Speaker 1: Hi, This is Milan Vervier and this is Kim Azarelli.
Speaker 1: We are co authors of the book Fast Forward, How
Speaker 1: Women Can Achieve Power and Purpose. And you're listening to
Speaker 1: Seneca Women Conversations on Power and Purpose, brought to you
Speaker 1: by the Seneca Women Podcast Network and I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Tory Birch built her business into a global lifestyle brand,
Speaker 1: but what you may not know is that the heart
Speaker 1: of her company is a foundation that empowers women entrepreneurs
Speaker 1: and encourages us all to embrace our ambition. Listen to
Speaker 1: this conversation between Tory and Milan and learn how Tori
Speaker 1: put purpose at the center of her strategy, bound support
Speaker 1: and unexpected allies, and overcame naysayers who ridiculed the idea
Speaker 1: that a purpose driven business could be success us well,
Speaker 1: and make sure to stick around after the conversation to
Speaker 1: hear our top takeaways and tips that you can use
Speaker 1: in your life and work. Tory is an aime everybody
Speaker 1: knows and a label that so many of us have worn.
Speaker 1: She has been way ahead of the curve, not just
Speaker 1: in fashion, but in the way she runs her business.
Speaker 1: We've been talking about how companies use their power for
Speaker 1: purpose and um. They are doing that not just to
Speaker 1: accelerate progress, but also to be companies that make that
Speaker 1: kind of a difference that aligns with their business. She
Speaker 1: has embraced purpose uh an ambition clearly in a way
Speaker 1: that works. There's no doubt about it. It goes together.
Speaker 1: It propelled her company, which was launched in two thousand
Speaker 1: and four, into a global business with more than two
Speaker 1: d and fifth de boutiques around the world and more
Speaker 1: than three thousand stores are selling her label, So Tory.
Speaker 1: That's quite an accomplishment. And it goes on and on.
Speaker 1: But there are so much about you. I want the
Speaker 1: audience to know, thank you so much, so happy to
Speaker 1: be here. How did you get so many famous people
Speaker 1: to do this video? Well famous and hopefully some that aren't,
Speaker 1: because you know what, I it occurred to me that
Speaker 1: there is a very harmful stereotype, and that's when women
Speaker 1: are ambitious, it's it's perceived as a negative and celebrated
Speaker 1: in men. And so we wrote an email and it
Speaker 1: was as simple as that, and we put it together
Speaker 1: fairly quickly, so I think it was about a month
Speaker 1: and a half before we shot for that, and I
Speaker 1: just said we could together do a public service announcement
Speaker 1: and and start the dialogue to change something that needs
Speaker 1: to change. You're absolutely right, and it's so true in politics. Um,
Speaker 1: they're something about a female candidate being a appearing to
Speaker 1: be ambitious, as she surely is, and it's a good trait. Uh.
Speaker 1: And men, it's highly admired to be. Well, it's interesting
Speaker 1: when I first and actually Milan was one of the
Speaker 1: first people I ever had the guts to to cold
Speaker 1: call and ask for a meeting in two thousand and eight. Um.
Speaker 1: But one of the reasons we and then I'll go
Speaker 1: back to that, UM, came to the word ambition. Even
Speaker 1: is there was the first article written on me and
Speaker 1: the company by the New York Times, and the journalists
Speaker 1: looked at me and said, are you ambitious? And I
Speaker 1: thought it was such a rude question. And after that article,
Speaker 1: a friend of mine called me and said, why on
Speaker 1: earth did you shy away from the word ambition? And
Speaker 1: that was in two thousand and five, a year after
Speaker 1: I started the company, and it just really struck a chord.
Speaker 1: And since that moment, I've realized that something that I
Speaker 1: wanted to work on and change. Well, it's a great
Speaker 1: contribution because we've got to shatter that stereotype. Yes, so
Speaker 1: thank you for that. Now, there was an article I
Speaker 1: think it's in the current Vogue, UM, in which you
Speaker 1: talk about how brands are starting to realize, UM, that
Speaker 1: their values and actions have to be aligned with their customers,
Speaker 1: which is maybe for some of very novel concept that
Speaker 1: those two go together. UM. But you've been doing that
Speaker 1: since you launched story. You have had this sense of
Speaker 1: your mission, your purpose. UM. Maybe you'll leave and tell
Speaker 1: us about how first time I met Tory, she was
Speaker 1: well into her foundation work, but she actually started thinking
Speaker 1: about not starting a business so much as starting a foundation.
Speaker 1: Tell us, well, first of all, far war too, because
Speaker 1: it's a great story. Are My business plan was about
Speaker 1: how do you build a global lifestyle round so that
Speaker 1: we could start a foundation. And when I went to
Speaker 1: meet with people, particularly private equity, they really almost laughed
Speaker 1: at me and said, never ever say business and charity work.
Speaker 1: I can't even say that because that's not what we do,
Speaker 1: um charity work in the same sentence. And it was
Speaker 1: really funny because last Christmas I went to a conference
Speaker 1: and it said doing good is good for business. And
Speaker 1: I called one of those people and I said, oh, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, I just came from this conference and I
Speaker 1: think it was doing good is good for business, And
Speaker 1: I said, just so you know, um, I think things
Speaker 1: have changed, because well, what do you want? And I said,
Speaker 1: we'll check for the foundation, naturally, and so he told
Speaker 1: me at one time check and I should never call back,
Speaker 1: but I will. But back to when I met Milan.
Speaker 1: It was one of those cold calls and I will
Speaker 1: never forget it because I was in awe of all
Speaker 1: the work you're doing. Land. I was and um, she
Speaker 1: took my meeting and I said, you were such an
Speaker 1: amazing support system and gave me hope. After I was
Speaker 1: ridiculed and told never um to talk about business and
Speaker 1: social responsibility. But I will say that was a meeting
Speaker 1: that I will never forget. But and I just sent
Speaker 1: to the Land back stage. What I never realized back
Speaker 1: then is how important purpose would be for the bottom
Speaker 1: line of the business. And that's a really important message.
Speaker 1: And now he's practiced, and now it's time to change.
Speaker 1: It's become very occurrant for a lot of good reasons. Well,
Speaker 1: let's tell us about the talk about the foundation a
Speaker 1: little bit. So, yes, there are one of our best
Speaker 1: partners is here today, Bank of America and UH. We
Speaker 1: have partnered with Bank of America America to give women
Speaker 1: access to low interest loans and access to capital is
Speaker 1: obviously one of the major barriers women face. So that
Speaker 1: has really unlocked a big part of what we're trying
Speaker 1: to do. And to date, we've given out over fifty
Speaker 1: million dollars to women entrepreneurs in the United States and
Speaker 1: they just raised that to a hundred millions, So we're
Speaker 1: extremely excited. So how thank you, well deserved? How how
Speaker 1: did you zero in on working with women entrepreneurs? So
Speaker 1: it was it was a process. I knew that I
Speaker 1: wanted the foundation to be about women. I knew that
Speaker 1: and um I mean women and children. I went to Haiti,
Speaker 1: I did so much UM work to figure out what
Speaker 1: would be the best way that I could contribute. And
Speaker 1: what I realized is I had a lot of experience
Speaker 1: in a startup and being an entrepreneur, and I also
Speaker 1: saw the challenges that women face day in and day out.
Speaker 1: And women are great investments. That is something I know,
Speaker 1: and the women that we work with are what is
Speaker 1: going to bring our economy to UH the highest place ever.
Speaker 1: UM if we invest in them and really looking at
Speaker 1: their businesses, looking at the way that they juggle and
Speaker 1: collaborate and um mentor each other. The idea of peer
Speaker 1: to peer mentorship is something that we're really interested in. UM.
Speaker 1: It's it's all. It's all good when I think about
Speaker 1: women in business. For now, it's in the United States,
Speaker 1: but we hope to be international at some point. You know,
Speaker 1: it's so terrific because us UM, entrepreneurship really is the
Speaker 1: wind at the back of the economy. Uh. And women
Speaker 1: entrepreneurs in the United States have contributed immeasurably to our
Speaker 1: economy besides their own lives inclusive prosperity, UH, and so
Speaker 1: much more. And I think you're zeroing in on something
Speaker 1: that related to yourself being an entrepreneur, because entrepreneurs do
Speaker 1: face a lot of challenges entrepreneurs, but certainly women entrepreneurs,
Speaker 1: women entrepreneurs. But are you um, you're addressing the credit
Speaker 1: which you mentioned, because it's very hard to access credit
Speaker 1: by you and Bank of America have created a great partnership.
Speaker 1: Are their trainings or their other We have a fellowship
Speaker 1: program that just literally opened last week. And what's exciting
Speaker 1: is it used to be ten women that we would
Speaker 1: fly into New York. UM. Now it's fifty and it's
Speaker 1: for a week, and we have seminars, we introduce them
Speaker 1: to potential investors. UM. But really it's a out. Also
Speaker 1: the networking that they get from that week and then
Speaker 1: they're continued networking after. That's something they need. Men are
Speaker 1: great at networking and women really UM can benefit a
Speaker 1: lot from that. It's um all business, it's uh. The
Speaker 1: only common threat is that their women. There's um uh
Speaker 1: there's a chocolate company, there's um all kinds of businesses.
Speaker 1: There's a woman um that makes movie set sustainable. UM.
Speaker 1: There's a hot dog stand, there's a deli. There's so
Speaker 1: many different kinds of business. It's very inspiring. So I
Speaker 1: know that the next cohort is open now. Now we're
Speaker 1: taking applications and for this we don't we don't charge,
Speaker 1: and we fly them in for a week. And it's
Speaker 1: what's it's amazing for all of us at the foundation. UM.
Speaker 1: Lauria sitting right here, she spearheads the whole week and
Speaker 1: she's done a great job. UM of of just I
Speaker 1: talked to them throughout the week and then at the
Speaker 1: and and they have gotten something out of it. So
Speaker 1: it's fifty women for a week. It's our fourth year.
Speaker 1: And and do they tell you why they want to
Speaker 1: participate because you get lots of applications, I get a
Speaker 1: lot and it's hard to to whittle it down. But
Speaker 1: that said, we we want as many as possible because
Speaker 1: we want to create that network. And they we We've
Speaker 1: created a platform online on the Tory Birds Foundation dot
Speaker 1: org site and they over fifteen thousand women have written
Speaker 1: business plants from our site. But also it gives them
Speaker 1: the ability to communicate a network. And what question do
Speaker 1: you ask them? Do you ask them why they think
Speaker 1: they would benefit? That's a question. And then we have
Speaker 1: our summit coming up on March five, which is also
Speaker 1: a question, which is um we tackle unconscious bias, stereotype
Speaker 1: and ambition. And we we do not charge, but we
Speaker 1: ask people to apply and they have to write essays
Speaker 1: on why they should be there, so we really curate
Speaker 1: the audience. And it's it's a day that's rapid fire.
Speaker 1: If anyone in the audience would like to come, we
Speaker 1: would love it. It's people and it's from nine in
Speaker 1: the morning until sixth at night. A lot of actions
Speaker 1: sounds good. One thing that I will say we're that
Speaker 1: our foundation UM feels very strongly about is having men
Speaker 1: be part of the conversation and we can talk about
Speaker 1: women's issues all day long to each other and we
Speaker 1: all agree we have a lot of things to work on,
Speaker 1: but we need men to be part of this dialogue.
Speaker 1: Tell them what you told me about the first question usked.
Speaker 1: So I was telling Milan, I was asking her to
Speaker 1: come to the summit, and last year we we touched
Speaker 1: on politics. So I had, uh, well, Joe Kennedy and
Speaker 1: Kevin McCarthy on the stage, and I said to them,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm gonna start with asking you a question
Speaker 1: I get or have gotten every single interview. And I said,
Speaker 1: to tell me, what are you wearing today? I'm sure
Speaker 1: they've never been asked. And how do you manage being
Speaker 1: a father and having a family? So you you they
Speaker 1: started looking at their ties. They had no clue. You
Speaker 1: mentioned Bank of America that we talked about the difficulty
Speaker 1: of when women entrepreneurs accessing capital. UM. We are focused
Speaker 1: on partnerships somewhat a difference they make. How does your
Speaker 1: partnership work with Bank of America? So we have been
Speaker 1: working together now for years and UM we knew that
Speaker 1: UM we we wanted to give together money out work
Speaker 1: with local c d f I s, local lenders UM
Speaker 1: to identify the entrepreneur and women are great investments. As
Speaker 1: I said, they pay their loans back over ninety I
Speaker 1: would at the time, So it's UM, it's a win.
Speaker 1: And the loan size that we're addressing banks generally don't
Speaker 1: want to deal with as we mentioned backstage, So our
Speaker 1: average loan size is roughly sixteen thousand to twenty dollars.
Speaker 1: So they help us partner with the c d f
Speaker 1: I s across United States and really help us find
Speaker 1: the entrepreneurs and then collectively we invest in them and
Speaker 1: then hopefully take their businesses to the next level. These
Speaker 1: partnerships really bring to the table different competencies, different sets
Speaker 1: of resources, and the reality is that it then achieves
Speaker 1: something that one may not have been able to achieve. Well,
Speaker 1: you know what was interesting is it took us a
Speaker 1: little while to figure out how to give out the capital.
Speaker 1: We I thought that would be easier than in fact
Speaker 1: it was. But it has to be with the right
Speaker 1: time of the business and and UM the right amount.
Speaker 1: And we were certainly investing in women as a no brainer.
Speaker 1: So she's doing it, and she's doing it in a
Speaker 1: great way, and we're really really happy to have you
Speaker 1: with a story again. The time has just been Thank
Speaker 1: here very much. Stay tuned for our takeaways after this break.
Speaker 1: That was a great conversation. Check out Tori's foundation at
Speaker 1: Tory Birch Foundation dot org. Now Here are top takeaways. First,
Speaker 1: it's important for each of us to embrace our ambition.
Speaker 1: We need to challenge the double standard in which women
Speaker 1: are criticized for their ambition while men are celebrated. Second,
Speaker 1: you can put purpose at the center of your business
Speaker 1: strategy and succeed. Purpose and business success are not contradictory.
Speaker 1: In fact, often purpose is the fuel that drives success.
Speaker 1: Tori is such a great example of this. She built
Speaker 1: her company with the intention of having a positive impact,
Speaker 1: and just look at all she's achieved. Lastly, go outside
Speaker 1: of your comfort zone and reach out to people outside
Speaker 1: your immediate network who share your values. They can give
Speaker 1: you the energy and support you need to keep going.
Speaker 1: Tori got that inspiration and support in those early days
Speaker 1: when she cold called Milan. Now, our challenge to you
Speaker 1: this week is to think out side the box and
Speaker 1: reach out to someone unexpected who shares your values and
Speaker 1: can work with you to achieve your goals. You're listening
Speaker 1: to Seneca Women Conversations on Power and Purpose, brought to
Speaker 1: you by the Seneca Women Podcast Network and I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio with support from founding partner p ANDNG. Listen to
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