Speaker 1: Welcome back to She Pivots. I'm Rebecca Mincoff.
Speaker 2: Welcome to She Pivots, the podcast where we talk with
Speaker 2: women who dared to pivot out of one career and
Speaker 2: into something new and explore how their personal lives impacted
Speaker 2: these decisions. I'm your host Emily Tish Sussman, and this
Speaker 2: week we have on a guest again, Rebecca Minkoff. Were
Speaker 2: re releasing her episode because when we recorded it last year,
Speaker 2: we had no idea that she was about to become
Speaker 2: a real housewife of New York. So we caught up
Speaker 2: with Rebecca this week, found out all about what that
Speaker 2: filming was like, what she's looking forward to, maybe not
Speaker 2: looking forward to, and then we have the original conversation
Speaker 2: with her. Afterwards we hear all about her pivot into fashion,
Speaker 2: pivot out to the Female Founder's Collective, and hosting her
Speaker 2: own podcast, and now into reality star Enjoy. My name
Speaker 2: is Rebecca Mincoff.
Speaker 1: I'm a designer, podcaster, author, mother four, co founder of
Speaker 1: the Female Founder Collective, and real housewife of New York City. Okay,
Speaker 1: so how is this new title feeling for you? You know,
Speaker 1: Heavyweights the Crown, Emily, Well, it's funny because I feel
Speaker 1: like we have so much explaining to do. We're none
Speaker 1: of us are housewives, so it's very weird to call
Speaker 1: myself one because I do not identify as a rich
Speaker 1: woman who has nothing to do all day. I'm definitely
Speaker 1: working my ass off, and so are all the other ladies.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I would definitely know that would be like
Speaker 2: about the last thing I would ever call you is
Speaker 2: a housewife.
Speaker 1: Actually, you know, I am dreams of being a housewife,
Speaker 1: but not yet. So then what made you want to
Speaker 1: do it?
Speaker 2: And this is how I felt.
Speaker 1: I thought that there was an opportunity to be part
Speaker 1: of their revival or the reboot, I should say, of
Speaker 1: showcasing eight very successful female entrepreneurs that are all diverse backgrounds, places, ethnicities,
Speaker 1: And could that be a narrative that, yes, there's drama,
Speaker 1: there's got to be drama or no one's watching. We
Speaker 1: all know that, But could that also be something that's
Speaker 1: just seen and celebrated because there's not enough of us, right.
Speaker 1: It's also I said it in an earlier interview, like
Speaker 1: it's great for like there's a whole host of women
Speaker 1: that are either fans of the brand and grew up
Speaker 1: with the brand or new ones that I could reach,
Speaker 1: and if they get to know me better and they
Speaker 1: like what they see, like, it's a great business opportunity
Speaker 1: as well. So those were some of the reasons why
Speaker 1: I decided to do it. We're also celebrating our twentieth anniversary,
Speaker 1: and I thought, let's just get out there, and what
Speaker 1: a better platform to be doing that with? So why
Speaker 1: is this?
Speaker 2: Why?
Speaker 1: Why is this? What a better platform?
Speaker 2: Like, you know, we're going to attach this to the
Speaker 2: interview that you and I did earlier this year together,
Speaker 2: and so I'm interested into where I like, when we
Speaker 2: did this interview, I didn't know that you were engaged
Speaker 2: with the housewives. I don't know if you were already
Speaker 2: filming them, had ended filming the beginning, or if you
Speaker 2: were in even discussions with them. So I definitely didn't
Speaker 2: ask any questions about it. But you know, we talked
Speaker 2: through your evolution, like your own pivots, your own moments,
Speaker 2: and how you built your fashion brand. And then when
Speaker 2: you were a little bit removed, it gave you the
Speaker 2: space to think about, Okay, what else can I do
Speaker 2: for female founders? And then you started the podcast, you
Speaker 2: started the Female Founders and you started supporting other businesses
Speaker 2: through that.
Speaker 1: Like, how does this This isn't the most.
Speaker 2: Obvious move to follow your trajectory, so like, why this
Speaker 2: platform to follow that same thinking that.
Speaker 1: You had had. Well, yes, it is definitely veering left.
Speaker 1: But what I will say is I've always taken risks.
Speaker 1: We've always done the things that did not seem like
Speaker 1: following the straight path. And at the time it doesn't
Speaker 1: seem like it makes any sense, and then later on
Speaker 1: people are like, oh, wow, you were the first to
Speaker 1: do talk to influencers, store the future, wearables, you know,
Speaker 1: talk to your customer, all these things that seemed crazy.
Speaker 1: So in my book, while it does seem cuckoo, there
Speaker 1: is a rhyme and reason for why I decided to
Speaker 1: do it. And I think when you start unpacking who
Speaker 1: watches this show? For the most part, it's women in
Speaker 1: my exact demographic is also very smart, accomplished, talented women
Speaker 1: as well. Who for them this show is like a
Speaker 1: respite from like their crazy lives.
Speaker 2: It was funny.
Speaker 1: A good friend of my husband's is an accomplished, award
Speaker 1: winning director and when she found out this was more
Speaker 1: exciting for her than like being at the Sundance Film Festival,
Speaker 1: and so, you know, the opportunity to show another dimension
Speaker 1: of myself was something I've thought long and hard about
Speaker 1: because you only get a certain slice on my podcast.
Speaker 2: And I'm mostly interviewing. You only get a certain slice on.
Speaker 1: Social which were we are showcasing a brand and product,
Speaker 1: and so how do you then just add more dimensionality
Speaker 1: to who I am? And hopefully that means you know,
Speaker 1: you want to connect more in whatever way. I mean,
Speaker 1: I feel like the side they probably want to focus
Speaker 1: on in the show is mostly personal like you personally,
Speaker 1: your kids or family like stuff that you've kind of
Speaker 1: kept to yourself. Yes, but I'm a friend of and
Speaker 1: what that means, and most people don't know that is
Speaker 1: most of my private life still stays pretty private. And
Speaker 1: we did that for a number of reasons. I have
Speaker 1: very young children and I was not ready to expose
Speaker 1: them to that, and my husband at the moment has.
Speaker 2: No interest on being on the show.
Speaker 1: So between him having no interests in my young children, like,
Speaker 1: you know, you'll see slices of it, but it's not,
Speaker 1: you know, heavily featured, which is what a friend of
Speaker 1: kind of means. Yeah, Ok, that makes sense.
Speaker 2: It's funny you were saying that you know, people would
Speaker 2: necessarily expect it of you. Do you remember how you
Speaker 2: told me that you were because we are friends, how
Speaker 2: you told me that you were doing this? Remind me,
Speaker 2: remind everyone. Yeah, it's that I I invited you to
Speaker 2: attend a Gotham game because I invited all of nice friends.
Speaker 2: I said, guys, everybody come see got the FC. We
Speaker 2: just bought the women soccer team, Like I want all
Speaker 2: of my friends to come. And you wrote back and
Speaker 2: you were like, do you want the Real Housewives there?
Speaker 2: And I was like, yeah, totally, Like who doesn't, but.
Speaker 1: Like, do you know that? Oh my surprise that one?
Speaker 1: And I truly could not have been more surprised. Yes,
Speaker 1: a lot of people were surprised, and I've gotten a
Speaker 1: lot of like, so, so why did you do this?
Speaker 2: Why did you open yourself up to this hatred that
Speaker 2: you're about to get? Yeah, I mean it's sort of
Speaker 2: inevitable that Like that's the point, right, I mean, not
Speaker 2: like the point, but like that's how the drama stays,
Speaker 2: is that like people bring things and they have feelings
Speaker 2: about it, and like the hatred, like how what are
Speaker 2: you preparing for? And how have you prepared yourself for it?
Speaker 2: So so the girls on the cast have all prepared me.
Speaker 2: They said, do no longer will you read comments or
Speaker 2: engage with them. Someone else should do that for you,
Speaker 2: because that's where the fans can get brutal. They also said,
Speaker 2: take off and remove all Google alerts on yourself. I
Speaker 2: have not done that yet because I feel the need
Speaker 2: to know what is being said about me in the press,
Speaker 2: and I think you know.
Speaker 1: I interviewed a guest, Kristen from Nomadical Wines on my
Speaker 1: podcast and I love my last question for passing along advice,
Speaker 1: and she was like, only take advice from women whose
Speaker 1: lives you want, And I just am reinforcing that, like,
Speaker 1: if this is not a woman whose life I want,
Speaker 1: do not listen, do not engage, And that helps, I think,
Speaker 1: weed out a lot of the nasty stuff that's about
Speaker 1: to be unleashed. And with the nasty is also great, right,
Speaker 1: there's incredible opportunities ahead and I'm excited for that to happen.
Speaker 2: It has put you in this sort of like sisterhood
Speaker 2: and camaraderie of a very small group of people whose
Speaker 2: lives have been opened up and exposed in this way
Speaker 2: to your point that you know, like the New York
Speaker 2: reboot is women that have businesses that are definitely not housewives.
Speaker 1: It's actually kind of not.
Speaker 2: True like the majority of the housewives of the women
Speaker 2: who have been on Housewives, do you feel a camaraderie
Speaker 2: with women who have been on other franchises? Like, do
Speaker 2: you feel connected to them? I mean, you guys do
Speaker 2: have this kind of like crazy unique thing. It's called
Speaker 2: a trauma bond.
Speaker 1: That's the word for it. That's the word for it.
Speaker 1: It's it's almost like you know what they've been through
Speaker 1: and someone can try and explain to you what it's like.
Speaker 1: And Jenna Lyons tried to explain to me what it
Speaker 1: was like before we started filming. It's like telling a
Speaker 1: woman who's never been pregnant what it's like to like
Speaker 1: give birth, and it can be intense. You know. By nature,
Speaker 1: I am a girl's girl and I want women to succeed,
Speaker 1: and so when women are fighting and coming for each other,
Speaker 1: it's in my nature to want to de escalate, diffuse
Speaker 1: and I know that inherent in this show what makes
Speaker 1: it interesting and drama. So it's this tension for me
Speaker 1: of I want to solve this situation, but I can't.
Speaker 2: What could I do?
Speaker 1: And I found that I was like the Jewish mother
Speaker 1: being like, let me feed you, let me cook for you.
Speaker 1: Who knows if they'll cut it out, but I swear
Speaker 1: to God you could put together a montage of any
Speaker 1: time they're fighting, I immediately get up and I'm like,
Speaker 1: trying to serve people food.
Speaker 2: Okay, that's actually going to be an incredible cut, like
Speaker 2: all the TCD Stone cut, like Becky cooking trying.
Speaker 1: To serve people food.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean on that point, I feel like the
Speaker 2: format of the show like doesn't really align with the
Speaker 2: way I would like emotionally live my life. In that
Speaker 2: I don't know, I either like wouldn't be that confrontational.
Speaker 2: I would like be confrontational and try to just sort
Speaker 2: of like do it in the least is explosive way possible.
Speaker 2: And then I might also hold a really long grutch,
Speaker 2: which doesn't really work well if you're trying to move
Speaker 2: a storyline across. Like, how did you find your personality
Speaker 2: vibing with the format?
Speaker 1: I think with the format, I was very much like
Speaker 1: the only way that I winted this is by being
Speaker 1: myself an authentic. So when you know, one of the
Speaker 1: women had something that she said about me went viral,
Speaker 1: I think people expect you to hold the grudge, bring
Speaker 1: it up, have a big fight about it. And I
Speaker 1: was like, I brought it up. She apologized, I accepted
Speaker 1: her apology. We're still friends, and that is wild to
Speaker 1: watch people be like but she said it, and I'm like, yes,
Speaker 1: and we are mature women, and so I have to
Speaker 1: go against that belief and grain of like we're going
Speaker 1: to have beef forever. We even joke about it right
Speaker 1: now and we joke about you know, you'll see some
Speaker 1: things we joke about later. So it's just like just
Speaker 1: taking the air out of it a little bit because
Speaker 1: I wanted to also just be me and that's who
Speaker 1: I am. I'm not someone that like holds a grudge forever.
Speaker 1: And you know, unless it's irreparable and you're a crazy person,
Speaker 1: we can have a conversation and normalize just being mature.
Speaker 2: Well, one of the things that's always struck me as
Speaker 2: probably I don't know, I guess maybe like difficult to
Speaker 2: maintain over a number of seasons is that you might
Speaker 2: be sort of forced into people that you find to
Speaker 2: be crazy or I find you know that anybody would
Speaker 2: find to be crazy because you actually can't choose everybody involved.
Speaker 2: So do you see that as being like was that
Speaker 2: a limiting factor for you when filming it?
Speaker 1: And do you see it as being a limiting factor
Speaker 1: moving forward?
Speaker 2: So I think it depends if someone is higher.
Speaker 1: Is if someone is there to just be crazy and
Speaker 1: be entertaining, that's just an energy that you learn to
Speaker 1: sort of deal with. Is someone is there to be
Speaker 1: mean spirited, evil, spiteful, really causing true drama and pain.
Speaker 1: That's another level of things that get hard to deal with.
Speaker 1: And I think I come at it from two places.
Speaker 1: I'm not engaging with it. I will not give that life,
Speaker 1: But also where did that person come from and what
Speaker 1: trauma did they experience that made them that way? And
Speaker 1: so I have to have a little empathy when they
Speaker 1: are that way, not sympathy, but empathy of like, wow,
Speaker 1: you just had to endure a lot, and good job
Speaker 1: on surviving. But I'm not engaging with it and I'm
Speaker 1: not going to validate it. I definitely feel that.
Speaker 2: Okay, on a totally different topic, I'm very excited for
Speaker 2: the purse you have coming out, which one, The Wicked One, Oh,
Speaker 2: the Wicked One. Yes, it's almost here.
Speaker 1: Are we allowed to talk about it?
Speaker 2: Yes? We can?
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm so excited.
Speaker 2: How I'm the biggest musical theater fan love Wicked obviously
Speaker 2: forever and ever. To be associated with this film is unbelievable.
Speaker 2: So how did.
Speaker 1: This come about that you got to have a piece
Speaker 1: in it? This came about ten days after giving birth
Speaker 1: to my son. I was asked to fly to London.
Speaker 2: All expenses paid, first class.
Speaker 1: Wine and dined all weekend with like Mattel and Lego
Speaker 1: and whatever.
Speaker 2: And I was in my hormone high and I was like,
Speaker 2: how could I do that? Can I smuggle my non
Speaker 2: passport baby across? You know?
Speaker 1: And after a while I was like, you know what,
Speaker 1: I'm choosing my baby, Like I'm going to give this
Speaker 1: opportunity up. And I just wrote a letter like I
Speaker 1: just gave birth, I cannot possibly travel ten days after
Speaker 1: having him. Thank you so much for this opportunity. If
Speaker 1: there's a way to engage with you at a later date,
Speaker 1: let us know. And they're like, send your second best person.
Speaker 1: So I sent Mary. And Mary was my head of
Speaker 1: pr and.
Speaker 2: Partnerships, and she went, and it was this long process.
Speaker 1: Of not only understanding what they wanted, who they were
Speaker 1: looking for, but how do we as a brand bring
Speaker 1: what people love and is iconic about Rebecca Makeoff and
Speaker 1: the film. And we got to see footage and props
Speaker 1: and the makings of which was so incredibly special. When
Speaker 1: I tell you that no detail was spared, Like nine
Speaker 1: million two of us were planted for one of the scenes.
Speaker 1: You know, they rebuilt from scratch. I'm now blanking on
Speaker 1: the name of the university. You're gonna fill in the blank,
Speaker 1: shiz shiz, dear old shiz.
Speaker 2: Yes, thank you. I'm like, gosh, what was the name
Speaker 2: of it?
Speaker 1: So, and they made it handicap accessible as they built it,
Speaker 1: you know, like just the thought of, Okay, we don't
Speaker 1: want to use CGI, we want this to be really
Speaker 1: real for people. So and then you go into like
Speaker 1: the grimmery and like, just it's fucking epic what they did.
Speaker 1: So I was really inspired. We came out with two bags.
Speaker 1: I wanted to do more, but you know, I am
Speaker 1: surrounded by business people and they're like two is enough.
Speaker 2: One for Galinda, one for alphah Bah.
Speaker 1: One is a hot pink patent like box bag with
Speaker 1: this swarros eat crystal strap not real Swasky, I guess
Speaker 1: I can't say the name, but crystal strap. And then
Speaker 1: one is based on one of our best selling bags
Speaker 1: called the Easy and it's stud pattern is from excerpted
Speaker 1: from the Grimmery and there's a great tag in both
Speaker 1: bags said don't hide your magic. And it comes out
Speaker 1: in November.
Speaker 2: It'll be in the windows at Bloomingdale's.
Speaker 1: I'm part of their big activation and it'll be available
Speaker 1: on our site and it's limited.
Speaker 2: Addition, so it's going to sell out. Okay, that is
Speaker 2: so cool. Are we going to see any of that
Speaker 2: in the Housewives? Was that happening at the same time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So we got to film a really cool scene
Speaker 1: where London sized daughter who's a huge musical theater fan,
Speaker 1: gets to come into the office. She gets to touch
Speaker 1: and hold the props like we got the props delivered
Speaker 1: as a surprise for her. She leaves with a bag
Speaker 1: and I take her through the makings of you know
Speaker 1: and why we chose that bag, so you'll get a
Speaker 1: little sneak peek.
Speaker 2: Oh, that's so cool. That's going to be so special. Okay,
Speaker 2: this was just at our quick update. Do you have
Speaker 2: anything else that we should talk about?
Speaker 1: Well, I'm a prankster and you're going to see that
Speaker 1: in the episodes. You know, you might see some things
Speaker 1: that I'm trying to make some points about rumors that
Speaker 1: are spreading and how we can expose the rumor spreader.
Speaker 1: Ooh okay, that is spicy. I love it. Rebecca, thanks
Speaker 1: so much for coming on, and now for all our listeners,
Speaker 1: onto the original episode.
Speaker 2: Into your Face as always.
Speaker 1: My name is Rebecca min Coff. I'm a fashion designer
Speaker 1: and the co founder of Female Founder Collective. I have
Speaker 1: a podcast, Superwomen with Rebecca Mincoff, and I'm a best
Speaker 1: selling author Fearless. And you have four kids, and I
Speaker 1: have a mother with four children, which blows my.
Speaker 2: Mind, like three sent me into chaos. Four I cannot imagine.
Speaker 2: I'm going home after this to take a nap. I'm
Speaker 2: well deserved. Now where did you grow up? So the
Speaker 2: first nine years of my life was San Diego. The
Speaker 2: second nine years of my life was Tampa, Florida. That
Speaker 2: was not my parents' intention, but they saw that there
Speaker 2: was nothing happening in Tampa and that was great for
Speaker 2: raising children and not having them get into trouble. So
Speaker 2: my dad was a doctor and he had got an
Speaker 2: opening in Florida and he was like, well, I want
Speaker 2: to change of scenery. And that was it. You know,
Speaker 2: you really launched your career, made a name for yourself
Speaker 2: first as a fashion designer. And you said that the
Speaker 2: first thing you designed was your butt mitzvah outfit.
Speaker 1: It was. It was the first thing that I designed
Speaker 1: in war successfully. I'll say that I had the opportunity
Speaker 1: to work with this New York City designer who had
Speaker 1: moved to Podunkville where I lived, and she taught me
Speaker 1: how to sew and make patterns, and I was so excited.
Speaker 1: And as a young girl at twelve turning thirteen, when
Speaker 1: you're entering womanhood but you don't look like a woman,
Speaker 1: I was like, I got a design address that like
Speaker 1: maybe can show off my burgeoning bosom. That was It's
Speaker 1: weird that that was like for my bot mitzvah. That's
Speaker 1: what I wanted, was like show off my chest. But
Speaker 1: I had like double a boobs aka nothing, and so
Speaker 1: I was like a square neck like medieval times. And
Speaker 1: then I'll get like a little push up raw to
Speaker 1: help me. Soon after her show stopping butt Mitzvah outfit.
Speaker 1: Becca continued her creative endeavors and enrolls at a performing
Speaker 1: arts school as a dancer, and then in high school,
Speaker 1: I hit a really tough time where my teachers I
Speaker 1: don't want to pivot us too hard. But I was
Speaker 1: a dancer and a performing arts high school, but kept
Speaker 1: getting told like, you're too tall, you ruin the symmetry,
Speaker 1: your boobs are too big, like just everything terrible you
Speaker 1: could tell a young woman. And I was a painfully thin,
Speaker 1: very awkward young girl, and I couldn't fit into regular
Speaker 1: clothes and I was bullied for it. And being able
Speaker 1: to sew and make things fit me gave me a
Speaker 1: lot of confidence and it made me feel incredibly empowered.
Speaker 1: And so I just became addicted to the idea like,
Speaker 1: oh it doesn't fit, no big deal, I can you know,
Speaker 1: take it in or add this to it. And so
Speaker 1: that was just something I just I wanted to sew
Speaker 1: all the time. And then I would make things for
Speaker 1: my friends and it just became a great way to
Speaker 1: like hang out and you end up making something.
Speaker 2: So you grew up jewish. Was that a big part
Speaker 2: of your identity you had about mizphone. It was a
Speaker 2: huge part of my identity. It was every Friday with
Speaker 2: Shabbat I had about Mitzvah. My dad was very serious
Speaker 2: about observing the holidays up until the point, I would
Speaker 2: say about fifteen, and then all of a sudden it
Speaker 2: was like, uh, we did that, which was weird because
Speaker 2: he was so strict about it, and so I was
Speaker 2: already by that time. I went to jew camp starting
Speaker 2: at thirteen, and by sixteen I was going to Israel
Speaker 2: for six weeks for a workshop program with all the
Speaker 2: other kids who were part of the camps. And at eighteen,
Speaker 2: I had the opportunity to go live on a kibootz
Speaker 2: for a year, and all my friends were going. But
Speaker 2: I was so desperate to get here and to start
Speaker 2: working and designing, and I felt like if I took
Speaker 2: a year off getting drunk and living on a kibotz,
Speaker 2: that I might be, you know, behind, And so it was.
Speaker 2: It was one of the hardest decisions I've ever had
Speaker 2: to make. With Sanatka on that trip and here being
Speaker 2: New York. Yeah, so after high school, you are like,
Speaker 2: get me to New York.
Speaker 1: Yes, So I thought I wanted to be a geneticist,
Speaker 1: and so I went to Johns Hopkins like to like
Speaker 1: see the school, and I thought, I will die in
Speaker 1: a laboratory. I will just not make it. And if
Speaker 1: I have to do this for seven years before I
Speaker 1: can practice, and I really found out like what it
Speaker 1: takes to be in that world. I thought, Wow, I
Speaker 1: don't want this, and then I was like, maybe I
Speaker 1: don't even want to go to college. And in my house,
Speaker 1: my parents are kind of hippies. Everything was untraditional, so
Speaker 1: you know, they said to any all of us like,
Speaker 1: it's cool if you want to go to college, but
Speaker 1: you don't have to, and if you do, you're paying
Speaker 1: for it. And it was kind of like no pressure,
Speaker 1: so none of us actually ended up going. What else
Speaker 1: was non traditional in your household? I would say that
Speaker 1: the things you think a mother should do for you
Speaker 1: weren't done or a parent, you know, whether it's it's
Speaker 1: the little things like signing you up for summer camp,
Speaker 1: and it was like, no, here are the forms you
Speaker 1: fill them out down to My brothers wanted to go
Speaker 1: visit their friends and they were thirteen, and she put
Speaker 1: them on a greyhound from Tampa to San Diego. So
Speaker 1: I think everything we wanted, we had to work for.
Speaker 1: There was a ledger in the kitchen and it was
Speaker 1: about how you know what you earned. And I had
Speaker 1: to cook dinner twice a week, and I had to
Speaker 1: doshes twice a week, and so some of those things
Speaker 1: are normal. But I think a lot of this hands
Speaker 1: off approach to like if you want to figure it out,
Speaker 1: was really there. I did negotiate at age nine with
Speaker 1: my art teacher about her prices because my mom was like,
Speaker 1: if you wanted these classes, they're too expensive, but you
Speaker 1: can talk to her about lowering the price.
Speaker 2: At the time, did you realize that your parents were
Speaker 2: a little more hands off than others around you.
Speaker 1: I started realizing it. I was angry about it, and
Speaker 1: I was pissed because I would see like my friend
Speaker 1: would just she celebrated Christmas, and I would go there
Speaker 1: and be like, you get all these presents. I get one,
Speaker 1: and your parents take you on trips and I have
Speaker 1: to earn it. Like I was just like, whoa, this
Speaker 1: is a different world. Yeah, but I'm trying to raise
Speaker 1: my children in the same way. You want it, you
Speaker 1: earn it, and I'm hoping it rubs off on the
Speaker 1: entrepreneurial side on them the way it did with me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, at what point did your perspective flip on the parenting.
Speaker 1: Having not my son? My son, my twelve year old
Speaker 1: has always been grateful and gracious, but my daughter like
Speaker 1: I want, I want, I want, I want, and living
Speaker 1: in New York City, you know, and I'm like, oh no,
Speaker 1: we are not taking that route with you.
Speaker 2: You will earn this. Yeah. Yeah, it's hard. I think
Speaker 2: it's particularly hard in the city.
Speaker 1: But I also think, like, you get invited to a
Speaker 1: party in New York City and I don't even know
Speaker 1: the words for it, just the goodie bags and the
Speaker 1: bouncy cat, like everything. The abundance is so much that
Speaker 1: even if you're not providing it to them, they're seeing
Speaker 1: it and they know it's possible, and it's hard to
Speaker 1: be like, all right, come back down to earth. Okay,
Speaker 1: So back to your journey. Was it always fashion that
Speaker 1: attracts you?
Speaker 2: Like? What about fashion? Okay?
Speaker 1: Going back for Hanukah, every year we would get like
Speaker 1: one thing and I would always get a magazine subscription
Speaker 1: to w or Vogue, and then my brother would steal
Speaker 1: it and I would kill him when it finally come
Speaker 1: to me, I would devour it. And I feel like
Speaker 1: I have to be in New York. That's where everything's happening,
Speaker 1: and for everyone listening, it's pre any social I mean,
Speaker 1: there's nothing magazines are it. So my brother had gone
Speaker 1: to a party and he came home one night and
Speaker 1: he said, I just met a designer. He was in
Speaker 1: from New York doing a trunk show at the local
Speaker 1: Podunk Nordstrum in Tampa, and he gave me his number.
Speaker 1: He said he takes interns. Maybe you should call him.
Speaker 1: And so I literally called this guy and he picked up.
Speaker 1: He's like, yeah, come up. When do you want to
Speaker 1: come up? We paid minimum wage and I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: it's that easy, Okay, I'll be there. And I told
Speaker 1: my parents. I was like, so I'm moving to New
Speaker 1: York and I'm going to start working, and you know,
Speaker 1: we got to go on to Craigslist and find me
Speaker 1: an apartment. And my mom and dad were like, we're
Speaker 1: not paying for you to go to an apartment. Like
Speaker 1: you wanted to do this, you figured out. So what
Speaker 1: we finally hobbled together was I lived with my friend
Speaker 1: in Fordham University. We shared a bed. He was gay,
Speaker 1: so it was like it was fine that we shared
Speaker 1: a bed. He would steak me in every night and
Speaker 1: then over like Russiashana, my parents came up and made
Speaker 1: a deal with my cousin. They're like, all right, she's
Speaker 1: going to sleep on the floor and babysit your kid. Well,
Speaker 1: you let her live with you. And that was, you
Speaker 1: know how it all started.
Speaker 2: So what did you do as an intern?
Speaker 1: So my first day, the CEO, who ended up becoming
Speaker 1: a mentor, was like, ugh, you're just another pretty girl
Speaker 1: he's let in here. Day one was you're going to
Speaker 1: work in the shipping department, and I was so angry
Speaker 1: and I was like, I am better than this. But
Speaker 1: I really learned a lot about packaging and shipping. And
Speaker 1: then it was like organize a supply closet, answer the phones,
Speaker 1: cuts watches, call these stores, make appointments, and every day
Speaker 1: was different. And as I began to get used to
Speaker 1: sort of not knowing what I was going to do
Speaker 1: that day, it just got exciting to be able to
Speaker 1: learn every sort of part of the business. And then
Speaker 1: about six months in, I said, I think you should
Speaker 1: hire me full time. I've proven my worth and I
Speaker 1: want to work in the design area and she was like, great.
Speaker 2: Yes you have. So she began to design for Craig Tailor,
Speaker 2: but all the time she continued to keep one foot
Speaker 2: in as a dancer, thinking that might be the path
Speaker 2: she would pursue.
Speaker 1: I was so happy to be there, and I was
Speaker 1: still kind of like, do I still be a dancer?
Speaker 1: I was taking classes at Alvin Alien. I had gotten
Speaker 1: into their two year certificate program and I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, I forget where I was. But someone's like,
Speaker 1: you should be a model, and I was like, maybe
Speaker 1: I'll be a model until I went into a castaing
Speaker 1: and the guy was like, you know, you're really hairy,
Speaker 1: and then he reached over and he's like and you
Speaker 1: got to get rid of this and he grabbed my
Speaker 1: stomach fat and I was like, I'm going to just
Speaker 1: put that idea to bed, because okay, maybe I'll be
Speaker 1: a dancer or designer. And then I said this to
Speaker 1: this woman, Komy, the CEO, and she's like, you need
Speaker 1: to decide what you want to do, Like you can't
Speaker 1: be all over the place. It's time to get focused
Speaker 1: and you know what is it? And I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: she might be right. So I said I'll pursue design,
Speaker 1: and so I ended up working there for a total
Speaker 1: of around three years.
Speaker 2: Wow. Do you feel like that was the right advice
Speaker 2: for you in that moment?
Speaker 1: It was because I was just like, maybe I'll be
Speaker 1: this and maybe I'll be that, And I feel like
Speaker 1: those types of maybees are great if you're sixteen, but
Speaker 1: they're not great if you're nineteen and you decided not
Speaker 1: to go to college and you moved to New York
Speaker 1: to work for a designer like Pickoling.
Speaker 2: Spoiler alert.
Speaker 1: She did. She started small custom making a small collection
Speaker 1: of pieces herself. I had a five piece collection. I
Speaker 1: live New York was one of them, literally bought off
Speaker 1: the street but cut up and me dazzled because that
Speaker 1: was pre Etsy and people wanted DIY and an actress,
Speaker 1: Jenna Elfman asked for it via my brother again he
Speaker 1: seems to be a connection and senator on September ninth,
Speaker 1: she wore on Jay Leno Two months later and said
Speaker 1: my name on national televisions One actress hand a lot
Speaker 1: of fun. She could be seen on the sitcom Accidentally
Speaker 1: on Purpose, which airs Wednesday night. It's another Networks.
Speaker 2: Please welcome to Jenna.
Speaker 1: Elfman, and that was kind of like the big moment
Speaker 1: of being in the magazine and making all these shirts
Speaker 1: and nine months straight of that that.
Speaker 2: Shirt, riding the high of her new success. It was
Speaker 2: her mentor that once again played a key role in
Speaker 2: nudging her towards her true potential.
Speaker 1: And then Koomi the same sea called me and was like,
Speaker 1: you're fired, Go do what you love.
Speaker 2: Wow. Yeah you were so young. I was twenty one.
Speaker 1: Yeah. It was scary, but I think that when you
Speaker 1: have nothing right and you were fueled by your work
Speaker 1: and buy potential and opportunity, I was like, what's the
Speaker 1: worst that could happen? I end up on my parents' couch, right,
Speaker 1: And to me that was like, Okay, that'll suck and
Speaker 1: I'll have to regroup, but like, let me just try it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, so you did the T shirts for a
Speaker 2: little while. Yeah, about nine months, it's all. I did,
Speaker 2: just these five T shirts.
Speaker 1: Yes, And then I started calling stores and I was like,
Speaker 1: by the way, I have more than a shirt, you know,
Speaker 1: let me show you. And then one store in these
Speaker 1: village was like, I'll take this blouse on consignment, and
Speaker 1: then I would literally given the plows and then go
Speaker 1: into Union Square and pass out postcards like new Designer
Speaker 1: Alert now, like I was one of those people standing
Speaker 1: there like handing this out. And then I'd run back
Speaker 1: to the store and be like did it sell and
Speaker 1: he'd be like yeah, Like all right, I passed out
Speaker 1: five hundred postcards for one sale, so if I want
Speaker 1: to sell more, I.
Speaker 2: Gotta do one thousand.
Speaker 1: And I would go back to Union Square, and you know,
Speaker 1: I was scrappy. I would find out who magazine editors were.
Speaker 1: Email was new, but I would like figure it out
Speaker 1: and then email them all images. And then I found
Speaker 1: one burgeoning website called raven Style, and she would buy
Speaker 1: stuff and I'd be like, I need the deposit before
Speaker 1: I make the goods.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was about to ask how you had the
Speaker 2: capital and how you had the connections to be producing
Speaker 2: at that kind of scale. It was not.
Speaker 1: It was not a big scale. It was a very
Speaker 1: tiny scale. The amazing woman from Raven Style would give
Speaker 1: me a deposit because she knew I had didn't have it,
Speaker 1: so she'd give me enough. I'd go uptown, buy the fabric,
Speaker 1: buy the crystals, make it, and then deliver it to
Speaker 1: her for the balance of the payment. So I worked
Speaker 1: like that for a long time and then I said
Speaker 1: to my dad, I would like to open up a
Speaker 1: credit card. Could you co sign it with me? And
Speaker 1: because he had great credit, I got a lot of money.
Speaker 1: But he was like, just want to let you know,
Speaker 1: like I'm not paying for this card, like you are responsible.
Speaker 1: And that's when I got into trouble. When I didn't
Speaker 1: have enough orders or I had to buy fabric or whatever,
Speaker 1: I'd put it on the card and be like, hey, yea,
Speaker 1: I'll pay it back, and then you know, I slowly
Speaker 1: racked up a lot of debt. That inevitably is when
Speaker 1: I had to call my brother and that's you know,
Speaker 1: that's when we begin working together and the bags started
Speaker 1: to take off. So that was kind of the all right,
Speaker 1: I'm out of my leak on the business side of stuff,
Speaker 1: and I actually need someone to help me.
Speaker 2: Can you actually talk through with some of those steps
Speaker 2: are souse. I think that a lot of people when
Speaker 2: they're thinking about their pivot, go immediately to product and think, oh, well,
Speaker 2: I'll just make a product and I'll sell it, and
Speaker 2: I think not having an understanding of the ebbs and flows.
Speaker 2: I think, particularly of apparel business I think ends up
Speaker 2: surprising a lot of people sounds like, including you, Oh,
Speaker 2: it's surprising.
Speaker 1: So I think with apparel it's really you know, if
Speaker 1: your dream is to be a designer, And again I
Speaker 1: would give different advice if you're a T shirt versus
Speaker 1: a cature gown. But I think that having your own
Speaker 1: website is in credit important whether you're selling anything or not.
Speaker 1: And I think today there's a lot more creativity in
Speaker 1: how you can take orders. You know, one of the
Speaker 1: things when NFTs were all the rage was the idea
Speaker 1: that you could treat the NFT as a token and
Speaker 1: you know, by this NFT you will get the dress too,
Speaker 1: but you also get to see me in my studio
Speaker 1: working or at a photo shoot, or access to things
Speaker 1: that money can't buy. And so I think that's a
Speaker 1: smart and powerful way to raise money. And I think
Speaker 1: that the idea of the Tupperware party is not dead.
Speaker 1: It's like who do you have and know with circles
Speaker 1: of influence that could host and support you. When I
Speaker 1: look back, there was a woman in Los Angeles that
Speaker 1: would like put out wine and cheese and she's like,
Speaker 1: bring seventy five bags. They'll be gone by the end
Speaker 1: of the night, and she would invite all her friends
Speaker 1: and they were excited, and the bags were gone and
Speaker 1: I had cash. And so I think that as you
Speaker 1: begin to look at your business, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: non traditional ideas you can use to do it. But
Speaker 1: so many women are like, oh, I'm starting an apparel company.
Speaker 1: I need to raise money, you know. And I think
Speaker 1: that that's the wrong approach because most investors know they
Speaker 1: will not see her return on an investment of just
Speaker 1: an apparel company. That's just not how it works. And
Speaker 1: so I say start small, start focused, be the best
Speaker 1: in whatever it is, even if it's a white T
Speaker 1: shirt and why, and from there, really make your network
Speaker 1: help support you and work for you. She continued to
Speaker 1: build and grow, but slower than she wanted. She craved
Speaker 1: another big break, and that's when she came up with
Speaker 1: her iconic morning after bag.
Speaker 2: You know that one. They're perfectly disheveled, can fit everything,
Speaker 2: but looks like an it girl would carry it.
Speaker 1: Bag and people took notice of what's now known as
Speaker 1: the iconic morning after bag.
Speaker 2: Now, the original morning after bag was very popular in
Speaker 2: the mid two thousands, most.
Speaker 1: Notably carried by celebrities Hayden Panitier and Lindsay Lohan.
Speaker 2: This is honest one of my favorite bags, just because
Speaker 2: the functionality of this bag is great. Ship.
Speaker 1: I had just launched the bag. It had a heat
Speaker 1: in a momentum that I never had with the apparel.
Speaker 1: It hit a nerve with women in a way that
Speaker 1: you can only hope happens to everyone.
Speaker 2: And switching to bags that's a much more expensive product,
Speaker 2: like for you to make? Yeah, was that a decision
Speaker 2: based on design? Based on presented return?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 2: What was that decision for you?
Speaker 1: The decision for the bag was really about Jenna came
Speaker 1: back to me. She said, I'm going to be in
Speaker 1: a feature film. The character wears the bag the entire time.
Speaker 1: You will not have seen this film because I went
Speaker 1: straight to DVD. Sadly, okay, I was about to ask
Speaker 1: you which films colle touched. Bag did not make it
Speaker 1: to set. It was delivered two hours late. They started filming.
Speaker 1: It was devastating. When I say, I was like, like
Speaker 1: the assistant College's like, where is the bag?
Speaker 2: And I was like, I don't know.
Speaker 1: And then it arrived and she's like we started shooting
Speaker 1: with another bag, and I was like, can you redo it?
Speaker 1: She was like no, so my just cru it was terrible.
Speaker 1: I was like on the corner of like Fifth Avenue
Speaker 1: near Henry Bendell or wherever that Stora just was like
Speaker 1: pacing back and forth while I was on the phone
Speaker 1: with her, and I was like, well, I just I
Speaker 1: just bought a really expensive bag. My first, you know,
Speaker 1: I made her a sample. I made me a sample.
Speaker 1: And then I noticed as I was wearing the sample,
Speaker 1: so many women were stopping me on the street asking
Speaker 1: me about, you know, the bag, and I thought, there's
Speaker 1: something here. Let's see what happens. So a dear friend
Speaker 1: of mine, who was a stylist that I knew through
Speaker 1: the industry, was like, I'm gonna have Daily Candy write
Speaker 1: about it, and we're going to put it in this
Speaker 1: store that I know in La called Seteen, which is
Speaker 1: like the go to store for celebrities, and they ordered
Speaker 1: twelve Daily Candy wrote about it sold out in like
Speaker 1: ten minutes.
Speaker 2: Pretty soon it girls everywhere werek herrying the bag. Lindsay
Speaker 2: Lohan was photographed with it, and it began to fly
Speaker 2: off the shelves faster than she could keep up with.
Speaker 2: So she turned back to her dad looking for financing
Speaker 2: to keep up with the orders.
Speaker 1: And so I went back to my dad. I was like,
Speaker 1: all right, I'm not a loser anymore. I actually have
Speaker 1: something that's working. Do you want to loan me just
Speaker 1: a little bit more money to make the next production run.
Speaker 1: He's like absolutely not, Like how are you paying the
Speaker 1: credit card? Because I'm seeing the bills and the balance
Speaker 1: isn't really going down that much. It's like one hundred
Speaker 1: dollars a month, but this is this is sixty grand
Speaker 1: that you've spent. I was like, all right, I'll talk
Speaker 1: to you later.
Speaker 2: Bye.
Speaker 1: So I called my brother, and my brother had basic
Speaker 1: business questions. Is there an LLC? Do you have a
Speaker 1: TAXID number? All that whatever? And the original intent wasn't
Speaker 1: like all right, now we're partners. He was just kind
Speaker 1: of helping me through. He was advancing me capital. He
Speaker 1: was in the software world. He has a software company,
Speaker 1: and when he could see the numbers start to really
Speaker 1: like the orders coming in, like really growing, he was like, oh,
Speaker 1: there's something here, and he felt comfortable enough with the
Speaker 1: trajectory of the business that he put his credit card
Speaker 1: as you know, the funding of things. And then it
Speaker 1: was his house. He mortgaged his house because we could
Speaker 1: not get a loan, and the whole v see private
Speaker 1: equity game hadn't even really started in our industry yet,
Speaker 1: so we waited seven years before we took outside capital.
Speaker 2: She continued to bootstrap, barely paying herself a salary and
Speaker 2: supplementing her growing business with other work. I supplemented my
Speaker 2: T shirt years with styling.
Speaker 1: I was a stylist. I did Heidi Klumb for the
Speaker 1: first season of Project Runway. They were like, all right,
Speaker 1: we have one thousand dollars for ten episodes and no
Speaker 1: budget for wardrobe. Do you want this great job? I
Speaker 1: was like yes. I was begging people, like I would
Speaker 1: call Chanelle and like all these things, and everyone would
Speaker 1: shut the door in my face to lend her.
Speaker 2: Yes, and they didn't you want to lend her do.
Speaker 1: Like reality TV Project Runway, Like that sounds terrible. It
Speaker 1: was in reality TV was like new and dirty and
Speaker 1: you know, like beneath people. Yeah, so I had to
Speaker 1: like rub pennies together to like get her to look good.
Speaker 1: I even put her in a lot of my stuff
Speaker 1: at the time. Anyways, so that made me some money.
Speaker 1: I mean that felt was actually moortant to me, kind
Speaker 1: of an opportunity to put you in her clothes. Oh no,
Speaker 1: it was great.
Speaker 2: Did that help with that publicity? That actually helps the line?
Speaker 2: That was that exposure that helped.
Speaker 1: I mean it was nice because I could use it
Speaker 1: when I go to a store like oh, Heidi Klum
Speaker 1: wearing my shirt Patrick, you know, like I could when
Speaker 1: the series became a success, I could use it working
Speaker 1: with families complicated. Yeah, how's it been. So we sold
Speaker 1: the business February of last year, so he is now
Speaker 1: just an advisor. But I think we had the building
Speaker 1: years were incredible. He was in his lane, I was
Speaker 1: in mind. And then when we each figured out our
Speaker 1: own areas and like started giving each other feedback and
Speaker 1: advice in each other's lanes, the sparks would fly. And
Speaker 1: so we had a lot of tough times where we
Speaker 1: weren't speaking and not getting along and fighting pretty badly.
Speaker 1: We got a business therapist basically to help us, you know,
Speaker 1: get back on the same page, and we would do
Speaker 1: that once a year as like vomit it all out
Speaker 1: and hopefully come to some sort of alignment. But it
Speaker 1: was it took a toll on our relationship for sure,
Speaker 1: Still they.
Speaker 2: Were clearly a good team. Eventually, the brand had grown
Speaker 2: to over one hundred million in sales and they decided
Speaker 2: to bring on a new president.
Speaker 1: We brought in this president that we brought her in
Speaker 1: very early on. Oh, we brought her in before we
Speaker 1: could afford to pay me. My brother was like, add
Speaker 1: up your rent and your Ramen budget and let me
Speaker 1: know what that totals. And I was like, it's twenty
Speaker 1: three thousand dollars a year. He's like, great, that's your salary.
Speaker 1: And so then we paid her. And then he didn't
Speaker 1: take a salary because he was making money from his software.
Speaker 1: So we brought her in in what year was it
Speaker 1: two thousand and seven? I believe there's like a two
Speaker 1: year span, but at its height, we were doing one
Speaker 1: hundred and ten million in sales and we probably had
Speaker 1: one hundred employees. It was unbearable. Unbearable, how the pressure,
Speaker 1: the stress, all of it. Managing a team of eighteen
Speaker 1: people and being all in it as a designer and
Speaker 1: then expected to travel to thirty cities, do the waving
Speaker 1: in the trunk shows, be the face of social you.
Speaker 2: Know, be a mother. It was untenable. So you started
Speaker 2: having kids, and at what point did you feel like,
Speaker 2: I can't give this whole portfolio. This eighteen person reporting
Speaker 2: system is not going to cut it.
Speaker 1: So I was about to go on maternityly with baby
Speaker 1: number three. It was twenty eighteen, and I had been
Speaker 1: chasing this idea of I just need another hit. I
Speaker 1: just need a big hit. So we had this big
Speaker 1: growth surge with this crossbody that was one ninety five.
Speaker 1: So I was like, me and the team all day long,
Speaker 1: what's the next one, what's the next one? Okay, we
Speaker 1: got it, Let's replicate it exactly how we did the
Speaker 1: last one and get on this person this person, and
Speaker 1: it wasn't working. And I was like banging my head
Speaker 1: against the wall. And then I was like, maybe I
Speaker 1: don't have it anymore. Maybe I'm just not cut out
Speaker 1: for this, or maybe there's someone more talented than me.
Speaker 1: And I was just like circling. And there was a
Speaker 1: woman at the company who had been designing the under
Speaker 1: my brother and he's like, why don't you like her
Speaker 1: run things for a little bit while you go out
Speaker 1: and she'll off for a fresh perspective. And I was like,
Speaker 1: take it.
Speaker 2: I'm fucking tired. It's been a long journey.
Speaker 1: It was thirteen years at that point, and so I
Speaker 1: really left and I handed her off, like, here my
Speaker 1: mood boards for the next six seasons. Here's everything. I'd
Speaker 1: tied it with a bow. She was like, great, put
Speaker 1: it in the trash as soon as I left the
Speaker 1: room and I went out on leave. And we'd also
Speaker 1: hired someone we thought was going to be the most
Speaker 1: incredible person in marketing, and she had a doctorate, and
Speaker 1: I was like, well, what do I know? Like this
Speaker 1: woman is clearly learned. Yes, So when I got back,
Speaker 1: I felt like a stranger in my own company. And
Speaker 1: the marketing person literally said to me, my job would
Speaker 1: be easier if you didn't exist.
Speaker 2: The word's done. But it forced her to take a
Speaker 2: step back and see a larger issue where she could
Speaker 2: have an impact empowering em founders.
Speaker 1: So by that time, I only had to have one
Speaker 1: design meeting a week at the time, and I had
Speaker 1: a lot more time on my hands, and so I
Speaker 1: was like, great, you know, I'll do more speaking. And
Speaker 1: you know, that's when I really was like, wow, women
Speaker 1: are not paid equally, Like I'm in an industry where
Speaker 1: it's women bashing women, But I had no idea that
Speaker 1: when you peel outside of the fashion industry, like, there's
Speaker 1: another struggle going on that I really didn't know about.
Speaker 1: And so to hear about wage inequality and you know,
Speaker 1: more men named John than women and CEOs, like, I
Speaker 1: was just like, holy shit, I thought we were just
Speaker 1: I thought it was just women being terrible to women.
Speaker 2: I didn't know anything else. How did you find out
Speaker 2: about it? Like, you were still in the same industry,
Speaker 2: you were still in your company.
Speaker 1: Yeah, But I was desperate to make connections and this
Speaker 1: started earlier in like twenty sixteen with women outside of
Speaker 1: my industry. So I would host these dinners at my
Speaker 1: store and like have women like the president of the WM,
Speaker 1: the private wealth investor for Chase, and you know, a
Speaker 1: magazine editor or just people outside of my world, and
Speaker 1: I would hear them talk and I was like, oh shit,
Speaker 1: you know, there needs to be a way to support
Speaker 1: women more.
Speaker 2: What do you think you were chasing by starting this
Speaker 2: dinner series.
Speaker 1: I was chasing a community and a camaraderie that I
Speaker 1: wasn't able to get within my industry, and I was
Speaker 1: hungry for outside perspectives.
Speaker 2: The timing is striking me as interesting as looking for
Speaker 2: a community of women, because when I started this podcast,
Speaker 2: I had an anticipation that a lot of women's kind
Speaker 2: of dark moment that led to their pivot, like might
Speaker 2: be COVID or might be like whatever, there's like personal
Speaker 2: thing that happened to them. In my case, it was
Speaker 2: having a lot of kids all at the same time.
Speaker 2: What I did not anticipate is that I hear often
Speaker 2: more often than I thought, is twenty sixteen the election
Speaker 2: of Donald Trump as something that really changed a lot
Speaker 2: of women's perspectives. Yeah, I just hear it much more
Speaker 2: often than I anticipated. So that is the same year
Speaker 2: that you started these dinners. Do you think, even if
Speaker 2: it wasn't, the election in general just sort of like
Speaker 2: the context that led you to start them.
Speaker 1: It's a good question. I don't know if it was
Speaker 1: a conscious thing. It just felt like I was suffocating
Speaker 1: in my own industry and it was so not supportive.
Speaker 1: I remember being on air with another designer and the
Speaker 1: interviewer said, Rebecca, you make my favorite dress, and then
Speaker 1: I was cut out of the segment, and I thought,
Speaker 1: now I really must have like done a shitty job
Speaker 1: as a guest. And I saw the producer a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks later said I'm so sorry we had to
Speaker 1: cut you, like she's best friends with my boss, and
Speaker 1: that designer was so offended that she wasn't the favorite
Speaker 1: designer that she had you cut out. And I was like,
Speaker 1: this is gross. You know, in twenty sixteen, I was
Speaker 1: two years postpartum. I was like, you know, getting myself
Speaker 1: back together and out there, and so two years of
Speaker 1: meeting and talking and being around women. Then when I
Speaker 1: had the time, I was like, we I need to
Speaker 1: do something to.
Speaker 2: Support So what was the first project that you jumped
Speaker 2: into in twenty eighteen once you've you're back from attorney
Speaker 2: even you realized I can only do one design meeting
Speaker 2: a week. I've got more time.
Speaker 1: Well, I said to this really smart marketing person. I
Speaker 1: was like, so, what's our plan. She's like, well, we
Speaker 1: are going to use you in social but not yet.
Speaker 2: And I was like, okay, now what do I do?
Speaker 1: So I had like two weeks of ladies who lunch
Speaker 1: and I was like, I'm going crazy, like I can't
Speaker 1: do this, and so she said we should start a podcast.
Speaker 1: I said, well, I wanted to start a podcast two
Speaker 1: years ago, and I was told it was not a
Speaker 1: good idea, and she's like, it's a great idea, and
Speaker 1: I was like, great, I'm on it. And so I
Speaker 1: began the process of figuring out how to do that,
Speaker 1: and then we were at a party for it was
Speaker 1: like a rooftop event for some congresswoman or someone to
Speaker 1: get elected, and I just remember going, I need to
Speaker 1: find a way to make women rich. And the only
Speaker 1: way that I know how is if we can know
Speaker 1: who they are, we can have a community around them,
Speaker 1: and we can support them with education. And so I
Speaker 1: just remember thinking about this idea and I said to
Speaker 1: a woman on the team, I was like, what do
Speaker 1: you think about this idea. I was on the Council
Speaker 1: for Women and Girls with Melissa de Rosa and the governor,
Speaker 1: and I was like, I'm going to bring this to
Speaker 1: the state and the state should have a state seal
Speaker 1: that recognizes women own businesses, and blah blah blah and
Speaker 1: the red tape and the calls and the just ad nauseum,
Speaker 1: and I remember and I just reconnected with her today.
Speaker 1: A woman who was an executive director on the committee
Speaker 1: was like, why are you asking the state's permission? Just
Speaker 1: do this yourself. And I was like, fuck yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: doing it for myself, and that's when I took it
Speaker 1: into my hands and I said, this has to launch.
Speaker 1: The reason why I wanted to start Female Founder Collective
Speaker 1: was I wanted there to be some recognizable symbol where
Speaker 1: we as females a support and know who is running
Speaker 1: the business. So I couldn't be more excited to be
Speaker 1: a part of the Female Founder Collective and really give
Speaker 1: women all across America and hopefully the world the opportunity
Speaker 1: to recognize female made, female supported, and female powered brands
Speaker 1: with and a longtime supporter who was at IMG, Leslie Russo,
Speaker 1: was like, I'm going to put everything behind this. So
Speaker 1: you get the photographer, the makeup, the hair, like, everything's covered.
Speaker 1: We'll shoot it, We'll launch it with a panel at
Speaker 1: fashion Week, and I had a website with like leave
Speaker 1: your email here if you'd like our application, and that
Speaker 1: was it. That was all we had was me and
Speaker 1: my assistant at the time.
Speaker 2: So that's but I mean, that's so interesting that you
Speaker 2: launched it within the context of an industry that you
Speaker 2: were actually trying to get out of.
Speaker 1: Right, But I needed the eyeballs and the press and
Speaker 1: media around that thing I felt to get momentum.
Speaker 2: So did you launch with a cohort or you just
Speaker 2: launched with an idea.
Speaker 1: I launched with an idea. Apply here, we'd send you
Speaker 1: the form, we'd review it. If you passed, you were in.
Speaker 1: And then what you were in was like we were
Speaker 1: making it up at the time, but there's members that
Speaker 1: are still around from that time, which is really nice.
Speaker 2: We're five years old, So how did you start to
Speaker 2: feel like it was becoming the hitting mass? So you
Speaker 2: had the community that you wanted.
Speaker 1: So in the first i'd say two weeks, we hit
Speaker 1: three thousand applications and I was like, oh shit, we
Speaker 1: have to do something with this now. So the first
Speaker 1: step was okay, here's this you know, once we've approved
Speaker 1: and vetted you, here's the CEOs you can place on
Speaker 1: your website or your products. That was kind of most important.
Speaker 1: And then it was like, well, we need a day,
Speaker 1: like we need an event. And I was about three
Speaker 1: months in when I met my co founder and CEO
Speaker 1: Ali Wyatt, and she came on and she had been
Speaker 1: at Girl Bossy. She was the CEO of Girl Boston,
Speaker 1: so she knew how to like structure this.
Speaker 2: So we started.
Speaker 1: Planning Female Founder's Day, which ended up being in March
Speaker 1: of twenty nineteen. So all of our focus went to, like, oh, right,
Speaker 1: community you're in and our first big kickoff is going
Speaker 1: to be in March, and we're going to have a
Speaker 1: day where it's not a bunch of women just talking
Speaker 1: on panels, because you can get that from anyone, but
Speaker 1: we're gonna have vetted experts giving you ninety minute workshops
Speaker 1: on whatever topic is your pain point, and so we
Speaker 1: kind of have you know, we had our hero keynotes,
Speaker 1: and then the day was like what's pick your poison?
Speaker 1: And so after that then we said, okay, our next
Speaker 1: event is this, and then we were able to have
Speaker 1: enough kind of community events and then online events that
Speaker 1: that was kind of how we started.
Speaker 2: Rebecca spent most of her time building Female Founder Collective,
Speaker 2: letting her eponymous brand run without her until it couldn't
Speaker 2: any longer.
Speaker 1: Things within the business shifted. I got rid of the
Speaker 1: two ladies. The business needed me really back, and so
Speaker 1: by that time I had a CEO, co founder, I
Speaker 1: had a head of operations, and so I was like,
Speaker 1: all right, I'm going to be focusing my attention back
Speaker 1: into my company again. I felt like it was at
Speaker 1: a space where when Ali and I came together, she
Speaker 1: was like, I really want to be the CEO, and
Speaker 1: I really want to run this day to day, Like
Speaker 1: what part do you want in it? Because it won't
Speaker 1: work if we both want to do that. And I
Speaker 1: was like, great, I want to help with high level
Speaker 1: strategy goals, pull in big contacts, and like use my
Speaker 1: network to really amplify this. But I don't want to
Speaker 1: be in the day today of managing the daily task.
Speaker 1: I already have this other job. So I think for
Speaker 1: me it worked out that I could then turn my
Speaker 1: attention back to Rebecca mink Off and still be involved,
Speaker 1: but not on the nitty gritty.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like putting the right team together in each place
Speaker 2: for you to be at your best and highest use
Speaker 2: in both correct. So, what was one point where at
Speaker 2: the time you were like, Okay, this is really terrible.
Speaker 2: This is like a low point for me, and now
Speaker 2: in retrospect you see it as having really set you
Speaker 2: up for the success that you have now.
Speaker 1: I think the low point was that day that I
Speaker 1: got back that she said that to me, and that
Speaker 1: that person and her and let's say there was a
Speaker 1: total of three were there for let's say nine months,
Speaker 1: and feeling like I was a complete and total stranger
Speaker 1: in my own company with no power, and people say,
Speaker 1: but this was your company, Like how did you have
Speaker 1: no power? And I'm like, at a certain point, you
Speaker 1: have word, you have you know. My brother was aligned
Speaker 1: with them because he thought that they knew what they
Speaker 1: were doing, and so I would be like, well, listen
Speaker 1: to me, you know, and like one day I found
Speaker 1: out that the speak had changed. It was like, we're
Speaker 1: loving this, and I was like, no, the caption is
Speaker 1: from me to the customer, it's not we and they're like, well,
Speaker 1: she said to change it. I'd be like I'm erased.
Speaker 1: And that was the worst time in my life. And
Speaker 1: what I have trouble rectifying is that awful woman inspired
Speaker 1: things that bring me joy? How did that awfulness from that?
Speaker 1: I got these two things, my podcast and female Founder Collective,
Speaker 1: And so sometimes I'm like, I hate you, but thank you.
Speaker 2: You know. It's a very weird feeling. Yeah, No, I
Speaker 2: mean I feel like it's like the whole premise of
Speaker 2: this entire show that like at the time, you think,
Speaker 2: oh my god, it can't get any worse than it,
Speaker 2: and I feel like you kind of to get to
Speaker 2: like a real low in order for your perspective to shift,
Speaker 2: because just as human beings, we just we don't change
Speaker 2: drastically without being forced to. Like it is not on
Speaker 2: our NATR, yeah for sure, but it does give birth
Speaker 2: something totally now. Thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 2: I really feel like this has gone by in one second.
Speaker 2: I could talk to you all day long.
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2: Rebecca continues to juggle it all as a mom of
Speaker 2: four running her Rebecca Mincoff label while continuing to prioritize
Speaker 2: empowering women through the Female Founder Collective. If you're not already,
Speaker 2: head over to her podcast, Superwoman and subscribe. I'm biased,
Speaker 2: but I think our episode together on Superwoman.
Speaker 1: Is one of the best.
Speaker 2: Be sure to follow Rebecca on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter
Speaker 2: at Rebecca Mincoff. Thanks for listening. Thanks for listening to
Speaker 2: this episode of She Pivots. If you made it this far,
Speaker 2: you're a true pivoter, So thanks for being part of
Speaker 2: this community. I hope you enjoyed this episode, and if
Speaker 2: you did leave us a rating, please be nice. Tell
Speaker 2: your friends about us to learn more about our guests,
Speaker 2: follow us on Instagram at she pivots the Podcast, or
Speaker 2: sign up for our newsletter where you can get exclusive
Speaker 2: behind the scenes content, or on our website she pivots
Speaker 2: the Podcast talk to You Next Week. Special thanks to
Speaker 2: the she pivots team, Executive producer Emily eda Velosik, Associate
Speaker 2: producer and social media connoisseur Hannah Cousins, Research director Christine Dickinson,
Speaker 2: Events and logistics coordinator Madeline Sonovak, and audio editor and
Speaker 2: mixer Nina pollock I endorse t pivots