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Speaker 1: Welcome to Strictly Business Varieties, weekly podcast featuring conversations with

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Speaker 1: industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. I'm

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Speaker 1: Cynthia Littleton, co editor in chief of Variety. Today I'm

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Speaker 1: recording this from the site of the annual summer camp

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Speaker 1: for business moguls, the Allen and Company Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho.

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Speaker 1: My guest today is Stacy Bendett Eisner. Stacy is a

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Speaker 1: star CEO in the fashion world as the force behind

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Speaker 1: the Alice and Olivia brand that has grown so rapidly

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Speaker 1: over the past two decades. As of last year, She's

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Speaker 1: also a tech entrepreneur as the founder of Creatively Professional

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Speaker 1: online network designed to help connect freelancers and creative industries

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Speaker 1: with employers and Stacy and her husband, Eric Eisner, have

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Speaker 1: been regulars at the Allen and Company gathering for years.

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Speaker 1: With her love of bold colors and prints, she cuts

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Speaker 1: quite a colorful figure here, but she also fits right

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Speaker 1: in with the group of prominent CEOs that includes her

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Speaker 1: father in law, former Walt Disney co chief Michael Eisner.

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Speaker 1: As the Titans of Industry gathered, Bendett Eisner took a

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Speaker 1: moment to sit down with me at Java on fourth

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Speaker 1: a coffee shop down the road from the conference, to

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Speaker 1: talk about the heavy environment and Sun Valley and her

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Speaker 1: ambitious business goals. It's all coming up right after this

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Speaker 1: break h Stacy Bendett Eisner, CEO and creative director of

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Speaker 1: the retail brand Alice and Olivia and also the founder

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Speaker 1: of Creatively, a very interesting new networking platform specifically for

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Speaker 1: people in the creative industries, which will talk a lot

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Speaker 1: about what's going on with Creatively in a little bit.

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Speaker 1: But I wanted to start because we are in beautiful

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Speaker 1: ming downtown catch him, Idaho, right down the road from

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Speaker 1: the site of the Allen and Company Annual business Conference

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Speaker 1: for business moguls, tech titans, captains of industry and politics.

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Speaker 1: This is an annual event that brings a lot of

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Speaker 1: influential people together for retreat to talk about business, to

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Speaker 1: talk about heavy things going on in the world. And Stacy,

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Speaker 1: you have been attending this for a number of years.

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Speaker 1: What in your perspective is the value? What do you

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Speaker 1: see as the value of getting all of these minds

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Speaker 1: together in kind of close quarters, beautiful the Sawtooth Mountains setting.

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Speaker 1: What's what do you see? What is the kinetic energy?

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Speaker 1: That comes in that from this grouping. Well, I've actually

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Speaker 1: been coming here for fourteen years. My first year here,

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Speaker 1: I was pregnant with my daughter Eloi, which is so

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Speaker 1: crazy to think about right now, or thirteen years because

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Speaker 1: she's turning thirteen. And I think that you know, you

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Speaker 1: bring all of these moguls who work so hard, who

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Speaker 1: are so intense to gather in a setting that's all

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Speaker 1: about family. It's almost like adult camp, um, and it

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Speaker 1: kind of relaxes everyone. But it also brings all of

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Speaker 1: these amazing minds together. And I think just great ideas

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Speaker 1: sort of you know grow here. UM. I think when

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Speaker 1: you you know, you never know who you're gonna you're

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Speaker 1: going to run into, you never know who you're gonna meet, UM,

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Speaker 1: And you also end up having these really wonderful friendships

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Speaker 1: that have been created during this week here every single year.

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Speaker 1: I mean, there's so many people that when I walk in,

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Speaker 1: I'm just you know, it's like this warmth, like it

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Speaker 1: feels like family and you're so excited to see. But

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Speaker 1: I think that, um, it's sort of this very organic

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Speaker 1: way to network. UM. And I think so many sort

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Speaker 1: of partnerships and investments and you know, you hear about

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Speaker 1: the big deals being made here, like the time I,

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Speaker 1: you know, father in law made the deal between uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, ABC and ESPN and Disney and and you

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Speaker 1: hear things like that, But there are so many smaller

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Speaker 1: things that have been both in the world of philanthropy,

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Speaker 1: both in you know, just ideas like I remember one year,

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Speaker 1: like Mark Zuck met Corey Booker and decided to donate

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Speaker 1: a hundred million dollars to like schools in New York.

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Speaker 1: Like those kind of things really happen here. And I

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Speaker 1: think that's what's so beautiful about what the Island Company

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Speaker 1: has created. It's it's interesting because of course we're coming

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Speaker 1: off a year when in like like many other things,

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Speaker 1: the Island Company Conference couldn't happen, So you had a

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Speaker 1: year where you didn't have that mingling, that the random

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Speaker 1: factor of running into somebody around a corner in the

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Speaker 1: beautiful alpine village setting of the of the Sun Valley Lodge.

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Speaker 1: Did you did you feel the loss last year? Did you?

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Speaker 1: Did you? Did you miss it? When July July rolled around,

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Speaker 1: it's always the weekend after July four. I mean, I

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Speaker 1: think luster year was so disrupted, and there was something

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Speaker 1: I think for like the creative side of my brain

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Speaker 1: where I was kind of just happy working and like

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Speaker 1: not having any socialization for a little bit. I got

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Speaker 1: kind of used to that, and I think I was

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Speaker 1: just so focused between Alice and the Libyan creatively that

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Speaker 1: I wasn't really thinking about the things I was missing

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Speaker 1: all year. I was thinking more of the things I

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Speaker 1: had to like fix and get done. Um. You know,

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Speaker 1: for anyone in the retail world, last year was disruptive

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Speaker 1: and really tough and you had to, you know, work

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Speaker 1: on every front to make it through. I sort of

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Speaker 1: feel like a fashion survivor this year. Um, but yeah,

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Speaker 1: there was I think coming here this year, there's this

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Speaker 1: nostalgia and warmth and sort of excitement almost like it's

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Speaker 1: like back to camp or back to school, you know,

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Speaker 1: the first day of school where you're just sort of

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Speaker 1: excited to kind of run into friends and socialize again. Um.

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Speaker 1: You know, obviously deals were made last year, but um,

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Speaker 1: you know, I think that there are kind of special

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Speaker 1: deals that happened here. Well, they certainly have had. There's

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Speaker 1: been quite a legacy of of events and like you said,

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Speaker 1: those those random encounters. What's you have built Alison Olivia

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Speaker 1: is one of the biggest sort of organic retail of

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Speaker 1: fashion brands to come along and in a long time,

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Speaker 1: and you've expanded significantly in the last couple of years

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Speaker 1: your retail presence, you have a big e commerce business,

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Speaker 1: has has has the experience of being here with so

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Speaker 1: many CEOs and having some pretty well known CEOs in

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Speaker 1: your in your extended family. Has that been beneficial to

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Speaker 1: you as you grew this business. Yeah, I mean I

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Speaker 1: learned so much from people like my father in law,

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Speaker 1: like watching him work, watching what he does in business,

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Speaker 1: Like you're it's inspiring, and being here always kind of

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Speaker 1: inspires me. Like I'll come up with things that we

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Speaker 1: need to do for even a technology perspective. Sometimes at

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Speaker 1: Alis and Livia, I'll get ideas hearing from you know,

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Speaker 1: CEO is what they're doing. Um, it just makes your

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Speaker 1: you know, I think for me, like a lot of

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Speaker 1: the panels aren't about retail, but I'll get ideas. It

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Speaker 1: might be things that have to do with the video

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Speaker 1: or crypto or anything that just can apply to the

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Speaker 1: to the retail world. And Yeah, I've been really proud

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Speaker 1: of the growth at Alison Olivia and you know my team,

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Speaker 1: Um in the past, but this year was almost to

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Speaker 1: the point of tears, right because watching the way my

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Speaker 1: team came together and persevered and pivoted and pushed through

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Speaker 1: a really difficult period. Um was powerful? Was it just

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Speaker 1: was it? Did you have just a downturn, just a

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Speaker 1: massive downturn as lockdown hit in you know, there was

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Speaker 1: no traffic. I mean I have over forty retail stores,

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Speaker 1: I selling of like eight other points of sales. So yeah,

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Speaker 1: we have a strong e commerce business. But you know,

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Speaker 1: we also have clothes that we make for women, where

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Speaker 1: we make clothes for women when they travel, when they

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Speaker 1: go to work, when they're getting married, when they're you know,

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Speaker 1: going on a date. Like every single uh you know,

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Speaker 1: end use of our clothing was disrupted. Um and you know,

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Speaker 1: so we had to pivot to making a lot more

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Speaker 1: casual clothing up until obviously, but um so it was

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Speaker 1: it was the entire year was just disrupted on all fronts.

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Speaker 1: Plus you know, we had stores that just couldn't even

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Speaker 1: be open for a big portion of the year. M

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Speaker 1: As a lot of people have said that the pandemic

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Speaker 1: period tested every part of the organization. What did you

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Speaker 1: learn about the business of ours Olivia going through this. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think when you're going through really tough periods like that,

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Speaker 1: you know, what it does is it's kind it shines

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Speaker 1: a flashlight on every weakness, right. It doesn't really your

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Speaker 1: strengths at that point don't matter as much as your

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Speaker 1: weaknesses do. And you know, as a business leader, founder,

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Speaker 1: creative director, we had to kind of really look at

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Speaker 1: those and figure how to fix them at a time

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Speaker 1: when it wasn't easy to fix things right like you know,

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Speaker 1: you're you know, and we and our whole company had

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Speaker 1: to be virtual. But what I was most proud of

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Speaker 1: was that through really trying times, we made some really

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Speaker 1: positive changes that needed to happen. I think in the

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Speaker 1: business overall, you know, we closed our sample room and

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Speaker 1: took all the costs out of you know, the business

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Speaker 1: that were you know that we're applicable there, and we

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Speaker 1: moved all of our development and design overseas and those

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Speaker 1: were big changes but had to be made. We had

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Speaker 1: no choice, you know, our fittings had to be virtual,

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Speaker 1: our pattlenmaking had to be overseas um so it it

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Speaker 1: forced change. But I think that looking back, I just

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Speaker 1: have so much pride and how each one of my

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Speaker 1: teams handled what they had to do to pivot to

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Speaker 1: make it through. Um, and we made some beautiful clothes

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Speaker 1: during that period somehow too. Do you have a sense

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Speaker 1: as you as you design clothes for the future, do

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Speaker 1: you have a sense that there has been a significant

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Speaker 1: kind of cultural shift in what people are looking for.

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Speaker 1: Are they looking for more casual clothes after fifteen months

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Speaker 1: in swept pants? No, I mean I think right now,

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Speaker 1: we've just seen this explosion and like women wanting to

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Speaker 1: shop and wear dresses and dress up again. And yes, right,

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Speaker 1: like I mean I'm casual one today I was trying

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Speaker 1: to be all someome that like jeans. But no, we've

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Speaker 1: just seen like a you know, like a huge demand

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Speaker 1: beyond what we expected for clothes to dress up. And

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Speaker 1: I think people are having weddings and having parties and

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Speaker 1: having special events and there's like a big demand. Um.

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Speaker 1: I think going forward what will probably change. And again,

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Speaker 1: as a woman who has taken a lot of pride

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Speaker 1: and having a company filled with women who have you know,

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Speaker 1: had babies and still worked, I think there will be

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Speaker 1: more flexibility in the workplace to accommodate people where they work,

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Speaker 1: Like are they remote, are they in an office if

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Speaker 1: you're a writer, like, do you have to be there

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Speaker 1: every day? If you're a designer, do you know, you know,

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Speaker 1: being a little bit more flexible to accommodate people's needs.

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Speaker 1: Um And for me, like I've had designers who have

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Speaker 1: worked remotely for years. I've had a designer who's working

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Speaker 1: down in South America, another one in Paris, and um,

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Speaker 1: I think that like we're I hope that what this

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Speaker 1: virtual world that was created during allows us to do

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Speaker 1: is accommodate um, you know, opportunities for women in a

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Speaker 1: way that they're allowed to balance their lives a little

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Speaker 1: bit more so. I mean definitely one of the learnings

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Speaker 1: coming out of this has been, you know what really

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Speaker 1: matters to answer how that yeah, and to answer how

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Speaker 1: that effects dressing? Like I think that when people are

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Speaker 1: working from home, um, you know, they kind of want

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Speaker 1: to do that like blazer and casual pant look you know,

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Speaker 1: like I noticed that we're selling right now all these

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Speaker 1: like wide leg pants but they have like kind of

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Speaker 1: elastic easy waste bands. You know. So it's like people

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Speaker 1: want to be They're used to be uncomfortable, but they

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Speaker 1: want to dress up again. I do think it's time

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Speaker 1: to burn the sweatpants. Though for all the ladies listening

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Speaker 1: to this, it's just say goodbye. Generation ago was burning bras.

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Speaker 1: Now now it's definitely the sweatpants. What um, What Alison

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Speaker 1: Olivia started with your search for the perfect pair of pants?

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Speaker 1: You've told that story many times. What as you as

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Speaker 1: you kind of gradually built built this brand. What in

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Speaker 1: the early days? What what was the important catalyst? What?

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Speaker 1: What put Alison Olivia over the top and allowed you

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Speaker 1: to open so many boutiques and have retail relationships. I

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Speaker 1: think that our brand was always about kind of democratizing

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Speaker 1: fashion a little bit for women, right. Our brand was

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Speaker 1: about not like one whole look. It was about items

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Speaker 1: and it still is that allow women to express their

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Speaker 1: own self. And I always think about fashion as each

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Speaker 1: woman's art each day. It's how you express yourself. It's

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Speaker 1: how you show to the world you are by what

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Speaker 1: you know, it's your it's your startorial art. Um And

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Speaker 1: when I started, you know, I didn't start saying, oh,

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Speaker 1: I'm going to build a global empire and I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: build full collections. I literally started because I was like,

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Speaker 1: I want to make really cool pants. And at the time,

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Speaker 1: if you want a little fashion history, you know, you

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Speaker 1: had like the denim world, like the Earls and sevens

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Speaker 1: of the world, and then you had like designer, and

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Speaker 1: then you had like real street, you know, like kind

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Speaker 1: of more like H and M E kind of stuff

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Speaker 1: or Zora or whatever. You didn't have contemporary and theory

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Speaker 1: really kicked off what is now known as the contemporary

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Speaker 1: world of fashion, which is where you find fashion and

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Speaker 1: you find you know, the designer made clothing but at

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Speaker 1: a price point that's not like a ten dollar gown, um.

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Speaker 1: And so I think where we came in at that time, unknowingly,

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Speaker 1: you know, was sort of that we were entering that

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Speaker 1: itemized contemporary market. And in the beginning, contemporary was like

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Speaker 1: kind of theory pants and suits James first t shirts

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Speaker 1: and jeans, and we came in and started making dresses

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Speaker 1: and beautiful blouses and things that were fancy to kind

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Speaker 1: of pair back to all those items that the big

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Speaker 1: guys were making. And from that we really grew. And

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Speaker 1: you know, I still think of the sensibility of Alice

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Speaker 1: and Olivia the same way as making these beautiful items

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Speaker 1: that every woman who tries it on can wear in

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Speaker 1: her own way. You know, so you might wear a

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Speaker 1: dress with a pair of heels, and another girl's putting

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Speaker 1: it on with a pair of sneakers. Um, you know,

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Speaker 1: my mom might wear our blazer back to her skinny jeans,

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Speaker 1: and I might wear the blazer back to a ball

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Speaker 1: down skirt. You know. And we've managed to sort of, hope,

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Speaker 1: create clothes that allow women to express themselves with color,

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Speaker 1: with print, and you know, their own and to really

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Speaker 1: like sort of bring out their personality. I mean, that's

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Speaker 1: what that's what I love doing. I so love your

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Speaker 1: use of bold color in and of itself makes a

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Speaker 1: makes a bold statement for sure. Um, let's talk about creatively.

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Speaker 1: You took the leap and launched a kind of social network,

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Speaker 1: professional networking service for people in the creative community, and

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Speaker 1: you launched it during the in the teeth of the pandemic.

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Speaker 1: What what was it about that time that made you

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Speaker 1: feel like it was the right time to unveil creatively?

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Speaker 1: So I felt that over the last several years when

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Speaker 1: I was hiring people at Alison Olivia, it was really

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Speaker 1: difficult to hire creative people. And the only way you

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Speaker 1: really you know, looked at resumes or found people was

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Speaker 1: on LinkedIn. And I'm like a most creative people aren't

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Speaker 1: on LinkedIn and be LinkedIn is an amazing tool if

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Speaker 1: you're hiring like a salesperson or an accountant, but when

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Speaker 1: you're hiring a creative person, you need to see their world.

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Speaker 1: I feel weird going and like stalking someone's Instagram looking

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Speaker 1: at their kids when I'm like trying to interview them.

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Speaker 1: But you need to see their visual world, right, So

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Speaker 1: you get a white piece of resume for someone who's

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Speaker 1: making things in three D for you, and it just

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Speaker 1: doesn't equate. And you know you can interview them or whatever,

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Speaker 1: but you know you'd have to have three hours of

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Speaker 1: you know, they having them to projects, having put together

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Speaker 1: a portfolio. And I just kind of one day said,

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Speaker 1: there needs to be this professional network and job platform

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Speaker 1: that is built for the creative world that is a

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Speaker 1: portfolio driven tool that allows creatives to share their work

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Speaker 1: in the most powerful way. And I like to describe

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Speaker 1: it as almost the most beautiful free art gallery for

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Speaker 1: the creative, which is basically a way to facilitate creative

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Speaker 1: showing their work. Um and it is not a place

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Speaker 1: for creatives to share pictures, pictures of their children or

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Speaker 1: what cocktail they're having or you know their political stance

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Speaker 1: on you know, A B and C. It is truly

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Speaker 1: just a safe place for creatives to share their works,

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Speaker 1: show their work, collaborate on their work, and to find work.

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Speaker 1: So it is a job platform, it is a UM

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Speaker 1: you know, it is a professional network. And what's been

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Speaker 1: really exciting is, you know, the response we've had from

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Speaker 1: creatives that are so excited to have this tool, but

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Speaker 1: also from brands who are now using it. We have

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Speaker 1: over a thousand brands and come to is using the

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Speaker 1: platform not just in fashion and all industries to find

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Speaker 1: creative talent and higher creative talent. We'll take a break

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Speaker 1: here and be back with more from Alice and Olivia

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Speaker 1: and Creatively founder Stacy Benditt Eisner tell me what's the

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Speaker 1: business model behind We charge companies. We don't charge of

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Speaker 1: the creative. The platform is totally free for creatives. We

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Speaker 1: charge companies UM that we have different service levels where

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Speaker 1: companies can use to UM. They can actually use Creatively

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Speaker 1: to set up projects so they can hire there. They're

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Speaker 1: going to be able to hire creatives directly, but they

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Speaker 1: can also post jobs UM just like they would on

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Speaker 1: something like a LinkedIn or another professional network, so that's

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Speaker 1: our Our model is similar to that, but we do

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Speaker 1: not charge the creative. We only charge brands to use

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Speaker 1: creatively um to to hire a you know, mobile global

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Speaker 1: creative workforce, freelance and full time. That's the other difference.

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Speaker 1: It's like there wasn't really a we. We kind of

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Speaker 1: filled this niche for creatives where we have a job.

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Speaker 1: Most people don't post a job like listening for something freelance,

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Speaker 1: it's just for full time. Whereas I'm creatively companies are

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Speaker 1: encouraged to post both we're going to need somebody for

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Speaker 1: six months on this specific for days here in Mexico.

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Speaker 1: And if you have a specialty on this kind of graphics,

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Speaker 1: so much the better. You can search by location, you

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Speaker 1: can search by category. How have you gotten this company

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Speaker 1: on its feet? Have you funded it yourself? Did you

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Speaker 1: go raise money? So in the beginning, I funded it myself,

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Speaker 1: UM with my partner whose name is Reagan silver Um.

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Speaker 1: And then since then we've done a little bit of fundraising.

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Speaker 1: UM My father in law as an investor, Sherry Redstone's

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Speaker 1: company as an investor. We have Lion Try as an investor.

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Speaker 1: So we've we've got some great minds and you know

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Speaker 1: advisors behind us UM and you know, we we just

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Speaker 1: started building it about two years ago and then we

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Speaker 1: launched it a little bit earlier than expected. But last

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Speaker 1: you know May, in the midst of the pandemic, all

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Speaker 1: these students were graduating from schools. They didn't have jobs,

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Speaker 1: they didn't have a weight and network UM. And so

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Speaker 1: upon meeting with some of the schools, specifically through the

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Speaker 1: CFTA in the fashion industry, UM, we just launched it

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Speaker 1: a little bit earlier than we thought. But we're able

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Speaker 1: to allow all these students to put their portfolios places

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Speaker 1: and apply for jobs like you can apply for jobs

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Speaker 1: right through Creatively and we post hundreds, if not thousands

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Speaker 1: of job listings a week. How did you get the

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Speaker 1: word out at the beginning? So we launched it with

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Speaker 1: you know press, I promoted it on social and a

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Speaker 1: lot of friends who promoted it. UM. You know, we

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Speaker 1: have a you know Instagram account for Creatively, which we

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Speaker 1: used UM and you know, we've just gotten a lot

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Speaker 1: of you know, of of press because I think it's

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Speaker 1: truly something that just hasn't existed in the world. You know,

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Speaker 1: our job is really to facilitate jobs for creatives and

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Speaker 1: to make it easier for companies to find and higher creatives.

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Speaker 1: And our next venture, which we're launching this week, um,

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Speaker 1: you know, is our next step, creatively Pay. And creatively

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Speaker 1: Pay is what I think, a big game changer UM

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Speaker 1: in the world of hiring creatives, and a big game

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Speaker 1: changer for creatives because what we're doing is eliminating what

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Speaker 1: I think is one of the biggest pain points for creatives,

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Speaker 1: which is getting paid, the long wait between invoice and

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Speaker 1: being an accounts payable sending that check. Creatively Pay will

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Speaker 1: be the fastest way for creatives to get paid for

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Speaker 1: their work. They can get paid the same day for

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Speaker 1: their work. And not only that, but what creatively pay

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Speaker 1: will um we're announcing it this week, but in the

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Speaker 1: fall when we launch it, there will be ways for

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Speaker 1: you to very easily invoice to schedule your jobs. We

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Speaker 1: want to make life easier for creatives so they can

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Speaker 1: be creative. I felt so luck in my career to

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Speaker 1: have you know, a sort of infrastructure around me and

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Speaker 1: and and almost like a platform beneath me too, you know,

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Speaker 1: handle a lot of like logistics and a lot of

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Speaker 1: things on the business side, of my company so that

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Speaker 1: I could be free to let my brain be creative.

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Speaker 1: And I want to help other creatives have that, and

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Speaker 1: I think this is a big part of it. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I hear from friends that I work with. You know,

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Speaker 1: they're a photographer, they're a videographer, they're a hair person

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Speaker 1: to makeup person, and sometimes they're waiting three months to

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Speaker 1: get paid. So what we are doing is announcing a

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Speaker 1: partnership with or um Um and we are the interim

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Speaker 1: financing so that when you use Creatively pay, you're paid

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Speaker 1: the same day and or Um is the liquidity so

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Speaker 1: that companies can still have their thirty day terms or

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Speaker 1: whatever they need um. But the creative does not have

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Speaker 1: to wait all of that time to receive a check

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Speaker 1: for the work that they've completed. And does the company

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Speaker 1: the companies that partner with Creatively to do this, do

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Speaker 1: they have to pay an extra feed for that service happen,

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Speaker 1: They have to be very fine. But for the first

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Speaker 1: like several months or in the year um, there there

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Speaker 1: is no fee and we will never charge the creatives

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Speaker 1: for this because that's the other issue. A lot of

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Speaker 1: times creatives are getting chunks taken out of their paycheck

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Speaker 1: from agents and managers, which is okay if that's if

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Speaker 1: they're providing a service, but a lot of times like

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Speaker 1: they're having you know, money taken out for other things

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Speaker 1: when they're trying to get even paid on time. So

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Speaker 1: we want to make things as positive and productive for

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Speaker 1: the creative as possible. Um you know, orum will be

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Speaker 1: will verify all of the brands that we're working with.

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Speaker 1: But if a creative says to a company, I want

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Speaker 1: to get paid through creatively pay, it's very easy for

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Speaker 1: the company to get set up to pay them through

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Speaker 1: that and it's of no if it's of no pain

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Speaker 1: to the to the brand either well as somebody who's

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Speaker 1: been on the phone with freelancers desperately waiting by the

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Speaker 1: waiting by the mailbox for that all important check. I

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Speaker 1: can imagine that there will be some interest in this service.

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Speaker 1: I would imagine that there is a risk for you

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Speaker 1: in this in the sense that not every invoices paid

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Speaker 1: in full. How are you going to mitigate against the

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Speaker 1: dig of the deal that falls through the job that

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Speaker 1: gets paid a kill fee or a half fee. So

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Speaker 1: there I mean, listen, They're going to be some things

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Speaker 1: that are worked out over the next several months until

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Speaker 1: when we launched this in the fall. But Creatively is

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Speaker 1: not Creatively as the facilitator of this, like we're the

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Speaker 1: platform and we are the um you know, the kind

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Speaker 1: of invoicing and payment front end, whereas Orum is the finance.

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Speaker 1: They're like the bank. But Orum is this amazing, you know,

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Speaker 1: new company that is changing the way that money moves around.

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Speaker 1: So there's also no the other fee that creatives not fee,

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Speaker 1: but the lag time creatives haves is sometimes it takes

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Speaker 1: five days for the bank to clear your payment to

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Speaker 1: so Oorum's technology allows for there to be zero time

431
00:22:50,160 --> 00:22:53,040
Speaker 1: for your money to clear through the bank, and it's

432
00:22:53,080 --> 00:22:56,760
Speaker 1: providing the interim liquidity between the company and the creative UM.

433
00:22:56,920 --> 00:23:01,359
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's their responsibility to verify the brands

434
00:23:01,480 --> 00:23:05,280
Speaker 1: that are working with the creatives. So it's not like

435
00:23:05,480 --> 00:23:08,240
Speaker 1: if a photographer does a job for a birthday party

436
00:23:08,280 --> 00:23:11,560
Speaker 1: and it's an individual, like we're not getting in that game.

437
00:23:11,720 --> 00:23:15,760
Speaker 1: It's about verified brands on Creatively that can use Creatively

438
00:23:15,840 --> 00:23:18,280
Speaker 1: pay with creatives that would do that kind of business

439
00:23:18,359 --> 00:23:20,880
Speaker 1: at the scale. What's it been like for you launching

440
00:23:21,240 --> 00:23:25,160
Speaker 1: this kind of very I P based business versus Alison

441
00:23:25,200 --> 00:23:29,399
Speaker 1: Olivia a very hard you know, making shirts and making starts.

442
00:23:30,119 --> 00:23:33,840
Speaker 1: I know, it's funny exactly like my my uh my

443
00:23:33,960 --> 00:23:36,879
Speaker 1: main job is so tangible, right, Like it's touch, it's feel,

444
00:23:37,040 --> 00:23:39,680
Speaker 1: it's you know what like and this is all kind

445
00:23:39,720 --> 00:23:44,800
Speaker 1: of a little bit more um, you know in the ethos, right. So, um,

446
00:23:45,080 --> 00:23:47,840
Speaker 1: it's been really exciting for me to work kind of

447
00:23:47,880 --> 00:23:50,840
Speaker 1: start up again, right. And but I think like I'm

448
00:23:50,880 --> 00:23:53,280
Speaker 1: a sort of natural entrepreneur where even if you look

449
00:23:53,320 --> 00:23:55,800
Speaker 1: at Alice Olivia, over the years, we've done so many

450
00:23:55,960 --> 00:23:58,480
Speaker 1: entrepreneurial things, even though as a company we're almost twenty

451
00:23:58,520 --> 00:24:00,879
Speaker 1: years old, like every year we're do something new, you know,

452
00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:03,680
Speaker 1: we launched this, we did this collaboration. So there's a

453
00:24:03,760 --> 00:24:06,879
Speaker 1: lot of kind of like startup energy in Allison Olivia still.

454
00:24:06,920 --> 00:24:10,320
Speaker 1: But the difference is that I think with creatively, um,

455
00:24:10,920 --> 00:24:13,080
Speaker 1: you know, the whole company's virtual. I'm working with all

456
00:24:13,119 --> 00:24:15,639
Speaker 1: these cool tech guys, you know, and and it's so

457
00:24:15,800 --> 00:24:18,800
Speaker 1: different than my my life at Alice and Olivia that's

458
00:24:18,800 --> 00:24:21,879
Speaker 1: filled with women in fabric and color and touch and

459
00:24:22,040 --> 00:24:24,800
Speaker 1: fittings and it's I mean, it could not be more opposite.

460
00:24:24,880 --> 00:24:29,600
Speaker 1: But it's still really creative um. That last startup of yours,

461
00:24:29,800 --> 00:24:34,800
Speaker 1: Alison Olivia in you told a fashion magazine that it

462
00:24:34,920 --> 00:24:37,720
Speaker 1: had grown to be a two hundred million dollar business.

463
00:24:38,119 --> 00:24:40,639
Speaker 1: You have expanded significantly since then. Can you give us

464
00:24:40,680 --> 00:24:43,040
Speaker 1: the ballpark of what the business is to give numbers

465
00:24:43,080 --> 00:24:46,440
Speaker 1: out and we definitely like cut back a lot in

466
00:24:46,960 --> 00:24:50,680
Speaker 1: twenty but for this year probably around like two fifty

467
00:24:50,720 --> 00:24:55,080
Speaker 1: million UM. And you know, I think the resizing that

468
00:24:55,200 --> 00:24:59,080
Speaker 1: sort of happened in was this kind of I always

469
00:24:59,080 --> 00:25:01,280
Speaker 1: try to look at things, is like the glasses have full,

470
00:25:01,840 --> 00:25:05,320
Speaker 1: and it allowed us to like kind of just tighten

471
00:25:05,440 --> 00:25:08,120
Speaker 1: things up in a way and change things without judgment.

472
00:25:08,359 --> 00:25:10,200
Speaker 1: Right Like every year it was like you had to grow,

473
00:25:10,240 --> 00:25:11,480
Speaker 1: you have to grow, you have to be up you know,

474
00:25:11,600 --> 00:25:15,200
Speaker 1: ten per cent or this, and in it was just

475
00:25:15,280 --> 00:25:17,000
Speaker 1: kind of like, no, we've got to fix things and

476
00:25:17,080 --> 00:25:19,760
Speaker 1: we've got to make things more efficient. And you know

477
00:25:20,040 --> 00:25:22,080
Speaker 1: we've taken that time too to be able to like

478
00:25:22,240 --> 00:25:25,359
Speaker 1: make the company more echo like our fabrics are waste

479
00:25:25,440 --> 00:25:29,119
Speaker 1: are you know? Just everything became less about this, you know.

480
00:25:29,280 --> 00:25:32,399
Speaker 1: Over I think the retail world for many years was

481
00:25:32,440 --> 00:25:34,280
Speaker 1: about like grow, grow, grow, and you were kind of

482
00:25:34,359 --> 00:25:36,680
Speaker 1: living in that growth versus living in profit. And I

483
00:25:36,920 --> 00:25:38,479
Speaker 1: like and I think that last year what we did

484
00:25:38,600 --> 00:25:42,120
Speaker 1: was slim things down to actually become more profitable, which

485
00:25:42,240 --> 00:25:45,480
Speaker 1: was sort of nice. So, um, you know we're not

486
00:25:46,200 --> 00:25:49,320
Speaker 1: you know, we're probably what like bigger than we were,

487
00:25:49,480 --> 00:25:55,359
Speaker 1: but we are way more efficient. So are you and

488
00:25:55,440 --> 00:25:57,879
Speaker 1: your partner Andrew Rosen? Are you still the principal owners

489
00:25:57,920 --> 00:26:00,399
Speaker 1: of the business? We are? And he's amazing. I mean

490
00:26:00,440 --> 00:26:04,280
Speaker 1: I feel like, um, I'm so lucky. I mean, I

491
00:26:04,720 --> 00:26:08,119
Speaker 1: my creatively team, I love I picked good work partners. Um.

492
00:26:08,280 --> 00:26:12,320
Speaker 1: So Andrew has been my partner for almost twenty years, right,

493
00:26:12,520 --> 00:26:15,639
Speaker 1: he's I mean, like I mean through the pandemic. I

494
00:26:15,800 --> 00:26:18,760
Speaker 1: can't tell you what I could like actually like cry

495
00:26:18,880 --> 00:26:20,920
Speaker 1: thinking about it because there were some really tough times.

496
00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:25,119
Speaker 1: But he was the most incredible support as a like

497
00:26:25,240 --> 00:26:27,719
Speaker 1: a friend, as like a big brother, and as a partner,

498
00:26:28,080 --> 00:26:30,640
Speaker 1: and he really helped us get through. I mean it's

499
00:26:30,720 --> 00:26:33,680
Speaker 1: complicated getting through all the financial you know sort of

500
00:26:33,960 --> 00:26:38,080
Speaker 1: runaround of you know, loans and and you know all everything.

501
00:26:38,119 --> 00:26:41,600
Speaker 1: It was crazy, the ppe loans. Um. He's an amazing

502
00:26:42,280 --> 00:26:46,240
Speaker 1: not just retailer and entrepreneur, but he's an incredible friend.

503
00:26:46,320 --> 00:26:48,200
Speaker 1: So I feel really lucky to have that and my

504
00:26:48,280 --> 00:26:50,760
Speaker 1: creatively team to like my CEO of Right Get Rich

505
00:26:50,960 --> 00:26:54,880
Speaker 1: amazing guy, my chief product officer amazing. So I I'm

506
00:26:54,920 --> 00:26:59,720
Speaker 1: surrounded by by some good good business partners, business business,

507
00:26:59,800 --> 00:27:03,919
Speaker 1: less business lives. Stacy, you have no shortage of drive

508
00:27:04,080 --> 00:27:08,280
Speaker 1: and ambition and it's wonderful. What do you think One

509
00:27:08,359 --> 00:27:11,000
Speaker 1: thing that I know is often talked about a peer

510
00:27:11,040 --> 00:27:14,680
Speaker 1: at Alan company is the for all the progress, there's

511
00:27:14,720 --> 00:27:21,800
Speaker 1: still relatively few of you, relatively few CEOs of really big, successful,

512
00:27:22,040 --> 00:27:25,040
Speaker 1: influential brands. And I know it's a tough question, but

513
00:27:25,160 --> 00:27:27,160
Speaker 1: do you have any thoughts about what it will take

514
00:27:27,320 --> 00:27:31,119
Speaker 1: to bring more women into the c suite? Well, I

515
00:27:31,200 --> 00:27:32,919
Speaker 1: have a lot of thoughts on it, so we might

516
00:27:32,960 --> 00:27:36,119
Speaker 1: have to do another interview. Um, but I think, listen,

517
00:27:36,680 --> 00:27:41,280
Speaker 1: balancing work and children is not easy, and you know

518
00:27:41,840 --> 00:27:45,119
Speaker 1: it is. It is not simple and it is not easy.

519
00:27:45,640 --> 00:27:51,560
Speaker 1: But companies need to create environments that allow for you know,

520
00:27:51,840 --> 00:27:54,240
Speaker 1: women to have a little bit of flexibility to succeed.

521
00:27:54,840 --> 00:27:57,960
Speaker 1: And they also need and I think women need to

522
00:27:58,080 --> 00:28:00,879
Speaker 1: root for other women. You know, I think so often

523
00:28:01,040 --> 00:28:04,200
Speaker 1: as a culture, when you know a woman is in

524
00:28:04,240 --> 00:28:06,320
Speaker 1: the press, the press is waiting to take her down.

525
00:28:06,640 --> 00:28:08,879
Speaker 1: And that is what needs to change. You know, we

526
00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:11,520
Speaker 1: need to like be proud of women for being ambitious.

527
00:28:11,560 --> 00:28:13,719
Speaker 1: We need to be proud of women for being successful,

528
00:28:14,200 --> 00:28:19,119
Speaker 1: and we need to you know, like we need to

529
00:28:19,280 --> 00:28:22,200
Speaker 1: allow for it a little bit more. And and I

530
00:28:22,320 --> 00:28:24,719
Speaker 1: think that when you look around this conference, yeah, it's

531
00:28:24,760 --> 00:28:28,119
Speaker 1: still mostly men and that does need to change. But

532
00:28:28,440 --> 00:28:30,760
Speaker 1: we need to start that from the early years. You know,

533
00:28:30,880 --> 00:28:32,960
Speaker 1: we need to encourage women to stay in the workforce

534
00:28:33,119 --> 00:28:35,960
Speaker 1: through the first years of having kids, because once you

535
00:28:36,119 --> 00:28:39,080
Speaker 1: leave the workforce during that time, it is really hard

536
00:28:39,200 --> 00:28:41,720
Speaker 1: to get back in it like an upper level. And

537
00:28:41,840 --> 00:28:44,080
Speaker 1: I see it all the time because you know, you

538
00:28:44,280 --> 00:28:46,160
Speaker 1: have a baby, You're like, I'm gonna take your two off.

539
00:28:46,200 --> 00:28:47,880
Speaker 1: Then you have another baby, and then all of a sudden,

540
00:28:47,960 --> 00:28:50,840
Speaker 1: you're like the world's moved really quickly during those years

541
00:28:50,880 --> 00:28:54,000
Speaker 1: of babies. And the best advice I can give is,

542
00:28:54,720 --> 00:28:56,480
Speaker 1: you know, and I can't even say that I did

543
00:28:56,520 --> 00:28:57,920
Speaker 1: a great job of this because I was kind of

544
00:28:57,960 --> 00:29:01,360
Speaker 1: always like I'm gonna do all of it. And you know, women, hut,

545
00:29:01,960 --> 00:29:07,120
Speaker 1: women and men need to be collaborative in their parenting

546
00:29:07,480 --> 00:29:11,280
Speaker 1: and caregiving efforts. Like there needs to be a standard

547
00:29:11,440 --> 00:29:13,800
Speaker 1: that changes where it's not always the mom that has

548
00:29:13,840 --> 00:29:15,479
Speaker 1: to run to school, or always the mom that has

549
00:29:15,520 --> 00:29:17,160
Speaker 1: to take the kid to the doctor, or the mom

550
00:29:17,240 --> 00:29:20,040
Speaker 1: that has to do this. It has to be collaborative parenting.

551
00:29:20,200 --> 00:29:23,280
Speaker 1: And I think that's actually a really big part of

552
00:29:23,680 --> 00:29:26,680
Speaker 1: women being able to make it to the upper levels

553
00:29:26,840 --> 00:29:28,920
Speaker 1: because women tend to take on all of the home

554
00:29:29,040 --> 00:29:31,560
Speaker 1: duties and work and then you know, you're fried, you're tired,

555
00:29:31,600 --> 00:29:34,320
Speaker 1: you're exhausted, and at some point you maybe give up

556
00:29:34,480 --> 00:29:36,600
Speaker 1: or you know, want to work part time or you know,

557
00:29:36,800 --> 00:29:40,640
Speaker 1: lose the ambition to get up here. Um. And and

558
00:29:40,800 --> 00:29:43,240
Speaker 1: I think that you know, that starts with kind of

559
00:29:43,360 --> 00:29:48,840
Speaker 1: like societal training, that parenting is parenting between man and man,

560
00:29:48,960 --> 00:29:50,800
Speaker 1: man and woman, woman and woman, but it is two

561
00:29:50,880 --> 00:29:54,200
Speaker 1: people that are responsible for that work. And luckily I

562
00:29:54,240 --> 00:29:57,400
Speaker 1: have a husband who like is really present dad. Right.

563
00:29:57,600 --> 00:29:59,760
Speaker 1: But um, but that's one thing. And then the other

564
00:29:59,840 --> 00:30:03,440
Speaker 1: thing is that companies need to create environments that allow

565
00:30:03,760 --> 00:30:07,080
Speaker 1: women to succeed. You know, like I don't expect women

566
00:30:07,120 --> 00:30:09,400
Speaker 1: to be at dinners at eight o'clock every night, because

567
00:30:09,480 --> 00:30:10,800
Speaker 1: I know they need to go home and they want

568
00:30:10,800 --> 00:30:13,560
Speaker 1: to be with their kids for bedtime. You know, we're flexible,

569
00:30:13,840 --> 00:30:15,720
Speaker 1: especially like I have a lot of women who, like,

570
00:30:16,120 --> 00:30:18,560
Speaker 1: you know, as they became more senior executives in my company,

571
00:30:18,680 --> 00:30:21,520
Speaker 1: like we have a tremendous amount of flexibility to allow

572
00:30:21,640 --> 00:30:24,400
Speaker 1: them to kind of, you know, be a little more virtual.

573
00:30:24,560 --> 00:30:27,040
Speaker 1: And I hope that this year encourages companies to see

574
00:30:27,080 --> 00:30:29,400
Speaker 1: that and allow for that too. Sorry I'm rambling, but

575
00:30:29,440 --> 00:30:31,480
Speaker 1: I could go on about this for a very long time,

576
00:30:31,960 --> 00:30:34,080
Speaker 1: I can tell. And I was just thinking that if ever,

577
00:30:34,440 --> 00:30:37,600
Speaker 1: there has been a there's been a period for learning

578
00:30:37,800 --> 00:30:41,080
Speaker 1: about what, you know, what requires a person to physically

579
00:30:41,120 --> 00:30:43,640
Speaker 1: be in an office versus you know what, what you

580
00:30:43,760 --> 00:30:47,080
Speaker 1: can do in a situation that gives you more flexibility

581
00:30:47,160 --> 00:30:50,720
Speaker 1: when you have rug rats running around And yeah, it's

582
00:30:50,840 --> 00:30:53,959
Speaker 1: I mean, listen and I and I always preface these

583
00:30:54,000 --> 00:30:57,480
Speaker 1: conversations with I know that I was privileged and lucky

584
00:30:57,600 --> 00:30:59,520
Speaker 1: to have a lot of help when my kids were little.

585
00:30:59,840 --> 00:31:02,240
Speaker 1: I will say that the hardest years, or when your

586
00:31:02,600 --> 00:31:04,560
Speaker 1: kids are like one, two, and three, once they're in

587
00:31:04,640 --> 00:31:07,160
Speaker 1: school a full day, you can create this balance where

588
00:31:07,760 --> 00:31:09,960
Speaker 1: you know, you sort of drop them off at school,

589
00:31:10,040 --> 00:31:12,520
Speaker 1: you go to work, they maybe have an activity, everyone's

590
00:31:12,560 --> 00:31:15,360
Speaker 1: home right. And you know, I really have always tried

591
00:31:15,400 --> 00:31:18,280
Speaker 1: to reiterate the fact that Alice and Olivia that if

592
00:31:18,320 --> 00:31:20,120
Speaker 1: you were at your desk pass like six or seven

593
00:31:20,160 --> 00:31:22,480
Speaker 1: at night, like you're not managing your time well, because

594
00:31:22,520 --> 00:31:25,200
Speaker 1: we don't. You know, as a company, we really try to.

595
00:31:25,840 --> 00:31:28,360
Speaker 1: We we want women to have a balanced life. That

596
00:31:28,480 --> 00:31:30,560
Speaker 1: is so important to me as a woman, and it's

597
00:31:30,600 --> 00:31:34,000
Speaker 1: important to me to nurture and really facilitate for the

598
00:31:34,080 --> 00:31:36,960
Speaker 1: woman who work for me. But um, but the hardest

599
00:31:37,040 --> 00:31:39,240
Speaker 1: years or when your kids are little, although I will

600
00:31:39,320 --> 00:31:41,840
Speaker 1: say that as your kids get bigger, you have bigger problems.

601
00:31:42,240 --> 00:31:47,280
Speaker 1: But the band aid won't fix everything that neosporin doesn't

602
00:31:47,320 --> 00:31:50,400
Speaker 1: like fix every every boo boo. But but you know,

603
00:31:50,640 --> 00:31:53,960
Speaker 1: it's it's but companies have to you know, just as

604
00:31:54,000 --> 00:31:57,200
Speaker 1: they're making efforts in terms of diversity and inclusion, they

605
00:31:57,320 --> 00:32:01,040
Speaker 1: also have to be continuously making efforts to you know,

606
00:32:01,280 --> 00:32:04,400
Speaker 1: make sure that they have more women involved and not

607
00:32:04,600 --> 00:32:06,600
Speaker 1: just like oh I put a woman on my board,

608
00:32:06,760 --> 00:32:10,360
Speaker 1: like you need women involved in your company in you know,

609
00:32:10,440 --> 00:32:13,440
Speaker 1: those sea level positions. Even in the fashion industry today,

610
00:32:13,480 --> 00:32:15,760
Speaker 1: when they did a record a couple of years ago, um,

611
00:32:15,960 --> 00:32:18,240
Speaker 1: it was like there was only like, I can't remember

612
00:32:18,280 --> 00:32:20,600
Speaker 1: the exact personage, but the percentage of women in C

613
00:32:20,760 --> 00:32:26,680
Speaker 1: suites in fashion was like only the number. When we

614
00:32:26,800 --> 00:32:29,640
Speaker 1: look around, we see so many great examples, like yourself,

615
00:32:29,760 --> 00:32:34,320
Speaker 1: of women thriving, and yet the numbers are just stubbornly low.

616
00:32:34,560 --> 00:32:37,320
Speaker 1: It's going to take time because you can't just pop

617
00:32:37,400 --> 00:32:40,360
Speaker 1: women into the C suite, right, you have to bring

618
00:32:40,480 --> 00:32:43,760
Speaker 1: them up and so that, you know, women need to

619
00:32:43,840 --> 00:32:46,160
Speaker 1: be mentored and women need to be encouraged, women need

620
00:32:46,200 --> 00:32:48,479
Speaker 1: to be inspired to stay in the workforce, and it's

621
00:32:48,520 --> 00:32:51,000
Speaker 1: going to take, you know, five or ten years to

622
00:32:51,120 --> 00:32:53,360
Speaker 1: start to see that all really changed. I do think

623
00:32:53,400 --> 00:32:55,520
Speaker 1: the efforts being made, and I do think we will

624
00:32:55,600 --> 00:32:57,720
Speaker 1: start to see it. But you can't just all of

625
00:32:57,720 --> 00:32:59,480
Speaker 1: a sudden have like all women in the C suite

626
00:32:59,520 --> 00:33:02,200
Speaker 1: because you have them down, you know, at the mid level.

627
00:33:02,920 --> 00:33:07,640
Speaker 1: You've got to absolutely have the foundation to succeed. Yeah. Absolutely, well, Stacy,

628
00:33:07,760 --> 00:33:09,920
Speaker 1: my goodness, thank you so much for taking time out

629
00:33:10,160 --> 00:33:13,080
Speaker 1: from this very heavy event to share your thoughts with us,

630
00:33:13,240 --> 00:33:16,440
Speaker 1: and congratulations on the success of Alison Olivia and look

631
00:33:16,480 --> 00:33:19,440
Speaker 1: forward to seeing Creatively grow in the coming year. Yes,

632
00:33:19,520 --> 00:33:23,520
Speaker 1: and everyone needs to check out creatively pay really appreciate

633
00:33:23,560 --> 00:33:34,440
Speaker 1: your time. Thank you, thanks for listening. Be sure to

634
00:33:34,560 --> 00:33:37,560
Speaker 1: leave us a review at Apple Podcasts. We love to

635
00:33:37,640 --> 00:33:40,400
Speaker 1: hear from listeners, and be sure to tune in next

636
00:33:40,440 --> 00:33:43,080
Speaker 1: week for another episode of Strictly Business