Female Founders: Bailey Stockfisch of Eminence On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
It’s not going to be easy. There is nothing harder than working towards a goal with no guarantee of success. It is so hard to invest all of your money into your vision. There’s nothing harder than not getting paid for long days or reinvesting all of the money back. Basically, founding is not easy, and it takes years to be competitive with popular brands, but there is nothing more rewarding, and that’s why it’s so important to support others in their endeavors as well.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Bailey Stockfisch.
Young female founder Bailey Stockfisch launched Eminence at the age of 14 years old. Bailey decided early on in her life that she wanted to create a lifestyle and fashion brand that her peers and eventually social media followers would love. She quickly learned how to juggle being an entrepreneur, high school student, and inspiration for other young entrepreneurs.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I grew up in a small town in North Central Arkansas with a creative spirit and the desire to run a business since I was a little girl. After COVID-19, I knew there was no better time to follow my dream and give myself a creative outlet to inspire others while giving them a product to express themselves with.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
Eminence has not only given me confidence, but a firm financial standing. I’m so thankful as a young woman to have the opportunity to grow and mature into the entrepreneur I hope to be. In starting my business and coming out of my comfort zone, I have learned more about myself, taken risks, and encouraged others to do the same. The best story to me is how Eminence has allowed me to grow through it. It’s the best coming-of-age story I can think of.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Honestly, I can’t quite think of a “funny” mistake. However, one thing I look back on and laugh at is the need for control. In the beginning, I struggled because I knew how I wanted to run Eminence and what I needed to do to achieve greatness. I felt that there wasn’t a need for others to help run the brand or that training others to help would be a waste of time.
After a while, I regretted this wholeheartedly. My busiest time of the year, Halloween, brought a lot of challenges and all-nighters with no help. My ego dropped completely begging for help during this busy time. It can be easy to think that you can handle it all. However, it’s okay to ask for help.
Looking back on the overbearing control I had on the brand in the early months is laughable. And I would highly advise any young entrepreneurs to learn quickly that you can’t control every part of your business.
Asking for help doesn’t make you any less. It doesn’t make your business anything less, and it definitely doesn’t reflect on your work ethic. In fact, my business started to flourish when I was able to recruit help because two minds are ALWAYS better than one.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I would give a large amount of the credit to my sweet family. They have always listened to my crazy jokes, encouraged my success, watched me grow, and loved me through all of it. It is so nice to know I have a great support system behind me, who do so much for me no matter what. Just this past week, I was preparing for an event in Nashville and my entire family didn’t hesitate to put all of their time and effort into helping me get ready. It is so nice to know I have a great support system, who do so much for me no matter what. My mom is incredibly selfless, my dad is the product quality control and box guy, and my brother is my emotional support go-to.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?
I am a huge advocate for future women founders because I know women are just as great at managing businesses as men. I believe that there are gender wage gaps because I see them in my day-to-day life. For this to end, there needs to be a cultural reset of how people think about women and men in the workplace. For example, women are easily oppressed in the workplace not because of their knowledge but because of their ease of oppression combined with their outside features. This is unacceptable, gross, and unfair for the common society combined. In my personal experience, what was holding me back from starting was the lack of financial stability I had combined with the outside opinions of others that sounded like, “Wow! That’s cool, but it’s a big world with so much competition, so I highly doubt you’ll get there.” And if I wasn’t a young, female owner I’m sure there would have been less doubt in me.
Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?
Yes, there are definitely laws that could be made by the government to regulate inequality in the workplace. The real problem is society’s stereotypes of women in the workplace. It’s really in our hands as women to prove everyone wrong and go against the grain. We have to reset the theme here for it to be widely accepted.
This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?
Honestly, I think women are the coolest, most fun people out there! There’s nothing better than the female touch. I just love the elegance a woman provides. Because of this, women can just add their cute little touch to create a beautifully caring female-founded business. I personally love supporting female businesses because of the added bit of love I receive when I support it!
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
Some things I hear are that it’s “a lot of work,” “it’s unattainable,” and all markets are “crowded.” While life would be a lot easier not to be a founder, unfortunately, being a founder means investing all of your time, money, and creativity to make something cool. It’s far from easy and oftentimes very stressful work. However, with this being said, there’s room for everything in a market and nothing is unattainable if you follow your dreams and don’t stop. Consistency is key for your future.
Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?
Not everyone was born to a founder! Some people were born to love firefighting, protecting, and teaching people. There’s no one size fits all, and certainly not with founding, but, oftentimes founders are self-starters, go-getters, activators, persistent, independent, time-sensitive, detail-oriented, and compassionate.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
It’s not going to be easy. There is nothing harder than working towards a goal with no guarantee of success. It is so hard to invest all of your money into your vision. There’s nothing harder than not getting paid for long days or reinvesting all of the money back. Basically, founding is not easy, and it takes years to be competitive with popular brands, but there is nothing more rewarding, and that’s why it’s so important to support others in their endeavors as well.
People are going to frown. Starting isn’t cool. You have to put yourself out there for others to scowl. Detach yourself from the thoughts and feelings of others, and stay true to yourself. What do you want to create? If no one knew about this, what would you do to become successful?
It will completely change your concept of time. It can be hard to give myself time off because I am always thinking about what I can do to improve my brand, and it floods my thoughts and dreams and can make me cranky when my time gets wasted since I am not a scheduled employee. Give yourself breaks so that you don’t get burned out.
People will treat you differently once you’re successful. There will be those who stay through it all or who join specifically at the end! Hold your loved ones close and rejoice in your big moments so hard! Stay true to yourself and don’t boast about your successes because they can all be gone in a day!
It’s so worth it. There’s nothing more rewarding than the final draft of your beautiful hard worked blood, sweat, and tears. There’s nothing better than your comfortable space filled with your coolest inspiration for people like you!
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
I love to inspire other young girls with my story! It’s such a blessing to be driven and find motivation easily, and I would love to encourage other young girls to start and be girl bosses!
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
Sometime in my lifetime, I would love to start a non-profit organization that would speak to young girls in elementary schools. I would advise on girly stuff and how to become a successful female! I would love to give scholarships, job help, internship advice, and other real-world aid!
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
The founders of Daily Drills are so cool and such an inspiration to me! They are spot on with marketing, growth, brand awareness, and product quality. I am obsessed and influenced when it comes to their branding and business model.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Female Founders: Bailey Stockfisch of Eminence On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.