Yahoo Finance

Welcome to a new episode of Opening Bid. I'm Yahooy's executive editor Brian Sazi. Like I would say, this is the podcast that will make you a better investor and a better leader. I really want to lean into being a better leader here today with our next guest. It is Rebecca Minkoff, uh, fashion designer, entrepreneur, leader, a little bit ofeverything,

a little bit of everything, podcaster.

Yeah, I've been following your journey for some time. Congrats on this new book, uh, Fearless, the new rules for unlocking creativity, courage and success. What made you write this now?

You know, I wrote the hardcover in 2021 after we testing my rules during COVID, saying if I have to rebuild my business in the pandemic, let me see if this worked a second time after I started my company.And it was time to release it in paperback, make it more accessible, and we're celebrating our 20th anniversary as a brand. It's been 20 years, 20 years, so I figured this was perfect timing.

Have you,uh, did yousell the company?

We sold the company 3 years ago.

Yes, that tough to do?

It was tough only because, you know, it's my name. I'm connected to it, but I'm there every day. I'm a very happily paid employee and I, I love, I love the work and I continue to be there no matter what. So take

us inside this book. What are some of the lessons that you've learned.Uh, building your business,

Ithink the idea of risk taking, I think so many people are averse to taking risks and the fear that overcomes them, you know, in their gut stops them. And so the goal of this book is that, you know, pulling your hair over your shoulder and saying I'm fearless. It's really about I'm scared, but here are some things I can hold on to to just take the risk anyways.

What did you, uh, you know, as you were or have been building your business, did you make any mistakes along the way?

None.No, it's been so easy. Um, we'd be here all day. I mean we made risks from early on from not having quality control and having the wrong designers, you know, brand inside my bag so that was, that was a humbling moment we've made risks when it came to using.Tech early on, you know, having a Twitter, a live Twitter feed during my fashion show, not realizing that when you start trending on Twitter as it was called back in the day, that maybe some inappropriate things are shown to 1300 people. So you name it, we've, we've, we've made mistakes. How did you overcome those?You know, thank goodness for that one. That was my brother's idea, and I looked him in the eyes. I said, I'm so glad this is your idea because if it was mine, I'd, you would never, you know, stop talking about it.

That's one thing I I didn't realize your brother. I mean he helped get this business off the ground, right? What is that relationship like? Um, what was it like in theearly days,

I guess? I mean, in the early days it was phone a friend, uh, for a lot of help, you know, originally.You know, traditionally capital was not what it is today, you know, you didn't just go out and raise money and so we really bootstrapped due to his American Express. He mortgaged his house for the brand. His wife could not buy groceries, but she got some beautiful leather bags.And um and then when we were able to secure, you know, uh loans on purchase orders, you know, but he he was the CEO for 17 years, so it was integral to the growth of the brand that he was

there before, uh,

I, I'm thinking back now to a couple of months ago we talked to the Property Brothers and of course they're brothers, they've launched this amazing brand and it seems to flow with them, you know, they.They each have different strengths. Like how did you manage working with yourbrother?

So it was critical that we get good at communication, and I write about it in the book. We didn't always see eye to eye. We didn't always get along, but we would kind of reset more than once a year and say this is what I need and want from you and this is what I need and want from you, and I think anyone who's working with their partner.Whether it's a spouse, a friend, you know, a stranger, you have to do those resets. I advise once a quarter because things change. You might have kids or you want to travel more or you start, you know, wanting to take the business in another direction. If you don't have those touch points, man, it can, it can get wild.

Italked to a full disclosure, I talked to a lot of robotic AI CEOs, entrepreneurs that seemingly got born and thinking about developing businesses, but what do you see.I would say the more average entrepreneur in terms of mistakes like what are they making right now in this environment that you know folks that don't have access to billions of dollars in a in a huge

rolodex. I think especially for women, most women are starting consumer businesses and they're all going after VC and private equity money and not going after traditional forms of capital, whether it's a small business loan or again purchase order financing, you're gonna grow slower, but it's OK. What is wrong with having a slower growing healthy business that provides a.Lifestyle for you, your family, and your employees, and it's one thing that my co-founder and I at Female Founder Collective, we talk to women about this. It's OK to grow slow. What happened to Main Street USA where there was just these beautiful businesses that, you know, provided a great lifestyle for the people that worked there? Our

female founders, I mean, there's countless stories written about this, and there's nothing new per se, but are they getting the capital they need?

No, they're not. The numbers have actually gone down. It's now 1.8% down from 2%. It's awful. It's, it's disgusting actually. um, there need to be more.Advocates in the room, there need to be more women, you know, investing and succeeding and again our mission at Female Founder Collective is to hopefully make the next level of women who are successful that can then invest in more founders. Why

is this still even an issue? Why is ita problem?

I think it's a problem because again a lot of women have consumer businesses. They should not be getting VC capital for them, so they're barking up the wrong tree sometimes, and the business has been largely built, not in a bad way.By you know male dominated fields and sectors where it's more male heavy, and I think on that level men need to say OK we need to pull more managing directors in as women or we need more investors in as women or more funds need to come in as women and then really taking a look at the strength of these businesses because you'll find that the exits these women have are usually a lot bigger because we're so worried about failing and messing it up for everyone else that we're sort of like, OK, this has to.

Are you a bigwork life balance person or or are you maybe I look at myself, it's just all become one big blob like there is no separation at allof any of this.

There is no such thing as balance.

Thank

you. It's never existed for men or women. It

just doesn't exist. It does

not exist. I try and call it work life integration or we can call it the blob, as you say, um, you know, for me it's sort of like taking a look at my week, you know, where can I, where do I know I'm gonna be gone for my kids for a couple of days, where can I then over index when I'm back.But to me, you know, the village has been stripped of us. We used to have a village and I'm sort of into rebuilding my village who, who are those people? My husband, you know, my nanny, my mom, my dad, like who's helping.Create this thing where it's not always falling on me and what can I shed? Do I do the dishes now? No, I don't. You know, someone does them and that's real nice. It's

kind of hard. It's nice. It's hard to do. I mean, how do you, I mean, how do you manage your, your time, especially as you were growing a business and you're still growing a business? You

know, I'm, I'm very type A. Everything is scheduled within an inch of my life and I'm a big list analog list maker, you know, and so I sort of have this is the fires, this is the must do, this is the nice to do, this is when I'm bored and like daydreaming.And I sort of just manage my life of what's most important and what can I focus on today that that moves me along to the next cycle. You know,

to that end, uh, I think we're, we're a lot alike. Uh, I'm kind of getting that vibe. I just got the new Amazon Echo show because Alexa Plus is coming out and it's like Amazon's AI thing. It just manages your whole life.

It does. I need this in my life.

I'm when they come, it should be coming out in a couple weeks like this thing is, is pretty, pretty dope, but like let's let's go inside your brand.Uh, I remember when your bags came out. I remember when you made that famous t-shirt. I was a stock analyst covering ironically accessible luxury handbag makers at the time, so it was coach before tapestry. Like

what's hot right now?

What's hot right now in my space.I mean right now these micro trends that you see happening on TikTok, you know, everyone has to have, you know, the small bag that fits nothing. Cool, that lasts for a week and then it's and then it's something else and so I think you know what's hot right now is everything because trends are happening quicker and quicker and quicker.Uh, but for us we're really about building a stable base and foundation of bags that are your everyday woman's bags and then from there we layer on these blips as fast as we can get them out, but we're not, we're not pinning our business on that. Is

TikTok a big driver of your business? and I ask that because I, I talked to the Abercrombie and Fitch folks and what they have seen in terms of.How they've marketed on TikTok and the sales are able to drive with the conversion off of that has been mind blowing.

Well, we've just taken it seriously in the last 6 months, so it's something that I don't have numbers on yet, but we will be launching it soon in a very heavy way for TikTok shops.

How do youknow, how do you know when something's going to be a hit?

Oh man, sometimes you have that feeling and sometimes you don't, you know, we had a bag become a hit recently. Uh, it's the Megan hobo and when I saw the bag I was like that's a beautiful bag.But the timing of, you know, Bohemian kind of coming back along with a similar brand which I won't name doing a very big expensive campaign with a bag that looked very similar at the same time it's always like kismet, and you can't plan that. I didn't know they were gonna have a bag that looked the same, uh, and so sometimes that happens and then other times, you know, it's price value ratio that the customers like, wow, she sees me and she made a gorgeous looking bag for me at an accessible price point. Why

do trends.From decades ago come back and I, I was thinking I see everybody wearing like flared jeans again. I remember these when I was in high school in the late 90s. Uh and I'm having flashbacks as I walked down thestreet.

Yeah, uh, uh, some of these trends, you know, make me cringe, you know, love Kendrick Lamar, but when I saw the bootleg with the, with the cuff under.The shoe that gave me like odd. I was like this cannot come back um everyone's nostalgic, you know, in our day, you know, we wanted things from the 70s, you know, corduroy and flared pants that are now back and so I think this next generation is embracing things we did in the 90s and sadly that,

that old jeans,

of course I remember

Jingo jeans was.

Now I want a

pair, but there's just in this environment of cost, I don't think you can make those profitably. I mean, I don't know. That's just my take, but the weird thing was they always drag on the grounds. You always went home dirty.

You always went home dirty. If you live in the city, you are burning those things when you get home. It was awful.

Hang with us, Rebecca. We're gonna go off for a quick break. I want to get more into your book and also the state of retail. We'll be right back on opening bid.All right, welcome back on Opening bid here at the NASDAQ in the, uh, big beautiful Times Square talking with Rebecca Minkoff, new book Fearless The New Rules for Unlocking Creativity, courage, and Success. I want to talk a little bit about the state of retail because there's a lot of focus on, of course, as you can imagine, tariffs. Now I've never designed a product. I've never worked in a supply chain.How hard is it to adapt to a tariff when you are in the apparel industry?

It's impossible. So we're not dealing with it this time around. We dealt with it the last time tariffs were instituted.I think that year we thought we were going to make $3 million and we lost $3 million. You know, it was impossible with the timeline set forth to change your supply chain. I went to testify, you know, and rally for it, didn't help, and so it's really hurting a lot of businesses. The silver lining is we got out of China at that time. We're still out of China.And so that saved us a lot of money in the long run, but it's pain we didn't need, you know, I wish there was a little bit more time to adjust to these tariffs because our life cycle is 9 months from concept to hitting the floor. So if you don't have that.And you know then you then you're out of

luck. I,

the, the retail executives I talked to, they continue to tell me, well, we're moving out of China, we're going to Vietnam and we're going to Indonesia and on paper, great, but is it the same quality or does China have some kind of secret sauce they're still able to better things.Vietnam

and you know we've been making in Vietnam and Indonesia for the last 3 years, and I don't see a difference in our quality at all and I think that the smart factories were already establishing strongholds in those places, so some of the factories that made our goods in China are the same factories that just happened to be in Indonesia and in Vietnam. Can you

make an amazing handbag profitably in the

US?

You can if you charge a lot more money. So I did this exercise a couple of years ago when I had a lot of my, you know, 20 year old fans demanding Made in New York City, Made in the USA, and I said, Cool, this is the price. I'm happy to do it. I can go back to my factory on 38th Street. Let me know if you want to pay, and guess what? Crickets, you know, I am excited by the prospect. I know LVMH.Investing in Texas and I would love manufacturing to come back but it has to come back on a scale that it's not just the make, you know, it's the hardware it's all the filler that's inside of a bag everything needs to be made here because if you're buying it all from overseas anyways and assembling it here, you're still not saving very much money.

Is ita is it a skill thing? We just don't have the trades people to make this.

I think it is a skill thing, but you can.Train them. I mean, what's incredible is the factory here that I started with that's still around still has some of the people that have worked here, you know, for the last 20 years so I think it can be taught it's just do people wanna do that anymore like engage in hand craft making

it seems like it seems like fun, right?

I love visiting the factory here.

Is there, um, is the reality though that we're just gonna have to spend more.On apparel this spring and summer. I mean this is what's coming at us, right? Well, we're

gonna have to spend more on everything. I think eggs here are $14. Eggs everything is more

expensive. Can we just have some eggs for under

14

dollars.

I'm going to get a chicken. It's happening.

Well, you know, and it's, and it's interesting because, you know, I walk into, I guess some of your competitors. I'm not gonna name any names, and I see the quality out of these products.I see they change zippers. I see they're using different fabric. Are we're just gonna get just less made good stuff as a result of this?

I think a lot of brands are going to do that, and it's gonna hurt them in the end. It might be the quick fix for now, but the customer sees it like you said, you noticed it, and you are not, you know, an everyday handbag consumer. I'm going to assume, but

I still study this. I still, so I used to be. I covered all the the accessible luxury makers, handbag makers, but.It was always I remember the time where they reinvested in quality like, OK, we're gonna double down an amazing button or an amazing zipper, and I don't know it seems to be going the other way now again.

It is going the other way for a lot of brands. I know for us it's key that we remain a quality that you know I still meet women who have had the bag for 1516, 20 years, and I still want her to have that experience 20 years later when I'm walking around with a cane.

What's next for Rebecca Minkoff, the the brand, um, wherever that might be. I know you have the podcast, but even so with the company.

So with the company, as as we are celebrating 20 years, I have a couple more collaborations up my sleeve that'll come out in Q4 of this year, and we're just gonna continue to, you know, message our expansion, our regrowth. We're still coming back from COVID, where 70% of our business evaporated.And so what does business look like in in this new world and you know getting really good at TikTok?

What is, what did you learn during the pandemic? I mean 70% of your business gone. I mean you must have been like tall shit like what, what, what, wheredid it go?

Yeah, well.I knew exactly where it went unfortunately but we couldn't do anything about that, you know, with every department store closing their doors and they had to cancel their purchase orders so I think the one thing it taught us is we need to mind and grow our own garden and if we are not doing that top of mind every day.Then we will be left in the dust and so it taught us to care about our relationship with our consumer in a new way, how we talk to her, when we talk to her, the look and feel of the website, what we stand for as a brand, and from there then you go out and sell to everybody else. But I think before that every conversation every morning was what was the sell through at Nordstrom, Sachs, Neiman.And instead of saying what what did we do yesterday in sales and so that flip I think was a game changer for us.

Has it surprised you by how many I guess um department stores have closed?

It's surprising, it's scary you know I, I get nostalgic and that's where I loved to shop, but I think everyone has to innovate, you know, and I think everyone's trying to figure it out.Out and what's going to draw the customer back into their store? It has to be about experience, creativity. You gotta romance the customer and really edit, you know, everything today is available anywhere you look. I'm seeking a good edit. I don't want to have to sort through 20 pages of a website. So if I walk into a store, what is your point of view and what story are you tellingme?

You think we're at the coming to the day where there's just not going to be department stores.

I certainly hope that's not the

case. It's still fun. It's

still fun to walk in a department store. I mean they, they're trying. They're really trying. They're putting restaurants in there like coffee shops like I mean, I appreciate the efforts, but to your point, it does need to be edited. It still feels too expansive. It's over 2 or 3 floors, just like, I don't know, boil it down somehow.

Yeah, our, our actually our most successful footprint when we had stores was we did a pop up at the Grove. It was 1000 square feet.And boy did we have to edit. I think we had 5 SKUs, and it was our best performing store by far.

Who do yougo to, you know, the last few minutes of, uh, of the podcast, we always love to get hot takes from our guests. So who do you go to for advice? Like who's your business outreach line?

Oh my gosh. Well, thank God for Female Founder Collective. So my co-founder Alison Wyatt.But then I have a great group of founders, Michelle Cordero Grant, who's, you know, Gorgi or Alison Ellsworth from Poppy, you know, I'm always also seeking women outside of my industry to get a different perspective and lens. I could talk to designers still I'm blue in the face, and we're all saying the same thing. And so for me it's critical that I have different people in way different industries that I'm talkingto.

What has made those founders click? like why have they found success?

I think that they're brilliant marketers, they're creative, they're scrappy, and I think that they're continuing to surprise and delight their consumer and in this day and age you have to do that.

Where, um, you know, in terms of like finding success, you know, because it's around the cover of your book, you know how have you gone upon doing that how do you.

I think success changes every couple of years. What you define it as when I started out, it was, can I afford to eat out?

That's always a good, yeah,

can I, can I pay mybills

or can I afford to share the bill when someone says, let's just split the check and you're cringing inside because you had a salad.Uh, success to me these days is more time with my children. It's being unbothered by email on nights and weekends. Is that you can't do

that. You have to check. I do

it. No, you don't check

email. No.

I, you know what I do as I go and I delete the junk so that on Monday it's just a clean slate of everything I have to answer. That is all I do now and to me that's success. And then, you know, meeting my customer this last year has been about storytelling and about reminding her about the journey of the brand and so when I get to meet someone like last night who said my first bag.Was this purchase I made as a celebration of my raise. Like those are the things that make me go, yes, this is success.

Where do you, where do you shop and what are your statement

items? I mean, I'm not gonna lie, but lately I've been only shopping at Rebecca Minkoff.

Well,that's good. Like you have to go to other competitors stuff, right? I mean,

come on. So I actually haven't bought another competitor's stuff in a long time, but I do love Isabel Marant and I think she makes a beautiful product. Um, it is more.Expensive, but when I'm splurging, that's who I go to.

Alright, totally last one, I promise. Like what are the style mistakes you still see menmaking?

Men making. Oh gosh, so men talking about doing these things, uh, I, you know, I know that skinny jeans are back for women, but they're not certainly not back for men. Embrace the loose pants.

I

can't,

I can't do the loose pants.

Get a nicely tailored suit or do the Harry Styles thing and just really go the opposite direction, do the boxy suit, but it has to be the right boxy, you know,

you know I've seen.Everything is baggy. You think we're just not going back to like tighter fits? No,

Ithink it's happening. I, I saw many men last night dressed up in tight suits, and I was like, Too soon, too soon, not yet. OK.

Well, congrats on

this book, Rebecca McGough, Fearless, the new rules for unlocking creativity, courage and success. Really good to see you and, and congrats on all your success. Thank you for having me. All right, and that's it for the latest episode of Opening bid. Continue this with all those likes on the podcast platforms. Thumbs up on YouTube. Appreciate all your feedback. I try to answer all of your questions. We'll talk to you soon.