Superwomen with Rebecca Minkoff

This episode contains discussion of trauma, suicide and disordered eating. Raised within the confines of Haredi Judaism, Julia Haart was taught that the smaller you make yourself, the better you fulfill your role as a woman. Like many people brought up in extremely religious communities, barriers to the outside world made leaving seem nearly impossible. Only when Julia saw her own questions reflec...

As talk of sustainability comes more and more to the forefront in the fashion industry, most companies are proud to highlight their environmental awareness. However, Amanda Hearst remembers a time when luxury brands kept sustainable practices hush-hush for fear it would undermine their place in high fashion. The industry has become more transparent, but there’s still a misconception that “sustaina...

Peabody Award-winning journalist Isha Sesay didn’t set out to helm a media company, but her creativity, integrity and spirit of perseverance made her the perfect candidate for it. After working as an anchor and correspondent at CNN for thirteen years, personal matters and professional projects began to pull Isha in another direction. However, as a global pandemic turned everything upside down, Ish...

WTHN co-founders Michelle Larivee and Dr. Shari Auth had the same question: with the rise of wellness modalities worldwide, why had acupuncture remained on the fringes? With a background in finance and Chinese Medicine, respectively, acupuncture had a profound effect on the lives of both Michelle and Shari. They wanted to make it more approachable and accessible, from education to price point. Ins...

Warm cookies delivered straight to your door. Could there be a better business idea? Tiffany Chen’s boyfriend-turned business partner-turned husband didn’t think so. When they were in college he thought delivering her cookies to hungry fellow students would be a great way to make some extra money, and he was right on target. Given time to grow at their own pace, Tiff’s Treats has gone from a singl...

When Maggie Winter started working at J. Crew straight out of college, she received the best workplace education she could get simply by where her desk happened to be. In the open-plan office, she was seated near the CEO, and overheard tidbits about everything from sales to real estate as he held his weekly meetings. This information would come in handy as Maggie was approached to start a project...

After becoming wildly successful as a real estate broker in her early 20’s, Patrice Washington hit a low point. Not low like your car broke down and your SO dumped you, but a real rock bottom where her entire life was turned upside down for several years. And yet, despite losing nearly everything she held dear, Patrice’s faith in her ability to bounce back was unshaken. It wasn’t quick and it wasn...

When you think of businesses that are recession-proof, a kids ear piercing chain might not come to mind. However, when Louisa Serene Schneider was working at a hedge fund for retailers, she was surprised to find that Claire’s, the ear-piercing wonderland, was valued at $3 billion. She was even more astounded to find that the people doing the buyout didn’t see this as a chance to reimagine the busi...

Tali Magal knew she wanted to have a life that centered around three things: travel, creativity, and to be able to use her love of the Italian language. When her peers pointed out that fashion would be the obvious choice, Tali dove in headfirst. But the world of fashion was just the starting point; Tali found that what she really enjoyed was the creativity that went into planning photo shoots and...

Makeup isn’t just about accentuating your cheekbones or plumping up your lip color. For Melissa Butler, former Wall Street worker-turned-beauty-entrepreneur, makeup is more about confidence than anything else. Even so, it took time to build the self-esteem and inner belief that has helped take The Lip Bar, and now, Thread Beauty, from her kitchen to Target and Walmart across the country. Starting...

Meg Epstein’s forte has always been her ability to dream big, and that’s a good thing considering that real estate development is a major undertaking. What started out as an interest in residential construction in her home state of California blew up as Meg started CA South, a real estate development and investment management firm based in Nashville, TN. Meg’s foresight to bring coastal designs to...

Like many businesses, Under Canvas began as a means to solve a pain point for its founder, Sarah Dusek. In this case it was the quest to find a compromise between her husband’s desire to rough it in the wilderness and Sarah’s preference for creature comforts. Entirely bootstrapped for the first eight years, Under Canvas’ elevated camping model surmounted obstacle after obstacle, and is now conside...

Arian Simone has the kind of infectious, feel-good attitude that makes it impossible to stay in a funk. It’s almost necessary to have that sort of approach when you’re working to change the numbers in venture capital funding. Arian’s company, Fearless Fund, invests in businesses founded by women of color, a group that receives less than 1% (!!!) of all VC funding, despite the high percentage of fo...

In a culture where rushing is encouraged and fast turnarounds are rewarded, it is a radical act to take the time to create something of quality. Not only that, but as April Gargiulo of Vintner’s Daughter points out, committing time and diligent craftsmanship to a product is one of the ultimate marks of true luxury. The daughter of winemakers, April was raised in a community that understands that t...

If you’ve ever been one of the few people not drinking at a party, you know how awkward it can be, not to mention the fact that soda or water aren’t the most exciting drink alternatives. When Melanie Masarin decided that all-day brain fog wasn’t worth the glass of wine or two from the night before, she was struck with the realization that there is a glaring lack of sophisticated non-alcoholic beve...

When Sarah Davis received a Rebecca Minkoff bag as a gift from her sister-in-law many moons ago, she didn’t realize that she would one day be a guest on Superwomen! The talented founder of luxury “recommerce” site Fashionphile is a born entrepreneur, even if she didn’t know to call herself that at the time. Sarah worked for the forest service and went to law school before she ever realized she had...

She is probably one of the most famous people whose face you might never recognize. Nancy Cartwright’s fantastically versatile voiceover has graced television in the U.S. and the world over for 42 years, and while she is likely best known as the voice of Bart Simpson, she has played a plethora of other memorable characters, in addition to her creative litany of accomplishments that include writing...

You may have heard of their popular self-tanner, but chances are you don’t know the story behind fast-growing natural skincare line Beauty by Earth. When Prudence Millsap noted a particular void in the area of truly clean cosmetics and self care items, she began googling her way into natural makeup and skincare product development. Though it took time and tenacity to find a chemist willing to work...

If you’re the type to put on the kettle, don your coziest socks and relax with some great home and food inspiration, then you’ve probably already heard of today’s guests. Amanda Hesser and Sara Fritsch, CEO of Food52 and president of Schoolhouse, respectively, are here to discuss their iconic brands that have recently joined forces in a homebody’s dream acquisition. Sara and Amanda discuss bootstr...

While her peers gleefully began drinking and experimenting with drug use, Amanda Chantal Bacon spent her late teens and early twenties supporting her body in detoxification. After a childhood and adolescence filled with a myriad of prescriptions that left her feeling more unlike herself than ever, Amanda used her newfound autonomy to take baby steps toward improving her health in body and mind. Th...

Duchess of Decorum Pattie Ehsaei holds many esteemed positions as a lawyer, financial advisor, workplace and social decorum expert, as well as being a TikTok star. While she has made a name for herself guiding others around social and work-related pitfalls, these lessons were hard won. When Pattie arrived in the U.S., she knew little of the culture and even less of the language; she now maintains...

When Mary Lawless Lee started her now-famous blog, Happily Grey, she did it as a way to nurture her creativity on days off from working as a nurse. As the name implies, this entrepreneur and mother of two has always sought solace in the places between two extremes, preferring to express her own unique vision rather than abiding by proscribed ways of being. Since her days as one of the earliest inf...

Happy International Women’s Day! In the spirit of celebrating ourselves, today we have Tata Harper of Tata Harper Skincare, a truly clean, green luxury beauty company. Growing up in Colombia, Tata remembers watching the women in her family mark their daily skincare routine as a ritual to revel in rather than a chore. When she began to look for non-toxic beauty products and found many labels to be...

Does the topic of money make you cringe? Twitch? Silently dissolve into your surroundings until the fear of danger passes? If so, this episode is here to make things a little less scary and a little more approachable. News anchor, speaker and #1 New York Times bestselling author/book writing addict Nicole Lapin was tired of talking IRAs and hedge funds with people who were already privy to the wor...

You may know her from Bling Empire in your Netflix queue, but Kelly Mi Li is anything but a flash-in-the-pan reality star. Her intelligence, drive and grounded approach have made her a wildly successful entrepreneur, most notably as a film and television producer, which predated her foray on camera. Kelly’s love of storytelling has led her to produce everything from scripted series to reality show...