Speaker 1: Welcome to Strictly Business Varieties, weekly podcast featuring conversations with
Speaker 1: industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. I'm
Speaker 1: Cynthia Littleton, co editor in chief of Variety. Today I'm
Speaker 1: recording this from the site of the annual summer camp
Speaker 1: for business moguls, the Allen and Company Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Speaker 1: My guest today is Stacy Bendett Eisner. Stacy is a
Speaker 1: star CEO in the fashion world as the force behind
Speaker 1: the Alice and Olivia brand that has grown so rapidly
Speaker 1: over the past two decades. As of last year, She's
Speaker 1: also a tech entrepreneur as the founder of Creatively Professional
Speaker 1: online network designed to help connect freelancers and creative industries
Speaker 1: with employers and Stacy and her husband, Eric Eisner, have
Speaker 1: been regulars at the Allen and Company gathering for years.
Speaker 1: With her love of bold colors and prints, she cuts
Speaker 1: quite a colorful figure here, but she also fits right
Speaker 1: in with the group of prominent CEOs that includes her
Speaker 1: father in law, former Walt Disney co chief Michael Eisner.
Speaker 1: As the Titans of Industry gathered, Bendett Eisner took a
Speaker 1: moment to sit down with me at Java on fourth
Speaker 1: a coffee shop down the road from the conference, to
Speaker 1: talk about the heavy environment and Sun Valley and her
Speaker 1: ambitious business goals. It's all coming up right after this
Speaker 1: break h Stacy Bendett Eisner, CEO and creative director of
Speaker 1: the retail brand Alice and Olivia and also the founder
Speaker 1: of Creatively, a very interesting new networking platform specifically for
Speaker 1: people in the creative industries, which will talk a lot
Speaker 1: about what's going on with Creatively in a little bit.
Speaker 1: But I wanted to start because we are in beautiful
Speaker 1: ming downtown catch him, Idaho, right down the road from
Speaker 1: the site of the Allen and Company Annual business Conference
Speaker 1: for business moguls, tech titans, captains of industry and politics.
Speaker 1: This is an annual event that brings a lot of
Speaker 1: influential people together for retreat to talk about business, to
Speaker 1: talk about heavy things going on in the world. And Stacy,
Speaker 1: you have been attending this for a number of years.
Speaker 1: What in your perspective is the value? What do you
Speaker 1: see as the value of getting all of these minds
Speaker 1: together in kind of close quarters, beautiful the Sawtooth Mountains setting.
Speaker 1: What's what do you see? What is the kinetic energy?
Speaker 1: That comes in that from this grouping. Well, I've actually
Speaker 1: been coming here for fourteen years. My first year here,
Speaker 1: I was pregnant with my daughter Eloi, which is so
Speaker 1: crazy to think about right now, or thirteen years because
Speaker 1: she's turning thirteen. And I think that you know, you
Speaker 1: bring all of these moguls who work so hard, who
Speaker 1: are so intense to gather in a setting that's all
Speaker 1: about family. It's almost like adult camp, um, and it
Speaker 1: kind of relaxes everyone. But it also brings all of
Speaker 1: these amazing minds together. And I think just great ideas
Speaker 1: sort of you know grow here. UM. I think when
Speaker 1: you you know, you never know who you're gonna you're
Speaker 1: going to run into, you never know who you're gonna meet, UM,
Speaker 1: And you also end up having these really wonderful friendships
Speaker 1: that have been created during this week here every single year.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's so many people that when I walk in,
Speaker 1: I'm just you know, it's like this warmth, like it
Speaker 1: feels like family and you're so excited to see. But
Speaker 1: I think that, um, it's sort of this very organic
Speaker 1: way to network. UM. And I think so many sort
Speaker 1: of partnerships and investments and you know, you hear about
Speaker 1: the big deals being made here, like the time I,
Speaker 1: you know, father in law made the deal between uh,
Speaker 1: you know, ABC and ESPN and Disney and and you
Speaker 1: hear things like that, But there are so many smaller
Speaker 1: things that have been both in the world of philanthropy,
Speaker 1: both in you know, just ideas like I remember one year,
Speaker 1: like Mark Zuck met Corey Booker and decided to donate
Speaker 1: a hundred million dollars to like schools in New York.
Speaker 1: Like those kind of things really happen here. And I
Speaker 1: think that's what's so beautiful about what the Island Company
Speaker 1: has created. It's it's interesting because of course we're coming
Speaker 1: off a year when in like like many other things,
Speaker 1: the Island Company Conference couldn't happen, So you had a
Speaker 1: year where you didn't have that mingling, that the random
Speaker 1: factor of running into somebody around a corner in the
Speaker 1: beautiful alpine village setting of the of the Sun Valley Lodge.
Speaker 1: Did you did you feel the loss last year? Did you?
Speaker 1: Did you? Did you miss it? When July July rolled around,
Speaker 1: it's always the weekend after July four. I mean, I
Speaker 1: think luster year was so disrupted, and there was something
Speaker 1: I think for like the creative side of my brain
Speaker 1: where I was kind of just happy working and like
Speaker 1: not having any socialization for a little bit. I got
Speaker 1: kind of used to that, and I think I was
Speaker 1: just so focused between Alice and the Libyan creatively that
Speaker 1: I wasn't really thinking about the things I was missing
Speaker 1: all year. I was thinking more of the things I
Speaker 1: had to like fix and get done. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: for anyone in the retail world, last year was disruptive
Speaker 1: and really tough and you had to, you know, work
Speaker 1: on every front to make it through. I sort of
Speaker 1: feel like a fashion survivor this year. Um, but yeah,
Speaker 1: there was I think coming here this year, there's this
Speaker 1: nostalgia and warmth and sort of excitement almost like it's
Speaker 1: like back to camp or back to school, you know,
Speaker 1: the first day of school where you're just sort of
Speaker 1: excited to kind of run into friends and socialize again. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, obviously deals were made last year, but um,
Speaker 1: you know, I think that there are kind of special
Speaker 1: deals that happened here. Well, they certainly have had. There's
Speaker 1: been quite a legacy of of events and like you said,
Speaker 1: those those random encounters. What's you have built Alison Olivia
Speaker 1: is one of the biggest sort of organic retail of
Speaker 1: fashion brands to come along and in a long time,
Speaker 1: and you've expanded significantly in the last couple of years
Speaker 1: your retail presence, you have a big e commerce business,
Speaker 1: has has has the experience of being here with so
Speaker 1: many CEOs and having some pretty well known CEOs in
Speaker 1: your in your extended family. Has that been beneficial to
Speaker 1: you as you grew this business. Yeah, I mean I
Speaker 1: learned so much from people like my father in law,
Speaker 1: like watching him work, watching what he does in business,
Speaker 1: Like you're it's inspiring, and being here always kind of
Speaker 1: inspires me. Like I'll come up with things that we
Speaker 1: need to do for even a technology perspective. Sometimes at
Speaker 1: Alis and Livia, I'll get ideas hearing from you know,
Speaker 1: CEO is what they're doing. Um, it just makes your
Speaker 1: you know, I think for me, like a lot of
Speaker 1: the panels aren't about retail, but I'll get ideas. It
Speaker 1: might be things that have to do with the video
Speaker 1: or crypto or anything that just can apply to the
Speaker 1: to the retail world. And Yeah, I've been really proud
Speaker 1: of the growth at Alison Olivia and you know my team,
Speaker 1: Um in the past, but this year was almost to
Speaker 1: the point of tears, right because watching the way my
Speaker 1: team came together and persevered and pivoted and pushed through
Speaker 1: a really difficult period. Um was powerful? Was it just
Speaker 1: was it? Did you have just a downturn, just a
Speaker 1: massive downturn as lockdown hit in you know, there was
Speaker 1: no traffic. I mean I have over forty retail stores,
Speaker 1: I selling of like eight other points of sales. So yeah,
Speaker 1: we have a strong e commerce business. But you know,
Speaker 1: we also have clothes that we make for women, where
Speaker 1: we make clothes for women when they travel, when they
Speaker 1: go to work, when they're getting married, when they're you know,
Speaker 1: going on a date. Like every single uh you know,
Speaker 1: end use of our clothing was disrupted. Um and you know,
Speaker 1: so we had to pivot to making a lot more
Speaker 1: casual clothing up until obviously, but um so it was
Speaker 1: it was the entire year was just disrupted on all fronts.
Speaker 1: Plus you know, we had stores that just couldn't even
Speaker 1: be open for a big portion of the year. M
Speaker 1: As a lot of people have said that the pandemic
Speaker 1: period tested every part of the organization. What did you
Speaker 1: learn about the business of ours Olivia going through this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think when you're going through really tough periods like that,
Speaker 1: you know, what it does is it's kind it shines
Speaker 1: a flashlight on every weakness, right. It doesn't really your
Speaker 1: strengths at that point don't matter as much as your
Speaker 1: weaknesses do. And you know, as a business leader, founder,
Speaker 1: creative director, we had to kind of really look at
Speaker 1: those and figure how to fix them at a time
Speaker 1: when it wasn't easy to fix things right like you know,
Speaker 1: you're you know, and we and our whole company had
Speaker 1: to be virtual. But what I was most proud of
Speaker 1: was that through really trying times, we made some really
Speaker 1: positive changes that needed to happen. I think in the
Speaker 1: business overall, you know, we closed our sample room and
Speaker 1: took all the costs out of you know, the business
Speaker 1: that were you know that we're applicable there, and we
Speaker 1: moved all of our development and design overseas and those
Speaker 1: were big changes but had to be made. We had
Speaker 1: no choice, you know, our fittings had to be virtual,
Speaker 1: our pattlenmaking had to be overseas um so it it
Speaker 1: forced change. But I think that looking back, I just
Speaker 1: have so much pride and how each one of my
Speaker 1: teams handled what they had to do to pivot to
Speaker 1: make it through. Um, and we made some beautiful clothes
Speaker 1: during that period somehow too. Do you have a sense
Speaker 1: as you as you design clothes for the future, do
Speaker 1: you have a sense that there has been a significant
Speaker 1: kind of cultural shift in what people are looking for.
Speaker 1: Are they looking for more casual clothes after fifteen months
Speaker 1: in swept pants? No, I mean I think right now,
Speaker 1: we've just seen this explosion and like women wanting to
Speaker 1: shop and wear dresses and dress up again. And yes, right,
Speaker 1: like I mean I'm casual one today I was trying
Speaker 1: to be all someome that like jeans. But no, we've
Speaker 1: just seen like a you know, like a huge demand
Speaker 1: beyond what we expected for clothes to dress up. And
Speaker 1: I think people are having weddings and having parties and
Speaker 1: having special events and there's like a big demand. Um.
Speaker 1: I think going forward what will probably change. And again,
Speaker 1: as a woman who has taken a lot of pride
Speaker 1: and having a company filled with women who have you know,
Speaker 1: had babies and still worked, I think there will be
Speaker 1: more flexibility in the workplace to accommodate people where they work,
Speaker 1: Like are they remote, are they in an office if
Speaker 1: you're a writer, like, do you have to be there
Speaker 1: every day? If you're a designer, do you know, you know,
Speaker 1: being a little bit more flexible to accommodate people's needs.
Speaker 1: Um And for me, like I've had designers who have
Speaker 1: worked remotely for years. I've had a designer who's working
Speaker 1: down in South America, another one in Paris, and um,
Speaker 1: I think that like we're I hope that what this
Speaker 1: virtual world that was created during allows us to do
Speaker 1: is accommodate um, you know, opportunities for women in a
Speaker 1: way that they're allowed to balance their lives a little
Speaker 1: bit more so. I mean definitely one of the learnings
Speaker 1: coming out of this has been, you know what really
Speaker 1: matters to answer how that yeah, and to answer how
Speaker 1: that effects dressing? Like I think that when people are
Speaker 1: working from home, um, you know, they kind of want
Speaker 1: to do that like blazer and casual pant look you know,
Speaker 1: like I noticed that we're selling right now all these
Speaker 1: like wide leg pants but they have like kind of
Speaker 1: elastic easy waste bands. You know. So it's like people
Speaker 1: want to be They're used to be uncomfortable, but they
Speaker 1: want to dress up again. I do think it's time
Speaker 1: to burn the sweatpants. Though for all the ladies listening
Speaker 1: to this, it's just say goodbye. Generation ago was burning bras.
Speaker 1: Now now it's definitely the sweatpants. What um, What Alison
Speaker 1: Olivia started with your search for the perfect pair of pants?
Speaker 1: You've told that story many times. What as you as
Speaker 1: you kind of gradually built built this brand. What in
Speaker 1: the early days? What what was the important catalyst? What?
Speaker 1: What put Alison Olivia over the top and allowed you
Speaker 1: to open so many boutiques and have retail relationships. I
Speaker 1: think that our brand was always about kind of democratizing
Speaker 1: fashion a little bit for women, right. Our brand was
Speaker 1: about not like one whole look. It was about items
Speaker 1: and it still is that allow women to express their
Speaker 1: own self. And I always think about fashion as each
Speaker 1: woman's art each day. It's how you express yourself. It's
Speaker 1: how you show to the world you are by what
Speaker 1: you know, it's your it's your startorial art. Um And
Speaker 1: when I started, you know, I didn't start saying, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm going to build a global empire and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: build full collections. I literally started because I was like,
Speaker 1: I want to make really cool pants. And at the time,
Speaker 1: if you want a little fashion history, you know, you
Speaker 1: had like the denim world, like the Earls and sevens
Speaker 1: of the world, and then you had like designer, and
Speaker 1: then you had like real street, you know, like kind
Speaker 1: of more like H and M E kind of stuff
Speaker 1: or Zora or whatever. You didn't have contemporary and theory
Speaker 1: really kicked off what is now known as the contemporary
Speaker 1: world of fashion, which is where you find fashion and
Speaker 1: you find you know, the designer made clothing but at
Speaker 1: a price point that's not like a ten dollar gown, um.
Speaker 1: And so I think where we came in at that time, unknowingly,
Speaker 1: you know, was sort of that we were entering that
Speaker 1: itemized contemporary market. And in the beginning, contemporary was like
Speaker 1: kind of theory pants and suits James first t shirts
Speaker 1: and jeans, and we came in and started making dresses
Speaker 1: and beautiful blouses and things that were fancy to kind
Speaker 1: of pair back to all those items that the big
Speaker 1: guys were making. And from that we really grew. And
Speaker 1: you know, I still think of the sensibility of Alice
Speaker 1: and Olivia the same way as making these beautiful items
Speaker 1: that every woman who tries it on can wear in
Speaker 1: her own way. You know, so you might wear a
Speaker 1: dress with a pair of heels, and another girl's putting
Speaker 1: it on with a pair of sneakers. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: my mom might wear our blazer back to her skinny jeans,
Speaker 1: and I might wear the blazer back to a ball
Speaker 1: down skirt. You know. And we've managed to sort of, hope,
Speaker 1: create clothes that allow women to express themselves with color,
Speaker 1: with print, and you know, their own and to really
Speaker 1: like sort of bring out their personality. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: what that's what I love doing. I so love your
Speaker 1: use of bold color in and of itself makes a
Speaker 1: makes a bold statement for sure. Um, let's talk about creatively.
Speaker 1: You took the leap and launched a kind of social network,
Speaker 1: professional networking service for people in the creative community, and
Speaker 1: you launched it during the in the teeth of the pandemic.
Speaker 1: What what was it about that time that made you
Speaker 1: feel like it was the right time to unveil creatively?
Speaker 1: So I felt that over the last several years when
Speaker 1: I was hiring people at Alison Olivia, it was really
Speaker 1: difficult to hire creative people. And the only way you
Speaker 1: really you know, looked at resumes or found people was
Speaker 1: on LinkedIn. And I'm like a most creative people aren't
Speaker 1: on LinkedIn and be LinkedIn is an amazing tool if
Speaker 1: you're hiring like a salesperson or an accountant, but when
Speaker 1: you're hiring a creative person, you need to see their world.
Speaker 1: I feel weird going and like stalking someone's Instagram looking
Speaker 1: at their kids when I'm like trying to interview them.
Speaker 1: But you need to see their visual world, right, So
Speaker 1: you get a white piece of resume for someone who's
Speaker 1: making things in three D for you, and it just
Speaker 1: doesn't equate. And you know you can interview them or whatever,
Speaker 1: but you know you'd have to have three hours of
Speaker 1: you know, they having them to projects, having put together
Speaker 1: a portfolio. And I just kind of one day said,
Speaker 1: there needs to be this professional network and job platform
Speaker 1: that is built for the creative world that is a
Speaker 1: portfolio driven tool that allows creatives to share their work
Speaker 1: in the most powerful way. And I like to describe
Speaker 1: it as almost the most beautiful free art gallery for
Speaker 1: the creative, which is basically a way to facilitate creative
Speaker 1: showing their work. Um and it is not a place
Speaker 1: for creatives to share pictures, pictures of their children or
Speaker 1: what cocktail they're having or you know their political stance
Speaker 1: on you know, A B and C. It is truly
Speaker 1: just a safe place for creatives to share their works,
Speaker 1: show their work, collaborate on their work, and to find work.
Speaker 1: So it is a job platform, it is a UM
Speaker 1: you know, it is a professional network. And what's been
Speaker 1: really exciting is, you know, the response we've had from
Speaker 1: creatives that are so excited to have this tool, but
Speaker 1: also from brands who are now using it. We have
Speaker 1: over a thousand brands and come to is using the
Speaker 1: platform not just in fashion and all industries to find
Speaker 1: creative talent and higher creative talent. We'll take a break
Speaker 1: here and be back with more from Alice and Olivia
Speaker 1: and Creatively founder Stacy Benditt Eisner tell me what's the
Speaker 1: business model behind We charge companies. We don't charge of
Speaker 1: the creative. The platform is totally free for creatives. We
Speaker 1: charge companies UM that we have different service levels where
Speaker 1: companies can use to UM. They can actually use Creatively
Speaker 1: to set up projects so they can hire there. They're
Speaker 1: going to be able to hire creatives directly, but they
Speaker 1: can also post jobs UM just like they would on
Speaker 1: something like a LinkedIn or another professional network, so that's
Speaker 1: our Our model is similar to that, but we do
Speaker 1: not charge the creative. We only charge brands to use
Speaker 1: creatively um to to hire a you know, mobile global
Speaker 1: creative workforce, freelance and full time. That's the other difference.
Speaker 1: It's like there wasn't really a we. We kind of
Speaker 1: filled this niche for creatives where we have a job.
Speaker 1: Most people don't post a job like listening for something freelance,
Speaker 1: it's just for full time. Whereas I'm creatively companies are
Speaker 1: encouraged to post both we're going to need somebody for
Speaker 1: six months on this specific for days here in Mexico.
Speaker 1: And if you have a specialty on this kind of graphics,
Speaker 1: so much the better. You can search by location, you
Speaker 1: can search by category. How have you gotten this company
Speaker 1: on its feet? Have you funded it yourself? Did you
Speaker 1: go raise money? So in the beginning, I funded it myself,
Speaker 1: UM with my partner whose name is Reagan silver Um.
Speaker 1: And then since then we've done a little bit of fundraising.
Speaker 1: UM My father in law as an investor, Sherry Redstone's
Speaker 1: company as an investor. We have Lion Try as an investor.
Speaker 1: So we've we've got some great minds and you know
Speaker 1: advisors behind us UM and you know, we we just
Speaker 1: started building it about two years ago and then we
Speaker 1: launched it a little bit earlier than expected. But last
Speaker 1: you know May, in the midst of the pandemic, all
Speaker 1: these students were graduating from schools. They didn't have jobs,
Speaker 1: they didn't have a weight and network UM. And so
Speaker 1: upon meeting with some of the schools, specifically through the
Speaker 1: CFTA in the fashion industry, UM, we just launched it
Speaker 1: a little bit earlier than we thought. But we're able
Speaker 1: to allow all these students to put their portfolios places
Speaker 1: and apply for jobs like you can apply for jobs
Speaker 1: right through Creatively and we post hundreds, if not thousands
Speaker 1: of job listings a week. How did you get the
Speaker 1: word out at the beginning? So we launched it with
Speaker 1: you know press, I promoted it on social and a
Speaker 1: lot of friends who promoted it. UM. You know, we
Speaker 1: have a you know Instagram account for Creatively, which we
Speaker 1: used UM and you know, we've just gotten a lot
Speaker 1: of you know, of of press because I think it's
Speaker 1: truly something that just hasn't existed in the world. You know,
Speaker 1: our job is really to facilitate jobs for creatives and
Speaker 1: to make it easier for companies to find and higher creatives.
Speaker 1: And our next venture, which we're launching this week, um,
Speaker 1: you know, is our next step, creatively Pay. And creatively
Speaker 1: Pay is what I think, a big game changer UM
Speaker 1: in the world of hiring creatives, and a big game
Speaker 1: changer for creatives because what we're doing is eliminating what
Speaker 1: I think is one of the biggest pain points for creatives,
Speaker 1: which is getting paid, the long wait between invoice and
Speaker 1: being an accounts payable sending that check. Creatively Pay will
Speaker 1: be the fastest way for creatives to get paid for
Speaker 1: their work. They can get paid the same day for
Speaker 1: their work. And not only that, but what creatively pay
Speaker 1: will um we're announcing it this week, but in the
Speaker 1: fall when we launch it, there will be ways for
Speaker 1: you to very easily invoice to schedule your jobs. We
Speaker 1: want to make life easier for creatives so they can
Speaker 1: be creative. I felt so luck in my career to
Speaker 1: have you know, a sort of infrastructure around me and
Speaker 1: and and almost like a platform beneath me too, you know,
Speaker 1: handle a lot of like logistics and a lot of
Speaker 1: things on the business side, of my company so that
Speaker 1: I could be free to let my brain be creative.
Speaker 1: And I want to help other creatives have that, and
Speaker 1: I think this is a big part of it. I mean,
Speaker 1: I hear from friends that I work with. You know,
Speaker 1: they're a photographer, they're a videographer, they're a hair person
Speaker 1: to makeup person, and sometimes they're waiting three months to
Speaker 1: get paid. So what we are doing is announcing a
Speaker 1: partnership with or um Um and we are the interim
Speaker 1: financing so that when you use Creatively pay, you're paid
Speaker 1: the same day and or Um is the liquidity so
Speaker 1: that companies can still have their thirty day terms or
Speaker 1: whatever they need um. But the creative does not have
Speaker 1: to wait all of that time to receive a check
Speaker 1: for the work that they've completed. And does the company
Speaker 1: the companies that partner with Creatively to do this, do
Speaker 1: they have to pay an extra feed for that service happen,
Speaker 1: They have to be very fine. But for the first
Speaker 1: like several months or in the year um, there there
Speaker 1: is no fee and we will never charge the creatives
Speaker 1: for this because that's the other issue. A lot of
Speaker 1: times creatives are getting chunks taken out of their paycheck
Speaker 1: from agents and managers, which is okay if that's if
Speaker 1: they're providing a service, but a lot of times like
Speaker 1: they're having you know, money taken out for other things
Speaker 1: when they're trying to get even paid on time. So
Speaker 1: we want to make things as positive and productive for
Speaker 1: the creative as possible. Um you know, orum will be
Speaker 1: will verify all of the brands that we're working with.
Speaker 1: But if a creative says to a company, I want
Speaker 1: to get paid through creatively pay, it's very easy for
Speaker 1: the company to get set up to pay them through
Speaker 1: that and it's of no if it's of no pain
Speaker 1: to the to the brand either well as somebody who's
Speaker 1: been on the phone with freelancers desperately waiting by the
Speaker 1: waiting by the mailbox for that all important check. I
Speaker 1: can imagine that there will be some interest in this service.
Speaker 1: I would imagine that there is a risk for you
Speaker 1: in this in the sense that not every invoices paid
Speaker 1: in full. How are you going to mitigate against the
Speaker 1: dig of the deal that falls through the job that
Speaker 1: gets paid a kill fee or a half fee. So
Speaker 1: there I mean, listen, They're going to be some things
Speaker 1: that are worked out over the next several months until
Speaker 1: when we launched this in the fall. But Creatively is
Speaker 1: not Creatively as the facilitator of this, like we're the
Speaker 1: platform and we are the um you know, the kind
Speaker 1: of invoicing and payment front end, whereas Orum is the finance.
Speaker 1: They're like the bank. But Orum is this amazing, you know,
Speaker 1: new company that is changing the way that money moves around.
Speaker 1: So there's also no the other fee that creatives not fee,
Speaker 1: but the lag time creatives haves is sometimes it takes
Speaker 1: five days for the bank to clear your payment to
Speaker 1: so Oorum's technology allows for there to be zero time
Speaker 1: for your money to clear through the bank, and it's
Speaker 1: providing the interim liquidity between the company and the creative UM.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's their responsibility to verify the brands
Speaker 1: that are working with the creatives. So it's not like
Speaker 1: if a photographer does a job for a birthday party
Speaker 1: and it's an individual, like we're not getting in that game.
Speaker 1: It's about verified brands on Creatively that can use Creatively
Speaker 1: pay with creatives that would do that kind of business
Speaker 1: at the scale. What's it been like for you launching
Speaker 1: this kind of very I P based business versus Alison
Speaker 1: Olivia a very hard you know, making shirts and making starts.
Speaker 1: I know, it's funny exactly like my my uh my
Speaker 1: main job is so tangible, right, Like it's touch, it's feel,
Speaker 1: it's you know what like and this is all kind
Speaker 1: of a little bit more um, you know in the ethos, right. So, um,
Speaker 1: it's been really exciting for me to work kind of
Speaker 1: start up again, right. And but I think like I'm
Speaker 1: a sort of natural entrepreneur where even if you look
Speaker 1: at Alice Olivia, over the years, we've done so many
Speaker 1: entrepreneurial things, even though as a company we're almost twenty
Speaker 1: years old, like every year we're do something new, you know,
Speaker 1: we launched this, we did this collaboration. So there's a
Speaker 1: lot of kind of like startup energy in Allison Olivia still.
Speaker 1: But the difference is that I think with creatively, um,
Speaker 1: you know, the whole company's virtual. I'm working with all
Speaker 1: these cool tech guys, you know, and and it's so
Speaker 1: different than my my life at Alice and Olivia that's
Speaker 1: filled with women in fabric and color and touch and
Speaker 1: fittings and it's I mean, it could not be more opposite.
Speaker 1: But it's still really creative um. That last startup of yours,
Speaker 1: Alison Olivia in you told a fashion magazine that it
Speaker 1: had grown to be a two hundred million dollar business.
Speaker 1: You have expanded significantly since then. Can you give us
Speaker 1: the ballpark of what the business is to give numbers
Speaker 1: out and we definitely like cut back a lot in
Speaker 1: twenty but for this year probably around like two fifty
Speaker 1: million UM. And you know, I think the resizing that
Speaker 1: sort of happened in was this kind of I always
Speaker 1: try to look at things, is like the glasses have full,
Speaker 1: and it allowed us to like kind of just tighten
Speaker 1: things up in a way and change things without judgment.
Speaker 1: Right Like every year it was like you had to grow,
Speaker 1: you have to grow, you have to be up you know,
Speaker 1: ten per cent or this, and in it was just
Speaker 1: kind of like, no, we've got to fix things and
Speaker 1: we've got to make things more efficient. And you know
Speaker 1: we've taken that time too to be able to like
Speaker 1: make the company more echo like our fabrics are waste
Speaker 1: are you know? Just everything became less about this, you know.
Speaker 1: Over I think the retail world for many years was
Speaker 1: about like grow, grow, grow, and you were kind of
Speaker 1: living in that growth versus living in profit. And I
Speaker 1: like and I think that last year what we did
Speaker 1: was slim things down to actually become more profitable, which
Speaker 1: was sort of nice. So, um, you know we're not
Speaker 1: you know, we're probably what like bigger than we were,
Speaker 1: but we are way more efficient. So are you and
Speaker 1: your partner Andrew Rosen? Are you still the principal owners
Speaker 1: of the business? We are? And he's amazing. I mean
Speaker 1: I feel like, um, I'm so lucky. I mean, I
Speaker 1: my creatively team, I love I picked good work partners. Um.
Speaker 1: So Andrew has been my partner for almost twenty years, right,
Speaker 1: he's I mean, like I mean through the pandemic. I
Speaker 1: can't tell you what I could like actually like cry
Speaker 1: thinking about it because there were some really tough times.
Speaker 1: But he was the most incredible support as a like
Speaker 1: a friend, as like a big brother, and as a partner,
Speaker 1: and he really helped us get through. I mean it's
Speaker 1: complicated getting through all the financial you know sort of
Speaker 1: runaround of you know, loans and and you know all everything.
Speaker 1: It was crazy, the ppe loans. Um. He's an amazing
Speaker 1: not just retailer and entrepreneur, but he's an incredible friend.
Speaker 1: So I feel really lucky to have that and my
Speaker 1: creatively team to like my CEO of Right Get Rich
Speaker 1: amazing guy, my chief product officer amazing. So I I'm
Speaker 1: surrounded by by some good good business partners, business business,
Speaker 1: less business lives. Stacy, you have no shortage of drive
Speaker 1: and ambition and it's wonderful. What do you think One
Speaker 1: thing that I know is often talked about a peer
Speaker 1: at Alan company is the for all the progress, there's
Speaker 1: still relatively few of you, relatively few CEOs of really big, successful,
Speaker 1: influential brands. And I know it's a tough question, but
Speaker 1: do you have any thoughts about what it will take
Speaker 1: to bring more women into the c suite? Well, I
Speaker 1: have a lot of thoughts on it, so we might
Speaker 1: have to do another interview. Um, but I think, listen,
Speaker 1: balancing work and children is not easy, and you know
Speaker 1: it is. It is not simple and it is not easy.
Speaker 1: But companies need to create environments that allow for you know,
Speaker 1: women to have a little bit of flexibility to succeed.
Speaker 1: And they also need and I think women need to
Speaker 1: root for other women. You know, I think so often
Speaker 1: as a culture, when you know a woman is in
Speaker 1: the press, the press is waiting to take her down.
Speaker 1: And that is what needs to change. You know, we
Speaker 1: need to like be proud of women for being ambitious.
Speaker 1: We need to be proud of women for being successful,
Speaker 1: and we need to you know, like we need to
Speaker 1: allow for it a little bit more. And and I
Speaker 1: think that when you look around this conference, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: still mostly men and that does need to change. But
Speaker 1: we need to start that from the early years. You know,
Speaker 1: we need to encourage women to stay in the workforce
Speaker 1: through the first years of having kids, because once you
Speaker 1: leave the workforce during that time, it is really hard
Speaker 1: to get back in it like an upper level. And
Speaker 1: I see it all the time because you know, you
Speaker 1: have a baby, You're like, I'm gonna take your two off.
Speaker 1: Then you have another baby, and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: you're like the world's moved really quickly during those years
Speaker 1: of babies. And the best advice I can give is,
Speaker 1: you know, and I can't even say that I did
Speaker 1: a great job of this because I was kind of
Speaker 1: always like I'm gonna do all of it. And you know, women, hut,
Speaker 1: women and men need to be collaborative in their parenting
Speaker 1: and caregiving efforts. Like there needs to be a standard
Speaker 1: that changes where it's not always the mom that has
Speaker 1: to run to school, or always the mom that has
Speaker 1: to take the kid to the doctor, or the mom
Speaker 1: that has to do this. It has to be collaborative parenting.
Speaker 1: And I think that's actually a really big part of
Speaker 1: women being able to make it to the upper levels
Speaker 1: because women tend to take on all of the home
Speaker 1: duties and work and then you know, you're fried, you're tired,
Speaker 1: you're exhausted, and at some point you maybe give up
Speaker 1: or you know, want to work part time or you know,
Speaker 1: lose the ambition to get up here. Um. And and
Speaker 1: I think that you know, that starts with kind of
Speaker 1: like societal training, that parenting is parenting between man and man,
Speaker 1: man and woman, woman and woman, but it is two
Speaker 1: people that are responsible for that work. And luckily I
Speaker 1: have a husband who like is really present dad. Right.
Speaker 1: But um, but that's one thing. And then the other
Speaker 1: thing is that companies need to create environments that allow
Speaker 1: women to succeed. You know, like I don't expect women
Speaker 1: to be at dinners at eight o'clock every night, because
Speaker 1: I know they need to go home and they want
Speaker 1: to be with their kids for bedtime. You know, we're flexible,
Speaker 1: especially like I have a lot of women who, like,
Speaker 1: you know, as they became more senior executives in my company,
Speaker 1: like we have a tremendous amount of flexibility to allow
Speaker 1: them to kind of, you know, be a little more virtual.
Speaker 1: And I hope that this year encourages companies to see
Speaker 1: that and allow for that too. Sorry I'm rambling, but
Speaker 1: I could go on about this for a very long time,
Speaker 1: I can tell. And I was just thinking that if ever,
Speaker 1: there has been a there's been a period for learning
Speaker 1: about what, you know, what requires a person to physically
Speaker 1: be in an office versus you know what, what you
Speaker 1: can do in a situation that gives you more flexibility
Speaker 1: when you have rug rats running around And yeah, it's
Speaker 1: I mean, listen and I and I always preface these
Speaker 1: conversations with I know that I was privileged and lucky
Speaker 1: to have a lot of help when my kids were little.
Speaker 1: I will say that the hardest years, or when your
Speaker 1: kids are like one, two, and three, once they're in
Speaker 1: school a full day, you can create this balance where
Speaker 1: you know, you sort of drop them off at school,
Speaker 1: you go to work, they maybe have an activity, everyone's
Speaker 1: home right. And you know, I really have always tried
Speaker 1: to reiterate the fact that Alice and Olivia that if
Speaker 1: you were at your desk pass like six or seven
Speaker 1: at night, like you're not managing your time well, because
Speaker 1: we don't. You know, as a company, we really try to.
Speaker 1: We we want women to have a balanced life. That
Speaker 1: is so important to me as a woman, and it's
Speaker 1: important to me to nurture and really facilitate for the
Speaker 1: woman who work for me. But um, but the hardest
Speaker 1: years or when your kids are little, although I will
Speaker 1: say that as your kids get bigger, you have bigger problems.
Speaker 1: But the band aid won't fix everything that neosporin doesn't
Speaker 1: like fix every every boo boo. But but you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's but companies have to you know, just as
Speaker 1: they're making efforts in terms of diversity and inclusion, they
Speaker 1: also have to be continuously making efforts to you know,
Speaker 1: make sure that they have more women involved and not
Speaker 1: just like oh I put a woman on my board,
Speaker 1: like you need women involved in your company in you know,
Speaker 1: those sea level positions. Even in the fashion industry today,
Speaker 1: when they did a record a couple of years ago, um,
Speaker 1: it was like there was only like, I can't remember
Speaker 1: the exact personage, but the percentage of women in C
Speaker 1: suites in fashion was like only the number. When we
Speaker 1: look around, we see so many great examples, like yourself,
Speaker 1: of women thriving, and yet the numbers are just stubbornly low.
Speaker 1: It's going to take time because you can't just pop
Speaker 1: women into the C suite, right, you have to bring
Speaker 1: them up and so that, you know, women need to
Speaker 1: be mentored and women need to be encouraged, women need
Speaker 1: to be inspired to stay in the workforce, and it's
Speaker 1: going to take, you know, five or ten years to
Speaker 1: start to see that all really changed. I do think
Speaker 1: the efforts being made, and I do think we will
Speaker 1: start to see it. But you can't just all of
Speaker 1: a sudden have like all women in the C suite
Speaker 1: because you have them down, you know, at the mid level.
Speaker 1: You've got to absolutely have the foundation to succeed. Yeah. Absolutely, well, Stacy,
Speaker 1: my goodness, thank you so much for taking time out
Speaker 1: from this very heavy event to share your thoughts with us,
Speaker 1: and congratulations on the success of Alison Olivia and look
Speaker 1: forward to seeing Creatively grow in the coming year. Yes,
Speaker 1: and everyone needs to check out creatively pay really appreciate
Speaker 1: your time. Thank you, thanks for listening. Be sure to
Speaker 1: leave us a review at Apple Podcasts. We love to
Speaker 1: hear from listeners, and be sure to tune in next
Speaker 1: week for another episode of Strictly Business