How Rebecca Minkoff Turned $60K of Debt Into a Fashion Empire

In this inspiring and raw conversation on Post Run High, fashion designer and entrepreneur Rebecca Minkoff opens up about her journey from a self-taught teen sewing her own clothes to building a global fashion brand in the heart of New York City. She shares how 9/11 changed the course of her life, how she went from $60K in credit card debt to creating the iconic “Morning After” bag, and what it took to build a brand while raising four kids. From redefining pregnancy style to creating a supportive community for women in business, Rebecca offers raw insights on reinvention, resilience, and tackling fear. Whether you’re building a brand, navigating motherhood, or chasing your next chapter — this episode is packed with honest advice, fashion industry truths, and lessons in long-term success.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
What is up, guys, Welcome back to Post Run High.
Today we're sitting down with Rebecca Minkoff. You might know
her as the designer behind those effortlessly cool, slouchy leather bags,
which for me growing up, Rebecca's bags were the things
you had to have. I vividly remember saving up my
money for one and how special it felt to finally
get my first. One of my favorite things about this
podcast is getting to explore people's origin stories and learning

(00:28):
how they got to where they are today through the
power of movement, resilience, and never giving up. And Rebecca's
story is such a great example of that. From her
early designs here in New York to leading a global brand,
Rebecca's story is about more than just fashion. It's about
staying true to yourself, lifting others up, and building something
meaningful that lasts. If you're working on a dream of

(00:49):
your own, or you just need a little inspiration today,
this episode's for you. And if you're enjoying Post Run High,
it would mean so much if you could leave us
a quick rating and review.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
All right, let's get our post on hi going.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
Rebecca Minkof, Welcome to Post Run High. I'm so excited.
I am so excited for you to be here. So
for a little bit of context, Rebecca and I went
for a walk, a fast walk. I'm not even sure when.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
Yes, I can tell you when. It was probably in
September of last year, right before everything.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
So normally we start this podcast after the activity, but
this is a little bit of a delayed post run,
post walk.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
Hi, guys.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
Ever since then, I've been dying to sit down with
you and just go way deeper on your story.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Let's do it.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
I want to start off with what movement means to
you and like how you stay active right now. And
I was listening to a podcast you did recently where
you said it was relatively recent that you started taking
your health back and getting into weightliftings. So maybe let's
talk a little bit about that journey.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Yes, So I think that during COVID I started running
serious manner, and it was at the time like my
only way to get away from the kids and the
full timeness of work, chaos and family, and my I
was like two miles a day, That's what I'm gonna
do every day, two miles, two miles miles. And then
after I had my last baby, like running for me

(02:16):
was extraordinarily painful. I had a lot of pelvic floor
issues and my knee was killing me, and I was like,
I gotta do something else. And I was also unable
to lose the last ten pounds of the baby weight
no matter what I did. I was watching what I
was eating, and I was still running, and I was
just kind of doing a scroll of my own photos
and I was like, when did I look and feel

(02:36):
my best? And I went back far enough that after
my second baby, I was weightlifting a lot, not even
a lot. I was doing it two days a week,
and I was like, fuck it, I'm investing in a
trainer and I'm going to get I got to attack
it this way. So January of last year, twenty twenty four,
I started working with an incredible trainer two days a

(02:57):
week and then doing the exercises he gave me for
the remaining four days a week. And I just said,
an hour day is what I'm gonna do for myself.
I'm also gonna get my hormones tested, and I'm just
going to go back to just taking care of me
first as a priority and see if anything changes. And
everything changed after that, and so now you know I

(03:17):
can't really run anymore. I can run for like, I
don't know, probably a mile before my knee starts hurting.
So for me, this is my new outlet and I
love it. It's nice hearing that.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
I love knowing that you got back into fitness too,
Like after having a baby, you have how many kids
do you have?

Speaker 2 (03:32):
For kids? Four kids?

Speaker 1 (03:34):
Okay, so you got to have a little bit of
an escape, and I feel that so much. So with running,
I feel like I mean, obviously I run all the
time for the show and personally, but it wasn't until
I also started incorporating like weightlifting and sculpt classes and
caring more about what I was putting into my body
that I started seeing the results that I wanted.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
So I love knowing that about you.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
This podcast is all about movement, both in life most
physically mentally, and you are such a good example of
somebody that has just kept going and created something so
big and so much bigger than yourself even well, thank you.
I want to start at the beginning, Hey tell us
a little bit about what Rebecca was like as a
kid and where you grew up.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
So I grew up in San Diego. I was a
kid that from the beginning when I saw, like, my
mom used to sell this is weird, but she used
to sell cast covers made by this triathlete. I don't
know why he ventured into cast covers, but he thought
it'd be cool to cover them with like stretchy fabric.
So she would sell those at the San Diego flea market.
And when I saw that she had a stand there,

(04:38):
I was like, I want to sell something too, And
so we kind of had a rule in my house,
like she would never buy me the actual item, but
she would buy me the supplies. So she bought me
the supplies to make my own jewelry and my own
puffy paint are like sweatshirts. And I would set up
next to her on a card table at the flea market
and sell. And I sold nothing but the lead up

(04:59):
every weak to like what I was going to make,
and all that was so fun and exciting that I
think that's when I've got my first taste of creation
and the joy that can bring. And then from there
I wanted a dress. She refused to buy it from me.
She's like, but I'll teach you how to sew. And
then I loved the idea that I could create, you know,
a garment for my imagination. So kind of followed that,

(05:22):
became very serious about the craft. Had a teacher that
would that was like, oh, designer from New York. She
wasn't really a designer, she was, but she knew how
to sew, she knew how to teach me sketching and
all this stuff, and I just became obsessed with it.
And as a gangly, unconfident, nerdy, awkward teenager slash youth,

(05:45):
to be able to take matters into my own hands
and make my clothing fit me gave me a huge
source of confidence. And so that was something that I
was like, I love this. It fuels me with joy.
I was also a dancer, so I was kind of
parallel pathing both, and then in high school I had
to sort of make this decision that was not forced
upon me, but the dance teachers were constantly like, you're

(06:07):
too tall, your boobs are too big, you throw off
the symmetry. Go be in the costume department. And I
was like, Okay, I guess that's where I'm going to live.
And that unfortunate situation turned into something that really then
I became serious about design.

Speaker 1 (06:22):
And you went to a performing arts high school, right, yes,
So I love knowing that your parents really fostered this
creativity in you from a young age.

Speaker 2 (06:30):
Like, it's so cool having.

Speaker 1 (06:31):
Supportive parents that see something in you in that way
and they're like, let's like let Rebecca do this full force.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
Yeah. When do you feel like you.

Speaker 1 (06:39):
Started really finding your style and figuring out what fashion
meant to you?

Speaker 2 (06:43):
Ooh, I think that's never. I don't know that there's
one moment where you find it. I think you're just
always evolving and if you look back, you always think
you found it and then you're like, oh my god,
that's so crnch.

Speaker 1 (06:56):
Like do you feel like, but could you look back
at a pick sure of yourself from high school and
say like, oh, that's a Rebecca man Cough outfit.

Speaker 2 (07:04):
Oh my gosh, so my prom I made this red
shift dress very I would say if I was comparing
it to a brand now like Totem or Kite, just yeah,
it was like a bright red shift dress, but like
modern kind of like sleek Calvin Klin lines, and I
would say that that's necessarily my brand. But it was

(07:27):
edgy for a prom dress because it was just simple
and bright and not like a puffy like. I don't know,
so maybe then.

Speaker 1 (07:40):
If you're enjoying post run high, please do us a
favor and leave us a quick rating and review and
share this episode with a friend. Your support helps us
continue to bring you inspiring conversations. Okay, back to the episode.
At eighteen, you ended up moving to New York City.
From our conversation on the run at slash Walk, you

(08:01):
had said that you enrolled for a semester at fit. Yeah,
but did you initially move to New York City thinking
you would do that or did that enrollment come after moving?

Speaker 2 (08:11):
That enrollment came after moving. I was already working for
this designer. I was a paid intern, and my parents
were very untraditional. They were like, if you want to
go to college grade you can pay for it. If
you don't, you can start working. Like either way, we're
not helping you, but you can do your thing. But
my aunt was very traditional, and she was like, if

(08:31):
you don't go to college like you will have, you're
going to be homeless, essentially, like no one's going to
hire you and you'll never announce to anything. And she
was living here and she was in my head enough
that I was like, okay, like I guess I'll try
it and see what happens. And so that's what sort
of got me started, Okay, I need to enroll in
college because otherwise I'll be homeless.

Speaker 1 (08:52):
And that's hard when you have somebody that like is
living in New York, is in New York or telling
you that You're like, well, my parents are telling me
that I should pursue it. I want to pursue, but
you're telling me this, like that must have been hard.

Speaker 2 (09:03):
It was hard. Luckily I didn't feel like thank god
she was my aunt, and I was like, I can
listen to her, but she's not the boss of me,
like if it was my parents. And I enrolled and
it was great, but I was sitting around like I
learned this already. I spent four years at a performing
arts high school where three hours of my day every
day was learning the craft of sewing and draping and
pattern making. And so in your first semester at a school,

(09:26):
like you're still learning the basics. And I was like,
oh my gosh, like can we skip ahead? And we couldn't.
So I was like, you know what, I'm going to
go back to work, like I can't handle night classes
and working. Let's just focus on what I came here for.
And so I said, I'm out.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
It's so interesting knowing that in high school they taught
you those things, because when I was in high school,
I went to just my public high school, but I
would take classes at FI for fashion design and like
visual merchandising, and we started learning some of those basics.
But I always was like, oh, like, you go to
college to learn kind of the rest of it, like
the real foundational skills. But it is so interesting knowing

(10:03):
that you basically moved to New York City already having
known all of that.

Speaker 3 (10:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (10:07):
I mean I could have definitely used a business class
or like a math class, like fashion math class. That
would have been really helpful.

Speaker 1 (10:14):
You went from cool designer to literally like a business woman,
you know, and that is a big shift, in a
big uge. In two thousand and one, you launched your
first own piece, yes that I Love New York T shirt.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
So it was part of a five piece collection. My
big show, which I just found pictures of, was September tenth,
two thousand and one. That was like, yeah, it was
a group show. I was like, this is it. I'm
going to make it. Everyone's going to see my five
piece collection, and you know, I'm going to be the

(10:47):
hottest designer in New York City. Not that anyone was
there at the show in attendance to make those decisions.
So I didn't have a business plan. I was like,
I think at the time, it was have a fashion
show and then buyers come and then you know, that
was kind of the format. So I had a look
book that I was going to be sending out to
everybody to different stores around the city, and I think

(11:09):
that was step one, like get an account, get a store.
And then September eleventh, the next morning, happened, and so
that really changed everything in a way that obviously no
one could imagine. But I was like, okay, I'm not
starting a brand today, you know, And so it became
really about immediately what can I do to support the city.

(11:30):
And I was like, I'm going down to Saint Vincent's
like that's where they're bringing people, Like, let's see what
we can do to help and support and so that's
where I sort of stationed myself until I eventually was
down at the site helping first responders, and so for
two weeks that's all I did is I was going
down there. Eventually they got officialized and you couldn't go

(11:52):
down there. But up until that point, we were getting
water supply is you know, food for the like, anything
to help the first responders, like rest, recover and go back.
And so I didn't even think about business at that time.
I was just like, the city's been through something so traumatic,
and that's all I wanted to do was help. And
then my boss was like, if you want to have

(12:13):
a job here, you need to come back to work.
And I was like, okay, okay, I'll go back to work.
And at that moment, for me, it had changed. I
was like no longer interested in that in the way
that I was before. And I think she could see that.
And then coincidentally, long story, I had already been seeding
the collection out and so I sent it to an

(12:34):
actress on September probably I shifted her on the ninth,
and she wore it about three weeks later on Jay
Leno the I Love New York shirt, and then that's
what kind of broke everything open.

Speaker 1 (12:45):
Yeah, and I think something really interesting about the I
Love New York shirt from knowing that nine to eleven
experience like, I didn't realize that was such a big
part of your launch, like around that, because it makes
me think a little bit about during COVID there was
a brand that went crazy New York who nowhere? Yeah,
And I feel like there's some synergies here in terms
of like the emotion that your I Love New York

(13:07):
shirt probably evoked for people right when something so traumatic happens.
And you know, I was very young when nine to
eleven happened, but my dad was working in the city
in finance. I don't have early memories of it, but
it was very traumatic for our small town that was,
you know, on a train line into the city. A
lot of dads passed away, and people men and women
that worked that lived in our town. So but I

(13:28):
would imagine that when you launched this I Love New
York shirt, people were probably so excited to wear something
that represented their city.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
Yeah. No, I mean that's that's what fueled it is
it became the you know, again pre social media pray anything, like,
the magazines were running that shirt over and over again,
and so people were like, you know, what can I do?
I can wear that shirt. You know, the proceeds are
going to the Red Cross let me support the city,
and it was crazy. It's all I did. I would

(13:56):
bike down to Canal Street. I would go buy at
retail a batch of these shirts. I'd go home, tie
them up, do my thing, be, dazzle them, sell them
for I don't know, ten or fifteen bucks more than
I bought them for, like really poor business planning because
I was not that was not sustainable. And then I'd
bike down to the one nascent e commerce site that
was carrying it called Raven Style, and she would sell it.

(14:20):
And then that was my first, you know, e commerce site.
And then she was like, all right, can we add
to the collection now? And I was like, oh yeah,
we can do this top and this one and so
that's that was kind of the true beginnings of the brand.

Speaker 1 (14:32):
You must have been buying a ton of I Love
New York shirt. It's like literally maybe buying out some
of these shops on Canal Street. Right. So, after Jenna
Elfman wears it on the Late Night Show, I'm sure
the order started pouring in. Like how were you guys
able to keep up with all the orders.

Speaker 2 (14:47):
She would just call me every day, Jill from Raven Style,
and she'd be like we got ten more, we got
fifteen more, like keep it up. And I didn't have
funding or source of this, and clearly with my terrible
business math, the ten to fifteen bucks more wasn't sustainable.
And so I literally said to Jail, I was like,
I need an advance, like if you're if the orders
are going to be this way, like give me some

(15:07):
money to like go buy the shirts. And she did,
which was really generous of her, and she didn't have
to do that. And so with her one hundred and
fifty dollars check, I would go and negotiate then a
little bit with the vendor. My favorite vendor, who had
the best quality was on the corner of Canal and Green,
which is now a fancy store, but that's where he
would be, and like every other day I'd go buy shirts.
And that's all I did for about nine months was

(15:29):
make those shirts.

Speaker 1 (15:30):
I think it's amazing knowing that it all started with
by really being like a non for profit, like donating
the proceeds to the Red Cross.

Speaker 2 (15:39):
Minus my rent, yes, minus Ramen. Right there you go.

Speaker 1 (15:42):
That's fine, though she's allowed to eat and sleep. Guys,
you were hustling.

Speaker 2 (15:45):
And when I tell you, like I lived in what
was a closet, Like it was an apartment, but the
room that I had was a closet and it was
a mattress on crates so that I could have some
storage underneath. It was by no means glamorous.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
I did want to ask you, like what your life
was like when you were living in the city, like
trying to make it.

Speaker 2 (16:04):
Work, scrappy, But I remember sitting outside on the fire
escape of this closet slash apartment, and I was like,
I've made it. Like no part of me was like,
oh I have a shitty room and oh my gosh,
Like I can't eat and I can't go out to eat,
Like not that I can't eat, but I can't go out.

(16:24):
I was just like this is fucking exciting. Like I
was fueled by it. You know, those early years where
you're just like, oh my god, I'm making something, people
are buying it, and I get to live in New
York City, Like how awesome is this?

Speaker 1 (16:36):
Fireworks were probably going off inside of you because, like
without really knowing it, like at the time, your career
was taking off, so the universe was like like it's coming,
you know, yeah, but oh my God. Yeah, I remember
those years of not being able to go out, or
like being out to dinner with my friends in my
early twenties and being like, I'm just getting a drink,
Like I'm not going to participate in the dinner.

Speaker 2 (16:55):
I would have to do that all the time. Or
when everyone's like let's split the check, I'm like, I
just had a Yeah, I actually just had a soda.
And then I remember that, Like people are like, what
success mean to you, and I'm like, in the early day,
success meant that I didn't have to do that anymore.

Speaker 1 (17:09):
Yes, I literally just got chills because same success to
me was literally being able to put my credit card
down with a group of my friends and being like.

Speaker 2 (17:16):
Let's all split the bill.

Speaker 1 (17:17):
Yeah, Like that is such a transformation that I feel
like isn't talked about enough, but it is such a
thing and it's hard to make it in New York City,
but the people that do it's just so impressive. And
I know your brother was a big part of Rebecca
Bit Coffee, was your co founder.

Speaker 2 (17:32):
At what point did he come on?

Speaker 1 (17:36):
Did it take some convincing Also, Like I have two brothers,
and one of them loves being involved in what I do.
The other one isn't going to touch it with a
ten foot poll. Yeah, you know, so like, what was.

Speaker 2 (17:44):
That like for you? So I very much have the
same thing. One brother is completely and never been a
part of the business and just likes to clap and
cheer me on. I was four years into the business.
It was twenty twenty five, sorry, two thousand and five, yes,
two thousand and five, and I had the clothing line.
That's all I was pursuing. I had just decided, let me,

(18:04):
let me do one bag. Jenna came back to me
and she said, I'm going to be in this film.
Do you make bags? And I lied to her and
I said, yes, I do. And I had two weeks
to make a bag. Long again, I feel like sometimes
I'm trying to shorten these stories up, but no, keep itlong, okay, okay.
So I did the bag, FedEx didn't deliver it on
time to set. It did not make it into the movie.

(18:26):
I was devastated. I was not making money in my
clothing business. I was going into debt on a credit
card and I was about sixty thousand dollars in debt
and I didn't know how I was going to pay
it and if anyone's like, how did she get a
credit card that let her go sixty thousand dollars in debt?
By no means was my dad willing to pay for
the credit card, but he had co signed it, so

(18:47):
he was like, I'm not sure how you're going to
get out of this one. Like I put my name
on this big mistake of mine, but like you're on
the hook for the money. So it was a very
stressful time because now I was out eighteen hundred dollars.
I was basically like the last of the credit line.
And then the bag didn't make the movie, so I
was like, cool, cool, I guess I have a bag.

(19:07):
Now I'm going to start wearing it and I'll just
not I guess I'll go back to clothing. And enough
women stopped me on the street that they were like,
who's the bag? Where can I get the bag?

Speaker 1 (19:16):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (19:16):
My god? I love it? And I was like, okay,
there's something to this. So I said to my friend Alaria,
she was the buyer for a really hot store in
La I said, what do you think of this bag?
She's like, I'm obsessed with it. I'm buying it for
the store. And I'm going to connect to you to
this woman named Crystal who's the writer for Daily Candy.
And Daily Candy at the time was like the newest, hottest,
latest thing in your inbox. You looked forward to getting

(19:38):
an email from them every day and whatever they wrote
about went viral. And so that happened, and when that happened,
it was like explosive, like with inbound orders and growth
and requests. And that's when I said to my dad.
I was like, Okay, I'm not a loser. Finally, after
four years of struggling, like, there's wind at my sales,

(20:01):
and can you loan me some money because now I
really need it and the credit card is done. And
he was like, no, call your brother. And that was
the beginning of that relationship. And so my brother asked
me a lot of business questions that I didn't know
half the answers to, and then he's like, all right,
I'll help you. And then he loaned me the first
twenty five hundred dollars to like make the first, you know,

(20:22):
or second production order. And when he could see the numbers,
going like okay, I'm back for more. Here's your check.
I'm back for more. He's like, Oh, this thing is
actually on fire, and he felt like he had the
business acumen to sort of help steer it.

Speaker 1 (20:35):
When I hear things that like connect with me, I'm like, oh,
you know, it's like flight's a spark. Was your dad
saying to you, Nobody's going to help you with this
sixty thousand dollars credit card bill except yourself, Like you
need in order to make it, you need people like
that in your life that are going to say that
to you, like this is your thing to dig yourself
out of, and you can do it. When I started
my running interview show, I was literally buying people sneakers

(20:57):
off the streets of New York, and I racked up
my credit card bill buying people sneakers. But I just
knew in my gut that like we were doing something
and having these conversations was so much more than just running.
We were having conversations that moved people and like were
moving me. So I was like, it's gonna work. It's
all gonna work out. I'm going to pay it off.
And we ended up partnering with brands like New Balance
and Adidas who would fulfill those orders for us. But

(21:20):
it was by taking that risk and then having to
have that hustle to make it happen. After I took
that risk, that made it happen. So it's cool knowing
that you have that experience too.

Speaker 2 (21:30):
Oh my gosh. Yeah, And that waged over me for
a long time, that like, oh my gosh, this is
the most amount of money, like in the world, and
I don't know how, I don't know what the solution
is going to be to pay it off.

Speaker 1 (21:41):
I mean, sixty thousand dollars for a twenty one year old.
That's like literally being like I'm buying a drink at
dinner and not getting the whole meal. It's a crazy
amount of money to fathom, Yes, but it's amazing knowing
that money made it work. You made it work, and
I know a big part of your business. Early on,
I loved hearing about how you would hustle to get
the bag on celebrities, right, Oh yes, And I saw

(22:01):
that in two thousand and five. I think it was
Lindsay Lohan Warrior Morning after Bag. Yes, is that when
the bags really took like on a new life.

Speaker 2 (22:11):
I think it was her. It was the whole rise
of reality TV was just beginning, so Kristin Cavaleri, Lauren Conrad,
and then there was a slew of other celebrities like
Reese Witherspoon and Jessica Alba. So this combination of like
these aless celebrities, these burgeoning reality TV stars just propelled
the bag in this like it girl bag, Like you

(22:32):
go to New York. This bag is the symbol of
I've made it, and that's making it on many different levels.
Your first job, your first raise. It's not like making
it like you know, now I can pay my sixty
thousand dollars off making it.

Speaker 1 (22:44):
On that note, I loved that you said it girl,
because there's literally no better it girl in my mind
than the early two thousands it girls. So like, first,
let's talk about who the rebeccam Binkoff girl was at
that time, Like who was wearing your bag? Yeah, and
I know that can be a multifaceted answer, and then
I want to talk about it girls.

Speaker 2 (23:03):
Who was wearing the bag? So the bags at that
time two thousand and five, two and six were sold
in the like the best boutiques in New York City.
I mean, we're really going back in time here. But
whether it was Seerle or Big Drop or Stine. There
were just some great boutiques like that was its time
to shine sex and the city was like the big

(23:23):
TV show. So like women were reclaiming like this confidence
and you know, having an all nighter and sleeping with
a guy and doing that waka shame. But it wasn't
a Waukca shame. It was like, yeah, girl, I got
laid last night or whatever it is. And so the
bag was part of that zeitgeist. And so women wearing
the bag were like the ones I mentioned, and then

(23:44):
there were just taste makers wearing it, editors, you know,
there was just this cool woman who was really confident
and powerful. But she wasn't buying the bag because it
like showed everyone how much she spent on it, you know,
or because she could launch like how much money she had.
She was really buying it because it was timeless. It

(24:05):
was something that like showcase and celebrated her style but
wasn't about a logo. And I think that that was
also a kind of a new thing that was happening
within fashion.

Speaker 1 (24:16):
Absolutely it's so interesting thinking about how fashion and culture
really go hand in hand with each other, and it's
cool to know, like how in tune.

Speaker 2 (24:24):
You were with that.

Speaker 1 (24:25):
Yeah, how did the IT girls of the early two
thousands compare and differ from the girls of today.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
I would say that because there was no social media,
the IT girls were all sort of agreed upon by everybody,
like we all knew it was Kate Moss, Cianna Miller, parasitical,
Lindsay Lohan, let's just say the let's just say that
was a crew. But because the magazines and that was it,

(24:52):
magazines and websites were like, this is who it is.
Everyone was like, oh, that's who it is. Now you
you could have your own set of IT girls, and
I could have my own set and they're completely different.
You know, I still am shocked to discover someone who
have never heard about, never seen and I'm like, oh,
four point five million followers, who the fuck are you?

(25:12):
You know? But but but they're an IT girl to
whoever is following them, and so now it's like everyone
has their own version of who that is, and so
it's very spread out. And then and then there's obviously
like the Haley Bebers, like she's everyone say girl, and she.

Speaker 1 (25:26):
Would have been an IT girl, I'm sure in the
early two thousands, it's percent.

Speaker 2 (25:30):
So it's like a pyramid, I guess now, you know
with the ones we all know, and then and.

Speaker 1 (25:36):
Then there's like all these little microcosms on the Internet.
That's why the Internet is so wild because they're yeah,
there's so many different there's so many different aesthetics too
that you're right, like have their own people. And when
I think of like y two ka girls, I literally
think of like the old fashioned tabloids and crop chops,
like the low rice jeans and like the shiny glasses.

Speaker 2 (25:53):
Oh my god, so much that. What's funny is my daughter,
she's ten, and so she didn't grow up with these magazines,
but when she sees them, she's like, oh my god, mom,
it's like Instagram but like a book. And I'm like,
that's so crazy that that's your You have the complete
warped idea. But yes, it is Instagram and a book form.

Speaker 1 (26:27):
You know, obviously Rebecca Mankoff took off in the early
two thousands, but you have stood the test of time.
How do you go from being a cool girl brand
to really building a brand that lasts.

Speaker 2 (26:39):
Reinvention, risk taking? And your podcast is all about movement.
You can never stop moving and innovating and changing, and
that can also be exhausting, you know. I think I
talk about Madonna like she constantly reinvented herself to keep
her music and her style fresh, and I think that
wallar is we want to remain the same. So, like

(27:01):
the brand promise is always the same to a woman,
you have to find new ways to engage her and
storytell and keep it fresh because someone can be like, oh,
I used to have you, and you're like, well, look
at me now, I'm coming back to you in this
way and this way. So it's a lot to keep
the same conversation going for twenty years. And I think

(27:22):
it's constantly and then not being afraid to try new things,
Like we were constantly trying to figure out how to
be in front of our customer in different ways through technology,
through innovation, and you're just a trying a lot of
stuff all the time.

Speaker 1 (27:38):
When somebody asks you to describe Rebecca man Cough, what
is the way you've always described the brand?

Speaker 2 (27:43):
I think that from an esthetic point of view, you're
a little bit rock and roll, You're a little bit bohemian.
There's that mid line between masculine and feminine, sexy, tomboy
would be a way I could describe it. And I
think that, you know, for a girl who wants a
little bit of edge, we give her that, but she's
not so edgy that she's like goth, you know, not

(28:04):
that kind of edge. But I think there's still a
warmth to the brand. There's still an approachability, and so
you get that mixture of elements that I think is
a duality that a lot of women have.

Speaker 1 (28:15):
Yeah, oh my god, I love the term sexy tomboy.
That's totally how I feel when I see your brand.

Speaker 2 (28:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (28:20):
Is there any business mistake that you made early on?
Oh my gosh that you always think back on and
you're like, I just want any new founders and brand
builders to know this and not make the same mistake
that I did.

Speaker 2 (28:31):
Yeah. So there is a drug now called venture capital,
and I think early on we made the decision when
we got our first investment to just grow at all
costs and the margin didn't matter. And let me tell you,
the margin matters. Grow a profitable business. It's okay if
you're smaller or your growth is lower within the fashion industry.

(28:54):
I can't speak for other industries. I think if you
can build that stable ground and the decisions you make
as a business will be so much better and your
stability will be so much better. And I think, you know,
looking back at our mistakes, we just were hooked on
what everyone else was doing, which is just grow at
all costs and figure out profitability later. And it took

(29:16):
a really long time to get profitable, and then world
events happened that you weren't in control of that then
are you know, made all that effort and progress go away.

Speaker 1 (29:26):
And I feel like the world of branding too, has
changed so much. It's like so important to keep your
finger on the pulse with what's going on. And you
guys have done such a good job doing that, and like,
you have such an amazing team around you too.

Speaker 2 (29:37):
It's definitely a team. You know, you can't do it alone.
You are not the like end all be all of
it all. It's a team effort and it's people who
believe in the vision and see it. You know, I
have an amazing CEO who's been with the brand for
eight years. I have an amazing creative director who's been
with me for nineteen years. And so you know, we
have an amazing group of women that are just there

(29:59):
and dedicated, and I couldn't do without any of them.

Speaker 1 (30:02):
In twenty twenty two, you guys ended up selling, And
I just had a conversation with another founder who sold
his business called The Morning Brew. He built it for
seven years, sold it when he was twenty eight. He's
somebody that's actually not involved anymore with the business. I
know you're still very involved here through Back America, but
it's an emotional decision. He described it as it's a

(30:24):
really emotional decision to sell your business.

Speaker 2 (30:27):
Was it emotional for you.

Speaker 1 (30:29):
To say, Okay, I'm ready to sell? So it was
still COVID times or the end of COVID. We had
basically come back from the brink of almost not making
it as a business, and we were actually in a
great spot.

Speaker 2 (30:44):
We were like, everything's going our way now the business
is back to growth. We saw the end of the tunnel,
we saw the light, and then supply chain issues hit.
At the end of twenty twenty one, we couldn't get
any goods. We got three thousand of three hundred thousand
units for us. Our biggest our fourth quarter is the
biggest part of our business where we do the most volume,

(31:05):
Like holidays, and yeah, also fall like follows when someone's
buying a leather bag. You're not necessarily buying a leather
bag at the height of summer when you're sweating to death.
So we were like, oh, we're now we're fucked. If
I can swear on this podcast, swear now, we're fucked.
And so we realized that we needed a big muscle
who had the infrastructure to be able to negotiate with

(31:29):
a factory or get us to the front of the
line or prioritize us, because if you think about who
our competitors are, they're billion dollar brands who can get
to the front of the production line. And so we
were able and fortunate enough to find a partner who
had that muscle. And so it was emotional in that
it was a great opportunity, but also like, oh my gosh,

(31:49):
you know, we wish we had had the might at
that moment, but you know, our hands were tied in
terms of being able to get goods. And so the
day that the like ink was it was February of
twenty two. It was like a day that I was
uncontrollably crying out of happiness and fear because you don't
know what's next, you know, And we knew everything was changing.

(32:11):
I knew that the office I shared with my brother
was he he wasn't going to come to work the
next day, you know, or a month later. So your
brother left after the sale, he decided, well, the new
company said, you know, we have a CEO, we don't
necessarily need that role. And I think my brother was tired.
It had been a lot, like twenty plus years, but
also being the CEO and steering through COVID and what

(32:35):
we had to go through, like that was a lot,
and it was a lot for everybody, but I think
he carried it the most on his shoulders, and he's like,
I think I'm good. I think I'm going to go.
So that was weird to be like, oh wait, we
built this together and then you're not here anymore. So
it was definitely like a day of like like you're crying,
you're smiling, but and and that lasted for a couple

(32:55):
of weeks, and then I was like, Okay, this is
what the new era is going to be and it
started to fet really good. What does the new era
look like for you now? And how has it changed?
So the silver lining has been I didn't realize how
much of my attention was always wrapped up in things
that I'm not good at. You know, business needs crisises,
We're not going to make the delivery because we can't

(33:16):
get the goods, or the leather's stuck in Italy or
whatever it is. I don't have to worry about that
now someone else does. And so for me, I've been
really able to focus on what I love best, design, community, social,
overseeing the pr and that's where I thrive. And so
to be able to have all that attention back and
like putting it into that for the last how many

(33:38):
years has been two years has been really a joy.
The hard part is at the end of the day,
like if I have an idea or I want to
do something and the answer is no, I will push
back because that's just my nature. But sometimes the answer
is still really know. Or when we first moved into
our new offices and I was like, oh, this is

(34:01):
not I don't it's not it's it's mine in my heart,
but it's not mine mine, and I had a panic
attack and I believe the office and I actually walked
from thirty ninth Street all the way to Dumbo just
to like be like, Okay, this this is truly someone else's.
But it's my name, it's my legacy, it's what I
love to do. So where am I? Where else am

(34:23):
I going to go? And and I until I have
a better answer, Like I'm sticking around and it's your name,
so you want it to I wanted to succeed. Yeah,
and my brother and I you know him seventeen years
me twenty. Like that's not that's not just something I
can just be like, all right, that was fun. Bye. No,
you'll never be able to do that.

Speaker 1 (34:42):
You'll never be abut No, and Rebecca man Cough as
the brand, like we need you there, we want you there.
You know.

Speaker 2 (34:47):
Yeah, people are like, well are you going to leave
when your contract up? I'm like, what else am I
going to go do? Okay, Like this is my name
and people identify. It's not like a faceless brand. I'm
deeply embedded in it. And so like a I don't
want to leave, but also like it would be weird
if I did, I think for the brand.

Speaker 1 (35:21):
Looking back at those early years and the grit and
the hustle that went into building this company, what do
you miss the most about those early days and for
new founders out there listening, what do you want them
to stop and enjoy about the grind that they're in.

Speaker 2 (35:37):
I miss these moments that, you know. Setting up our
first trade show, you know, I rented a zip car.
We couldn't afford to have the people that you pay
I don't know, five grand too to build to build it.
So I have a zip car filled with everything you
need to build a trade show, and I'm hiring these
like random guys off the street to like build it.

(36:00):
And then we figured out if we played the same
songs that Apple had in their commercials or booth was
always packed because back then Apple Music, when they would
launch their new phone or their new product and they
had the trendiest, coolest song playing, I was like, that's
the playlist, and so that feeling of like I just
figured out a cheat code, and then your booth is

(36:22):
full and people are writing orders and you're you know,
we would have these and create incredible Japanese customers and
they would come and you'd sit with them for an
hour because they're very exact, and they had their measuring
tape and they're white out and their little kit and
they'd hand you a fifty sixty thousand dollars order and
you're just like, nothing gets better than this. And so

(36:42):
the thing that I want to say to founders is
do not say it's going to be good when like,
enjoy every single part of it now, because the pot
of gold at the end isn't always a pot of gold.
It's experience. It's going through this like in joy the
the all these moments to growth in building. Because I

(37:04):
used to have this dumb idea like in twenty years
I'll be able to relax and put my feet up
and I don't know what I'm gonna do with myself
all day. That's not the end of goal of this.
You know, I'm excited to go to work every day.
I'm excited for what me and the team are doing.
And that's that success to me.

Speaker 1 (37:20):
At somebody now twenty years later, guys, she's still working
a lot.

Speaker 2 (37:25):
Only are you working?

Speaker 1 (37:26):
You've taken on even more projects than just building your brand.
Was there, like I Rebecca Mincock uniform that you would
wear all the time back in the day. That was like,
so you like, what were you walking onto the streets
of New York wearing?

Speaker 2 (37:38):
Oh gosh, well, in the early days, girls were layering
their tank tops so you'd have two. It was low rise,
flared jeans and flip flops, which apparently I'm making a comeback.
I found that out yesterday. And a bra, like a
brightly colored bra so you could see the straps that
was like two thousand and five ish, A juicy in
the in the fall months, A juicy like fir aligned

(38:00):
sweatshirt which I got off eBay so was probably not real.
As my style evolved, I was definitely like, I don't know,
I started incorporating a lot of more black into my wardrobe.
Now it's very rare that I'm wearing color, and I
are so colorful. I was like, it's summer.

Speaker 1 (38:17):
Wait, I just want to paint the picture really quickly.
So when Rebecca showed up, she was in an active
era outphit because she was like, are we going to
go for a run first, and I'm like, no, we
already walked like let's just see the podcast. Yeah, And
so she changed into the cutest outfit and you walked
in and I was like, oh my.

Speaker 2 (38:30):
God, it's a shock. It's a shock, but even your
active ralf it was cute. Anyways, thank you. So I
would say I wanted to. I don't know. I think
I started embodying what the brand is, which is like this,
like I don't like to say I'm sexy, but like
a sexy tomboy. Like if I'm going to have on
a midi dress, it's with an oversized blazer, you know.
If so, I think it's that again, that mixture of

(38:52):
that elements and yeah, and then and then I won't
say I really I didn't embrace taking more risk, ironically,
until I was pregnant with my fourth child, and my
creative director at the time was like, you need to
dress pregnancy style like Rihanna, Like look at what she's doing,
like show the bump, celebrate it, embrace the bigger boobs

(39:14):
and the short shorts. And I was like, fuck it,
this is my last kid. And that's when I really started.
I feel like, not that I went so out of
anyone's comfort zone, but I went out of my comfort
zone and I feel like I'm trying to stay there.

Speaker 1 (39:26):
Yeah. I think that's a fun thing to do, especially
as somebody that loves fashion, and I'm sure like experimenting
with different brands too. You've built a brand through so
many different eras you know, maybe thinking about what's in
trend now and what's not in trend. What are certain
things that you want to see come back from the years.

Speaker 2 (39:44):
Oh my gosh, what do I know? There's too much
that's already back. I watched a girl's stuff her Jinko
jeans with like an entire day's worth of UH needs,
and I was like, do I want that? No, I
don't want that, or like a baby tea, or like
I love a juicy sweatsuit, but like I like the

(40:04):
older version, not the newer ones. But I also think
there's some things like low rise that can just stay.
I can stay for the girls who haven't had kids yet.
I think for the most part, once you've had a baby,
like you're never going to go back to having low
rise pants ever again.

Speaker 1 (40:19):
Also, I think one of the cool things too about
building your brand was you have a family of four.
When did you have your first baby?

Speaker 2 (40:25):
I was thirty one. I was technically, in my heart
not ready, but I also had my mom and my
ear being like, your ovaries are turning to dust. You
need to get pregnant or you will be infertile soon.
And I knew that I wanted my children to have
a long relationship with my parents because I think they're fantastic.
So I was like, fine, let's just try it. And

(40:47):
I remember being pregnant and texting my husband and being like,
I don't know why we did this. This was a
huge mistake. I'm not ready to be responsible for a
human like I'm still selfish. How am I going to
give all this up? And when my son came, I
was like, why the fuck didn't we do this sooner?
This is the best thing we've ever done. And so
that flip happened overnight, and then I was like, I

(41:08):
love being a mom in a way that I never
thought I would. And then I was like, let's just
keep going. And we really thought we were done at three,
and then covid was over, we had sold the company.
I felt like a renewed passion because I was able
to focus on what I love. And then I just
looked at my husband. I was like, we're not done.

(41:29):
He's like we're done. I was like, oh, no, we're not.
And so I might have lied him to get pregnant
with the fourth.

Speaker 1 (41:34):
When you said let's just keep going, it just gave
me Christian or vibes in the best way, Like I
could picture her saying that, but let's keep it up.

Speaker 2 (41:42):
I love like having babies.

Speaker 1 (41:43):
How did your work life change once you had kids.
I think there's so many working moms out there, and
you're such an example of somebody that hustles so hard.

Speaker 2 (41:52):
So what did that look like for you? So prior
to having kids, I worked at the office till ten
every night. We worked all weekends. A big part of
our success was after work most times, my brother and
I and our president at the time, we go out
to dinner and like talk about strategy and growth, and
that was really critical. When I had the baby, all
of a sudden, I was like, I'm going to be
home at six and he's going to come to me.

(42:14):
I'm a big breastfeeder, so he's going to come to
me for a feeding during the day, and then I'm
going to be home at six, and like that's the
new life. And that was really hard adjustment for my
relationship with my brother working because we were so used
to having these like late night strategy sessions. But also
like at the time and for the first three children,

(42:35):
it was really hard. And I didn't realize this till later,
but like it was really hard to turn off because
I'd be in at bath time, but thinking about all
the stuff that's happening when your business is growing as
much as it was, and I was constantly trying to
find that balance that does not exist, you know. And
for me, that meant, oh, I'm going to Korea and

(42:57):
China twice a year. Well, the kid's coming with me,
and then nanny's coming with me because I'm still breastfeeding
and I want to see my child and I refuse
to leave them for two weeks at a time. And
so what are you sacrificing at that point? Sleep, friendship,
going out with girlfriends. I see this woman on Instagram
who takes a million girl trips and I'm like, not

(43:18):
my life. You know, I'll do that when my kids
are older. And so I think it was me sort
of with each kid, experimenting where am I comfortable and
where am I not? And how do I put the
new boundaries in and sort of also putting blinders onto
like how other women are doing it, because you have
to figure it out for yourself and it changes. And

(43:39):
it wasn't until add my fourth baby with a soul, business, older,
wiser whatever that I was like, Wow, I thought I
was present, but I was so distracted. And now I
can really say that I'm much more present as a
mom in that moment, Like when we're playing with legos,
that's what I'm thinking about. I'm not like, oh, the
email needs to go out, and you know it's so

(44:01):
It's one of those things that like, it's hard to
give advice because when you're in that moment of build,
you can't tell someone, hey, go go only think about that.

Speaker 1 (44:11):
I think what's so cool about you is your showing
that you can be a great mom while also running businesses.

Speaker 2 (44:18):
You know you can have to. You have to rely
on your team a lot. You know, we can't do
it alone.

Speaker 1 (44:24):
One of the things you said that I loved was
late night brainstorming sessions with your brother.

Speaker 2 (44:28):
Yeah. I have a twin brother and an older brother.

Speaker 1 (44:30):
The one who like loves talking business with me is
my twin and like he loves just knowing what I
have going on. I don't know whether it's because he
works in finance and he just finds what I do.
He must have like some sort of like creative part
of him, and he definitely does, but he just loves it.

Speaker 2 (44:43):
And the late night sessions.

Speaker 1 (44:44):
It's like, I love talking to my fiance about what
I'm doing, and we have such good sessions, but nothing
beats a conversation with your brother and your.

Speaker 2 (44:52):
Family that just want you to win more than anything. Yeah,
those are fun. Those were like we we did that
for whatever six years, know, and it was just like
that's when you would like the day to day emergencies
or whatever would stop and we would like really build
the future and foundation of the business.

Speaker 1 (45:10):
I love when founders have a voice and want to
have an impact and like help other people and be
a mentor. It's not that it's rare, but at the
same time, it kind of is. You know, so like
when did you decide you wanted to have a voice
and give people advice and your wisdom.

Speaker 2 (45:28):
I think that I had always felt very alone within
the fashion industry because it was very competitive, it was
very cutthroat, and there was not a lot of support
of women helping women. So I was already like this
sucks that we're all so worried about the business and
like you're taking a share that we're not going to
support each other. I hated that, and when I began

(45:50):
to peer outside of that just craving other connection. I
was like, Oh my gosh, other women need this and
other women are struggling, and I just was like, there
has to be a way to like bring a community
of people together. At the same time, I wanted to
improve culture within my company and we had a store
in New York and in in LA and I said,
let me bring in these women now that I'm connecting

(46:12):
with and give an opportunity for my employees and you know,
customers to hear from them. And that felt great, but
it also felt like we can we can make this wider.
So that was kind of the birth of the podcast
and ironically Female Founder Collective around the same time was
we need a community, We need access to each other.

(46:32):
We need to hear about what worked, what didn't you know,
what could be the shortcuts of any and then what
are we running into as founders that's truly stopping us
from succeeding. And when I brought my co founder Alison
White on, she was really like, we need to showcase
that women can teach each other, like you don't have
to go back to school or you go to Wharton
and get your MBA, Like we can help bridge that gap,

(46:55):
and so it's really become about community education and helping
women make more money because we know that that's going
to change things, not just for ourselves, but like in communities.

Speaker 1 (47:06):
I love that you created communities that bring women together
that want to support women, because there's there's certain cliche terms.
One is community and the other is women supporting women,
and I think there's such community as an overused word,
and I think women supporting women is an overused term,
and I think very few people actually know what that
means and are actually capable of doing it. Yeah, what

(47:27):
do you have to say to women that don't support women?

Speaker 2 (47:31):
Oof, you're not my friend. And there's the women that
say it and then they fake it. And this doesn't
mean this is what I don't like. This doesn't mean
that if you're get into a fight with women, you
don't then suddenly support women, or like if someone's coming
for you and you stand up for yourself, that you
don't support women. I think at the end of the day,

(47:52):
it's what can you do to help another person further
along their business or something in their career with some advice,
you know, a resource, an introduction that's supporting another woman
and genuine excitement for them when they do something stepping
out of their comfort zone. Yeah, and like I would

(48:13):
never sit here and say, oh, she has a handbag brand,
I can't help her because she's going to take some
of my business. I was just on the phone with
an up and coming woman who has a beautiful handbag brand,
and I was like, what do you need. You know
you want to go into wholesale, Well, here's everything you
should be scared of. I'm not losing by doing that. Like,
you can't just have be the one greatest best. And

(48:35):
I think that I grew up in this culture of
that cutthroat ness and it annoyed me and it angered
me and it happened to me, and I'm just like,
this is not the way, and if we could Sometimes
you know, there are some women that like blame them
men for the lack of progress, and I'm like, it's

(48:56):
a lot of women doing it to each other. That's
just as impactful of stopping our own progress when it
comes to certain things. I think it's more like my
husband sometimes he's like, you will cut a bitch, like
when I'm even talking about someone or something, and I'm
like yeah, and then we do that to each other
and it's never good.

Speaker 1 (49:15):
There's this term that I heard somebody say like years ago,
when it's always stuck with me. It was actually Haley
Bieber talked about her twice. Hey, she has a show
called like Who's in My Bathroom? And I forget the
guests that she had on as a show where on
YouTube had I don't know if she still does it.
I hope she brings it back because it was such
a good idea and it was so well done. And
she said, I think more people have to realize that

(49:35):
there is space for everyone. Mm hm, Like it is
a big world. You can find your space. It's a huge.

Speaker 2 (49:41):
World, and you can still be competitive, but you don't
need to be like a cunt about it, you know, like.

Speaker 1 (49:48):
That was an iconic one liner. You don't have to
be a cunt about it.

Speaker 2 (49:53):
I get inspired, but like I don't get jealous. I
get inspired. And it's a real difference, Like when you're
watching someone have success, you're like, oh, oh I want that,
how did she do that? Not like oh I have
to take her down so I can take it from her.
And it's and I think that shift is also much
healthier mindset to be in.

Speaker 1 (50:25):
On your podcast, you interview a lot of CEOs, founders,
influential people. Is there a common thread that you have
found through your conversations that you think is a key
to why these people made it.

Speaker 2 (50:39):
They don't give up. They're like those dolls that just
like you hit them and they come back up, or
those boxing figures. You know, they just keep going and
they don't let the word no stop them. And I
think if you want to make it, you've got to
get over that. You have to be like, no is
just the beginning of yes. Rebecca said no, it was
just okay, No. There's going to be yes somewhere, and

(51:00):
you just keep knocking.

Speaker 1 (51:01):
What is something you've seen firsthand about the power of
women supporting women in business. Is there an experience you
had that you were like, this is why we need
to be supporting each other and pushing each other to grow.

Speaker 2 (51:13):
I mean there's been small things like seeing within our
female founder collective community, like two co founders got together
because of it and launched a business, or even we
ran an accelerator program for fifty women own businesses during COVID.
They've now gone on to raise We taught them at
a fundraise. We taught them how to scale with those investments.

(51:34):
They've raised over forty million dollars because of the accelerator
that we ran. That's an incredible statistic, especially at a
time when women receive two percent of venture funding. And
all those women are still in touch and they're all
still helping each other, And it's just the testament of
like when you put aside the competition part to help
another person, then you all get to grow, you all

(51:56):
benefit from it.

Speaker 1 (51:58):
There's almost this stigma of like you have to be
so confident and you have to believe so hard that
like what you're doing is gonna work. But I think
there's also something really beautiful about like being in a
community of people where you can be vulnerable yes, and
still confident, yes, but also just like have people that
you can be like, listen, I really need advice on this,
you know. And I think that's something that's underutilized and

(52:20):
under talked about.

Speaker 2 (52:21):
Huge And I think you know you don't. I think
the thing that gets hard is you want to be
vulnerable in the right spaces because you need to access
information or advice or help or support from the right people.
So if to me, when someone goes on Instagram and
starts crying and being vulnerable. I'm not sure that that's

(52:43):
where they're going to get the help and the support
they need. They're going to get a lot of positive commentary,
but to me, that's not where you're going to get
actually what you need to get better. And so for me,
it's like these rooms with other founders, you're like, oh
my god, this was so hard in this and what
did you do with that? That's the place where you
can get the most support. But if you're like everything's
good all the time and I'm perfect and I figured

(53:05):
it out every day, Like, I don't think that works.
What's the best piece of advice you've ever received. I
interviewed Kristin Olzowski from Nomadica Wines last summer and she said,
only take advice from people whose lives you want. And
I'm going to expand about that on it only take

(53:28):
criticism from people whose lives you want.

Speaker 1 (53:30):
I love that piece of advice, and I want to
add in too, like you know, I think that can
relate to so many things, like whether it's life personal,
but also in work. And I remember when I was
working in corporate America before I started my running interview
show and my content creation journey and business. I was
working in advertising and I worked at great advertising agencies.

Speaker 2 (53:53):
I had great teams.

Speaker 1 (53:54):
But I remember looking at the really senior people at
the company, and that's saying to myself, like, that's just
not who I aspire to be, and it was nothing
wrong with their career their career path, because obviously these
people have made it to really high up positions in
these you know, massive firms, and they have incredible work.
I just remember thinking, like, that's not what I want

(54:15):
to be, so I'm in the wrong spot.

Speaker 2 (54:16):
Yeah, I think it's always good to do that check
and be like do I want that? Do I want
how they're living? Do I want? And just find the
role models who have that and see where those patterns
are and how you can mimic that, because I think
you get stuck on what you think it should be
and then you see it actually play out and it's like,
oh shit, I don't actually want that.

Speaker 1 (54:37):
Let's talk a little bit about the purpose behind your
book and then also a fearless decision you made recently
that you were scared to do at the time.

Speaker 2 (54:46):
I think the purpose of the book was that we
let fear inform and decide our decisions in life, in
business and work, and that you don't finish the book
and you're like, I have no fear. You finish the
book and you're like, you know what, I'm scared, But
here I go. I'm diving in. And so it is
a business book with principles that you can hold on

(55:07):
to in those moments of taking a lot of risks.
And I'm telling you my horror stories you can feel
better about those risks. Was there an emotional chapter for
you that you had to write? Was there an emotional
chapter or a chapter that you were like, oh my god,
I can't believe I'm telling people telling you all this. No,
because I'm one of those people that I probably say

(55:27):
too much.

Speaker 1 (55:28):
You are an open book in the best way. I getrouble,
but you can never Yeah, I get that.

Speaker 2 (55:32):
I got that.

Speaker 1 (55:32):
You can never say too much. So you're doing a
ton Real Housewives of New York. Let's touch on it
a little bit. Why did you decide to do Real
Housewives of New York. How did the decision come to be?

Speaker 2 (55:41):
Talk about a fearless decision. Yeah, at the time, I
felt like we're celebrating our twentieth anniversary. We've always taken
risks to be in front and like in touch with
our customer. I thought at the time, did iive part
of me that being able to have the customer see
another side of me? What I thought again was she's

(56:03):
going to see me at the office. You'll see my
family life, like, she'll see all these facets that like
you don't necessarily see just on Instagram. And to be
part of a cast again at the time, that was
all entrepreneurial women who are self made. No one in
the cast had was on there because of their rich husband.
So I thought, wow, this could be a cool example
for women to see. And then it wasn't that. It

(56:27):
became you know, an old pattern in an old format
that works for Bravo does not work for me. And
so it was a decision, I guess to do it
and to walk away. We're both fearless decisions because it
wasn't a positive place to be, not that I thought
by signing on, oh, we're going to just be positive
and happy all the time, but it became very negative

(56:48):
and that's not what I want or need to have
in my life right now.

Speaker 1 (56:52):
Did any of the prior Housewives of New York or
any other franchise give you advice going into the show.

Speaker 2 (56:59):
So I had been on Bethany's podcast a couple years
ago and I saw her an event when I still
hadn't made my decision, and I was like, so listen,
this is what's up. And she's like, don't attend a
potty that's already ova And I was like, Okay, good
to know Bethany, thank you. And then I did the
show and I saw her afterwards. She's like, I told you.
I told you shouldn't have done it. Look what happened.

(57:22):
That's so funny.

Speaker 1 (57:23):
So she knew, she was like, this is not gonna
be She knew that she and the ogs like they
did it best and that was perfect for its time,
and you know it needs to be reinvented.

Speaker 2 (57:35):
Was it good for your brand? It was great for
the brand. It was great, Like I talk about Madonna
reinvention keeping interest. You know, brand awareness is up twenty
percent year over decade. The customer who grew up with
me got to see me again, New customers got to
see me, and so and there were people who'd never
heard of me who were like who's this random woman?

(57:57):
Let me find out more So it was one of
the hardest things I've ever had to do, but I
don't regret it at all. Can't live with regrets. You
live with regrets. Also, that's amazing. You're so right.

Speaker 1 (58:09):
It does open you up to this whole new audience.
And I'm sure they were like, she seems cool, Like,
let me see what her brand is all.

Speaker 2 (58:15):
Some of them said that. Some of them said a
bunch of other things, but that's for the troll. Had
you ever struggled with like negativity before. Yeah, so I
had had a taste of negativity very early on, in
the early days of social media in the comments section
of a website, people went for me and I remember
this was like two thousand and six, and I remember

(58:36):
crying on the couch to my husband, like people won't
stop talking about me, and it was really criticizing the
brand because at the time you didn't really know who
I was. And so then we've had a lot of
just great positivity. And I saw a taste of it
during COVID when I did an Instagram live with someone

(58:56):
who was getting canceled and the trolling on her feet.
I was like, Oh my god, I feel terrible for her,
like the people are coming for her so hard, like
this is awful, Like I just want to give her
a hug. So then then I went back to my
positive land. And then I took a firm stance before
like I obviously knew, Okay, there is gossip, there is

(59:18):
negativity surrounding these shows. Block and deleite, like if you
are a troll, you're not part of my world. And
this is my space and I control it. I might
not own my piece of the Internet, but I can
control a lot of it. And that was the tactic,
like block and delete, like I'm not here for it,

(59:38):
like you're miserable, you're in your parents' basement, like go
have happy life. And the trolls did come for me,
and you know what, the best revenge is success. And
I was just like I'm going to continue to succeed
and to put positivity out there and to just keep
doing what I love and showing it off and everyone

(01:00:00):
what else can suck it? And share your values?

Speaker 3 (01:00:03):
You know, and like your value values?

Speaker 1 (01:00:21):
What are you excited about that's to come? Like what's
keeping you motivated right now? What do you have going on?

Speaker 2 (01:00:26):
Well? I have been working on celebrating our anniversary like
all year long, so we're halfway in. We have a
really exciting collaboration coming out in the fall. We also
have a new category launch in the fall to bring
Rebecca MinC Off to even more women. And yeah, and

(01:00:48):
it's about it's summer, so I'm gonna take my hawk
gir al summer.

Speaker 1 (01:00:52):
Lastly, where can we find you? Follow you keep up
with everything you've got going.

Speaker 2 (01:00:56):
On at Rebecca Mancoff at Becky Mincoff for a personal look,
you can listen to my podcast Superwomen with Rebecca Mancoff.
You can buy Fearless wherever books are sold, and if
you want even more, you can go to my TikTok
for some great entertainment.

Speaker 1 (01:01:09):
Well, thank you so much for being with me. Seriously,
this is amazing.

Speaker 2 (01:01:12):
Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (01:01:13):
Thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode
with Rebecca Minkoff. If you are enjoying post run High,
please do us a quick favor and leave us a
rating and review and share this episode with a friend. Also,
subscribe to my YouTube channel at Kate max, where you
can watch the video versions of all of these episodes.
Your support helps us continue to bring you inspiring conversations.

(01:01:34):
We'll see you next week.