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The Life of And podcast is for high-achieving women and working parents who are ready to stop living a life of “have to” and start designing a life they actually want. It’s a space where we talk honestly about the things we’re often afraid to admit — even to ourselves. The exhaustion. The ambition. The loneliness. The joy. The tension of wanting more without losing yourself in the process.
If you’re in the thick of it — feeling stretched, tired, hopeful, driven — this is your invitation to take a breath, get real, and find your way back to your own Life of And.
[00:00:00] Rebecca Minkoff: This woman who was kind of helping me craft the narrative, she was like, “Why are you asking their permission to launch this? Just launch it on your own. You don’t need their stamp of approval.” And it really made me go, “Oh, you’re right. I don’t. Then it’ll be mine, not theirs, and I’ll control it.” We shouldn’t wait for someone to tell us anything. No one is going to know what’s inside your head and anoint you anything. You just have to decide something.
[00:00:23] Tiffany Sauder: I’m Tiffany Sauder, entrepreneur, wife, mom to four girls, and a woman figuring it out just like you. Come on, let’s go build your Life Of And. If you didn’t have one of her Morning After bags, you definitely had a girlfriend who did and you wanted to borrow it because the bag was everywhere. For me, it was literally one of my first purchases post-college when I was like, “Girl needs to look the part as she goes into her corporate job.” I wanted a nice soft leather bag and no joke, I wore my first one out. I’m so excited to welcome Rebecca Minkoff to the podcast today. She’s an entrepreneur. She’s a mom of four. She’s married. She’s still continuing to sort of push and dream, even though her name has been all over the runways and has helped been there for us at every moment as we as women were expressing ourselves and stepping into new and familiar environments.
[00:01:16] Tiffany Sauder: So Rebecca, thank you for joining me on the podcast today. Welcome to Life Of And.
[00:01:21] Rebecca Minkoff: Thank you for having me. I’m excited to be here.
[00:01:23] Tiffany Sauder: So I want to spend a little time early years because you have a early teenager. I have a late teenager, 17, and I talked to these young women who were like, man, starting your career, starting anything like the start line is so scary. And you were 18, grew up in Florida and launched off into New York City. Can you give us just a little background on that sort of moment, just sort of what happened? And then I want to talk a little bit about some sort of how it felt. So let’s start there first.
[00:01:58] Rebecca Minkoff: I think for me, there was just this blind determination to arrive in New York City and get started. I felt like I was already missing out having just graduated from high school. And when I decided not to apply to college, it was really with the basis and thesis that I had gotten four years of education in high school in the performing arts costume department. I knew what I was doing and I had to start working. All my friends, my closest friends were all going to spend a year abroad at this incredible kibbutz in Israel. And I was so torn, do I do this and have the time of my life or do I start? And the pull was so strong to New York City that I just decided I got to go. And I had an internship, so that was my safety net with a designer and decided to go headfirst not knowing.
[00:02:51] Rebecca Minkoff: I’d been to New York a couple times, but not ever spent a long time there and just said, “You know what? I got to get started and this is my opening.”
[00:02:59] Tiffany Sauder: Were the people around you, your parents in particular, or even those just close mentors, were they like, “Yes, this is the right thing for you, Rebecca?” Or it was like, “No, you’ve got to have something safe around you before you take such a big risk at such a young age.”
[00:03:13] Rebecca Minkoff: My parents were not typical parents when it comes to their children’s futures. They were like, “College, you can pay for it, go. That’s great. Work, get started, pay for yourself.” But those were our options.
[00:03:27] Rebecca Minkoff: So my parents were very much like, “Sure, go to New York City. We want you to have some moral guidelines under your belt, so please take a class about right and wrong.” My aunt was freaking out. Good thing I wasn’t too close with her at the time and she’s like, “You’ll never be anything. You have to go to college. What are you doing?” And she really said it enough times that I was like, “Okay, maybe I’ll enroll at FIT at night and just take some night classes and get a degree really slowly.” And that lasted about six weeks. And then I was like, “I don’t need these classes. I’m good.”
[00:04:03] Tiffany Sauder: Where did you learn or get exposed to the work ethic that it took to do this?
[00:04:09] Rebecca Minkoff: My mom. Growing up, she had an Amway business for those who don’t know what Amway is. It’s like Mary Kay, multi-level marketing. So I watched her really dedicate a lot of time to that and benefited from all the samples. And then she also would sell up the flea market and then I wanted a booth too. She let me tack on a card table to her stand. And I think just seeing her working, it was all subconscious. It wasn’t like I was like, “Oh, I want that.” But I think she also had a ledger in the kitchen that was like, anything you want, you have to earn. We don’t give away anything in this house. And so for us, it was about always earning what we wanted and her minusing things from the green ledger. And that probably made me feel like, okay, I know I’m not being handed anything and I got to figure it out.
[00:04:58] Tiffany Sauder: So this was not in my script, but how do you think about that principle and you’re raising your own kids in a very different financial environment? How do you think about that?
[00:05:09] Rebecca Minkoff: I guess what I say.
[00:05:10] Tiffany Sauder: What do you say? How
[00:05:11] Rebecca Minkoff: Are you going to earn it?
[00:05:12] Tiffany Sauder: Okay.
[00:05:13] Rebecca Minkoff: I mean, there’s a base level of, let’s just say vacations, restaurants we might go to,
[00:05:19] Rebecca Minkoff: But even there, we’re not just saying go to the gift shop and go spend all this money. Even with regards to restaurants, it’s like, “Hey, look at the prices. Let’s be cognizant of what we’re ordering. And are we going to eat it all? Are we going to save it? Are we going to have leftovers?” And even the other night my son was like, “Mom, I know it was my daughter.” I was like, “How are you going to earn it?” She’s like, “I know, mom. I just made my own money. I was planning on spending it. Stop.” And some parents who say this might also give their kids really rich allowances. My kids don’t have one. So any money they earn, they’re truly earning because my daughter’s an entrepreneur, my son walks people’s dogs. So I’m pretty strict about it because I see with people that have found success when they give their kids everything they didn’t have, I don’t like to have those children turn out.
[00:06:08] Tiffany Sauder: Yeah. So good. That’s such gold. How are you going to earn it? I think in this, one of the key themes in your book, Fearless is for me this idea of giving yourself permission, not waiting for somebody else to come in and sort of clear the way for you. So I think that’s definitely adjacent to this idea of work ethic and earn it. But what were some maybe vignettes in your life where you started to realize it’s my job to go out into the world with a machete. Nobody’s doing this for me. And what does that concept of just giving yourself permission really mean, especially for a woman?
[00:06:45] Rebecca Minkoff: I think the most recent memory that comes to mind, it’s not that recent. It was about eight years ago.
[00:06:52] Tiffany Sauder: By recent, I mean not recent.
[00:06:54] Rebecca Minkoff: Yeah. I was part of this New York Women and Girls Coalition, I guess, that the government at the time had put together. And I remember attending all these meetings and I was like, “Is anything going to get done? Are we just all sitting around? Are we just a press moment for New York to say they are investing in women?” Which is what it was. And I left there going, “You know what? New York State should have a recognizable seal like they do for made in New York and it should be about supporting women owned. And there should be a special significance that when you come to New York, you can see it everywhere, who owns what and support women, especially New York City being a tourist hub. I was pitching, I was pitching. I don’t know if you’ve ever dealt with the government, but nothing happens.
[00:07:40] Rebecca Minkoff: And finally, this woman who was helping me craft the narrative, she was like, why are you asking their permission to launch this? Just launch it on your own. You don’t need their stamp of approval.” And it really made me go, “Oh, you’re right, I don’t. And then it’ll be mine, not theirs, and I’ll control it.” And that was really the launch of Female Founder Collective. And I think from that moment I was just like probably a little bit before, but we shouldn’t wait for someone to tell us anything. No one is going to know what’s inside your head and anoint you anything. You just have to decide something. And I think a lot of people turn to the wrong people for advice, their husband, their best friend. Not all those people are equipped to actually give you the answers or the, yes, honey, go do it.
[00:08:27] Rebecca Minkoff: So just release that and you give yourself the permission to do it.
[00:08:32] Tiffany Sauder: What do you think you believed about yourself so early? I mean, you think I have a 17-year-old. I think about her shipping off to New York City pretty much by herself in a city that on the spectrum of … I live in Indianapolis, this is a pretty friendly city. You can find a mom somewhere who will give you some lasagna probably in 30 minutes. But what do you think you believed about yourself that, I don’t know, that made it so that that worked for you, that that decision was not one, because there is a lot of new, a lot of reasons to defect from that moment.
[00:09:09] Rebecca Minkoff: I believed that because my mom instilled in us anything you want, you can figure it out and earn it. I knew that I would figure it out. I have a 14-year-old who can’t find the object in the fridge that’s right in front of his face. I don’t know that I would send him to New York, but I feel like I just had this ability to do that and I think I had proven it to my parents. Who knows why my mom let me go to New York at 16 with my boyfriend for New Year’s Eve in Times Square. Don’t know why that was allowed, but she did. Or going to Israel on my own and spending time with my friends, as I mentioned earlier. I think I was just like, “I can travel. I’m not getting lost. I’m responsible. I’m
[00:09:55] Tiffany Sauder: Calling
[00:09:55] Rebecca Minkoff: You. I’m not doing drugs.” And so they just felt a level of comfort that she can do this.
[00:10:02] Tiffany Sauder: I think there’s something in there where your parents’ confidence that you could gave you more confidence that you could. Probably
[00:10:10] Rebecca Minkoff: Subconsciously, yeah.
[00:10:11] Tiffany Sauder: Yeah. I think there’s something in that just as we parent our own kids that we I think sometimes put doubt when they can do it. Okay. I want to move to how many years have you been married?
[00:10:22] Rebecca Minkoff: We were trying to figure out this the other day. We’ve been together for 20, but married for 17.
[00:10:27] Tiffany Sauder: Okay. So a long time. Alongside building this fashion empire, building this family, you also have this marriage and staying married is one of, we don’t give prizes for it, but we ought because it’s very difficult. And so I’d love to know, your husband worked alongside you in the business, is that correct?
[00:10:47] Rebecca Minkoff: No. The only thing he did was when the era of videoing started, he was the first we found all this old footage to shoot me the showroom, taking you through the bags. And then if you go down the YouTube hole, that’s all there from 20 years ago.
[00:11:04] Tiffany Sauder: That’s amazing.
[00:11:06] Rebecca Minkoff: Then we decided we’re better not working together. So now other people do that for me.
[00:11:12] Tiffany Sauder: So lesson number one is don’t work together. But what else have you learned about having big careers, big lives, lots of expectations of your time, a family who needs you perpetually. How have you worked to stay connected and together and what has life taught you in that vein?
[00:11:35] Rebecca Minkoff: A couple things. And we’re very different than some of our friends and I’ll give you the counterpoints. My husband is not my therapist and I’m not his. So all of our shit at the door that’s internal self-work is done with a therapist.
[00:11:50] Rebecca Minkoff: So we haven’t elected that each other’s roles because the other person really isn’t trained in how to do that. I don’t speak about our issues with our friends or my good friends because guess what? They’re not in the marriage. They only get one side. Oftentimes that can lead to a third party that’s giving opinions and sharing their thoughts or like, oh, that was really stupid of him and that can stick in people’s heads. So if I have a complaint, I’m getting better at this, I usually keep it to myself and/or when he’s finally like, “All right, out with it, tell me, I’ll share it with him.” And then I think the other thing is we both knew as the chaos began with having children that we’re not going to finish a conversation. And it’s frustrating, but I think some of the things that drive people apart is this expectation that it’s going to remain status quo and it doesn’t.
[00:12:40] Rebecca Minkoff: And there have been times where we’re just high-fiving and that’s all we do for the day. But I think we’ve agreed that no matter what, we’ll work it out to communicate with each other as best as possible and not bring in outside people that are not trained to be your therapist and your opinion givers. And that keeps, I say, 90% of the problems away. But on the flip side, I know people that they are each other’s therapists and it works for them. I just never felt like that should be like that for us. And he agreed.
[00:13:11] Tiffany Sauder: So did you make that decision proactively or was it like we got into this place where I realized we are just giving each other’s opinion back and forth and this is annoying and I don’t love this and so we’re going to redecide this? Or was it something you’d observed and you proactively decided that?
[00:13:27] Rebecca Minkoff: I think that we just both had healthy counseling before, during, after, and so that’s the repository for that. And so it was funny as I like to spend time analyzing my friend’s relationships, we were like, “Yeah, we’re not each other’s therapist.” And we just kind of were like, “Yeah, that’s kind of nice.” Obviously if he’s having a stressful day or something’s dramatic with me, we’re there for each other to listen, but we’re not like, “Overcome your boundaries, babe. You can do it. Don’t withhold
[00:14:01] Tiffany Sauder: Yourself.” I want to take a quick moment to thank my partners at Share Your Genius. For the past four years, they have been an incredible part of my journey behind the microphone. Share Your Genius is a content and podcast production agency that helps leaders and brands bring their message to life. So whether you’re trying to find your voice, develop a content strategy, or get your leader behind a microphone, they’re going to help you make it simple, strategic, and impactful. I feel like my professional life and my personal life, it’s like two lanes on a two-lane highway. It’s like they are connected. Sometimes one side of the road is wider than the other and life has to sort of like one day personal maybe takes priority versus professional. How have you guys clipped that together? How does that work in your life? What help have you guys decided to say yes to help give you both the capacity to step into big professional choices as well?
[00:14:54] Rebecca Minkoff: So when we lived in New York City, we both worked crazy hours. I think there was this understanding before children that it was both of us going hard at our careers. And so there wasn’t a lot of time for each other, but again, we were like, we’re both signing up to just put in the work now. When our son came, I was very much of the mindset like, I want to be the mom. I’m not farming this out to other people. Obviously I still work. So I did have a nanny
[00:15:22] Rebecca Minkoff: Between the hours of nine and I mean back then this is pre-COVID, so it was normal to work until six, at least in my industry or later. So we would have a nanny from nine to six until he was old enough to go to preschool and then she would do housework and by the time he went to preschool, I had another baby so she was busy and that’s how it sort of went. We were lucky in that for 90% of the time, he’s a director. So when he would travel for work, I would make sure I didn’t travel. We’ve sort of had these long-range conversations, when are you going? When am I going? And then our nanny who is basically the other mother would sleep over and take care of the kids or friends who didn’t have kids would patchwork that in. I think that when we moved out of the city, we didn’t need a nanny.
[00:16:06] Rebecca Minkoff: All of our kids were in school from 9:00, get this to 5:00 all in one place. They have all their extracurriculars or most of them from 3:30 to 5:00. And so for us it was like, oh, this is a house. Oh shit, someone needs to clean it. So now we have a housekeeper who cooks and cleans, not cooks. She does the dishes and cleans the house, laundry, all that. And then she picks them up from school at five, hangs out with them till 6:00 till we’re kind of wrapping work up and then we’re on duty. I don’t want help nights and weekends. And then when he’s gone, it’s all me. I’m making all the lunches and the dinners and whatever and vice versa. And so far for the most part there’s been a couple of days where we’re both gone, but that’s how we’ve chosen to have it.
[00:16:50] Rebecca Minkoff: And then my mom comes over all the time. She’s like Kramer. She just walks in. And so when she hears her going out of town, she’ll come over and who thinks she knows best over our babysitter and take control. And that’s been great for the kids because they love her.
[00:17:04] Tiffany Sauder: That’s awesome. What are the things, you’ve sort of said this, but that you have said, these are sacred to me. This is what being a mom means to me because I think it’s different for each of us. What’s in that sacred space for you?
[00:17:18] Rebecca Minkoff: I would rather miss out on girls’ night, girls’ vacations, date nights, self-care, sleep and know that I was all in with my kids as often as I could. I do travel a lot for work. And so when I’m in, I’m in. I’m not like, oh, I need to have two hours of self-care on the weekend for myself. That just doesn’t happen. As long as I get my gym time in during the weekdays after I drop them off from school, I say my husband all the time, I want to drown in them. And even if it’s exhausting, it’s exhausting, I’m frustrated, but I’m like, I’d rather have that feeling than, I don’t know, I went to the spa and got my nails done on Saturday when I could be with them.
[00:18:07] Tiffany Sauder: I love that you’re clear on that because I think that releases the guilt when we said, this is what I’ve chosen. I’ve chosen to travel sometimes for work. I’ve chosen to drown in them when I’m home. I’ve chosen, I’m not going to do these things. I get my nails done on a Saturday and so I’m not resentful about not doing it because I chose not doing it.
[00:18:26] Rebecca Minkoff: Right. But it doesn’t release the guilt when I travel. I’m still very guilty. Oh, self-inflicted, very guilty. Even though I’m trying to drown in them to make up for
[00:18:36] Tiffany Sauder: It,
[00:18:36] Rebecca Minkoff: The guilt doesn’t go away.
[00:18:37] Tiffany Sauder: So what does that sound like in your head when you’re in a hotel room somewhere, you’re at an event, what’s the talk track say to you?
[00:18:45] Rebecca Minkoff: The talk track is it only happens with my three-year-old because I have the counterpoint of my 14-year-old and I’m like, I can’t believe I’m missing that and he’s going to be 14 before I know it for this. Is this worth it? Did I make a connection that’s life-changing? And so I would say since I had my son or my last one, I’m trying to be very, very careful about what I say yes to and I say yes to too much still because I do the FaceTime and I’m like, I’m missing that. What? What? What’s wrong with me? He’s going to be 14 in a minute and I’m going to be like, oh, that cocktail party was good. Yeah,
[00:19:29] Tiffany Sauder: I get it for sure. You have your kids watching you build something again, even at this season in your career and at their seasons in life. We’ve talked about this a little bit. What do you want them at your age to look back and say, “This is what mom and dad were teaching me. This is what our household was about.
[00:19:49] Rebecca Minkoff: “ If you want something, you have to work hard, you have to sacrifice and no one’s handing you anything and that the life we’re creating for them and ourselves is a gift for them, let’s just say. But if they want that for themselves, they’re going to have to create it.
[00:20:06] Tiffany Sauder: You’ve talked about your kids dog walking and doing things like that. How do you help them understand what that looks like? What can I do, mom? How do I do that? Because I think sometimes parents get stuck on like, “Yeah, go earn it.” And they’re like, “I don’t have a car. I’m 14.” Well, what can I do?
[00:20:25] Rebecca Minkoff: Yeah. So a couple of examples were Jewish. And so over Christmastime, the whole neighborhood needs help lighting up all the luminaries that go down the street and each house pays 25 and if you’re a big house, 50. And I was like, “Hey guys, the Boy Scouts pulled out. You want to earn some money?” And I went to all three of my kids. My daughter was like, “No way, I am not doing that.” And I was like, “You want to make a lot of money? I’ll help you and we’ll do this.” And they made 250 bucks each and I did a lot of the work, but it was fun to work with them on it, so did my husband
[00:21:00] Rebecca Minkoff: Or my daughter, there’s a little pop-up market once a month and my daughter one weekend was like, “I want to make cookies.” And I said, “Great, let’s go sell them.” And then this last weekend for Mother’s Day, I need to do flowers. So obviously I’m finding the florists or I’m saying, “Hey, can I buy wholesales for my daughter?” And doing those kind of things. But she came with me, she loaded the car with me, set up the booth together. So once they decide they want to do that, it’s done. And then my husband will say, “Hey, help with the groceries or carry in the trash.” And that’s not paid work. That’s just part of being … But with our eight-year-old, it’s really hard. He doesn’t want to help. He doesn’t want to do anything. And so the threat has to be you can’t watch a movie till or no treat until, but that’s particular to him and hopefully that changes
[00:21:49] Tiffany Sauder: When he’s older. Once he wants things a little bit more potentially.
[00:21:52] Rebecca Minkoff: Yes.
[00:21:54] Tiffany Sauder: So let’s talk about what you’re doing now, what you’re building now. I think that when you’ve done something that was already so successful, there can, I don’t know, I’m imagining be a lot of pressure on the pivot. It’s like, I don’t know, it doesn’t everything that you do just work. And what has that felt like for you? And then let’s talk a little bit about what it looks like.
[00:22:17] Rebecca Minkoff: Well, I’m still there very much so. So there’s me continuing essentially in the same role I had. I just don’t own the company anymore.
[00:22:26] Tiffany Sauder: Maybe share for my listeners, I know that happened because I did my research before this conversation, but share a little bit about selling the business and what that looks like and how your role looks and then we can go from there.
[00:22:39] Rebecca Minkoff: Yeah. So we sold the business in 2022. We needed to find a strategic partner that’s very different from a partner that’s not strategic. So to give context, a private equity firm is not a strategic partner. They’re putting in money and they’re kind of hands off. Strategic partner is someone that has supply chain or factories or sourcing capability or has an infrastructure that already exists. And with COVID and the entire supply chain falling apart, we really needed someone with muscle. We were getting deprioritized with factories and orders, to much bigger brands that we were not even close to competing with. So we decided to sell to a strategic and be absorbed into their infrastructure and then keep the company relatively running on its own. And so my role is really the same, but without a lot of the stress when the tariffs hit, yeah, it’s stressful, not my problem.
[00:23:34] Rebecca Minkoff: If there’s a negotiation that needs to take place with the factory, not my problem. So in a way, I get to do a lot of the fun and there’s stress in creating an event or bringing something to life or launching a new category, but I’m good with that stress. I’m not good with, well, our profit just was eliminated, cool, let’s do this.
[00:23:56] Rebecca Minkoff: And so that exists. My podcast, Superwomen exists, which is fun to do. I record it every week. I did write a book, I don’t know if I’ll write another one. And then Female Founder Collective, which I co-founded with Alison Wyatt. And she very clearly in the beginning was like, “Let’s define our roles.” And I said, “Cool, what do you want to do?” And she said, “I want to be the CEO.” And I said, great, I don’t want to be the CEO. And so from a day-to-day perspective, she really leads that team, but obviously she and I are in sync and I’m on all the calls and touch bases, but I’m not like, oh my gosh, I have to dedicate another 40 hours a week that I don’t have to running a separate company.
[00:24:38] Tiffany Sauder: So I want to spend a minute on your book. It’s called Fearless. I think oftentimes the title captures what the author wants the audience to take away from the book. So can you tell us why you chose that title and what you hope someone who reads it takes away from it?
[00:24:55] Rebecca Minkoff: Yeah, we were on the eve of our first show that was going to be for the public and using real women, not models. And at the time, I know this seems crazy because it was not normal then in 2016, I think it was 2016, we sat with our publicist who said, every single decision you’ve made that you’ve tried to be what the fashion industry said you should be or the prescribed route has not gotten you anywhere. And every time you took your own path, you succeeded. And he said, when you did this, when you do this, when you do this. And as he was beginning to do these examples of every time we went our own way, as painful as that was at the time, I just felt this weight. I was removing the parachute
[00:25:43] Rebecca Minkoff: And I was like, fucking, let’s go now that we can do whatever we want, I became fearless in that it’s not that I don’t have fear, I’m just willing to risk the learnings or the success. And so when I was coming up with the title of the book, we were talking about it and it was kind of like, well, that’s what it was. We were fearless and I’d been fearless. And again, still scared to do something, but you just do it anyways. And you don’t, again, read the book and flip your hair back and be like, I’m so fearless. It’s really like, okay, I’ve looked at the consequences that could happen worst case scenario and I’m good. So let’s go.
[00:26:23] Tiffany Sauder: So you rereleased it not too long ago with a book, a chapter on finance and money. That has been a massive conversation. My audience has sort of a tidal wave of feedback we’ve gotten of just like, we’ve got to talk about this more. What has been your journey with that topic? You didn’t go to college and get an MBA and go to all the finance accounting spreadsheet classes and yet you built this massive company. And so how did those journeys reconcile for you and what made you write this chapter and rerelease it with this? I
[00:27:00] Rebecca Minkoff: Wanted to write a chapter in case the dream that you have that you think the end pot of money at the end of the rainbow, if you’re building your life around, well, one day we made a lot of decisions. When we got our first investment, we said, well, in seven years we’re going to sell up a company for a billion dollars. Certain decisions were made that were difficult seven years later when we didn’t make a billion dollars, including huge tax savings that seemed good for seven years but then weren’t after or, “Ugh, I don’t need to save. I’m going to make a billion dollars.” So I think that if that doesn’t materialize and you’ve built something off that and you don’t get what you thought you would or plan for anything, I think it’s a rough place to be. It’s where I was when we sold the business, I was like, oh, okay, I’m not complaining.
[00:27:56] Rebecca Minkoff: I know I do well more than most Americans, but from where I thought I would be and how I set up my life, I wasn’t even close. And so I think it’s just about getting in front of it. I just had on my podcast, Kiana Danial from Invest Diva, she has triple compounding for money, triple compounding for dummies and she’s made her net worth from literally zero to 18 million in under a decade.
[00:28:24] Rebecca Minkoff: And I’m in the middle of reading it because I don’t see the money that I have in the stock market doing that. I’ve had my same amount of money in the stock market for 10 years and it’s not worth an 18th of that. So I’m like, something’s wrong. So I’m continuously educating myself and I think that at every turn and why I put that chapter in is women need to talk about money. They need to talk about what they’re doing that’s working. Don’t show them the picture of your kid, show them the picture of your stock portfolio and did you make the right picks? You know what I mean? Or don’t talk about your sex life and that you haven’t had it in a month or that you have it every day. Talk about how you’re going to get the raise, how you’re going to negotiate your next employment contract.
[00:29:06] Rebecca Minkoff: We have to get comfortable with this because it’s notoriously like a man’s world and if we don’t start talking about it, we’ll never make more money.
[00:29:14] Tiffany Sauder: I think that’s so right, Rebecca. And I also think we will show one another what we bought, but we won’t talk about where we invested. And I have said this too, my husband and I have access to the exact same bank account in 10 to one, he gets 10 investment requests for my one and we live in the same city, have access to the same money. It’s just the vocabulary inside of the golf locker room is totally different than us as girlfriends sitting at brunch on a Saturday morning or sitting in the bleachers watching our kids. We have to demand that we talk about things that get women further and not complain that somebody hasn’t gotten us there yet. I agree with that so strongly.
[00:29:56] Rebecca Minkoff: Yeah. And it’s uncomfortable, but you just have to get out of that comfort zone. It’s So I’ll let you know how I do when I earn my first award from Invest Diva because she does the I Made a Million Dollars in Investing Award. And so I’ll get back to you when it
[00:30:09] Tiffany Sauder: Happens. That’s awesome. I’ll have to look at that from my community. I love that very much. Very, very much. So let’s talk about Superwomen in particular and you have content that you are creating for women and helping them have agency over their lives, them have belief that they don’t have to ask for permission. So let’s talk a little bit about what that looks like and if women go check that out, what they can expect.
[00:30:35] Rebecca Minkoff: Yeah, I think when you head over to YouTube, that’s the primary vehicle if you want to watch. If you want to listen, we’re obviously wherever you listen to your podcast. But Superwomen was born out of the idea that there was too many incredible examples of people I had access to where no one knew their stories, no one knew the grit it took and no one talks about who they have to become in order to get through the hard parts. And so I like to focus there and what did you have to do to get through that and how did that change you? And I think like you said in the beginning, people see one thing and they’re like, oh, she’s so successful. Everything’s worked out. It’s all perfect. And I had that though about so many of the women I interview and they’re like, no, this is the real shit.
[00:31:18] Rebecca Minkoff: This is how hard it was. This is what I lost. And I just think that it’s also therapeutic for women to hear that from other women. So they’re like, okay, it’s hard. It’s still hard. It’s still hard. It’s hard for her and hard her. And I got to put my head down and do the work.
[00:31:31] Tiffany Sauder: And failure is not catastrophic.
[00:31:33] Rebecca Minkoff: Failure is not catastrophic. Unless you bet your house, you know what I mean? Or you bet the things that would impact you in a way that you’re left homeless or destitute. Everything else to me, what’s your baseline of what’s not negotiable? And then everything else is learning.
[00:31:52] Tiffany Sauder: So in my world, we talk about and the Life Of And. And so I’d love to ask you in your world, what and thing that you want, are you having a hard time getting to stick in your life? Something I’d love to say yes to, something like my brain is sort of trying to figure out how to solve for the Rubik’s Cube, but I just can’t get it to stick. What is your elusive and right now, Rebecca?
[00:32:18] Rebecca Minkoff: Ooh, I have a friend who was telling me that her husband came home and had just signed himself up for a class and she said, “Well, why that?” And he said, “For fun.” And then she realized that she doesn’t do anything for fun. And then I realized that I don’t do anything for true, just like I want to take a painting class. I would love to go to Paris for a month and do a cooking class and I don’t know how to get either one of those things in my life. I love to dance again. I used to be a dancer. But again, like I said, I’m not going to go leave my kids at night to go do a dance class. I know that there’ll be time, especially as I’m seeing my 14-year-old and my 11-year-old who want to be with their friends all the time.
[00:33:03] Rebecca Minkoff: There’ll be a time when I can go do fun. And so it’s there, but it’s elusive.
[00:33:08] Tiffany Sauder: Yeah. Can I share a Life Of And tool with you?
[00:33:12] Rebecca Minkoff: Yeah.
[00:33:13] Tiffany Sauder: One is called The Not Now List. Oh,
[00:33:15] Rebecca Minkoff: I love that.
[00:33:16] Tiffany Sauder: And the point is to park these things that we want to do in a place that’s really intentional to say, “I will, just not right now.” Because the other things I’ve said yes to, the context of my life doesn’t allow me to go to Paris. But my observation is that once women get to the place where they do have the time, they forget what it is that their heart dreamed of doing because they said no to it for so long. And so this not now list is a way to keep that childish adventure alive without … Because you do sort of have to course correct yourself back to lunches and water bottles. That’s where I am right now, but it won’t be the course of life forever.
[00:33:59] Rebecca Minkoff: Yeah, that’s good. I’m going to start by not now listening.
[00:34:03] Tiffany Sauder: Yeah, on your phone, my little not now list. So Rebecca, thank you so much for joining me today. Remind everyone where they can find your network, your content, and just really appreciate you sharing so vulnerably what life has really looked like because we do look at the label on our handbags and imagine that the woman behind this must have it all figured out and it’s refreshing to just get to know you as a person.
[00:34:28] Rebecca Minkoff: Oh, thank you. I definitely don’t have it all figured out, but I’m attacking it until I do. If you’re a budding entrepreneur or a established entrepreneur, you can go to femalefoundercollective.com. You can of course shop my handbags.
[00:34:43] Tiffany Sauder: Amazing.
[00:34:44] Rebecca Minkoff: A nice purchase and you can follow me at Rebecca Minkoff or for more of a personal look at Becky Minkoff. And I have a LinkedIn article called You Can’t Make This Shit Up, which is nightmare experiences that women have in working. And then if you just want vapid reading, my Substack, a little bit of everything, mostly links in shopping.
[00:35:06] Tiffany Sauder: Love it. Well, we will put all that in show notes. Thank you so much for joining me today. It was lovely to get to know you.
[00:35:12] Rebecca Minkoff: Thanks for having me.
[00:35:12] Tiffany Sauder: Sure thing. I love this conversation, just candid with Rebecca. I mean, like wild. Literally have this lady’s handbags in my closet and I think it’s just such a reminder that no matter where you perceive someone’s status or stature might be, that we are all literally just figuring it out one kid, one lunchbox at a time. So thank you guys for joining me for another episode of Life Of And, and I can’t wait for you to join me back here next week. Thanks so much.