Women's Entrepreneurship Day Q&A

I was recently invited to share my story at the Women’s Entrepreneurship Day event in Seattle. The virtual summit was designed to celebrate the significant impact women business owners have made on the Seattle economy despite significant obstacles including the ongoing pandemic. The goal of the event was to inspire, empower, and catalyze diverse, yet like-minded individuals to realize their full potential in the Pacific Northwest and around the world. The event offered aspiring entrepreneurs an opportunity to create meaningful connections, get expert advice, and gather the support and resources necessary to put their dreams in motion.

This year’s event was done is in partnership with The WMarketplace and proceeds from the event were donated to Crypto For Afghan Women, a non-profit working to help women and children in Afghanistan buy food without needing the Taliban government or banking system.

In case you missed it, here are the responses from my LIVE Q&A with host Catherine Grace O'Connell.

What inspired you to launch your own PR Company? 

My son Liam was six months old when I launched Gossip & Glamour, which is a little crazy to think about. I launched out of necessity because I needed more flexibility than my 9-5 job could offer. I also wanted to harness my vast fashion industry experience and bring it to clients that needed support in a variety of areas including marketing, PR, and project management. Having the freedom to work on the things I was passionate about with clients that I loved was a game-changer. I just celebrated 11 years in business last month.

There is a perception that PR is very glamorous. How does the day-to-day reality differ from the outward perception?

A lot of people think my work centers around events because I do a lot of them. In fact, we just wrapped up a month of pop-ups for Boma Jewelry, but actually, there’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes to make moments like that happen. There’s a lot of strategic planning involved, a ton of logistics, and then of course, the communication aspect which includes writing media alerts, distributing them, sending follow-ups, doing the marketing for each event, and hosting the day of. It’s a lot work that most people never see and you have to be extremely organized to keep things as seamless as possible.

What’s your greatest secret in building and maintaining strong relationships?

The secret to success is consistency and follow-through. You have to be reliable and keep the lines of communication open, even when it involves having hard conversations. I’m the kind of person who likes to get things done and I also like the creative challenge of bringing diverse teams of people together to do meaningful work, but none of that is possible without open communication and starting from a place where everyone is on the same page. 

How did Covid impact your business and what did you do to pivot and keep your business going?

COVID impacted my business in every way possible. Everything came to a full stop as we waited to see what would happen. There was so much fear and uncertainty as things started closing. When we left the office in mid-March we thought we would be back in about 2 weeks, but that obviously didn’t happen. And now, we’ve been in this pandemic for almost 2 years.

Most of my clients put me on “pause” starting in April. The following month George Floyd was killed and it sparked a racial reckoning in the fashion industry that many of us were not prepared to face. A lot of people didn’t even have the language to talk about it. For the fashion industry as a whole, I think it sparked a long-overdue conversation about diversity and inclusion that could not be avoided any longer.

By the end of the summer, it was clear that the pandemic was here to stay and clients realized that they needed to be proactive about the fall fashion and make the most of the holiday season.  So we rolled up our sleeves and got to work, but we did it with an understanding that we needed to be more intentional about our work and we couldn’t just go back to the old way of doing business. 

During COVID, I kept my business afloat by doing consulting, mentoring students, and conducting community outreach for the 15% Pledge.

What has been your greatest challenge and how did you overcome it?

I started my career early. I got my first job in retail when I was 16 and I was a store manager by the time I was 19. I had a lot to learn and I had a hard time taking feedback in the early days, even if it was constructive. It took me a long time to appreciate the feedback loop and see it as an opportunity for growth.

What have you learned about yourself as an entrepreneur?

I’ve learned that mentorship matters. You need people around you who can offer advice and insight when things come up in your business that you’re not prepared to deal with. My mentors have helped tremendously with my professional growth and have opened so many doors. As a result, I pay it forward as often as I can to help other women.

In the blogging world, we talk a lot about the concept of “community over competition” and it’s especially true when it comes to women in business. We have to have each other’s backs. I work hand in hand with many of my PR colleagues in the Seattle market. We trust each other deeply and enjoy working on projects together. I feel so lucky to be surrounded by other women who are constantly cheering me on.

If you were to start over, is there anything you would do differently?

There really isn’t anything I would do differently because my personal journey brought me to where I am today. Over the years, I’ve learned that you have to be REALLY good at what you do- and then you have to do it over and over again. I never wanted to be a one-hit-wonder. I wanted to be someone who was quietly doing the work and delivering results over and over again- for a long time. It’s been more than a decade now and I’ve been able to carve out a beautiful niche in the market for Gossip & Glamour. I’m most proud of the work that I’ve done to get meaningful media coverage for my clients and to share their stories with the world.

Let’s talk about balance. You’re a mom who is juggling a lot of balls as well as a busy entrepreneur. How do you find balance? Any tips or insights you can share?

Aaah, balance. I honestly don’t even know if that exists. I love my job and I feel so grateful that I get to wake up and do this every day. To be fair, I think balance looks different for everyone. For some people it might be a morning workout, for others, it’s a coffee date with a friend. I like reading the Style Section of the New York Times on Sundays and drinking coffee on my couch. Doing that every week makes me feel like my life has some sense of balance, but I know that’s not enough for everyone. I also think balance depends on the season. In fashion, fall is our busiest season, so I constantly have to adjust my expectations of what balance looks like in my life.

In terms of advice or insight, I would just say there is no balance without boundaries. I’m really good at setting boundaries on my time and energy. I realized that I had to start saying NO to things in order to be able to say YES to the things I really want to do. 

What tips would you give a woman who is looking to start her own business for the very first time?

Be flexible. The beauty of having your own company is that you have the ability to pivot quickly, which was a HUGE key to my success during COVID. I think it’s important to give yourself the space and freedom to make adjustments as you go along. What you end up doing may not be what you initially set out to do, and that’s OK because you’re allowed to evolve over time. You don’t know what you don’t know, and you have to give yourself the grace to make mistakes and learn from them along the way. 

The other SINGLE MOST important advice I can offer is to surround yourself with other women in business who are in the trenches with you and can help guide you in the right direction. You are going to have well-meaning friends who offer their opinions about things, but the people you should be listening to are the ones who are doing it and have the perspective to be able to offer you the best possible advice.

About Women’s Entrepreneurship Day

Women’s Entrepreneurship Day Organization (WEDO) / #ChooseWOMEN was founded in 2013 as a volunteer non-profit organization. The movement was established to bring awareness to the 250 million girls living in poverty globally that deserve to be given a chance in life, while simultaneously inspiring and empowering the 4 billion women on the planet! 

WEDO was started by social entrepreneur and humanitarian Wendy Diamond, to empower, celebrate, and support women in business worldwide. WED works globally to empower women and girls to become active participants in the economy by igniting a network of women leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs to initiate startups, drive economic expansion, and advance communities around the world. In order to achieve this ambitious goal, WED builds and catalyzes the vital networks of like-minded individuals and organizations that women business leaders need in order to realize their full potential and change the world.

WEDO convenes Business Leaders, Change Makers, Government Officials, and Civil Society to collaborate and find solutions in critical areas of entrepreneurship eco-systems, education, and policy creation to empower women in business. WEDO is celebrated at the United Nations and in 144 countries and 65 universities/colleges internationally. When women are elevated financially, communities and countries prosper. It builds a global blueprint to alleviate and eradicate poverty.