Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / Rebecca Minkoff and Ali Koplar Wyatt on creating the Female Founder Collective & why there’s a gold rush coming for female entrepreneurs…

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Rebecca Minkoff and Ali Koplar Wyatt on creating the Female Founder Collective & why there’s a gold rush coming for female entrepreneurs… · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  This is Alison Coppler-Wyatt and Rebecca Minkoff for Female Startup Club.
• 0:14
  Hey everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. I'm your host, Doona Rasheen, and joining me on the show today are two total boss women in business, Rebecca Minkoff and Ali Wyatt. Rebecca and Ali teamed up a few years ago to create the Female Founder Collective.
• 0:32
  It's a network of businesses led by women, supporting women, with a mission to enable and empower female-owned and led businesses to positively impact communities both socially and economically.
• 0:45
  We're talking about the challenges that women face in the corporate world and in entrepreneurship at the moment and what we need to do to tackle these big issues. We're also talking about their recent virtual summit with incredible female founders like Jessica Alba and Bea Dixon teaching hard skills and soft skills for all women in business. And you should totally check it out ASAP because it's only available to access until the end of this month. And I've linked it below in the show notes.
• 1:12
  I've long admired both of these women and was especially excited to speak with them given we have so many synergies in our mission to empower the female entrepreneurs who are solving global issues right now. So I hope you love this episode as much as I did recording it. This is Rebecca and Ali for Female Startup Club.
• 1:31
  Ali and Rebecca, thank you so much for being part of the Female Startup Club podcast today. Thanks for having us. Thanks for having us. Truth be told, I have been really excited about today's episode. I really admire both of you as women in business, but especially because we have a lot of synergies in our overarching mission to empower female entrepreneurs and women in business through community and connections. So I'm just so thrilled to have you on the show. Thanks for having us.
• 2:00
  I'm eager to dig in and learn about Female Founder Collective and what you've been doing for women around the world, especially during this time. But before we do that, I always love to start by getting you to introduce yourselves with a little background information for anyone tuning in who might not know who you are just yet. Well, Rebecca Minkoff, founder of Rebecca Minkoff.
• 2:26
  And co-founder of the Female Founder Collective. So Rebecca Minkoff is a lifestyle and accessories company, really built with the idea of outfitting the modern woman. We're available everywhere. So hopefully you've heard of us. If not, I've got more work to do. And the Female Founder Collective was really started with the idea of being frustrated at the wage gap conversation industry.
• 2:48
  being frustrated at seeing the same familiar faces as the only women leaders showcases examples, whether it was on magazine covers or panels or part of certain lists. And knowing that in the United States alone, there's over 13 million female founded businesses. And so what if we could provide as an organization a community organization?
• 3:09
  a recognizable seal that one could shop by and education to really bridge the gap from passion to their business and was lucky enough to find, well, Allie found me. I didn't find her. We had met a few months prior, but Allie reached out and we've been building the business and Allie has really ushered in a new era of what it means to educate a woman and to give her power
• 3:40
  Sure. Yeah. And I come from a long line of startups where companies like Refinery29, I was their first non-founding employee. So employee number five, I believe it was. And we were in a basement and took that journey with them, grew the business to do quite a bit of revenue. And then I left to do it again with Goop.
• 4:05
  and joined Gwyneth Paltrow when she brought the business from London to Los Angeles and sort of created a differentiated model. At that point, media was already sort of being challenged by programmatic. And then I got moved back with my husband from Los Angeles to New York again, where I was formerly.
• 4:30
  And so I had to leave and I started consulting for a lot of female founded businesses at that point. And it got me really excited about what women can do and how impressive women are as founders. They really plot out what their existence is going to look like years ahead. They're incredibly thoughtful about planning. They're more conservative, it feels like, than men are. Men sort of
• 5:00
  leap and then look, whereas women make sure that they look before they leave. But they also really have a game plan in place for how they're going to succeed as a business. So I got really excited about female founders as a consultant, but also as an investor. I started angel investing in a number of different businesses. Came across Sophia Amoruso and she had Girlboss, which was the amazing book that she had written
• 5:28
  about being an empowered female and really determining what your future could look like. And ultimately partnered up with her to launch that as a business.
• 5:37
  And then when I left that in 2018, I'm like, I think it was 2018. I reached out to Rebecca because she had started Female Founder Collective. And really the core of Girlboss, one of the biggest issues that I saw was the lack of attention and education and capital for female founders.
• 5:58
  So we partnered up and set out to see what we could do to support them providing a platform for education, for resources, and for really specified connections around how founders can help each other see around roadblocks and hurdles and ultimately find success. Sounds like the ultimate dream team to me. So cool. I love all of that. I'm interested to know what it actually means to be part of the collective. Like,
• 6:28
  Who can access it? What do you actually get once you get in? You know, do you have to pay to be in it? How many women are in it? Kind of that more like inside, once you're inside, what's going on? You know, it's a really great question because we've only discovered recently because when you are in it, there's so much happening, but a lot of people don't know what all
• 6:51
  Female Founder Collective includes. Basically, the membership today looks like you have a community group, which lives on Slack and on Google groups. We have a number of pieces of education that we roll out somewhat, to be honest, inconsistently. And we've been doing events and those events and the programming that we do is very educational in nature. We want people to be
• 7:16
  be able to walk away with a new skill set, whether it's around building a customer acquisition model to figuring out how to fundraise. So the future of FFC, while it's free right now, is we're going to be providing more consistently those tools, better connections through a platform. So being able to reach out to a founder who is perhaps one step ahead of you, similar stage, who is maybe a similar geography, if that's important to you,
• 7:46
  who's in a similar industry, who can help you figure out everything from writing an independent contractor agreement to maybe working with a factory internationally, finding the right one and writing the right contract there.
• 8:00
  really helping them find the tools that they're going to need without sort of going in blind. The other piece is from a programming perspective, we're going to have a cadence of programming that you're going to be able to expect every single week around the pain points that we're seeing within the community itself. So as people are talking about, you know, they are looking for
• 8:30
  It's how do you set those up? What is what does good look like? And so providing education around that sort of thing.
• 8:38
  So future will be paid. Sounds so amazing. I bet you were really happy, Rebecca, when Ali came into the picture and joined you. How did it actually come about? Was it just like a cold outreach email? So we had met a long, long time ago, which Ali had to remind me of when I was pregnant and didn't have a brain cell left to remember a new face with my second daughter. So that was six years ago.
• 9:07
  And then we reconnected at Cannes over this glorious lunch on the beach. And I knew she was a girl boss, but we would talk about her all the time at my office, like what they're doing, how they're doing it.
• 9:20
  And then in November of 2018, I saw her email and I was like, oh, my God, it's the woman I talk about all the time. And so it felt like our first call, I was really nervous. I was like pacing in the hotel room as we spoke, like, how do I get this woman to want to work with me? But she already did want to work with me. So.
• 9:39
  We've been working together since November of 2018. And, you know, it's really formalized what FFC was. I started it with a passion, with a rough infrastructure and, you know, an excited community. And that was kind of it. So everything we've built since then has really been under Ali's leadership and guidance.
• 9:59
  Oh, amazing. Thank you. How sweet. And I have to say, I saw Rebecca on the floor of a bathroom in Cannes, like in the most unsexy, unglamorous area. She's sitting there pumping. And I knew that she had her baby with her there. And I was so impressed. She'd literally just come from doing this big panel.
• 10:24
  And I was like, this is a woman that I want to work with. Like she is who I want to be. She has three kids. She is overseas. She brought her kid with her, nothing stopping her. And I was just so impressed that, you know, she was, she was living the modern sort of mom businesswoman life that I think so many of us feel like can't be for us, but actually can be.
• 10:52
  Yeah, like the poster woman of what we strive to be as a modern professional mom. I love that. That's so cool. Completely. What do you think the biggest challenge is for female founders at the moment and especially during the pandemic and what's been happening in 2020? How long do you want this podcast to be? Talk as much as you want. I love to chat.
• 11:20
  I think that, you know, there is a lot of talk about women taking on the lion's share of the work at home. And so women leaving the workforce. I think I read that there's been almost 900,000 women that have left the workforce since the pandemic started. What I'm hoping is that you're going to see an entrepreneurial boom from this of women, you know, saying corporate America isn't helping me. They're not talking to me. They're not supporting me.
• 11:46
  F it. You know, I'm going to solve my own issues. I'm going to start my own business. And so we know that women have incredible success rates with launching companies and exiting them. And so I'm hoping that this just creates the next, you know, gold rush for female founded brands.
• 12:05
  Mm, totally. You know what I don't really understand at the moment? There's so much conversation, and it might just be because I hear it, and it's happening a lot, these conversations, because of the women that I speak to. But we know that women produce great results. We know what the impact of women-led businesses is on the world. Data shows that for every dollar invested in a female-led business, it generates twice the return as every dollar invested in a male-led business. Right.
• 12:34
  But how come things don't seem to be changing? And like, what are we going to do? Because it feels like that conversation is really out there now. And we know this stuff, but it feels like it's not changing. Or is it? You know, what I think is interesting is right now we're seeing extremes happen of old sort of ingrained systems that have been part of our relationship.
• 13:01
  our lives since we were born and significantly before we were born. So from a patriarchy standpoint, we're seeing that play out in politics in the biggest possible way, right? And so it feels a little bit like we're going backwards. But I do believe that it gets worse before it gets better.
• 13:24
  And you almost have to come to this breaking point. And I think the pandemic represents that breaking point. I think where we are politically represents that breaking point where it's like, it's, we're going to the bottom before we can go back up. And I think that has to sort of happen across the board for better or for worse. And so that's, I think we just need to be in position to be in position. I think about that all the time in my life where I'm,
• 13:53
  we're going to come out of this and there's going to be another side. We have to be prepared to do big things as women, especially with the other side. You know, what does good look like after this? What is, what is the world that we want? If there is no patriarchy and there's no racism, like what does that actually look like? So I think that's what we're going to be called upon to figure out very soon.
• 14:22
  even though it doesn't feel like it. Yeah. What do you want it to look like? What do you think it could be like? I mean, that's a, it's a big question. Um, but you know, and thinking about that, I think it's not about male or female. I think it's, it's about having more of a balance, right? The best teams have both the best teams have many more different types of backgrounds and races.
• 14:50
  I think there does need to be some sort of prerogative on corporations. And to basically, from a diversity and inclusion standpoint, you have to put a number out there. Like California has done for boards and women. You have to have women on boards. That's amazing. It needs to be a necessity or else it's just not going to happen. Nobody's going to feel forced to do it.
• 15:19
  I think from a standpoint of what does it look like for women, I think we also need a serious reallocation of funding from an entrepreneur and founder standpoint. But I think from a women in corporations standpoint, there needs to be a serious redoing of the entire system of what parental leave looks like, of
• 15:49
  what supporting mothers looks like in the workforce, because otherwise there's not going to be any moms left. And they're going to go and they're going to use their talents elsewhere. It's not that they're just going to completely exit the workforce. Although right now they're sort of being forced to, but I think that it needs to be reframed, rethought. And I think that that looks like, both parents should have leave and the men should be forced to take it.
• 16:17
  You know, because otherwise the burden falls on moms that when they have the baby, their husband has to go back to work. And so they don't have a partner at home to go through the toughest time of their existence so far or what I believe to be.
• 16:35
  Totally. And I've also heard from dads, like new dads, that they actually want to be at home too. They want to be with their kids and they want to be with their wife during this time because it's such a precious time of their lives, but they don't have access sometimes to that same, you know, or there's also, I guess, the stigma around just going back to work and the guy should go back to work kind of thing. But yeah, I think lifestyle design for women in particular is so
• 17:05
  have flexibility when we have babies and to be able to be the leader that we want to be and be in careers that we want to, not working potentially the way that corporate businesses do operate now. Absolutely.
• 17:22
  I think there has to be a seismic shift in how corporations embrace this on both sides. You know, the empathy and sort of the retraining of men to be able to take the paternity leave, to leave for the soccer practice they want to coach or the rehearsal or come in late because they had the bottle feedings while their wife slept or, you know what I mean? There has to be a corporate responsibility to sort of make that OK. And then and even and a more more shift within corporate America that it
• 17:51
  It should be, you know, you're back from maternity leave and Allie and I talk about this all the time. And it's like, when do you need to pump? Here's not a bathroom or a closet. Here's a room. You can take a camera up. You know, you can be part of the meeting from, you know, neck up if you want. Or, hey, we'll do the meeting around your pumping schedule. Like there needs to be a for or whatever it is. You haven't slept. Here's a support group.
• 18:14
  There's just, you know, there's so much work to be done to help it, help it feel more equal and have women not flee the workplace because you just reach a certain point as a woman and you're like, screw it. It's not worth it. Totally. Yeah. And I guess.
• 18:33
  There's also so much beauty that comes from that because women are like, I can't be involved in that corporate lifestyle. I'm forced to go and create my own magic. You know, I'm forced to go and create my own dreams, which obviously leads to so many amazing businesses, female founded businesses. You said something a moment ago about the reallocation of funds and especially when it comes to venture capital.
• 18:56
  How can we get that reallocation of funds? And is that something that Female Founder Collective is helping the entrepreneurs that are part of your network, you know, connect with investors and things like that?
• 19:08
  Yeah, we're doing it on an informal basis right now where we see an amazing founder solving a problem that we know a fund is specifically looking to invest in. And so we try to matchmake on that front, but we're trying to formalize it in a more sort of systematized manner and make it so that there's a constant flow of female-founded businesses that...
• 19:35
  that we're proactively sharing with these funds that very much matches their investment strategy. Because I think some of it is deal flow issue. I do think a lot of it, it's sort of the questions and the expectations for female founders does seem a bit different. But I also think there is an element of this, and this might sound a little controversial, where women's own confidence is getting in the way.
• 20:04
  of their funding opportunity. I witnessed it myself when we were going out and fundraising for the last company I was part of. We got pulled aside by one of the female partners on the investment committee. And she said, you have to be more bold and sort of bullish when you're presenting. And she's like, you guys don't sound confident enough. It doesn't seem like there's gonna be a big enough business.
• 20:33
  you've seen that you are defending your numbers as opposed to having it be more affirmative. Whereas a man will go in and there was actually another investor who said that they inherently give men's estimates a 30% haircut as far as what they think the expectation, the growth expectations will be. Whereas with women, we have to increase it 30%.
• 21:02
  because they always do much better than they say they're going to do. So women have a tendency to sort of underestimate what they're capable of, whereas men overestimate what they're capable of. So there's this confidence gap. And I do think one of the fundamental things we did in Accelerator earlier this year, and one of the fundamental things that we discovered that we needed to teach was confidence.
• 21:29
  And this feeling of like, I belong in this room, not imposter syndrome of like, like why I don't know, like, I don't have the experience necessary to be launching this business. We need to sort of coach founders through why they are perfect to be doing it and why investors would be lucky to invest in their company. Mm hmm.
• 21:51
  And I think the other part of that is that for women, this starts at school. This starts really early for us where it's a different level of, you know, women are taught to be polite and to be quiet and things like that. And, you know, men are really great at negotiating from a young age and they're, you know, told to be loud and speak up and da-da-da-da-da. So I think there's also that part of like, how can we change like education even just so women are on...
• 22:20
  different level of what they're being told for when they're little girls. Yeah, true. I was thinking about what you were saying yesterday, but I don't remember being told that, but somehow all women are agreeing that we must have been taught or told that. Do you
• 22:43
  I don't remember in my childhood rearing, and I certainly am not raising my daughter this way, to be quiet and meek and sit there and look pretty. But somehow we all have this, you know, in our subconscious.
• 22:58
  I mean, for me personally, I love my grandma to absolute bits, but I was really taught to be a lady who was polite and quiet and not in a way that, you know, was a negative as such, but I definitely remember being that kind of woman.
• 23:15
  you know, being taught that I went to deportment school when I went to boarding school to be, you know, really taught how to be a lady and all this kind of thing, which some parts of that kind of stuff is really good. But I guess as a young woman, there are things that maybe stick in with you that you shouldn't speak up and you shouldn't be loud and be perceived as obnoxious. And obviously that probably didn't turn out for me because I am all of those things. Yeah, I don't know. I think there are also like lots of experiences that happen to you when you're young that,
• 23:44
  can be one, one tiny moment. And then that sticks with you forever. You know, totally. Someone tells you to be quiet or something silly like that. Um, I want to shift topics and talk about the recent super successful virtual summit that you held with all the incredible super women and female founders and women in business, the what's next fest. Can you tell us a little bit about what it was and what was covered during those three and a half days?
• 24:14
  Yeah, so it was, Beast actually came to us and they wanted to impact women at scale, recognizing that they've been disproportionately impacted during this pandemic. We were trying to figure out how do we provide solutions and more importantly, how do we provide hope and inspiration in addition to providing them with sort of these skills that would help them move forward. Yeah.
• 24:41
  So we created a three-day summit that we're covering the topics that we feel like are most important right now as things to help get us through this. So the first day was all about finances and money, everything from how to be confident in talking about money. You know, that's something that we also, Rebecca and I talk about a lot is that, you know, when we'll get together and we'll talk about our kids, we'll talk about
• 25:08
  you know, our style and we won't actually swap ideas around. Here's an investment opportunity. This stock is really hot right now. So how do we sort of shift that conversation? And we had some really brilliant women speaking to that, that are leaders in their field. We talked about how to forecast and model and think about numbers and create KPIs and create goals.
• 25:34
  And then the next day was really focused around rather than the hard skills for moving forward. What are the soft skills? How do you develop resilience? How do you develop grit? How do you, when you're knocked flat on your face, which so many of us were during the pandemic, how do you get back up and shake it off and move forward in a new way with that same level of confidence or even more confidence than you had before?
• 26:01
  And then the final day was really about how do we create diversity and inclusion in our lives and our businesses? And how, as women, do we be the ones to lead forward with the composition, the culture of our individual companies and our families? How do we really ensure that those subliminal things that maybe we were raised with,
• 26:27
  And the education that our kids get and that our employees get is changing. And the structure and infrastructure of our companies are changing. So those were the three main days with Visa. They had a big grant that they gave out, which was really exciting to, I think it was 25 different female founders, specifically Black founders.
• 26:51
  And so it was just a really great way to end the day that not only are we having these conversations, but they're actually committing dollars towards it. And I really love that it was all virtual, given that like, usually you have to live in one of these cities that host these big events that are able to get
• 27:08
  you know, to those kinds of conferences or shows and by having it digitally where everyone around the world can show up and like tune in, it's just so incredible. And I'm sure there were so many learnings that came out of that for future, you know, the way that future events are held. What are some of the learnings that you took from that event that maybe were a bit unexpected or surprising to you both?
• 27:33
  either in terms of, you know, actually building and creating a virtual summit or from the guests and the speakers showing up.
• 27:42
  I think that there's so many unsung heroes. You know, you see these women that maybe Allie and I have the privilege to just know about because we're in New York City. We read and know tons of business leaders, but the general public doesn't get access to these women. And they are so smart and so motivating and so inspirational that I was really happy that we could provide such a vast and diverse community.
• 28:10
  group of women that you, you know, you can now follow and know and learn from, and it just goes to show you, you know, if you can see it, you can be it. And so here are these incredible women from all walks of life who achieved great things. And it's just more inspiring than I think, than just having, you know, sometimes just a famous person for being famous, you know, that seems very unachievable, but you could look at almost any of these women and say, okay, if she can do it, I can do it.
• 28:37
  Yeah. Why not me? Totally. What about you, Ali? Did you have any unexpected learnings or things that surprised you that came out of it? You know, I think how many commonalities there are amongst all of us as founders across borders, right? We had people coming in from 22 different countries, which was challenging from a time zone perspective. I think that's, that's one
• 29:07
  resilience and having that is a universal thing. And that community is a universal thing. You know, it's like I can find similarities with somebody that's in Nigeria, who's building a business, and we can give each other advice, even though the culture and the infrastructure of their country is entirely different. That was really exciting for me. But I agree with Rebecca, and that sometimes we're looking to these
• 29:35
  to have these heroes that are larger than life when so often it's people and the things that they're doing consistently every day that are powering through and they're all around us. Right. And I feel like every business owner is a hero to some degree because it's, it's hard, but they keep going, which is amazing. Totally.
• 30:01
  And given that it's all online, is it still available to purchase? Are people able to access the summit now? Yeah, through the end of the month. Great. Amazing. Where do people go to access that? I need to send around the link. I will link it in the show notes. I'll totally link it in the show notes. Okay, great. Everyone listening, that's where you can find it.
• 30:27
  I'll send it to you later. It's a very long link. It's not just femalefoundercollective.com forward slash event.
• 30:36
  Totally, totally. Something we always talk about on the show is tactical advice, strategies and learnings that can help other female founders. And since building this incredible community and network of women that you've built, can you share any pointers on how you were able to really get the word out about the summit and get people involved and just generally growing that community all together? Yeah.
• 31:01
  I think so much of it comes from your own organic social. So what I would and newsletters, what I would say to founders and solopreneurs, business owners everywhere is really develop your own audience. And also develop a referral mechanism where you.
• 31:21
  You have the people who are your biggest diehard fans are gonna be the ones that are gonna create the best network effect. So they're gonna be the ones that are gonna go out and shout from the rooftops about what you're doing. And they're also going to do the selection process for you of finding relevant additional audiences. So I would say building a list
• 31:41
  is super important. And that was where the bulk of our registrations came from, in addition to building out your social in a way that's really authentic to you. Amazing. So cool. You know, I was curious, you guys see so many businesses and you get to meet so many incredible founders. What do you think or what do you predict are going to be the businesses that do really well in, say, the next five years?
• 32:11
  I think anything in the delivery world, the sanitization world, the not touching, you know, there's a really cool company I'm trying to integrate into Rebecca Minkoff.
• 32:22
  They do it at grocery stores now, but just scanning your items, adding to card, completing payment on your phone. I think there's going to be a ton of those companies. We will emerge from the pandemic, but I think sadly some of the habits will remain with people being scared of germs and sickness. And so anyone doing that will probably do very well.
• 32:45
  Totally. Absolutely. And before we jump into the six quick questions part of the episode, I always love to ask the women on the show is what advice do you have for women who have a big idea and want to launch their own business? I would say to stress test it and basically put together a plan, right? I see a lot of people that
• 33:14
  launch businesses, and then they're like, I don't know what my goals are. I don't know where this is going. You don't, you're going to pivot a million times. So you definitely don't need to know where it's going. But what you do need is what does execution look like for me in the next 12 months, next 36 months, because that way you're at least tracking it and you know what
• 33:42
  you don't end up one day looking at your bank account and seeing it at almost zero and being surprised. So I think there does need to be, even though you think about entrepreneurship and it feels very fly by the seat of your pants, and it is, right? You have to be nimble and you need to be able to move quickly. But you also need to be able to put together a plan.
• 34:10
  and track that plan. So that's probably my number one piece of advice. Great advice. What about you, Rebecca? I think that you should find product market fit. I think everyone thinks they have to go into a business, raise a ton of money and then end up working for your investors.
• 34:28
  That wasn't trendy when we started Rebecca Minkoff. So we had to do it the old fashioned way. You had to find a product that people wanted, that you sold it, and then you took that money from the profit and you put it into the business, right? I made $23,000 a year for more years than I care to admit because we put everything back into the business. But that's how businesses can grow and be funded. And then when you're big and successful or bigger and more successful and you have traction and you have customers and you have awareness,
• 34:57
  and you do want to do a raise, you're just coming off of that from a much stronger position. You're going to sell a lot less of your company. You're going to answer to yourself versus some men in suits who have, you know, a seven-year plan to make an exit. So I just think, stop looking at all that noise, you know, make your business successful, have something to show for it, and then raise money if you even need to.
• 35:22
  Totally, totally. Ah, incredible advice. Okay, we're up to the six quick questions. I will run through it with you individually. So we'll do Rebecca first, and then we'll switch to Ali. Question number one is, what's your why? I can't think of anything else I'd rather do. Oh, love that. That should be everyone's why. Question number two is, what's been the number
• 35:52
  Um, I guess when we launched, you would think that we, we spent a lot of money to gain awareness and marketing. And it was really leaning on the network that, you know, Allie and I had created over our years in business. And so we've done everything organically. Um, obviously we pay to promote our events, but outside of that, the social growth, the member growth, it's all organic. It's all word of mouth. It's all another woman saying this helped me, it'll help you. So yeah.
• 36:22
  Yeah. And the social media is so good. I was looking at some of your content where you do like the three tips for this and the three tips for that. And I thought it was so clever. Really loved it. Question number three is where do you hang out to get smarter? What are you reading? What are you listening to?
• 36:36
  Where are you hanging out? So there is an organization, they're a headhunting organization called Kirk Palmer Associates. And through the pandemic, they just started doing this daily newsletter that links to every single story that they think a business should know about. So rather than sifting through 20 different publications, I get a daily digest of 50 companies, what they're doing, innovating with links to all.
• 37:01
  So that's been incredible. And I think they probably have a bigger newsletter subscriber base than they ever imagined as a company because of it. Love that. I'm definitely going to subscribe. Question number four is how do you win the day? And that's around your AM and PM rituals that keep you feeling happy and successful and motivated and productive. Definitely a lot of coffee.
• 37:25
  I take a ton of supplements and vitamins and powders and then good old-fashioned exercise. I have to do it daily just for my mental state, you know, to get out, to breathe fresh air, to get my body going. Yeah, totally. Now more than ever, I feel like moving your body, even if it's just 10 minutes on the yoga mat or something, like getting that movement is so key when we're inside all day. If you only had $1,000 left to spend in your business bank account, where would you spend it?
• 37:56
  Promotion. I think that when people have no money or sales are bad, they tend to pull back. That's when you have to put more into promotion. Nice. And last question, question number six is how do you deal with failure? And it can be around a personal experience or it can just be your mindset and approach.
• 38:17
  So I think it's also a misnomer that you never fail or you fail less, the more successful you get. I would argue that you actually fail more. And so I try to look at it like a muscle. The more, you know, in the beginning, it sucks. It feels like a breakup. You go through all these questions. What's wrong with me? How did I let this happen? Yeah.
• 38:37
  Now it's like, okay, what do I need to do to fix this immediately? How do I get into fight mode to right the wrong or say this product didn't work? Hey, guess what? No one liked it. Next. And it's easy to say now, but when you've been failing for 20 years, let me tell you, it's a lot easier. I love that. Amazing. Ali, it's your turn. Are you ready? Yeah. Great. Question number one is what's your why?
• 39:08
  I would say it's similar to Rebecca and that there's nothing else I would rather do, but also this needs to happen. There needs to be change for women and why not me? Why not you? Exactly. Question number two is what do you think the number one marketing moment has been for Female Founder Collective? I love when I see the speakers and the people that are participating in our events or
• 39:38
  and an educational moment for us, share it with their own communities, which has been a big part of our growth. Because to me, I love seeing that when people that we think are heroes are proud of the work that they've done to help other women. I think that's, it hits on helping us, but I think it helps the universe. And that's really amazing to see. Totally.
• 40:04
  That authentic, authentic sharing. Yeah. Question number three is where do you hang out to get smarter? What are you reading and listening to? So I'm similar to Rebecca in that I love looking at newsletters. Newsletters, I believe, are the key for me in the sense that I love getting stuff served up to my inbox because otherwise I won't remember to go to it.
• 40:32
  Some newsletters that I love to read are actually from VCs because it's really interesting to see what the future looks like. According to them, the various businesses that are doing really well that are solving the problems for our future. So I love reading Lear Ventures does one. First round review is amazing. They provide really tactical tips for founders as well. So those are some of my favorite places.
• 41:01
  And then my husband gives me a digest every day too. Love that. Love that. Shout out to him. There's a really cool one I signed up to recently called Fem Street by a woman in VC, Sarah. I forget her last name, but she's really cool. And I really enjoy her content. It comes on a Sunday and it's the first thing I read on a Monday morning. I really like it. Love it. You should check it out. Question number four is how do you win the day? And that's around your AM and PM rituals.
• 41:28
  So I think happiness is the key to working productively. And the number one thing for me from a happiness perspective is contrary to what I read from a lot of founders, every founder is like, I get no sleep. I'm like, I have to get sleep or I don't work. I'm like a, I'm like a car that has no fuel. So sleep, I need at least seven hours, seven and a half is like my sweet spot.
• 41:56
  And then I have a ritual every morning where I wake up before my kids and I used to run and it started just hurting my body as I got older. So I now walk to go get coffee and it's my time to think about my intentions for the day to go over my to-do list to reprioritize it. And while I'm moving my body, like Rebecca said, like having this opportunity to just feel the fresh air, go out, have it.
• 42:26
  be solo time. And it's really the most wonderful start to my day. And if I don't have it, I am a little cranky. So those things. A little cranky. Love that. Sleep is so important. I also have to have a lot of sleep to be able to function every day. Question number five is if you only had $1,000 left in your business bank account, where would you spend it? People. I think that
• 42:54
  What I found in business is that I had a boss that said, everybody is replaceable. And this was in the beginning of my career. And I think that couldn't be further from the truth is that amazing talent is what makes an organization. I don't care if you're a product organization, a service organization, if you have amazing people and an amazing team,
• 43:17
  then you're going to be able to accomplish whatever you put your mind to. So I think investing in somebody on your team who needs it, that also is a great performer is where I would put it. Love that. And so true. We've all had those bosses. Nightmare. Question number six. Last question is, how do you deal with failure? I would say that
• 43:46
  I wallow in it for a second, but I agree with Rebecca in that it only gets more plentiful as you get further in your career. And I think of it now as a learning moment and a, okay, so we failed. You have to move quickly forward.
• 44:05
  past it. So I get emotionally attached to the failure and I'm getting better at not being as sad or I used to take it personally. But when you accept the fact that everybody is imperfect and everybody has failures and that for a business to succeed, you have to stumble a number of different times, then it doesn't feel so personal. It just feels like part of the journey and you figure out, okay, so now what's next?
• 44:33
  How do I move on? And how do I make sure this doesn't happen in the future? Totally. Totally. Ladies, thank you so much for taking the time to be on the Female Startup Club podcast today and for what you're doing to support and empower female entrepreneurs around the world. I have really loved chatting with you both. Thanks for having us. Thank you.
• 45:01
  Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 45:26
  And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
• 45:48
  As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the show, and post your favorite episodes to Instagram stories. I am beyond grateful when you do that.
• 46:05
  Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 46:29
  And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
• 46:52
  As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the show and post your favorite episodes to Instagram stories. I am beyond grateful when you do that.