In Bed With OKREAL’s Amy Woodside
New Zealander Amy Woodside is the definition of the woman on the go. After a brief stint in Toronto, she moved to New York in 2010. A few years later, she started her company, OKREAL. Part online magazine, part real-life events umbrella organization, it’s become a leading resource and platform for women to share their experiences and learn from others’ experiences.
We took a page from her (online) book and asked her about her “10 Truths,” an interview format she uses on OKREAL. (For the full effect, read her responses in your best kiwi accent.)
Ten Truths with OKREAL:
Something about you that might surprise others.
Probably that I’m so extroverted but still need quite a lot of time to introvert. I do actually like to work by myself a lot.
What’s your favorite age?
So I just turned 30. Now I feel like a bore, but definitely right now I feel the most secure and good about my life, definitely.
I also had a really fun time in a completely different way when I was around about between the ages of 19 and 22. I wouldn’t choose to go back to that time, and it was definitely full with a lot of drama. I was leaving the country. There was something so fun about that, kind of showing up in Toronto and then New York. That time 19 to 22, was a really golden time for me.
What do you admire most in others?
Courage, kindness, humor, and grace.
Something that turns you off immediately.
Weak handshake, or people who don’t look you in the eye. Also people who treat somebody who they think is really powerful or important really well, and then treat the waiter like shit or treat the cab driver like shit. I have no time for people like that.
What makes you smile?
Definitely feedback I get from the OKREAL community. Whether that’s somebody from the mentor circle who emails me two weeks later and is like, ‘you know I quit that really shitty job, and that was thanks to being in this circle,’ or saying ‘being in this circle changed my life’’ That is so rewarding. I’m so privileged to be able to interact with that community of women. That makes me smile.
What’s your biggest insecurity or fear?
Anything bad happening to my family or somebody that I love.
When do you feel like the best version of yourself?
Two scenarios: one when I’m being really productive. When I’ve worked really hard towards something, and I get the thing. I feel like a really good version of myself then. On the opposite end, at the beach in New Zealand, doing nothing. Yeah. Take a pick.
Words to live by?
Get on with it.
What have you yet to figure out?
I am constantly trying to figure out how to have a good balance in life in New York. I kinda feel like balance is a big myth, and this is coming from somebody who works all the time—I don’t think that’s very healthy. I find it really tough in New York to shut off. I don’t really know what to do with myself on a Sunday. Figuring out what that looks like, I have no idea.
What have you figured out?
Definitely, that the only way to get anywhere is a lot of hard work. I think that before I started OKREAL and I was looking at all these women thinking, they know something that I don’t. I didn’t question whether they worked hard, but I thought … You know when you’re a kid and you look at grownups and you think they know something that I don’t, and then you’re an adult and you realize nobody knows anything, or you just have to muscle through it. That’s kind of I feel like with in terms of being a business owner, I think you look at people who have their own thing going on and you think they have some advantage, or they knew somebody, or they knew a thing that I don’t. I don’t know if that’s true. We all have our own bit of advantages and disadvantages. I think hard work is the only thing that carries you through. That’s something that I know for sure.
