Female Founders: Michelle Cordeiro Grant of LIVELY On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Mental Stamina-: Being an entrepreneur is like being a marathon runner. You need to train your mental muscle to get back up from failure and continue on.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Michelle Cordeiro Grant.
Michelle Cordeiro Grant is the Founder and CEO of LIVELY, podcast host of No Makeup Needed, an angel investor and public speaker. Prior to launching LIVELY, Michelle spent the tenure of her career at household names in the lingerie industry including Federated Merchandising Group, VF Corporation, and Victoria’s Secret. In 2016, Michelle officially launched LIVELY, a community and brand that inspires women to live life passionately, purposefully, and confidently, by way of products and experiences.
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?
After graduating from University of Pittsburgh, I started my career as a Product Assistant at Federated Merchandising Group. From there I went to VF corporation where I climbed the ranks, ultimately becoming a director for Victoria’s Secret. After four years at the company I began feeling a disconnect — I was no longer wearing their products myself. Whereas, at the time, their product was geared towards helping women look a certain way to please others, I craved to feel confident, comfortable, and empowered in my own skin.
I came to the realization that there wasn’t anything on the market that catered to approachable branding products and bras that conform to women rather than forcing women to conform into the bra. I wanted there to be a brand that represents women as individuals and that acknowledges that she is her most powerful and beautiful asset. Shortly after this I left to begin my entrepreneurial journey, launching LIVELY, which aims to offer lingerie with a message of empowerment.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
One day I received an email from Shopify about an opportunity to be mentored by life guru Tony Robbins, and AirBnB founder, Joe Geppia. With the idea that I had a slim chance of winning this opportunity, I applied. That following August, I received a call letting me know that I was going to be meeting Tony Robbins along with 8 other winning Entrepreneurs out of the 8,000 that applied. I was told that the way to win this contest was based on the companies that grew the most within the months of applying- but our outcome was different. LIVELY did not reach the same growth as the rest of the winners but because of its eye-catching ethos, we were given a spot amongst the other winners. After spending an hour with Tony on the winners trip to Fiji, he said something that changed the entire trajectory of LIVELY. He said, ”You’re going to kill it at business but you’re sacrificing your personal life to do so.” Two months before I started LIVELY I found out I was pregnant and until this trip, I didn’t have a perspective of the importance of a work-life balance. I immediately changed the way I ran my business for the wellbeing of myself, my family and my employees. I am grateful for gaining that perspective while LIVELY was still young, and am still in close contact with Tony today.
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?
Six weeks before cyber week, our website’s load time was extremely slow and the only way to fix it was to redo the entire site. I took this opportunity to not only update the software but also change the aesthetics so in my mind this was a win/win circumstance. Well, I was totally wrong! When the site launched I was in Beijing which meant I had no access to it, so I asked my employees to send me real time screenshots of its activity. Only thing was, none of the prior traffic data was there. I came to find out that when you have to re-build an SEO, it automatically resets everything back to zero. Definitely learned my lesson with that 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?
My first investor has had an extremely meaningful impact on my life and business. Before LIVELY even had a name, and was just a concept and a dream, he believed in it as much as I did. I didn’t even know him that well, but he believed in the business and he believed in me. He ended up re-investing in the company 4 times over. We have become more than just business partners, we are lifelong friends!
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?
It all comes down to the appetite for risk. Men think they can climb any tree and someone will always catch them because our society has instilled them with a sense of security that will never allow them to fail. Women on the other hand have to develop a cohesive playbook that maps out every possible outcome- success and failure. If a woman wins, there are consequences. If a woman fails, there is no one to pick her back up. Women need to remember that we are beasts- our body, heart and mind are built for success.
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?
Communities and forums are our best bet. Businesses that women are creating have better ideas and statistically do better because women support women. The more resources we can develop for women to connect with one another, the more power we will have as a community.
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?
Women are capable of so much more than we give ourselves credit for. We create human beings, we are strong multi-taskers, nurturers, creative and logical. What women thought of as vulnerabilities (emotional, nurturing), are actually strong qualities of a good leader. Our resilience has shown us if you don’t operate out of fear, you operate out of thought and achieve good business.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
This is not a glamorous, sexy job, most of the time you’re rolling your sleeves up and getting down and dirty. The money and fundraising stories are 1% of what a founder really is. A founder is someone who is so passionate about something that they can’t see anything else. They want to create impact and change in the world- not just roll around a pile of money.
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?
Founders are a little crazy, in a good way! We dont believe in barriers, we love to break rules and we love to be visionaries. A lot of people have that in themselves- they just have to find a way to passionately channel it. This comes with time, but a good founder is someone who eventually learns that “letting go” and letting other voices within your company demonstrate themselves is beneficial towards the brand. I am a great example of someone who also had to learn to do this with LIVELY. When we were acquired, it was a big turning point for me and showed me that I need to take a step back and allow the company to grow.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your opinion and experience, what are the “Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder?” (Please share a story or example for each.)
- Mental Stamina-: Being an entrepreneur is like being a marathon runner. You need to train your mental muscle to get back up from failure and continue on.
- See the world as puzzles; not problems- Instead of defeat, solve the puzzle.
- Ask for help- You’re not shy to ask for help, it’s a sign of being humble. Don’t pretend you know it all. In fact, you want to surround yourself with people who are smarter than you. They teach you to learn and grow.
- Know numbers to some degree- Not just profit but where do your sales really come from?
- You have to love it so much. This cannot be a business case study, it has to be something you are so passionate about that you can’t sleep.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
I have aimed to inspire women to be passionate about living a life outside of the lines. You can be a mom, significant other and also do what you love. Our 150,000 ambassadors have done a great job at showing that you can transition your lifestyle to benefit the balance that you deserve. Even the ambassadors who are graduating school, are starting their new chapter with the idea that success isn’t just based on what is written inside of the lines. With the way our society is structured, the majority of your life is work so if you’re not fully enjoying your job you’re not living a full life. Create and cultivate. We want to tell our story of LIVELY and demonstrate that being a female founder is not just possible, it’s awesome. It’s hard- but it’s awesome.
I find investing in other female founder companies really important. I angel invest in other female founded brands while giving them advice, guidance, support and networking opportunities.
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.
I am unapologetically optimistic and live my life glass half full. If the world could live the same way, there would be so much kindness and love. As human beings, we are focused on negativity because we are focused on survival. Focus on the right, not the wrong. Let’s focus on things that are in our control. I do believe that this would change the trajectory of how human beings interact.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this
Female Founders: Michelle Cordeiro Grant of LIVELY On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.