Coming soon. . . my new clothing brand!
I’ve mentioned somewhat off-handedly that I have a new clothing brand of my own coming soon. And I do. So be on the lookout. I’ll share more details here when it goes live and I’ll share my thoughts on the whole process thus far. In case anyone is interested!
I’m hoping for your support. I won’t beg . . . but I hope you’ll find it a worthy endeavor.
For now though, I’ll just say this: I’m done being underestimated. I’m done working for people who tell me You’re not doing it right.
The following list is an actual list of actual things that have been said to me (in some cases I’m paraphrasing because the rant was too long) over the last thirty years across 4 companies and in various interviews for various jobs at companies I didn’t end up working for. Many comments are directly contradictory to the statement said right before. And in every instance, the contradictory statement was delivered by the same person, within months if not weeks, of the prior bit of feedback.
You’re too loud.
You’re too soft. You’re too nice. Speak up!
You talk too fast.
You’re abrasive. Too assertive. Chill.
You lack confidence. Say what you mean! Assert yourself!
You’re arrogant. You’ll never work here.
You’ll never be a chief marketing officer (CMO) here or anywhere. (I became one, for 8 years, about 4x the average tenure of a CMO.)
You can’t build a bench. You do the work for them.
You don’t delegate enough. Be a leader! Lead — don’t do! (Do nothing?)
You’re too in the weeds.
You’re not detail oriented enough.
You talk too fast (I got this one A LOT! I think fast — keep up!)
You’re an operator but not a leader. You’d make a solid #2. One day . . .
You’re not creative.
It’s not just about creative . . . be more analytical!
Sometimes you’re too data driven — follow your gut!
You’re too values driven. And you talk too fast. No one can follow what you’re saying.
That message for women won’t work. Women won’t like that.
You don’t understand the mind of an athlete. We run marathons, we ski, we compete! (WTF?)
Why can’t you just be happy with the job you have?
The basic gist: you’re too this and not enough that.
You should settle for what we tell you you are capable of.
No.
I’m 55 years old. I will decide how to do it. The consumer (i.e. regular people) will decide if I succeed or fail. Not some gated-community-living, private-plane-flying out-of-touch executive who hasn’t been out of the board room in decades.
After interviewing quite a few times for quite a few roles in the past two years, I finally realized:
I’m not doing this their way anymore. I won’t be told by HR what I should be sorry for and when I need to apologize — as I was told in one round of interviews for a CEO role at an $8 billion company last year.
I won’t be told I don’t have enough product experience, I’m not digitally savvy enough (despite leading an $100M+ e-commerce business for 3 years), I am too controversial, I have too many opinions. Or simply, I don’t have the required experience to run a business.
No. Enough.
This time . . . I do it my way. I decide if I know what I’m doing, where I need help, what the team culture will be.
And I talk as fast as I feel like talking.
This is hard and I know that. I’ve talked to umpteen founders in the past 6 months to get advice. I always ask the same question: What do you wish you knew when you started?
Mostly they say you need to have a unique brand proposition. Duh. I have that. Rest assured. There were other anodyne and quite basic bits of input — Don’t forget email marketing! Make sure you put enough money into paid search!
I knew that stuff.
I may not succeed. You have to do everything right AND a bit of lightening and magic must befall your endeavor.
Whatever happens, it’s ok. I’m going to have a heck of a lot of fun doing it.
I’m learning that sometimes the part after the steep and difficult climb is the most fun part of all (h/t Megyn Kelly).
Sneak peek. . . behind the scenes. . .
