Today we’d like to introduce you to Katie Louise Mullins and Kacie Lett Gordon. They and their team shared their story with us below:
Ready? This is a damn good story.
In 2020, Kacie Lett Gordon, CoFounder of IT ALL MEDIA, had what we now call a F*ck It All (FIA) moment. She had the stereotypical “it all” – a C-suite job, house, a healthy marriage/supportive partner, a dog, a newborn baby, and the “picket fence.” She’d spent years building this life for herself; however, six months postpartum, her mental health collapsed under the crushing pressure of “it all” and she considered driving her car off the road.
Born from her own need to hear stories of women living life on their own terms, she started the F*ck “It All” Podcast. She reached out to her network hoping to tell 10 stories of women redefining what it means to have it all – her network responded and within a week she had a backlog of 100 stories. The podcast was just meant to be a creative project, but it became a calling.
In January of 2021, she called me, her best friend of 12 years, and asked me to uproot my life in Washington, D.C., move to Atlanta and build a business alongside her. After 3 hours, I called her back and said, “I’m in.” We’ve been building ever since…
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Let’s out a wild cackle. Smooth, you ask? No, no – that’s not the word we’d use to describe it.
Like we said, our dream is big. We knew that we’d be building differently, sustainably and redefining narratives from the very beginning. Swimming against the current – well, we’ve learned that takes as much strength as it does tenacity, as well as a strong community of support.
Here are a few of the narratives we’ve had to personally rewrite (for both ourselves and the business):
1. We are best friends in the business. I don’t need to say it – what comes to mind are red flags and horror stories. But we did the work at the beginning to ensure our friendship was valued and preserved above all else. So far, sooo great!!
2. We’re also an original content company with two core products, stories and conversations. This is where traditional VC’s turn and run, we get thrown into the “lifestyle business” category, and our business model is seen as “reinventing the wheel.” Cue us pushing all of our chips into the center of the table and betting on ourselves (while also holding each other’s hand very, very tightly under said table).
3. Be an entrepreneur, they said, it will be fun, they said! Okay, okay, they were right, but damn, it’s hard. We thought it would be hard in the sense of long hours and learning new skill sets, and that’s true – but that’s not why it’s hard… it’s the personal growth at an unprecedented pace. We have stretch marks from the unlearning and relearning, the vulnerability, the conjuring of creative solutions, quarterly pivots, “killing our darlings,” and the internal, unseen work.
4. Finally, we were both trained in hustle culture, growing up on the stories of wealthy, respected entrepreneurs who put “success” before their own well-being. It’s hard to redefine what it means to be productive when you’ve only been taught one way. We still catch ourselves in a state of burnout from time to time, but we’ve adopted this mantra, “Don’t rush what you want to last forever.”
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
We are a media company turned movement.
Our two core products are stories and conversations. (Yeh, we know that’s a little different, but stay with us… ) Stories have the power to change the systems that run our lives – at home, at work and in our communities. The stories we are told and tell ourselves inform our beliefs, our beliefs inform our actions, and our actions build our systems. In order to disrupt and rebuild our current systems – those that were not built for or by women and/or non-traditional paths, we need new stories – stories that actually represent the human story from every perspective and way of life.
We like to say – stories allow us to see ourselves in a different reality, and conversations allow us to make sense of what we’re experiencing. We know for a fact that we can’t manage what we can’t talk about, so we are committed to creating real and proverbial safe spaces to learn – and talk about it – in public.
Today, we share new stories via our podcast featuring women who are redefining what it means to have “it all”, and living life on their own terms. We also facilitate conversations and host events – calling in experts in the areas of health, wellness and pleasure, wealth/finance, policy, belonging, etc. These conversations help us identify the tensions and impossible standards that exist in our current stories and systems, so we might rewrite the narratives for ourselves and others.
At the end of the day, we envision a world where women are equal and valued architects of the systems that run our lives – at work, at home and in our communities. IT ALL MEDIA exists to walk with women as they step into their power – not perceived positions of power – but their personal power and create a life of their own choosing.
Listen and engage with us by tuning into the FIA Podcast, with new episodes dropping bi-weekly, join an in-person or virtual event or conversation, shop our merch, sign-up to receive our emails, or follow us on social.
Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
To join the IAM movement, visit our website itallmedia.co, listen to the podcast, attend an event, or follow us on social. If you’re a brand rewriting a narrative in the category of health, wellness and pleasure, wealth/finance, policy, belonging, etc. – let’s talk!
Additionally, this summer, we’ll begin to work on a docuseries featuring the stories of real women, many of whom have been guests on the podcast and partner companies and organizations. If you’re interested in learning more or being involved with this project, please drop us a line at hello@itallmedia.co.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.itallmedia.co/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itallpodcast/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/it-all/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@itallmedia700
- Other: https://www.itallmedia.co/newsletter
