I have interviewed many great leaders and entrepreneurs as part of my Lessons in Leadership series in Thrive Global. Among the founders I have interviewed are the following six women - leaders of highly successful and growing businesses: Harriet Mills, founder and CEO of Wine & Design; Summer Vasilas, founder of Waxing the City; Eva Sadej, founder and CEO of Floss Bar; Dr. Cindy McGovern, founder and CEO of Orange Leaf Consulting; Tal Avivi, co-founder of Woops!; and Brittany Driscoll, co-founder and CEO of Squeeze. I asked each of them about their journey and their best advice. Here are some excepts from our conversations:

Adam: How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth?

Harriet: Founding my business during the height of the recession was a huge risk that brought with it a lot of challenges, but I wouldn’t change it for anything. My growth has come from always learning from my mistakes so that I can come back stronger. There will always be hurdles, but the more experience you can gain from the last one, the more prepared you are to clear the next one. I’ve learned to place a lot of trust in the team I’ve assembled around me, because our shared experiences and perspectives make the business better collectively.

Summer: Believe it or not, I was a “super senior” (5th year) high school student. When I was seventeen, I was faced with a decision of dropping out of school and getting my GED or going through the “embarrassment” of repeating my senior year of high school because I was not eligible to graduate with my senior class of 1996. This was truly a life altering moment for me because it made me take a deep look into how I got into the situation and what I wanted to do about it/how I could change my life. 

I needed to make a choice that I knew at that time would be instrumental to my future. I decided to forgo the possible embarrassment and complete another year of high school for several reasons. The first being, I wanted my diploma, not a GED and secondly, I needed to prove to myself that I was capable of doing it. I was in that situation because of poor choices I had made, not because I lacked the intelligence or was not deserving enough. 

I often look back on that experience and tell myself in tough times that I can do whatever it is that is causing me doubt in myself. If I put my mind and heart into whatever I am facing, and it is something I really want, then I can and should go after it. No one ever said life was easy, no one said owning a business would be easy and no one said starting a franchise would be easy. Just like no one said parenting or marriage would be easy. The success and enjoyment that I’ve experienced in my life have been through passion and perseverance.

Eva: In the past I’ve overvalued the wrong people and neglected the practical day-to-day impact. I’ve learned now to be equitable in who I focus on for retention within the company. I’ve also learned the hard way what can happen when you trust the wrong people. I’ve learned to believe in my own instincts about who to trust rather than who looks good on paper. 

Cindy: Kicking and screaming! I thought I was cut out to be a college professor. That’s where I started my career after getting a Ph.D. in organizational communication. But it turned out that teaching in a classroom wasn’t for me. So I started looking for another kind of job that would let me use my communication skills, and I literally stunned myself when I wound up in sales. 

I never, ever thought sales was the job for me. In fact, I thought salespeople were cheesy, manipulative and downright icky. I never, ever considered it. But after working as a management consultant in the sales industry for a while, my boss nudged me (threw me, really) into sales. And I found a way to sell that felt authentic for me. I don’t use the “Hey, how am I going to get you into this car today?” type of approach. My brand of sales isn’t cheesy or manipulative or icky at all. I only sell people things they need and want. 

Fast forward to 2009, when I decided to open my consulting company, Orange Leaf Consulting. My job is to help both professional salespeople and employees who are not salespeople learn how to sell in a consultative, friendly, fair and authentic way. That is what led me to write my first book: Every Job Is a Sales Job.

Tal: The Woops! journey began in 2012 when my three friends and I joined together to open a macaron pop-up shop in the heart of New York City at the Holiday Shops in Bryant Park. We treated it as a side kick, almost like a gig. We all had full time jobs elsewhere and we really were just hoping to cover our cost and try something new. With the power of friendship, hard work, and a little bit of hope we somehow made it happen, selling over 100,000 macarons in less than 9 weeks! And then we realized that “Woops!” we had a business! We were naive in the beginning, and trusted leasing agents that if they charged us high rents it must be justified. We grew very quickly in the first year and finished the year with 12 locations that we managed on our own. The first setbacks were understanding that not every location is Bryant Park in NYC and that operating 12 locations alone is very hard operationally. We also realized that we need to be much more careful with our selection of locations and our rents. So after the first year ended we regrouped and changed our approach and started to be very careful as to where we open and who we work with. The biggest setbacks always came when we thought we can cut corners and were tempted to think that someone from the outside can ‘come and save us’ and do the work for us. We’ve learned the hard way that we can only trust ourselves at the end of the day.

Brittany: Hard work and being in the right place at the right time. It’s definitely a little bit of both. I’ve always been a hustler, chasing after discomfort and pushing myself to do something when I wasn’t quite ready. But I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for people noticing that and taking a chance on me. I’ve had amazing champions along the way that believed in me even when things didn’t go quite right. Those were the defining moments that made me realize I could get up and keep going, that progress and forward momentum is far more important than getting it right every time.

Adam: What is something about you that would surprise people?

Harriet: I think people would be surprised to find that I’m an avid Shark Tank fan and that I hunted down the opportunity to be on the show with just a Google search.

Summer: I’m an introvert, through and through. When looking at the characteristics that make up an introvert, I undeniably check every box. I am not sure if this is something that would surprise my inner circle of close friends and family; however, I think this would shock those not as close to me. I don’t present myself as introverted in my professional life.

Eva: I was the fastest mile runner in all of NYC at one time! In high school, I ran a 4:49 Olympic mile.

Tal: I grew up in a kibbutz in Israel. A very small socialist community where everyone knows each other and shares ownership of all properties and services. A community that believes in giving what you can and getting what you need. Very very different from where I am today. 

Brittany: I’m an early riser! I love the morning and use the quiet time to pray, mediate and write in a gratitude journal. I started this practice when I took the entrepreneurial leap about a year ago and it’s been life-changing.

Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received?

Harriet: My mom always told me, you only have one reputation—you can’t get it back once it’s out there, so make sure it’s a good one. If I could choose a second, it’d be: Don’t be late. I learned that from my granddad, who taught me to always set my watch a little faster than normal because being late is a huge setback in someone’s mind.

Summer: “Do what you love or what you are passionate about and you’ll be successful.” I followed my heart into the beauty industry. Within the industry I have continued to follow my heart, which has taken me in so many different directions. At first, it was getting my esthetics license and working in a spa from there I opened my own waxing salon (Waxing the City) to then owning five locations in two states. This ultimately led me to franchising the company and now there are over 100 locations. I’m continually listening to what makes my heart sing and following suit. I have no regrets at this stage in my life because of the advice I was once given and choosing to act on it. However, I have found that as easy as it sounds, it often times takes a lot of courage to follow your heart.

Eva: Get a hobby. You’re going to love your work as an entrepreneur, but you need some balance in your life. Having that thing that disconnects you from the person you are during the day helps you have a perspective that there is more to life than just your job. It also helps you to stop stressing about the small things.

Cindy: When the manager who promoted me into my first sales job told me his plans, I told him, “I can’t sell.” He told me, “Yes you can; you already do.” And he was right. The thing about sales is this: Every one of us has been selling since we were kids. We sold our parents on getting us the toys we wanted for our birthdays. We sold our siblings on covering for us when we were going to be out too late. We sold our teachers on giving us extensions on our deadlines.

Tal: Don’t compare yourself to others. Learn and get inspired, but don’t compare. That can easily make you resentful. Barbara Corcoran said somewhere that “resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.” You have to trust your instinct that what you’re doing is right. And not get distracted with what others are doing. 

Brittany: To live with grace, from my Dad

The full interviews can be full at:
https://thriveglobal.com/stories/tips-from-the-top-one-on-one-with-harriet-mills/
https://thriveglobal.com/stories/tips-from-the-top-one-on-one-with-summer-vasilas/
https://thriveglobal.com/stories/tips-from-the-top-one-on-one-with-eva-sadej/
https://thriveglobal.com/stories/studies-in-selling-one-on-one-with-dr-cindy-mcgovern/
https://thriveglobal.com/stories/tips-from-the-top-one-on-one-with-tal-avivi/
https://thriveglobal.com/stories/tips-from-the-top-one-on-one-with-brittany-driscoll/