69. What Can Women Learn from Poker? With Erin Lydon

The Fiscal Feminist

What skills can women learn from poker that will translate to their careers and lives? In this episode, Kimberlee asks this question to Erin Lydon, who’s on a mission to teach 1 million women how to apply poker skills to life as president of Poker Power. Erin shares the inspiration behind this unique company, and describes how poker can teach resilience, negotiation, confidence, and more. She also explains how you can learn from Poker Power as an individual or an organization.

Episode Recap:

• Is life just a big game of poker? Today will talk about this question with Erin Lydon (0:54)
• Where did the idea for Poker Power come from? (4:28)
• How women can access Poker Power (9:18)
• What can poker teach women about life? (16:34)
• What is poker math, and how do you teach it? (22:34)
• Playing poker will teach you resilience (28:16)
• Women have to get comfortable with asking for a seat at the table (33:52)
• How do you respond to pushback about teaching women poker? (39:13)
• Where to get involved with Poker Power (45:19)

Resources:

• Find every episode of The Fiscal Feminist podcast
• Watch The Fiscal Feminist episodes on YouTube
• Sign up to join Kimberlee on the podcast
• “The Fiscal Feminist” book
• Poker Power website
• Follow Poker Power on Instagram, Facebook, andTikTok
• Connect with Erin on LinkedIn

Quotes:

“We say there are 3 levels to thinking in poker with regards to negotiating. The first is just figuring out what to do with your two hold cards. It’s binary, either you raise or you fold, which means you’re out of the hand. The next decision to make is to ask yourself, ‘What do I have? What’s the decision I’m going to make with my hold cards? And what do I think you have?’ And you is the collective opponents who are at the table. So you’re shifting you’re perspective, and you’re trying to see this game not just through the lens of what you have in your hand. And then the third and most important way in which you’re negotiating at the poker table is to ask ‘What do I have? What do I think you have, Kimberlee? And what do I think you think I have?’ And it’s that ever-evolving, complex negotiation of information, power dynamics that will factor into your decision making. You can improve that skill by doing it more and more. And that’s what I think is so critical.”

“In life we never know what’s going to come our way. Every day is something new. You just know things happen so randomly sometimes, either professionally or personally. So you have to be able to kind of look at the situation, not fall apart, and figure out what your next move is going to be. One of the things I think people might learn from this exercise, too, is resiliency. So you might lose a game, but it doesn't mean you’re just going to go away and never play poker again. It’s learning how to lose, come back, try to marshal your resources, figure out what went wrong, and then, you know, sitting back down at the table and trying it again.”