Speaker 1: We are so proud to partner with Secret Deodorant for
Speaker 1: today's episode of Made by Women. Just as women entrepreneurs
Speaker 1: have long fought for equality in business, Secret has been
Speaker 1: a long time advocate of equal pay and equal treatment
Speaker 1: for women through initiatives such as their Equal Work, Equal Sweat,
Speaker 1: Equal Pay campaign with the U S Women's National soccer
Speaker 1: team and Women Owned Wednesdays to support women owned businesses.
Speaker 1: We'd love to see Secret continuing to work to ensure
Speaker 1: that all the things that make women sweat, inequality isn't
Speaker 1: one of them. Secret All Strength, No Sweat. Welcome to
Speaker 1: Made by Women, a new podcast by the Seneca Women
Speaker 1: Podcast Network and I Heart Radio. At a moment when
Speaker 1: businesses face some of the biggest challenges in recent history,
Speaker 1: we bring you inspiring stories, practical insights, and shared learnings
Speaker 1: to help you successfully navigate in today's environment. Every Thursday,
Speaker 1: Made by Women will showcase the experiences of legendary women entrepreneurs,
Speaker 1: fierce up and comers, and everyday women who found success
Speaker 1: their own way. Consider this your Real World NBA designed
Speaker 1: for the New Now. I'm Kim Azzarelli and thanks so
Speaker 1: much for joining us today. Jane moss Backer Morris wants
Speaker 1: the world to think differently about the way our goods
Speaker 1: are manufactured, where they come from, and who makes them.
Speaker 1: Jane's company, To the Market connects retailers to ethical sources
Speaker 1: for apparel, accessories, and home goods. The products sourced by
Speaker 1: to the Market are sold by Fortune five companies and
Speaker 1: manufactured by hundreds of small suppliers from around the world. Now,
Speaker 1: Jane's background is not what you might expect. She worked
Speaker 1: in the U. S Department of States, Bureau of Counter
Speaker 1: Terrorism and in the Secretary Office of Global Women's Issues.
Speaker 1: She also worked at the McCain Institute for International Leadership
Speaker 1: as their Director of Humanitarian Action. So how did Jane's
Speaker 1: path lead to entrepreneurship and founding to the Market. Today
Speaker 1: I talked to Jane about her company, her deep belief
Speaker 1: that consumers can create positive change through their purchases, and
Speaker 1: why in business it's possible both to do well and
Speaker 1: do good. I also spoke to Jane about what gives
Speaker 1: her strength and what makes her sweat about running her
Speaker 1: own business. Enjoy our conversation, Jane, thanks so much for
Speaker 1: joining us. We are thrilled to have you on Made
Speaker 1: by Women. Thank you for having me. So you run
Speaker 1: an unbelievable organization that the whole world should know about.
Speaker 1: So for our listeners, what is to the market. So
Speaker 1: to the market is a business with the mission of
Speaker 1: changing the way that retail manufacturing is done to empower
Speaker 1: people and protect the planet. And what that means in
Speaker 1: practice is we are literally trying to make retail products
Speaker 1: more ethically and more sustainably. That's an awesome mission. And
Speaker 1: we didn't choose a small goal. So you started this
Speaker 1: um when when did you start the business? So we
Speaker 1: became a corporation in six But I had been working
Speaker 1: on the business, I mean gosh for years and years,
Speaker 1: really just trying to understand where there was opportunity to
Speaker 1: create and sustain jobs and how I could particularly focus
Speaker 1: on employing women and our supply chain in an ethical
Speaker 1: and scalable way. But spent many a year working on
Speaker 1: it before we really started to launch and scale. And
Speaker 1: did you always want to be an entrepreneur or was
Speaker 1: this something that came to you later in life. I
Speaker 1: think I always had of an entrepreneurial bug. I mean
Speaker 1: I thinking back as like a girl, I was always
Speaker 1: really into girl scout cookie selling. I love that you know,
Speaker 1: I had sort of that that desire to to hustle.
Speaker 1: But I would say, um, as I became a professional adult,
Speaker 1: I absolutely did not anticipating starting a business. I mean,
Speaker 1: as you know, I started my career in counter terrorism
Speaker 1: at the U. S Department of State, and UM was
Speaker 1: focused on women in national security, but thought I would
Speaker 1: stay in national security for years and years to come.
Speaker 1: So you so, you're at the State Department, You're doing
Speaker 1: counter terrorism. You have this kind of entrepreneurial bug in you.
Speaker 1: Did you have any experience from retail? So I worked
Speaker 1: retail in high school, and honestly, I didn't love it.
Speaker 1: I thought it was really tough. You know. Little did
Speaker 1: I know that I would be starting a retail based business. So,
Speaker 1: so tell us about the trip you took to India
Speaker 1: and what inspired to the market. So, you know, I
Speaker 1: was out state, I was focused on women in national security.
Speaker 1: I started focusing on broader issues of women and human security,
Speaker 1: and UM. I ended up after I left the State Department,
Speaker 1: going to work on labor exploitation, and I ended up
Speaker 1: in Calcutta, India and visited these two cooperatives that were
Speaker 1: employing both survivors of human trafficking as well as employing
Speaker 1: persons that were vulnerable to trafficking. And I remember being
Speaker 1: so blown away by the business model because they were
Speaker 1: employing these women in a dignified way to produce products
Speaker 1: that I thought were beautiful products. But I also loved
Speaker 1: the approach of I'm going to address a social justice issue,
Speaker 1: the idea of fair labor through a business approach, and
Speaker 1: so it planted the seed of like, well, how would
Speaker 1: we leverage retail and all of the buying power that
Speaker 1: women have around the world to create a more ethical
Speaker 1: supply chain and to create and sustain jobs for communities
Speaker 1: like these women who have consistently been overlooked, underrepresented, and
Speaker 1: not you know, taken seriously in the global market. That's
Speaker 1: an amazing idea and a big idea which could solve
Speaker 1: so many problems. So what were the first steps to
Speaker 1: launching something so impactful like that. Well, I had, you know,
Speaker 1: these initial cooperatives that I had visited, and then I
Speaker 1: began to think about, well, how many other ethical suppliers
Speaker 1: exists like this around the world, and how scalable is
Speaker 1: this concept of working with these ethical suppliers and having
Speaker 1: them replace the work that's being done by factories that
Speaker 1: have questionable environmental and social footprints. With these ethical suppliers,
Speaker 1: so I did a lot of research, a lot of
Speaker 1: interviewing both buyers in the United States who are making
Speaker 1: purchasing decisions, as well as traveling and spending time with
Speaker 1: these different ethical suppliers and better understanding what are their
Speaker 1: constraints to scaling, why are they struggling to reach you know,
Speaker 1: national sales or international sales, and what value add can
Speaker 1: I provide? So what was it like to start something
Speaker 1: like that and what setbacks did you face? Was there
Speaker 1: anything that really made you sweat? Well, one of the
Speaker 1: initial challenges we had was a people asked me, well,
Speaker 1: why are you not a nonprofit? And my response to
Speaker 1: them was, this is about creating and sustaining dignified work,
Speaker 1: and this is about changing the way that consumers and
Speaker 1: businesses are sourcing their products. This isn't about pity purchases.
Speaker 1: Until really having like helping people reframe the way they
Speaker 1: thought about these suppliers, because there was also these biases
Speaker 1: that somehow these suppliers because they weren't operating in the
Speaker 1: massive traditional factories that we as Americans tend to think
Speaker 1: of now as it relates to me manufacturing, there were
Speaker 1: these biases that, oh, well, the product surely can't be
Speaker 1: as well made or you must have really low production capacity,
Speaker 1: and so I had, you know, this uphill battle of
Speaker 1: having to prove them wrong because they were looking for
Speaker 1: you know, quality issue or expecting us not to be
Speaker 1: able to hit certain delivery by dates, and so just
Speaker 1: changing the way people think about how products are made
Speaker 1: and who they're made by so that they feel comfortable
Speaker 1: with the idea that, of course you can source ethically
Speaker 1: and sustainably and have just as good, if not better
Speaker 1: of a product than these traditional, massive, massive factories that
Speaker 1: we have sadly become so reliant on. So changing people's
Speaker 1: mindsets is a really big thing. Uh, And you know,
Speaker 1: only step one in your business was changing people's mindsets.
Speaker 1: So how did you approach that. I think it's through
Speaker 1: just education and then proof of concept, so you know,
Speaker 1: telling them the production capacity that exists. And one of
Speaker 1: the big sort of revelations for me when I was
Speaker 1: trying to decide how I was going to engage in
Speaker 1: job creation and sustainment was this realization that retail production
Speaker 1: is the second largest economy in the developing world. Agriculture
Speaker 1: is one artisan or retail production is too, and so
Speaker 1: this is a multibillion dollar business, and so helping folks
Speaker 1: understand that the scale of the opportunity was important, but
Speaker 1: then just as important, if not more important, was then
Speaker 1: showing them through delivery of the goods how great it looked,
Speaker 1: and how great the service and the experience was, and
Speaker 1: how much more impactful their dollar was by by making
Speaker 1: purchases that were better aligned with all of the you know,
Speaker 1: value commitments that they make publicly. When you're actually aligning
Speaker 1: your dollar with your values right right now, that's that's key,
Speaker 1: I mean, And it's so true. There's so much out
Speaker 1: there publicly, but are people really really taking it to heart,
Speaker 1: really doing it? I want to get into the operations
Speaker 1: of everything, because what you're doing is a really complicated
Speaker 1: logistics issue, and it's a serious logistics puzzle. So how
Speaker 1: did you do it? Well? Um, Luckily, I grew up
Speaker 1: with an extremely organized mother to me really uh create
Speaker 1: very very detailed sort of ways of systematizing my work
Speaker 1: and my thinking, and so it was really a function
Speaker 1: of creating structure, like what was our strategy and our
Speaker 1: structure for identifying these makers, what was our strategy and
Speaker 1: structure for vetting these makers, What was going to be
Speaker 1: the process through which we started sending purchase orders to
Speaker 1: these makers. So I think, you know, creating this strategy
Speaker 1: and the structure it was hard, but once we have
Speaker 1: created it, it's it's actually quite smooth. We have a
Speaker 1: maker that gets identified, and that could be a small
Speaker 1: artisan group up to a large scale fair Trade certified
Speaker 1: or God's Organic certified factory. If they pass our vetting,
Speaker 1: they then become a part of to the market's supplier base,
Speaker 1: and we then tap into that supplier base when clients
Speaker 1: come to us with specific needs, and these suppliers then
Speaker 1: bid on these opportunities to produce for our clients, whether
Speaker 1: that be a large retailer like a Target, a brand
Speaker 1: um like a Madewell, or you know, even nonprofits like
Speaker 1: Every Mother Counts. All of these organizations are interested more
Speaker 1: and more in sustainability and an ethical manufacturing and they're
Speaker 1: looking for ways to um leverage their supply chain to
Speaker 1: do good and we are trying to make it as
Speaker 1: easy as possible for them to do So that's incredible
Speaker 1: if you just think about the kind of reach you
Speaker 1: could have by partnering with those organizations. It's it's such
Speaker 1: a powerful concept, So how did you get people to
Speaker 1: understand the power of their purchases and to connect with
Speaker 1: the people who made these products. This is an evolving
Speaker 1: sort of process, and we're constantly learning on how to
Speaker 1: best articulate the impact. I think originally I probably was
Speaker 1: a lot more descriptive around sort of policy and like
Speaker 1: community impact, and that was really, I think a reflection
Speaker 1: of my time having worked in the government and in
Speaker 1: the not for profit space, where I felt like I
Speaker 1: wanted to really help people understand the issues in depth,
Speaker 1: And what I came to better understand is that actually
Speaker 1: I needed to really simplify it for people to be
Speaker 1: able to convey to to easily process it and convert
Speaker 1: into making change. Otherwise the information was just too overwhelming.
Speaker 1: So we've really tried to simplify our messaging around even
Speaker 1: saying empower people and protect the planet. I mean that is,
Speaker 1: you know, a handful of words, but it goes years
Speaker 1: to get there. And I always think of Churchill saying,
Speaker 1: you know, I wish I had written a and I'm paraphrasing,
Speaker 1: but I think he said something like I wish I
Speaker 1: had written a shorter letter, but I didn't have enough time.
Speaker 1: But you did it so well in your book. You know,
Speaker 1: the title of your book by the Change you want
Speaker 1: to See? I mean that really, that really says it all, um,
Speaker 1: and I think that's really powerful. Did you write the
Speaker 1: book for with the goal of trying to educate consumers
Speaker 1: as well as uh the suppliers? Totally? I mean, I
Speaker 1: think that the book was an opportunity for me too,
Speaker 1: put down so many thoughts that I had around why
Speaker 1: I think conscious consumerism can be simplified and how I
Speaker 1: hope people think about it, which is this idea of
Speaker 1: values alignment with your purchasing power. And I also really
Speaker 1: wanted people to realize that conscious consumerism doesn't have to
Speaker 1: be elitist or only for a specific type of person,
Speaker 1: or that you land on one one place in the
Speaker 1: political spectrum. The idea was that you know, regardless of
Speaker 1: your values, um, you spend money, and through the money
Speaker 1: that you spend, you have an opportunity to advance your
Speaker 1: values by supporting businesses that are aligned with those values.
Speaker 1: So that could be everything from you know, I want
Speaker 1: to support black owned businesses too. I'm specifically interested in
Speaker 1: only buying fair trade certified products. I mean everybody has,
Speaker 1: you know, things that are more important to them than others.
Speaker 1: It's not just for one sort of value set. The
Speaker 1: intent is for everybody to say, well, what's really important
Speaker 1: to me, How can I be a part of making
Speaker 1: change through my purchasing power? Because the one thing we
Speaker 1: all do have in common is purchasing right, So I
Speaker 1: mean everybody can make a difference with their with their
Speaker 1: purchasing power. I think that's really an important message that
Speaker 1: you bring to the world. But just back to this
Speaker 1: point that you're a social business. I mean, I guess
Speaker 1: a lot of people would say, why don't you want
Speaker 1: to be a nonprofit? And I think you made that
Speaker 1: point earlier about making the case for doing well and
Speaker 1: doing good? Uh, do you think more people are starting
Speaker 1: to understand the value of social businesses totally? I mean,
Speaker 1: even in like the last three years, I've seen such
Speaker 1: a shift in the way that people think about social
Speaker 1: good within the business where even you know, several years ago,
Speaker 1: I think people thought that it was a luxury, and
Speaker 1: more and more the realizing it is a necessity if
Speaker 1: you want to survive and engage with the millennial and
Speaker 1: gen Z population as well as the broader population as
Speaker 1: we collectively think differently about the role of the private
Speaker 1: sector in leading and um, you know, having an impact
Speaker 1: on social good that you will be a dying brand
Speaker 1: if you do not consider how your values are intertwined
Speaker 1: with your operations. Not that long ago businesses kind of
Speaker 1: had purpose on one side and profit somewhere else. And
Speaker 1: this idea that you could integrate purpose into your value proposition.
Speaker 1: And I think companies are right that will succeed long
Speaker 1: term will be the ones that really know how to
Speaker 1: give as part of their business strategy and and be
Speaker 1: part of solutions. You work with probably thousands of women
Speaker 1: entrepreneurs around the world, so you kind of are an expert.
Speaker 1: You're an entrepreneur yourself, and you work with thousands of
Speaker 1: women entrepreneurs around the world helping them, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: create a market for their for their products. What did
Speaker 1: nobody tell you about running a business or starting a
Speaker 1: business that you wish you had known? Oh, so many things.
Speaker 1: Probably I mean for women in particular, I think we
Speaker 1: tend to be a bit more risk averse. And because
Speaker 1: we tend to be more risk averse, I think we
Speaker 1: tend to react differently to rejection, meaning that I had,
Speaker 1: i would say, pretty thin skin on sort of the
Speaker 1: rejection test. And what I wish someone had told me
Speaker 1: is that I will be rejected on a daily basis.
Speaker 1: You know, for anyone who is even starting a nonprofit,
Speaker 1: you are constantly pitching and selling your idea to employees,
Speaker 1: to investors, to donors, to the broader public, and you
Speaker 1: are likely going to face pretty consistent rejection if you're
Speaker 1: doing as much outreach as you should be doing. And
Speaker 1: so that was a big lesson for me because, to
Speaker 1: be totally frank, I was used to this sort of
Speaker 1: formula of if I work really really hard and I
Speaker 1: input X, then why will be the output? You know?
Speaker 1: That's so true, and part of being an entrepreneur is
Speaker 1: kind of getting comfortable with the word no and not
Speaker 1: taking as rejection, right, and you know, recognizing that that's
Speaker 1: kind of part of everyday life and it's kind of
Speaker 1: not necessarily personal. I guess sometimes its personal, but most
Speaker 1: of the time, it's just like you said, it's just
Speaker 1: the nature of of business and and starting something, and
Speaker 1: especially when you're starting something like you you did, which
Speaker 1: is really changing the world and hasn't been done before
Speaker 1: in the way you're envisioning it, So you know, you
Speaker 1: have to educate people on so many levels, and then
Speaker 1: at the same time you have to go through the
Speaker 1: whole pitch process on every level. So when you're in
Speaker 1: that situation and you're getting you know, as you said,
Speaker 1: like no, after no, after no, after no, what gives
Speaker 1: you strength in that moment? I think still believing in
Speaker 1: what I'm doing, which is also why I recommend anybody
Speaker 1: who is thinking about starting a business, a nonprofit, a
Speaker 1: project within an organization that you have to be deeply
Speaker 1: passionate and convicted about what you're doing for it to
Speaker 1: be sustainable and not not sort of environmentally sustainable, I
Speaker 1: mean like sustainable in your life because it is very
Speaker 1: very challenging emotionally, mentally, spiritually, physically, Like it is truly
Speaker 1: um will test you in ways that you likely have
Speaker 1: never been tested. And when everybody is telling you that
Speaker 1: your idea is crummy as heck, it is that commitment,
Speaker 1: in that passion for addressing the problem you're trying to address,
Speaker 1: that will, you know, keep you sort of slugging forward.
Speaker 1: I couldn't agree more, but it's worth it. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's just so worth it to see your vision comes
Speaker 1: to come to life. I mean, have you felt that
Speaker 1: as you've kind of developed this over the past several years.
Speaker 1: I mean, really, the world that's kind of coming in
Speaker 1: your direction, you probably have a lot to do with that. Well, gosh,
Speaker 1: I mean, there have been so many loads over the
Speaker 1: course of this business and journey. I mean, I actually
Speaker 1: one of my my next book is I want to
Speaker 1: compile like the most hilarious founder fails that I've identified,
Speaker 1: because I've had just like massive fails, and I feel
Speaker 1: like it's so important to share these stories of like
Speaker 1: here's what happened, and you know, and it doesn't have
Speaker 1: to be like my business failed. It can be like,
Speaker 1: you know, I have these like epic experiences of like,
Speaker 1: you know, delivering goods and just like the worst thing
Speaker 1: on the planet happening. I mean, I remember we were
Speaker 1: delivering hearst and I was, um, they're like delivery went
Speaker 1: to the wrong location. And so I had like a
Speaker 1: cur your common deliver it and I was helping the
Speaker 1: courier deliver it and literally like the box that was
Speaker 1: carrying their product exploded on the street in New York,
Speaker 1: like near their office, and I remember being like, ah,
Speaker 1: like this is this is um, this is the glamor
Speaker 1: of being an entrepreneur. You just gosh, you love the
Speaker 1: heck out of what you're doing because the failure is
Speaker 1: real and it's inevitable, and it's also important, like it's
Speaker 1: an important part of that process. So so UH, and
Speaker 1: there's a lot of pivots. You know, we're in this
Speaker 1: very difficult moment in our country's history and the world's history.
Speaker 1: Frankly and Uh, I had spoken with you a few
Speaker 1: months back, UM, as COVID was becoming a reality of
Speaker 1: all of our lives. How did that impact your business
Speaker 1: model and operations? Well, when when COVID became as real
Speaker 1: as it is, it was clear to my team that
Speaker 1: there was a ppe shortage in the United States. So
Speaker 1: this is personal protective equipment. And so I and the
Speaker 1: team decided that we wanted to go out to our
Speaker 1: suppliers because we have these hundreds of suppliers around the world,
Speaker 1: and wanted to engage to see who is capable of
Speaker 1: making masks and gowns because we had expertise in importing
Speaker 1: in production UM, and so I thought, well, gosh, maybe
Speaker 1: we can be helpful, and it turned out that our
Speaker 1: suppliers were capable of making a lot of this product,
Speaker 1: and so we started pitching this PPE product to hospitals
Speaker 1: and you know, to date have delivered over three million
Speaker 1: units of PPE. That's incredible, three million, did you say, yes?
Speaker 1: Three million? Yeah? And how many businesses are involved with that?
Speaker 1: Like how many suppliers? Oh tends? I mean UM all
Speaker 1: over the world. I mean We've sourced from United States,
Speaker 1: we have Union production, which I'm so proud of UM
Speaker 1: in New Jersey. We have makers in Ghana, in Kenya,
Speaker 1: in West Bank, in Bangladesh, in Hong Kong, I mean
Speaker 1: just really India, truly all over, And I'm delighted because
Speaker 1: it's important that we have a syndicated supply chain, meaning
Speaker 1: that we have diversity and our suppliers from a risk
Speaker 1: mitigation standpoint, because as everyone I'm sure is familiar with,
Speaker 1: we've had these waves of country closures. But I'm also
Speaker 1: so grateful that we were able to carry on the
Speaker 1: mission of the business, which is too in to partner
Speaker 1: with UM suppliers that are are respectful of their employees
Speaker 1: and are operating in a better way for for the planet,
Speaker 1: and have so much of the money that is being
Speaker 1: spent in this country on this product be channeled to
Speaker 1: job creation and job sustainment for these makers. Well, it's
Speaker 1: so incredible that you're able to take your Brownie spark
Speaker 1: and then your state department experience and build something that
Speaker 1: could just impact so many people. It all comes back
Speaker 1: to the Brownies. I'm positive that like that that like
Speaker 1: catalog of like the bike I could win if I
Speaker 1: sold enough boxes. Like It's very ingrained in my head,
Speaker 1: and I think it's so important for women in particular
Speaker 1: to learn sales. Yeah, because this is like really the
Speaker 1: chance that we get an opportunity to pitch and to
Speaker 1: like have that experience of feeling comfortable like asking of people. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's so true. I think it kind of ties back
Speaker 1: to what you're saying earlier about about you know, getting
Speaker 1: comfortable with rejection and being comfortable with the word now,
Speaker 1: because if you can't take no, you won't ask. So
Speaker 1: I think if you can just get comfortable with no,
Speaker 1: then you can kind of ask for anything totally. Yes, So, now,
Speaker 1: how do you envision your business moving forward? Um in
Speaker 1: a world that hopefully is going to be healing from
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen. Well, we are planning to continue to provide
Speaker 1: ppe as long as it's needed. And I'm happy that
Speaker 1: we're also distributing product in countries where we're having the
Speaker 1: product be made as well, So we are distributing masks
Speaker 1: in Kenya, in Ghana. UM we're also doing sort of
Speaker 1: starting to do some donations of masks. We're partnering with
Speaker 1: the i r C to to donate masks two refugees
Speaker 1: in Texas. So there is um certainly a long tail
Speaker 1: where even if the hospitals are in a good place
Speaker 1: right now, there's still general public, both in the United
Speaker 1: States and abroad who may be needing basic things like
Speaker 1: a mask, which is sort of a basic necessity now.
Speaker 1: But I'm happy that, you know, retail is also picking up,
Speaker 1: which is great, and I think retailers and corporations are
Speaker 1: beginning to really understand how critical it is to have
Speaker 1: a syndicated supply chain, meaning to have multiple suppliers being
Speaker 1: capable of producing a product for them in case the
Speaker 1: country shuts down or their geopolitical dynamics that make it difficult.
Speaker 1: And I think they're also really thinking about how they
Speaker 1: spend their money now that there's such a focus on
Speaker 1: conscious consumerism more than ever. I mean, people are really
Speaker 1: just asking themselves like why on earth? Like does my
Speaker 1: business exist? Why do I exist? Like? What am I
Speaker 1: doing to make this world better? What is what is
Speaker 1: the role that I play here? And I'm hoping that
Speaker 1: that reflection leads us collectively to a place where we
Speaker 1: realize how powerful the spend that we make control can
Speaker 1: be and really is, and it's just a function of
Speaker 1: us getting organized and leveraging it. What is the one
Speaker 1: thing that you might tell someone who wants to start
Speaker 1: a business that has impact? Is there some piece of
Speaker 1: advice that you've gotten or some experience that you've had
Speaker 1: where you feel like, really, if I could just help
Speaker 1: the next generation or even people of your own generation
Speaker 1: or older, what what what would you tell them about
Speaker 1: starting a social impact business? I would say that the
Speaker 1: fundamentals of the business have to be sound for the
Speaker 1: social business to work, meaning that the social element cannot
Speaker 1: carry the business and it cannot save the business if
Speaker 1: the economics of the business do not work. That's a
Speaker 1: great piece of advice. Um, that probably is the most
Speaker 1: important piece of advice. So I think, obviously what what
Speaker 1: you do is just uh just so incredible and so motivating.
Speaker 1: Are there people that you've met along the way Women
Speaker 1: owned business is in particular stick with you that in
Speaker 1: those difficult, difficult moments, you think of them and you're like,
Speaker 1: I'm doing this for her. Oh totally, yeah. I mean
Speaker 1: I think I think of those two groups that I
Speaker 1: visited in Calcutta that I wrote about and by the change,
Speaker 1: where you know it's mostly survivors of of sex trafficking,
Speaker 1: and the idea that you can be a small part
Speaker 1: of helping to change the trajectory of their life because
Speaker 1: they are able to work in a thriving business with orders,
Speaker 1: and that then means that hopefully the trajectory of her
Speaker 1: children's lives is impacted. Um continues to be a sort
Speaker 1: of strength for me because even if you know, the
Speaker 1: business doesn't become as big as I believe it can be,
Speaker 1: the bottom line is is if I'm driving economic operat
Speaker 1: tunity to the suppliers that we partnered with, then I
Speaker 1: feel like we're making a difference, even if it's even
Speaker 1: if it's small. Well, Jane, I am so inspired by
Speaker 1: what you do and congratulations on everything you've accomplished. You
Speaker 1: you've already made such a big impact, and I know
Speaker 1: there's so much more to come. So Jane, thanks so
Speaker 1: much for joining us on Made by Women. Thank you
Speaker 1: for having me. I want to thank Jane for sharing
Speaker 1: her story with us and for sharing with us what
Speaker 1: gives her strength and what makes her sweat about running
Speaker 1: her own business. Here are a few important points that
Speaker 1: I took away from the conversation. First, one key lesson
Speaker 1: that every entrepreneur needs to learn is to get comfortable
Speaker 1: with the word no. You will hear it over and
Speaker 1: over again, as Jane says, as an entrepreneur, you are
Speaker 1: constantly pitching and trying to sell your idea, and you
Speaker 1: will hear no more often than yes. If you take
Speaker 1: Noah's rejection, it will be difficult to ask for what
Speaker 1: you need. Instead, reframe that note as being just one
Speaker 1: step closer to yes, and it may even provide an
Speaker 1: opportunity to find a better partner and to assess what
Speaker 1: your company really needs most. I love that Jane's approach
Speaker 1: to dealing with no is to refocus on her passion
Speaker 1: for her work and the company's mission, the one that
Speaker 1: centered down the founder's path in the first place. Second,
Speaker 1: we need to get used to the failures too. There'll
Speaker 1: be plenty of them, says Jane. Talk about them, embrace
Speaker 1: them and learn from them. And as they say, in
Speaker 1: the tech world, it's important to fail fast and fail forward. Finally,
Speaker 1: Jane shows us that no matter what your business model,
Speaker 1: for profit or nonprofit, there's an opportunity to make positive
Speaker 1: change in the world. To the market is transforming the
Speaker 1: retail industry from the inside out. They're working with huge
Speaker 1: companies to change the supply chain and in turn are
Speaker 1: giving economic opportunities to vulnerable people. And we can each
Speaker 1: support Jane's work through our purchases, So make sure to
Speaker 1: check out Jane's book, By the Change you want to see.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for joining us on Made by Women
Speaker 1: and have a great week. Made by Women is brought
Speaker 1: to you by the Seneca Women Podcast Network and I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio with support from founding partner p and thanks
Speaker 1: to support from Secret Deodorant. Will bring you inspiring stories,
Speaker 1: practical insights, and share learnings from women entrepreneurs. Just as
Speaker 1: women entrepreneurs have long thought for equality and business, Secret
Speaker 1: has been a long time advocate of equal pay and
Speaker 1: equal treatment for women through initiatives such as their Equal
Speaker 1: Work Equal Sweat, Equal Pay campaign with the U S
Speaker 1: Women's national soccer team and Women on Wednesdays to support
Speaker 1: women's owned businesses. By supporting women owned businesses and women's entrepreneurship,
Speaker 1: we can all do our part to help close the
Speaker 1: gender pay gap. Whether your business is just getting started
Speaker 1: or you're well into the hustle, Secret continues to work
Speaker 1: to ensure that of all the things that make women
Speaker 1: entrepreneurs sweat, inequality isn't one of them.