do know this stuff. But the sports stuff that you're trying to like just cram in your head, you were like, “It was so inauthentic, it didn't land. I could only spew out those facts.” You know what it reminds me

Stephanie Smith: And I think I looked weird.

Erica Rooney: There's no overall comprehension of it

Stephanie Smith: You're just spitting out facts with no comprehension of what you're talking about. It was very inauthentic, and it failed. I definitely felt like this is not the place, and they were great. I still talk to my editors who have gone on to do great things, but it was just not the place for me.

And now I can authentically talk about Georgia football with my guys at work who are, like, Alabama fans, sadly, or Gator fans. But

Erica Rooney: Ugh.

Stephanie Smith: that...

Erica Rooney: I'm my disgust is at you, not me.

Stephanie Smith: I love it.

Erica Rooney: Okay. We're gonna have some real talk here, because whenever I hear something like woman franchise, I'm gonna be honest with you, I get a little immediate judgment, if I'm real honest,

Stephanie Smith: it like the MLM,

Erica Rooney: Yes, it gives me the

Stephanie Smith: your own boss?

Erica Rooney: vibes, and then I get ick at myself because I know I'm being judgmental.

And so I want you to, talk me through all of these angles, because I'm sure that there are women on both sides of the fence, where they're like, “No, I'm making real serious money. It's supporting my family. who gives a sh*t what you think?” And then there's gonna be people on my side of the fence that are immediately MLM ick, Judgy Judy, all the

Stephanie Smith: like the essential oils, and I'm gonna sell you a kit

Erica Rooney: LuLaRoe, wasn't there a Netflix

Stephanie Smith: Oh, yes. Oh my God, that,

Erica Rooney: So how do we move through this judgment, or what do you tell these women? How do you differentiate it so that it isn't there

Stephanie Smith: I know, and when I say things like, “You're gonna be your own boss,” it feels so MLM. First of all, it's not an MLM 'cause we aren't... You do not have a down line. You do not make money off anybody else in the pyramid

Erica Rooney: own sales

Stephanie Smith: It is only you, and your sales, and you're selling advertising or event sponsorships.

So it's very regulated, and because we're a franchise, we're super regulated in every single state separately. We have to jump through a million hoops. We have FDDs you have to sign, like, all these rules and regulations so that we can't screw you over, basically, which we would never wanna do. But I do have... Yes, it's like owning a Chick-fil-A with no storefront. Instead, you get a magazine, and you get to all those sales materials, and all the tchotchkes, and the cover boards of your magazine, and stuff like that. But we don't even make money off any of that. We have, Vistaprint, or you can go out and buy wherever you wanna buy from, the cheapest place.

So that always made me feel good, 'cause I'll tell you,

Stephanie Smith: when they came to me, I was like, “Is N2 Company a scam?” And I'm just gonna put that out and... Because immediately the be-your-own-boss MLM vibe comes. Nope, everything was right there. I was like, “Okay.” So Inc. has given them... It was, eight times, fastest-growing companies.

Entrepreneur, we were number one, franchise last year for Entrepreneur Magazine, number one in our category for advertising sales. That was for Stroll. like, all these big... Forbes, all these people. Newsweek, we're a great place to work for Newsweek. we definitely keep getting culture awards and all of that.

one of our franchise business review gave us top low-cost franchise and top franchise for women. So women really love working at our franchise, and they're, they find a lot of joy in each other. So all of that hopefully kinda dispels that. But you're not making money off a down line or buying a kit to sell.

it has none of those qualities, thank God, or I would be running for the hills,

Stephanie Smith: I have to tell you.

Erica Rooney: Yeah, I don't... I know I shouldn't be judgy about people who do it. it ain't my business where you get your dollars from,

I just, I like the opportunity of something different, right? I like to make sure that people know what's out there. We've got real estate, we've got coaching practices. You can run a magazine.

Stephanie Smith: You can run a magazine

Erica Rooney: knew? I didn't know, to be quite honest. I didn't know magazines,

Stephanie Smith: know,

Erica Rooney: that people could do on their own if they didn't, come up through the journalism world.

Stephanie Smith: And people think print is dead, and I get that. And I'm like, there, it's weirdly not when it's right about your neighbors and it's almost like looky-loo neighbor nosiness. You wanna know what they're up to, or you wanna know what the top agents are doing. So I think that curiosity factor gets people to read it,

Erica Rooney: Yeah. So what does it cost to invest in a franchise?

Stephanie Smith: So really we waive the franchise fee and you're basically maybe spending $1,000 to $2,000 eventually if you wanna buy the backdrop for your magazine.

If you wanna do a laptop. If you have to buy a laptop, that's the most expensive thing you're gonna buy. Maybe you're gonna buy some software to do your accounting, things like that. But it's very minimal. So that's why we keep getting top low-cost franchise, because we just waive the franchise fee for everybody, and they come into training.

It's a lot of sweat equity, so I'm not gonna pretend it's, like, all upside. You're putting, days and work into it, so it's all your own time, and we feel like that's the trade-off for anything that you would have to buy. But really, it's a computer and a phone

Erica Rooney: Yeah. And I'm imagining that it, that in your time, right? So you were out still in the streets going to networking events. You are, for lack of better words, introducing yourself, knocking on doors, doing the sales type

Stephanie Smith: You have to do

Erica Rooney: I wanna be very clear about that for people who are listening.

It's not a stay home and, a desk job kind of thing, at least in my opinion,

Stephanie Smith: No, you might have to go out. You can do Zooms and you can plan your meetings whenever you want around your

Erica Rooney: you gotta be boots on the ground, I feel like, to do good business. And so take that into consideration as it is, if this is something you're looking at for a different revenue stream. But if getting out in the community brings you joy, if you already have a huge community, both of those would be good opportunities for someone to maybe pick this up.

And it sounds to me also like you will be as successful as hard as you work, which, that's just that is

Stephanie Smith: the game. That's entrepreneurship.

Erica Rooney: That's

Stephanie Smith: And I don't ever want it to sound like a get rich quick, 'cause I'm like, “This person makes this money and that.” It's like whatever you want. In some seasons, people are making a ton. Some people pull back and don't when they're going through something. So it, to me, it's like that I don't ever want it to sound like, “You're gonna get rich in five weeks.”

It's you gotta put the effort in. You have to come to the sales meetings, learn to do it. We teach you how to sell, tell you how to do it, what works, all of that, and it's proven over 22 years they've been doing it

Erica Rooney: I love it. It's not a get rich quick. It is a job opportunity should you take it, but it's gonna be a 40 to 60-hour-a-week job at first.

Stephanie Smith: Yeah, you're

Erica Rooney: Be real about it. But, times are tough, y'all. If you've been hit with a layoff, if your clients have dried up because they're putting budgets into AI, or they're freezing 'cause we're coming up on Q4, then it's a thought to explore.

All right, Stephanie, last question, best question. When you are working with all of these women who have come over, right? In my world, Sticky Floors is eliminating beliefs and the toxic behaviors that keep women stuck. What are some of those Sticky Floors that you see the women who are struggling to succeed with this role, right?

Because it isn't gonna be for everybody, and we're not, But what are some of those Sticky Floors that, it, would be like if they move through it quickly, they would be, ah, so much more successful

Stephanie Smith: In this job, doing this job, I think it is that you do have to hustle. You do have to make appointments and stick with them and do that. It's not gonna just come to you through Instagram. some people are like, “I'm gonna prospect on Instagram and do that.” It's like a hustle culture. But I think if you're a connector, you would do really well.

I think if you're... I don't know. I think about, can I sell people stuff? Yes, when I believe in it. I can sell you anything if I believe. I can sell you a Popsicle or this and be like, “This is the best cup I've ever had,” if I believe in it, and that's where it's gotta kinda come from, is that. And if you're in it and you're like, I don't wanna sell this every day, in and out,” you're not gonna make it.

But you gotta believe, “This is my community. This is what I wanna do.” I think I can say Sticky Floors, I'm trying to think of, there are so many other women that are doing it, that have gone through it, who have... We have grandmas. We have people in second lives. We have people which got divorced, and they aren't getting money from their husband, and they haven't earned a dollar in 20 years, and they can do it.

And people that think they were, like, nobody 'cause they didn't get a college degree, and they can do it. But then we have PhD people and, people that were professors, and they can do it. So it's almost like you have to have grit. That's the only thing I can think that is the thread that I see through all these women, is grit

Erica Rooney: Grit and bandwidth, y'all, let's be

Stephanie Smith: and bandwidth

Erica Rooney: I'll be honest, like I love getting out in the community. I know a lot of people. I've lived in all the places. I feel like, oh, that wouldn't be too bad, but that is a lie. We know That, that is not as easy as it sounds. So I can't do it at this point in my life, who knows?

But I wanted to share with you 'cause I know this is bananas, and I like people to be aware of the opportunities out there. So Stephanie, thank you for joining. Where can they find you, reach out to you if they wanna, check

this out or learn more about it.

Stephanie Smith: Yes, n2co.com. There's this thing on the side that says become an owner, and you can go fill it out in one second, and we'll have recruitment people reach out to you and see if it's a fit. And they also do a push away, “This may not be a fit if this is you.” So they really want you to succeed and not come in here and do this if it's gonna be a disaster for you.

yeah, they'll be looking for that grit, and if you wanna do it.

Erica Rooney: All right. thanks, Stephanie. It was so good

Stephanie Smith: Thank you

Erica Rooney: If this episode resonated with you, don't let it stop here. Send it to a woman you care about, a colleague, a friend, someone who's been on your mind while you were listening. These conversations are meant to be shared, and you never know what one small shift can unlock for someone else. And if you haven't already, make sure that you're following the podcast.

Leave a rating and write a quick review. It helps more women find this space, and it keeps these conversations going. If you're ready to go deeper, come a little closer. Send me a DM. I'll invite you to sit in on a live Her Collective session as my personal guest. No pressure, no strings attached, but you get to experience it, feel the room, and see what happens when women start moving together.

Until next time, y'all, keep going. Keep choosing differently, and let's smash the ceilings and close the gaps